From Gilded gold to Glossy white!

So, my husband bought me this frame several years ago as a surprise! It was in our dining room, above our mantel, in our bedroom and most recently leaning up against a wall in my hallway collecting dust! The look of the frame was not working for me and I've been wanting a big chalkboard...so it was time to repurpose!
Here I am spray painting the frame glossy white...in like the heat of day! What in the world was I thinking?! I ended up having to bring the frame in the house to finish drying because it was sooo humid. Then I painted three coats of chalk board paint...and here it is all finished!
I changed the sign to say "Summer Memories" so we can record all that we have done and will do. At the end of the summer, I will take a picture of the board with all our memories on it! As soon as my hubby and I hang it, I'll be sure to post again to show you where it is...and all the memories recorded!

It's the little things

One of my favorite things to do...

is going to our local nursery and picking out flowers!

I'm embarrassed to say I have some sick looking poinsettias on my front porch still.

My berry wreaths on my door which last from Christmas thru Valentine's Day are coming down

It's time to "Spring-a-fy" the house!

We bought a ton of plants today...

11 of the daisies

11 of the purple ground cover ones

30 little alyssum plants and a few petunias.

My husband and I LOVE alyssum and petunias.

The "plant" lady who helped us told us that the alyssum and petunias are winter plants.

She was trying to convince us not to buy them because they might only last two months.

At check-out, my husband couldn't take it and went back for the plants!

That totally made me smile :)

In fact, he smiled tonight as he was admiring the new plants in our yard.

If you are around me enough you will often hear me say...

"It's the little things that make a difference"...

And if the plants we love only last two months...then we'll enjoy them for two months!

IT'S THE LITTLE THINGS!!

More pics to come after we finish planting!

A guest post and guest room pics!

Today I am guest posting over on Tracey's blog :) The pictures of my guest room and the process of how we transformed my armoire are there, so hop on over and check it out!

Sneak Peek

On Thursday, I am privileged to guest post on my friend, Tracey's blog and I will show the pictures from my guest room redo. I thought today I could at least show you a piece of furniture that Tracey and I repurposed or otherwise...gave some MAJOR LOVE too!

Here is the before...

and AFTER...

I am absolutely in LOVE ...sometimes I find myself peeking in the room just to get another look at her...is she still there...she just makes the room! Oh...and remember, this dresser was my husbands growing up. I'm pretty sure it was a "Him"...but we've performed an operation because she's definitely a "Her"!!

Come see my post on Thursday on how we performed this operation and the guest room pictures! Thanks for stopping by!

Canvas and Guest room before pics

This canvas was a Christmas gift from my sister. I (heart) it. Like alot!

My sweet friend, Tracey showed me the perfect place to hang it!

It fits so perfectly on my gallery wall!

It is first thing you see when coming into my house.

That totally makes me smile :)

Our sweet Nicole moved into to her own place. So we now have a guest room again.

My dad requested a comfy bed when he comes to stay.

I think this looks pretty comfy! I might make it my "nap" room!!

I'm still looking for the perfect drapes and a headboard to be made is hopefully coming soon!

First let me explain about this picture.

My Nikon is on the fritz and this is my back-up camera.

Gotta deal with what I've got!

This dresser was Todd's from growing up. No it wasn't black with cute little knobs on it!!

It was oak...blah! Then I painted it black for my craft room and added the cute knobs :)

A black dresser does not go in this room.

Today it's getting a coat of Kilz and a topcoat of Cottage White!

Tomorrow it will get a touch of Tracey :)

After pictures to come soon!

Drab dresser turned to Beautiful buffet!!

So I have been looking on Craigslist for MONTHS for a dresser/buffet/hutch/console (all my search words!) for my dining room and last week I finally found it! Here is the before...just a plain ol wood dresser but what got me was the curvy lines...we like curves around here!

Here she is all cleaned up, painted white and ready for some chocolate glaze...sounds yummy doesn't it?!

This is a close up so you can see the glaze in the crevices...love it!

AND...tada!! Here she is all gussied up and looking beautiful! Is it wierd to say...I'm in love?! This project has been super fun and my good friend, Tara Byrd over at Byrd's Eye View totally guided and helped me to get it looking so good! Thanks girl!!

I cannot wait to change out those blue plates for some cute fall ones!

New friends & a City sign

A new sweet friend, Tara Lowry at Between you & Me posted about this "City Sign" that she and her husband made a while back and when I saw it, I knew that I.had.to.make.one!!! Before I show you my attempt...I have to tell you a short version of how we met! It's too cool!

-Shopping in Children's Place when these two cute girls asked about a necklace I was wearing

-I told them I found it off a blog...Lisa Leonard...I think this is when we had an instant connection! We found out we all blogged and (heart) Lisa Leonard!

-To top it off...she had this really sweet southern accent and of course had to find out where she was from...and would you believe it, but her hometown (Clarkesville, GA) is where my parents have lived for four years! We both freaked out...how ironic is that?!

-I also met her precious friend, Tracy from 7294 Cottage Way...who has an adorable family, home and blog too!

-After leaving the store that day, I thanked God for the unusual circumstances that led me to meet two adorable new friends...

ANYHOO...here are some pics of how I made my own City Sign and how mine turned out. Thanks Tara for the wonderful tutorial (you'll prob notice how we framed ours a little different...but I think it worked!)

Putting our boards together in Ann's garage

This part was hilarious! We had to stack up magazines to just the right height so the projector would project our words right where we needed them...this was improvisation at its best!!

Teamwork was key doing this project...as you can see Tara and Ann tracing letters on Tara's board

So here is my almost finished board...but not hanging up yet! I think I am going to put on a little more stain around the frame, so I'll have to post a "totally finished" picture soon!

Wow...it's been a while!

Since it's been so long that I have blogged, I decided just to put up a few pics of what we have done in the past month and hopefully now that is summer I will have alot more time to keep up with blogging!

Boston - Fenway Park

Finally getting my wall decorated with my sweet friend Tara Byrd. Need I say more??! I LURRVVE my new wall! (Check out her blog...cute!)

Gathering of the Talents @ Morgan's school - They researched Papua New Guinea which is where Todd's cousin and family are missionaries...so it was extra special for her!

First day of summer was spent of course at New Smyrna Beach...my fav!! My sister went with us and the kids each brought a friend :)

Isn't she lovely...(singing the song in my head!)

Yesterday I got the itch...

the itch to buy something!

Nothing imparticular

but I knew whatever it was...

it would jump out at me!

Went to TJ MAXX...nothing

Off to Stein Mart...notta

Went to Bed, Bath & Beyone...zilch...PLUS, that place is sooo overpriced!!

My next to last stop before Target was

City Bargains.

If you live in Orlando, you should know about City Bargains!

I walked down to the back of the store and she caught my eye

Finished walking the store and I knew I had to have her...

she.was.BEE-U-TIFUL!!

I just love the description of the lamp on my receipt..."Pretty white lamp"...

One question though to my "repurposers"...not sure if that is a word, but if you know what it means...then it is! :) Should I do anything different or leave her just the way I got her?? The one thing I wasn't sure about was the trim on the shade...or even a different shade? Would love your thoughts!

But for now...I'll keep singing...

Isn't she lovely

Isn't she wonderful

Isn't she precious

Less than one minute old

I never thought through love we'd be

Making one as lovely as she

But isn't she lovely made from love

A quick and easy fall centerpiece

I was inspired by The Nester on making my centerpiece and I just tweaked it a bit to make it more my own!  This literally took me 1o minutes to put together...and I am praying it doesn't fall apart because nothing is glued together!  I wanted it that way, so I can reuse the pieces in other things...smart huh?!  

Boo!

This frame is actually in my craft room, but thought I would repurpose it for Halloween!  I just put in some spider print craft paper and used the chipboard letters to spell S*C*A*R*Y~

I do not have a ton of Halloween decorations but I have enough to decorate a little hutch that you see when you walk in our front door.  So, this is as spooky, scary as we Woodard's get!!

*side note*  The black sticks are actually part of a big bundle I use in a large vase...but they were brown.  So I picked out one bundle and spray painted them black to put in this cute orange vase I picked up.  

Ahhh....it's been too long!

I have really been in the crafting "mood" lately which is probably why I haven't posted on my blog in a while...(NOT!  but it just sounded like a good excuse...).  Actually, things have been quite busy here with school and sports going again.  When I have had a free moment, I have been working on painting a personalized canvas for over Morgan's bed.  It turned out really cute (for my first one)...and it is definitely not perfect as you will see in the picture!  I tried fixing up a mistake and the spot of course showed up darker than the rest of the paint BUT that's OK!  Overall...I really do love it and thinks it adds just the right touch of whimsy to her room.

How come I couldn't think of this?!

One of my favorite blogs to read is Emily @ Chatting at the Sky.  She is an amazing writer and I went to her blog yesterday, which she happened to be blogging about her lamps... she has some very cute ones I must say!  Anyway, I noticed her beautiful arrangement on her dining room table that I asked her what it was made from.  She was so sweet to respond back and would you know, it was greenery from her YARD!  I have lived in my home for almost two years now and have NEVER gone outside to find me some greenery to make a little something for the house...and that is why I stalk other people's blogs!  

So, this morning I went wandering around our yard and found that we have some great trees to cut from!  The red vase was on my dining room table with a candle in it...but now it sits in my kitchen next to my chalkboard sign.  Thank you Emily for the great idea!!

On the way to the trash...now it's a treasure!

So I have had these wood pictures for a very LOOONNGG time.  In this house they were in my laundry room...because they just didn't go anywhere else in my house and probably really didn't go in my LR, but hey, I had them...might as well use them.  Anyhoo...I got on this kick to clean, reorganize and decorate the LR.  These pictures were going to just HAVE to go UNTIL...I had an idea...my very own idea!  And here it goes....I have selected the pics I want to cover this already and we are outside ready to go!
The photo was cut to fit the front of the picture already.  I had a couple really really cute pics of the kids left over that were PERFECT for this project!
Then I used some spray adhesive to have the photo adhere nicely to the wood picture.  

This is sort of the finished idea...except I want to paint the edges of the picture black and change the ribbon color.  I already had this black/white toile, but it's just too bland and needs some pop!  I am also very impatient and didn't have time to run to Michael's, so I went ahead and hung them for now.