Heirloom End Table

I am very excited to share this project! This old table was left at my grandparent's house. It was so blaw. The one great quality it has is that the top is cut out with a piece of glass sitting in it. It was calling for me to put pictures under the glass. Here is the before:

A Mushy Post

Hi all! I have a DIY for you today that is close to my heart. I am REALLY sharing today. I actually did this project a couple of years ago but thought it would be great to share. I like to keep things that are sentimental to me. I am a very lucky girl in that my husband is great, and we have a really good relationship. Over the years we have left each other many notes and cards. I was trying to think of something to do with them and came up with this. All you need are the following:
Pictures of you and your spouse/boyfriend
Notes and or cards left to each other
A picture frame
Scissors
Scrapbook tape

First I cut out the parts of the cards that I liked. Then I opened up the frame and laid the pictures, notes, and cards on the inside of the frame, and arranged them the way I liked. I then cut some of the pictures to fit. All that is left is to attach them with the scrapbook tape, or I like to use the little squares. Then you close up the frame, hang it up, and look at it and smile as you think of all those wonderful memories!

Inspiration

What inspires you? I am very sentimental, and I love my family and friends so much, so when I see an item that reminds me of them or the time I spend with them I want to have it and display it.  I feel that warmth even more every time I look at it.
The most important of course would be the jar of belongings that were my son Ryan's I have posted about previously. Although it is hard, it is important to me to see it everyday to remember what he was like and what he enjoyed. When I see his ball cap I picture him wearing it. When I see his I Pod I remember the type of music he liked, and when I see his glasses I remember those beautiful eyes of his.

This is one of the reasons it was so important to me to do the cabinet redo as well. It had belonged to my grandma and grandpa. They were beyond frugal. It actually made me sad at times because although it was great that they managed their money so well, and had lots of it, they didn't spend enough on themselves. The cabinet was just put together with all different wood and needed painted badly. I just wanted to honor my grandmother who kept in it all of the tea cup and saucers we would use for our tea parties. I finished it and now I feel such a sense of warmth when I look at it. It still reminds me so much of them, but it also shows a new generation of life and family time.

Now I'm finishing this wine rack that I purchased at a thrift shop. I'm not a huge wine drinker, but I have enjoyed many gatherings drinking wine with my friends. We like to joke about drinking a lot more wine than we actually consume! Since I'm going with a Tuscan theme in my dining room, it seemed appropriate to have a wine rack. I knew it would remind me of the joyous times I've had with my friends and also times of relaxation.
Although "things" aren't what matter in life, I believe it's important to have some things around to always remind us of those special people and times we've been blessed to have in our lives. Please share with me some of your projects that remind you of your family and friends and gives you inspiration. I would love to see and read about them.
Also, here is a sneak peak of the wine rack I'll be posting about later.

Wall Hangings

With the move I just really wanted to change our master bedroom along with the other rooms. We do not need to do very much, so I picked the wall behind our bed to fix up different. We also need curtains, and we need to get the rest of the stuff in boxes from the move outta there! I wanted something soft looking.
 Our room is mostly a lavender color, but I put this one green frame that I loved in the room. I needed something else green to go with it, so I decided to paint some canvases. I painted them lavender, and then I painted the words on it in green. The green didn't turn out exactly as I had hoped, but it will do. I bought stencils at Hobby Lobby and wrote the word "Love" along with our wedding date of May 26th 1995. I then attached a darker purple ribbon to the back with staples. I am simply going to hang them on nails, but I am waiting on something else for the wall before I show them hanging up.

In my next post I am planning on showing some before pictures of my bedroom. Come on back to check them out!

Decoupaged Wall Letter

I'm sorry I haven't posted in awhile. I've been busy getting ready for Christmas. I just finished a fun project for my eight year old niece. It'll be one of her Christmas presents. I bought a pink wooden letter "B" which is the first letter of her name. I then went onto Google images and saved to my PC pictures of some of her favorite TV programs, along with some of her favorite music artists and bands. I then used my Lexmark printer program to size them to a passport size. Then I printed them out on heavy white printer paper. You could use any program you have for resizing your pictures, and depending on the size of your letter you may need to make them larger or smaller.
I also printed out the letters of her name and a picture of her, as well. Then I used decoupage and placed them on the letter. I had to do some trimming here and there to get the placement where I wanted. I think it turned out pretty cute! My husband had a great idea that we could do another letter of her name next year with the things she is interested in then. The only thing is you may want to save those and hang them when you have finished all the letters or it might look odd. Here is a picture:

Great Gift Idea

Go to www.pixable.com/pocketpix. You can make a great photo gift for you or a loved one. It looks like a deck of cards with some of your most treasured photos. You can put it on your key chain and carry it around with you to show them off. I have made one and can't wait to get it in the mail! If you make one let me know how it turns out. You can also share your pocketpix on Facebook. The hardest part is narrowing down which pictures to use!

Photo Books

Since I am still "chair" bound, I decided to share something I had made. They are photo books of our vacation to Hawaii and St. Louis. I did get to be a little creative with these projects because I determined the entire layout of the photos and what I wanted written in them. The company I used for the Hawaii book is www.picaboo.com. I had gotten a special deal from a coupon site, so I gave it a try. I thought it turned out great! The St. Louis book I did in 2009 through Kodak. It is completely different, but I love the look of it too. I'm eager to do this for all of our future vacations! Here are some photos.

Celebrate Life

I had hip surgery two weeks ago. I'm unable right now to do very much physically, so I decided to share a project close to my heart. My son passed away from suicide. He was a wonderful child. I want to remember all the special things about him, and some of his possessions remind me of those things.
Here is a project you can do to celebrate the life of someone you lost or even of someone who lives. First I bought a jar at a craft shop. It was clear with a nice, silver lid. I then gathered some of my son's most precious belongings and arranged them inside. I included his iPod case, his wallet, the I.D. from where he volunteered at the YMCA, and his ball cap. He wore one every single day. I knew it would be too big to include in most shadow boxes, so that's why I chose the jar. Here is the end result, and of course a picture of my son, Ryan.