Monday, February 29, 2016

Spring is in the air!

We are having a mild winter comparing with last year. The temperatures are a little bit crazy going from the teens to the fifties but the sun is shining and the snow has melted!! 
I am very ready for spring, so I have started springytazing the house!!

I have a soft spot for little birds, there is something about them that melts my heart a bit, their sweetness, their happy singing, their pretty colors, they are just happiness!
I choose birds as my inspiration for some of my spring decor.

I added some silk white flowers, nest, eggs, birds, white birch logs, Spanish moss and moss balls to my European dough bowl. I love all the different textures mixed together!





















It makes a beautiful and Spring-y center piece!

I purchased the flowers, and the birds at the dollar store. I got the birch logs, the Spanish moss, the nests and the moss balls at Michaels. 
Thanks for visiting and have a wonderful day!

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Tuesday, February 16, 2016

Kitchen Stools get a face lift!

I love the look of an antique grain sack, so I choose that as my inspiration to update my very boring very plain kitchen stools. 



These are the stools before. As you can see, nothing exciting. They blended pretty well into the island. Sorry for the bad picture and for the messy kitchen. This picture was taking years ago, I don't even think there was Blogging back then! But this is the only picture I have of the "before".


Over the years, these stools had a lot of make overs. At one point they had white and green stripes, then I painted them in ASCH Paris Gray with a frenchy stencil in Old White also by ASCH on the top. And finally they are sporting the antique grain sack look. This one is my favorite so far,  so this is their destiny, at least for now! ;)


I painted the legs with Advance latex paint long time ago. Since that was working pretty good. I left them alone, and just painted the top in ASCP Old White.

Out came the frog tape to help me make the stripes.



I painted the stripes with Napoleon Blue also by ASCP. I am pretty impatient for projects, so I usually don't measure where I put the tape for the stripes. I just eyed ball it. 


So far so good! I could of just leave them like that, they look simple and pretty just with the stripes. But my wheels where turning, so I wanted to keep going...


So I added this German wording. I purchased the stencil on line at Maison de Stencils. It was getting closer to my idea, however I needed to make it look old, antique, like they had a long life and a very interesting story to tell. And nothing better to give a piece some character than a good distressing and dark wax by ASCP.






I love the result! What do you think? I hope you enjoyed my kitchen stools make over!
Thanks for stopping by, have a wonderful day!


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Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Taco Chili Soup

Brrrrr, Baby is cold outside!! Perfect weather for a hot cup of Taco Chili Soup!

This is a very easy recipe and truly delicious. I am currently following the Weight Watchers program so the bonus is that it is only 2 points per cup!


Ingredients:
1 onion, chopped
1 1/2 cups diced celery
1 lb extra lean ground turkey
3 (16 oz) cans of beans (black, pinto, red, kidney or a combination of your choice, not drained)
1 (4 or 8 oz) can mild green chilies
1 (16 oz) can diced stewed tomatoes
1 (28 oz) can crushed tomatoes
1 packet taco season mix
1 TBS green tabasco sauce


Preparation:
Saute first three ingredients over medium low heat, in a large heavy bottom pot, to tender, about 5-10  minutes. 
Add remaining ingredients and kick up the heat to high. When everything has come to a boil, lower the heat and simmer 10 or so minutes. 






Delish! 

Thanks for visiting! Have a lovely day and stay warm my friend!



Monday, February 8, 2016

Saved by experimenting!!

Hello my friends! We are getting an impressive amount of snow over here.  Today is the second day with no school due to snow and we might have another snow day tomorrow. I must confess I love snow days! I love having my kids home all day and hang out together! Some how I get really productive on snow days. So I have being cleaning and organizing closets, pain tree, catching up on laundry... etc! 
So since I am in a productive kick I wanted to share with you this project!
I bought this table at a yard sale, long time ago. I loved the size of it to use as a side table in my family room, the legs, and the scalloped edges. I wasn't sure if I was going to paint it or leave alone. So I left it alone for a very long time, until one day I got the paint itch and wanted to try ASCP Duck Egg, I love that color! So I thought this table will be a good candidate, however it didn't work out on the table I chose to make over!! uh oh.....


So this is the table before:





And here it is in Duck Egg:













Hmmmm...... As much as I like this color, it wasn't working for me. Nope, I didn't like this table in this color. It looked too baby blue. So in the middle of a panic attack, I decided to start wiping the paint off, even though it was already dry and waxed and all.
I grab a clorox wipe and went at it. To my surprise the paint was coming off. So I wiped the whole top clear of paint and I wiped a good chunk of paint of the legs. 
 At this point I decided I wanted to have the legs painted and the top in the original wood. 
So creativity kicked in and I grab Napoleon Blue also by ASCP and started adding some of that darker blue here and there. 
Sanding it and wiping it to blend the colors and to create a very distressed look. 
I love French Blue and I do have a lot of blues around my family room, so the darker blue was working much better. 


Here is the end result:








I think this darker blue works much better in my family room. What do you think? Do you like the transformation?

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