Lately I've been succumbing to my creative cravings thanks to a switch in gears and a need to fill a gaping hole in my heart. I never thought of myself as a creative person in my younger years and definitely never felt like I do now when I thumb through a "Before and After" magazine. I LOVE finding things that I can make beautiful. This craving all started when I met Jeff and he introduced me to yard sales. From there it branched out into thrift stores, consignment, estate sales etc... It also has to do with the fact that I'm a SAHM that loves feeling rich without the price tag attached. Here's a couple of things that I've found lately and that I love! The shoes look really cute with all the polka dot stuff I own at the moment. I'm in love with polka dots.
And here's a couple of pieces of furniture that I redid. The dresser was ugly!! I bought it for $30 at an estate sale, painted it black and added silver knobs. It works perfectly in my bedroom. The hutch was a dark UGLY painted brown I payed $30 for it too. Splash a couple of coats of white paint and wallah it looks pretty. I did these a few years ago.
This picture was taken in our basement before it was finished. I bought that vanity for $5. It was bright pink. I distressed it, added crystal knobs, painted "you are beautiful" in red and in french. Someone bought it for $250. (I'm totally bummed that I didn't do a better job of taking pictures. I wish I had more before and after shots)
So this love of mine has been on the back burner while we fixed up our house, decluttered, and got it staged to sale. (Which I actually enjoyed doing quite a bit)
And then.... I got an itch during the Relief Society General Broadcast and
President Uchtdorf gave his amazing talk. It stirred my soul, BIG TIME. I wanted to do a project, but what? Days after his talk my mind and heart kept pondering on what I could do to follow through with his council. And then finally it came to me, sneak into my friends duplex and redo her place while she was out. Of coarse!!! I'd been wanting so much to do something for someone else and forget all my sadness. I was giddy with excitement at my idea but knew that I had to call in reinforcements because it wasn't going to be a one woman job. I pitched the idea to some of our friends:
and they happily agreed to the collaboration. Long story short... we pulled it off!!! My dear friend made my heart flutter with delight when she walked through her home completely in tears, finding it cleaned, organized, and decorated. I can't even begin to tell you the joy that I felt and still feel every time I think back to what we accomplished together and what the CREATION did for her spirits.
Go
here to see pictures. (The curtains by the bookshelf were made from a queen sheet I found at Value Village and some fabric I picked out at JoAnns. Missy designed a sewed them. Thank goodness for her!!!! Thanks again. And we went crazy with storage baskets and containers. I love those you know. )
This project was so good for me. Its helped me to throw myself into something I love and now I can't get enough. I loved the lamp that I redid for my friend and went to Value Village to get the other one. When I saw it for the first time I knew exactly what it would look like if I gave it a little TLC.
All of this creating is so fun but sometimes I get a "little of balance". When I did the bazaar we had chicken nuggets every night for a month, and my house was definitely unrepresentable. I think its wise to do something that I love while raising my family but I do have to be careful that my priorities don't get pushed aside. So easy for me to do sometimes.
Jeff was a huge help with the lamp. He's more mechanically minded than I am so I took advantage.
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