Wise Designs Inspirations.

LOOK WHO CAME FOR A VISIT?

2012-03-18T01:08:00.001-04:00

Early one evening something caught Mark's eye outside the window in the family room....it was a deer...it was about 10 feet from the window....of course my camera was back in our bedroom inside my handbag...isn't that just typical??? Anyway, I rushed back with it and managed to snap this shot.

(The brick half moon raised bed is actually a gas fire pit...wonderful on cool spring and fall nights...don't know if we'll get to enjoy it much this year though, our winter was so mild, the mosquitoes are going to be horrendous!).

Our young visitor was not alone...

Lola, our Dutch Shepherd

(Picture taken on Christmas day!) finally realized that we had some visitors/intruders and proceeded to tell us exactly how she felt about it! ..the deer just stood there...quite funny actually, but after a minute or two, they scampered back to the woods, long white tails wagging behind them...

We often see the deer come out of the woods at this time, but usually they stay quite a distance away. This was the first time they had ventured so close to the house.

We are so lucky to have a nature preserve right on our back step. The wildlife is a treat. We have seen foxes, coyotes, turkey vultures (yuck!) lots of bunnies, ducks and the dreaded geese (I don't like them...there are too many of them and they poop everywhere...Lola chases them away for us.) lots and lots of birds and deer of course .

Thanks for popping by,

Hugs,

Mandy

SPRING VIGNETTES

2012-03-15T07:43:00.000-04:00

March is upon us, and here in Indiana the daffodils stalks are pushing through the mulch and reminding us that the spring season is upon us.

I just did some very simple additions or changes to the already existing vignettes...I like change, believe me but when I find something that works I tend to stick to it until I am absolutely sick of it!!! With work, teenagers and trying to sell a house, this seems to be working well for me too!

So, main rooms that got "hit" were the main living areas: Kitchen, dining room and a wee touch in the living room.

Kitchen table: Boot tray, corks (hmm...wine consumption.....but many years worth!!)

cabbages (not real! but garage sale purchases last year), spring green hydrangeas (on clearance)

chicks and nests (had a long time).

Kitchen mantle: Large blue eggs (a few years old and realize I need to remove labels...!), broom brush bunny (Goodwill last year).

Kitchen Hutch:
Cabbage bowl (last year Ebay - dirt cheap), ceramic bunny (old) cloche filled with eggs, croissants and artichokes (all stuff I had),

cabbage plates (Goodwill last Fall), cabbage jug (Goodwill last winter).

Dining room:

Centerpiece: Same old basket from sale last year.
filled with 3 wire baskets (Tuesday Morning) full of gourdes, decorative balls and two large decorative eggs (Michael's).

Plate wall: added a couple of cabbage plates (had for years), two large white plates (Goodwill last year) and two small french label plates (Tuesday Morning).

Living room:

I tweaked the mantle. Brought back orange Japanese Lanterns and 3 cool handmade brown artichoke looking stems (World Market), painted an existing cardinal orange and added milk glass etc.

That's all folks!!

Hugs,
Mandy
Linking to:

http://frommyfrontporchtoyours.blogspot.com/

lbratina.blogspot.com
nominimalisthere.blogspot.com
www.theshabbycreekcottage.com/

CRAZY SHOES

2012-03-08T23:03:00.001-05:00

One of my twin 15 year old teenagers, Joe, is in the High School Musical, "Pippin" this week and may I add, with pride, that he is one of only a few freshmen selected to perform.

Anyway....the teachers asked each student to do something with their shoes to make them wild and crazy looking. So we grabbed a pair of Alan's (older brother) old shoes. I mean, these things were o l d! Soles worn through, bits and pieces starting to fall off them....and....worse still, he still wore them.....o f t e n.....well trust me....NO MORE! Cos' look what I did to them!

As soon as some of the other students saw Joe's shoes they wanted a pair...so yesterday, I worked on 3 more pairs.....a very large pair for one of the young men, David, and two smaller pairs for a couple of the girls, Daisia and Abbey. Abbey's were a really small pair of practice dance shoes...

And here is what they turned into after I spent 4 hours on them and crawled into bed at 2:30am!!!!

And one of the girls did a great lace on Joe's shoes...need to copy that!!!

The premier was tonight....I hope they all held up and that everyone did well!

Think I'm going to myself a pair for tennis!!!

Oh and to make a lot of you feel good, this is what my laundry room looked like this morning when I got up...ugh!

Hugs
Mandy
Joining

http://twenty-eight-0-five.blogspot.com/
http://www.atthepicketfence.com/
http://frenchcountrycottage.blogspot.com/
http://commonground-debrasvintagedesigns.blogspot.com/

FINALLY! PAINTED BAR CHAIRS

2012-02-17T07:47:00.000-05:00

Yup they're finally done....(actually they've been upstairs for a couple of weeks but haven't had a chance to create a post on them....), the dreaded kitchen bar stools that hubby asked me to paint and I happily agreed to take on remembering how easy the dining chairs had been see that post here are finished.

Here they are before

And here they are down in the basement waiting to be painted

Now I don't have any of the actual paint process...but I can tell you it was painfully slow and tough...see those lovely craftsman style spindles?

8 of them on each chair and then there are another 6 on either side along the bottom

Anyway...there are lots and lots actually 80 in all...with 4 sides a piece...phew!!! and let's not count the legs etc... Sanding, painting, sanding (aging), staining and two coats of poly later...

Close up

I am happy they are done...really happy!

Thanks for visiting,

Hugs,

Mandy

Linking to:

projectqueen.org/
http://astrollthrulife.blogspot.com/
http://athomewithk.blogspot.com/
http://www.myuncommonsliceofsuburbia.com/

http://frenchcountrycottage.blogspot.com/
http://twenty-eight-0-five.blogspot.com/

WINTER BOOT TRAY DECOR

2012-02-15T07:46:00.000-05:00

I haven't shown you my kitchen table boot tray centerpiece yet and as we are already February and here in Fishers, Indiana we are having our first real snow fall of the winter (!) I thought I'd better get this post out there!

I took this picture at dawn the other morning, that poor tree to the left of the photo has a serious case of coffee deprivation!

I love this one!

Oh and here's a couple of other little vignettes

Thanks for visiting,

Hugs,

Mandy

FABRIC SCRAPS AND A GOODWILL FRAME

2012-01-26T20:34:00.000-05:00

Okay, I have to apologize because I do not have any tutorial pics on this...sorry :( It was a quickie job and knowing me, the urge hit me and I went for it...no prep just make a mess and GO!!

So, I got this frame ages ago...more like years ago!! The glass was long gone.

I had some fun fabric scraps left over from various projects and decided to "do something" with these "unwanted" items!

Grabbed the frame, took the back off, placed some batting on the the backing and glued down strips of fabrics.

Put everything back together and voila!!!

Oh! the little fairy guy was in my "decoupage" stash...too fun eh??

This piece hangs on the wall as you enter my den..

Thanks so much for stopping by,

Hugs

Mandy

Linking to:
http://frenchcountrycottage.blogspot.com/
http://twenty-eight-0-five.blogspot.com/

http://frommyfrontporchtoyours.blogspot.com/
www.atthepicketfence.com/
http://www.stuff-and-nonsense.net/
http://radcrafter.com/

OVERLOADED "TO DO" LIST

2012-01-20T08:16:00.001-05:00

I know I'm not alone with this dilemma...

my "TO DO" list is so long I can't see the end of it!!!!!

And, to be honest, blogging has triggered my brain to want to do more!!!!

I do love all the inspiration though, and I love to dive into a good project anytime... but part of the unfinished basement looks more like a bad case of "project overload" or a very badly managed furniture restoration site at the moment. Remember I showed you this pick from my post about my organized basement see here,

See the cute drop leave table to left? Okay, the top is now done but I need to paint the legs...thinking a soft aged green...

The two tall chest of drawers that used to look like this

are now down to the last coat of poly.

The two armchairs that go with my dining set are now painted to match the chairs I painted last November see here.

So, why am I not seeing the end of the list???? Well, hubbie asked me to paint our kitchen counter chairs too. "Great!" I said, "Bring them down, I'll get started on them!". So down they came.

Now, I have learnt with this particular project that not all chairs are built alike...duh....! My dining chairs had rounded spindles, here's one I showed you that a certain doggie chewed on....

but my kitchen Mission Style counter to chairs have squared spindles like these...

And are much more time consuming to paint...they are close together, there are many of them....20 per chair to be precise with four sides each....80 sides altogether!!! And then add all the joists, legs etc.... So after a good sanding I got started...thought I'd try black stain instead of paint..liked it but too runny...(those spindles again!) so reverted to paint...but it stills builds up easily...hate that...

I over sanded after the first coat with my power sander, and had to smooth over everything with a higher grade sanding sponge...by hand...then wiped down, and painted again...then I have to let them cure before next coat, and do you find that you try to stick to a "system" when painting but get distracted by either outside things or by day dreaming and then miss spots or in my case entire inside legs?!! ...I am tired....I was down in my workshop ALL day yesterday and am NOT done...not even close .....

I'm pooped and soar

And of course the life of a mother of three teenagers involves more than painting her life away....the "Engine Room" constantly needs attending to....

otherwise referred to as the laundry room,

And DOES NOT look like this too often!!!

And all the other things....like a part time job and kids stuff and, and, and!!!! You guys understand. Today, I am not going to get back down "there"... I have a tennis match...and dinner plans with hubby. So will probably get back to it this weekend...In the meantime, the boys' bedrooms look like a bomb hit them, the laundry is building up, the phone calls need to be made....

oh well...I do feel better having share my "scream" moment with you though

THANKS!!!!!

HUGS

Mandy

BASEMENT ORGANIZATION

2012-01-16T10:26:00.003-05:00

Yup, spent the better part of a weekend, sorting and organizing the storage area in our unfinished basement. I couldn't believe how much STUFF I was able to weed out......AGAIN....ever since we put this house up for sale almost 3 years ago... (this is the year...yes it is!) I have "gone through" the unfinished basement several times. It seems that every time I find more STUFF that is no longer needed, wanted or necessary. I even got hubby and oldest son to weed through electronic and empty electronic boxes too..!

All this lot went to the county recycle center!!!

And all this lot went to either Goodwill or the local consignment store...well actually, I haven't made it to the consignment store yet but am planning to this week :)

At the moment, I am also doing some painting...

The table to the right is actually topped with an old glass door and sits on wooden risers so that it is counter height. A great piece for wrapping/painting and other projects.

The other table is being "worked" on.

Anyway, back to the storage area...check it out...

I say "Vowwww" in my best German accent to this pic!

Look at all the empty shelves left!!!! By the way, I had the builder put this shelving up for me and I have never regretted it. Although it has been referred as "The Morgue"...can't imagine why????

All those totes to the left are ...EMPTY...woo hoo! The rest is extra tile, extra wood and paint.

This armoire sits off to the side. It is a great piece but not being used in the home decor at the mo' however it now holds the few silk flowers I still own, some faux greenery and branches and small items that need to be painted.

LURVE IT!

Thanks for visiting!

Hugs,

Mandy

Linking to:

http://cottageandvine.blogspot.com/

http://www.whisperwoodcottage.com/

http://frommyfrontporchtoyours.blogspot.com/

http://becolorful.typepad.com/becolorful/

A TRIBUTE TO AUNT BERNIE

2012-01-15T09:00:00.000-05:00

What a fine lady she was...I was truly blessed to have met her. She was known in our family as the "Fun Purple Lady" as this was her favorite color. She put together gift bags for one of my sons when he was little and in it were all sorts of nick knacks, bows, pens, etc and all were the color purple!

Bernie was our close friend Steve's aunt.

She was a real character. She loved people and she decided early on that she wanted to live in an assisted living environment that allowed her to live independently in her own apartment but also gave her a community of friends and the social life that she loved.

Here she is with Steve and Sue's lab Shadow.

Bernie kept a diary and some of her entries are very funny. She wore a wig and always put on make up. She modified her clothes by adding large pockets to her tops so that she could have any necessaries on hand. She wore bright colorful outfits and described each one in her daily entry. She spent a lot of time in the home's lobby meeting and greeting people and visiting with the local home's pet. She would have meals with some of her favorite "inmates" as she referred to them...hilarious....!

Bernie was also very frugal. She loved to make pins out of gift bows, decorative butterflies, anything that would strike her fancy.

Now look at how creative and fun her pins are:

I wanted to show you some of the individual pins and what the back of them looked like...

Don't they make you smile???

I grabbed a red felt rose pin and attached it to the chain on my necklace...love it!

Sadly Bernie suffered a stroke earlier in November and seemed to be recovering well when she suffered another stroke. This time, sweet, delightful Bernie was not able to recover and passed away peacefully...she was 94 years old.

Sue had these pins with her when she and Steve came over for Thanksgiving and I just had to dedicate a blog to this fine lady.

By giving so much and living her life to the fullest she left us with great memories and remains an inspiration to us all.

Thanks for visiting and hope you enjoyed this post,

Hugs

Mandy

http://becolorful.typepad.com/
http://boogieboardcottage.blogspot.com/
http://debbie-debbiedoos.blogspot.com/
http://www.thegirlcreative.com/
modvintagelife.blogspot.com/

FURNITURE - 2011 REVIEW

2012-01-11T00:00:00.000-05:00

In this "Review" post I want to show you some of the furniture projects I showcased on my blog in 2011.

JANUARY

Faux finished end table