I have been smitten over her bow clutch project ever since I laid eyes on it over on Pinterest.
Isn't she a beaut Clark?
Another favorite was Steph's round up of her 2012 craft projects over at the The Silly Pearl Blog.I swear I could kiss this chinese spoon wall art that she made. That is how much I adore it!
Mad in Crafts attracted some top views and I'm pretty sure this super nifty fire & ice lantern had something to do with it! How cool is that?
This one comes as no surprise! Lori's dining room turned living room over at Thrifty Decor Mom is absolutely beautiful!
Of course you know she had me at blue........
Perhaps your a magazine hoarder like me?Hey! It's better than collecting ALOT of cats, right?
I think we all enjoy a creative way to recycle those dusty ol' mags and that is exactly what Mari from Crab + Fish did by creating this useful and creative bowl.
Lots of great ideas from the top 2012 post over at the Atkinson Drive blog.Rating at the top is this neat chevron painted wall.
I'm envious of anyone who can paint any shape crisp and clean on the wall.
Definately not one of my top talents!
So there you have it!Thanks to everyone who participated.
Can't wait to see what kind of crazy creativeness you all come up with this year.
Happy Monday.......wait is there such a thing?
You know that saying "third time's a charm?" Turns out it's lies, all lies.There's nothing worse then envisioning a project that should be as easy as catching a two year old picking his nose and then to have that project fail THREE TIMES. Okay, perhaps waterboarding may be worse. 
Cut out my vinyl words with my Silhouette machine. 
Covered the the wood and vinyl with white spray paint & allowed to dry.
Then came the time to remove the vinyl stickers.I was anticipating angels singing but instead I got a sad trambone.Despite my best efforts the paint seeped AGAIN under the vinyl letters and it was bad.I refused to trash a third project though!Thank goodness the distressed look is in. I mean for home decor not people.The look of distress on people is never good.So to make it appear as if this whole crappy project was on purpose I sanded the front of the sign to make it look weathered and then added some antiquing glaze to the top of it. I also dressed up the side of the wood&nbs
Sigh.....not bad but definately not the finale I had imagined.I would have liked the letters and numbers to be a lot crisper & cleaner.I think in the future I will stick with making vinyl stencils with my Silhouette machine and using those to make my words.Hindsight is always 20/20. 
Pali Crib 3. Scored a lovely piece of art during one of my recent Goodwill runs, also the same trip where my husband conveniently "fell ill" as soon as we walked in.
5. There's a Sweetheart Special going on right now at the Delightfully Noted shop. Run, don't walk, and get yourself 20% off any Valentine card order.View full collection here. 
Have a delightful weekend!
So remember the freezer paper stenciled favor bags I shared the other day? 
Well, I mentioned I was working on a little something-something to go in these favor bags.And now here's that something-something. 
Bubble gum necklaces!These are my little Valentine treats I made up to send to my nieces & to give to one of our little neighborhood friends.I know they say diamonds are a girl's best friend but I'm thinking for the 10 & younger crowd it may be something like bubble gum & unicorns.....oh, and that Justin Bieber kid. Interested in making some fun bubble gum necklaces yourself? They are super easy to put together {the only hard part is piercing the gumball with out destroying it!} and you can mix & match the colors to spice things up a bit. Step 1: Pierce a hole on one side of the gumball using a metal skewer, or knitting needle, or get totally creative & crazy and use a meat thermometer as I did {a clean one of course!}. Avoid piercing the hole all the way through, otherwise the gumball will just crack in half. Step 2: Flip the the gumball over and pierce a hole on the other side. Try to line this hole up with the first hole you pierced on the other side. Step 3: String your ribbon through the hole using a long needle.The thicker the ribbon the harder it is to loop through. Step: Tie the ends of your ribbon into a bow. To fancy things up tie a coordinating bow around the necklace near the bubblegum.
I found the bubblegum at our local Party City.They have a variety of fun colors to choose from. 
Pretty enough to wear or eat!
Mmmm hmmm....put a patent on that! Pretty creative, eh?Apparently I'm going for the "Cheesiest Aunt of the Year" award. While I was at Party City picking up the girl's bubble gum I also grabbed some smaller gumballs and a pack of plastic dinosaurs for my three year old nephew {now that I'm writing this I am beginning to wonder can three year olds even chew gum??? Geez, I'm slowly starting to feel this "Aunt of the Year" award slipping away}.I found the little pail while dumpster diving through my crafting closet and thought it would be perfect for tossing the goodies into. 
I had some green polka dot felt that I cut out and used to cover the top of the pail.Tied up with baker's twine of course!Because twine just makes the world a better place, don't ya think? 
And no gift is complete with out a cute gift tag, right?I used my Silhoutte machine to cut out the little dinosaur from some leftover cardstock I had laying around.You could always do a Google search for a dinosaur template and just trace and cut one out with scissors too. Then I printed off a square tag adorned with my special Valentine message; while not mine.....the dinosaur's. 
Hopefully, the little guy gives it two thumbs up! 
All this dinosaur talk totally reminded me of the movie "The Land Before Time" and how I think that was the first movie I ever recalled crying at.But then I started thinking it may have been "Fievel Goes West"? Or maybe it was "All Dogs Go to Heaven" Or maybe as a child I was just one BIG cry baby and cried at every animated movie I ever saw??? Can you remember the first movie that ever made you dump tears into your popcorn bucket? 
Seriously, it was giving fireplaces every where a bad rep.For the most part I chose to neglect this room since the day we moved in because well.....I didn't want to try to decorate around this green-eye monster.The sad part about this whole story is that this is the first room you see when you enter our house so for the past five years I've been making our guest come in through a back window. Eventually people just stopped coming over. Lucky for us we have a friend in the hood who is an independent carpenter and over the holidays he built us this beautiful mantle that makes me squeal like a young Justin Beiber fan.
Those wood floors aren't bad either, eh? Originally, we were just going to replace the tiles and add a mantle but the fireplace gods must have been looking out for us because then I saw this beaut on the internet and my soul was sold on building something from scratch. Well, not me but the neighbor.
Source It's like they're twins! I think he did such a great job replicating my dream mantle. The best part? He finished up literally twenty minutes before our guest arrived for our family get-together back in December! It was like a Christmas miracle.
Here are a few other "before" and "after" views of the room after we put away the holiday decor {well, most of it}.Mind you I haven't done much more in this room in terms of decorating.Alot of the pillows and knick knacks are from the old room mixed in with a few things I have bought for the new colors{greys, neutrals, and yellows}.I shared my inspiration board for this room makeover here. 
Don't mind that nativity scene sitting on our window bench.I'm sure we'll pack it away some time before Memorial Day.In the mean time, the Baby Jesus in that manger has been serving as great prop to rest my cards against when taking pictures for my shop.It doesn't get any holier than that my friends. 
The rug was a new purchase from Rugs USA.It's an outdoor/indoor rug but we really don't need anything plush in this room considering we don't spend alot of time in here and it's easy to clean which is a big plus with the two doxies roaming around here.I scored it for just $90 buckaroos during one of their recent sales.High five to me! So there you have it, progress on room makeover # 2 { I shared our other living room makeover here}.I still have ALOT more to do..... like figure out which furniture layout I prefer more, decide on a color/pattern for the window seat cushion, get rid of that clunky looking coffee table, replace the pillows, add some wall art,and lastly figure out how the heck I want to decorate that mantle?I'll get back to ya about that in 2022.Stay tuned. Any new renovations or makeovers in your home lately?