home decor and garden are very famous in the world

The days are getting shorter and thankfully—a little cooler as well!  This weekend I decide it was time to add a few autumn touches to my home, starting with my beloved buffet.

The timing was perfect because I recently received a candle from Goose Creek Candle Company to try, and I chose the “Apples & Spice” scent.  Naturally we had to light it up immediately…and it made me long for fall even more!  In my home, we eschew apple pie in favor of homemade apple pizza (it’s divine)…and it smells just like it!  My children sniffed the kitchen hopefully, and were admittedly a little disappointed when they found that the aroma was coming from a candle and not dessert!

The pretty glass jar and deep red color fits in beautifully with my other fall decorations. 

I love the fact that the jar is so understated, without a big clunky label.  It looks pretty lit or unlit!

I am highly sensitive to many perfumes, but I am happy to report that this scented candle did not bother my nose at all!

I think scented candles make great gifts.  It’s one of those things that I rarely buy for myself, but always enjoy having around. 

Goose Creek Candle Co. has generously offered to send a 16 oz. American Heirloom jar candle to one of my readers.  To enter, simply peruse their selection of scented candles and then leave a comment here telling me which scent you’d like to try!  Giveaway will close Friday, September 21.

Please leave an e-mail if you even think you MIGHT be a “no-reply” blogger!

In addition, you can use coupon code 1050 for 25% off your entire purchase from their site through September 30.  Christmas is coming!  Wouldn’t these make great neighbor gifts?

I broke my self-imposed furniture diet to buy this piece at Deseret Industries…how could I resist?  

Although the body was in pretty good shape, the top had been scratched up quite a bit.

I painted the base with the same color as my other gray buffet, but I used it in my homemade chalk paint recipe. 

The proportions are 2 T. unsanded tile grout mixed with 2 T. water, then mixed in to 1 c. latex paint.

Then I used a little white chalk paint (homemade) to dry-brush over all the details.

The handles are original; I just re-painted them with oil-rubbed bronze spray paint.

The top did not quite turn out like I envisioned!  I wanted a stained top, but I wasn’t crazy about the color of the wood next to the gray.  So it actually ended up getting stained darker than it looks in these pictures…but I sold it before I took an after-the-after picture!

Guess that’s not really something to complain about, is it??

Today I am guest-posting for Angie at Knick of Time Interiors!  Hope you’ll visit me there to see the transformation of this:

to this!

Come visit at Knick of Time!

March is coming in like a lion here in Utah, but I decided it was time for a little springtime in the house!

Last time I showed you how I dressed up my little map dresser with a “new” lathe sign, so the next stop was to spring-i-fy my buffet.

Several things have made an appearance before…my candlesticks hold nests made of moss and tiny grapevine wreaths.  A chubby bird perches on one, and twine and sheet music eggs fill the other.

I was delighted to find some decent-looking faux hydrangeas at the store Tuesday morning a couple of weeks ago.  I like them in my IKEA enamelware pitcher from last year.

My new acquisition is this vintage egg scale.  I had been admiring it on the classified ads for a month or more—but when the seller finally dropped the price by $10, I sent my sweet sister after it for me!

My book page birdhouses have survived a whole year now! 

I briefly toyed with the idea of NOT using my beloved chalkboard—obviously, I got over THAT idea!  The quote may not have anything to do with spring, but I love it: 

“Never let a problem to be solved become more important than a person to be loved.”  (Thomas Monson)

I just barely got around to showing my post-Christmas buffet, but now it’s been changed up for Valentine’s Day!
The jumping-off point for me was when I found an out-of-date globe at the thrift store. I painted it with chalkboard spray paint, and wrote “Love makes the world go round” on it. I wish I was one of those people who had beautiful handwriting (especially on a chalkboard)—but alas, it is not one of my gifts!
I covered five balls with strips of maps cut out of an old atlas I found at a garage sale. They make interesting little globes, as long as you don’t expect them to be geographically accurate!

Using my Silhouette, I cut out a bunch of hearts from the same old atlas, and sewed them together to make a banner.


Other map hearts were sewn together in pairs, then folded to make a 3D “ornament” for my twigs leftover from the funky twiggy garland I made for Christmas.

My other globe got to join the display, with a few more map spheres.

I tried to go along with the ‘theme” by writing, “The best place to be is wherever YOU are” for my family. Quite frankly, I don’t think they ‘got’ it!

Coastal Charm’s Nifty Thrifty Tuesday	It’s So Very Cheri
Common Ground	My Repurposed Life
Hookin’ Up with House of Hepworths	{Primp}
Elizabeth & Co.	2805
My Simple Home Life’s Simple Creations Friday	Miss Mustard Seed’s Furniture Feature Friday
Funky Junk’s Saturday Night Special	DIY Show Off
Primitive & Proper	A Simply Klassic Home
Beyond the Picket Fence’s Under $100 Party

First of all, thank you to all of you who responded with thoughtful comments, encouragement, and advice on our home situation! I can’t begin to tell you how much it means to me.

If you didn’t get a response back from me, that is because you don’t have an e-mail linked up to your account, and I would love for you to consider changing that situation!

We actually had an offer on our home today…for a mere $20,000 less than our asking price! We politely said, “No, thank you.” We’re motivated, but not desperate!

On to more fun things…

Do you remember my Christmas buffet?

Well, the stockings came down, and the hurricane lamps moved to other places. I pulled all of my poinsettias together, including the ones from the suitcase wall, and made a new arrangement:

It was simple and pretty, and highlighted my beautiful flowers…

…but it still seemed to be missing something.

Lucky for me, a brief stop at a new antique store revealed that perfect “something” to me!

Do you like my new sled?? I adore it!

My boys are disappointed that it is to be decorative rather than functional!

And guess what else?? Even my husband likes this one!

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Linking up to Brambleberry Cottage.

Do your projects ever teach you lessons?  Mine do.  This particular project taught me how not to load furniture in a truck!

Back in June we decided to replace my husband’s 10-year-old Volkswagen Jetta with a little truck.  (It was his idea to replace the car.  It was MY idea to replace it with a truck!)  I was tickled at the prospect of having a truck to cart around my furniture projects!  So shortly after we bought the truck, my oldest daughter and I took it garage-sale-ing.

We hit pay dirt.  We purchased a cedar chest and a little maple buffet for a grand total of $60 at the same garage sale!  I was cool and collected outside, but giggling delightedly inside.

There was just enough room to put both pieces in the truck (it’s not a very big truck).  How shall we put them in?  Why, back-to-back, of course!  That way the wood won’t get scratched!  We didn’t own any tie-downs yet, but we had sprung for the bed-liner.  I was sure we would be fine on the short drive home.

And truly, all was well!  At first.  I drove slow.  I was careful!  But there came a time when I had to make a right-hand turn, and I heard a big CRASH!

My heart stopped.

Quickly I pulled over and jumped out to survey the damage.

Remember your high school physics class?  What was it Newton said…

An object in motion tends to stay in motion with the same velocity and in the same direction…

Inertia.  It’ll get you every time.

What inertia got was the drawer for the buffet.  The truck went right; the drawer wanted to keep going straight…and it did, right into the street!  <sigh>

One of the handles on the drawer broke, and one of the corners snapped off.  There were various other abrasions and contusions, but we came out pretty lucky, all things considered!

I am lacking a proper “before” picture of this little maple buffet.  I only found one “in progress” shot.

I decided to give this piece on of my favorite stained-top-painted-base treatments, and some brand-new hardware.

Note to self:  When you decide to use one set of the original holes for the hardware, make sure you use the SAME SET on both sides of the drawer.  Failing to do so may result in harsh words.

I used two coats of Minwax Antique Walnut stain on the top, and finished it with the Hand-rubbed Polyurethane.  I *love* how it turned out.

I fixed the bottom corner of the drawer with a little wood glue, and sanded out the other scrapes.  You can’t tell that she took a header onto the street now!

She’s just a small little buffet—only 36” wide, so she’s perfect for a small space.

“Inertia.”  It may  not be the most feminine of names, but somehow it suits her, don’t you think?

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Linking up here.

I like gray, but it doesn’t always like me.

It’s just not fair. I see gray walls, cupboards, and furniture everywhere, and they look so pretty. So last week I picked up a sample pot of Martha Stewart “Fossil” paint (a pretty pale gray/green color on the paint chip), and painted a swathe on my front room walls.

Bleaaahhhh.

Yes, it’s really that bad. I just can’t pick ‘em.

Let me interrupt myself here to say that on the positive side, this is the first time I was SMART enough to buy a sample pot. I still have about 2 gallons of paint left from my last painting disaster!

However, I’ve *really* wanted to try painting a piece of furniture gray again. My last try was a disaster, and I ended up with blue instead. But I was ready to give it a shot again on this $15 DI piece I picked up a few weeks ago:

As luck would have it, I happened to have part of an “oops” quart of gray paint leftover from last summer. It was getting old and rather thick, and there wasn’t much left anyway. So I dumped in a healthy dollop of creamy white, a fair amount of water, and mixed it all up.

I loved this color. It was gray, but not a “cool” gray…a healthy hint of brown made it a warm color. In the twilight, it looked almost taupe. Gorgeous.

I didn’t want to alter the color too much, so I glazed very lightly with black. Mostly I just hit the edges and the indentations on the cupboard doors.

The pulls are the ones it came with, but they are not original to the piece. In fact, if you look at the “before” picture above, you can see where extra holes were drilled for this “new” hardware.

All the pulls used to be that brassy color, so I painted them with ORB spray paint.

It was hard to take a decent picture of this buffet, because it goes with nothing in my house!

I probably should have had a photo shoot in the yard for this one!

I’m thinking I may have to take my paint stick in to be color-matched so I can have more of this lovely gray.

I call her “Lady Gray-the-Buffet” in my head I know it’s silly, but that’s the name she’s stuck with!

Are there any colors you love, but just can’t seem to make work in your house?

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Linking up here.

From a vintage baby cradle to a retro buffet…I am a woman of contrasts! I fell in love with this piece at Deseret Industries:

It really is a lovely piece. The wood was in remarkable good condition…the finish…not so much. Whatever had been on there for a protective coat flaked off like mad…it looked like I was sanding in a snowstorm!

I know aqua is all the rage, and I gave serious consideration to that color—but I decided to go back to my first love: red!

I had a terrible time getting the color to photograph well. It was almost a brick red before I glazed it with black…then it seemed to turn a dark cranberry.

The next picture is too bright…but I wanted to show the cute key! I love the fact that this buffet has a key. I painted the rest of the hardware with ORB spray paint, but I left the key it’s original brass.

Do you have a color you love, despite all the trends? What is it?

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This project has been featured at Sisters of the Wild West.

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Linking up here.