lamp re-do and fail

Inspired by one of my favorite bloggers  miss mustard seed I found a recent post of her HGTV summer tutorials, this beauty in particular caught my eye: 

I thought hey! I've got an old lamp that I can do this to, here is my old lamp looking quite sad and dated:

And here is what it looks like after:

*the console table is still a work in progress

Handy hubby spray painted the lamp base first, with oil rubbed bronze by Krylon. I then used miss mustard seeds tutorial by hot gluing the twine and wrapping it around my lamp base. 

Half way through the project,

it was looking like a hot mess. Picture me and my lamp tangled in twine, that's not an exaggeration. I'm guessing the shape of my lamp was too detailed to pull it off. I unfortunatley dont have a picture of the ugly twine wrapping dilemma, I ripped off all the twine and then just ended up buying a new lampshade and calling it a day. Sometimes you gotta know when you've been beat when it comes to d.i.y projects, and I'd been beat. So it may not be an amazing transformation but it sure beats the brassy nasty that was residing in my home. And I've got a new lamp that only cost me $15.79, that's a small accomplishment to say the least.

35 weeks

It really only occurred to me a few days ago I haven't taken any photos of myself during this pregnancy. This pregnancy has been a blur, it's gone by SO fast. In my current state of mind I don't care, but I don't want to look back years from now with regret that we didn't snap any photos of my little girl(in utero) and I. 


 So as much as I don't like sharing many photos of myself, here are a few my hubby snapped just the other day with my wonderful sister in-law's new camera.

thoughtful thursday

Don't leave your husband unattended with a pair of scissors; the results might make you cry.

* thankfully I'm taking him to my aunt who is a hairstylist today so she can fix this mess.

Nifty Thrifty

I've started a new blog segment called, Nifty Thrifty. It probably won't be a weekly post since my hubs would probably kill me if I were to bring home new "junk" every single week.


 Just a little something to share every once and a while with ya'll, of my great thrifty finds, or projects. 


Here is my first project-

plate:  .99 cents {from goodwill}

#4 vinyl decal: $4 {from  Leen the Graphics Queen}

plate hanger{from walmart} : $1.97

Total: $6.96! for a great addition to the photo collage wall in our living room.

pregnancy glow

 Many people believe in this thing called a pregnancy "glow". I happen to not be one of them, it's like big foot or the loch ness monster we've all heard about it or seen doctored photos of it, but does it really exist? For some people I bet it really does, but for me, un huh. 

 Not even when people have told ME that I have one, do I believe it and here's why. sssshhhh, I'll let you in on a little secret, shy of getting pregnant yourself here is how I achieve my pregnancy "glow":

mix one part sweat (especially if you've seen me at the end of the day)

    

pinterest.com

+ 

S.p.f. 15 day cream

walmart.com

oh yes that's how I roll, I really splurge on face cream I believe its less than 6 bucks :)


                                                                                          +

maccosmetics.com

      a great foundation covers all the flaws 

+

nordstrom.com

      Bobbi brown all over body shimmer
                       = 
                the pregnancy glow

 Seriously people, write to bobbi brown and demand that this product be put back on the shelves it was only a seasonal product I found 5 years ago! {my sister in-law found an unopened one on e-bay last year} It is amazing!!! No matter your skin type it is always flattering. The best bronzer I have EVER found.

And there you have it, the secret to the "glow" minus the stretch marks and swollen feet. 

  

My rockin' sister in- law

I feel very blessed to have awesome sister in laws, God may not have blessed me with biological sisters but he definitely made up for it when I married into the McMullin clan. I want to focus on one particular sis- in law, today. (don't worry kalynn, if you read this I'll have to designate another post on you another day :)) My amazing sis, Whitney. She is at times like my home decor/design twin, I could walk into a store pick out something and 99% of the time she would love it just as much as I do. {This makes gift giving time a breeze, as well}. So lo and behold when she found an amazing sight called pinterest:  

source found here

It's a really cool site where you can browse thousands of images from around the Internet from shoes to vintage door knobs, whatever people find interesting they can "pin it" onto their personal boards, much like if you were to cut out images from magazines and put them up onto a bulletin board. It's a bit exclusive you  do have to request an invite to become a member {sometimes you can be put on a wait list} or have an existing member give you an invitation, hence why my sister in-law rocks, she invited me! So now I can become addicted enjoy this website anytime. 

source found here

And if it interests you, I have 6 invitations I can give out as part of being an existing member. I would just need your e-mail address to invite you*. BEWARE: it is addicting, your husbands or significant others may come to loathe pinterest, just don't tell them I'm to blame :)  

* totally free website just have to register your email account and come up with a password in order to login.

  

mirror numero dos

You may have noticed here and here that there is a new mirror hanging out on my entry way table. I realized I never blogged about it, yet and figured it was high time I let you in on it's transformation. Way back in January I picked up this mirror at yet another thrift store for $20.

I swear I do shop at "regular" stores, my logic is that if I save where I can in my home, I can justify bringing home a $70 lamp, or $100 rug because my accent chair was $4 and my console table was $5, does this make any sense to anyone other than me? Who knows maybe I'm crazy or just trying to justify my actions. Anyways back to the mirror, here is what this beauty looked like before I got my hands on it:

I painted it with a tester I had laying around that my sister in-law gave me, called 'rainwater' by Martha Stewart.I also made it looked distressed with some black and grey paint I had as well, I couldn't sand it down to distress it since this piece was plastic.   

{during the painting process}

It may or may not have stayed partially painted , for I don't know say 5 months and shoved in our room before I got around to finishing it 2 weeks ago. I didn't really have the motivation to finish it because I had no idea where I was going to put it, its quite large,{23" wide and 50" long}. Until, I found my console table, it fit perfectly among my pretty frames and the other mirror.  

closer detail of the mirror 




*linking to miss mustard seed:furniture feature friday