BFF Open House

 

Happy Friday Eve Creative Peeps. Hope you've all been having a great week. We continue to get settled in our new home and found some time to update a few thrifted pieces that work with this new aesthetic. Shared how I combined Traditional and Modern Decor with just a little acrylic paint and Rub N Buff! 

Let's take a look at some of the great ideas shared at last week's party! 

All the way from The Netherlands, we have these fun earrings from Mooisvanme using mirrored crystals and fiber. Pretty! 

Condo Blues shared a wonderful idea for something I really would like to do, even here in the desert:  a Self Watering Herb Garden! 

July will always be "Harry Potter" month for me and I love how all these years after the series concluded people continue to find ways to come up with new creations inspired by it. For example, these DIY Flying Keys from Creatively Beth! 

Finally, "When Harry Met Chocolate" to play with a couple of movies. A second HP inspired creation comes from Artsy Fartsy Mama with these Resin Chocolate Frog Earrings. So cute! 

These won't leap away. 

Thanks to all who linked up and now let's see what everyone's been up to this week! 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Home Decor: Blending Traditional and Modern

 As I've mentioned, our new home is very modern. And while it would be fun to buy all new things, I live on a planet called Reality. Plus DIYing and making things over is what we do. Our prior homes have been more traditional and I wanted a way to make some pieces I still love fit in with this more modern aesthetic. Plus, it's better for the environment as well as the wallet to re-purpose right? These pieces were already thrifted finds I'd painted once so painting them again was no big deal. 

These were some candleholders I found several years ago at Goodwill. They didn't match so I painted them to match and painted them again! 

We have a lot of black accents in this house so I started by painting them with a couple of coats of black acrylic paint. I still love a vintage look so I didn't leave them solid, and dry brushed them with a little bit of white. 

To finish, I used Silver Leaf Rub N Buff to accent some of the raised areas to make them pop. Originally, I thought I'd re-do the candles too. They're decoupaged onto the candles but the powder room also has a wood cabinet and I decided I really liked how they went with it. 

I also knew I wanted to place a small table I'd also previously thrifted and painted. Again, I wanted to emphasize the black but again, I still like my vintage / distressed look. 

I originally painted it a light tan with white drybrush. I painted the legs solid black and  for the bottom did a crackle effect with white using my tried and true white glue crackle technique. 

I applied the same Rub N Buff around the edges of the top and shelf of the table. We had a Longaberger basket we bought years ago that matched the cabinet as well as a beautiful wood bowl from my husband's family that I thought would be perfectly displayed on this table, and the black captures the essence of the sink. 

I feel like the silver accents on the candleholders and table work well with our floors, the black and white with the sink, and the browns with the cabinet! We added a couple of black storage baskets from Target to hold extra supplies like toilet paper. I'm really happy with how it all came together mixing traditional and modern. 

Sharing At:

BFF Open House

 

Well Hello, Creative Peeps! I hope everyone had a peaceful Fourth of July. One thing I love about where we are now is we heard NO fireworks. Last year was a nightmare between professional and amateur noise that sent our big girl into a loud barking frenzy. Not scared, just telling everyone what she thought which is cute the first time but not when people don't know when to quit at 3AM. But I digress. 

Back in the saddle with features this week and I even had a chance to make something! Actually two things so far, only one of which I've posted yet. See how I modernized a ceramic candleholder to fit with our new home here: White and Silver Cactus Candleholder Makeover

I haven't been in any craft stores in a few weeks so I'm predicting by the next time I go I'll see Halloween and maybe even Christmas. Time will fly from here on out. Let's take a look at some of the things you've been up to lately! 

I haven't made any jewelry lately so these beautiful Boho Bracelets from My French Twist caught my eye. Aren't they pretty?!

Speaking of Halloween supplies, start being on the lookout now for this Witch Hat Frame at Dollar Tree. The Apple Street Cottage has a great way to transform it into an Ice Cream Cone themed piece, perfect for Summer. 

I just love this idea from My Thrift Store Addiction to add both nature and lights to an outdoor space with these Vine Light Covered pieces! I can see the Faeries coming to them now. 

Finally, how about this delicious looking Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie from Scratch Made Food for Hungry People? Yes please! 

Thank you to everyone who linked up and your patience with no features for the past few weeks. Now let's see what amazing feats you've been up to this week! 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Easy Home Decor Update: White and Silver Cactus Candleholder Makeover

 

Woo Hoo I did a project! After weeks of packing, moving, unpacking, I stole a little time to make something for our new home. We are getting there and have almost everything unpacked and put away. I have so many things I want to do but this was fairly quick and easy and I'm thrilled with the transformation. 

Supplies: 

• Ceramic Candleholder
• Acrylic Craft Paints

It doesn't get much simpler than this project but the transformation is night and day. We love saguaros. The one thing we knew when we left the Pacific Northwest with all of the majestic evergreen trees was that we needed to be able to see and/or be surrounded by saguaros. They're not as "everywhere" here in AZ as you might think with lots of farm and ranch land having been cleared and then used for home developments. We're thrilled that we have them around us everywhere now. 

I get to look at this big boy from my new craft room window! OK back to my project. We bought this candleholder a while ago and it was in my husband's office and I forgot about it until we were debating whether to keep it before we moved. I immediately saw an update in my head so it was a keeper. 

There was nothing wrong with it but the house is very modern, bright, and lots of gray and white so I thought that it could use a little updating. I applied a couple of coats of white acrylic paint to make sure none of the green still showed through. 

I almost left it all white but knowing where I wanted it to go, I thought a little gray or silver would be perfect. I used Folk Art's Metallic Silver Sterling to dry brush the ribs and arms. It takes a saguaro about 75 years to grow ONE arm! So the one I can see from my window has been around a long while. I just went down each rib and each arm with a light dry brush of the silver. I always keep a baby wipe handy in case an area gets too much paint. 

You can see there are some indentations in the candleholder as well so I dry brushed those to give it some depth and texture. It goes perfectly in our new kitchen. Just have to get a candle to put on it now! You might remember I painted my knife block a little while ago. You can see it on the counter by the stove in the background. 

VERY happy with how it turned out and glad we saved it. 

Sharing At: 

BFF Open House Oops!

Happy first day of July and Happy Friday. Our move is complete ( except for the unpacking fun but I have my kitchen mostly set up) and with wrapping up some things at our former location I forgot my own party! This will hopefully be the last week w/out features. If I said that last week, chalk it up to aggressive optimism! 

Apologies for the delay and let's get right to it! Wishing everyone a safe Fourth. 

 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

BFF Open House

 

Whew! Happy Friday Eve all. Hope your week is going well. It's been busy on this end and we're about 3/4 of the way done w/ our move with the remaining portion early next week. Then of course there's the other side of unpacking, figuring out places for things to go, assessing what needs making over to fit with a different style house than we've had before, etc. etc. So many ideas are swirling, it's non-stop. All of our stuff works but I want to change up some accent pieces so I'll have no shortage of projects.  Here's one quick pic of my current state of disaster but once we're there full time it will get sorted quickly. 

Mr. Chocolate's comment: "That's a whole Michael's Store in that closet". Not really. There's JoAnn's too. 

One more week of no features and than you for the supportive comments last week and for understanding. You all are the BEST! 

OK let's see what you've all been up to since I'm not even sure what supplies are where! 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

BFF Open House : No Features This Week

 

Happy Mid June / Pride Month / Friday Eve. No features this week.  I alluded to something a few weeks ago and that something is we're moving and I'm worn out! 

You'd think we'd be pros at this having moved from Seattle 4 years ago and then again within Arizona last year. When we moved states, we weren't sure where we wanted to BE in AZ so we leased a house to get a feel for where we wanted to be.  Welp, COVID hit and that delayed things. We loved the area we were in and the woman who owned the house was lovely and wanted to sell it to us which we briefly considered but while it was beautiful on the outside and the property was great, it was older and as we lived in it discovered how much work it needed in addition to updates inside. We didn't blame her when she decided to put it on the market last year since it was on fire. But timing is everything and I ended up in the hospital around the same time and Mr. Chocolate found us another place because we still hadn't looked for our forever home. 

We finally had a chance to do that this year, found a home we LOVE, bought, and are in the process of moving to.

The biggest surprise has been Mr. Chocolate wanting me to make over some things we have because he isn't by nature one who envisions those things and has resisted that idea before so after we get settled, prepare for some fun projects. We also have lots of wall space to decorate and he's requested some DIY art. I'll be busy! 

But for now, in between 2 houses for a bit, and with packing to finish, it's just a party this week. 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter