Before and After - Kitchen Chairs

How many chairs have I bought this year??? Quite a few, but THESE are perfect, I just had to have them! Adorable in my kitchen. I loved the turquoise but I wanted to change the cushion fabric.

Before

 Woohoo! I bought 2 chairs for $5 each at a garage sale and I paid about $7 for all of the fabric from JoAnns.

After

I am partying over at Thrifty Decor Chick's - Before and After party! 

Stuff I couldn't live without.

BEFORE

AFTER

You know - I just HAD to have ALL of this! 

We thought we were going to have rain but we lucked out. PERFECT garage saling weather!
My mom, my brother and my daughters went along on this adventure.
This is what we got IN 3 HOURS!!

Everything spilled out of my car onto the driveway. 

brown quilted purse $1

xylophone $1

red wallet $5

lighted Christmas berries $2

brand new blue lunch cooler $2
silver candlestick $1
purple makeup bag 50 cents

set of 8 mini salt & pepper shakers (great for glitter) $2

(my cute little assistant)

Southern Living lidded trifle bowl  $3 (MY FAVORITE PURCHASE TODAY)

golf bag cart $1
orange hand cart $20 (my brother's purchase)
somewhere in there is a Cat in the Hat book on tape $2
and a picture frame $1

table $3

Barbie toy $2

candlesticks 25 cents each

tools $1 each

yellow Tupperware colander 10 cents

antique wooden stool $4

XL Brookstone TV remote $1

children's books 25 cents each

E.T. VHS movie 50 cents

brand new - Frosty & Rudolph VHS movies 25 cents each

Creative Memories paper trimmer - brand new -  still in bubble wrap - $2 

metal shelf $5

purple Peeps Easter basket $1

and FROSTY $1

We had so much fun ! 

and the cutest little boys were selling delicious chocolate chip cookies for 25 cents each!

we definitely couldn't live without those! 

Before and After - Kids table

before

I purchased this table last summer. ADORABLE. for $30! The chair fabric was cute. My ADORABLE 3 year old used a marker on that cute fabric. I knew it could be easily changed. This week I went to JoAnn's with a 40% off coupon and purchased 1/2 yard. For $2 I recovered BOTH chairs. LOVE THIS FABRIC. I think I am going to use the scraps of fabric in the girls scrapbooks. LOVE THIS FABRIC! (it was $7.99/yard)

after

Wall of Frames

My project today! I have been thinking about creating a wall of picture frames! I knew exactly which wall I wanted to use. The empty wall in my dining room. I have boxes and boxes of frames from garage sales. I picked out 12 of my favorites of all different sizes. Then I arranged them on the floor and measured the entire collection. 

6 ft wide x 3.5 ft tall. 

I marked that area on the wall with painters tape and started hanging all the frames. (please ignore the white furniture, it's the top to my daughter's desk that I still need to finish painting. and yes we have an air hockey table in our dining room right now. We got it as a Christmas gift and it needs to make its way down to the play room.)

ACTUALLY after I hung up the frames I "had" to make a trip to HomeGoods and found this wonderful sign (for $6.99) with a very meaningful saying. I hung it up in place of one of the frames in the center.

I have always loved this saying!!

Enjoy the little things in life, for one day you'll look back and realize they were the big things.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this project. Next I will fill the frames with my favorite photos. Probably print them all in black and white. And I would like to paint all the frames. Maybe all black? Or maybe print the photos in Sepia and paint the frames with a chocolate gloss paint. I would love to paint all the frames in white but our whole house is filled with dark brown trim. I think the bright white frames would stick right out. Hmmmmm..... maybe I will try it! 

This was so fun to do today!

I paid 50 cents to 3 dollars for each of the frames!!

P.S. We need a table (and chairs) for our dining room. I have my eye on a table on Craigslist right now. And I found a delivery service that will charge $85 to deliver the table to me (about 25 miles). I love this! Because I do not have a truck. I cannot lift a table by myself. And I always have 2 little girls with me, which makes me nervous about taking them to a stranger's house.

Before and After - Our Stairs

I have been inspired by Thrifty Decor Chick to redo our stairs. Our carpet needed to go! She gave us step by step instructions how to tear out the carpet and paint and stain the stairs! With the detail she provided I was determined to do it!

BEFORE

Removed all the carpet and hundreds of staples. Tearing it out felt so good! Filled some holes with wood filler. Sanded everything!

Applied 2 coats of stain and 1 coat of Minwax polyurethane.  (it needs another coat of polyurethane)

AFTER
Painted the risers, rails and trim white. I need to apply more white paint to the trim along the walls.  

This whole process took me about 7 days. I tried to paint or stain at night so it would have time to dry. I have another set of stairs that I need to do this to. It's tough when you MUST use the stairs while doing this process. AND I actually bought my electric sander at a garage sale for $5.

YAY!!!