Small keepsake project for a special day

Like the headline already says, today is a special day. Not for you but for us. We have been married for 15 years today. Ca-RA-zay! I honestly can't believe it. Saying it out loud makes me feel so old.

We actually have two anniversaries but pretty much only celebrate our legal anniversary. What I mean by that is that we got married by magistrate a year before our church wedding. We wanted to get married in my home town church, so in order for me to be able to leave the country and come back in, we had to get all the legal stuff done first. So by law and name we are married for 15 years today.

There were only 4 people at the magistrate, the two of us, my mother-in-law and the magistrate, of course. And all the pictures my mother-in-law took turned out really blurry...so we have nothing to show for. Strange isn't it? But we have a ton of photos from our church wedding which was pre-digital times (ugh, I'm old).

After we got married we left for a weekend in Baltimore where they were having Baltimore Preakness celebrations. We had some great days!

Look at us two baby faces. It sometimes seems to me as if those two kids are strangers.

This photo was taken at a crab house in Baltimore.

Well anyways. I just wanted to share a small project with you guys today.

As it so happens, I still have the coaster on which my hubby wrote his phone number on in the bar we met. Yup, we met at a bar and I was 21 years old. I knew the minute I walked into the bar that I wanted to meet the guy leaning against the back of the wall. He was quite the looker (and yes he still is)!

I also still have the movie stub from our first date. He took me to see "The English Patient" because his sister was obsessed with it. Since I was born and raised in Germany I can only say that I don't like WWII movies. But I liked him! ;)

I previously had those two crappy looking pieces of paper hanging in our basement bar, since we met in a bar. But for our anniversary I thought I'd give them a little overhaul.

This is so simple and you can do something like this even if you don't have a silhouette cameo.

All I did is spray paint some old frames white and cut out gold vinyl on my cameo to fit the glass. You can also use spray paint or gold leaf if you don't have vinyl. On the one frame I put the gold behind the glass and on the other frame I stuck it to the front of the glass. It was kind of hard to get the air bubbles out but I did it.

On the one frame I added some gold sharpie detail, sorry but couldn't help myself, you know me.

And here are the mementos in their new frames:

You could also cut out a heart shape instead of the circle and square but I didn't want to get too "schmoopy". Love this word, thanks Seinfeld and I miss you!

So we are not "schmoopy" at all...LOL!

Does anybody else here remember that or am I the only one?

So my King Konya ( I do love him) and I will head out for date night tonight. I think we haven't been out to dinner together since last summer, for real. 

And when he asked me what I wanted for our anniversary I told him that I want a handy man to vent the microwave. So romantic, right? haha. But that's what I truly want and I am receiving. It means so much to me that he picked up the phone and called a contractor who is coming today to get it set up. YAY, I told the hubby that this is what makes me truly happy. 

Come back on Friday for another furniture makeover, ok? And I have to tell you that I loooove this one!

Tschüß

(Youleeya)

Gold and Mint Color Combination

Howdy!

Like I promised on Friday, I'm sharing my mystery Instagram photo project with you today.

Well, well, well…it's my new powder room (I hate that name) mirror! Lets say half bath mirror ;)

After I was unable to hang the craigslist mirror that I picked originally (click here to see), I went on the hunt for another option and I didn't have to look far. Nope, just down the street at Lowes.

I saw this $79 black mirror that they had marked down to $37. Not bad right? But I bought the damaged display mirror and got it even cheaper. The mirror kind of has a Greek key or Asian vibe. Well, definitely Asian when it is black!

I didn't want to go with the black. I decided to go with my favorite color combo right now: mint, gold and white.

So I tried, lets emphasize on tried, to get the mirror out. I was almost done…had removed all the staples and silicone and the stupid thing broke.

Major bummer!

But since I had just removed the standard builder's mirror, I decided to cut that and place it in the mirror instead. So I wouldn't have to buy anything new.

After sanding and cleaning, I primed the frame with some Kilz spray primer.

Then I used Valspar La Fonda Mirage (Geesh what a name) spray paint. 

Doesn't it look great already?

But since I wanted to add a little something different I decided to draw on some gold sharpie lines.

The mirror that I reused was too thick to cut it myself. I tried! So my hubby took it to a glass place and had it cut for $5 to fit back into the frame. All I had to do is glue it into the frame with 100% silicone adhesive. Worked like a charm. 

And I used my favorite Gorilla hooks to hang it above the vanity.

You know what? I don't even mind the vanity top as much anymore. But I'm still hoping that the hubby will find a way to cut the marble from the garage for this vanity. It would look awesome.

I also don't mind mixing the gold with my silver fixtures. I just bought the Pfister waterfall faucet on Overstock last winter and I still love. it. And it also works great as a water slide for lego figures.

I was thinking about replacing my DIY crystal shades with some fabric drum shades but I couldnt find anything yet that I like. They don't bother me though.

For now, I'm pretty happy with the direction that the powder room is heading to, don't you think so?

What have you been up to over the weekend?
I'll share with you on Wednesday what else I got accomplished.


{UPDATE: You can see the finished room by clicking here}

Laters baby, ahh bloggers and webbers ;)

(Youleeya)

Bombay Dog Table Makeover

I don't even know how to start this post after last Friday's tragedy. I'm so deeply saddened by this horrible massacre. How do I, as a parent, get over the fear of sending my child to school? There is a huge damper on my mood this holiday season. I have to keep it together because I don't want to show my children that I'm scared too. My son has already been asking me for a while to be home schooled and he asked me again this weekend. How do you ease your child's mind when you are scared yourself???
It feels ridiculous following my previous paragraph with a DIY project. But this is what I do to compose myself when I'm sad or anxious. I think about projects or design. Projects are therapeutic for me in a way because they help me focus on something else. At night when I can't sleep, instead of worrying about life, I try to think about what I could do around the house next. I sometimes think that if I wouldn't have this as an outlet, I would be depressed. Does this sound strange? I don't know, maybe you feel the same way!

So here is what I have been up to:
Years and years ago I was a huge fan of Bombay Company furniture. The days when they still had stores at the mall. God that seams like a lifetime ago... my taste has changed completely since then.

During that time I purchased this dog, I named him Hugo.

Poor little doggy was kind of beat up and I've been trying to sell him on craigslist, but nobody wanted him. Hmm, I wonder why, haha! Poor little fella.

I need some extra table space during the holidays for people to put their drinks down, so I thought why not give poor Hugo another chance and see if paint could help him out.

I cleaned Hugo and primed him with Kilz spray primer. Then I used some leftover paint to change him up a bit.

Hugo is looking good for the Holidays and he got a super spot for a beverage.

Look at my camera reflection. I'm such a dork!

My son calls him zombie dog because his eyes are white now.
I also thought about painting him yellow after the holidays and putting zombie dog in my son's room. Would be fun ;)

Well anyways, Hugo has a new purpose over the Holidays and I like him for now.

On Saturday I also made the silhouettes for Andrea from Oak Ridge Revival who was the winner of my giveaway. You can still get one for yourself as a last minute gift in my Etsy shop.

Yesterday, I was out with the stomach bug and I'm still not back to normal this morning.

What have you been up to over the weekend? How do you deal with this tragedy in your home? Did you talk to your children? If so what did you say?

Talk to you on Wednesday.

Vintage 1965 Thomasville Chairs

How was your weekend? Mine was spent at wrestling again. Saturday and Sunday!
The kids were excited that it was finally the first of December and they could start opening their advent calendars. When my son was a toddler I actually had a homemade calendar with 24 individually wrapped presents. Now that my kids are older and in the Lego craze, all they want is a Lego calendar. Star Wars for Noa and Lego Friends for Lilly.
The only thing that bothers me about the calendars is that it makes them get up earlier to open their next door, haha! But they are special memories and I cherish them.

Today I want to share a project with you. A while ago I purchased these two 1965 vintage Thomasville chairs.

I really like the curves in their shape and of course my first instinct was to paint them white once again with a turquoise damask fabric but then I saw this fun, multi-colored striped fabric and remembered my favorite orange color that I had left in the garage. And voila this is what I came up with after the usual sanding, cleaning and priming.

The upholstering was a little tricky, because I had to keep the stripes perfectly straight.

I love them I think they are fun. Aren't they? I can picture them in a kids room, at a small bistro table in a kitchen or maybe in an all white or plain office where they'd stand out.
They will be available in my Etsy store soon. I think I want to take some more nice photos first.

LOVE this fabric, don't you?

Talk to on Wednesday,

linking up to:

Primitive and Propper
Miss Mustard Seed's Furniture Feature Friday

Mirrors with a yucky surprise!

Happy Friday blogger friends! I can't believe that my mom's stay is almost over. I will spend this weekend with her knowing that I won't see her again until next summer. I hate to even think about it.
It certainly has been a different vacation for her. Our usual shopping trips were crossed by Sandy and some of our favorite stores like HomeGoods are still closed and without power. Oh well, I guess this saves us money, right? The kids were off from school all week and the hubby had picked the worst week for vacation. It's almost funny if you think about it.

I wanted to wait with a post about my two mirrors and their final destination but then I started with the project and just couldn't wait to share what I discovered.
Here are the two mirrors that I bought two weeks ago and what they looked like before.

So I decided to clean and prime them and when I opened the back to take the mirrors out, I had a horrible surprise waiting for me. I screamed soooo loud. Gag!

There were maggots feeding on dead stink bugs. 

For real, I'm not kidding. I don't even know how they got there...sandwiched between the backing and mirror. I still get goose bumps thinking about it. YUCK! YUCK! YUCK!

After disposing of the disgusting mess I cleaned the frame with TSP cleaner, waited until they dried and then primed them with Kilz spray paint primer.

The mirror already looks so much better, doesn't it?

I couldn't resist spray painting the one mirror with one of my favorite spray paint colors. It's the same color that I sprayed these lamps with. The color is Hacienda Tile by Valspar but I like to call it tangerine. That's what it looks like to me. It's not red and not orange.

The second mirror is still white and I'm not sure if I'll keep it white or if I'll use color. I want to use one of them in my powder room.

Besides the yucky surprise I do love these 2 mirrors. Isn't the color great?

Have a great weekend und guten Tag!