You're cute, but you scare me.

 Oct 29, 2010

The spooky before and afters continue in honor of Halloween! This project comes from Jonalynn from Turn Up the Rad. The after isn't at all scary or Halloweenish, but hot dang, does that before not kind of creep you out a little? Sure the girl is a cutie pie and whatever, but I am always so disturbed to come across a picture still in its frame at the thriftstore. Especially pictures of kids. Especially pictures of this magnitude. Thing was huge, ya'll.


Jonalynn figured the frame was the perfect size for a coffee table tray, so that's what it became, and I am happy to report that the creepy picture isn't lurking under the chevron design, but has since been removed.


Have you ever stumbled across a find like this? A photo album with hundreds of photos still inside? A jewelry box full of love notes? Once my friend Kristan bought what she thought was an unused notebook, but it turned out to be the half-used poetry journal of an angsty adolescent boy. Good times.







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Its a Bitsy Spider

Wooooooooo! Ooooooooooooooh! (that is my scary typing voice, are you scared yet?) Halloween is upon us! I have gathered a couple of freaky and frightful Halloween redos for your viewing pleasure today!

This here used to be a plain jane side table, but Kammy from Kammy's Korner spiffed it up with some spidery spookiness. Scary! Check back in later today for more Halloween horrors!





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Fiery Fairy

 Oct 28, 2010

Monica found this freebie desk on Craiglist in the nick of time. The owner was planning to use it as firewood if no one responded to the ad! Yipes!


She got her artsy hands on it and drew a fantastic fairy forest-scape instead. Fairies are much more fun than firewood, this is true. Get up close and personal with them on her blog Cheerio Diva. Thanks Monica!











83 pages of tips, instructions and pictures for only $10!
Download your copy today!

***
I have personally read this ebook and am happy to recommend it,
and I am totally not just saying that because Better After is name-checked in it! What what!
***

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Nine Footer

Ellen and her man pulled a Jim and Pam when they bought their home from her in-laws three years ago. With it came not a creepy clown picture superglued to the wall (if that makes no sense to you whatsoever, you probably don't religiously watch/memorize The Office likes I do) but a 9-foot buffet!

Yes, NINE feet! Wow. It was nice, but just not Ellen's style. But how can you get rid of a 9-foot buffet? You can't. So she switched it up a little with a two-toned paint job, which looks amazing and you can read more about it right HERE.




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Plush Paisley

Kate's living room had a case of the browns. That sounded disgusting, I'm sorry. But anyhoo, what I mean is, everything in there was brown. Dark brown sofas, dark wood, and this faux leather ottoman that was doing nothing to add any drama to the room.


So Kate took a cue from a piece she liked in the Pottery Barn catalog and decided to recover them in a warm and cozy paisley. Adds more color and texture but still coordinates with the rest of the room, I'd say that's pretty much perfect! See more HERE.






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Zebra Chase!

 Oct 27, 2010

Don't let that matronly mauve fabric fool you. Underneath all that musty stuff is a wild animal clawing its way out! Actually, under that musty stuff was more musty stuff, but Eliana from Refinish-It-All reupholstered it in a snazzy zebra print.

Just another reminder that you should never be swayed away from a project because of its outdated stankiness or your lack of upholstering experience, because Eliana had never reupholstered anything before in her life! Nice work!





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Jayna's Kitchen of Lust

Dear Jayna, this might sound creepy, but can I move in with you? I don't even need a room of my own, I'll just stay in your kitchen. I hope that's cool! 

Seriously though, if I ever actually used the phrase "drool-worthy" in real life, I would apply it to this kitchen. Love the white. Love the high ceiling. Love the chandelier. I even love how just adding crown moulding to the top of the awkward pantry corner made it look totally unawkward and like part of the room that existed all along and wasn't just slapped into place when the previous owners realized they had an enormous barn-shaped kitchen on their hands.

Jayna has shared with me her decorating philosophy:
1. Identify all of the oak around the house. 2. Paint it white.

Works for me. More to see on Jayna's blog HERE.



 


 




 

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Danica's Dining

After spending months and months searching for the perfect kitchen table, Danica and her husband realized they already had it. This was the kitchen table that Danica grew up with and took with her when she got married.


So she preserved the memories, but changed it up to suit her style and I think it looks amazing! She really made it her own! (I feel like Paula Abdul when I say that. *blank stare, seal clap*)


Check it out on her blog DLF Designs.






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Cindy's Instincts

 Oct 26, 2010

Late start today. The kiddos have been ... active. I spent half the day mopping up a tragic mess that involved a trashbag full of peanut shells and the contents of a 5 gallon water jug. Not awesome.

So now I present to you a divine dresser from Cindy at Cottage Instincts. If you were looking for a detailed presentation on how to lovingly distress/antique/vintage-ize your furniture, look no further. Her post is super informative and even includes videos on how to attain this one-of-a-kind look. Thanks Cindy!



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Cute-Cakes

 Oct 25, 2010

Insider scoop! Check out this glimpse into the studio of my pal, the one and only Becki from Whippy Cake! Becki is one of those artistic sorts who can thrive in chaos. I break out into hives and start pulling out clumps of hair. That is why she is creative and I am not. But every now and then the right-brain takes over and demands order from even the craftiest of the crafty.

This is such a cute workspace. I could even be crafty in there, or at least stand around, eat her candy and nod appreciatively.








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Two Bums Up

I'm a big picnic fan. I even asked for a picnic table for my birthday. I think I like picnics because they are so easy to clean up after! No dishes, no mopping the kitchen floor, yay for picnics! But you know what I'm not all for? Splinters in my behind. Does this before picnic bench look like anything you would want to rest your rear on for any amount of time? No. What is the point of having a time-saving, clean-up-saving picnic if you are going to be spending the rest of the evening getting intimate with a pair of tweezers? Heather remedied that problem right quick with more than a sanding and paint job: she padded and upholstered the bench and even weatherproofed it with clear plastic! Looks fantastic! Check it out on her blog HERE. Well done Heather! My bum approves.




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Damasquerade

Hold on to your socks, because they are about to be knocked off! Ann Marie accomplished this sweet dresser redo by painting a damask pattern onto the front of the drawers.

How did she manage to project such a perfect image onto the dresser? With a projector, silly! She's offering her readers a chance to get in on the projectoring (not a word) fun too, because she's giving one away! Check out her blog for the details: Twice Lovely. Thanks Ann Marie!




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Sponsor Luv

 Oct 22, 2010

Say hello again to Pam McDonald from Shaklee! Pam has an exciting offer to share with Better After readers! From now until Nov. 30th, she is offering a 20% rebate to anyone who purchases a membership package through her website! ($19.95 package excluded)





If you've been looking into becoming an independent distributor, there's never been a better time! Shaklee is the number one natural nutrition company in the US, and they've been doing it for over 50 years. Their products are green and clean and their philosophy is : HEALTHY HOME, HEALTHY YOU, HEALTHY LIFE. Pam was kind enough to send me a few Shaklee products to try out, and I am happy to attest that these things are the real deal.




This is one of Shaklee's most popular products, the super-concentrated, award-winning, all-natural "Get Clean." That little bottle on the right makes 48 gallons of cleaner! That's equal to 5,824 bottles of Windex!




See the recipes on the bottles above? 1-2 drops of the H2 concentrate = an entire bottle of window cleaner? I gave it a whirl, and it works great. I've already burned through several bottles (I'm a cleaner!) and the amount of concentrate in the bottle has barely budged. (pssst, it's also a freaking bargain!)

Absolutely zero of their products are ever tested on animals too.


These are a couple of the other products I've tried, the Vita-Lea daily vitamins and the Meadow Blend Bar, which sounds like a tasty energy snack, but is in fact soap, although don't call it soap, because it is soap-free!




Ok, so embarrassing fact alert: my face likes to grow huge, painful, cyst-like zits, um pretty much all the time. As soon as one clears up, another one bubbles up in it's place. I'm not talking like whiteheads and pimples, but seriously deep, deep under the surface non-popable painfulness.


But honest to goodness truth here, I haven't had a single one since I started using both of these products. And I'm pretty sure the non-soap soap isn't even meant for your face, but it's gentle enough and all-natural, and I'm lazy, so what the heck, I use it. I don't know if it's a combination of the soap and the high-potency vitamins swirling around in my bloodstream or what, but that's my testimonial yo.
Shaklee does have an entire line of beauty products (including cleansers actually meant for your face): Healthy Beauty, along with Healthy Home, Healthy Nutrition and Healthy Weight.

So if you are interested in these products, it might be worth it to consider becoming a distributor. It's easy and inexpensive to get started, especially with the 20% rebate! Just contact Pam, either through her website or email tpmcdaaa@comcast.net. She's been doing this for 35 years; she knows her stuff!


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Your Slip is Showing

Mandi from Interior Design Musings was less than excited when she inherited this wicker coffee table that looked like it had been stolen from the set of The Golden Girls. However, the longer it sat in her garage, the more she warmed up to it, finally admitting to herself that it had a shape she could work with. A little slipcovering with some greek key trim later, and she was in business!

Great idea Mandi! This could work with just about anything. I do recall an end table I once made for my college apartment out of a slipcovered bucket, true story.





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Chow Down

Someone somewhere once said something to the effect of this: "Everything in your home should be either beautiful or functional." Not sure who said that, Nate Berkus maybe? Anyway, I like that quote and tried to think of things in my house that are not beautiful ... what about paper plates!! Oh, wait, functional...." and I played that game with myself for a while.

But isn't it great when something functional can be made beautiful too? Erin from The Impatient Gardener and her husband have some rather substantially sized dogs who require sturdy, sizable bowls. The bowls got the job done, but they weren't the most attractive things in the kitchen. So with some leftover teak and holly boat flooring (don't we all have piles of that lying around, right?) Erin's husband fashioned a classy dog dining solution! Looks super!





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Double Duty

Some yummy ornate goodness hot and fresh from the oven for you! Shelbie at Making it Mine just happened to stumble upon this first dresser. Just happened to stumble upon it. Yeah. I want to know what fantastic neighborhood just has old rickety dressers laying around waiting for love. I found an empty Dr. Pepper can outside the other day ... but it's just not the same.









And isn't this one beautiful? Look at that detail! No, really look at it! I demand that you smoosh your face against your monitor and drink in that delicious detail! The dang thing is gorgeous. From Cindy at Cameras and Chaos.













83 pages of tips, instructions and pictures for only $10!
Download your copy today!


***
I have personally read this ebook and am happy to recommend it,
and I am totally not just saying that because Better After is name-checked in it! What what!
***


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Once upon a time ...

 Oct 21, 2010

This before chair was rocking a ... cheerful look. So much stuff is going on in that fabric I feel like it should have come with a big fat storybook for an ottoman or some such.

I see a homey little log cabin flanked by a tree which is growing some mauve-colored fruit, a pair of sheep, a bunch of chickens, a dog, a bucking horse, more chickens, a pond, a dead tree, still more chickens and ... is that an evil polar bear lumbering over the hill, coming to destroy the whole happy scene?! Or is it the ghost of the original homesteader, coming to stake his claim from beyond the grave? What's going on?! How does it end?!


Barbra from My Pocketbook and Me was probably tired of asking herself these questions, so she reupholstered the chair in a demure damask. Lovely! But now we will never know the rest of the Epic Fabric Saga. It's probably better that we don't.











83 pages of tips, instructions and pictures for only $10!
Download your copy today!

***
I have personally read this ebook and am happy to recommend it,
and I am totally not just saying that because Better After is name-checked in it! What what!
***

Read more...

Go For a Stroll

Hush little baby, don't you cry
Your weathered old stroller is going bye-bye,
When it's redone, it will give you thrills,
thanks to Aunt Laura's mad sewing skillz.
More on her blog, Laura Thoughts.






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