A Gift Wrapped Life

Anyone who knows me knows that I fully believe in the mantra "Presentation is everything". I love to gift wrap, always have, always will. I think gift bags are of the devil and I know that gift bag "recycling" is the norm, but if you ever give me one don't expect to ever see it again. Trust me I am doing the environment a favor by getting rid of them. Of course I'm joking (sort of), but I really do love a perfectly wrapped present and I found the perfect blog to give you some tips and tricks on how to do it. You can thank me later....

A Gift Wrapped Life

They have collections available so that you can have your own private gift wrapping stash. Everyone needs one. And trust me you're going to need lots of ribbon!

Cute Little Acorn Patootie

I have discovered that acorns are about the cutest tiny little (non-living) thing in nature. Who knew? I discovered this on my recent trip to Northern Arizona. I don't get much exposure to natural wildlife and nature anymore, so this time I was on a mission to take it all in. Really LOOK around. Find the beauty in everything! But my favorite has got to be these precious little acorns. I first found them outside the cabin we were staying at. I would find a couple on the ground, but only a few that were still in tact.

They start out this green color on the trees...



and then turn to a nice caramel brown color. And I think this is typically when they fall off the tree.

By the time you find them on the ground they RARELY look like this. You will typically find 100 acorn tops lying around and 75 acorn bottoms lying around. How do I come up with this math scenerio you might ask? Well you pick up about 200 acorn tops and bottoms off the ground, you take them inside and you start gluing all the tops back on them, and you end up with way more tops then bottoms. Hey, I was just doing nature a favor. After all, this is what they are supposed to look like...

And my husband just drives me to Joanns to buy my a glue gun on vacation because this is something that I NEED to do. Good man.

(all pictures found on Flickr because frankly their photography is alot better than mine)

Treasured uncovered

I love my Pottery Barn and Ballard Designs catalogs. I don't actually buy anything from them, never have. I just flip through them about 25 times for inspiration. No really. While looking through them the other day I realized wow, I really do have alot of the items in these catalogs. Some coincidence and some I just straight up copy because I'm cheap like that. I would love to be able to purchase things out of these catalogs, but you know what I think it is more gratifying searching and waiting and laboring over something that is really a treasure once you finish it or find it.

Take this Ballard Designs bulletin board for instance, theirs is $299 for the largest one...

I have wanted one for a really long time until I finally scored the perfect frame at a garage sale for $10, went to Home Depot for a piece of quarter inch plywood, which happened to come in the size I needed so I didn't have to cut it. I purchased spray adhesive and a roll of cork from Michaels and whalla!

And then I spotted this wood caddy in the Ballard Designs catalog and said I have one like that!

Theirs is $49...

Mine was $4 at a garage sale and I use it for magazines in the [ahem] restroom.


And I bought a cookbook holder just like this one the other day at Marshalls, mine was $9.99 and theirs is $39.

And hey, the lamp base below looks alot like the ones I got at a garage sale a couple weeks ago for $2 each,

and this is $79 at Ballard Designs....

But the best one has got to be this one, remember our new kitchen set that a kind stranger gave to us!

Ballard's is $1907. without the end armchairs! HOLY TOLEDO!

The moral of the story is keep your eyes open, you never know what you might find!

What is it worth?

I was sitting at my mom's house the other day flipping thru her Country Living magazine. I screamed when I saw the following picture...

...because here is what it said next to the picture "What is it worth? PAINTED IRON URNS
This early-20th-century Campagna-style urn is made of iron and is valued at $750 a pair, says appraiser Helaine Fendelman."

Well butter my biscuits, guess what I happen to have a pair of?

You can see why I was so excited! Mine are identical to the one in their picture!! You wouldn't believe where I got these urns- Dale's Feed Store, yeah I don't know pretty weird but they sell a bunch of wrought iron rusty things like this outside. When I told my husband he said "Well call that appraiser lady and find out where we can sell these things for $750!" haha. I happen to really like them and am not quite ready to part with them yet.

Before and After Buffet

My sweet husband went last Sunday and picked up this buffet for me on Craigslist. I need to send him more often because he talked her down $10. He told her he didn't even want it - HA! I knew it would look perfect with our kitchen set once I refinished it.

Had some work to do on the crossbar because her dog chewed it.

No problem, I took my measurements to Home Depot and had them cut 1x2 pieces to fit so I wouldn't have to cut them. Glued and screwed them in place, did a mild sanding on the whole piece, painted it a cream color that I got from the OOPS paint at Home Depot for $5. Finally I distressed it by rubbing on and wiping off dark stain, sanding the edges in a couple spots then applied stain to those spots and that's it!

Its still missing a couple knobs. I'm not sure if I want to replace them all or just the missing ones on the doors.

My new $2 lamps seem to fit right in!

What do you think?

Vino Bag

When my sister was in town we went to Pottery Barn. I spotted this awesome burlap wine bag on display way up on a shelf. Tracked down a salesperson to get one for me. Of course it was the last one left and it had no pricetag. After looking it up found out the price was $10. I know not alot, but sorry - not worth the money. Especially when I knew I could make it. So the lovely salesperson was nice enough to hold the bag for me to make sure I got every detail so I could make my own (she was actually thinking that was a great idea!). I guess I should have looked at the picture again before I made mine. I didn't realize the letters were going diagonally. oh well. I like mine just the same. My sister already has her order in for one too. Want one?

And Whalaa! ---- I purchased some burlap from Hobby Lobby and stencils, which I needed for another project anyway, some black paint and used some twine I already had and braided it to use in place of their braided cording (which I could not find easily).