The Little Red Cupboard....

I have a before and after that I am really proud of. I bought this blonde, boring looking wood sideboard for $100. The woman was selling it for $200 but I went in for the kill and asked if she would take $100 off the price and to my astonishment she said that "I could have it if I picked up tonight". SCORE! Always barter peeps.

It was perfect for the space I needed it for and the purpose I needed it for. I had this bare, empty wall that was sad and lonely and needed some love. All I had to do was get to work revamping the cupboard.

I could kick myself that I didn't take a before picture. In all the spray painting excitement I forgot. Yes, I said spray paint. I took this lil' cutie and stuck her in my backyard and plastered her with 5 cans of Walmart's 98 cent spray paint cans. Gutsy...I know.

It turned out great don't you think?

The next step was to personalize it a bit more. My hubby is from England and I lived there for 10 years, heck our first born, was born there. Needless to say we love anything English and we needed to show it in our house abit more. We needed a Union Jack..well make that two. The doors had a cross on it that made it perfect for my plans.

Here she is in all her glory. I LOVE how it turned out. I went and found some big branches out back to go in my HUGE old Mason jar that I found at an antique store for $5 bucks. I added some lil' birdies and voila. I absolutely adore it.

I bought a cheap lamp at Walmart that was black and painted it to match the blue I used in the flags on my doors. I also took an old brassy, chintzy looking mirror and white washed it.


I now have storage for all my little girls toys that were always floating around the house.

I hung another gift from my awesome MIL on the tree. Look how sweet this little crystal heart is. I just love how at night, it sparkles and spins. It adds the last little bit of magic.

This little bird is sure happy she found such a good home. Annabelle, my 18 month old, kisses her and talks to her every night before we ascend up the stairs.

I just sit and stare at the whole vignette at night. It makes me happy to look over at it while I watch Tv or sit by the fire. It brings depth and warmth to the room.

One thing that I haven't had the time to finish is the handles. Now this is my dilemma. Do I go the easy route and get some glass knobs, or do I glue some old English coins on the knobs ??? What do you think?

I will update with pics when I finish it. I also just bought some beautiful butterflies that I put on it for spring. I'll post pics of that later. I will change the decor up with the seasons. LOVE this piece and had to share ;)

xoxo Emily

Valentine's Day Ideas From My Heart to Yours

By now, the readers who have been with me from the start know I LOVE making these cute little banners or bunting as they are called in England. They are so easy to make and add a fun, whimsical touch to a mantle or door way, anywhere really.

All you need are some fabrics or even one fabric if that is all you have. I added 5 coordinating red and pink fabrics.

Pinking shears if you want the cute edge but you could also cut it and fray it.

A hot glue gun...yay..no sewing involved!!

Ribbon

A stencil brush or foam paintbrush

Glitter and Elmer's glue if you want to adorn it with letters or sayings.
Stencils of your letters. (Micheal's has $2.99 paper stencils with all letters and symbols.)

I added X's and O's and a heart at each end with glitter.

Directions:
Make yourself a triangle template out of an old cereal box. Then place it on your fabric and mark with a pencil on the reverse side of the fabric.
Cut it out with your pinking shears and iron the flags if necessary.
Measure 5-6 foot of ribbon and lay it down and place the flags in the position or pattern you want.
With you hot glue gun lay one line of glue on the ribbons back side and place the flag on carefully with the fabric side down. Be careful not to burn yourself ;)
Repeat this until you have your whole bunting finished.
When it is cool then turn it over and admire your work.
Now get ready to embellish it.
Lay your stencil out where you want it on your flag. I always just eyeball it, no need to measure.
Get a foam paintbrush or a stencil brush and dip in a little Elmer's glue and and tap it on the stencil. Then sprinkle the glitter and tap the glitter with your finger to make sure it is well covered and sticks really well to the fabric. Peel off the stencil and voila!
Repeat this on all flags you have chosen to embellish.

I used my cute Audrey Eclectic Christmas ornaments with my Valentines display. These were the parents I gave both sets of our parents this year. She made me little copies of the originals. Cute huh :) Plus, as it is still technically winter I found it hard to take down my garland from the mantle. The twinkly lights at night with the fire on just make it warm, cozy and magical.

The next idea I came up with last year. I made my own Valentines out of scrapbook paper, string and some buttons.

I loved those old envelopes that you close shut with a little string and whatever that little circle was called...hehe.

So I used that as my inspiration for these lil' cuties.

Take 2 coordinating pieces of scrapbook paper and with a glue stick or preferably spray adhesive glue the 2 pieces together. Both with the design side showing. Insert a piece of string at the bottom of the paper between the 2 pieces.
Now fold all of the papers in half and rub a pencil or ruler along the crease to make it really creased and neat. Not the end of the pencil mind you :)

Draw a heart and make sure the point of the heart is where the string comes out of the back page. Make sure to leave a little of the top creased part intact so that when you cut it out it will still fold in half. ( See pic below)

Now glue or sew the button on the front piece of the heart. Yes, I did say sew. It totally works on paper just be very slow and steady, then make a knot at the back inside piece. Glue should work fine though.

Once it is dry, you are ready to write on the inside or embellish it more with other things. I loved the simplicity of these with just the button though.

Take the string and wrap it around the button a few times and you have a lovely homemade Valentine for a loved one or friend.

It needs no envelope and in my opinion it is A-D-O-R-A-B-L-E.

Happy Valentines Day and thanks for being my readers and supporters.

Love you all!
XOXO
Emily