Cutlery Vinyl Winner!

Alright my vinyl-loving readers -- it's time to announce the winner of the Household Words Giveaway -- and thank you again, Mandie, for being SO kind and giving one of these wonderful pieces to a lucky reader!

And the winner is..............

Jessica said... 41 I'm a follower



I guess sometimes it pays to follow! :)  Congratulations, Jessica (& thanks so much for following!) !!!

Now stay tuned for tomorrow -- because I've got another little something special for all of you!

It's All in the Timing

I realize that just a couple of weeks ago I made myself a new clock for the house -- but you can never have to many clocks, right?!?  I honestly feel like we have a clock in like every room of the house -- not that it keeps me "on time."  I love clocks -- they can be any color, shape, object, whatever -- as long as they tell you what time it is.  So when I saw this mantle clock at the thrift store, I couldn't pass it up (even though I currently don't have a great place to put it).

Whewie -- that's an eye sore of a clock -- definitely not cute, but whatever, for the $3.99 I spent I knew even if all I did was paint it, it would be worth it.

So first thing I did (after cleaning it off) was to take out the "face", which ended up being just a metal piece with numbers written on it.  I also threw away the grotty plastic case thing that was all yellowed and dirty.  Then I went ahead and painted my clock.

 Now comes the exciting part -- I couldn't quite decide how I wanted to redo the face of my clock -- but I knew I couldn't just leave it as a gold, shiny thing.  I scoured the web and searched high and low for an image I felt I could use on my clock.  Then I came across this vintage label at Karen's blog, The Graphics Fairy.  And let me tell you -- this blog is amazing!  You'll be there for a while -- believe me!

 Perfect -- yellow, round and adorable!  I HAD to use it!  I did use an image editing program to lighten the image and add some numbers to it.

I Mod Podged it on the back of the original clock face -- so there was a little bit of silver peaking out.  Once it was dried, I placed it in the clock and reattached the hands.

 I love how it turned out!  I'm thinking it might look cute with some distressing.  What do you think?   Either way, you can't beat a cute clock for $3.99!

Linking up to:

Mondays:Between Naps on the Porch ; C.R.A.F.T; Craft-O-Maniac; Keeping it Simple; Mad in Crafts; Making the World Cuter; The DIY Showoff; The Girl Creative Tuesdays:  All Thingz Related; House of Grace; I'm Topsy Turvy; Lucky Star Lane; Sugar Bee Craft Edition; The CSI Project; These Creative Juices; Today's Creative Blog Wednesdays:  Blue Cricket Design; Creations by Kara; Debbiedoos; Domestically Speaking; My Backyard Eden; Night Owl Crafting; Seven Thirty Three; Someday Crafts; The Thrifty Home; Trendy Treehouse Thursdays: Beyond the Picket Fence; Craftastical!; Fireflies & Jellybeans; House of Hepworths; Life as Lori; Somewhat Simple; The Shabby Chic Cottage Fridays:  Chic on a Shoestring; Finding Fabulous; Fingerprints on the Fridge; Frou Frou Decor; Frugal & Fabulous Design; It's a Hodge Podge Life; It's Fun to Craft!: Just a Girl; Remodelaholic; Simply Designing; The Shabby Nest; Tatertots & Jello Weekend:  A  Little Lovely; Be Different Act Normal; Funky Junk Interiors; House of Thrifty Decor; I Heart Naptime; Kuzak's Closet; Under the Table & Dreaming

Flashback

First I want to say a huge thank you to..... YOU -- yes, YOU -- all you who read this little blog and leave such sweet comments of admiration and encouragement.   So today, I thought maybe I'd catch everyone (new and old followers and readers) up on what exactly the "Hand Me Down House" is.  We call it the "Hand Me Down House" because it was in fact handed down.  Not quite the same as getting a hand me down sweater or something, but along those lines. :)    

In fall 2008, Kevin & I bought my childhood home, the hand-me-down house from my parents, who moved farther out of the cities.   And ever since then, we've been working like CRAZY to change it from our "hand me down" into our "dream home".  We love watching it change and transform into what we want -- and I'm SO excited that you all have decided to come along for the ride.

If you want more "backstory" on our house, you can go here.

I thought it would be fun to give you a little peak at the WHOLE transformation (yes from way back in the nineties with it's lovely decor!):

Ahhhhh....Christmas Morning (one of the only photos of the whole room I could find).  Gotta love the wallpaper and drapes -- really brings ya back, doesn't it?  But there it is -- the dining room and living room in all it's grandeur!  This picture is from Christmas of 1995 ... almost 15 years ago.  I'm sure I'm not the only one who has a picture of their house growing up with Berber carpet, wall paper, and some brassy light fixtures.   But I feel like I'm extra blessed that I got to change my great room into what I wanted, yet still have the memories of things like Christmas morning in there, too.  (And in case you were wondering, that's my "little" brother standing, and there I am sitting near the couch playing our new Battleship game). 

So after seeing the picture above, I had to take a picture from the same spot (nearly 15 years later!)

Granted that is a 15 year difference -- but still fun to look at!

And didn't I tell you the other day how much lovED beige?!?  Believe me you'll see this room transform again -- I'm beiged-out and need a change. :)

C is for Canister

Sometimes I just CANNOT believe the stuff people throw away....all you other thrifters -- I'm SURE know what I mean.  Even if whatever it is looks like complete garbage, I know it can be fixed up -- so of course I can't understand why someone would get rid of such a "treasure"!  I'm hoping there are other people like me out there who get that item all fixed up and beautified,  and want to bring it back to whoever got rid of it and show them.  As if that is showing people I'm not in fact crazy and there was a "treasure" in there!  

But what I can't believe at all is the perfectly good things people get rid of -- take this Williams Sonoma canister pair I found last week:

Seriously -- Williams Sonoma.  The big one was $3.80 and the smaller one was $5.80 -- yes you read that right the smaller one was MORE than the bigger canister -- whatever, TOTALLY worth those prices. The small one still had the original price tag on it and it was $18.00.  And in my opinion, these were pratically brand new...there was absolutely NOTHING wrong with them except they were covered in dust.  (Probably no dustier than the rest of my house). 

All by themselves they are just fine.....although I wanted something a little more colorful.  Not that I don't love simple, white decor -- I just felt like these needed a little something.  I originally wanted to do vinyl on the front for whatever I used them for; but I can never make up my mind on things, so I knew I'd change what I put in these canisters several times.  Vinyl just doesn't always work for a mind-changer like me. :)    So I decided to go for some chalkboard paint instead.

I loved it ... but it still wasn't very colorful.  It needed some fun hue added to it.  It was calling out for some beautiful accessory to be added.....and so I did:

I took two strands of beads I put together and braided them together with green ribbon.  Then all I had to do was tie them around my canisters.

Each canister bead braid is different but has the same type of beads and color scheme.

And I should be honest with you...there aren't actually cookies in my bigger canister....yet.  I wish there were though!   I better erase that before my hubby opens it up to find an empty canister.  

I do use my other canister for coffee -- so I get to use it every day.   And I LOVE it! :)   It makes me smile just seeing it -- what a way to start the morning.

So my grand total for the whole project is $22.10

$9.60 for the canisters
$12.50 for the beads

Linking up to:

Mondays:Between Naps on the Porch ; C.R.A.F.T; Craft-O-Maniac; Keeping it Simple; Mad in Crafts; Making the World Cuter; The DIY Showoff; The Girl Creative Tuesdays:  All Thingz Related; House of Grace; I'm Topsy Turvy; Lucky Star Lane; Sugar Bee Craft Edition; The CSI Project; These Creative Juices; Today's Creative Blog Wednesdays:  Blue Cricket Design; Creations by Kara; Debbiedoos; Domestically Speaking; My Backyard Eden; Night Owl Crafting; Seven Thirty Three; Someday Crafts; The Thrifty Home; Trendy Treehouse Thursdays: Beyond the Picket Fence; Craftastical!; Fireflies & Jellybeans; House of Hepworths; Life as Lori; Somewhat Simple; The Shabby Chic Cottage Fridays:  Chic on a Shoestring; Finding Fabulous; Fingerprints on the Fridge; Frou Frou Decor; Frugal & Fabulous Design; It's a Hodge Podge Life; It's Fun to Craft!: Just a Girl; Remodelaholic; Simply Designing; The Shabby Nest; Tatertots & Jello Weekend:  A  Little Lovely; Be Different Act Normal; Funky Junk Interiors; House of Thrifty Decor; I Heart Naptime; Kuzak's Closet; Under the Table & Dreaming