Garden Envy

A trip through my sister's functional, natural, and awe-inspiring garden. End of July 2011.

 

And the fairy garden...

...complete with a "pink" house!

Shoes, Frills, Mannequins, and a Pinkalicious Table

My sewing room is finally functional! I have tables, an inspiration board, and of course, a shoe display. It was a lot of fun to put together too. This has been a dream for a long time, and I can't wait to start enjoying it. Here is how it came about (but first some more pictures):

The molding to make the shoe display was in the living room when we moved in. See it here.

I purchased this table at a garage sale in Kalamazoo, MI back in June for $40 thinking I may use it as my new dining room table. I thought the rectangle shape would fit better in my kitchen. I think it has found a much better place now. It also has leaves so I can pull it out for Thanksgiving.

The first few coats of "pinkalicious" turned out like this:

 While the zebra-like effect of the wood showing through was cool, it was not what I was originally going for. After about 4 more coats it was finally looking just the right pink. 

Now for my cork board project. I knew I wanted a large cork board in my sewing room to use as an inspiration board. I want to pin up magazine clippings, fabric scraps, pictures, etc. At first I imagined a nearly wall to wall size. Then I found this frame with a mirror inside. 

My sister and I were at Alice's Antiques in Lansing, MI when we spotted it. We were torn between this one and a similar one, the similar one holding a broken mirror. We talked the shop guy into switching out the mirrors so he could keep the good one and give us a heck of a deal ($20). I bought the cork board at Hobby Lobby for $11. To complete this project I needed a staple gun. T.J. and I drove over to Menards and picked up this "iWork" brand gun for $5 on sale. And wouldn't you know it, it works like a charm. 

The fabric is from Joann's and was the inspiration for the color scheme in this room. 

Bench Happy

Besides being obessed with anything that is on casters and can roll, I have been quite into benches lately. I have never before owned a bench and in the past 2 weeks I have acquired 4 of them. 

This first one came from a garage sale in West Lafayette ($5) and is in desperate need of repainting.

I also bought, painted, and made a cushion for this cheetah topped bench featured here.

Then, my parent's gave me this one. As you can see it is in rough shape. I am hoping T.J. will be nice enough to fix it up for me someday.

I found this next beauty at a garage sale this past weekend with my mom. When I saw the legs resembled the lines on my new vanity, I just had to have it. I thought I would put it at the end of my bed originally but have since found a better spot for it.

I thought it needed a little sprucing up so I took off the bench seat...

 

... spray painted the legs brown, and recovered the seat to match my new couch pillows.

I think she turned out pretty cute myself. :-)

 

And she looks pretty perfect in my foyer. Now I just need to paint the walls and find a rug!