Coffee & Candles

I saw a pin on Pinterest a few weeks ago, and thought "Why have I never thought of that?!"

I do that a lot.  :o)

This pin said simply to put candles in a dish or vase filled with coffee beans.  When the candles are lit, the beans warm up and release a delicious scent!

So simple, and I love it!

Bonus, it didn't cost me a thing since I already had everything on hand.  :o)

I'm going to get some vanilla or cinnamon scented candles (Oooh, or maybe pumpkin!) for Fall and do this around the house, it makes a great centerpiece for the table or a buffet.

This would make a great gift too, fill a dollar store pillar vase with coffee beans and put a candle in...  $2 plus the cost of the coffee beans.  Inexpensive and beautiful! 

Cute Letters for Kids

I love the look of letters.  I made a pink A and a pink C for my girls when they shared a room. 

I love, love, loved the way the turned out.  Shabby chic! 

So, as you know, we moved to a new home a few months ago, and now the girls don't share a room any more.  My oldest wanted to keep her room pink, so her "A" matches just fine.  Don't mind my crappy paint job on the edges of the wall there if you enlarge the picture at all, haha.

I nestled it on to a shelf above her bed with some other pink/white/cream odds and ends. 

I had my youngest's pink C on her wall, but we're slowly working on her room, to make it more purple, as per her request.  So, last night I finally whipped up a more purple C for her! 

What do you think?

All I did was take a plain white C, that I got from AC Moore.  I didn't take any pictures of the unfinished project.  Whoops!  So anyway, a plain white C, and then I pick out 4-6 sheets of coordinating scrapbook paper.  Then, I tear it up!  You can totally let the kids help you with this part.  Tearing paper is FUN! 

Once the paper is torn, I just use a glue stick to stick it to the letter (kids can do this part too!). 

Once the paper and glue is dried enough to handle the letter, I take a razor blade to the edges to cut the paper off the edges of the letter and get a clean line.  It doesn't have to be perfect. 

Then, I give it a coat of clear gloss spray paint.  I let it dry, and then give it another coat.

Once it's completely dry, I take some sand paper (love the sandpaper blocks!) and smooth out the rough paper edges, and distress the edges a little as well to give a bit more of a shabby chic look.

So, here is my finished C on my little girls wall, and a sneak peek of her room progress!  One of these days we will paint her room for her too, she picked out a pretty lilac and we have the paint, it's just sitting in the garage until we get around to it.  Also, her shoes need a home, I was keeping them in the bin there under her bed, but the bin is a little too tall so it was hard for her to get it out.  I'd just put the bin in her closet, but I need to clean the closet out first, haha.

I'm not sure if I want to keep her silhouette pink too, or make that purple?  I tend to like things more monochromatic in scheme...but, she does have pink in her bedding too, and I kept some bits of pink in her letter C as well.  What would you do?  Leave it, or swap it out for a purple one?

Room Re-Do!

I've been laying low for the past week.  Still not feeling too well.  Seems like it will never end! 

We did manage to get Ava's room switched over, it's all painted and pink and girly now.  My parents had the girls for a sleepover while we worked on it, and I had hinted to her that I was going to paint her room and make it pretty.  I didn't come right out and tell her I was going to switch it, because I'd asked her how she felt about it before and she said no way...but she's five years old, and she doesn't like change, of any kind.  At least, at first.  She warms up to it, and then she's fine.

So, she got home and immediately ran upstairs to check it out.  She ran into her "old" room first, which is now the play room.  I'm not finished with it yet so I didn't take pictures, it's done enough that the girls can play in it, but I still have a few more things to do.  Anyway, she was hysterical, crying and just...inconsolable.  I ruined her whole little life!  But then she went to see her new room, and after a few minutes in there things weren't so bad anymore.  After an hour or so, she was loving it.  She even gave me thumbs up and told me it was "cool."  :o)  

I'm still not quiiiiite finished with her room yet either, but the only things left to do are to re-paint the ceiling, get a lamp shade, and fix a dresser drawer that broke.  I took some pictures anyway.  Let me know if you have any other decorating ideas!  There is a LOT of pink, but that's what Ava likes.  She's a total girly girl and loves pink.


Heading in to her room.

So, there you have it!  :o)  I think it's cute.  Super girly, and fit for a little princess!  Like I said, the drawer is being fixed, and I need a lamp shade...thinking maybe green to tie into the green on her bedding and the greenery around the room.  I don't know.  Break up the pink a little.  I can't decide if I want to paint the lamp base or leave it cream, her blinds are cream and so are the lampshades on her little chandelier.  Also, I replaced the little babydoll cradle with a basket bassinet...the cradle was missing a part that I couldn't find.  I have no idea why, but Blogger isn't letting me add captions to the pictures except for the first one. 

Next up, Charlotte's room.  She wants her room painted purple so I picked out a lilac color.  I wanted to start working on it earlier this week, but you know, life happens.  It will probably wait until next week.  I'm still working on painting some end tables for her, I'm almost finished with them.  I finished that book case I was working on last week, except for that I decided I wanted to put some trim around the bottom.  I have to figure out how to cut it and get the angles right, I'm soooo not a tool using kinda gal.  I want to be, I'm just...not, haha. 

In other news...I just got an email about a wind advisory, up to 57mph winds, right about the time I have to pick Ava up from the bus.  That oughta be fun!  :o)  Mike said to tie Charlotte to a rope so she doesn't blow away, hehe.  I will just carry her. 

I *love* this deal!

LOVE when they offer free 8x10 photo canvases!  The others are a great deal too!  I really need to get a move on with decorating the new house.  There is nothing on the walls in the living room, family room, kitchen, hallway...and I could go on, haha.  With re-decorating and updating my style, it's going slowwwwwly, but this is an awesome deal and some black and white or sepia canvases would be timeless.

FREE 8x10 photo canvas (Just pay shipping!) or $35 off larger canvases.

11x14 photo canvas for just $27, shipped!

16x20 photo canvas for just $37, shipped!

What a great deal!