Pinehurst’s own Anne Thomas, DIY’er

I have a hugh passion for what I do here.  I’ve always tried to only be a part of things that I can say to myself, “are you really feeling the love from this?”   I hope to inspire myself and maybe a few people along the way.  I have always been known to be “Crafty”, a cook, a faux photographer, scrap booker, entertainer, etc.  This is my place to express myself and I’m having the time of my life.  Please join in…

Today I will be sharing a beautiful friend of mine Anne Thomas.  Anne is the epitome of  a Mom, Wife, Daughter, Sister, Friend and Woman, everyone wants to be.  She is generous, sweet, kind, thoughtful, and so much more…

Anne reads my blog and always has a kind word to say.  She took an old Outdoor Furniture Set she was going to throw out and… Well, I’ll just let you see the pictures and you will get inspired as I have.

Anne’s before pictures of her furniture.  Really rusty and not very inviting.  Anne saved the land fill by taking this set, spray painting it, and adding a few other colorful accessories!!  Here’s the before.

Anne’s Son helps her out!

Anne painted the chairs and table.  Wow looks like new!!  She added new chair cushions.  Love the colors Anne!  Don’t you love bright outdoor colors around you when your outside?  Makes everything feel fresh and bright.

And she added a beautiful RED!! Umbrella!  Wow I love how this brings out the color in the chair cushions.  BTW Anne, nice patio.  We will have to ask Anne if she DIY’d that patio.  My family did just that in our backyard and we love it.  Check out that blog post here.

So…If you get inspired to “Fix-up”, “DIY” or “Create” something, please let me know and I would be honored to feature you here on my blog.

Experiencing sheer happiness on the Blissful side of life...

Cindy

cmiller@BlissWindowDesigns.com

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Oil Rubbed Bronze, my new best friend!!

These are the outside light fixtures on my home.  They are about 10 years old.  These look really bad and I wanted to replace them.  I decided I could easily and way more affordably, DIY them.   Imagine that.

Watch how I turned a “sow’s ear into a silk purse”,  that’s a Texas sayin… you gotta be Texan to really get it.

 They are really ugly I know.  Hey, I can hear you, that’s not nice…  Raise you hand if you have yucky outside light fixtures.  I see you…lots of hands up in the air.  If your’s are not, take a little look see out your door.  Go ahead we’ll wait…………………..

Join me in this adventure of Yucky to Fabulous!!  These are very simple to take down.  First you will need to turn off the power at your breaker box for the electrical to keep you safe.  Not a time to be a genius and think this is unnecessary!

This is the light fixtures on my front porch.  These really made my newly painted front door look bad.  You can see that blog post there or here!

Here we are  taking out screws and disassembling the fixture, really simple.

Next you will need to remove the fixture from the wall, leaving the wires.  Of course you leave those silly, they are attached to your house! LOL

Then next we remove the caps that holds the wires together.

Then next we untwist the last wire.  Hopefully you’ve turned off the breaker, if you didn’t you hair will be standing up on your head right now.

MIRROR PLEASE!!

Twisting the wire covers back on so the wires are not exposed.  Important!!

Time for a little cleaning…

Now the fun begins.  I used Acetone to clean off the light fixtures.  Here’s the paint I used.  Color is Oil Rubbed Bronze, my new best friend!!

I set the light fixtures on boxes to paint them.  Just simply sprayed them with a slow steady stream, not getting in a hurry so I wouldn’t have any running paint.

I sprayed them all and let them dry in the sun.

Now they look great.  I put them in the garage to dry completely.   Can you believe the difference!!!!

Same process to put them back on the house, just in reverse!!

I’m excited all over again.

All done!

Did I tell you that they would be Fabulous???  Only cost $7 for the can of paint.  Hurray, Maybe someone will take me to dinner now!

Living Blissfully Ever After,

Cindy

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DIY Super Hero? and Indigo Cloth? what….

I can’t wait to reveal my “new front door” to you.  In yesterday’s blog I showed some of the front door colors I was thinking about using to repaint my door.  You can see it here!

Here’s my door before the face lift..

I decided to pick a color I would love to walk by, drive by and feel good by.  Here goes the process..

Did I mention it started with yet another trip to Lowe’s, our home away from home lately.  Picking out paint colors in a big store that the lighting is unnatural is a no no.  Bring home the brochures and paint chips they provide and hold them up to the exterior of your home.  Your hubby has to be on the boat with your selection.  Luckily we both agreed on the one color we picked.  I Luv that about my Hubby!

Introducing “Indigo Cloth”

First we had to prepare the door.  It needed sanding, more sanding & more sanding.  Next step primer, never use spray primer,  I’m just saying.  I look like a “I Love Lucy” show.(click to watch Lucy get in a painter mess.)  I got in a spray primer mess!

I told you it was “ugly”, you thought I was kidding.  Poor thing needs a little face lift that’s all.  Or a DIY Super Hero!

Let the sanding begin…

The door smoothed out pretty good. We put painters tape on the kick plate and primed the door next.  Remember don’t use spray primer, it’s a mess.

Primer is next.  More sanding after the primer to make sure it was smooth.  Then I used my central vacuum system to remove all the dust, went over it with a old tshirt and now I was ready to remove all the hardware.  My hubby got that job.

Now it’s the waiting game.  Primer has to dry, sand it some more to make sure it’s nice and smooth.  It’s paint time!!!!  Here’s the first coat.

I’m already loving this color!  It has to dry in between coats.  Starting to look better…  The door I mean, we’ll talk about those light fixtures.

Getting better.

So now with the hardware back on, the “new wreath”, I love it.

Nice right!!

I’m so happy with my new front door my face hurts from smiling.  I’m all gitty when I drive by my house.  I’ll make a post about the light fixtures next.

So get in your car and go get some paint chips girl!!!

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Living Blissfully Ever After,

Cindy

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Please paint me, I match the ugly light fixtures…

I want to paint my front door, badly.  I get inspiration from so many places.  While I’m driving around, almost having an accident because I’m looking at everyone’s front door.  I think I’ve decided on a color…….. Comment and let me know what you think!

This is my front door color, not sure if it has a name, maybe dirty maroon, not quite right red, I’m boring brown, or please paint me I match the ugly light fixtures!

I’ve also decided the light fixtures either have to go or they are getting a fresh new look!  I mentioned it here,  my future DIY projects coming!

Here are some of the doors I love…               Source here

This is Miles Reeds New York townhome front door, beautiful color.

 Kathryn Ireland uses St Lucia Teal on a spanish colonial in California.  Luv this!

 Orange? not sure about that but it shows energy, warmth & cheerfulness.  Well I’m always warm, can’t turn the a/c down enough, so Orange is a no for me.

This Yellow Tone door is sunny, cheery & inviting.  But, not my favorite choice for my door.  Keep looking..

Tulip Red is a great Feng Shui color that symbolizes the mouth of the home and attracts positive energy to the home.  Maybe that means Publisher Clearing House will be attracted to my home if I go with Tulip Red.  LOL!

 

 Maybe I just need a new front door, maybe this.. Looks like Fred Flintstones been here…

I’m really thinking I would like a shade of blue for my front door. Blue is associated with prosperity, soothing water & abundance.  Since I’m always letting the water run over at the refrigerator water dispenser, this seems the appropriate color. (Only my family will get that!)

I’ll be posting tomorrow the color I am painting my front door.  I also give the light fixtures that fresh new look, I’ll show you how…

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog.

See ya tomorrow!

Living Blissfully Ever After,

Cindy

cmiller@BlissWindowDesigns.com

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Build it and they will come..and eat smores!

PATIO, PART 1.    My husband came up with the idea that he wanted to build a patio in our backyard.  I didn’t really know if he knew exactly how to build a patio, but it sounded good to me.  He can build and fix just about anything that we want to do.  So off to Lowe’s Home Improvement we go.   We decide what shape, size and what patio stones we will use.  Now the work begins.

Here is a picture of us in the first stages of shaping the spot where the patio will go.  Smoothing out the dirt, adding sand, smoothing out the dirt again, leveling, and smoothing out the dirt again!!

Notice the small workers, those are our children helping out.  We’ve promised them fun times ahead on the new patio!

The whole family pitched in laying out the stones.  They got started and moved so fast I missed taking pictures of the first stages.  We decided on several levels so there would be interest and design.

Making sure the walls and the floor are level is very important!

Looks like they’re having fun.  Sorry for the quality of these pictures, a new camera could be in my future!

It’s great to see the progress happening.  This is a very hard job.  The stones are heavy and they are rough on your hands, gloves are a must!

We used different stones on the wall and the floor sections.  The circle was originally going to have these puzzle shaped stones but we decided to change that.  Notice in the next picture that the circle section floor has changed.

I like this look much better.  We created a circle in the center of the large section so we can put a fire pit in the center.  Love this!  My husband uses a soft bristle broom to smooth out the sand he added.  It’s very important for the sand to be smooth and level.

A few of the stones will have to be cut so the edges can be filled in with stones.  We used the puzzle piece stones to create a walk way around to the side of our home.

Plants and shrubs will dress this area up.  Here’s the fire pit added!  We finished the walk way with the puzzle piece stones filling around them with white pebbles.  We are now planning out the landscaping that will be added.

Here 2 of our children and 2 grandchildren are really loving the fire pit.  We look a little tired!

We love to come out to the patio and cook hot dogs and…

SMORES…..

We are working on ideas for the landscaping around the patio .  For now we have added a few pots with plants in them.  We can move the fire pit around if we like.

If you have a fire pit at your home you know the most important thing is starting a great fire.  We have learned as we go that the easiest way is to gather pine cones from our yard in grocery bags.  We place the grocery bag in the center, surround that with wood and whala!

We have a beautiful fire!  Smores anyone??

So it’s really been a lot of fun, the kids have eaten mountains of chocolate, marshmallows, & graham crackers!  Life’s good!

In my next patio post I’ll show you the landscaping update, great pots I painted, new umbrella, outdoor furniture we restored.

 PATIO PART 2! coming soon, don’t miss it!

Living Happily ever After,

Cindy

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Have mercy on this guy…

What takes a lot of abuse and looks bad all over?  This…

This poor guy used to have 8 tufted buttons on the top where the seams meet.  My children, when they were small and rowdy (WERE?), loved to jump, crawl, sit, bounce, rest their stinky toes and eat on this leather ottoman.  We had it in our family room and one day I looked at it, no I mean REALLY looked at and I was like, man that things gotta have a face lift.  So I decided to reupholster/recover it best I could.  I took a trip to the “faux” leather store!  It was really easy to do.

First step was to lay the fabric upside down on the ottoman and pin it to fit.  By the Way, I paid $10 for the “faux” leather.

Using my long quilting (Don’t go there!  No, I Do Not Quilt, I just like these type of pins), I pinned the fabric to tightly fit the ottoman.  By doing it I will know exactly where to run my seams when I sew the fabric.

See how tightly it is pinned!

Then I went to my 23 year old Bernina Sewing machine that I would never, ever give up in my life!, and sewed the 4 corner seams.  It’s a good idea to use a “jeans or leather” needle and to go back over the seam several times.

I added several layers of batting to even out the top and make it nice and rounded.  Remember all the years of abuse!

Now I must trim the seams to reduce some bulk and turn it right side out.  Place it over the ottoman.

I now get my industrial stapler and work around the whole ottoman and staple to the frame on the underside.

Wahla… better right?

I decided to move this to my master bedroom when we bought new furniture for the family room.  So here’s a picture of his new spot in my home.

Another picture, with the new lamps, a coverlet added and I’m always moving those pillows around to keep things fresh!

Later I’ll talk about my need for new draperies in this room!

Thanks for dropping by my blog, I love sharing with you!

Living Happily Ever After,

Cindy

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I’m showing you my future…

I have decided to give you a glance at a few of my future blogging posts I have planned.  I have so many ideas, do so many things with my family, I feel like I could fill up a year with things to do.  Here’s a few…

This is an leather Ottoman that we have had for quite some time.  As you can see there have been many a stinky feet propped up on this baby.  I will make it slightly better by recovering it.

I will show you how we built this amazing patio.  Our whole family worked on this.  It’s one of our favorite things about our home now.

These are the outside light fixtures on my home.  I hear you thinking, man those are really ugly!   I have wanted new ones, but I realized I could fix these up good a new. So I did…

I recovered these red cushion because the sun faded them so bad.  What a job.  And yes, I’m quite the seamstress!

Painting these wrought iron planters was a easy fix.  A can a spray paint can solve the problems of the world in 1.2 minutes!

My husband, Yoga Man as we call him, decides he can DIY a dead tree.  Turned out pretty good and will later become something to amaze you!

Here’s a video of him scarring us to death!

Cutting down trees

This spring I decided I needed to do something with these… I’m working on it..

My front door needed a major face lift.  Picking the new color was really easy.  This is before…  You’ll have to come back to see how it turns out!

Ok I’ll give you a hint.  This is during, after comes later.

Remember the cutting down of the dead trees.  We’ll I was thinking one day and had an idea.  You’ll have to come back for this one also.

 It’s going to be awesome!!!!

This is our patio furniture that we both worked on together.  A new Pagoda Umbrella is ordered at Pier 1.  Also, we have new slings ordered and are waiting patiently for them… “WHERE IS THAT FEDEX GUY!!!”   All caps mean I yelling..

I’m really enjoying my inner Martha side of me.  I look at everything differently now.  Not how I can replace something with a “new one.”  Now I think how I can take something old and try to make it look better or make it into something useful.  My hubby really helps me out when I need a hand with doing the dangerous stuff like, running a chain saw, reaching something taller than 5’2″, and he keep me from getting electrocuted to death.

 Thanks honey!

SO..go dig thru your garage and find an old “something” and make it new!  Comment on this post and let me know what your working on.

Living Happily Ever After,

Cindy

CMiller@BlissWindowDesigns.com

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