Move complete, now let the projects continue!

Our marriage and most of our things survived the move so in mind it was a major success :) That is quite a feat considering there were no "professional movers" involved, only kind family members who we worked nearly to death for no money, so no complaints from this very thankful girl.  That being said, I may NEVER move again! I despise moving so much that I told my husband if he has to leave for work we may just stay right here without him!!!  Ha Ha, obviously I'm all talk and would move anywhere for him, but wow does moving really really for lack of a better term SUCK! It's almost like child birth in a way.. you know it won't be fun to go through but you are so excited about the end result that you forget just how awful it is until you are deep in it and there is no turning back :)  But we survived and it was so worth it, we really love our new home.  There is so much room for the kiddos to explore and for Mommy to play with even more "projects" :) oh and Daddy didn't get left out he too got his own space (that I promised to stay out of :) so everyone is thrilled.

These last 6 weeks or so I worked like crazy gathering old "treasures" and working to make them new again.. at least to me :) My garage literally looked like a church rummage sale was ready to open it's doors at any moment.  I'm pretty sure my very patient husband thought I had officially lost the few marble that I have left, he eventually just stopped asking what yet another vintage suitcase or dresser was doing in our home and just what I planned to do with it.  I guess ignorance is bliss, or at least this until he had to move it all to the new house and then reality set in.  That being said it's all here and ALMOST all of it it now has a home :)

So thank you for hanging with me during my "blogging hiatus", I really missed this new found part of my life, and am so excited to share with you some of my great finds and what I did with them.

Here's one I did a few weeks ago.  I got the idea to re-purpose an old thrift store piece of art from this cute blog.  She used song lyrics and left the canvas as is with no frame.  I thought this was such a fun idea that I had to give it a try.

 I found this lovely gem, canvas and frame for under $6 so decided had to be my latest victim :)

 I took the canvas out of the frame and decided on a phrase that was fitting our new home and carefully laid out the vinyl letters.  You can get these in the paint section at Walmart for just a few dollars, Home Depot has them too but they are a little more expensive. This is such a quick and easy project, deciding on a phrase and sticking the letters down evenly was the most difficult part and for anyone unlike me who can actually do something in a straight line even that is simple :)

 Now for the frame, I know you can't tell from this picture but it did have a lovely strip of black velvet all the way around it.  Velvet???  Oh yes, this was straight out of 1970, but the price was right and after a little persuasion the tacky velvet gave up its grip on the disco decade leaving behind a great frame.  So both the canvas and frame got two good coats of heirloom white spray paint.

 Remove the letters, return to the frame and TA-DA!  You are done!!!

 I did take a little Annie Sloan Dark Wax and rubbed it along the frame for some added personality, but that is totally up to you.  FYI... I am OBSESSED with the clear and dark wax, more on that to come!!!! If you haven't tried it you are missing out, it is totally worth the investment :)

 As you can see I had to move and re-move my letters so many times to get them straight, those tedious, patience required tasks are not really among my strengths so you can see that the paint bled a little around the edges. I don't mind that it isn't perfectly crisp, but if that is the look you are going for just make sure that the edges are really pressed down before spray painting.  Don't worry about not getting them off, even after a few coats of paint they all peeled off with no problem.

I love how the different colors peak through the letters but you would have no idea that this was once a dated landscape painting.  I can't wait to hang it up in our entry way.

Hope you like it!  Go find a piece of "art" and give it a try!  I can't wait to see what you come up with!

Enjoy, Lindsey :)