Painted, Glazed and Distressed Night Stand

Hubby bought me these cute night stands for my birthday via Craigslist. I heart Craigslist when I find beauties like these!

I finally got around to spray painting one and left the other as is so I could show the "before and after". I am teaching a mini class at my church tonight about thrifty decorating etc. and can't wait to display my creations! :)

The before isn't super bad but I needed some COLOR!

I was a little worried about this color, I thought it would be too dark and "poopy" (sorry). Then, as I was painting it... I thought it was way too neon green. But once it was all said and done, it turned out to be the perfect shade.

I love the difference that spray paint and a little tough love can make! :)

Gettin' Crafty

Things have been so crazy lately. The summer has been in full swing for a good month and a half now and as much as I am enjoying the busy activities... it is HOT outside! Texas has been sitting at 100 degree weather for at least two weeks in a row and no signs of cooling down any time soon.

So back in March I mentioned that Ben and I were working our way to become debt free. Well, we became that much closer a couple weeks ago when we paid off Ben's car! We weren't planning on paying it off until the end of July but we were actually able to write the check a month earlier! Woohoo! The title should be in the mail any day now to make it official! Now all we need to do is kick Sallie Mae to the curb. I do not like her and have lived with her long enough. Once she leaves our life (in no more than 15months) we will be FREE! :) - minus the modest mortgage in which we will pay at least 20% down and have a 15yr. fixed rate.

Here is a framed quote I made out of our credit cards :) - yes, I chopped up all of our credit cards and did something crafty with them... probably the only thing they are good for. If you are familiar with Dave Ramsey, you know his quote: "Live like no one else so later, you can live

like no one else."

We had a very bare wall in our bedroom (always the last to get any kind of decor, sadly)

so I made this banner out of scrapbook paper and twine.

It's fun and a good temporary space taker-upper.

A little peak of our dining room area. I was pretty proud of how clean it looked so I had to snap a couple pictures. I love clean but I tend to make messes.

My sweet dad gave me this vintage bed frame that he bought at a flea market. He welded it into a quilt rack and was planning on painting it etc. He never got around to it and decided to give it to me, knowing that I would love it... and I do love it! It's perfect for my small collection of quilts. The two above are my finds from Canton and McKinney Trades Days and the 3 on the bottom are family quilts.

Another angle of the same space...

When we went to Missouri, I found this beautiful antique medicine cabinet from a flea market. It was just plain stained wood which was nice but I knew I wanted it to be bright and cheery. We took it back to my best friend's house, sanded, primed, painted (Kyrlon Ocean Breeze), sanded and glazed to achieve the finished look. I couldn't be happier. I LOVE it! I will eventually put it in our entry way (when we have a house) to collect keys, mail etc. We shall see.

Keeping it real:

This is what the table looks like on a typical day... As you can see Toby is totally comfortable. I usually always have some sort of project going on and for some reason I can't keep a clean work space.

Speaking of project... here is one I just finished today.

I cut out all 50 states by hand, one by one...

Traced them onto 50 different kinds of scrapbook paper and cut those out...

Then, I mod podged them onto an 11x14 canvas...

Finished product!

I love it so much! It was very tedious and took quite a bit of time but it was totally worth the effort! I got inspiration for this project here and here

Goodies as of late!

I am such a sucker for handmade gifts. I am so thrilled to be able to give handmade gifts and even more thrilled when the opportunity arises to do so! It's my favorite! My cousin had a baby shower today and here are the things I made for her sweet baby girl...

Mini Tag Blanket

(does that fabric make you drool or is it just me?!?!)

Versatile Flower Clips

(hair, headband, purse, cardigan, shoes etc.)

Creative Packaging

(not to ruin my secret but the cello part of the packaging is microwave popcorn wrapping!! I had some natural popcorn that I was throwing out due to it expiring. I realized I could unwrap them carefully and re-use them for these flower clips and or any small jewelry etc. Just staple some cute scrapbook paper over the fold and you have yourself a clean professional packaging job for FREE! Sweet!!)

Cloth Diaper BURP Cloths

Thanks for stopping by! :)

The Wonderful World of .....ETSY!

Hey y'all!

I know, I know... it's been a while huh? But... who reads this anyway? I guess the only way for me to ever have readers is if I actually keep up with everything right?

Anywho... my bestie Jess and I decided to create a shop on Etsy! We have named ourselves...

"The Eclectic Pear" ... yes Pear as in the fruit, not Pair as in Two.


Everything is handmade by us, for you!! We are just starting out and plan to eventually offer an eclectic mix of our talents... so check us out and tell us what you think... we'd love to hear from you!

-Amie

Looks like its been a while since my last post!! I would blame it on the summer... and work... and life... but that might be stretching the truth just a little bit.... but really... BUSY is me. I haven't had a whole lot of time to craft lately which makes me sad... but I squeeze in the time every chance I get.

I have been following a lot of creative blogs lately and one of my favorites at the moment is called -Tater Tots and Jello . Talk about creative!! I have been getting so much inspiration from this blog it's driving me nuts!!

Check out these charming Burlap Pillow Cases that she made!!

Below are the ones that I made. I made them bigger so I could use two pillows I already had to stuff inside them. The smaller one (3rd) was filled with a pillow insert that I bought at Hobby Lobby.

I really love Burlap. Despite the smell and the mess it makes... its quite a beautiful fabric. The texture is amazing and definitely "Shabby Chic".

OH and... hubby and I made a spontaneous decision to buy a way sweet bench off of Craig's List!! I love, love, love it!! I can't wait to have a house of our own to fill with treasures like this!!

One of my friends from church is having a baby boy in a couple months and she is having a baby shower on Thursday. I love making gifts for people so I looked at various blogs for inspiration. My mother in law always makes the cutest receiving blankets for babies and I know you can't ever have too many blankets so I decided I would try my hand at making my first blanket (besides a tie fleece blanket which doesn't count... no sewing is involved on that piece of cake!) It is by no means perfect but I think it turned out pretty stinkin' cute!!

The hardest part about making things as gifts is the giving away part. Sometimes I am so proud of what I accomplished I want to keep it for myself!! Looks like I will just have to make some for my own babies when they come along!!

I am way excited about this blanket!!! If you are having a baby any time soon... you might just have one of these adorable blankets in your gift bag!! I need an excuse to make more!! haha

I'll have to post some more things on another day but wanted to squeeze in a couple favorite projects!!

Owl always love you!

This might just be a "duh!" statement coming from me BUT... I love handmade gifts. Not only to receive but to give! Twice a year I look forward to a package from my best friend (birthday and Christmas) Ever since we began a "long-distance" friendship we have sent each other some sort of handmade gift around those times of year. I just plain love it and I will always, always look forward to sending something her way!

I made this owl for her for Christmas. I just dug around in my scrap fabric and started cutting away! I didn't really have a plan or pattern... just fabric and scissors. I really love how he turned out! Eclectic and Fun... much like my Jess =)

No matter how far we may live apart... Owl always love her!

I am pretty sure WE are the definition of what true friends are.

Creations of the past year...

My best friend, Jess showed me an awesome picture of a pet bed from Etsy. It was made for a cat but since we both have small dogs we were inspired to make one of our own! It is made from a recycled suit case!! I went thrifting with my Mother in law and ended up finding 3 vintage suitcases for $1 a piece! I was only looking for one but for that price, you better believe I bought all three! I decided to leave mine in it's original color (tan). The hardest part of this project was getting the suitcase apart! You only use the bottom half (with the handle) and we literally had to saw it in half!! I bought 4 stubby legs from Home Depot and spray painted them with the blue I had on hand. Then, went to JoAnn's and found 2 coordinating fabrics (cotton stripes and flannel plaid). I wanted to have a cooler side and a warmer side. I cut it a little bigger than the size of the bed so that it would overlap a little.

Oh My Heart!!

Toby loves his bed!

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I bought a lime green scripture case but if you know me, that's just not going to cut it. I had so many old buttons from my grandma and decided to put them to good use! I hand stitched all of the buttons onto the bag using DMC floss. I arranged them so they were all touching the buttons around them and the bigger ones are overlapping. I stopped at this point but hopefully I will end up covering the entire bag with buttons! How awesome would that be!

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I saw a recycled magazine bowl on some site this past year and it really caught my attention. It was not quite like I have made below but it was much wider... more like a serving bowl of sorts. I decided I would make my own. I started out with a regular size bowl and was not satisfied. I decided I would keep building up and work it into a vase! So the following pictures show how it went from bowl to vase.

the inside always looks so COOL!

at the end, I decided it needed flowers. However, regular flowers were definitely not going to work unless you added a glass insert. So... I had some leftover tissue paper flowers that I had made for an activity at church and arranged them in the vase!

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The following are a couple pillows I stitched using DMC Floss and Felt. They were so easy and quick to make! I filled them with Poly Fill and added a few buttons. They are fairly small... but the perfect accent pillow!

Owl Pillow

Love Bird Pillow

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I was looking around on Etsy one day and came across an awesome Lime Green Candelabra. I just loved the Retro / Shabby Chic look that it carried. I was not about to pay $50 for something I figured I could do myself. So... while out thrifting I found this not so pretty brass candelabra. I knew it would be just the ticket. So I bought it for a whopping $2 and went home to transform! I had some matte blue spray paint on hand so that's what I used. I still think it needs something more, but haven't figured it out yet.

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Here is a piece that I made for my girl friend, Jess's Birthday! I recycled magazine and did a lot of folding to create the coil and the flower. I used a shadow box frame and lavender scrap book paper to add more color. I wrote the quote by hand using a thin black sharpie marker. I was in a recycled magazine kick when I created this, but I think it turned out awesome!