New Uses for Everyday Things

Have you ever felt like you don't have enough room in your house to store your seasonal decorations?  Have you accumulated so much stuff that you feel like Clark Griswold?  I've felt like this for awhile now, so I've been working really hard at trying to get rid of some of my seasonal decor.  With Fall just around the corner (even though Fall in the Porter house officially began September 1st!), this is the perfect time to try and scale down your Fall and Winter decorations.  This past weekend we hosted a yard sale and I sold 10 of my fake pumpkins...TEN!  *Gasp*  Don't worry my fellow Fall fanatics...I still have 14 fake pumpkins on display around the house...but they are small pumpkins and I promise you they don't take up much room ;)

A few of my pumpkins on display...

In order to scale down my decorations, I'm taking up a new motto --- get creative and decorate with what you have.  You don't need to go out and buy new decorations when there are so many ways to decorate with basic household items :)

A cake stand can be used as a candle holder!  Shhh...don't tell my husband
that I used his hacksaw to cut the candle down to the right height ;)

A teacup can be used as a topiary.  Just put something
on top to add a little seasonal flare!

A plate can be used as a welcome sign!  Just use
an Expo marker and write a sweet note!

Anybody else have a new use for an everyday item?  Send me a picture and I'll post it on my blog!

Any Given Sunday

Any given Sunday our house could look like this...

Project central.

Spray paint is usually my weapon of choice...it can cure anything.  I learned this trick from my mama ;)  She spray paints everything.  This past weekend, however, I decided to put away my spray can and tackle something a little more....um...challenging...restoring an antique dresser!

The banged up dresser.

This summer I bought a beat up ol' dresser from an antique store in NC for 70 bucks.  Y'all, it looked awful.  It was beyond banged up and had more dimples in it than a golf ball.  Even though it needed some serious TLC, I decided to buy it anyway because of its oh-so-beautiful french drawers.  They were curved and had the most unique hardware I'd ever seen.  Needless to say, another project was quickly born and I was going to do my best to restore the dresser to its original condition.  If the restoration failed, I knew I could always paint it :)

Here's the step by step process...

Sanding with my mouse sander!  It worked like a charm!

Sanded top.

I love this little hook on the top...it adds so much character ;)

Sanded drawers.

Red mahogany stain.  Should have used gloves.

Stained dresser.

Stained dresser with semi-gloss polyurethane.

I filled in all the bumps and dings with wood filler prior to staining.
You can see the difference if you compare this picture to
the first picture of the dresser up top.

And I still love the hook!

And its curvy drawers!

We put the dresser in the front hallway and added decorations ;)

The project took 1 full day to finish.  I love how it turned out and I'm already organizing the drawers with all my knickknacks!

Bailey's Birthday

Birthday Waffle!

Our little girl has grown up before our very eyes!  She turned 2 this past week, which is 14 in doggie years!  Her birthday kind of snuck up on us, so we didn't really "plan" an evening for her like we did last year.  We ended up just making her the same thing we had for dinner...waffles!

She finished her meal in about 5 seconds...

After dinner she was given a relaxing doggie scritch from Dad.

*Not Pictured...Bailey throwing up her birthday waffle later that evening ;)  Doggies are just like humans, when you eat too much too fast, sometimes you have to pay for it later :)  Woops!  Sorry Bazie...we'll do real doggie treats next year!