Christmas/ Winter Mantle {Evergreens and Hydrangea}

As I mentioned on my facebook page, I didn't get around to showing you my Christmas mantle before Christmas. A few of you said you would still like to see it and since I'm planning to leave it up all of the month of January yet too, I thought I'd oblige you. 

With the bathroom remodel going in full swing, taking time to decorate for the holidays was kind of a hard thing to do. Don't get me wrong, I love to decorate for the holidays but I felt like all available work time should be spent in the bathroom. As Christmas drew nearer, I saw I wasn't going to get done the bathroom by Christmas anyway so I took an afternoon and decorated the mantle in my bedroom. This was the extent of the Christmas decor this year but I'm hoping to compensate next year. hehe

I knew I wanted to keep it fairly "natural" and incorporate blue and red. 

When I saw this cute J O Y letters on Pinterest,

VIA Stubbornly Crafty

I knew where I was going with my theme. 

Peace/ Joy/ Love

The Peace dove was found at Meijer (I snagged it for 50% off because it's missing a bell)

The window was already hanging there so I just put a tack in and hung the 'sign'. Easy Peasy. 

The wooden J and Y letters I ordered from  this Etsy shop. I probably could have made them but time was of the essence and I wanted to support a home business so I let her make them for me. :) I spray painted them and mod podged some scrapbook paper on top. I will have to say, this part of the mantle I am not very thrilled about. I couldn't find scrapbook paper in the shade I wanted and I couldn't find a bell large enough to look right. I want to keep looking for one and hopefully change it up next year. 

My favorite part of the mantle was also one of the easiest. It literally took

less than 10 minutes and I think has such a big impact.

 My evergreen and hydrangea wreath.

I started with a live evergreen wreath

and just added hydrangeas. You may remember the hydrangeas; they were already on the mantle in a granite bucket. I didn't glue them or fasten them in any way. I just started tucking them in around the wreath.

I liked the look when I was finished but it needed something to ease the transition from the evergreens to the poufy hydrangeas. I grabbed some twigs with tiny red berries and tucked them in at an angle behind the hydrangea. They were pretty secure and I didn't feel like I needed to glue them. I think they added the perfect touch. I don't know that I've ever seen the combination of evergreens and hydrangeas but I'm loving it!

I love the contrast of the hydrangeas and evergreens with the chippy white picket fence!

For my frame, I took sheet music for Joy to the World that I found online and edited it

with the words Joy to the World on top. Added a burlap looking background

 and a few snowflakes and here it is.

The candle was a thrift store find. I just wrapped burlap and twine around it to dress it up.

The potted evergreens are fake. They were an after Christmas clearance find and added later.

And here is the whole view: Peace on earth, Joy to the World, and Love.

Thank you for letting me belatedly share my Christmas/ Winter mantle!

If you want to see what it looked like before, go {here}.

Linking to: SNS at Funky Junk Interiors

From the Farmhouse

Bathroom Update #3 ~ Painted Floor

These updates are not in the order they were completed. 

The floor was actually completed before the wainscoting (update#2).

If you follow my facebook page, you already know what the floor looks like. I will describe how I did it.

When we started this project, the floor was carpet on half and vinyl on half. I don't know about you, but I don't think carpet goes in bathrooms. It gets wet and after a period of time; smelly. UGH! This blue carpet

had obviously been there for quite some time and emitted a musty 'old' smell. I was kind of afraid of what I'd find underneath but I bravely tore it up cheered hubby on as he ripped it outta there. We (he) uncovered very hard and very brittle gold vinyl over pressed sawdust that was STUCK to the original wooden floor. (Seriously, it was particle board gone bad.) It looked very difficult to remove (I even tested my theory; it came up in tiny pieces.) so I thought I'd just save time and put a layer of plywood over top. But the more I thought about it, the more I knew it would bug me knowing I hadn't removed that old floor so I bribed and begged sweetly asked DH to help me. One Saturday he put his strong back and perseverance to work and cleaned it all out. That was no small task and I was his support 'team', keeping all the dirt swept away so he could work. When we were finished it looked like this:

 I loved the rustic look of this but because it was in a bathroom (prone to getting wet) and because there is a section under the old tub that was rotted and needed replaced, I opted to cover it up. I decided to do a 2 layer plywood floor because that got it back to the original height at the doorway. I put down a layer of economy grade 3/8" plywood and then a layer of 1/4" luan plywood. The luan is fairly smooth and needed very little sanding.

In this picture I wasn't quite finished laying the luan and you can see the layer of plywood underneath.

After laying the luan, I used a vinyl spackling and filled the screw holes and joints to make the floor mostly seamless and smooth.

I sanded this down and painted 1 coat primer and 2 coats of tan paint. (The paint I got from Menards was too pinkish when I started painting so I added some black acrylic craft paint to tone it down. Sorry, I do not know what color it ended up being.) I neglected to take a picture at this point so let's just imagine the next picture without all the tape. :)

To draw off my diamonds, I divided the room in half both ways to find the middle and began making diagonal lines. My diamonds are 12" square. After drawing them off, I used Frog delicate tape and taped off every other diamond.

A tip for getting the corners nice and square: Use a putty knife! 

Lay the knife on top the tape right along the line you want to end

your tape and give a quick yank up and back toward the knife a bit.

I found out the quicker the tug, the straighter the tape will tear.

Please note: this will take several hours to tape! 

This was my first experience with Frog tape and I will never go back!! NO bleeding! It is WELL worth the little extra money to not have to go back and touch up a million places. This is not a sponsored post; that is my honest opinion of a GREAT product!

After taping, I painted every other square with an off-white paint. (Again, something I concocted with several leftover paints I had on hand.) I marked the squares that didn't get painted with a dab of tape so I didn't get confused while I was painting.

The next step was to remove the tape. Look at those nice, crisp lines! Yay Frog tape!! :)

I really liked this look but I had intended to stencil a design on the tan squares. I laid my stencil down and did my 'envision the whole floor' trick and I began to doubt my plan. It was going to be too busy.

I made my stencil using my Silhouette Cameo and blank stencil stock from Hobby Lobby.

I posted my 'dilemma' on facebook and some of you had the great idea to do every other tan square. Well, duh. How perfect. :) I totally love it that way!

After letting my paint dry a day or so, I sealed it with a urethane floor sealer. It took me a long time to decide which sealer to use but I went with a good (read, expensive) one because it's most likely going to get wet a lot and I wanted it to hold up. I could have gone with just a polyurethane for wood but they all said they cause slight yellowing. I didn't want that! I used a product from Lowe's especially for floors: Varathane No Odor Floor Finish. I put down 4 or 5 coats and we went on vacation and let it cure. Since we have been working in there again and it has gotten HEAVY use, I will probably give it a light sanding and another coat or 2 when I'm finished everything else.

So that wraps up how I did the floor. 

If you missed my bathroom update #1 or

update #2 or the before post

you can click the links of each to check them out!

The day after Christmas, DH set and hooked up the toilet so we FINALLY have a functioning toilet in there now. I can't tell you how happy I was to get that thing off my front porch! (I know, ewww, right?)

I have a few things to finish up before I show you the ceiling and how I did that. Let's just say, it involved DH's help to get it up. :)

Linking to: SNS @ Funky Junk Interiors

From the Farmhouse

Top 3 of 2012

My posting schedule a little behind due to being out of town and not having regular internet access. I had intended to do a 'Top 3 post' on my 3 most viewed posts in 2012. I did not have time to get it written and scheduled to post while I was away so I'm posting now.

I also had planned to share my holiday mantle with you but that didn't happen either. According to a mini facebook poll, you still want to see it so I will see what I can do. :)

Back to the 3 most viewed projects of 2012...

By far, the most popular is my barn door.

Next is my master bedroom makeover reveal.

Before:

After:

And #3 is my roll top desk makeover:

And receiving honorable mention:

My potato salad recipe:

and my Apothecary Medicine Cabinet Door:

This is still awaiting a final reveal; check back!

So there you have some of my (and evidently YOUR) favorite projects from the past year. 

The arrival of my 3rd son at the end of 2011 slowed down some of my 

planned projects but I'm happy to have made some progress. 

Soon, I hope to be able to reveal my farmhouse bathroom makeover.

From the Farmhouse


Linking to:

Tatertots and Jello Best of 2012