Drab Mirror to Gorgeous Chalkboard Makeover

It finally got cold here over the weekend.

Just when I had plans to knock off a bunch of my projects that involved being outside.

Boo.

But I still got the majority of them done.

I may not have been able to feel my fingers afterwards but I got things done :)

One of my projects to knock off my list was this sad, dreary mirror that we got a few weeks ago that came with a dresser. 

We didn't have a need for the mirror so I decided to make it into something prettier. 

Here's the dreary before:

As soon as I saw the mirror, I knew it had perfect potential to be a gorgeous, over-sized chalkboard. 

And so it began. 

First off, the old-school wooden applique had to go. 

It took a flat-head screwdriver and a little elbow grease and it popped right out.

Rather than being glued on, it was nailed on with tiny nails.

There was no hammering those little guys out and I wanted a smooth surface so I brought in my handy little dremel and cut the nails off :)

Love that tool. 

After getting it cleaned up & sanded down a little, it got several coats of creamy white paint.

Was already looking a million times better :) 

I gave the mirror itself three coats of chalkboard paint and left it to dry overnight.

It went on perfectly. 

After everything had dried, I gave the edges a slight distressing. 

You know that dark wood had to shown out a little somehow :)

Isn't it gorgeous?
I still can't get over what white paint can do. 

And, of course, I had to chalk it up & do a little photoshoot with her...

this picture of me & the hubs caused quite a stir on facebook...

Apparently, people saw 'baby' and went crazy.

Teaches them to read a bit further- ha! 

I love my chunky chalkboard though...and it looks even cuter with a christmas rag garland draped over it. 

I told hubby I was going to put it up for sale but secretly I'm crossing my fingers that no one buys it so it can stay with me forevvver :) 

I mean, check out the transformation...

Who wouldn't want that beauty hanging out at their house?? 

I can't promise I'll be posting much more this week with holiday festivities going on... so if I'm not back on here before then, I hope all my fabulous friends have a very Happy Thanksgiving!!

I'm so thankful for each & everyone one of you :) 

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"Merry" Salvaged Tree Sign

So. 

It's happened.

Hubby has officially gotten the Christmas bug before me.

He keeps asking when we are decorating for Christmas and it makes me feel exhausted just thinking about it.

In my head, I'm super excited about it...but my energy levels just haven't met up with that yet. 

We will see how the weekend goes :)

But in the meantime, I have had several Christmas-y projects in the works and I wanted to share my latest one with you. 

It all started with some road-side rescued wood and some amazing salvaged weathered wood.

You gotta love it when those two things combine.

Here's what I created with my two types of rescued wood:

Isn't it perfectly rustic and seasonal?? 

I love love love it. 

I started with my weathered boards and laid out the ones I wanted to use all together.

I sketched (gasp! I sketched it!) a tree onto the boards and then cut the shapes out with my jigsaw.

I'm still amazed that I was okay enough with what I drew to keep it. 

I hate free-handing.

But it was perfectly imperfect for this project. 

After I cut out my tree, I sanded the heck out of it. 

The picture above shows it lying on a full white piece of MDF.

I wanted a little more texture so I ended up using pieces of white 1x4s I found on the side of the road. 

I just laid them together and then added support pieces on the back.

I ended up just hot-gluing my tree and letters onto the wood but you could nail it on to be even safer. 

But it worked for me :) 

I found these awesome vintage-looking letters and immediately knew they needed to be on my sign. 

I painted them red and hot-glued them under my tree. 

One of my favorite parts of the sign is the wood grain showing through the wooden planks in the background.

My boards were literally found on the side of the road and they were already painted a creamy-white. 

I just sanded them down to bring out the wood-grain and that was that. 

I can't wait to see where this guys ends up when I actually pull out my christmas decor :) 

Are you loving my little salvaged tree sign? 

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If you're wanting a little more holiday sparkle, check out my gold sequin wreath! 

And don't forget to check out the awesome giveaway going on where you could earn a little shopping money to a cute shop!!

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Linking to:
Inspire me Please @ Liz Marie Blog

Catching FireFlies Christmas Giveaway!!!

I told you this week was about to start looking like Christmas around Tattered and Inked!!

And it's here!!!

I wish Arkansas would get on board with the whole idea of Christmas (considering it'll be in the 70's this week!!) 

But I guess we can settle for an awesome, just-in-time-for-Christmas-shopping giveaway, right??

I figured you'd love a little help in knocking some people off your christmas list and this giveaway is just the ticket for doing that!!

Our amazing giveaway is from Catching Fireflies.com 

(super cute name, right?!) 

and they are giving one of my fabulous readers the chance to win a gift certificate to their online store where they sell all kinds whimsical goodies.

Some of their fun goodies include creative gifts for those artsy ones in the family, unique kitchen gadgets, inspirational home decor, fun guy gifts and cute office accessories!!  

I know that just after a few minutes of browsing their website, I found all kinds of fun things to put on my wish list or to knock some fun stocking stuffers off for the kids! 

I'm kind of in love with this cute chalkboard sign and if you have anyone that loves the mustache trend, this cute ornament would be just the ticket!! 

So, my friends, are you excited about the chance to win yet? 

One of YOU will win a 43$ gift certificate to catchingfireflies.com and get the chance to do a little shopping!! 

Enter in the widget below with the easy entries and keep your fingers & toes crossed!!

OR

if you can't wait to go shopping then you can use the special coupon code: INKED for 20% off your entire purchase at Catching Fireflies. 

(coupon code expires one month from the date of this post) 

Good luck guys!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Seasonal Felt & Sequin Wreath

It's been a hectic week around here with little man being a sick little guy all week. 

Makes for sleepless nights and crazy days. 

But I think we're getting through the worst of it (plus I get lots of cuddles!!) 

and I wanted to pop in and share a cute seasonal wreath with you guys before the end of the week hit and I forgot :/

Because...I may have a confession.

Maybe, just maybe, you might be seeing a little Christmas around here next week.

I have a few printables, a fun giveaway and some christmas-y DIY's that I've been working on lately so get ready to dive in to Christmas with me next week!!!
I'm excited, are you?! 

I call this a 'seasonal' wreath because I think it can be a little fall and a little Christmas. 

So it'll be staying up throughout the christmas season which is saying a lot for decor around here :) 

Isn't it just gorgeo-mous? 

If you are looking for an easy, low-cost way to add some glam to your holidays, this is your ticket. 

It literally took me about 15 minutes from start-to-finish (maybe less) and cost less than 10$ to make. 

Even cheaper if you hoard felt like I do and can use some from your stash :) 

Let's get to the nitty-gritty. 

Supplies: 

Wreath form (use your Hobby Lobby coupons!!) 

White felt (this took about 3-4 sheets)

Sequin trim (I got a yard) 

Sewing pins (you'll use a tiny bit of the box you buy) 

Scissors

First things first, 

cut all that pretty white felt into strips. 

This takes the longest and really, it's not that long.

It sure beats a million squares or circles. 

Once they are all cut, start pinning them onto your wreath form.

I wrapped them around until they met in the back and used one pin to pin them to the form.

Overlap them as you go to make that pretty layered effect. 

Once it's filled with the white felt, take your awesome sequin trim and literally wrap it around, making sure to overlap it over itself enough to cover the white and then pin in the back.

Easy peasy. 

I cut a few more white felt squares (sorry, couldn't escape them!) 

and folded them into little ruffles and pinned them where the sequins and felt met just for a little more oomph.

But if you want to simplify things even more, don't do it :) 

Lastly, pin a pretty ribbon at the top for hanging and call it done! 

I love the simplicity and soft glam of this little wreath. 

And since gold is my new little huge obsession, 

this wreath will be rocking it in my Christmas decor too. 

But it also fit right in with all my fall items too. 

Yay for dual purposes and gold :) 

Hope you guys have a great weekend & I'll be seeing you next week with all kinds of fun!!

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Abandoned Dresser Drawer Makeover & My Fall Foyer

Happy Monday friends!!

I have a fun upcycle project for you guys today that started with an abandoned drawer that I found on the side of the road last spring.

It had been sitting in my garage for months before I finally got my hands on it to make it into what I had originally seen in my head when I first found it. 

Here's the drawer in all of it's rescued glory: 

A perfectly good drawer!! 

I'll admit that I had been looking for a drawer for a while before this one happened to appear on my street because I had been wanting to do this exact project. 

So I may not have picked it up otherwise :) 

But I love the unique drawer face it had and knew it was perfect for my idea. 

So first things first, I gave it a good sanding.

I was lucky and the drawer was entirely intact so no wood glue or clamping needed. 

After sanding, I taped some vertical stripes off with painters tape. 

And gave it a nice coat of gold spraypaint, my new obsession :) 

After the paint dried, I peeled away the tape to find perfectly crisp gold lines.

Yumm.

Lastly, I added some cute little casters that I picked up at a flea market to the underside. 

Perfection.

Check out the gorgeousness of the gold against the original wood color...

I mean, gorgeous right? 

I'll show you the full picture in a second but first let's talk about where I decided to put it :) 

I have this gorgeous table I keep in my foyer that my grandma had bought me several years ago before she passed away.

I love this table and I always have a blast decorating it for the seasons.

It's usually next in line after my mantel to get decorated, that's how important it is :) 

And I wanted to share it all decked out in fall colors before it changed over to Christmas...

Isn't it beautiful? 

I hardly ever show pictures of it's seasonal decor, mostly because I'm a bad blogger and forget. 

But I lurvvvee it. 

And there's my cute little caster drawer right under it :) 

I had been searching for the perfect drawer to go under my table for a while because I wanted a little extra 'sumthin under there for decor/storage. 

My felt & rosette fall wreath found it's home nestled on the mirror above my little table and serves as the centerpiece for everything. 

I love decorating in layers and my table is no exception.

I used books and wood slices to create different heights for my milk glass vases, pumpkins and my DIY cloche from forever ago. 

I got the glittery pumpkin from Michaels this year and you can find out more about  my favorite 'harvest' pumpkin sign here. 

Now, more about my little drawer :) 

I used twine and then braided to create a rope handle.

The drawer already had holes drilled in from it's previous hardware so I just tied my twine through that. 

Since it won't be used regularly, I'm not too worried about it falling apart :) 

I, of course, distressed the drawer a little after painting the stripes.

You know me. 

I love the natural wear on the drawer itself, adds to the character. 

I wanted it look collected & cozy so I threw in some blankets and pillows in layers. 

The blue chevron pillow is a cover from Hobby Lobby and the yellow pillow is one of my placemat pillows that I love so much. 

I think I got this placemat at Target a while ago. 

The blankets are a couple extras from around the house (I hoard them) but the white one is a baby blanket my mimi made for little man when he was a baby.

I like it staying nice & safe but still in plain view :) 

The vintage books are some of my favorite things ever.

They were brought back from my mimi's after she passed away and I have a huge box filled with them.

I think one of these dates back to the 1800's. Love. them. 

So there you have it.

Fall decor, gold stripes & a rescued drawer :) 

Who knew a trashed drawer could be so cute, huh??

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