Easy DIY "WILD & FREE" Graduation Tote gift bag ~Home Expert Series~

Welcome back my Beauties!
As you know I am in the midst of my first baby graduating and 

have a fun little project that you can make for the graduates in your life, 

or just gifts in general.

Come on over to Furniture.com

to see how I turned this 

plain canvas bag into a fun DIY 

WILD AND FREE gift Tote bag.

Jump on over HERE to see how easy it was and get started on your 

graduation gift giving!

See you there!

Super Easy "HELLO" Spring Pallet Art

 Welcome back my Beauties!

Spring is right around the corner (even though we have snow in our forecast for later this week).

I am in a Spring Decor Mode so I thought I would show you one of the SIMPLEST ways to make some fun spring pallet art.

First of all, grab some pallets. 

(If you don't have pallets you can always buy boards from the home store,

but you all know how much I love to rescue free stuff)

Lay out your pieces how you want them and then screw some brackets in the back

I just used my cordless black and decker drill to screw in my supports.

 

Once that is done, flip it over and give it a light wash of paint.

I chose a fresh light blue.

When its dry I lightly sanded the whole thing to give it a distressed finish.

 

Here is where the super duper easy part comes in.

See that little wood cut out "hello".

Its from the dollar spot at Target.

It was $3

I was looking at it and literally said to myself

 "HELLO, this is awesome!"

 I threw that sucker in my cart and brought it home.

I grabbed my Ryobi Airstrike Nailer 

and popped a couple nails in it and it was good to go.

(if you don't have a nailer you could easily use some heavy duty glue or even use a regular hammer and nails)

Once secured to the pallet I gave the "hello" a quick little dry brushing to give it a little more interest and my "HELLO" spring pallet was ready for my mantle.

 I have to tell you, this was probably the EASIEST project I have ever done. It literally took me about

10 minutes not counting dry time.

I just love it on my mantle with my Easter bunny bunting from the same dollar spot at Target.

 I hope you enjoyed this latest little repurposing project and I hope SPRING is on its way to where you live.

Until next time,

Have a BEAUTIFUL day!

You can even DIY your mattress? A Princess and the Pea to SLEEPING Beauty story!

 *Disclosure:  This project was sponsored by Spindle Mattress. Although I was compensated in product, as always all opinions expressed are 100% my own.

Ok...So I am not the PRINCESS from the Princess and the pea..

Although the hubby does call me PRINCESS once in a while...

and Yeah; I call him PRINCESS too.

It's usually meant for when someone is acting like a Pain in the Butt. :)

We ALL have our moments.

Well those moments were becoming more and more common as we were not getting a good nights sleep.

The culprit?
Our MATTRESS!

I am not gonna lie.

We have had our mattress a LONG time...Like, I would be nervous to look inside of that baby.

We have kind of gotten used to rolling into the middle and just sleeping there.

You're picturing it aren't you?

Yeah; it left a lot to be desired,but like many of us the thought of MATTRESS shopping and making that kind of decision  ranks right up there with a root canal.

 In the process of mattress shopping Mr. Art Is Beauty and I often got discouraged.
So discouraged, that we kind of just let it go.
But it was always in the back of my mind that we REALLY NEEDED a new mattress.
So along comes Spindle Mattress to the rescue.

How had I never heard of their Natural Latex Mattresses before?

Once I delved into my investigation I was hooked.

First of all, this is how my Mattress was delivered.

YUP! There is a medium firm all natural Latex mattress in those 3 boxes.

I was already excited.

Carrying these three boxes to the second floor of our older 2 story home with narrow hallways and stairways made our life so much easier.

(getting the old mattress and box spring DOWN  our stairway was NOT easy which further made me love this mattress more)

Once upstairs in our bedroom we were ready to put our new mattress on our New Platform bed.

The boxes are even LABELED which one to open first!

I mean, its really fool proof that even if you are not a Do It Yourself-er, YOU can do this!

The first thing you do is lay out your Natural Eco Wool Organic Cotton mattress cover.

Just lay it out and get ready to DIY your mattress.

Following the instructions in the box and how you decided you wanted your mattress configured (firm, medium, etc.) start laying out your layers, using a wave motion to get your layers of natural latex laid on top of each other properly.

Once you have all your layers laid on top of each other you gently zip the Organic cotton mattress cover all the way around your mattress. 

It literally took us 15 minutes to assemble our mattress the way we wanted it. 

The cover adds even more comfort, wicks away moisture to keep you warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer and  provides a chemical free flame barrier between you and the mattress.

The minute we had our new mattress on we had to constantly start kicking the kids out of our bed.

They couldn't believe how comfortable it was.

Every night we have to kick the kids out of our bed so we can go to sleep.

The real test would come from my husband and I though.

We both are in disbelief how comfortable this mattress is.

I waited a few weeks before I decided to review because I wanted to be as honest and truthful as I could.

My REVIEW??? LOVE!!

My husbands REVIEW??? LOVE!!

Between the kids and us we have 12 thumbs up!

We can't believe how rested we are.

At first we didn't know what to make of waking up before our alarm.

It took us a few days to realize that we were getting such Great sleep that we were waking up rested and ready to start the day before our alarms went off.

I also stopped waking up because my hips hurt from sleeping on my side,

an added bonus to just the great sleep we were getting. 

I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this mattress to anyone.

Along with the great product I have to say how impressed I am with the customer service.

When deciding on the mattress even though I couldn't try it out in the store,

I talked to the company and they asked our height, weight, sleeping habits, etc into figuring out the best configuration for the mattress.

It's like it was custom made for us.

The proof is in the sleep!

I am happy to say we have both stopped acting like princesses (for the most part) :)

and acting more like sleeping BEAUTIES!

New Year, New Table, Pantone Serenity blue Table makeover ~Home Expert Series~

 

Welcome Back my Beauties!

Sorry I am running a bit behind today.

We have had a few sick little ones and I think they are trying to

give it to me.

I love it when they share! :)

Speaking of Sharing,

I almost forgot to show you my first makeover of the New Year

for Furniture.com 

 

 I found this table while out thrifting and I knew it would be the perfect piece

to REFRESH for the NEW YEAR

using one of Pantones color of the year.

I chose Serenity.

I could use some of that RIGHT NOW! :)

So Jump on over to FURNITURE.COM

to see how I transformed this LESS than gorgeous piece!

Rock Someones Holiday with a Tools for people that Rock GIVEAWAY!

"I received product  for reviewing Rockwell Tools Company products. All opinions are genuine."

 

Rock Someones Holiday

with the 

ROCKWELL

Tools for People that ROCK 

Giveaway!

I am so excited to bring you another giveaway this Holiday Season!
You see me mention my Rockwell tools all the time.

In fact just this week I showed you how I used my 

Rockwell 4 1/2" Compact circular saw.

This compact circular saw can essentially replace a DIYer's or
professionals need for a full-size 7-1/4" circular saw. This saw
was born to cut wood, especially 2" nominal lumber materials.

 This little saw cut through the wood for my Recycled Christmas Tree Project

No problem. I love the Smaller size for better control  Normally to get through this I would have had to pull out my big circular saw,

but with this tool, I didn't have to.

 AND....

  

You also may remember how my Rockwell BladeRunner helped me quickly and easily cut this piece of wood to fix up my SPRING TIME IN PARIS Vanity Makeover!

These tools definitely ROCK..

so I am excited to be able to give you the chance to WIN some for yourself and 

someone else you think would ROCK these tools!

ENTER TO WIN          2 SETS OF ROCKWELL TOOLS!

This holiday season Rockwell wants to help you celebrate the people in your life who ROCK!

Enter for a chance to win TWO sets of the ultimate Rockwell tool collection. Not only could you win a full collection of awesome Rockwell tools, you can gift the same incredible set to a person in your life who rocks. Skip giving gadgets this year and let Rockwell tools help you celebrate the people who rock in your life.

Just click HERE to fill out the ENTRY form,

and you and the person you choose could be the winner!

DIY Holiday Pillow Covers ~DIY Home Expert Series~

Welcome back my Beauties!
I am sure just like me, you guys are 

getting down to the nitty gritty busy

Season!

I wanted to show you a quick way to add some simple and fun Holiday decor to your home

for very little money!

Come see how I took these plain old Canvas Pillow Covers and transformed them 

into something Sparkly for the Holidays~

Join me over at Furniture.com

to see how easy it was!

Head on over HERE To see the whole tutorial!

DIY Gold Feather Autumn Barn Wood Wall Decor~Home Expert Series

 Hello Again My BEAUTIES!

Its Time again for another edition of 

HOME EXPERT SERIES

for FURNITURE.COM

 Come on over and see how I turned this old wood from my scrap pile

Into some rustic Gold Feather Wall art!

So hurry on over to 

the FURNITURE.com blog to see the full tutorial.

Also don't forget to come back tomorrow

bright and early in the morning for the 

Something to Talk About Link Party.

I will meet you there!

Painted Kitchen Cupboards Makeover REVEAL

Welcome back my BEAUTIES!

I am FINALLY getting around to posting our Kitchen Makeover REVEAL.

You may remember a couple weeks ago I promised you I would post the reveal the next week..

UMMMM......YEAH....I never got around to it.

Wanna know why?

For REALS???

Here goes..

I JUST DIDN'T FEEL LIKE IT.

I LOVE my Kitchen so much now, but between painting the cupboards,

doing the DIY blogger roundup in Chicago (which was at the same time as me making over my kitchen)  and the plethora of other projects I have going on for different companies I honestly could not bring myself to photograph edit and post about it.

For the Non DIY'ers who don't understand the "Process" that a post takes; let me explain.

Its not JUST the project...that I do on a daily basis.

BUT, once the process is done there is about a MILLION other things us bloggers need to do.

First thing being....CLEANING UP OUR MESS.

You see we tend to be BIG mess makers, so while we are working on a project I tend to push all the CRAP that was in the room aside, and have to keep taking pictures of the process.

Then after the cleaning we have to STAGE.

(which is not my THANG...I am sure I have told you before)

Being A.D.D. I know I have a limited attention span before I get tired of staging and move onto something else. (this is one reason I am sure my home will never be magazine worthy. I can't see myself NOT ever being so busy that I have time to do a proper staging because I know one of my 4 kids or hubby...or dog will come in and mess it up in seconds)

NEXT, Photographing time.

This can take anywhere from a half an hour to a few days.

In this case it was WEEKS.

We live in an old house and no amount of external light systems or natural light 

would show in the pictures how it looks in real life.

THAT caused me the frustration to postpone my post; and my A.D.D. to flair up and find Lots and LOTS of other projects to focus on until the kitchen makeover nagged and nagged at the back of my mind to make me JUST DO IT. 

:)

and that finally happened.

SO HERE YOU GO...

FINALLY! 

(and thanks for listening to my little explanation of my METHOD and what my BRAIN goes through on a daily basis)  

Oh and even writing the above was a procrastination :)

 

 As I showed in the BEFORE post, this was me trying to decide on a color.

I was mixing and trying to decide how DARK I wanted to go. 

Well by the time I decided I went with a color straight out of the can.

I chose General Finishes 

QUEENSTOWN GRAY.

It was just the deep hue I was looking for.

and since it was in the kitchen I chose their HIGH PERFORMANCE finish in Satin.

So I spent the next few days painting cupboards which as you know is always a FUN time.

The nice part about this  makeover is that I was leaving my upper cabinets the cream color 

that I had painted previously.

You will see from the pictures that although we are in an older home (built in the 60's) they LOVED storage.

WE have a U shaped kitchen with tons of cupboards . BUT that means lots to paint, so not painting the uppers saved me tons of time.

So now that the cupboards were painted it was time for some new hardware. 

I am normally a copper or a bronze girl, but I really wanted to do something fun and different with the hardware.

That's where HICKORY HARDWARE came in.

They had these fabulous pulls and knobs that look just AMAZING with the dark deep gray.

I chose the stainless steel pulls

and the Euro Contemporary knobs.

They went together like peanut butter and jelly.

I couldn't have been happier with how it looked.

PLUS, as I was getting ready to write up my post someone shared this post from HGTV...

Hey that color looks almost like mine.

For once in my life I just might be ON TREND..(probably not but I can dream.:))

I loved how the hardware pulled together the stainless steel appliances but yet still looked good with all my vintage kitchen decor.

I have to tell you. This paint is so awesome. Since it took so long to post, I had a crazy amount of time to see how it did in the kitchen. 
IT IS AWESOME. 
My kids and I love to cook, and even more..make messes. This paint has withstood all of that.
I love the added strength that the hard finish added.
And its still looks like I JUST painted it.

So there you have it.

The Reveal is done with the best pictures I could get.

Its funny because I took about 300 pictures and I didn't like any of them.

I have gotten so critical with myself with photographing that I can see each and every single FLAW.

Where the light is reflecting off of a door,

or where there is a shadow that I can't control no matter what kind of lighting I used.

I finally had to make peace with the fact that no matter what I did I was going to find something

I didn't like about how I staged it and just like life I was gonna have to LOVE them for what they were.

The pictures may be slightly flawed but that's what makes them REAL.

And I couldn't be happier.

So there you have it.

The Kitchen Reveal that took longer to post about than it did to paint it.

I hope you enjoyed this unusually LARGE and wordy post.

 I finally accepted my imperfections and I am happier that way.

Until next time.

Have a Beautiful day.

To accept ourselves as we are means to value our imperfections as much as our perfections. ~ Sandra Bierig

 

 Disclosure: Remember all opinions I share about the products in my post are 100% my own with complete honesty.The post contains sponsored links

http://www.casawatkins.net/
http://farmhousechicblog.com/2015/inspired-by-you-1/

Lighting your Home for the Upcoming Holidays and a GIVEAWAY!

Disclosure: Remember all opinions I share about the products in my post are 100% my own with complete honesty.The post contains sponsored links from ParrotUncle

 Hello Again my Beauties!

I have a great and fun post for you today.

 This week I’ve paired up with Parrot Uncle Lighting to bring you a fabulous giveaway to get your home ready for the holiday season.

I know if you are like me you are always looking for great lighting options for your home.

 

You may remember my Gross to Grand Chair that I made over.

Well, It has now officially become my kids favorite reading chair.

Well, when you have a reading chair, you need a reading light.

 Wouldn't you just know that Parrot Uncle had the perfect Modern Antique Copper reading light that I was looking for to go RIGHT NEXT to my chair. No more of my kids reading in the low light. With this lamp they can read to their hearts content yet my room still gets to look Simple and elegant.

But I know my style isn't the same style everyone else is looking for.

That's the great part about Parrot Uncle.

They have something for everyone.

At  www.parrotuncle.com. , you'll find the Web's best selection of contemporary lighting, bathroom lighting and dining room lamps. ParrotUncle bring you the widest selection of lighting fixtures that you'll find anywhere. Looking for a particular handmade original design? Dying to redecorate a specific room? They have designed this site to make shopping for lamps and light fixtures to be an easy, fun and interactive experience.

They are a specialty retailer striving on satisfying your home lighting requirements. From living room to bedroom, floor lamps to pendant lighting, from bathroom to hallway, mirror lighting to wall sconces, They are dedicated to offer you the best quality and the largest selection of home lightings fixtures. From antique tiffany lamps to cottage chic handmade wooden lamps, you can enjoy the warmest light and most decorative style for your house. PLUS

right now its the  Parrot Uncle Big Holidays Sale.

I love that you can go on the website and find something

totally Retro and fun like this Retro Industrial Style Fan like Pendant Light

 Or something totally gorgeous Tiffany style light fixtures  like this 

Tiffany Style Sea Shell Drum Shade.

 They really do carry something for EVERYONE!

But you know I didn't bring you here just to show off my new lamp that's going to be sitting next to my thrifted chair.

I brought you here for YOUR chance to win $50 

to spend over at Parrot Uncle.

So just follow the Rafflecopter 

information and you could be on your way to

lighting up your holidays with $50 in lighting.

Good Luck my Beauties!

 Note – Only open to continental U.S. residents. Must have a shipping address and not a P.O. Box for Parrot Uncle to mail you the prize if chosen.

a Rafflecopter giveaway