Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Etsy Treasury - Vintage Inspiration

I really am so in love with all things vintage, especially for the home.  Vintage items just add so much interest, personality and classic style.  I love to think about the stories that could be behind an old piece and wonder what tales it could tell.  Here are some great vintage finds for the home that offer lots of  inspiration that I found looking through Etsy.  There are so many awesome and interesting vintage treasures buried in the land of Etsy that need to be discovered - this is just a sampling.

'Vintage Love for the Home' by daydreamdesign

All things vintage for House and Home


vintage gooseneck l...
$46.00

Fenton Hobnail Milk...
$46.00

Vintage Mid Century...
$28.50

Vintage electric fa...
$37.50

Vintage Brass Deer ...
$56.00

The END...vintage m...
$15.00

Electricity Free Vi...
$23.50

Vintage Pair of Met...
$64.00

Vintage Lux Mid-Mod...
$45.00

Aqua and White Fold...
$31.00

Vintage Victorian S...
$25.00

vintage drawer pull
$4.00

vintage industrial ...
$33.00

Vintage Lime Green ...
$16.00

steel stars industr...
$45.00

SOLD Herman Miller...
$650.00

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Shine

We are in full-out summer mode so I thought I'd share a little bit about what's going on in our life this week.  In case there is anyone that doesn't know Justin and I are crazy about a group of students (or maybe we are just plain crazy), specifically the Salem Baptist Student Ministry and they are a huge-gantic part of our lives.  We have been serving in the Salem Student Ministry for a lot of years now and in recent years Justin has taken a leadership role at Salem in leading the Senior High Student Ministry.  We are so blessed to be a part of this great group of students.  God has truly blessed us through them and through our church family there.  After several years of student leadership and a ton of school work we are being blessed by our church again this Sunday as they have supported us in our journey and are presenting Justin for ordination.  We are so humbled, excited and thankful that we are taking this next step in our life and we truly know that we would not be at this step if it were for our God firstly and secondly for the wonderful Godly people we call our church.  So thank you church family, we love you so much.


This past Sunday we kicked off our annual VBA youth week.  What is VBA you ask?  Simple.  Vacation Bible Awesomeness.  It's a full week of nightly gatherings packed with all sorts of games, worship, insane video skits, small groups lead by our awesome seniors and most importantly God's word.  This year we are focusing on what is means to Shine, where our source of light comes from and how we can Shine for Christ daily in our lives.  Please be in prayer for our students this week during VBA, we have about 80 or more students each night and we always have lots of new faces.    We just pray that we can all Shine brightly for our Savior in a dark world.

Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.” Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life."  Philippians 2:14:16


Next week we will be traveling to one of our most favorite places in the world, Caswell.  It's only the best youth camp ever.  We can't wait.

Thanks so much for all of the support.  We still have a bazillion things to do in our house and we will get back to that, but right now those things just have to wait while we spend the next several weeks with our students.  I will definitely continue posting about our summer and we have some great etsy features and ministries we will be sharing with you throughout the summer on our little blog (even some giveaways!).   Hope everyone has an excellent week!

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Etsy Seller Feature - Krystal Ring Kreations

This week our etsy seller feature comes from Krystal Ring Kreations by Kristin.  Kristin is located in Southern Manitoba, Canada and is such a thoughtful person and dedicated mom.  I love meeting the people behind the creations!  Make sure you check out her Etsy shop and her lovely Chainmaille jewelry!


What do you create? Chainmaille Jewelry, Knitted & Crochet items, and Soap but Chainmaille is my focus, knitting is more of a past time and Soap making is something new I am trying out!




Why did you choose your medium? I started with beads since my Mom had taken up making beaded jewelry as a hobby that she eventually started selling, I liked it but didn’t really enjoy it like my Mom did, I found it frustrating and I could never create something really beautiful! One day my Mom bought a beading magazine and in it was instructions for Box Chain, I had never seen anything like it, I pondered over it for a month or so and finally I decided to give it a shot and I was hooked! I wanted to learn more, so I started digging on the Internet and found out it was called Chainmaille and there were many more patterns out there just waiting for me to try them! I have been in love ever since, it relaxes me and helps to clear my mind!





Where do you create? I used to do most of my work by the kitchen nook but that proved to be uncomfortable and a pain to move when I wanted to use the nook for eating, so I recently made two Lap Desks, one for my daughter and one for myself. This way if I want to work sitting on the living room couch or even in bed for a few minutes before falling asleep I can, it is portable that way! My daughter can sit beside me and color or play/learn on the computer while I work!





What is the most time consuming part of your craft/art? I guess you could say that the Art of Chainmaille is just plain time consuming but I find working with small rings to be very tedious, I love the out come but when you work for hours on end on the same bracelet it can seem endless! I have a bracelet that I made using 22 ga 1/8” rings it was originally meant to be a necklace but I ran out of gusto and made a very pretty bracelet instead! That is probably why I have way more bracelets for sale than necklaces, they just take more time and I can be a tad impatient cause I usually have a new idea brewing and want to try it out! I want to sell more of my knitted items but I find that I can’t charge enough to pay for my time, maybe I just knit slow but I look at what some charge for knitted items and I just don’t know how they can do it for so cheap!





What are your goals (personal and/or business)? My goals are to make enough so that I can continue to stay home with my Daughter and maybe have some extra play money, she just turned 2 and my Husband is a truck driver so he’s not home as much as I would like, so I stay home to give my girl a center or base, if I worked out of the house I would have to put her into daycare and then she wouldn’t see much of either of us and someone else would be raising my baby! I am planning to homeschool her as well and will need the extra income!




What do you do when you are not creating? Lately it feels like I spend all my time promoting my shop and listing new items, but other than that I spend time with my babe and Husband when he is home! I try to read a little every day both for myself and to my girl and I try to take care of the house but I despise housework so I have to try very hard to get anything done!

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Master Bedroom Remodel Progress

For those of you who have been following since the beginning, you know that our master bedroom was the room that absolutely sold us on the house.  Ok, I'm lying - it was pretty awful.  We endearingly gave it the name master cave since it was covered top to bottom in faux wood paneling and extremely small - the majority of the world would not call this bedroom a master of anything.  We have not been able to change the size of the room but we have however given this room a lot of upgrades to make the room feel larger and also feel comfortable and relaxing.  Today we are taking a little trip down memory lane and looking at the progress we have made on this room so far.

Master cave beginnings - 




First thing we did was paint the walls (or paneling) a soft gray and the trim white.  We used Olympic no VOC paint in Secret Passage for the walls and Olympic no VOC paint in just plain old off the shelf white for the trim - both in eggshell finish.  For detailed instructions on how we painted our paneling check here.  Right off the bat this was a huuuuuge improvement and we loved it.  Painting this room immediately brought in light, made the room feel larger and offered a calm and relaxing feeling.


We didn't like our doorway at all - call us claustrophobic; so we took off the door and created a new fabric doorway - you can see how we used a table cloth from Target to do that here.  We actually really love not having a door here that is always banging on the wall and other doors and love the added color and the bright pattern the curtain brought in.




Next we hung our dramatic curtains - high and wide.  Instant sophistication.  Hanging your curtains higher and wider than your small little window will help bring your eye up and create a larger looking space -  check it out here!  




We also have brought in a rug for a little texture and pattern action to help pull the whole dramatic curtain thing together.  Rug is from Ikea ($19.99!)


I think our most favorite update is the new chandelier light fixture, this is definitely our main focal piece in the room.  It's amazing what a new light will do to a space.  If you don't do anything else - update your lighting, it takes years off of your old house and it's really easy, see how we did it here.  We found this chandelier at Ikea as well for $39.99 - a steal for an awesome light.



Finally we grabbed these side table chests, painted them (here) and found cute lighting to put on top.  Both from Ikea - Ikea Rast Drawer Chest - $29.99 and Table Lamp $16.99!  We love the added storage, balance and function these chests provide.  


This part of the room really hasn't changed much.  Our space is really small so we don't want to add any furniture until we find something we love and that is appropriately scaled for this little space.


Just a few shots, I love the lighting, can you tell?


I'm really wanting to add some pretty pillows for some much needed style to this bed - It's a comin'.


And, the final before and after (so far) - for a dramatic effect.




Some things on our list to do - pillows, artwork, shelving and maybe even a sitting chair - if we can work a small one in.  We love our room now, it's relaxing, inviting and feels like a little retreat (a grown-up space since our house is now a giant playroom for King Silas).  Thanks for being a part of our journey so far!  

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Etsy Seller Feature - Sporkful Designs

We have a great Etsy shop feature for you today.  Meg with Sporkful Designs is located in Minnesota and has a wonderful Etsy shop where she creates custom photo cards, invitations, address labels and all sorts of other graphic design needs.  Meg is giving us a little inside scoop today and she is also sharing an exclusive discount for all of our readers, how sweet is that?  Check out below for the discount code and details!


When did you start creating?
I've have always had a passion for being creative. Growing up I learned how to knit, make friendship bracelets, sew, cross stitch, and make bead critters. Then sometime during Junior High I found my ultimate passion: graphic design. My mom got Adobe Photoshop for her computer and I had a blast playing around in it. In high school I created layouts for the newspaper and worked on the yearbook staff. It was during those few years I realized what I could do an never get sick of. To this day, after hours, days, months creating different projects I am not even close to being sick of it.





What inspires you?
The beautiful world around me and my love for bright colors! I also have fun looking at advertisements to get inspiration.


Why did you choose your shop/company name?
I've always had in interest in odd things, sporks are one of them. I enjoy them because they are unique and there's multiple uses for them (use as a spoon and fork) and I see my work as unique and can be used for multiple occasions.





What are your goals (personal and/or business)?
I am a marketing and graphic design professional by day and enjoy releasing all of my super creative juices in photo cards for Sporkful Designs. I view my shop as a hobby and another way to use my creativity and skills to help people.





What do you do when you are not creating?
Outside of graphic work I enjoy being outside under the sun, playing tennis, running, fishing, playing cards with my family, spending time with friends, reading, watching movies, snowmobiling, and cooking. I am very optimistic and can usually enjoy doing almost anything. I may not be the best golfer, but I enjoy it!





You can check out Meg on Facebook and become a fan!

To receive 10% off your order from Sporkful Designs enter the code: Remodeledlife10 - good through June 30, 2011!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall

We worked a little switcheroo in our bathroom over the weekend in the form of vanity mirrors.  Originally we had a boring, small medicine cabinet type mirror hanging out on our wall - nothing necessarily bad about it, we just wanted to change it out for something with a little more style.  We realized at some point that we already had a mirror that just might work so we thought we would give it a try and see how it looks - nothing wrong with a free upgrade, especially when you are remodeling on a tight budget (plus we are cheap, but you know that already).  So Justin went to work removing the old mirror and replacing it.  Here's our before mirror:


First thing, removing our old mirror -


Oh, don't forget to close up the sink drain (this should actually be the first thing you do).


And our removed mirror and new hole in the wall...


We wanted to cover the hole with Sheetrock so we have a nice smooth and finished wall underneath our new mirror so Justin had to carefully remove the uneven edges with a utility knife.


Another great reason for a closed drain (ignore the razor I'm not sure why that was still sitting there).  Also note the screwdriver in the new hole in the wall.


Just a little close up so you can see the removal process.


So after Justin was satisfied with the evenness factor we had planned on going to the store and picking up a piece of Sheetrock to finish up the project...problem was, we never found time to go.  So, we just decided to throw up the new mirror and have it just be for a while.  We do however have several issues though.  For one, this mirror is larger and you can see from the other pictures we have this awesome electrical outlet right next to where the mirror hangs, so we are having some over-hang issues.  We also didn't have any real support to hang the new mirror on so we had to be a little creative.  Here's what the new mirror looks like (and, it's actually not new - we've had it since we got married in our first apartment so it's just about 10 years old now).  I actually think it goes pretty well with all of the other bathroom items and decor that's going on in there now - you can check that out here and here.


So to create more support to hang this mirror on (it's really quite heavy) Justin used a scrap piece of wood nailed into the wall.  Here's what lies beneath our mirror - shhhh, don't tell anyone and if you come over, just act like that's not there.  I guess this mirror is covering a multitude of sins right now.  And, my favorite part - the screwdriver and yes it's still living behind the mirror.  So, you might have to remind us where we left it for out next project.


We are still having some evenness issues and issues with fit but I like the look of the mirror and that it now has a new place to live in our house.  It might not last forever but for now it's all good.  Oh, and our new hole will hopefully soon be closed and nice and even and flat and will no longer be a storage place for forgotten tools.


So we are wondering, anyone else have a mirror or artwork that is covering up something unsightly on your wall?  We can't be the only ones.  Comment and share!