Merry Christmas-Apartment Dining Reveal

Merry Christmas! I'm back to share with you my Christmas post. Remember how I told you we severely downsized to an apartment?  Well I've been unpacking and trying to find all my things that are packed up in boxes.  I finally found my fabric that I bought a couple of years ago to re do my chairs! So I set out to recover my chairs and paint my table in one weekend.  Pretty agressive of me don't you think? Well what I failed to remember not to forget was the  location of our STAPLE GUN. Facebook to the rescue. My daughter's MIL had an electric one I borrowed. Made things a lot easier to staple.  Now, re-covering chairs may seem like a simple task and well it is-until you actually start to do it.  There are millions of staples to remove.  First I took them off and used that fabric as templates for my new fabric. My mom helped me cut. Then I had to figure out how to staple it on so the staples wouldn't show on the chairs. Some of those

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Decorating a Small Apartment for Christmas

We are STILL unpacking! I had to take a break from all that and look for my Christmas decorations as I wanted to put up our tree on Thanksgiving Day.  Thank goodness last year I had the forethought of selling my ginormous, 12 foot, fat tree and replacing it with a skinny one.  It's 12 feet as well but my hubby told me not to put the bottom portion on so the star would be able to fit at the top. The tree is about 8 or 9 feet now.  It's perfect! I love that I kept my ornaments from the fat tree but I cannot find my red ribbon. I made do with a roll of red burlap I had stashed away (funny what you find when you're looking for SOMETHING else) I went ahead and just cinched it here and there to make it a little easier to wrap around the tree.  Then, since we don't have a fireplace in this apartment (sad face) I got a shelf from Ikea to put up in our entry way.  I have a little cabinet there that I decided to decorate around. The shelf was on

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Downsizing: Organizing a Small Living Space

It has been a whirlwind of a fall season for us! We moved from a 3,000 sq ft house to a 1,023 sq ft apartment.           Talk about shrinking our living space.  I tell you it took two months just to pack up all our stuff and take it to storage.  At the end, right before our move out, I just gave stuff away, threw some away and sold some things away.   All this experience has taught me is how we don't need so much stuff.    I mean, my gosh, I looked through our things and I was constantly saying "Why do I still have this?" "Why did I buy this?" "We don't even use this!"   See where I'm going?   We ultimately would like to move to a small, one story home, because let's face it, we're getting old.  I didn't like going up and down the stairs, not to mention all the upkeep of a house that size.    We had some wonderful times and I enjoyed my crafting room/class room and the huge dining and l

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Fall Decor-Pumpkin Decorations

Hello friends! Happy Labor Day to all. It's another balmy 100 degrees here in the Dallas area. LOL sure doesn't feel like fall to me but one can hope.  I recently had a dear client request I make some cute pumpkin decor for her and I thought I'd share with you. These half pumpkins can be found at any crafts store.  They are ready to hang and so cute and realistic looking.  You will need one or more pumpkin halves floral wire wire cutters ribbon scissors vinyl decals or stickers Cricut Explore die cutting machine hot glue assorted fall foliage clear satin or matte sealer (Krylon) First I either cut the vinyl on my machine or bought the stickers from the craft store.  You can find them in the scrapbooking section with all the other stickers.  I picked some pretty flourishes for this one.  Pick out a fall foliage bunch that you like along with some coordinating ribbon.  Place the stickers here and there on your pumpkin h

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Painting Furniture and the French Cottage Look-McKinney Furniture Painting Class

I have been so busy with life and all that comes with it that I've neglected my blog. And since tonight seems to be another night of insomnia I thought I'd come and visit with you. I was painting just about an hour ago. A dresser and a roll top desk. I really have come to enjoy painting furniture, fabric, walls - really anything but especially furniture. I also love to share my enthusiasm for this Annie Sloan Chalk Paint, that I started  teaching a furniture painting class. Now I'm not a stockist-so I teach my students about different ways to paint but then I let them try their hand at it using my own personal stash of paint, wax, everything! We have such a blast! August 22nd was my last class since the beginning of the busy photography season for me is about to begin.  I've come to love each and every furniture piece that I paint. It gives me great pleasure to know that someone is enjoying that dresser or desk in their ow

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Desk Transformation-Drab to Fab

As you may have noticed, I am really into refinishing furniture! I love taking an old, drab piece and painting new life into it. The look of happiness on my clients' faces is priceless. I usually paint using a major chalk paint brand.  This time I was sent a full size sample of the new Mud Paint in Manor White.  I loved it!     This is not a chalk based paint and is acrylic based so I did notice somewhat of an odor but not too bad. I like the way it spread and the finish was beautiful. It does go a long way and I decided to add a little bit of water to make it go further.  It is a bit less expensive than my normal go-to chalk paint but there are not retailers in my area so the shipping fees do add up.  I normally buy my paint locally. I decided to purchase an additional sample size of Manor White to do a chair and a sample of the Charcoal. So pretty.  Here are some before and afters:  (please excuse the blurry cell phone pics) Noti

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