Kitchen Pendant Lights

Hi again everyone! It's been quite awhile since I've blogged about anything.  Life seems to have taken over, but fall is here and I am determined to be more consistent with my life. I have a senior this year, which means open house come spring.  After helping a friend get ready for one this last spring, I decided to start early with my house projects so as not to be trying to do 100 things at the last minute.  I'm sure I'll still be doing 100 things come spring, but at least maybe I'll have 20 or so behind me.

I have a list of ideas/projects that seems to keep growing. One thing leads to another...(I hear a song in my head!) and I keep seeing more things I'd like to do.  So, I am going to try to stick at it and do at least one item a week. It's so fun to check something off the list.

This week I painted my kitchen lights, and put new shades on them.  I bought one shade about a year ago at Lowe's, but never did anything with it.  I picked up two more this week and went to town.

Here's the before picture.

I have 4 pendant lights and a ceiling fixture. The one on the left is the original shade. The three others are shades I found at a tag sale and the paint on the inside is slowly peeling off, dropping on the counter. The ceiling light has a ribbed shade, and the mottled brown color didn't match the others, and none of them looked good. Like they were going for antique bronze, but missed.

So I took them all down and figured out how to use the new drum shade I bought.

Then I spray painted them all satin black, then a light coat of oil rubbed bronze.  I love me some spray paint! In the midst of it I decided my green clock needed to be black, so it got a new coat too.

Here they are.  The pictures don't really do justice to the change, but trust me, it's a great improvement. They are all the same color, and I'm lovin' the new shades! The lights on picture was last night, the brighter one was this morning, the colors are much better. Notice also I decluttered the frig a bit for the pic.  

Don't love this light, but it will do for now.

I forgot to take a picture of the before clock, but here it is. Like my new black accents!

Well that's it for this week. I also refinished a table, but I'll show you that another day.

Thanks for stopping by.....

Cheapskate Cricut Rugs

I have been busy trying to get some outdoor projects done before winter really sets in.  I think it may have come last night.  So windy and cold, and chance of flurries today.  I got my shutters painted and back up, but it's too nasty to go outside and take any pictures, so that will have to wait for a nicer day.

The other outdoor project I completed was a stenciled door mat.  I was looking for a 'coir' mat, (I think that's what they're called, not sure) for awhile, but couldn't find a plain one.  My sweet hubby found me one for Christmas last year, but it has been sitting downstairs since then.  I decided it was was past time to do something with it.  I had tried this technique on a couple other rugs, and it worked great.

I am an avid sewer, with an embroidery machine.  For that, I have a roll of sticky back tear away backing for embroidery hooping.  Well, I had a great idea!  Cut it the size of a sheet of paper, run it through my printer with the pattern I want, cut it out and stick it to my project.  Cheapskate stencil!  It is a little tedious to cut out the design, but I seem to thrive on tedious projects.

So, here are some pics of the rugs.  The little rug with the damask design is a plain carpet sample type rug that actually worked the best.  I stuck the stencil to it and spray painted it. It has been my front door rug all summer, and was getting kind of faded looking.  I just took a small paint brush and repainted it all.  Took me maybe 1/2 hour or so, well worth it, I think.

Here it is with just the stencils stuck on it.  I had to cover the rest of the rug with newspaper and tape it off before I started spray painting.

These are the designs I decided to put on my coir mat. My daughter pointed out that I am a little damask happy, so I decided to just go with something simple.  I always look at my favorite stores to see what I like, and try to do a knock off. I used an exacto type knife, and a small pair of scissors to cut it out, remembering that I wanted the outside stencil, not the actual letter and numbers.  However, they came out nicely, and I saved them for a future project, perhaps.

Here is the plain mat before decorating.

Here it is all ready for paint.

Here it is after painting.

And here it is all done.  Looks pretty good.  It was hard to get the stencil to stick really well on the points of the surface of the rug.  The other rug that had a flatter surface had a neater finish, but I'm OK with this.  I'm sure no one would notice but me!

Notice my helper sleeping inside!

Also notice the rug inside in the entry.  I am so done with that!  I am going to find a piece of carpet and have 3 rugs bound for my front door, back door and slider.  If you could look beyond the sleeping dog, you look right out my back slider, and my back door is just to the left of that.  So you can see all 3 rugs at once, and I want them all to match, sort of.  I plan to decorate them somehow too, just haven't decided what.

I'm sure this could be done with any sticker sheet, as long as you can remove it from your project.  I would really like a Silhouette. It is like a cricut, but you don't need cartridges. It is computer generated, and it will cut any stencil design you send it.  The choices are limitless.  So....if anyone wants to donate to my Silhouette  fund, I will be more that happy to cut stencils or wall vinyl or anything you'd like!  :)

Thanks for stopping by to read, come back soon!

Karilyn

Partying Here

Chic on a Shoestring Decorating

The Shabby Nest

French Country Cottage

At the Picket Fence

Finding Fabulous

Glass Painting

Last week I had to bring a dessert to church for a bridal shower, and the wedding colors were pink and orange.  Well..... that sounded like fun to me, so I decided to make a couple of serving pieces for my dessert.  Last spring I found directions to make serving pieces from a dish and goblet or candlestick.  So next trip to Salvation Army, I picked up a couple of pieces that would work.  They were glass and ceramic.  Here are some pictures of my first attempts. The directions said to paint them with "Frosted Glass" as a primer so the spray paint will stick better.

                            

                            

Then just spray them any color you like.  A few light coats works best. 

The glasses are just sitting on the bottom of the plate while I painted them.  After the paint is dry, you take clear silicone, and glue them together.  Here is a couple of them completed.

 

So, this time I decided to try all clear glass pieces, so I wouldn't have to paint the top surface where food would sit, because the paint would just show through from the bottom.  A quick trip to Dollar Tree, and I was ready to go.

You actually could just silicone them together as is!

A nice coat of frosted paint, and then pink and orange. (I already had the paint!)

                 

Let them dry overnight, or at least a few hours, if you're a little impatient like me. Put a nice ring of silicone around the top of the candlestick, and glue it to the center of the bottom of the plate.  You should probably let that dry for awhile too.

TA DA!!  How cute is that!

Well, then I had to make my dessert match the serving trays.

There you have it.  I view pretty much anything as an opportunity to be creative.  It's kind of frustrating at times, and really hard to focus on what "needs" to be done instead of what I "want to do."  So, search your cupboards for stuff you don't care for anymore, and see what a coat of paint will do.  It's great fun!!