Valentine’s Day is only a week away and I am thrilled! I look at this day as a chance to bring some colour and spice into my home. Living in Ontario, February is at times dreary and cold. So for me, Valentine’s Day couldn’t come at a better time! This past week, I took down all my gold, silver and copper touches around the house. I left my vases and jars (still filled with epsom salts or tinsel) in place. I went to my local dollar store and picked up some red hearts in various sizes and red garland. I then simply placed the hearts in the jars and vases. I also hung small hearts on the branches of the fireplace mantel. To finish off the Valentine’s decor, I wrapped the garland around the vases and jars on the fireplace and piano. I think the red is a great contrast between the white, silver and crystal.

Take a look:

HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY

I can not believe that it is already Jan. 22! This year has started with some sadness, my Great Aunt Margie passed away, and I am finally getting back into a routine. So hopefully I will be able to make much more regular posts. This is my New Years Resolution:)

So let’s move on to something happy. For Christmas I came up with an idea to organize my Grandmas fridge. She has many photos of grandchildren and great grandchildren and I knew she would appreciate a way to showcase her loved ones.

When we moved into our house we had very ugly bedroom closet doors:

We have removed these beauties from each room. We haven’t purchased new closet doors but I feel I’d rather have no doors then these doors!!! (Sorry to any one that may have these closet doors:)

After removing the doors I needed the door to be half the length. I went into the garage, pulled out my husbands saw and cut through the wood very carefully.

I brought the door inside, removed the hardware and gave it a coat of paint.

I used this brown paint I had in the house from other projects.

Over a couple of days I painted several coats of white paint that I also had around the house. I painted enough coats so that the brown would not show through the white paint. Once it was completely dry, the fun part began. I gathered a fine grit piece of sand paper and went over the edges of the door. This gave the door a distressed look.

I had only one problem, that if you put a picture in between the slats, the pictures would slide through. I then measured the back of the board and headed to Home Depot. I purchased a MDF board that was a 1/4″ in thickness. I cut the board to the right measurement. I then used small nails to attach the board to the back of the door.

The pictures now stayed in place between the slats! I finished this project by painting the back white, reattaching the hinges and adding a new knob to the front.

Here is what the finished project looks like:

The only other problem I had is that we forgot to bring it my Grandmas for Christmas!! So until we went to her house again I decided to put it on top of my piano and incorporate the door into part of my decor:)

Don’t worry, it is now with it’s proper owner!

Where has the time gone?? The last few days before Christmas past before my very eyes. I was trying to finish up some last minute Christmas presents, some of them worked and some of them didn’t! I was hoping to post the project that did work before Christmas and I blinked and now it’s almost New Years. I will post this project in the New Year. I’m hoping everyone had a Merry Christmas. My Christmas was different. I have spent the last four days at my Grandma’s house with my son and sister. We usually go there for Christmas but we lost our beloved Great Aunt Janie last year and she was greatly missed. We were also faced with our other Great Aunt Margie not doing very well. So Christmas was different and tough on my Grandma. Thank goodness for children because they are a great distraction!

So moving on to happier topic, I woke up this morning and looked around and decided it was time to take down some Christmas decorations and get ready for New Years Eve!! While I was away, I went to the dollar store and picked up gold, silver, white ornaments and metallic tinsel. I cut some branches down at my Grandmas and arranged them in one of my favourite vase. I added tinsel to the bottom of the vase and hung tiny bells on the branches:

I also gathered up some other vases of different sizes and shapes. I filled some with metallic tinsel and others with epsom salts. I added some ornaments and white flowers. Here is another shot of my mantel:

I also changed changed the piano mantel:

I took the white shutters, added little bits of copper and put it up on the mantel. I then gathered up old bottles, martini glasses, a silver tray and filled them up with all things that sparkle!

I tied snowflakes with silver ribbon around the stem of some bottles.

I changed up the dinning room table centerpiece.  I gathered a glass  tray, bowl and vase. I then filled them up with tinsel and ornaments.

The last project I completed was the staircase. I took down the stockings and added gold garland throughout the greenery. When the lights are on the staircase glows. She’s pretty!

The house was already for our little get together last night. Hopefully everyone had a great New Year’s Eve and will have an even better New Year:)

I am trying to finish up my mud room or at least make it look like it could be finished! When I painted this room I took of the all the switch and outlet covers. They were UGLY and cream. My husband thought this could be our scheme for our entire house and all I could do was just say NO. I then went to Home Depot and other hardware stores in search of affordable and cute covers. I have some outlets that have three switches which seamed to make it hard to find what I was looking for. I left and was disappointed and just hoped that I could find something online. Well I found some beautiful covers but they were not affordable. I then decided that I could make these covers cute myself. I went to Walmart and picked up some beautiful paper, mod podge and some spray sealer. When I got home I gathered all the items I would need for this project:

Once I had all my materials, I cut the paper to the size I needed to cover the surface of the COVER! I cut an extra inch around the cover so that I will have enough paper to fold up. I then used my glue and adhered the paper to the cover:

I then flipped the cover back over and used my exact-o-knife to cut the holes for the switches:

I then glued the tiny little flaps (this part wasn’t so much fun!!) When I had all my covers for this room finished I took them outside and sprayed them with light coats of the satin sealer. I let them dry over night and here is the finished product:

I’m pretty happy with the end result. I plan on working from room to room until all of my covers coordinate with each room.

Since painting my living room, I have left my walls bare. When I sit in this room I just stare at the walls trying to decide what I should put up on them. I decided on the wall above my couch I would use some burlap. While searching many sites in blog land, I came across a few sites that used burlap in a number of different ways. I had begun to appreciate BURLAP! Now that I have a new love for burlap and I discovered how cheap it was at my local fabric store, I just had to find a project for this fabric. One day while staring at this particular wall I decided to get some different size and shape frames and cover them with burlap and I would hang them on this sad lonely wall.

Here is a picture of the materials needed for this project:

I measured and cut out each section of burlap to cover the frame. Once I had my sections cut I started gluing each section one at a time until the frame was covered.

I covered all my frames and then I laid them out on the floor to find the pattern I wanted hung up on the wall. I then hung them up and viola, my wall was no longer lonely!

Here is how my wall looks now. I seem to still stare at the frames on my wall as if something is missing. I’m wondering if I should paint an accent colour behind the frames to make them pop?????