A Work in Progress

I have received a few emails about my updated tablescape. Well, I tried to incorporate all the advice I received and somehow it has snowballed into a minor dining room/kitchen remodel! I know my husband is wondering how this went from taking advice on rearranging a few picture frames to now we will be painting the room and changing colors all together. There is never a dull moment around here!!!

However, I did start the process of moving a few things and I wanted to show you the "work in progress." Here is a before picture:

The one comment I kept hearing was to move the pictures into a square to add height and get a bigger lamp. I did both of these things and a few more. This is not the finished product, it is only the beginning. There were holes from the pictures so I decided that I am going to putty the holes and paint the wall a very pale yellow. I also need to bring the pictures down so the top of the pictures is even with the top of the topiary. Take a look at what I HAVE done:

I need to add some more books to add some more color  and height. I will also hang the pictures an even distance from each other on all sides once the wall has been painted.

Please ignore the broken light fixture! Moving the pictures around really did give the space some height and I love it! The topiary lights up so it also helps provide another element of warmth.

I will keep you posted on the project once I get the paint on the walls and the pictures lowered. When all the finishing touches are on this space I will post another picture. For now, I hope this will work!

The Answer to Ambiance in your Home

I promised you I would tell you about the one thing I can not live without in my home. You may think it is fabric, furniture, bedding or something else that might be considered a decorative accessory. Well I hate to disappoint you, but the item I can not live without costs under $10.00 and can be found at your local home improvement stores!

I do not care how dirty my house is or what project I am in the middle of doing, there is always one way to get a great warm feeling in your home. My personal key to wonderful ambiance for me and my family is lighting!!!

I do not love overhead lights that can feel harsh at times, so I have a ton of lamps around the house that help to help my house feel so nice.

Instead of spending 10 minutes every evening running around the house turning on all these lamps, I have found the secret to success and ambiance! Drum roll please..........

                                                           A Lamp Timer

This may seem so obvious and simple, and it is, but for some reason they do not get used enough. I have these on about five lamps in my house so that no matter what I am doing the ambiance is on at the same time every night. I spent the afternoon at the park with my kids today and we got home late, but the lights were on and it felt great walking in. I love this gadget!! These little timers also have a dual purpose of safety if you are out of town!

Finding a Balance

I must confess that I have not been blogging nearly as much as I would like in the last few weeks. Although I have a great reason, I have been busy making signs! I have been making custom signs and that has been keeping me away from the computer. I will not complain because I am blessed to have clients who want my signs in their beautiful homes. Thank you so much to everyone has orders a sign recently. I hope you love it as much in your own home as I do in mine!

Check back tomorrow to see one item I could NEVER live without in my home!!!!!

Tablescaping Troubles

I have seen some very cute tablescapes in the last few weeks on blogs. I got motivated and decided that I needed to decorate a table that we just moved to a new spot. However, when I started shopping around the house I started drawing a blank and can not seem to get this tablescape just right. So for the first time ever, I am asking advice on what I could add to make this tablescape perfect! Once I get some feedback I will post after pictures and show you what I have done. I can not wait to hear what my readers think!!!

The current layout of the table

 

                                                   

A few close ups 

Crafty Toddler Project

I had the pleasure of hosting a few toddlers recently and I wanted them to have a neat little craft to do while they were here. Well this may sound simple, however most of the children have just turned two and are still not ready for some of the bigger craft projects. The theme of our gathering was ladybugs so I came up with a very inexpensive and extremely cute craft for toddlers. This would be great for any play date or birthday party you may host.

First I went to our local craft store and bought frames for only $1.00 each. You can catch these frames 50% off sometimes so be on the look out for this sale. 

Then I spray painted all the frames red to coordinate with my ladybug theme

Next, I purchased some wooden ladybug cutouts that were already painted so I did not have to anything to them. I only paid $0.59 for each ladybug at my local craft store and then hot glued them in the corner of each frame.

Finally, I bought a $4.99 box of foam ladybug cut outs let the kids go wild putting the sticky foam bugs on their frames

The finished product!!!!!

The little ones' had a blast doing this project and it was something cute that they could take home and put a picture in it! This was very cute and not an expensive project.

Giveaway City!

I am doing my first giveaway today and am so excited! Mary Jean over at The Dough Nut is hosting the giveaway. Head on over to her website and enter to win one of my signs for FREE! She will close the entries Wednesday night at midnight and announce the winner Thursday. Good Luck!!!!!!

A Custom Frame

The goal of Once Upon a Cottage has always been to make signs and other items that match your decor. I have always wanted my items to match YOUR home, no cookie cutter crafts. That is the beauty of custom made signs! Having said that, I wanted to share with you a recent custom order that turned out so cute!

I had someone order a frame instead of a sign and it turned out so nice that I am going to make one for my little girls' room. Take a look....

She wanted to frame a picture of her daughter and her husband surrounded by the quote "I already met prince charming, His name is Daddy" It is too sweet!

Edit: These frames will be for sale along with my signs. I will be listing them in my Etsy store. You can also order them directly from my website by emailing me. Please be sure to tell me your background and font color so I can customize it for your room! Thanks for the wonderful emails and comments about this frame!!!!

I love it!

The Nester is having a 10 minutes to a room you'll love finale! I wanted to enter but between my root canal  and my laptop being in the shop, I did not get around to it! There have been some wonderful 10 minute makeovers.

 I was thrilled to see that Mary Jean (AKA The Dough Nut) from One Nutty Girl  did enter and my sign was incorporated into her post! I LOVE seeing my signs in other homes and am always thrilled to see how people display them!  Head on over to One Nutty Girl and check it out!

                                                

Be sure to check back in at One Nutty Girl next week! She will be hosting a giveaway for one of my signs!

Two Dollar Window Tratments

If you think it is not possible to make two dollar window treatments let me show you how! First, I got the window treatments from my wonderful neighbor who had them in storage. She bought the fabric on clearence and made them herself. However, when I discovered them she was not using them and they just so happened to match my daughters' room perfectly! She was so kind to let me have them. Always remember the quote"One man's trash is another man's treasure."

I brought them home and played around with them and discovered they were much too long for my windows and I did not want to have to invest in any hardware such as rods and finials. So I decided to fold them and just use fabric tacks to hang them on the wall. Obviously I did not want you to see the tacks so I tied a few bows from ribbon collection and hot glued them to the tacks. This was the quickest and cheapest window treatment I have ever done and they are beautiful!

This is the underneath of the window treatments where I folded them. By folding the fabric I avoided having to purchase hardware and saved even more money!

                                                             The finished product!

Here is a close up of the bows I hot glued over the fabric tacks!

You might remember these bows from Part 1 of my fabric series: Fluff it Up. I used this ribbon again on her shams to tie the room together.

In other news:

Pink and Polka Dot is having a Vintage Valentine Giveaway. Head on over to her blog and enter! She has some very beautiful stuff int her giveaway. You can get there by clicking on her name and you will automatically be linked. Good Luck!

Taking it all in

I am home from Blissdom and there is so much information to absorb that I am still processing much of it. I learned more than I ever imagined I would and met more talented woman (and even a few men) than I thought was possible. There is no way that I could summarize everything that I learned but Edie at Life in Grace did a great job of putting some notes on her blog. I must admit that I went to Nashville not knowing Edie or her blog but left there with a great respect for both. She is cute and sweet as can be and I feel blessed to have met her.

I sat in the car for sixteen hours with two woman that I had never met before and by the time we got home yesterday I felt like we had been friends since childhood. I am thankful that they were patient and did not throw me out of the car half way to Nashville. I had no idea how we would find stuff to talk about for that long but I have already talked to both of them via email to day. I guess we could have driven another ten hours before we ran out of things to talk about. Thanks Do it Yourselfer and Koehmstedt for putting up with me. I had a blast!

      
           At the last minute Do it Yourselfer and I decided to room together and it worked out perfect!

          
                 Other major highlights of this trip included the following blogger "star" sightings:

                                The Nester and The Inspired Room speaking together on a panel

Balancing Beauty and Bedlam smiling with Chatting at the Sky

I had a great time and can not wait to do it again next year!
                  

Nashville or Bust!

I am headed to Blissdom '09 and can not wait to get there! I am so excited to have the chance to go and learn more about my blog and meet some very talented people. Hopefully, I will come back full of good ideas and my blog will be even more exciting.



As I am rushing to pack and finish the laundry before my traveling partners arrive in a few short hours I realized how blessed I am to be going on this trip! Sometimes life is so hurried that we forget to sit for a moment and count our blessings.

 I sat down for a brief moment today and reminded myself how grateful I am to be able to leave my children for three days with my husband and not even worry once about them. I am grateful that I have a husband who works very hard at his job so that I can stay at home with the kids and occasionally indulge in trips like this one. Although I feel grateful inside, I often forget to tell others how blessed I feel. Matt, Thanks for all your hard work and sacrifice for me and the children, it certainly does not go unnoticed!

As you run around getting ready for Blissdom or getting ready to get in carpool line, be sure to remember that no matter what your situation is, you are blessed! Take today to tell other how grateful you are for them and be sure to count your blessings!!!

Fabric Series Part 3: I Saved the Best for Last!

This is the third and final part of my fabric mini series. The best part about this little segment ending is that I saved the best for last!

The windows in my breakfast area and family room have been calling my name since the day we moved in. I have let them call me daily without answering because I did not know what to do with them! I had no idea if I would ever find fabric that I loved and could tie these two rooms together. It is one big open space so I needed fabric that could make the two rooms into one beautiful space. I finally found the most amazing fabric ever and had it made into panels and a valance.

Below are the BORING before pictures:

I know these pictures are making you sleepy but hold onto your seats! Here are the after pictures:

Here is a close up of this wonderful fabric:

Remember the saying "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder." I say this because my husband does not love  this fabric and believes it is a little eccentric for his likings. However, I must mention that while I often value my husbands' opinion on many things, respectfully this does not happen to be one of them!

I fell in love with this fabric the moment I saw it and love it even more in my home. Every time I walk by this window I am thrilled with the final product. I have waited a long time for this and could not be any more satisfied with the end result! It helps pull lots of pieces together and provides warmth and unity to a very cold space.

 I hope this little series on fabric has inspired you to find fabric that you love and incorporate it into your own home and let it serve a purpose for you. Whether the purpose is warmth, sound, unity, or strictly decorative; start experimenting with fabric and keep me posted on your own magic of fabric!

Fabric Series Part 2: The Magic of Fabric

I must tell my readers the truth about myself. Even though I seem full of energy, there are times when even I am lazy! This post is about a moment when I felt so lazy and somehow discovered a cuter and easier option.

My sister-in-law passed down a table to my kids and it was just the perfect size. However it did not match their decor. It had numbers and designs appliqued to the table and chairs. I decided to paint it and the only way to get the new paint to look perfect was to sand the whole set! Well that did not sound inviting to me. It is cold outside and I just wanted this to be a quick re-do. So I just spraypainted it with Kilz to prime it and then spray painted the light green color I chose. That was all the time I could stand outside in this frigid weather. Needless to say, the paint job was not good. So I just got some fabric that coordinated with her room and had a table runner and fabric cushions made for it. I only needed a yard of fabric so it was not too bad! It was a very inexpensive and easy solution to my problem.

It may be hard to see but if you look closely you can see the imperfections in my quick paint job below:

Take a look at the after. Not only did it cover up the paint problem but it also helped to soften and warm up her room a little more. I am always looking to add warmth to a room.

            Don't forget to check my blog early next week for another edition of my fabric series.

For the Love of Fabric!

I absolutely love fabric! I may be crazy but I could shop fabric for hours on end. The beautiful thing about fabric is that it can soften a room up in just a few short steps. My next few posts will be a mini series about how to use fabric to soften and warm a room in your own home.

The first thing I typically do is go to my local fabric stores and wander around. I get swatches of all different color and textured fabrics and bring them home. For the next few days I compare each fabric to the other pieces in the room including paint, texture, and durability. I hang them somewhere that I can walk by them 10 times a day and get a feel for which one I like better.

  
This bulletin board is on my desk and I keep all the fabrics that are in my house on it so I can compare it to the new fabrics. Some of these are up for consideration  at this moment.

                                                        Part #1 of Fabric Series:
                                              Fluff it Up!


This is the first part of my fabric series and I thought I would start simple. I bought my daughter a  cute quilt from a kids store and two accent pillows to go with it. I loved the colors but it looked so Plain Jane and I felt like it needed to be "Fluffed Up!" I began looking for fabric and found a few that I loved so I brought them home and finally picked my two favorites. I had pillows made for her beds and that small change made a big difference. It added color, softness, and warmth to a very sweet little girl's room. 

                                                                  Here is her bed before:

                    

                                                               Another before view:

It is very cute and a good start but I continued to feel like it was lacking something. Here are some of the after pictures. Remember, these are not dramatic before/after picture, instead they are simple and inexpensive changes to help a room feel and look complete!

              

Here are close ups of the two new pillows. To add another dimension to the Euro Sham, I decided to have it tie with ribbon instead of having  it sewn closed. There is also piping around the pillows and the little pillow is reversible to the striped fabric if I want to change the look a little.

                                                                 The other side

     Here is the Ribbon on the Euro Shams. I absolutely love ribbon, especially in a little girls' room.

                 We have two twin beds in this room so these few pillows made a big difference!

Ta-Daaa!

When we moved in our house, about a year and a half ago, there was a small cut out upstairs in the hallway. It only made sense to me to have the builder build a desk in that small space and we would make that our home office. It is wonderful because we do not have to use a whole room for just one computer and we can see what our children our doing on the computer when they get a little older!

As I sat in this space about a month ago, I realized it could be the most boring space ever and it did not allow my creative energy flow! So that day I decided to make some small and inexpensive changes to this space. I forgot to take a before picture but did get a few shots after.

The biggest problem we faced with this space were the wall colors. They are real estate beige and worst of all it is flat paint. Here is an example of the before paint color:

                                          Who could be inspired to do anything looking at these walls?

I picked the color scheme and got busy! The first thing I did was tape the walls off and paint a light yellow color as a base coat. Then I went back and did  a yellow that was two shades darker and was high gloss. I decided to use a small harlequin design. It shows my whimsy but still looks very elegant!

                                                                     Ta-Daaaaa!

                                                          Here is another angle on the paint

I have had the pottery barn office wall organizer for years and I reused that. It is simplistic and it helps me keep our family organized. I then shopped the house a small hanger that would display the kids' artwork. All this for FREE because I already owned these things!

Besides the paint, the only two things that I purchased was this wrought iron piece from Hobby Lobby for 50% off...a total of $14.00.

And finally I bought this beautiful topiary tree for 70% off from a garden center. I love this topiary!

This space went from boring to beautiful in just a few simple steps. Every time I walk by this space I feel inspired and creative....Mission Accomplished!