Owls

Last year at this time, I was already gearing up for Halloween. By October 31st, I was really ready to take it all down! So, this year I'm taking my time with the season and coming up with some Fall-ish decor. I'm not quite ready for all the pumpkins and harvest decor just yet, however Fall will soon be here so why not decorate for it?! I found this little Owl at the Habitat For Humanity store for $3. It's actually a piggy bank. I knew with a little spray paint, this owl would look like it came straight from trendy store.

I also had this little green Owl that I made over for Earth Day. You can see that makeover HERE. I really don't have a lot of green decor in my home and I was so sad to take him down after Earth Day. I figured, maybe if I made him a neutral color I could put him out more to dress an end table or cabinet.

So, with the help of Rustoleum White Spray Paint, these two little guys went from this.....

to this! Paint always amazes me. It can make the ugliest thing so stinking cute. I put them up on my mantel shelves with some other Fall touches.

I will share the rest of the mantel with you tomorrow. Till then...

I linked Up:

At Home With K

Nest Of Posies

Homework

Someday Crafts

The Shabby Nest

It's beginning to look a lot like Fall...in blog land anyways. Outside my home, it's still near 100 degrees. It's starting to change quickly and I'm holding on to the last bit of Summer. However, seeing all the fun Fall and Halloween ideas gets me excited to start on my own Fall projects. This weeks Friday Favorites is all about Fall/Halloween inspiration....Enjoy!
First, is this Candy Corn Bark made by Lindsay@ Lee La La. How yummy does this look(I'm a candy corn lover) and what a great gift it would make! I'm going to Pin this.

Next up is this super cute Fall wreath made by Beth@ Home Stories A2Z I just love this wreath. I might have to make something similar in the near future. It would be perfect to display from September to November.

Last, but certainly not least, Ali@ Honey and Maple Syrup created this cute display from Dollar Store items. I just love an inexpensive, cute and creative craft. Just goes to show, you don't need a ton of money to create something so cute. Great job Ali!

I hope everyone enjoyed my Friday Favorites this week. I'm now in the mood to run to Starbucks and grab a Pumpkin Spice Latte :) Happy Friday Everyone!

*if you were featured, feel free to grab a feature button on my sidebar.

Perfect PearBack in March, I was at a local thrift store and came across this pear.

It was only .80 cents! I had to have it. It took me a while to do anything with it because I saw it as a great Fall decoration, and the only thing that made sense to do with it was to wrap it in twine. As you can tell by the close up picture, it has a weird texture.

So, fast forward to September and I busted out the hot glue and twine. Now, last year at this time I was already gearing up for Halloween. Let me tell you, it was just too long that I had Halloween stuff up. So this year, I'm trying to ease into Fall a bit slower. This is a perfect addition to the beginning of Fall decor.

I started wrapping from right under the leaf. The leaf is connected to the pear, so everything from the leaf and above had to be cut into small sections and glued on one by one. Sounds time consuming, but it really wasn't too bad. It probably took me an hour to complete the entire thing.

Here it is all wrapped. I couldn't leave the leaf gray. It just didn't fit.

I picked out of my paint box a foliage green and simple brown....

painted it green then added a layer of thinned out brown paint to get into the creases of the leaf.

This is the final product! It went from an .80 cent thrift store find to a Ballard Designs looking accessory!

I love it! It is the perfect addition to my Fall decor.

I linked up:

Nest of Posies, Fall Festival

The Thrifty Home

The Shabby Nest

A Splash Of Color

So, do you remember back in June I had a post about these coffee bags my husband brought home?! Well, I finally put them to use. When we moved, we no longer needed our dining room set. However, we did need extra seats available for company. Two of the chairs would work perfect, yet they weren't very cute.

Well, I knew I wanted to use the coffee bags to recover the seats, however I was torn on what color to use for the chair. While I was looking over all the colors at Home Depot, I wanted so bad to grab a nice, neutral white. But, my heart kept telling me that we needed a splash of color to add to our new place. Which color though? Green, Blue, Pink, ahhhh!!! There were too many to choose from.

I ended up picking Rustoleum Lagoon. I love it! It reminds me of a Martha Stewart cast iron pot that I have sitting on our stove.
So, after some sanding and recovering, here is the end result...

It is absolutely perfect for our house. From previous projects, I'm sure you can tell that I love the color blue.

I was so scared when spraying them blue that is was going to be way too bright, but I think the chairs turned out perfect! I love the coffee bags as seat covers. It adds a little touch of mine and my husbands love for coffee. And, it's a sturdy fabric that will stand the test of time with kids.

We kept one in the kitchen and one in the living room. It sits perfectly under our mantle shelves, which by-the-way will be getting a touch of Fall soon.

I am so pleased with how the chairs turned out. They are just the splash of color our house needed.

I linked up:

Embellishing Life

Primitive & Proper

Domestically Speaking

Someday Crafts

Sweet Little Gals

The Shabby Nest
The Shabby Creek Cottage: Coffee Creations Party

Thank goodness it's Friday!!! I am really looking forward to the weekend. The past few weeks have seemed to run together and this weekend we finally have some time to sit, relax, BBQ and watch some college football. Yeah!

Now on to my one and only Friday Favorite this week. Today I'm featuring Emily @ Emily Ann Designs. You just have to love her catch phrase: MAKE OPENING THE MAIL FUN AGAIN. With the products she sells on her Etsy, you will definitely have fun opening your mail.

I've had the pleasure of meeting Emily as she is my Sister-in-law's good friend. Emily has a love for all things cute, vintage and crafty. You can absolutely see her love of all three through her products.

She sells the cutest, personalized stationary. Like these super cute Thank You cards with a vintage camera on them. Any blogger would love to send these thank you cards off in the mail.

Check out this adorable Pirate themed Birthday Invite. Too cute for words!

She even does personalized art prints. Wouldn't you love this hanging in a little girl's room!?

Emily recently had some of her work published in a book, 1000 More Greetings. Congrats Emily! What a testament to how creative you are.

You have to go check out Emily's Blog HERE, then go right to her Etsy Site HERE! You will not be sorry you did. Pages and pages of paper cuteness. Let her know you're visiting from Make The Best Of What's Around. Happy Friday Everyone!

Quick Decor

I had this old cupboard door sitting in our storage for months not knowing exactly what to do with it. I finally decided to make it into a chalkboard. Luckily when we moved into our new place there was a perfectly, awkward place for it. Right over an ugly phone jack. Once again, I forgot to take a Before photo, but you can see the original color in the middle. I gave the border a cute turquoise color and distressed it a bit. *the color is a mix of folkart paints, so no exact color is available.

I then taped it off and sprayed it with chalkboard spray paint. So far, so easy. It needed a little pop of color so I decided to paint a yellow number 3 in the bottom corner. The significance of the 3 is mine and my husbands anniversary day, July 3rd.

Finally, I hung it over that ugly phone jack and now we can leave messages for each other or just write our favorite quotes on it. Above is my favorite quote ever by one of my favorite singers. I haven't decided yet if I want to put some hangers on it and make it a key hanger as well as a message board.? Hmmm, what do you think? My fear of clutter sets in when I think of keys hanging off of it. Opinions please :)

I linked up:

Lemon Tree Creations

Under The Table And Dreaming

Yard Sale Find & A Makeover

Finally, I have somewhat of a crafty post for you! Gosh, I feel like it's been forever since I've done anything creative. So, way back at the beginning of July we were out and about and came across a yard sale and spotted these chairs. We just had to hop out of the car and inquire about them. They were originally $15 a chair, but we easily talked them down to $15 for all three. What a bargain!!!

My husband and I got to sanding, sanding and more sanding. Then with the magic of some Rustoleum Heirloom White Spray paint, we came up with this...

Aren't they cute?! Just goes to show, with a little work and some spray paint you can make things look totally different. I love how these turned out. They fit absolutely perfect in our new kitchen. My boys love sitting on them for Breakfast and Lunch.

Here is a little peek at the kitchen. I'll soon give you a tour and some Before and After photos of our new place. It's really starting to feel like home.

I linked up:

Under The Table And Dreaming

The Lettered Cottage

Homework

Primitive & Proper

Someday Crafts