Month

August 2017

Motivation

Im only going to do a quick post today and it’s probably more for my benefit than anyone else.

This year, as most years go, I made some New Years resolutions and decided 2017 was going to be my year! And in keeping with that I’ve been inspired to do some reading. Β My cute sister in law, Karina brought to my attention a book called “The Miracle Morning” by Hal Elrod. She mentioned she was going to read it to get more motivated to get up early and get stuff done.

Ok so if you know me you know I’m not a morning person. Ask my work out partner (I’m usually the one to cancel) or my kids, my hubby, my parents, my friends…. There are lots of people who can account for my not so smooth, I’d rather be asleep mornings.

But here’s the thing. I really want to be a morning person. You know those annoying, jump out of bed ready to conquer the day people. I hate those people! πŸ™„ But only because I’m not one of them. 😩 I actually admire them and want to be invited into their elusive club πŸ˜‰πŸ™ (And really if you are one of these amazing people I don’t hate you. I’m actually married to one and he’s awesome! πŸ’ͺ)

So why am I writing this today? I’m almost done reading “My Miracle Morning” and I just had a convo with that same cute sister in law. I’m feeling motivated and ready to try this out. She promised to be my accountability person πŸ˜ƒΒ cuz I know I’ll need one! And I’ve been adding to my pile of motivational books. I thought that if I memorialize this in my blog it will add to my motivation and accountability πŸ˜‰Β If you are reading this you can count yourself as one of my accountability people! πŸ‘Š

In fact I’m hoping for some ideas, inspiration and encouragement! I’m adding a picture of my pile of inspiration but I would love to hear what motivates you and where you find your inspiration to improve yourself.

 

 

It’s Wednesday, August 30th (my youngest sons birthday is today! Happy 15th Trey! 😘) and I’m making tomorrow my first miracle morning. Wish me luck! πŸ˜‰ And please don’t be shy. Share your thoughts and suggestions below. I’ll be watching for them! 😊

Thanks for taking a minute to read my post!

Cindy

Sweetwater Milk Paint makeover

😍😍😍

Ok so if it isn’t already obvious that I love this piece let me just say….I LOVE THIS PIECE!! I mean what’s not to love.

I bought this cabinet several months ago and it’s been sitting in my garage waiting for me to decide what color to paint it. The plan was to use Chalk Paint but the inspiration wasn’t happening. And then one day I had an epiphany….Milk Paint! Duh!

Sweet Pickins Sweetwater and Flour Sack is was!

When I bought this cabinet it was painted white and someone had added textured wall paper to the front of the drawers.

You can see the wall paper pealing off. But I wanted to keep it so I used Mod Podge to adhere it back down and secure it to the fronts of the drawers. I removed the handles and cleaned it to prepare it for the Milk Paint.

 

I wanted to make sure that whatever was used to antique the fronts of the drawers wouldn’t bleed through the Milk Paint so I used spray shellac to seal it. Then I painted 2 coats of Sweetwater on the body and 1 coat of Flour Sack on the drawer fronts and let the Milk Paint do its thing.

This piece didn’t chip a lot so I sanded a little extra to get the distressed look I wanted. One of the things I like about Milk Paint is how easy it is to work with. I feel like it goes on quicker than Chalk Paint. It dries quickly and the finish is smooth and easy to distress. I used the cream wax finish and it gives it a lovely velvety look.

Sweet Pickins Milk Paint is also priced well and easy to mix and use. So many colors to chose from as well. Definitely try it out if you have been thinking about using Milk Paint.

I’m so happy with the way this turned out. And these colors together are just lovely. Sweet Pickins Milk Paint was the right choice for this. Wishing I has somewhere in my home to put it. πŸ€” But for now it’s in my booth ready for a new home.

Let me know if you have any questions about Milk Paint or any of the products I use to upcycle and refinish my projects.

And thanks for stopping by to read my blog. I appreciate it! πŸ˜ƒ

Cindy

Saturday Morning Estate Saling

Is saling a word? Haha Probably not, but today I went Estate Saling with my friend Lisa. She loves old homes maybe more than I do. We’ve been planning to go to an Estate Sale together for a while and one came up this weekend in an old home in downtown Salt Lake City. So she and I got up early (for a Saturday) and drove up together to a lovely older home on South Temple street.

Right away, just from the staircase to the front door, we could see this home was going to be fun to walk through.

We got to the Estate Sale a few minutes early so we waited out front for the doors to open. A man came up and stood behind us and asked if it had started yet. We told him the doors weren’t open yet and he then told us he grew up in this home! πŸ€—πŸ€—πŸ€— He was so excited to go inside and see it again. He told us he hadn’t been inside for years and years. He was a child in the 1960’s when he’d lived there. As we walked through the home he pointed out items that were there when it was his family’s home. It was fun for us to get a bit of history of this house as we shopped the Estate Sale.

As you already know I love old houses, and this one had a lot of the character that makes old homes so appealing. I love the tall pillars as you enter the home. And then there’s the beautiful staircase and original fireplace.

This home had so many arched windows. I jokingly asked if the windows were for sale! πŸ˜‰

Sitting in the entryway was a beautiful tri-fold room divider. We came on the last day of the Eatate Sale so I can only imagine how elegant this old mansion was before most of the furniture was sold and removed.

I picked up just a few small pieces from this sale.

So many little treasures! Part of what made today so fun was spending time with a friend who loves this as much as I do. We are already making plans to go again! 😊

Thanks for taking a peek at my blog. Hope you enjoy the picture of this lovely home!

Cindy πŸ˜ƒ

 

Hanging a Gallery Wall

Gallery walls are all the rage right now. And it’s easy to see why! For a few months I have been envisioning a gallery wall in our family room. Here is the before picture of the same wall.

I always loved these pictures but it was time for a change. So I spent some time reading up on how to put together a gallery wall. There’s lots of examples on Pinterest, Instagram and the internet of gallery walls and ideas on how to plan one out.

This is what I did.

I started by finding a few pieces I really liked and wanted included on my wall. Β I bought a mirror and a shelf and for Mother’s Day my kids gave me a picture they had taken of themselves. Of course that was going on the wall. 😊 I knew I wanted a clock on the wall and I found a large one I really liked at Hobby Lobby.

Once I had a few items ready to go I measured my wall and started laying out each piece on the floor to get an idea of what it would look like. I measured out the same area on the floor as the size of my wall so I could make sure everything fit.

It took about a week to find the last few pieces, so this layout was on my family room floor for that week. Once everything was laid out it was easy to see the holes in my gallery and I went searching for pieces that would fit those areas. The last piece I added was a sign I had made. I saw this “Nest” definition on another sign/picture at a store but it was too big for my area so I stole the idea and had this made to fit.

I love these cute signs. This one was custom made by JB Imprints. You can find them on Instagram and Facebook.

Next my husband helped me measure and start planning out where to hang things on our wall. As you can see from the pictures I have duct work that complicated things. So we measured the wall and planned around the duct work.

We got all our tape pieces up so we knew where to start and end, as well as where the studs were for heavier pieces. There were a few mistakes along the way but for the most part everything went up easily. (Well, after we measured and re-measured everything!) I did have to move a mirror because it ended up in the wrong place. Oops!

The other hiccup we ran into was hanging the vintage railing pieces. I don’t want the screws to go straight through and show so we put holes on the back side and screws in the wall and tried to set them on the screws. They stayed but they were wobbly. So we improvised.

My husband had some small rubber bumpers and we put them on the screws already in the wall and presses them into the holes on the back of the railings. That did the trick! Β Sometimes a little jimmy rigging is needed right! πŸ˜‰πŸ˜‚

Anyhoo my advice for hanging a Gallery Wall is to measure. ALOT! I was lucky enough to cover any holes we made by mistake with the pieces I hung so I didn’t have to patch anything. Lay out your pieces exactly as you plan to put them on your wall so you can see it before you hang it.

My other bit of advice is find things you love and add it to your gallery wall. Rearrange until it looks good to you. Gallery Walls all look different and they don’t have to be perfect. That’s what makes them fun. Check out Pinterest and Instagram for ideas, but make your Gallery Wall your own.

There are other ways of hanging a Gallery Wall including cutting out paper in the shape of each item you are going to hang so you can see how it will fit on your wall. That seemed like a lot of extra work to me, but if you are worried it is a good way to see it before putting holes in the wall.

Plan on spending some time hanging a Gallery Wall. Just the measuring and hanging took us nearly 2 hours. But if you put the time and effort in, your Gallery Wall will bring a smile to your face every time you see it! πŸ˜ƒ

I hope this post was helpful. If you have any other tips or comments please leave them below. I would love to hear from you 😊

Thanks for taking a look

Cindy