A Little Easter Re-use

Well I will get to the "re-use" part in a minute.  First I wanted to share the cute Easter "pails" I put together for our nieces and nephews.  I'm all about the "basket" part of Easter baskets being useful.  I know my sister-in-laws appreciate pails or bins that they can reuse for the kids toys or even clothes in a closet.  So I went to one of my favorite stores {Target} to find a bin or a pail for the kiddos.  There are 5 kids.  Let's take a look at each one.

Here is one for our almost 1 year old niece.  I know my sister-in-law loves aqua and pink for the girls.  So this nieces got some outfits and a little bit of candy that I'm sure her older sister and brother will probably eat instead.  ;)

Here is her sisters pail.  She is 2.5 years old, so she gets more candy, glitter sidewalk chalk & punch balloons and there is some nail polish hiding at the bottom of the pail for her too.  She loves her nails painted.  And there is some small candy in those plastic eggs.  This girl loves her chocolate and she loves Kit Kats.  They had Kit Kat bunnies.  They are very cute when you open them.  What?  We had some left over, we had to test them out to see if they were good for the kids of course.  LOL  ;)

This pail is for our 3 month old niece, so she got a couple of outfits, a little toy that plays music and a cute egg just because it's Easter.

Our nephew & godchild is the big brother to the 3 month old niece and this is his pail.  We got him a gun that blows out bubbles so it's nice and easy for him to play with and not make a mess, he also got some punch balloons {Target-$1.99} and one other larger toy that couldn't fit in the pail.  And of course some eggs with candy inside.

Now here is where the "re-use" part comes in.  We also have a 9 year old nephew {older brother to the almost 1 year old and 2.5 year old nieces} that might feel he is a little too old for a "Easter basket", so I had to think of something to put his gift card to Target in, with some candy of course.  Well this big plastic egg with a handle was staring at me and I thought, "Oh why the heck not, let's see what everything looks like in there for him".  I loved it.  My sister-in-law can re-use it or just recycle it.  :)   Well I hope our nephew likes it and doesn't think it's too baby-ish for him.  ;)

The pails were $5.00 each and the big plastic egg I believe was $2.99 for all those eggs we used for the candy.  The filler was from Target as well and was .49 cents per bag.
{I didn't even use the whole bag of filler in each pail, so I have some left over for next year or something else throughout the year}

All clothes were bought at Carters...I love their selection and the price is always right.  I always get to buy more for my money which I love.

Well I hope everyone that is getting ready for Easter is having fun with their baskets.  I had a great time putting mine together.  What do you use for "baskets"?  Are you like me and want those basket to be useful or do you love the colorful Easter baskets that are out there and you reuse them the following year?  What do you do for Easter?  Love to hear all about it.

Have a post about Easter?  You can leave a link to it in the comments area so everyone else can see it too.  :)

Thanks for stopping by everyone!!!  Have a great day!!!  Happy Friday!!!  :)

Living Room Ideas

I have been thinking for awhile that I want to change things around in the living room.  Hopefully we will be able to do that soon.  I'm done with the leather sofa.  We actually have a sofa, loveseat & chaise, but the loveseat & chaise are in the spare bedroom for right now.  The living room is too small for all three pieces, heck it's too small for even the sofa & loveseat.  We have had the living room both ways since we lived here.  We had this set prior to buying this house and we were just working with what we had when we moved in.  But it is time to make some changes.  I want a smaller sofa, a chair and an ottoman that will be a coffee table and ottoman.  It needs to serve a dual purpose.  We might even get a storage ottoman, but we will see what I fall in love with and what fits in our living room of course.

Let's take a look at this room when we first moved in.  It wasn't pretty, but it worked for us at the time.  So much as changed in this room.

And now it looks like this.  So completely different.

Since we have another ottoman downstairs in our family room, I asked my hubby to bring that one up so we could see how this large ottoman worked in our living room.  Not that it would stay in the living room, but to see the size in the room.  Yup, it's way too big for the room, that is for sure.  Oh well.  But now I know sort of what size to look for when I go ottoman shopping.  ;)

From this picture you can see how much room is in between the ottoman and entertainment center.  It's not much.  There is about 2ft.  And there is about 2ft in between the ottoman and the sofa as well.  It just needs to be more functional.  It really should have some sort of storage, so I'm going to keep my eye out for a tufted ottoman with storage.  Hopefully for a good price.  ;)

Let's take a look at some inspirational pictures I have come across online and of course they are on my Pinterest board if you want to see more.  ;)

I love the tufted ottoman.  Gorgeous nail head detail and the dark stained legs.  Maybe I could find nice wicker baskets to go underneath something like this.  Could look cute.

via BHG

Love the medium/dark gray color of this sofa.  Also love the dark stained legs on it.  I'm sensing a theme here.  Well since my style is Transitional, this look fits right in.  Mixing old {the dark stained traditional looking legs} with the sleek lines of the sofa itself.

via Laz-Z-Boy


Chair and ottoman are gorgeous!!!  I'm really tufted anything lately.  Classic look.

via My Design Chic


Gray tufted ottoman.  I want this.

via Style by Emily Henderson

I love this ottoman with Ikat fabric.  And those dark stained legs are gorgeous.

via West Elm


OK, I really love this tufted ottoman, but it's just way to big for my room.  But a girl can dream right?  ;)

via tumblr

Here are the colors that I want in my living room.  Plus add some plum purple to the mix as well.  I'm part of the way there already with pillows, rug and decor I have already bought.  So once I get to buy a sofa, chair and ottoman, then I'm pretty much all set with this room.  Plus all the work I just did to the entertainment center.

via Photocard Boutique


I love gray, white & turquoise together.

via rsmtr.info

I haven't put a Mood Board together yet because I'm not 100% on what I want.  I also didn't want to put something together that I loved yet until I knew I was closer to the time of being able to purchase the main pieces for this room.  Sometimes I get ahead of myself and then my taste has changed or they don't sell something anymore.  So this time I'm waiting until I know we can financially finish this project and then I will put a mood board together.  Though Pinterest has been my online Mood Board, so I guess I've sort of started dreaming about this room.  Oh well.  LOL

Sorry I have been a little MIA lately, but I still have some stuff going on personally and I can't always blog.  But I still love my blog and I want to see it grow.  I want to inspire all of you.  So I hope you will stick around.

So do you love gray & turquoise together?  What gray sofa's do you love?  Are you a tufted ottoman person or not?  I would love to see what you are loving right now.  Let's inspire each other.  Add links in the comment area if you want to share with everyone.

Thanks for stopping by everyone!!!  Have a great day!!!  :)

A Little Something New

 I had one other new piece, from Michael's, that I wanted to add into my Living Room.  Check out all the other new things I bought for my Entertainment Center here.

So I played around with some of the decor on my side table.  Here is what it looked like when I started.  With Spring around the corner I wanted something a little brighter on this table.  So I grabbed a few things to see what worked best on this table.  Let's take a look.

First I changed the piece that was on the burlap storage book.

Purple bowl

New purple ceramic rose

New turquoise flower

Then I changed the storage book that was there and put each of the decorative pieces onto this white storage book instead.

White with purple bowl

White with purple ceramic rose

White with turquoise flower

And the winner is.....the burlap storage book with the turquoise ceramic flower.  I love how it's a nice bright pop of color now and I still have the texture of the burlap storage book.  I love sitting on the couch and having this cute little happy guy next to me.  It makes me happy.  :)  The white storage box went into the Entertainment Center with the purple ceramic rose and the purple bowl too.  See I found a home for everything.

You could put a small candle in it if you want.

Have you bought anything yet that is making you happy since it's almost Spring?  Do you like the color Turquoise?  So who else is ready for Spring to arrive?  It's almost Day Light Savings Time.  March 11 is the date to "Spring ahead" with your clocks.  Well hear in New York, that is what we will be doing of course, not all of you.  ;)

Thanks for stopping by everyone!!!  Have a great day!!!  :)

 

Styling Entertainment Center Shelves with Glass Doors

Ok, when I was looking for inspiration out there in the internet world, all I could find was styling for bookcases or shelves.  Nothing for an entertainment center with glass doors.  I have to work with what I have for now {this entertainment center}, but one day I hope to have some open shelving instead.  Maybe something smaller or at least white and no doors.  We will see.

So I just kept getting ideas from bookcase styling.  You can see my Pinterest board for more ideas.  I also had another problem and that was that I had a lot of stuff I didn't love behind those glass doors.  Things I received as gifts and weren't completely my taste.
{I received them for my bridal shower, so what can I say} 

Let's see what they looked like first.  I really disliked how they looked from day one, but I just didn't know what to do with them.  So of course I hit the internet for inspiration and ideas.

A better look with the doors open.  Basically I added things from around the house that didn't have a place otherwise and this is what I came up with.  Like I said, I didn't love it, but they all needed to go someplace.

Here is the other side of the entertainment center.

Like I said, lots of stuff that were gifts and that I didn't love.  And as you can see lots of crystal.  I needed color and some interest.  So I had to figure out how to combine crystal with everyday decor.  Sort of like decorating with antiques & new decor.  So I had to keep my eye out when I would go shopping for some decor I knew I just didn't have in the house.  I also shopped my house for things I could use.  So over several months I kept my eye out for things that I would love.  Over Christmas I asked for some things that I saw and I even bought some things for my husband that I knew would fit on the shelves.  I had to put some stuff in there that he would like to look at too, right?  Of course I did....I wanted to.

Here are a few of the things that I had bought at Home Goods.  I know, I know I have a problem, but I love that place.  I didn't take pictures of everything that was bought for this project before hand, but everything is in the entertainment center.  Decorating books, small colorful decor, a plane & some books that the hubby was interested in.  More on those in a minute.

So two weeks ago I decided I had to re-style these shelves.  To start, I emptied them completely onto my Dining Room table.  I put aside the things that I didn't want to go back in and I grouped together all the stuff I wanted in there.

It was very sunny the day I did this, so taking pictures was not easy with all the glass.  But here it is all done.  :)

Let's get closer so you can see how I styled my shelves.

I even put some of the stuff right above the TV so the cable box didn't look so ugly anymore.
{that is not my wedding picture, I had to print some out}

Let's take a look inside, {again those aren't my wedding pictures}.  I mixed crystal with inexpensive ceramic decor.  I actually love how it all turned out.  Mixing the crystal in with everyday stuff finally worked for me.  I love how it all turned out.  This girl is smiling now!!!

Wedding frame & toasting glasses.  Cute little turquoise bird {Michael's}, dolphin and white vases.

That is my bouquet from our wedding 5.5 years ago.  I just couldn't throw it out.  My mother-in-law dried it for me.

And these three things were my Grandma's.  A small green vase, a cow that can pour milk & a bell.  Yes they aren't my "style", but they remind me on my Grandma and many great memories.  :)

Decor books {Amazon} my hubby bought me for Christmas and a cute little purple ceramic flower {Michael's}.

I love this little guy.  Isn't she cute?  I love Turquoise.
{Michael's....what can I tell you they were having a 40% off sale and I saw a few little things that I loved and I knew would finish off this project.}

I love this color purple.

HomeGoods

The "&" and turquoise book are from HomeGoods.

HomeGoods.  My hubby loves old planes.

Crystal from HomeGoods & books from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

The saying is actually a box that you can store things in, it's from HomeGoods.  White bird from Michael's.

Ok, so for a really long time, I have been wanting to either paint or wallpaper or even use wrapping paper on the back wall of the entertainment center.  It's the same dark cherry wood that the rest of it is and it's just way to dark.  So first I had styled the shelves to see if that would make me happy enough.  But something was still missing.  Then I came across this purty wrapping paper from Hallmark and I knew I had to buy it for my entertainment center walls.  With all the inspiration online, I had to do this.  I wanted something brighter and prettier for this piece.  :)
 

The background is a light blue-ish turquoise color and the flowers are a gray/brown kind of color.  It wasn't easy to get a good picture of.  But it is really pretty in person.  I'm sure of it.  ;)


So this is how it went.  Before, during & after.

"Before" & "After"

I LOVE IT!!!  So glad I went with the pretty wrapping paper.  So for a roll of $4.99 paper {and I still have some left over}, I was able to really get the look I wanted.

Simple directions of how I installed it.  I bought some poster board, 4 pieces to be exact.  I didn't want to make this permant because I might want to sell it one day.  So I measured the inside of each side and took 2 pieces of the poster board and taped them together.  I taped the wrapping paper on to the poster board and put it behind the glass shelves.  So the shelves hold it in place.  I was done.  If for some reason it starts to curl because it's only held in by the shelves, then I will add small push pins into the corners and with all the decor inside, you will not see the push pins.

So here is what each side looks like again with the wrapping paper.

So do you love how they turned out?  Is the wrapping paper not your thing?  What kind of wrapping paper would you use?  Have you painted or wallpapered something like this before?  Did you make it permant or not?  I would love to hear all about it.  Please leave a link in the comment section so that everyone else can take a look at your project too.  I love being inspired by others.

Thanks for stopping by everyone!!!  Have a great day!!!  :)