Merry Fishmas Santa Baby!

Well, I gave into peer pressure to do a little decorating in the midst of home improvement. (this little town means business when it comes to Christmas decorations!) I don't have all my Christmas stuff with me, as they are in storage, but I had a few things and I made the rest! I admit I have gently shopped the local thrift stores, not really trying to buy anything, just to enjoy the hunt. I found this vintage Santa, and all though I do not do traditional Christmas, I couldn't resist his Rosy cheeks!!
He looks so good against my green wall!

 I love Vintage Christmas, so here is my take on it.

This little tree is loaded down with vintage mix matched ornaments and Hudson couldn't be more thrilled!

Here is the Fishmas Porch! I want to do more, but have to use what I have on hand, fish, a mermaid and whatever else I could find laying around!

 This is my Lady of the Lake mermaid, made out of plywood, painted & glittered.

 Fishy in Blue, made of plywood, painted & glittered.

 The other fish were cast offs that I repainted and added some glitter & garland from the dollar store!

 Front porch view, hard with sea grass displays and plastic bubbles covering the lights to make it look like water! I cut up an old shower curtain that had a bubble pattern and placed it over the lights. Thinking outside of the fish tank?

Hanging ornaments and glowing blue lights add to the theme!

 This is a netted wire ribbon, it is so easy to use in decorating and it made a nice sea 'net' look. (yes, this bird was a thrift store find too, color enhanced by moi!)

 Here is another thrift store find, he just needed a little aqua paint and some GLITTER!!

Back Porch Floor & Ghosts Detecting!

I just finished up my black and white checkered floor on the back porch, using duck tape to mask out my squares, when I got a call from an old friend who wanted to come and visit and see the house.

The visitor brought along a neat little app for the Droid called an EMF detector (Electromagnetic Field) or Ghost Finder. Since the house is so old, it must have some ghost activity???

After the back porch was all decked out in new curtains, a few decorations and a fabulous new floor it was time to unwind and detect ghosts. The meter was lit up all evening, shouting out random words that summed up our conversations and revealing one word thoughts we weren't saying out loud. It was very fun!

 Here is the finished floor and the gorgeous curtains. Notice any interesting shadows? The hanging Teapot chime is EXTRA large.

 I used a letter block to hold up my spring rods. I wanted curtains that could be easily removed in summer.

I made these sweet letter blocks in black and white polka dots. T for Traci and J for my daughter Jordan.
The evening was perfect for reminiscing and ghost listening.

 I scored this vintage Star at the thrift store for FREE, they were throwing it out and I think it works great for a soft glow. I set it in a netted food basket.

 The entrance into the kitchen from the new floor needed a little something....Cottage felt right.

Was the visitor real or a ghost, who knows, but I have a fond memory of a finished room!

Transform & Renew

 

It is so wonderful to see a room that has been transformed. I didn't take many pictures of the dining room in it's BEFORE state, but this one below.

   

Not sure if you can see the cork floor in the above picture, but it was cork and we pulled that up and about 1000 nails with it and exposed the pine floor underneath that had been preserved and ready for a renewal. 

 All that it needed was a little cleaning, a light coat of poly and a few nail holes plugged and it is absolutely AFTER! The room is long it measures 8X15, just big enough for the dining table and chairs and maybe a buffet.

 I can't wait to decorate this room, I am planning on Pink & Green.

 I love the feeling of old hard wood floors under my feet as I twirl around the room and daydream.

There is a natural beauty in wood floors that can't be replaced by any other surface. They look warm and inviting and I am always ready to lift the initial surface in an old house to see if a treasure lies beneath. 

Down & Dirty!

I swear I was just picking at the wallpaper and next thing you know, the mantel was down, the floor boards lifted and there was a very dirty fireplace that needed to be cleaned out! It's a dirty job, but somebody had to do it!

 I looked all over for that hidden box of money, but no luck. I am a fan of keeping something like this intact and having a industrial look, but the fireplace isn't that attractive and the bricks are very crumbly. I have never seen a fireplace like this, it had a wood base and then a sand pit. There was about 2 feet of ash in there and some fell out of the top when we hit it with a shovel.

 I look pretty good as a Coal Miner.

 This is going to be Hudson's room. There will be new drywall over the fireplace and between the two closet doors. I will put insulation in the fireplace and the chimney is already roofed over, so it can never be a fireplace. Plus, I need a good center wall for the Great White Shark Mural. The wallpaper comes off pretty easy for the rest of the room to be primed and painted. It just takes water and a scraper.

 My hands looked like something coming out of a crypt!

Feathering My Nest

I couldn't resist adding a little detail to my fireplace. A white Egret, or crane, whichever you want to call it. It is  a water bird. That is me, a water bird. I love the water, my kids are both named after rivers, Jordan & Hudson. It must be the Aquarius in me. Naturally, I love water elements, fish, birds, turtles, bubbles.

My hope is to have a my little Lake Cottage decorated with the elements of nature and water. This is a start.

 This is painted with acrylic paint on drywall. The fireplace is roofed over and will never be opened, so the alternative is to decorate it!

 This is the hallway, entrance way...it is currently getting painted. I kept the same aqua blue color there as in the stripe room. It is thematic throughout the house. I have already painted the front door this color too. The house is all white outside, so it needs an accent color.

All That Glitters is not Gold, but it's pretty!

My chandelier, is finally up, I didn't have all the right things to attach it to the ceiling, but I took a few of this and a little of that and made it work. The ceiling plate is a copper wall hanging that I painted white. A few of the crystals are missing, but this is still a gorgeous glittery girl!

Another thing that glitters and they are gold, is my dog Summerwheat's pretty eyes! She is basking in the warm sunlight that hits the fireplace hearth that I tiled out of left over tile pieces. a mosaic design that has the colors of sand and a few splashes of aqua glass. The place I work kindly donated them to me, but you could collect your own pieces from habitat restores, or home improvement stores or even tile stores that may have a collection of 'leftovers' from jobs. Just mix it up and make it GLITTER!

Mermaid's Birthday Cake

I wanted to give this room a vibrant coastal cottage feel, so I decided to stripe it with a rich aqua that would be the color of a  Mermaid's Birthday Cake! As I floated the aqua across the textured plaster walls it resembled icing peaks. I almost licked it once, but I didn't. I found the image of this cake on another blog that had a gorgeous sea themed party and I wanted to share it:
http://www.ala-parisienne.com/2011/05/la-fete-d-blue-celebration-with-ocean.html   
When you see my stripe room you will see why this cake and my walls relate.

Here is how I did it:
This room had a lot of wall repair, if you remember the room that had all the plaster falling down, all the chipped up mess, well this is THAT room. It was primed white, then painted with a flat white to hide even more flaws. Any shine would have emphasized the imperfect areas.

 BEFORE

BEFORE

Here it is all white and the stripes are mapped out with chalk,  12 inches apart. I like that size, it isn't to small, which looks busy,  and it isn't too large. 12 inches, the magic stripe size for most rooms. I also kept the shelves all white, I like this for a cottage look, plus I have a lot of cool things to place on the shelf and I want it to display well against the white.

 The stripes are started with painter's tape that is applied to expose the 'to be' painted stripe. Once you cover it with 2 coats, you can removed the tape. You will have to 'cut in' the ceiling and the base board and anywhere along edges that touch a window or a shelf.

 Because of the age of these walls and the freshly painted white paint, we did get a little 'lifting' of paint, even though the walls had been dry for nearly a week. Not all walls do this, especially newer drywall ones. Remember these walls are a combination of plaster, painted wallpaper, drywall and lots of drywall mud. The lifting was minor and all you have to do it touch it up with a brush.

 Moving right along.... The fabric on the mantel will be used as the curtains in the room, can't wait!!!!

 All the way around!

 Notice the old swing arm rods, I will keep these and make the drapes to hang from them. My Mom is covering to chair bottoms to match it too. You will see more of this room later, maybe it will be a Mermaid Party....wink wink!