HOOT HOOT

I’m sure you’ve noticed, because that’s what we blogger type girls do, that OWLS are huge right now.  What really got me started thinking about how popular they are, was when a little girl, whom Heather was supposed to be painting an Alice In Wonderland canvas for, changed her mind and decided she wanted an OWL pic. instead.

He’s much cuter in person.  His feathers are even glittered!  and he’s HUGE  about 24x32.  Little girls here want their rooms bright and colorful. 

I searched for owls pillows on Etsy.  Pages and pages came up.  I loved them all, but I have to say I was really taken with this one in particular.

You can find this shop HERE

Owl fabric is everywhere.  this image is from Fabrics.com

This would be cute in a little boys room.

If you want an owl shaped pillow instead……

This little guy made me smile.

Your can find him on Etsy HERE.

And here’s the OWL dresser that Heather painted.  Sooo cute for a little girls or a babies room.

This barely lasted a week at the Rink.

I don’t know where I found this image, but I THINK it’s a lamp shade.  I thought it was pretty clever. 

You can even find the old macramé owls from the 70’s on Etsy if you’re feeling a little vintage!  (NOT)

Alas……no kids or babies rooms to decorate here…….(sigh)………this is one trend I’ll have to leave behind.  Which is really too bad, because I love the little guys!

Have a wonderful week!

Denise

New posts at Sugar Moon Girls!

New lamp shade tutorial post is up at Sugar Moon Girls!  AND in honor of Vanessa’s Mad Tea Party, I am revisiting T-man’s great Mad Hatter costume.

Meanwhile………here at Bella Dreams………

Look what I found!!

WOW!!!  I sure hope there’s some Maple Glazed in my crop!  They’re my absolute FAVS.!!

HA!!  

Cute image found HERE

Have a fun fun weekend!  It’s hotter than you-know-where here!

Denise

New drop cloth slips!

I came to a compromise on the sofa situation. 

I ended up making the ottoman slip cover.  The two seat cushions.  And the two back cushions.  I have one more back cushion to make so I pulled the toile pillow off of my bed for now.  I am slipped OUT!  The rest of the sofa is  a store bought slipcover.  I’ll tell you what, you get what you pay for.  I paid $50.00 for the slipcover on OverStock, and pretty much got what I paid for.  It’s a piece of junk!  Thus the linen throw on the left corner.  To kind of disguise as much of it as I can.  I suppose I’ll eventually finish the entire slipcover in drop cloth. Sigh……  Any delusion I had about making slipcovers for other people, definitely ended with this project.  A LOT of work…….

 

I also bought a new lamp shade for my floor lamp.

And found a new lamp for the top of my chest.  the color of which is a lot prettier than it looks here.

Other past drop cloth projects……..

My chair and ottoman

 

Guest room bench

And my dining chairs.

Yes!  I DO love me some drop cloth fabric. 

Have a wonderful week!

Denise

Drop leaf table and chalk paint

I have been painting everything that I can think of with my quart of Paris Grey chalk paint!

Heather and I have been painting furniture for about ten years and I have to give this new paint an A+ excellent rating. 

I had painted my Mother’s drop leaf table in my favorite cream.  Unfortunately, I apparently had a can of defective  polycrylic top coat and the table top looked terrible.  Chalk paint to the rescue! 

One coat.  Then easy distressing with a sponge sanding block.  Right over the old top coat.  This paint really does go over any finish.

I just let the sanded dust gather and then wiped it off with damp paper towels when I was through.

It would be best to let this paint cure for 48 to 72 hours.  I am, however, always impatient!  It dries to the touch FAST and then I was ready to wax.   The key here, especially if your paint hasn’t cured fully, is a light touch when applying the wax.  Don’t try to rub too hard or you will loose some of your paint.  Of course, for those of you who love the shabby chic look as much as Heather and I, this is not such a bad thing.  It just adds to the overall patina.

 

I used Bri Wax because it is what I had on hand.  I use it on my farm table to protect it.  Let your wax dry  for approximately 2 hours (depending on the weather) and then buff for a pretty shine.   I haven’t tried a darker wax yet for a glaze, but will. 

I just finished painting this chair.

One coat, about 20 minutes, DONE!   I went over a dark color and this would usually have taken at least two coats.  Just the time saved is worth the extra cost to me.  Even on pieces that we are selling.

This is also the paint that I used on my mantel mirror.

And the BEST BEST thing………it sticks to brass!!!  Good bye brass bed!  The first chance that I get!  Yoohoo!!

Denise

Joining these fun parties!  Direct links may be found on my bottom left side bar!

Enjoy!

At The Lake–Part 3

We’ll continue our lake home tour this evening with the finished sleeping porch.

The quilts are hung.

Unfortunately Heather didn’t get a close up of the cute doll house.

The antlers hung between the owl pictures are vintage.  From Karen’s grandfather.

The sleeping porch before.

A BIG change, huh?

A cute mirror that Heather painted and hung between the beds.

The serving buffet that Heather painted.  Positioned right off of the kitchen.  We couldn’t find a mirror large enough that we could afford, so Heather painted an oval one that she already had and surrounded the mirror with a frame that she tied twigs to.  We finished the look with a hanging bird cage chandelier.

On to the kitchen……..

I am IN LOVE with this granite!

AND the awesome red piece that Karen found in Canton.  It turns.  Originally we thought it would be used on the dining table.  However, we all loved the way it looked on the island.  We filled it with every day kitchen items and it is much more useful and functional! 

The canisters, which are plastic, will be filled with snacks for the grandkids.

Speaking of the dining table……..

Here’s the finished look.  The large blue canister will be filled with colorful wrapped candy.

On the front porch.

Heather painted this table and chairs.  The table is chalk board for the grandkids to draw on on one side………….

And checker board for the BIG kids to play on on the other side.  I LOVE this table!

Not finished yet but coming soon is a long bench which we will be upholstering in black and white damask outdoor fabric.  I’m not sure what color Heather decided to paint the bench?  We’ll have pictures of that later.

We’ll finish our home tour next time with views of the outside of this AMAZING and gorgeous home. 

Have a wonderful rest of the weekend!

Denise

At The Lake-Home Tour Part 2

Today on our home tour, we’re moving to the living area.  Again, this is a gorgeous room with windows on one side of the room looking out over the lake.

This elephant bench sits against the windows and our intent is to fill it with colorful pillows that can be thrown on the floor when the family is watching a movie.  You can see that we still have a ways to go.  I think we need to hit T.J. Maxx tomorrow.  Hopefully they’ll have what we’re looking for.  The more colorful pillow, the “C” pillow and the French script pillows all came from Garden Ridge.

We love the old box that Karen found and filled with magazines and her T.V. controllers.

So…..up next is probably our FAVORITE thing that we found for the house.  It came from The Rink and we felt it  really reflected the fun spirit of a lake house.

So here he is……..

 

Our kitschy deer painting.  He was painted on felt in 1980.  The painting was signed by the artist and presented as a gift to someone.  We LOVED him.  Only one thing……the mantel is huge and he…well…..isn’t!

Twigs to the rescue!

We still need to gather more twigs for our red basket and we are also going to add twigs to the basket on the left.  Then, I love the candle holder underneath, it just need to be looonger!  So we’re looking for one of those.  Which of course, means we probably won’t be able to find one any place, any where!

Pan right on the mantel………..

The mantel juts out like this because the T.V. is mounted below.  Up the stairs in the back ground is a media room.

We loved Karen’s botanical themed lamp and her big green plate and pretty much left them right where she had them. 

Isn’t the giant jar fun?  We filled it with eggs, balls of string, and bird related items for summer.  I would love to see it filled with mini pumpkins and fall leaves.  Or how about Epsom salts and mini trees for Christmas?  The horn to the right carries the deer theme through the entire mantel.

the sea shell and the turtle reflect a bit more of the outdoors.

In the hallway to the bedrooms we moved Karen’s lamps on either side of a tennis ball basket filled with misc. items and a pic. of her grandson. We moved her cute bed and breakfast sign just above the basket.   We would like to find a basket to go underneath the table but it’s very narrow and we haven’t found the right one yet.

Oh…..and that potpourri container isn’t part of the décor.  Hey, we girls need our scents you know!   All vintage items that we used are from The Rink.

Hope you enjoyed part two of our tour.  More later!

Denise

AT THE LAKE-HOME TOUR PART 1

Heather and I have been working hard but also having a wonderful time decorating a lake house here in Oklahoma.  This has been a different experience for us.  We’re used to being able to run to where ever and pick up a few things if we forget them.  Not so here!  We’re a couple of hours from OKC and at least 45 minutes from any shopping so if you forget something…..oops!

Karen, our homeowner requested that we accessorize her lake home, adding some color but at the same time keeping it simple.   The lake is about relaxing, not cleaning!

 

I’ll start today with our FAVORITE room…..the Sleeping Porch!

This is such a fun filled room!  The grandkids bedroom.

The entire room is bead board.  Painted white with a light glaze.  Beautiful!  the opposite wall is all windows, looking out over the lake.   The quilts on the beds are vintage and were made by Karen’s grandmother.  Sorry, the pillow cases were in the wash.  (Oops)  I thought the beds needed just a touch of something more and saw these cute pillows on Grandin Road.

Karen ordered the frog for her grandson’s bed, and the lady bug for her granddaughter’s bed.  The pillow cases are red, and I think these cute pillows will finish the beds perfectly!

Heather and I both loved this large black shelf that Karen had salvaged from a remodel job.

It’s quite large and hung high enough to keep certain things out of reach of little Munchkin hands!  Despite this, it looks perfectly in proportion with the room.  Karen had purchases two vintage ladders to use on the sleeping porch but couldn’t decide how to display them.  Heather suggested hanging them on either side of the wall shelf.  They are hung with L brackets so that they extend out from the wall.  Karen is going to hang the rest of her vintage quilt collection on them.  Won’t that be cute?!

Owl pictures – Pier One

Vintage wood truck – The Rink

The old rusty tackle box is one of our Round Top finds.  I filled it with things that I found around the kids room.  Again, everything is high enough so that little hands can’t reach them.  We certainly wouldn’t want them to get ahold of that old rusty box!  I finished off the shelf with things that we had purchased from The Rink and other things that I had gathered from around the house. 

We’re about 90percent done with this room.  Heather is painting a table to hold the CUTEST log cabin doll house!  More pics. of that and the quilts after they’re hung next week.  That’s it for today.  Enjoy the eye candy!  I wish I could sleep in this room at night!

Denise