Back to...Blogging!

Hi Everyone! I hope everyone had a fantastic summer and that it's coming to a nice close. It's been FOREVER since I've posted anything....and I'm so sorry! Our summer has been busy, but unfortunately not with home projects. I know we left you hanging on the guest bedroom re-do, so this post is going to be 100% devoted to that :).

Now, if you don't remember what this drab, not-fit-for-any-guest, guest room looked like before, let me remind you:


Pretty boring, huh? We agreed, and since my niece was coming to stay with us for a few days, what better time to give it a face lift?

Before I get to the grand finale, do you remember the sideboard that I found at a yard sale earlier in the summer for a whopping $10? I blogged about it in this post. Anywho, I thought it would look good in our extremely furniture-less formal living room, but turns out the guest bedroom had a perfect spot for it! As usually, I pulled out my trusty paint brush and my Behr paint and away I went transforming this little gem.

Here is what is looked like pre-makeover:

Gregory was my sander man and had to make a few minor repairs, but the good thing about painting furniture is that you don't have to worry about things being perfect! The paint fills in or covers all the imperfections and I think, gives it more character.

We gave it two coats of paint and wha-la! The finished product:

I think it turned out super, duper cute. I found some vintage knobs at a yard sale and some at Hobby Lobby (love their knob section) and together they completed the look!

Ok! Now to the room! Drum roll please..........brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr..................

Remember the hints I gave in the guest room teaser post? Let me remind you :)...

Did you guess what that was? Well, if you guessed vintage earrings turned curtain hanger embellishments, then you're right! I didn't want the same old curtain rod and curtains and I figured that they wouldn't be opened and closed much, if at all, so I decided stationary curtains were the best. And that gave me some flexibility in how to hang 'em.

So, again I headed to Hobby Lobby to see what kind of hooks they had and dug around in my vintage "stuff" box and found 2 sets of vintage earrings that were dying to be re-purposed and poof! Instant curtain hangers! I simply attached the hooks on the wall, found some large headed nails and hot glued the earrings onto the nail (after hanging the curtains so I wouldn't pop them off). It looks adorable!

Here are some better views of the project...

Finally, the details.

We painted the walls a green sage color. I don't know the exact name because I found a huge 5 gallon bucket that had about 3 gallons in it at a yard sale for $2 bucks! Can you believe it? I couldn't either, but I jumped on it. I mean even if I only used a small portion, it was $2 bucks! You can't even find the mistinted paint for that price :). But I ended up using more than a "small portion" and it transformed this room into a tranquil retreat.

I accessorized it with some vintage and new items and tried to keep it simple (not only is this our guest room, but it doubles as my dressing room, so I can' t have all kinds of excess junk laying around :)).

I added a couple of Country Living (my favorite mag) issues and I completed a relaxing getaway!

I'm sure I'll continue to "tweak" it, but overall I'm pleased with the end result. Gotta love finishing a project!

I'm off for now my fellow bloggers, but stay tuned. I promise not to keep you waiting as long next time :). See ya!

P.S. Congrats to the Gamecocks on their win against 'dem Bulldogs :)! Go Cocks!

NATIONAL CHAMPS!

If you haven't heard the great news by now, then you must be living under a rock :). Our gamecocks won the

2010 National Championship for baseball!

Such an incredible feeling!

Ok, I'm finished bragging. Hey, I can't help it; it's a once in a lifetime thing with us gamecocks :).
Anywho, I'm sorry for the lack of posts this past week. We've been to the lake and then my niece came to stay with us so I haven't really had time for posting...

But stay tuned, I've finished the sideboard and it looks great in the guest room! There are still a lot of projects on our to-do list, but hopefully this weekend we'll knock a few of the them out. We'll see!

Well happy Thursday everyone and hope you have a wonderful weekend. Happy Belated Fourth!!!

Projects, projects and more projects...

Hello! How was your weekend? It was a project filled weekend at the Hixson home and I hope you were able to get some things finished around you house.

Our weekend started off by hanging out with some friends to watch game 1 of the Carolina/Clemson college world series baseball finals. It turned out great when we won, but we had 1 more to win against them before we could head to the championship.



We woke up Saturday morning and headed out junkin'. We were extremely unsuccessful, so unfortunately I don't have much to report from that end other than some plates, a butter dish, a throw and some USC glasses. Other than that, it was a bust.

Saturday afternoon we started our projects and they took up the rest of our weekend. The projects were as follows.

Project #1: The $10.00 sideboard and bamboo tables.

Remember the sideboard and super cute bamboo nesting tables I found a few Saturdays ago and talked about in this post? Well, we have decided it's time they find a resting place in our home. Gregory took the sideboard project and ran with it. He removed all of the peeling veneer, sanded down all the rough areas, and replaced any weak wood to make it more sturdy. Now it's up to me to make it even more beautiful ;). Again, I'm thinking my trusty Cotton Knit paint is gonna look great on it. Where will it go once it's completed you ask? There are 2 options: 1. It can replace our idea of building a sofa table and be used as such in our den OR 2. It is going to make it's way into our newly made over guest room. Either way, it's going to be BEE-U-TI-FUL. (No pics yet)

As for the bamboo tables, they too are going to receive a paint job. I was going to keep them the original brass because I thought they resembled the Chivari chairs that I love so much, but unfortunately, once I cleaned them up, they just looked like ugly brass tables. And that is NOT the look I want to achieve. These are some befores to help you understand.

Once I wiped them down they were ready for primer and paint. My color of choice? White. Nothing looks better than crisp white and I think they are going to look great wherever they go.

Project #2: Alternative frame uses. I'm always working on decor for the house and in my travels, I like to pick up things that I feel need a little tweaking.

So! On our junk hunt Saturday morning I picked up a couple of things that needed some tlc... 1. a couple of old plates and a platter and 2. two sale items at Hobby Lobby.

First thing I put together was the frame and platter. I needed some wall decor for our dining room and this was a great idea, so I hang the frame and platter on the wall and it was insta-picture :)



I still need more in that room, but this is a great start.


Secondly, I found a cute little canvas sign and branch frame that also needed a little tlc. Both were in the clearance department at Hobby Lobby (gotta love the clearance section) and were screaming at my as I walked by.

When I got home, it was out with the glue gun and hammer and to work I went! All I did was remove the little picture hanger from the back of the canvas sign, hammered the frame back together (since it was coming apart in the corners) and hot glued the sign to the glass of the frame!


Wha-la! A cute little framed sign for my den bookshelf.


Project #3: The guest room.


Our guest room has needed some attention from day one, but to be honest, there were just other things that were more important. But, now that my niece is coming to stay with us a few days next week, we thought it would be a great excuse to work on it. (Hence why we can't decide where the newly painted sideboard is headed.)


Anywhoo, we aren't finished yet, but here are some befores and a sneak peek...






The walls were painted a creamy yellow and the whole room was just missing that warmth and welcome feeling. So I've painted the walls and I'm working on the decor. Our goal is to finish it all by the end of the week.

So the teaser? Can you guess what this is??? You'll have to stay tuned to find out :).




That's all for tonight. Remember we have lots of projects in the bucket so keep coming back! Hopefully, we'll get these things finished by the end of summer... To recap, here are some of our outstanding projects:

• Sideboard - to be painted and the location is TBD


• Bamboo Nesting Tables - to be painted and probably going in the guest room


• DIY Sofa Table - should the sideboard not work out as one


• Back Porch Columns - well it's just to hot to work on those


• The Guest Bedroom - the goal is to be finished by the end of this week


• The Guest/My Bathroom - on the hunt for vanity and other fabulous finds before we start on that adventure


• Gregory's Bathroom - also on the hunt for fabulous finds to decorate the wall

I think that's all on our list; you can see that there is lots to finish before the end of the summer. So, keep us on track! Sometimes we get distracted.

Oh and BTW, does anyone watch Design Star? Not a fan of Nina...she has got a serious attitude problem...but I digress. Happy Sunday everyone and have a great week!

Wine, cheese and sunsets.

Ever decided one morning your weekend was worthy of a fun trip? Well, we did just that this weekend. We woke up one morning and said "hey, let's go to the lake." We didn't have any unfinished projects and to be honest, we just needed a break. So, we packed up the pups and headed for fun in the sun!

The trip there was not as much fun as we had anticipated, mostly because the furbabies were restless and the torrential rain drenched our tools (yes, we [by "we" I mean Gregory] did a little work there. We can't help it, it's an addiction at this point.), but needless to say we arrived at our destination just in time for a beautiful sunset. We sat at the end of the dock and enjoyed adult beverages, cheese, fruit and crackers. It was just what we needed.

We thought we would try and catch dinner for the next night, but that too didn't turn out like we had hoped. It was fun trying though :)

The sunset was absolutely beautiful and the lake was super calm. It couldn't have been a more wonderful evening.

Since we were unsuccessful in our fishing attempts, it was chicken on the grill for us the next night. We fixed up the fruit/cheese/shrimp cocktail plate once again with alcoholic beverages in hand and enjoyed the evening.

The boys most definitely enjoyed their time and any chance they got to go inside and rest they

took. It was super hot and if you weren't in the water, you felt it...

Before we all headed to the water on our last day, we attempted a semi family photo. Alas, it was another failed attempt. I thought it would be nice to get a pic of the three of us for Gregory, but it wasn't in the plans. The boys were too excited to get in the water and to be honest, it was too hot to be wrestling with them. Nonetheless, we got some fun action shots, which are usually all we can hope for with rowdy teenagers :).

My weekend was complete after I finished my latest book, Summer at Tiffany's by Marjorie Hart. It was a great throw back to the 1940's and it was so fun to read about the way things used to be. I highly recommend it those who enjoy those kinds of things. And I'm now 100% sure that I was born in the wrong era...I would have loved the 40's and 50's. Things were so much simplier back then...

On the way home they boys conched out as usual. Except this time they made makeshift pillows (well, duke didn't makeshift anything, he stole my pillow...)



That was our weekend in a nutshell and it was a great one. I hope you all had as much fun with your weekend activities. We had an exciting "project brainstorming" session on the car ride home, so hopefully we'll have some fun posts in the future.

Oh and "Happy Father's Day" to all the dads out there. Most importantly to the men in our lives! We love you so much and thank you for all that you've done for us throughout the years! Night all!

If you build it...well they won't come, but I'll sure be there :)!

Happy Hump Day! Is anyone else really happy that we are halfway to the weekend? I know I'm super excited!

Anywhoo, today's post is about a "first time" project. By that I mean this will be our first attempt to do a project like this; well kinda. Gregory built his chair, so we decided "what the hay, why couldn't we (and by we I mean Gregory) build something else?" So, what's on the ambitious agenda you ask? A sofa table.

My inspiration comes from the pictures below. (I apologize to those whom I am not giving credit, i can't remember where I found them.)

This isn't really a sofa table, but it could be used as one.

I think this table was from Ikea. And as much as I love Ikea, their quality isn't so hot. So, with pencil and pad in hand (and Gregory informing me that plans were a must), I proceeded to draw out my own Ikea-like table.

After the plans were drawn, it was time to go to our second home, Lowes! In the truck we go, plans in tow and super pumped about our new adventure and then...

I got distracted by some cute baskets (who knew Lowe's carried such cute stuff??)

Anyways, back to the wood for building the table. While at Lowes we realized they didn't have what we needed, so we headed down the street to our 3rd home, Home Depot. We debated for a very long time.... and looked at wood:

And laid it on the floor...

And tried to figure out what size we wanted the top to be....

And tried to imagine the boards cut into small sections because we want to piece them together, beat them up and stain them to look like old wood.

We finally got the top figured out, but what about the rest of it? Well, we haven't gotten that far yet, but it looks like we are going to go with inspiration photo number one. We thought we had this all figured out, but turns out...not so much.

So, stay tuned for our ongoing saga of trying to make a table. It may or may not actually happen...

Oh and I almost forgot. If you are looking for a fun weekend warrior project like this one:

Check out this website. They have some awesome ideas!

Night everyone!!