What Has Been Taking Up All My Time

So it's been a few weeks since I have posted anything.

I have to be completely honest right now,

I am not the greatest at following through with things.

For example, this blog.

I have a hard time continuing something once I have started.

But I am really trying!

Anyways, I figured I would share with you about what has been taking up my time.

I am very excited about it so I hope you will be as well. :)

My sister and I have decided to give jewelry making a try.

We have been designing all kinds of necklaces, bracelets, rings, and earrings.

We have finally finished a lot of pieces and are getting ready to start selling :)

So here is the first sneak peek of what we have been up to.

I hope that people will love these pieces as much as I do! :)

We have even been making our own flowers out of polymer clay...aren't they pretty??

Well there is the first sneak peek of our new line of jewelry.

We plan to start selling our pieces within the next few weeks, so keep an eye out!

And I promise to get on the ball and blog more often. :)

God Bless!

Jenna

Dish Towel Curtains

I am so excited...

My dining room table was picked for the top ten over at the DIY Club January contest.

Go check it out and all of the other amazing projects in the top 10. :)

My sister over at Mason Bay also had a project in the top 10,

check out her project here.

Today I wanted to share with you the curtains I have on my little window above the kitchen sink.

Can you guess what I used for these?

(If you can't you are either slow or didn't read the title for this post :))

Yep, I used dish towels for the curtains.

I was inspired by these "Elly" towels after I found them at Ikea for $2.50 for the set.

(Have I ever mentioned that I love Ikea???)

To hang them up I used another Ikea purchase, the "Deka" curtain system

It was soooo easy to install and then I just clipped the towels up using the little clips.

The husband isn't so sure about these, but I love them.

What do you guys think?

Is it a keeper or not??

On the same trip my sister purchased the same set of dish towels.

She used on of them to make a pillow cover.

Check out her post about the pillow here.

Hmm...this makes me think we should have a challenge about what everyone can come up

with using the same dish towels.

Would anyone be interested in participating if we did that?

God Bless!

Jenna

A Chair (or Six) to Sit On

Well our table is no longer lonely. :)

On Tuesday evening, my sister and I drove over to Pittsburgh to visit Ikea.

Have I ever mentioned I love Ikea?

I wish I didn't have to drive two hours to get there. :)

Come on Cleveland, get an Ikea gheesh.

Anyways, we felt like we were crazy because we left at five so we didn't get there until seven.

Oh yeah, and it was raining the whole time.

My mom was freaking out that it was going to become freezing rain and we would wreck.

But we made it home safe and more importantly of course, with my chairs. :)

If you don't remember, here is my post about revamping the table.

So here are the chairs I decided to go with...

Are you excited and full of anticipation??

Probably not, but that's alright cause I'm pretty stinking excited.

And now without further adieu...

Ta-Da!

I decided on the Nandor chair from Ikea.

So what do you think?

Do you like them or do you think I made a fatal error?? :)

Personally, I love them and the look it gives the room.

I was starting to get worried that the new dining room wasn't really meshing with the rest of the house.

So I wanted chairs that would:

1. Lighten up the room

2. Add in a natural element

3. Be unique and unexpected, but still right for the space

I think these chairs really do all of these things.

I love the combination of the elements in this chair.

The old fashioned wicker with a natural curvature in the seat mixed with industrial steel.

I was worried about my selection before I got them home,

but now I am in love with the feeling they add to the room. :)

Let me know what you think about my choice!

God Bless,

Jenna

 

This and That

 I have had a lot of people ask me about the paint color I used in my dining room.

So I thought I would let you all in on the secret.

Well, it's not really a secret but it sounds more important if I say it's a secret. :)

So, the "secret" color is: Silvermist by Sherwin Williams.

I usually do not use Sherwin Williams just because I usually go to Lowe's to buy my paint,

but I was really happy with the way the paint in the dining room looks. :)

I also wanted to tell everyone thanks for all of the kind comments about my table I posted here. :)

I always feel so much better about the projects I do when I get lovely comments.

My husband tells me things look good,

but sometimes I don't trust his sense of style. :)

Anyways, I just wanted to share with you something that Stephanie at Barn Light Electric sent me.

If you remember, I posted about here about my lights that I purchased from them.

Well look at what they just sent me. :)

I wanted to post a photo of how cool this thing looks in the light, but it didn't show up well in photos. :(

But here is the actual bulb by itself...

Love, love, love it!!

If you really want a light fixture to look vintage and authentic, this bulb does just the trick. :)

God Bless!

Jenna

The Dining Room Finally has a Table!

So the dining room is finally coming together.

Don't get me wrong, there is still a lot that needs to be done, but at least one more thing is done.

I have been slaving over this for the past week and I am excited to finally share it with all of you.

So last week I came across this guy on my favorite place to find furniture ready to be remade, Craigslist!

I wanted to find a large round table for the room but could only find ones measuring 42 or 44 inches.

Then I found this table which is 56" and can fit 6 comfortably. 

Perfect. :)

Plus I love the pedestal and the hefty-ness of the whole thing.

When we went to go get it, the man who was selling it watched me struggle with Adam to carry

this heavy thing up from their basement without ever offering to help...I guess that is Craigslist for you.

My mom thought I should keep it the way it was,

but I was not in love with the pattern on top...

...definitely not in love...

Anyways, to start I sanded down the whole thing.

I used this amazing tool that my father-in-law left at my house to help me out with the sanding.

I was definitely in love with the Dremel after this.

No way could I have sanded it all by hand!

So I used the Dremel sanding attachment and sanded the entire thing, going in small circles as I went.

After the whole thing was sanded, the table had a dull finish, rather than the shiny look it had before.

Once it was sanded down I washed the entire thing off to get rid off all the dirt and dust.

Then I started painting, applying several thin coats of paint.

I let each coat dry thoroughly before putting on the next coat.

Off course I used a nice creamy white. :)

After the paint was somewhat dry, I started sanding in certain areas to create a antique look.

The perfect time to do this is when the paint is tacky to the touch. 

Not wet enough to come off on your finger but not completely dry.

I usually try to sand in areas that would typically get worn down with years of use.

Usually I focus on edges that stick out, like you can see in the photo above.

On the top of this table were two half circle grooves on each side of the table.

I sanded in these grooves as well to help make this detail "pop".

After distressing the table to the point that I liked I let the table dry for a few days

just to let it get completely dry.

Next I applied 3 coats of Polycrylic to help protect the table and give it a nice sheen.

In between each coat, I used a very fine sandpaper and sanded the entire table.

And here is the finished table:

I am loving it :)

And I am going tonight to buy the chairs that I am going to put with it!

I am nervous about this because my husband and mom think I am crazy with my choice,

but I think they are going to look great!

At least I hope : /. 

Let me know what you think about my new table.

And if you want, let me know what kind of chairs you think I should put with the table. :)

It will be interesting to see if the chairs I get resemble anything like what you guys think I should get.

God Bless!

Jenna

Update!!

I just posted about the chairs I purchased to go with this table here.

Check it out. :)

Also, I linked this table up to the January DIY Project Party over a the DIY Club.

And to Funky Junk's weekly Saturday Night Special link party.

Go on over and check out all of the creativeness everyone is up to. :)

Lovely Peacock Banner Idea

Good morning everyone!

I hope that you are all having a joyous and blessed day. :)

Anyways, just a short post today but I wanted to share with you this enchanting banner

that my talented sister, Melissa, recently made.

She just started a wonderful blog about a month ago called Mason Bay.

Check it out and give her some encouraging feedback :)

(We know we all crave encouraging comments :))

Anyways here are a few photos of the lovely banner she made.

Adorable, right?

She just used burlap, some off-white fabric, old book pages, 

a peacock feather, and twine to string them together.

Love it!

Check out her blog, Mason Bay for more inspiration.

She is so talented! (and no I'm not biased at all because she is my sister! :))

Oh and one more plug for her...

She has a super cute Etsy store as well for hair accessories which is called Mason Bay as well. :)

Have a wonderful day!

God Bless!

Jenna

The Current State of our Dining Room

First off, it has been snowing like crazy all afternoon and I am so excited!

It is so beautiful :)

And I don't have anywhere to go today so I can enjoy it without having to worry about driving on it!

Anyways, I mentioned last post that I would be sharing my dining room with you soon.

I have some great before-before shots (photos of the dining room when we bought it)

But I can't find any before photos (photos of the dining room after we painted it but before the tornado)

There is still a lot of things that need to be done in this room.

Most of all a new table and chairs.

And a whole lot of other stuff since it is kind of empty right now.

But here it is:

We got this table for next to nothing at a garage sale and I was planning on painting the legs on the 

bench white to match the rest of the table, but I never got around to it. :) Whoops!

But I very much dislike the color of the wood on the table with the color of the floor

and I would just paint the table, but I don't even really like it, so....

New table it is! (of course we must first find said table)

I am thinking of either a large round or square table. Big enough to seat eight.

I think round and square tables are so much better for conversation.

And it would work better in our dining room too.

And now for some before photos of when we first bought the house. 

(The former owner was still living here at the time of the photos)

Lovely huh?

Notice the lovely peach wall color and the not at all outdated trim.

When we first moved in, we painted all of the walls and trim a pretty shade of white.

We also planned on taking out the carpet and replacing the floors, but had not yet got around to it.

Don't even get me started on that pink!

The closet there was an awkward coat closet that was almost too tiny to put any coats in

and the cabinets next to it was the pantry.

If you remember, way back in June Adam and I ripped out the pantry and closet and turned it into

an actual working pantry. (Click here for that post)

You can see part of the pantry here, and if you notice above it we made the top part into storage space

instead of an awkward nook.

I am not planning on leaving it open like it is now, but I have the perfect old doors in mind that I 

want to use, but I need to find first!

Do you see that picture by our Barn Light Electric light?

I just got it this weekend at IKEA and I am pretty smitten with it. :)

Anyways, if you notice in the before shots, the walls used to be paneling.

After I painted them white, I really loved the look, but after the tornado we had the option of 

doing the paneling again or drywalling, and I knew if we were planning on reselling that

drywalling would be the smarter option.

We also removed the wood burning stove from the corner since we knew we would never use it

and we replaced all of the windows.

Which also meant we lost the cool triangle windows on each side 

of the room up at the top because of there horrible energy loss :(

Lastly, my favorite part of the remodeled room:

My beautiful reclaimed wood floors!

These were a bit of a splurge, but Adam and I were very blessed with the insurance coverage for the 

house after the tornado so we thought we might as well go with these.

I LOVE them!! :)

So that is the current state of our dining room, but there is so much more to do!

Like I said we are on the look out for our new table and chairs,

I have an exciting idea for the far empty corner,

and another project for one of the side walls you can't really see in these photos.

So stay tuned, and I would love any ideas for this room!

God Bless!

Jenna