A Beautiful Tray and a Giveaway!

But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. – Joshua 24:15b

My house is a gift from God…as is everything good and useful in my life.  One of the ways I give Him thanks is to try to make it a warm, welcoming and comfortable venue, not just for visitors, but for my family as well.  This doesn’t require a lot of money, or a degree in interior design.  What I think makes a home inviting is to see that it reflects the personality of it’s inhabitants and holds items of significance to them.  If you can see and feel that its a place they love and long to be it can’t help but rub off on on friends and family.

I recently received this gorgeous Ornate Metal Collection - Cross Serving Tray from DaySpring.


I love items that are both decorative and useful…and trays definitely fit the bill!  This piece is made of substantial metal and has a warm bronze-brown hand finish.  The decorative cross is a beautiful reminder of the importance of my family’s faith.  It looks great in a plate stand or carefully leaning on a shelf ready for you to grab at a moments notice to proudly serve beverages, desserts or appetizers {not food-safe, use a doily, napkin or dish underneath}.

Here it is on an ottoman providing a place for the remotes and hubby’s reading glasses. There’s plenty of space left to set a drink or two {I would probably use a coaster, just to protect the finish}.


What a beautiful place this would be to collect your keys and daily mail in the entry, or to corral small items on a dresser or vanity.  This would make an incredible {and affordable} wedding gift…or for any occasion at all!

All of the pieces from the Ornate Metal Collection and several other great decor items are on sale this month…click on the banner below to see all of this month’s featured products.

DaySpring always has beautiful, encouraging and inspiring products that will help you brighten someone’s day {including your own}. Shop the DaySpring Online Store to check out what they have to offer.
Thanks to my friends at friends at DaySpring, I get to...

Give away a $20 gift certificate to the DaySpring Online Store!!

This would definitely be enough to purchase the Cross Serving Tray, or most of May’s other featured products, or many other DaySpring gifts, cards & accessories. {Gift code does not apply to shipping charges and will expire July 31, 2011.}

To Enter {Up to 3 Entries}:

{1} Leave a comment. Share what your favorite May featured product is.
{2} If you are a follower, leave a comment telling me so.
{3} Share a link to this post on Twitter or Facebook, then come back and leave a comment.

The entry period for this giveaway will end at 11:59pm CST (Central Time US) on Saturday, May 14.  Winner will be chosen at random and be announced on Monday, May 16.  
Update Sat, May 14:  Due to this week's Blogger outage {and some bloggers losing comments} I am extending the entry period for this giveaway to 11:59pm Central Time US on Monday, May 16.  Winner will be announced a day or two after!!

Thanks for visiting...have a Beautiful day {especially if it gets a little Crazy}!


Disclosure: DaySpring Inc. provided me with the Cross Serving Tray at no cost in exchange for my honest review, as well as a coupon code for one of my readers.  All opinions expressed are my own. This post contains affiliate links.

DIY Artwork – Canvas and Coffee Filters

E very time someone tells me I am creative I think “no, not really…I just know something good when I see it and am brave enough to try to duplicate it.” My living room is mostly neutral with pops of accent colors (mainly, turquoise/teal, green, and cranberry).  But recently I decided I wanted to de-emphasize the warm reddish tones for spring and summer and feature the blue and green colors more prominently.  With that in mind I needed to replace a piece of artwork for 6 months of the year.  I spotted something on line I thought would be perfect – and it was on sale for $89 {reg. $150} – not bad, but not in the budget.  It was simple and a bit modern with 2 large white flowers and as I looked at it White Coffee Filters popped into my head as an easy way to create the flower petals…and they would add texture!  So here is what I ended up with:

{going to paint this oak buffet some day soon :) }

I started with a primed blank canvas – had a 50% off Michael’s coupon and got one that was stapled in the back for $8. {You can get them even cheaper with staples on the side, and maybe cover with ribbon or something}.

I got out a dinner plate and chose a location for my 2 flowers {this would serve as a reference point for my first layer of petals} and then painted my turquoise centers.  EASY, right?



Next is the part I forgot to photograph with the large white coffee filters, so I re-created here with my smaller unbleached filters.  Fold the filter in half, then quarters.  Cut out the center of the filter {no need to draw the line first}, then cut the 3 folds to yield 4 pieces.
 

Next I did a little pre-shaping by gathering the inner curved edge and pinching with my fingers.  As I went along I realized I wanted a little shaping on the outer edge, too, so I started doing a little “pinching of the outer curve here and there.

Now, for the fun and messy part! Starting with the outer most part of the flower {using my dinner plate circles as a reference} I started puttin’ down the petals.  I brushed some ModPodge on the canvas, placed my shaped pieces of coffee filter down, then brushed more ModPodge over the top.  I repeated around the circle {overlapping the edges}, then started moving toward the center overlapping each subsequent circle slightly over the previous one.

After the ModPodge dried I realized that my pencil lines were showing through, so I decided to paint over my flower petals with 2 coats of white acrylic paint.And that’s where the photos stopped…after allowing the last coat of paint to dry overnight the next step needed to go quickly, so I couldn’t photograph it myself and just didn’t think to ask the hubby to do it for me.  SO, I brushed the java-tinted glaze I had leftover from this project {equal parts mixing glaze and paint} over the blank areas of the canvas, including the sides, wiping excess off with a dry rag* and reapplying until I got the look I wanted {*if I did it again, I might used a damp rag to mute the brush strokes even more}.  Then, using the same glaze I dry-brushed over the flowers {dip the tip of the brush in the glaze, then dab excess off onto a rag or paper towel before lightly brushing on the flowers}.  The FINAL step was a quick spray of non-yellowing satin clear coat.  Here are some “after” shots:

   











 


Voila…a 22 x 28 inch piece of spring/summer artwork for about 10 bucks! My family and I love it {and we’re the ones who have to look at it every day}.

I’m linking up with Layla over at the Lettered Cottage…so go check out some more fun How To’s!

{She’s got a great one herself today!!}

Thanks for visiting...have a Beautiful day {especially if it gets a little Crazy}!

Get Inspired and Take a Leap

If this is your idea of “living dangerously” then please, do it!!  Life is too short not to take a risk every now and then.  During our interview as a couple before husband was called to be Associate Pastor I think I made a statement similar to this: “If it’s not at least a little scary, it’s probably not worth doing”.  This drew a chuckle and a raised eyebrow or two…but I believe it!

I can’t believe the last 12 days have passed so quickly {and without posting} but I’ve been finishing up some “risky” projects.  There is so much around us to inspire – especially on the internet.  Our dreams, relationships and circumstances can inspire us, too…but we need to take a leap, take a chance and make that inspiration into something.

A desire for less boring, padded chairs around my black kitchen table, tight budget, and finding 4 of these pathetic, rescued-from-a-fire-damaged-house arm chairs for $50 on Craigslist (ick)…
…and lots of encouraging tutorials & inspiration from DIY bloggers all over the place inspired these sassy little numbers:
A pretty piece of artwork I saw online and some white coffee filters inspired this {How-to post later}…
This 15-year old Birthday Girl niece…
…and this awesome tutorial from a fellow blogger {man, I want a Silhouette – I traced & cut my letters by hand} inspired this…
None of these projects came out perfect, and I didn’t go into any of them 100% sure I could adequately accomplish them, but stretching yourself is exciting and makes the outcome that much more satisfying.  I love how my projects came out and it really doesn’t matter if anyone else does {except my niece, and I think she loved her gift}.

Maybe it seems a little silly to apply this concept to art & decorating projects…but when I hear someone say, “Oh, I could never {insert some skill, adventure or challenge here}” I am always tempted to remind them {and sometimes do"}, “Aren’t you really saying ‘God could never’? And you KNOW that’s not true!”  I marvel every time someone stretches beyond their self-perceived abilities {even my own} because that is when God’s glory is revealed…and I think that is just as true in the small things as in the big ones!!

So think about where you can stretch, take a little risk {or a big one} and watch God shine!
Thanks for visiting...have a Beautiful day {especially if it gets a little Crazy}!

Looking for Fall

Football has been on the tv today and the weather's been nicer. Don't know that I'm ready to get out the pumpkins, but we have planted some mums in the containers out front and changed the bucket on the front door.




I have starting taking a look at my "stash" to see what I want to use and what needs to be retired. So far one wreath has been stripped of it's re-usables and thrown out.  Thinking a few more items may join it - the scarecrows were cute, but as dear hubby said when we got rid of the too-cutesy wreath, "It's time to look like grownups".  Their smiling faces can find a new family at the Goodwill :)










I'm getting so excited for the cooler days and warmer colors!! (I have toyed with the idea of painting that styrofoam pumpkin above with oil-rubbed bronze spray paint - can't decide, what do you think?)

Oh, and tomorrow after church I'm going to look at a friend's neutral sofa, chair and ottoman...cuz they might want to come and live at my house. (Don't tell my too country plaid loveseat & striped settee). What are you doing to prepare for Fall???

Have a beautiful holiday weekend - and a beautiful Fall!

Well, it's because I've been doing this...

I've been pretty quiet lately.  It's been for many reasons (some of which I'll share below), but I think one of the main reasons is that I've been having way too much fun being inspired by others to spend any time sharing my little somethings that might inspire you!  So here's a little random wrap-up of what's been going on:

♦ We backed up the computer over the weekend - just in case.  This old dinosaur of a desktop is gonna go some day, and the way it's been acting lately it could be sooner rather than later. I am very fond of my technology and when it does happen I just hope and pray we'll be able to find some way to replace it. :(

♦ Remember this?

The custom sign I designed at DaySpring to enter The Nester's giveaway...and then I won!

Well I changed the design a little bit and it arrived Saturday!!  It was packaged very nicely and wrapped in a pretty brown grosgrain ribbon with a congratulatory note inside.

Here it is in real life (sorry for the poor pics, I took them at night).  Notice the memory included on the back so I will remember how I came to possess this little lovely :) BTW, the beautiful canvas below my new sign is also from DaySpring and was a Christmas gift from my mama.

♦ My baby got her driver's license on Friday!

Okay, so she's not a baby any more (she'll be 18 in November).  She was in no huge hurry to learn how to drive and get her license...and her dear-old-dad and I had nooooo problem with that. She's not too fond of the pic, so I told her I'd keep it on the small side.

♦ I've been trying to take the time to enjoy this beautiful Spring!  I have especially loved this view out my kitchen window (dandelions and all).  You can't see the tippy-top of a pretty yellow forsythia right behind the valance tassel.

♦ I made this yummy Lemon Blueberry Dump Cake.  I got the recipe from Sno White at Finding Joy in My Kitchen.  It was made by her hubby, Frog Prince (don't ya just love the nicknames?) I recently discovered this blog -- she has tons of yummy recipes to share!  Oh, and this week she's sharing an Ice Cream Maker Giveaway!

♦ Chances are you know someone who has experienced infertility and/or adoption...or may have yourself.  If not, I'm sure some day you will.  It is so difficult to express the many varying feelings one goes through.  Well, Amy at Our Journey Together shared a poem recently that illustrates a tiny piece of it beautifully!  This is a quick MUST READ!

♦ God is incredibly good!  I've been taking some extra time to read more of His word, to learn more about how I can be a better Christ Follower, and doing some research & reading so I can encourage others to do the same.  He's got some changes in store in the coming months in our ministry and I wait anxiously to see where He challenges us to go and who He challenges us to be!

If you've made it this far, thanks for following the randomness (and exclamation ! points). Have a beautiful day!

A Word Can Paint 1000 Pictures...

[UPDATE Wed. April 14: I'm going to hold off on the What If? Wednesday post I had planned for today because (1) My sister featured LICB on her blog today and her BEAUTIFUL chums have been leaving comments (2) Check out today's Bible Verse - could it be more perfect? ---->]

Are you like me...do you love the written word?  I love to read!  For me, the words I read paint vivid pictures in my imagination.  I love having inspirational words, or the truth of scripture sprinkled throughout my home and life as encouragement, comfort, or to spark an idea.

The Nester is hosting a DaySpring Book Crop giveaway.  Hop on over and enter to win your favorite...here's one I designed with one of my favorite quotes on the DaySpring site:
[Woo hoo - I won the $50 gift cerificate!]

Here are a few of the words I have currently hanging out around my home to inspire me:

And here is my favorite place to go every day where God paints beautiful pictures for me of real events that happened long ago, pictures of His incredible love for me and presence in my life today, and wonderful pictures of hope for an eternal future with Him!:

Bonus: Read my friend Carissa's blog and discovered she is hosting a word-y giveaway.

 Check it out!!

Have a beautiful day!

 

Back from a week off - What If? Wednesday

Wasn't planning on taking an entire week off from posting...but (A) Mr. Migraine went away for a day, then came back again...and (B-Z) I started waaaaayyyyy too many projects a couple of weeks ago and I'm just now getting them finished!





WHAT IF I decided to paint all of the "hard" furniture in my house black or white? I ask this question ALOT! (we have done a couple of pieces - and, no, these are not mine)





WHAT IF my puppy-dog LOVED our new curtains in the living room that can open so he can see what's going on out front? He does! (look at that cute little fluffy-butt)





WHAT IF I had a Rachael Ray Easy Button?  Any time I didn't feel like cooking I could press it and she would show up (with groceries of course) and whip us up something in 30 minutes - Yum-O!  She would have to learn to cook without onions (I'm allergic), though, which would be a HUGE adjustment for her.





WHAT IF I could have all of the fabric-lined baskets I wanted, without going broke? Pretty-and-useful...my favorite combo!





WHAT IF my sweet little mama got a new car?  She did!  Look how cute she is (she deserves it)...





WHAT IF someone loves me so much that he DIED just for me - to pay for all of the selfish, prideful, thoughtless, reckless, hurtful things I have ever done (or, unfortunately, will do)?  The GREAT NEWS is - Christ DID and then He rose 3 days later...and that means I get to live with Him forever!!  I hope and pray you appreciate the true meaning of this Holiest of weeks...and that you CELEBRATE it all year long!






Have a beautiful day (and if you don't come back before then, a Beautiful, Blessed Easter)!