Monogram Door

One of my favorite things, like I had mentioned in a previous post is decorating my new front door. I have even created a pinboard on Pinterest. One of the coolest things I had found while searching for things to beautify my new door was a personalized monogram. I am sure if you are a Pin-a-holic like me, you have seen some of them on Pinterest. I purchased mine from Southern Proper Monograms. I love how it turned out however I thought it came already painted. It did not, but that was not a problem because I had some Kilz left over from my chandelier make over.

Check it out~

Before

After and it looks fantastic on my door.

Penn State Wreath

I've recently been inspired to create art for the front door of our new house. What can say more about a person's home than how they care for their yard? I think it is how they decorate their door/front porch, but thanks to my wonderful husband, the yard looks great too! I have been busy creating things for Halloween but I wanted to create a wreath for football season. I saw a great one that had a large football on it but I wanted to use things I already had around the house.

One of my favorite places to visit is the ribbon outlet in Hagerstown. I like to refer to it as "ribbon heaven." I could spend hours in there searching for ribbon that I don't even have a current use for at the moment. If you live in the DC metro area and are a crafter you must check it out, Berwick Ribbon Outlet.  Anyway, last summer I spent many hours looking through the ribbon bins to find ribbon. I had purchased this ribbon very cheap. Of course I told my husband I had plans for the ribbon when I bought it. :)

Some of my inspiration ribbon for this project had a paw print pattern and the other was blue and white polka-dot. They were just screaming to be made into something Penn State. The spools that you can purchase at the ribbon outlet are much larger and more economical than what you get at the local craft store. I think I paid $3.00 for the paw print and $10.00 for the polka dot. This is what I still have left after the wreath and a few other projects.

I used a hay wreath because I wanted the wreath to have some depth. I left the plastic on so that there would not be hay all over the floor. I also had created a balloon wreath for my son's birthday with the same material and I liked how it turned out. I took the ribbon and wrapped it around and I was able to use push pins to hold the last piece. Then I created a large bow from some ribbon that had wire in it. Finally, I stole (I mean borrowed) my son Camden's mini football that he had in his room.

I am so happy with the final product. I have a feeling that I might need that left over ribbon to make a few more of these after our friends and family see how cute it turned out. We might need a few more mini footballs though.

TABLE REDO

Over the summer when we were shopping for furniture downtown, we came across just what we were looking for to fill our entry way. This little table was just the thing. We wanted a black table so we purchased some black paint and using the recipe from Jamielyn at iheartnaptime, we created our own chalk paint.

Here is what the table looked like before.

The first thing I did was to remove the drawer pull and then sand down to the wood. It took about 2 coats to cover completely and to look cohesive. I am pretty happy with how it turned out.

One word of advice I will give to those looking to make your own chalk paint. *Make sure that your Plaster of Paris is completely mixed in or you will have chunks in your paint and will have to sand them down and start over.

Once we had it painted, I put on a new drawer pull that I purchased for $1.50 at Hobby Lobby. I think it looks great.

 All ready for fall and our upcoming Halloween Party.