DIY Collage Wall

After getting married we moved to a new town and a new house. One of my most favorite things to do after moving is to decorate. I love unpacking all of our decorations and putting things up. This makes it feel like home so much quicker then almost anything else you can do. So in this house like in our old one I decided to put up a collage wall.

My best advice for putting up a collage wall is to find a center piece and make that the focal point. My center piece is a large sign I found a few years ago that I really loved. It is a good size and it gives the wall some structure.

From there I laid out all of the pieces I for sure wanted to use on the wall and then some extra one's that I could use also to fill in. This gave me a pretty good idea of what to put up and how to make things balance on both sides.

I like to use a variety of signs, crosses, pictures, and canvas art that I have for my collage wall. This gives the wall a nice variety and gives you the option to mix in your accent colors. I always try to find a couple of fun colors I can mix in on the whole wall that go with my room.

The best advice I can give you is to just stare at your wall and start with one piece. Then I add to each side until I think the wall looks complete. This isn't the best way I'm sure but its how my brain works. I need to see things up on the wall and sometimes this means that things get moved around and we have a few extra holes in the wall but that's how life is.

So this is my advice on having a collage wall, just go for it and if you have a few extra holes you can blame it on me and creativity!

What is your collage wall advice? If you have a collage wall please share a picture with me! I would love to see your masterpiece.

I'm linking up at these parties!

Sleeping Oasis

I don't know about you but one of the most important room in my house is where the snoozing is going on. I like comfortable bedrooms with relaxing colors that will make it easy for me to take a nice long sleep in. I am a big fan of sleeping and as many who tell you will know if I could take a nap everyday I would. So I have found some gorgeous bedrooms that I am majorly lusting over. I would love to have some of these gorgeous rooms at my future house. Maybe I could convince one of these lovely room creators to come decorate my house? Maybe?

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Now I really love this room, the gorgeous floors, that amazing rug and the white bedding. Not to mention the candles and the perfect lamps on the night stands. BUT in my house let me tell you how this would go, muddy paws (aka Remy) would come and run all over that rug and jump on the bed and roll around, turning them both a lovely shade of mud brown. The candles on the floor, Eli would totally try to play with the flame and catch himself on fire. IF I could manage to keep Eli off of the night stand the lamps also might survive.

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Now this is the kind of bedroom girls dream about. That view, man I would love to have that view every day. I really love the benches at the end of this bed also, how cute are those! I am also a huge fan of the curtains because lets be real, who wants light shining in on them during their precious sleep time? Not this girl, heck no that just ticks me off. Again I am a fan of the white bedding but I just don't know if I'm brave enough for it yet.

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I look at this room and one word comes to mind, COZY. Now this bedding I think I could get away with. It is a nice shade of tan that would work well with muddy paws. I really like her night stands also. The mirrored sides is really neat and I would love to have a piece like that in my room.

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I am really digging this headboard. I don't think I would use black like they have but the tuffs, man I could definitely get down with that. I also like this bench and how it could be used for storage, I don't think you can ever have enough storage. And once again I am loving that they have curtains up.

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I really like the colors in this room, I don't think I would pick those darker shades to put on walls but I really like it here. I never would have thought this would work so well together. I also LOVE the throw blanket on this bed, I am a HUGE fan of big knit blankets like this, my future MIL has one and I snatch it every time we go to their house. I really like how this room has a variety of textures, the sparkle pillows, the throw, the comforter, and the headboard all are different but go together.

What do you like to have in your snooze zone? What kinds of colors do you think work well in bedrooms?

I'm linking up at these parties!

Mirror Up-cycle

I found this mirror at a thrift store for $7. The hanger was broken on the back and the corners were a little scuffed up. It was definitely a fixer upper but I loved that the frame was solid wood and it's a BIG mirror. I knew there was no way I could find this big of a mirror without a large price tag so I snatched it up and went to work. 

In a moment of genius I thought I'll put this newspaper down and then tap the corners and stick it al a little under the edges so I don't get any paint drip. This seemed like a great idea at the time. It definitely worked and there was no pain on the mirror at all. Getting the tape and newspaper out from between the frame and mirror was nightmare. I had to use an exacto knife for a lot of it. I would definitely not recommend doing this. Just stick the newspaper under the frame and be careful when painting. 

First I used a white base coat because the wood is really dark. It took two base coats with how dark the wood was but I did really light coats and it seemed to work well. 

After my base coats I used a grey-blue paint I got a free quart of at Ace. I love this color and I have it on a few different pieces in my living room so it worked out perfect that I used it on this mirror.

Then of course I distressed the frame and showed off the great lines and the original wood color. You can also see some of the white base coat show through in some spots which I love. To fix the hanger on the back I just bought some wire at Ace and used the attachment pieces already on the back of the mirror. All it took was some wire cutters and pliers to get the wire secure on the hangers. This mirror is very heavy to we had to make sure it was put into a stud. I would definitely suggest always putting heavy items into a stud. This is a very important safety precaution.



I think this mirror turned out great. It looks wonderful on my wall above our love seat. Now just to make something to go on each side of the mirror. It needs some accent pieces.

What do you think I should put on each side of the mirror? 

I'm linking up at these parties!

Barn Red Cabinet

As you know I have been participating in craft shows recently, making different home decor items and redoing some furniture. If you missed this make sure you check out my New Adventure  so you know what's going on. 

At the first craft show that we hosted and put on I decided to have my own booth. Usually I just put up my crosses and home decor with my mom and aunt Lana's booth and call it good. But I decided I wanted to try and sell some of my own furniture and see how it went. 

This red beauty was my favorite piece and if she didn't sell I had the perfect place picked out for her in my kitchen. She was going to make a perfect little coffee bar next to my Kitchen Hutch Remodel. 

I found this beauty at a thrift store one Saturday with my mom and Jarr on the hunt for a washing machine. Let me just tell you, she was pretty rough around the edges and I wish I had before pictures to show you. She needed some work done on the back and a little sanding and love to help with some major nicks.

I think she turned out great though. I painted her in Barn Red and used the original hard wear. She was my first piece to sell and she sold within 2 hours of the show starting. So I was very excited because I worked really hard to finish her up during Finals Week .

So what do you think of my little red beauty? 

I'm linking up to these blogs. 

Kitchen Hutch Remodel

So we recently moved into a bigger house so we could have more room. Just another rental until we graduate and get big kid jobs. I don't know if all rentals are like this but everyone I've lived in has about zero cabinet space in the kitchen. Now a lot of college students don't cook but I do. I love to cook and I need space in my kitchen for my pops, pans, odds, ins, and food! So when we found the new place I noticed the lack of cabinet space once again and decided to do something about it. 

I got on Craigslist and looked until I found an old wooden hutch that I could get for a reasonable price and redo. Of course when we went to pick it up Jarr gave me the "are you serious right now, this is hideous" look. I just smiled and said you know I can work magic when I have an idea. 

The above picture is of the original hutch I purchased off of craigslist. Please ignore the stuff in the background this was in the middle of moving. 

So I cleaned the hutch really really good which it needed very badly, it smelled like a house from the 70's. It looked like a house from the 70's, and it reminded me of my grandma's house. I'm sure that most of you can relate to that. 

Please ignore my very lived in kitchen with the trash can and Eli's litter box. What we did was paint this bad boy about 95 million times to get her white. I used 3 coats of primer to get rid of the dark wood color and then two coats of Benjamin Moore Antique White to get her this lovely cream color. I replaced her knobs with some I got a Lowe's that I like the color of better. 

And we put chicken wire on the inside of the doors so you can see in the cabinet. I LOVE the way this piece turned out and I am so proud of my beauty. It took about a week to paint her, letting each coat dry overnight. I didn't put any kind of sealant on her I just let her drive for a week before we put anything on her and she seems to be taking everything well. I absolutely love how much storage she provides and I am so happy with my remodel. 

Here is the finished product complete with decorations on top. 

What do you think about my new kitchen storage? 

I'm linking up at these parties this week! 

Honey Festival

Today we are going to a craft show in my hometown and having a booth! If you live around central Oklahoma come and check out our booth, Sister Act 3. We will be at the festival from 9-4 today and there are many other events going on in the town. We are one of the 90 vender booths along with Santa coming by today. Around town there is a tractor pull, honey bake off, quilt show, hay rides, and a tour of the honey plant. 

We would love to see you today! It's a little cold here with the snow but we have all driven from far away and the roads are clear and safe! There is a pancake breakfast at the Methodist church as well as food vendors set up around town! 

I'm linking up at these parties!

New Adventure

Over the last 6 months I have started a new business venture with my mom and aunt. We are going to different craft shows and rodeos selling jewelry, purses, belts, hats, scarves, and my hand made home decor. We have been quite successful at this new little business venture and are having a wonderful time doing it. I always dreamed of selling some of my decor that I've been making for my own home for years. I never thought that my mom and aunt would get in on the action with me though. 

One of my cross pieces. 

This has been a great adventure for us and I'm so glad that we have decided to do this together. I am hoping that maybe someday I could open up my own boutique and try to make this a real career. All these years of college education and almost finishing with my degree and now I decide I want to do this. I guess I should squeeze a few business classes in these last 2 semesters so I have some idea of what I'm doing. 

A faith sign and cross. 

Any advice you lovely ladies have would be greatly appreciated! We are brand new and trying to make things work. It's amazing how helpful people are in these situations! We have had so many amazing people come and help us figure everything out! 

Have a wonderful day ladies!