How to make an EASY bedskirt! Mine is PINK! :)

I thought I'd show/tell you how I made my bed skirt. I didn't want to go into a full fledged sewing mode when I made these, but there is some sewing involved. First let me say I had this lovely fabric that resembled smocking on a little girls dress, only a much more loose interpretation...and it was PINK. :) Can you guys tell I REALLY love pink? I didn't want to have to hem it and destroy the look of the fabric so I just folded it in half lengthwise to make it have a "bubble" bottom. In other words, there is no bottom seam, I just made the fold the bottom of the bed skirt. I measured the distance from the top of my box springs to the floor to know how long to make the bed skirt.

Here's a pic of the bubble bottom.




I measured the sides and the bottom length of my mattress and then doubled those numbers to get the length of fabric needed to go all the way around the bed with some ruffle to it. (you could even triple them, but I didn't want my bed skirt too full because I wanted to see the tucks on the fabric) After I got the distance around, I sewed shirring tape around the top of the bed skirt, you have to do two seams....one at the top and one at the bottom so it will lay right when you start pulling the strings from inside the shirring tape. For those of you that have never used shirring tape, it's basically a flat piece of fabric with two strings made inside it. You sew it on flat to whatever it is you want to gather and then pull the two strings to gather it. You just have to be careful not to run over into the area the strings are at when sewing or you won't be able to pull the strings. :)

Here's what it looks like when it's sewn into place and you've pulled the strings. OH, be sure and start shirring from both sides so you'll have a good length of strings on both sides so you don't pull the strings all the way out from one side...that would NOT be good! lol :) I have even pulled them out on one side and tied them together so there's no chance of pulling them completely out from the other side.




After you get the shirring tape all nice and gathered, making sure it's the same length as the two sides and bottom of your mattress then you can put it on. I used little upholstery pins to put mine on. They have a little spiral pin part that you just twist through your fabric and into wherever you want your fabric to pin to. I pinned mine directly to my box spring, making sure the length was right all the way around!

Here's an upholstery pin in place.




Here's the bed skirt pinned on and ready to go. I didn't have mine fully pinned in this last picture..you can still see some of my shirring tape, but it gives you the idea. :)



It's a very simple, custom bed skirt you can make to match any decor. I know you can buy bed skirts, but sometimes you just need something that isn't available......like pink, smocked fabric! :)

I'm linking this to Beverly's Pink Saturday @ How Sweet the Sound
Oh and don't forget to enter my giveaway here. I will announce the winner on Monday!

Blessings
Melissa

Treasure & Trinkets Thursday Link-up....My little boy's chair

Welcome to Thursdays Treasure & Trinkets Linky Party!
Easy rules!
Link up what you love
Link back to my blog &
Post my button

One of the schools in my district was remodeling a while back and I was able to score an "old school" desk for my son's room, but they didn't have any chairs. (and yes, I did get the desk from beside the dumpster...they were throwing tons of them away!) tsk! tsk! I went ahead and cleaned up the desk and put it in his room knowing I would eventually find a chair to go with it. I went to my favorite shop not long ago, looking for some glassware for my kitchen, when lo & behold look what I found....THE perfect chair to go with his desk! I forked over my 20 bucks and took it home for it's beauty parlor makeover. :-)

Poor thing needed some attention....it was filthy dirty and had a little sharp edge from where someone had been a little too rough with it at some point



I hammered down the sharp edge and filed it down with a file till it was smooth.




I scrubbed it and sanded it down with some medium grit sandpaper, wiped it down really good and began to paint.




Since I was painting it red, like the original color, I didn't bother priming. (yay, I got to skip a step!)



Drum roll please.........ddddddrrrrrddddddrrrrrddddrrrrr.................

Here it is sitting in my son's room behind the little desk I found earlier. Don't ya love the old pencil sharpener! It's the kind that holds the pencil for you while you turn...we use it ALL the time. My little guy sits at his "new" desk and chair almost everyday while we're homeschooling.
I LOVE IT! Not too bad for 20 bucks and two cans of paint. (Krylon paint, by they way)



Don't forget to link up something today!
I linked up to the POPP @ domestically speaking

Blessings
MELISSA

I WISH WE STILL WORE THESE! (& GIVEAWAY)

Do you ever wish you could go back in time? I have days where I wish we lived in a simpler time....(insert birds chirping and sweet music playing here) when ladies sported beautiful hats with exceptional flowers and feather plumes, when everyone wore little white gloves that came just to the wrist with pearly white buttons and crisp cuffs and had little boxy purses dangling from said wrists. Ahhhh..........how simple and elegant a period in time. SCREEECCHHHH......OK, back to reality! Yeah I do wish we lived in simpler times and did get to wear all that great stuff, but since we don't, it sure is lovely to decorate with it! :)

To create this vignette that I put on top of my armoire (you know, the laminate to lovely post.. if you'd like to read about it, you can find here.) I took the UGLIEST hat boxes you've ever seen (really!) and covered them with the paintable wallpaper you can get just about anywhere that sells wallpaper. I used the pattern that looks like old ceiling tin. You can leave it white, like I did, or paint it to match your decor.





Anyway, I stacked two of those together and have a lovely vintage hat my mom gave me pinned on top with a hat pin (what else!) :) I just laid the dainty gloves and old rose made from chiffon on the rim of the bottom hatbox. And, voila' a sweet little vignette perfect for any area of the house.




Here's an up close look at the gloves and hat....I love it when you can tell something has a little age to it....can you see the signs of time on the hat and gloves..... you can tell it has some history. I love it when my things have a voice and can speak to me of days gone by. I like to imagine my little hat and gloves being worn by a sweet young lady on her way to church...maybe that's the hat she was wearing when she met the man she would one day marry........who knows, but it sure is fun to imagine!

What do your cherished items say to you?
Don't forget to enter my giveaway here......I will announce the winner on Monday, May 3rd...good luck to everyone that's entered! :)
I'm linking up to:
Show & Tell @ My Romantic Home

Have a blessed day!
MELISSA

Treasures and Trinkets Linky Party... One of My True Treasures & GIVEAWAY

I know I usually do some kind of before and after decorating piece on my Treasures and Trinkets party, but this week my son went to the prom, so I decided I wanted to showcase HIM as my treasure....that's allowable right? After all, he's one of my biggest treasures. :)

His name is Lincoln and he has a heart made of pure gold! He's going to go to school this fall to be a youth pastor....how much more could a mom ask for?! :-)
Here's my Treasure before prom.....
ain't he the cutest thing! :)



Right after this picture was taken, he did his best OO7 impression for me, "shaken, not stirred." (It was really good too!) lol

Lincoln went with a buddy of his from our youth group....they both wanted to go to prom, but neither really wanted a date, so they decided to go together as buddies. (that was FINE by me! lol)



This is Lincoln and his buddy Laurie...taking a seat on the sidewalk. They both have wonderful, bubbly personalities as you can see in the next picture.



Okay, thanks for indulging a momma's heart and letting her show off one of her true treasures in life.

Oh, just one more picture! :)

What do you have that you love or treasure, that you would like to link up this week? It can be anything at all.............your favorite dish, a blooming rose in your garden...it's up to your heart what you want to show. :)

Only a couple of rules.

1. link up something you love (or a great find too...I LOVE those!)

2. link back to my blog (just so others can find their way back)

3. grab my button

Ok, that's it! Now Link up!

OH, don't forget to sign up for my giveaway here!!! It's gonna be a good one...you won't want to miss it! I'm so excited!!!

I linked up to:

Favorite Things Friday @ A Few of My Favorite Things

Blessings
Melissa

Giveaway, giveaway, giveaway and lamp re-do

Okay.... here it is, the long awaited giveaway! (ok, it's not that long, I announced it Friday!) lol

I am so excited, giddy actually, to be holding my very first giveaway. The wonderful people over at CSNstores.com have generously offered an item from their vast array of goodness to give away on my blog. If you haven't checked them out before, you really should go over and look. They have over 200 stores and have items that range from cookware & garden items to track lighting and area rugs! A HUGE inventory to choose from! So huge that I spent hours pouring over their website trying to decide on one item I thought you would like....it was SO hard! In fact, I couldn't pick out just one.............so, I chose three! :) I figured that way when you won, you could just pick ONE item from the three I picked out..... I know you guys like to shop, and this way you get to "shop" for your own prize! :) Okay, are you ready to see the three items you get to pick from when you win??

Here we go!

The first item I picked was this wonderful set of 4 PINK goblets! I know how you all are with your glassware and then of course it's pink...who doesn't love pink! I can see you guys now, sitting out on your patio, relaxing with your pink glasses filled with wonderful summertime lemonade. (well you might not get to relax if your kiddos are running around, but at least you'll have some lovely glasses to drink from!)

The next item I chose was this AMAZING clock! (I secretly want this one for myself, but figured you guys would enjoy it too) :) It just looks so french and yummy! I especially love that worn, decorative patina and oh those roses!! Don't we all love our roses!? It's 14" wide...a nice size for any room of the house!

The third item you get to choose from is this BergHOFF Bianco oval baker. I thought this would look wonderful in all our kitchens....especially with a nice big cobbler all baked up inside of it! :) It's 11.5" x 7.5".....big enough for a good sized cobbler!!!

Okay......here's what you have to do to win!

You'll have up to 5 chances to win...here they are!

1. Be my follower and leave a comment.

2. Blog about it and leave me the url back to the post, leave another comment

3. Take my button and post it on your blog, enter again

4. Follow me on facebook you get one more entry

5. Twitter about it, you get another entry

Leave a separate comment for each of these you choose to participate in. :)

Please leave me your email address with each entry, so I can get in touch with the winner. The giveaway will remain open until May 3rd. I will use a random number generator to pick the winner on that day.

Good Luck and Tell Your Friends!!

Remember you get to pick only ONE prize from the three listed above! I hope you win!

Okay...now to the lamp makeover.

I got a set of lamps from the dollar store for $7 bucks each! (they were supposed to be $10, but when I got to the register they rang up for $7...... yay me!) They were a bronze color when I bought them, actually a nice color, but not what I needed. (sorry there are no before pics....I bought em' before I started blogging) Anyway, I decided to paint them white. I taped off the little inlaid mirrors on both lamps and primed and painted, but when I took off the tape it pulled off some of the paint...I loved it! lol I know mistakes usually don't work, but this one was great! It had some of the dark coming through just around the edges....it looked very shabby chic...and intentional! :)

The lamp shades that came with the lamps were a creamy color and just wouldn't do with my new white paint job. I found these pink chenille ones at Lowes for.....are you ready for this?....on clearance for $1.75! I got the last two in my store! (whew, that was too close!) I went to JoAnn Fabrics and bought the lovely white boa for, I think it was $6.00, pretty cheap to do two lamps. I hot glued the boa around the lampshade............here's the results!

I plopped my lampshade on top of my painted lamps and walla....here they are! Two custom lamps for less than $25.00! Aren't they so cottage-y and ethereal?! I love em'~!

Hope you guys have a great day and don't forget about the giveaway.... follow, blog, take my button, twitter and facebook.....then win!!! :)

Linking up to:

Met Monday @ BNOTP

DIY project parade @ DIY Show Off

Show off your Cottage Monday @ The house in the roses

It's So Very Creative @ It's So Very Cheri

Just something I whipped up @ The Girl Creative

Fireflies and Jellybeans

Get your craft on @ Todays Creative Blog

DIY Day @ ASPTL

Power of Paint @ Domestically Speaking

Strut Your Stuff @ Somewhat Simple

Show & Share Day @ Just a Girl

Show & Tell @ My Romantic Home

Pink Saturday @ How Sweet the Sound

Blessings
MELISSA

I know something you don't know!!! :-) Read on to find out what it is!

I have some exciting news to share with you!!! I have my very first giveaway coming up soon! CSNstores.com has generously offered to supply my wonderful fellow bloggers, readers and followers with a fabulous gift, via a giveaway. This is one huge place, over 200 stores and they carry SO many items...I'm not kidding you! I've been pouring over their websites to find just the right thing I want to pick for you! You wanna know a secret??..........I couldn't pick just one thing, so if you're the winner, you get to choose ONE out of the three irresistible items that I've chosen. (I know I like to shop, I figured you'd like to shop (or at least pick) from a number of items too!) I can't tell you what they are just yet, you'll have to come back and see for yourselves! Hee hee hee!! (can you tell I'm giddy?) I'll be posting the giveaway on Monday of next week, so stay tuned!!!! Tell your friends too...they're gonna wanna see the cool things I've found!

Blessings & Hugs
MELISSA

Treasures & Trinkets Thursday Time!!! Yippee~ YOU'RE INVITED FOR TEA!

1. Link up something you love (and own)
2. Link it back to my post
3. grab my button

That's it....too easy! I'm trying a new Linky tool this week, tell me what ya think! :)


COME TO MY HOUSE FOR TEA... :-)

I wanted to share my silver tea service with you and tell you the history of some of my items.

My mom gave me the actual tea set and tray....isn't it lovely?
See the sugar bowl full of dried roses?? Those are the roses my hubby bought me for our 25th wedding anniversary....so special! (and YES, I am a lucky girl!)




See this tea cup? My hubby bought this for me from here.......




......The Biltmore Estate in Ashville, NC....we took our last vacation there. I took this picture as we were driving away at the end of a very lovely day. If you've never been there, you should go, it's amazing! I'll have to do a blog about our trip there sometime, I got some great garden shots! This place was built for two people....a baby came along later, but seriously....two people!




This little sugar scuttle, that's holding candy, came from a place right here in my town.



This is it....it's called Ward Hall. It's open to the public on occasion (for a fee, of course) and we went at Christmas time. They have things you can purchase and silent auctions...very fun. This is an amazing Antebellum home built in 1856, and the detail in architecture is amazing!! I bought the little server when we visited there. It's really nice to go during the Christmas season, they serve hot cider and finger foods as you tour the grand old home.




I borrowed this pic from the Ward Hall website. I couldn't find the photographers name, but wanted to give them credit for the pic. :)

Hope you enjoyed going down memory lane with me as we took a tour of my tea set treasures!

Have a blessed day!


MELISSA

From Laminate to Lovely..........and YOU can do it too!

I want to show you a project I did a while back. It turned out so nice and I enjoyed it so much, I thought you might like to do it as well. :)

I had an old laminate armoire from, I believe it was Walmart, yep...the one that looks like fake wood. I started to get rid of it on several occasions because I disliked it so much. but one day I decided I would try to do something with it before I tossed it out for good..........I'm so glad I did!

I don't have a before picture of the whole thing, but this is one I cropped out of another picture..it's the inside of one of the upper doors.

I found this picture on ebay..it looked a LOT like this..

only not even that nice.

:)

Now this is the inside of the door now.....

HUGE difference wouldn't you say?! :)

 

I went to Lowes and asked a paint associate what kind of primer to use and he gave me one that is meant for very slick surfaces....even glass. I don't remember the name of it because it was a while back and I used every last drop, but it was at Lowes and they can help you with that if you just ask. :)

I painted the whole cabinet with that primer and then gave it two coats of an eggshell finish, white latex paint. I had this pretty pink striped wallpaper left over from another project and used it to go on the front panels and the inside and shelves.

Here's a pic of the paper in place. The roses on the paper are just cut out of some wrapping paper I found.... I just used modge podge

 to put it in place. :)

On the inside of each of the upper doors I took some foam core and cut it to the same size as the inset on the door. I padded it with some quilt batting and then put some beautiful fabric over it and added crossed ribbons for a memory board effect. I held them into place with some t-pins pushed into the foam core on the sides. Then I just used some velcro and held the whole thing into place. You could also use contruction adhesive, like liquid nails if you'd like, I just had the velcro on hand.

Here's a close-up of the padded insert. Oh yeah, I added the buttons in the center of the crossed ribbons and also put on new crystal knobs. I think those knobs add a lot, don't you? (The mask was a birthday gift from my hubby when he went on a business trip to New Orleans...it's hand made.) :)

Here's the finished product! It took a while to paint it all out, but I think you'll agree it was well worth the time and effort and much better than throwing it out! :)

Hope this gives you some inspiration to re-make something in your house that you don't like and turn it into one of your favorite pieces. :)

I'm linking up to:

Make it for Monday @ Cottage Instincts

Met Mondays @ BNOTP

Show off your Cottage @ The house in the roses

DIY Project Parade @ DIY Show off

DIY Day @ A soft place to land

It's So Very Renovated @ It's so very Cheri

Trash to Treasure @ Reinvented

MELISSA

I'm participating in

Guess Where My Guys Got to Go? My hubby won something GOOD!!! :)

Do these faces look happy?? They have good reason to have those smiles! My hubby entered a NATION WIDE contest and guess what he won??




He won these babies right here!!!



Two tickets to the championship NCAA game and two passes to meet the players, coaches etc before the game. He also won a one nights stay at an Indianapolis hotel. How exciting is that!!! :-) They were two happy guys! He was actually just trying to win a UK hat! lol!! We live in KY, so our team was already out, but wow what a season they had....they're already winners in our book!


Their seats were in section 329....right on the half court line! :)


I don't think I've ever seen my guys more excited than they were when they found out my hubby won! They were rooting for Butler, but as we all know that didn't happen. They did have a great time though and got to spend some quality father/son time together. That's what really counts anyway. :)
Hope you have a blessed day
Melissa

Treasures and Trinkets Thursday......My Bed Tray!!

Welcome to our weekly Treasures and Trinkets Thursday!
You know the drill....
1. Link up something you love
2. Put a link on your post back to mine
3. Grab my button.

Now lets go!

This is the bed tray I put on my bed every morning after making it up. Some people say I'm crazy for going to all the trouble of putting a little more than a 1/2 dozen pillows and this bed tray on our bed everyday, but I say if it makes me happy....why not?! :)
Anyway, here it is.....I wanted to share it with my buddies.....that would be you guys! LOL

I bought the tray at a yard sale AGES ago and painted it white....it now has some definite age to it...and I like that.




I have it full of things that make me smile. See the fan, a friend gave that to me for my birthday many years ago. The feather pen in the green ink well is the pen my husband and I used for our guests to sign in at our wedding.





My mom gave me one of these paper weights and the one with the photo, was a friend of our families who has since passed away.




These glasses belonged to an uncle from my mom's side of the family......poor guy must have been blind cause these puppies are THICK! :)





I love old books, these are few that I just tied up with a ribbon and topped off with a little cherub from long ago.




I hope you enjoyed the tour of my bedtray! :)
Have a blessed day & link up!
Blessings
MELISSA

Sorry guys...

Sorry I haven't done a posting in a couple of days, I hurt my back working in the yard and haven't been feeling so great. We are having a fence installed and I, being the overachiever that I am, decided to take on too much outside lifting rock, buildings raised flower beds etc etc etc...now I'm paying for it. :) I will get back into the groove of things in the next day or so...please bear with me. I love you guys and can't wait to show you my fence and all the befores and afters of my patio....once there is an after. :-D My hubby stayed home from work today to give me a hand around here. :)
Blessings and I'll be back soon. (knowing me probably later tonight or tomorrow!!) LOL
Melissa

Spring Cleaning

I don't know about the rest of you, but I've been spring cleaning this week and I'm whipped! I didn't know so much gunk could gather under a washer and dryer in such a short period of time! I hadn't had breakfast yet when I started cleaning the utility room and discovered a new diet....you totally lose your appetite after cleaning goo from under appliances.....yes, I did skip breakfast! BLAH!! LOL

I thought I would share some of the pics I took while cleaning my room and making my bed. My bed is high off the ground and fat & fluffy when I make it up..I thought you might like to see how it gets so full and fluffed up. :) Since I had been cleaning like a mad woman and everything was nice and sparkling, I thought this would be a good time to break out my new sheets! There is just nothing else in the whole world like sliding down beneath a new set of sheets and snuggling into all those blankies.... Ahhhhh..........makes me want to go to bed, but I'll finish this post first! :)



Okay, here is my naked mattress awaiting it's great make-over! :)

Here are my new, wonderful, pink, high thread count sheets!! They're calling my name!

I start by putting on the fitted sheet, like everyone else does! :-) Then I put on the flat sheet, but when you put on that one, make sure you leave enough at the top to fold down over all your other blankets etc when you get them on.

This is a wonderful woven, thermal blanket that I've had forever, but it's still in great shape and very soft and warm........so it goes next!

After the thermal, I have a big, thick, soft, incredibly fluffy, down filled comforter. I use this all year long. (I do take off the thermal blanket during the summer months, but this I use all the time)

Here is where I fold down the flat sheet to make a nice envelope effect at the top of the bed. Just makes it look nice and neat and also keeps everything in place. My mom used to use very large safety pins and pin all this together....it made it SO much easier to make up in the mornings....it was all pinned together, nice & neat. I tuck everything under the mattress at this point on three sides.

Here is my super lovely chenille bedspread. I have used this thing forever and it stays beautiful, even after repeated washings. :)

Next are my many, many pillows! I use two large white matlesse' pillow shams in the back (kinda hard to see in this pic), then I put on my two shams from TJ Maxx, called Ribbon Posey. Then I layer on my accent pillows.

I love the little ties on the blue gingham one. See the pretty little pink, neckroll pillow? My mom took my little guy home with her one day and they came back with this pillow that she had helped him make for me. That makes this one special pillow! :)

Last but not least is my bed tray.....every bed needs one of those..........don't you think? :) I'm gonna do a post on just the bed tray later. :) It has some really cute things on it!

I'm glad you were with me while I was doing some spring cleaning..........see I think of you guys all the time...even when I'm cleaning house! :)

I'm linking to:

Make it for Monday @ Cottage Instincts

Met Monday @ BNOTP

Show off your cottage Monday @ The House in the Roses

Thrifty Decor Chic

Hope you enjoyed helping me make my bed.. Have a blessed day!
MELISSA