I've Been "Framed"

I have been in a project rut lately. I have had so many things lined up, and I even have all of the supplies for them (so I can't use that as an excuse), but just haven't really felt like getting any of it done. I have been cooking a lot more lately, so maybe that's where my passion has been residing. I finally snapped out of it, and started working like a mad woman.
Hopefully many new posts will follow soon!

So, I am obsessed with picture frames.
I am absolutely drawn to them!

I am in love with three different frames I have "remodeled," and wanted to share their simple transformations with you.

I posted this find from the thrift store months ago...

I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it...

(Sorry, these next photos are iPhone photos.
Get used to it- it's handy.)

I started with removing the backing, and slapping some
Mod Podge on it:



Next, I cut out the infamous zebra paper to fit, and placed it
on top of the Mod Podged backing:



Then, I let it dry, and Mod Podged the top:



I bought a neat little pack of letters at Wal-Mart for like $2. I grabbed out a "J", and sprayed it with red spray paint. I then glued the red "J" in the center of the frame, and voila! The "J" is not quite as big as I wanted it to be on this frame, but I didn't want to take away from the zebra background either. I can live with it.

BEFORE


AFTER

  

(Notice a few little bubbles in the paper. Let this be a lesson kids, don't get too excited and forget to smoothe out the paper
before you Mod Podge.)
 
I think I have posted a pic of these before, fresh from the thrift store, but here they are again:



Lovely! :)

I always check the backing before I buy.
These backings are simply screwed in.



So, I used my little screwdriver (well, Zach's screwdriver) and it took me all of 2 seconds.



Here they are laid out and anxiously waiting to be painted:



I didn't include a pic of them after they were first painted. I think it takes away from the finished product. And, plus, I tend to be in a hurry & get messy. I get just a little excited. There's usually more spray paint on the paper than the actual thing
being painted. :)

And, for my favorite part...the Before & After,
showing the finished product:

BEFORE

AFTER

  

I am planning on getting a couple of black & white wedding pic prints, one of me & one of my groom, to put in these. I may post a follow-up on these once they're completely done so you can see the true finished product!

Hope you enjoy my simple transformations! Hope all is well with everyone, and you're all gearing up for Fall. I am so excited about it!! I even had Zach drag my Fall stuff out of the basement a couple of weeks ago. I haven't set it out yet, but I'm pretty sure
by this weekend, I can say differently. :)

Design Star, So Far

Haven't posted in a while, so I'll do a quick catch-up. We're both doing great, staying busy with work & church & keeping the house clean. We saw James Gregory here in town this past Friday night, and laughed more than we have in a really long time. Zach has been really busy around the house lately. He has organized his office, and this past Saturday, he recruited me to help clean out the garage. It looks great! Choir rehearsal started back this past Wednesday for me, so I'm loving that!

http://www.hgtv.com/

I just got into this show at the premiere of the second season some weeks ago. Just wanted to share some of my favorite design techniques from the episodes so far. I am in no way authorized to give any sort of opinion on any show, so I'm just sharing with you guys some favorite designs & photos from the show so far.

Episode 1: On the very first episode, I fell in love with this when I first saw it come together during the project of designing their own penthouse. Wow! So many great ideas flowing- this is such a fun show to watch, and I'm glad I tried it out!

Here is my favorite element out of the entire collection of rooms:

http://www.hgtv.com/

Check out the wallpapered board with the bold, black mirror. LOVE! You could even do this on a smaller scale (something I would like to try sometime). All you would need is a piece of cardboard and fabric. You could attach it to the cardboard backing with anything, even hot glue. Cute idea!

Episode 2: White box challenge! I wouldn't know where in the world to start if I had a plain white boxy room to go wild with. But, if I had an endless supply of gift cards and transportation to any store I wanted (well, stores that had paid a butt-load of money to HGTV for advertisement, that is), I would definitely give it a try. The catch in this task was that they could only use items from a restaurant supply store. Wow!

Talk about getting creative.

I actually liked this idea of attaching crumpled paper to one wall for added texture and effect. Strange, but inventive.

You can also see the two rugs he made out of mops in this pic.

http://www.hgtv.com/

Episode 3: Love everything about this room!

http://www.hgtv.com/

Episode 4: My favorite of Episode 4 was this chair picked out

by Kellie. It set off the room.

 

http://www.hgtv.com/

Episode 5: I admit, I have a little crush on Mark. And I'm all for Kellie too- she's a genuine, petite, country girl who really seems to have an eye for design. I'm pulling for both of them, so I loved this episode when they worked together on designing

a farmhouse kitchen.

http://www.hgtv.com/

http://www.hgtv.com/

Kellie had the idea of cutting out holes in cabbages, transforming them into candleholders. Loved this idea! And so did the judges- she was picked as the favorite designer of that week! :)

Episode 6 was last night's episode. The designers had the task of creating a wedding reception. My favorite scene:

http://www.hgtv.com/

LOVE the mirrors!! Mark was the favorite, and Kathy

(Miss Bossy Pants) was kicked off. I was happy!

I'm Back, Baby!

(Seinfeld reference for my Zach.) :)

What an awesome weekend we had! I got lots of shopping done, Zach got an iPad (oh me, I'll never see my husband again), we went to church, and we got to spend lots of time with family, which is always wonderful! Hope you all had a great one too!

Yep, the old shopping Ashley is back. I made it back to the thrift store one day last week, after a month away in July. WOW, it felt good! That place was missing me, I just know it. I got just a few things, but I did notice myself thinking a little more about what I would pick up. I like that. :)

I grabbed these 3 candlesticks up as soon as I saw them. I love these kinds of things, unfortunately. I thought I would be hitting these with spray paint, but I placed them in the house and loved the way they looked! Here they are in their new home:

I kept going back to this one. I even laid it back down once, then came back to it. I'm thinking it will be filled with hydrangeas or some kind of colorful flower. I have ideas.

I got this little $.50 silver tray for a transformation project. Don't worry about the spots...Hopefully, this will be a little chalkboard one day. Soon.

This little contraption looks strange, I know, but it will have a purpose. It will. I'll post on that soon.

(Lots of promises in this post so far, huh?)

I'm laughing just thinking about this one. I bought a VHS tape.

I can't remember the last time I actually bought a VHS, or watched a VHS, but I love this movie, and it was priced at 2 bucks. Sold!

 

May not be exciting for you, but it was for me.
It felt great to just buy something. Is that wrong?? :)

A Modern Family

‎"Perfect wife/husband, perfect kids. Guess what?

I didn't get any of that. Wound up with this sorry bunch and I'm thankful for that everyday."

- Jay, Modern Family

I stinkin' love this show. It is my favorite right now. Just wanted to post that quote, because I love it so much. It's exactly the truth. No family is perfect, because NO ONE is perfect.
That's what makes life so interesting. 

I love this picture too. It makes me want to get my little family together and do the same thing. The story behind it in the episode is that one of the moms had the idea of a family potrait in her head, planned so perfectly. She wanted everyone to wear white and have a certain pose. When they all finally got together for the family photo, they were all arguing with each other. No one was in the mood to have photos taken. They had all had a bad day, which happens to all of us. After trying to get the perfect picture and finally getting fed up, one of them picked up a clump of mud and hit someone with it. You can see where it went from there.

This picture reminds me of some of our own photos. I have noticed lately that some of my favorite pics throughout the years are ones that we weren't even posing for. Ones we didn't expect and didn't take forever to set up, candids, and others that were just snapped by accident.

Want examples? I knew you would :)...

Me & Daisy girl, both not even looking at the camera, but I love it!

Haha! This one makes me laugh every time. Zach got so frustrated from taking Christmas card pics with two uncooperative dogs, he got up and walked off for a minute. Cosmo's looking back at him like "What?" The camera was still snapping away.

Zach took this one of me in Maui 2010. I didn't even know it until he loaded the photos on the computer.

I took this one of him on our photo shoot for the photography class we took in 2010. Can't believe that was over a year ago now!

And, of course, I can't leave out some of my favorites from the happiest day of my life! :)

You guys already know this is my favorite. Always will be. :)

Love this one!

Look at his sweet little smiling face! :)

And now, for the sappy, huggy, teary pictures

that I love so much...

Aww, Jon's face looks so sweet! I love that everyone around us is so busy- Sheena & Jen were working hard to take off my veil and not mess up my hair. My bridesmaids were the best ever! :) 

Hugging my new mother-in-law, and crying, of course.

I absolutely love this one! He loves his momma. :)

My best friend & my grandparents. This one makes me smile too. I know I'll cherish this even more one day.
They look so happy at our wedding rehearsal.

Can't wait for many, many more of those unprompted moments
in life!

Goodbye, No-Spend July!

IT. IS. OVER.

No-Spend July is done. I'm so glad it is now August. I did somewhat enjoy disciplining myself during the month of July, not allowing myself to spend anything on craft supplies, new clothes, shoes, jewelry, purses, etc. Basically, anything frivolous. No impulse purchases, which happens fairly often with me. It was difficult at times- especially when, stupid me, I joined in on a shopping trip with my mom and grandmother. What was I thinking?? I found several cute things that day that I wanted, including the cutest top I think I've ever seen...the same one that Mom bought for herself that day. Talk about coveting your neighbor's property. Ridiculous! I went to a local store yesterday that I thought would have it, but with no luck. However, I've already planned a shopping trip this weekend with Mamaw Helen to try to find the top. If not, it's not meant to be. If so, this will be my little present to myself for sticking to it. I came out of this learning that I don't have to buy everything I see that I want. I can do without so much.
Saving money is so much more rewarding than spending it!! 

I also made a quick trip to the Dollar Tree yesterday. I had actually stopped by there one day last week to scout out some things. Yes, it's sad that I actually went to the store to plan things for future purchase. Yes, I know it is also sad to get excited about going to the Dollar Tree, but I was. Plus, I'm still giddy about my feature post. I am so grateful for all the encouraging comments I've received. I still can't believe it! All the encouragement makes all the work I do on my little projects so worthwhile!

So, I got my things at Dollar Tree, which was nice. Some were actually things we needed and a few were for projects. I had started a lot of little projects during my no-spend month, but had little odds-and-ends I needed to buy to finish them up. It felt so nice to buy a few things. Speaking of no-spend, I had a little spray paint party this weekend to wrap up some things that have been lying around for a while. It was a fun end to the month.
Hope to post pics soon!

Anyway, I did not realize they actually have some decent florals at the Dollar Tree during the Summertime.

I was shocked when I saw these bamboo sticks...

(which I did not buy)

...and these...

(which I also didn't buy! woohoo!)

However, I DID buy these... :)

(I think these are going on our coffee table. I have an idea swirling around in my head already.)

...and these...

(I think these will go on our little kitchen table in the white ceramic vase that I spray painted. Can't wait!)

Also, I got these little cuties...

(I got this stuff for a couple of Fall crafts I may start on soon.)

Then Miss Daisy decided she wanted to be in a pic. :)

Who knew? Can you believe they already have Fall stuff out? Yay! I cannot wait for the cool, crisp Autumn air. I am really looking forward to it more this year than ever. Football season can't come soon enough! It's crazy to think Dad won't be here to enjoy it with us, but hopefully he'll have some pull up there!
ROLL TIDE ROLL!!!

Next on my shopping trip list was grand ole' Wal-Mart, to look at these babies one more time. Oh yeah, and we had other things to get there too. I was really hoping they would be out of stock.
I'm sure Zach was too...but, they weren't.

They had both of the designs, in two different sizes. Dang it. I checked them out for a couple of minutes, then decided I wouldn't buy them. Yep, I said it. I walked out of the store without buying them. See, I DID learn some things from this experience...

...the most important being that I WILL NOT be doing this again next year. :)