The Seven Deadly Sins of Outdated Decor.....

Hello Friends!
While munching on my Special k this morning, I was skimming thru the Charlotte Observer and landed on
THIS ARTICLE titled REPENT & REDECORATE by Jura Koncius.
She got my attention.
After reading the whole thing , I was like....
"Oh.... I SO think everyone else would love to see where they fall into The Seven Deadly Sins of Outdated Decor!"
Here we go.....
SIN ONE~ NO MORE MAUVE!  She states that while the heyday for this color peaked in the 80'S and 90's, there is NO ROOM for it in our future. I have to agree~ get out of the time warp.

SIN TWO~OVERDONE LIGHTING aka Track Lighting being "bulky and clunky". Excess lighting( including recessed lighting) clutters up a beautiful ceiling. She says floor lamps are making a huge comeback...my question is "Where did they go?" and I cannot possible put a floor lamp in my kitchen.

SIN THREE~BAN THE BORDER...oh I am soooo guilty on this one. Yep...STILL have a border in the master bath...and guess what...I STILL like it but I know....it's gotta go. "While wallpaper itself is staging a MAJOR comeback~ the 6 inch wide borders are sooooo yesterday."  Okay okay....I can take a hint! Geez......

SIN FOUR~TILES: TIME TO COME CLEAN Her point here is that basically bright vivid patterned tiles are WAY OUT and clean subway tiles are WAY IN. Bring color in with accessories, not zig zaggy horrific tiles.

SIN FIVE~ SIMPLER SOFAS.....NO MORE FLORALS! Okay, I hope my mom sees this. She's been in love with floral patterned sofas forever. The author says that "Fabric in dramatic patterns isn't generally a wise investment!" (I think I should just show that part to my dad!)

SIN SIX~NO MORE DROOPY SWOOPS (especially mauve ...eek!) Nice simple tailored valances are IN....using mega yards of fabric for window treatments is out! Again....classic look=IN....flouncy and droopy =OUT

SIN SEVEN~ SOFTER COLORS FOR RUGS....Avoid the cheap mass produced Oriental rugs in hideous colors. If you have a nice expensive rug in a  dark color ~ for a mere $500.00 you can get a chemical wash done to make the colors softer! Easy as pie! (geez)

So to sum it up:
Later today you need to ditch the sofa, scrape the tiles off the walls, rip off the borders, tear down all the excess lighting,dye your rugs , paint the walls and scrap the swoops!
Don't forget to take tons of pics!
Oh ...and You're Welcome!
LOL!

Simple. Christmas.

Merry Merry Friends!

Still stuck on the idea of

Simple Christmas decor.

Here are a few ideas that I have gathered from the web.

Enjoy!{wreath #1}

{wreath #2}

{flower pots as bells!}

{old rake as a stocking holder!}

{simple mittens}

Not much effort.....

Lots of charm.....

A Chippy White Christmas

Happy Holidays Friends!

When this time of year rolls around I always look forward to decorating with all my chippy white favorites. As if they didn't look great all year long~ something happens at Christmas time that makes them just shine! I figured out what it is .........

PINE!

I know....AMAZING right???

I knew I had to share this revolutionary new decorating tip with the masses!!! LOL!

Seriously though....

simple Frasier sprigs tucked here and there are JUST the right touch

and let me add again........

SIMPLE.

And let me also add.....

in most cases...

Free!

And quick to do. You get beautiful results in seconds.

I did alot of tucking recently.....

Many of these pieces are ones that I have recently discovered.....



and are currently available.....




on my Etsy shop!







You may have some pieces like this sitting in the attic or garage.....

That are just waiting patiently to be jazzed up a bit with a simple sweet pine sprig!

You can go from a typical snooze fest pillow arrangement....

to adorable with just one sprig!

Fill an ole wash tub with a bunch.....

and stand back and realize that you did that in minutes!

Nothing is off limits when it comes to sprigs......

except perhaps anything that you don't want sap on....

which could be a good number of things but for the sake of decorating we sometimes improvise.....

with Fake sprigs like in this vintage mail bag!

With all that goes on this time of year~ decorating your home should be one of the fun and enjoyable things!

Don't stress ~ just think simple.

A tuck here and tuck there.....

is all it takes to bring a little bit of Christmas cheer to even the most humble pieces that you treasure!

Proudly Linking to Faded Charms White Wednesday.

Metal tree Transformation!

Good Morning Friends!

Here's an idea that I came up with that I am pretty excited about.....

Are you ready for this?I was given two of these standard white pre-lit metal Christmas trees....
I took it out of the box and easily assembled it and let the branches fall and then "fluffed" them into place... I made sure I plugged it in to see if all the lights were working.....

I tore a GAZILLION of these. Most of what I used were old vintage flour sacks that had stains or holes. Each strip is about 4- 5 inches long. You can use muslin, an old sheet, vintage curtains, whatever floats your boat.
After you get all these together you just start tying them onto the metal branches.....


and after a million hours you arrive at

THIS!

I am in LOVE with how it looks.

Ages ago I used to tie rag strips around a tomato cage frame and made trees out of those.

Still a great idea~ they just take forever to get done.

One day while I was at the shop I was moving these trees around wondering how I would be able to use them for decorating INSIDE.That's when I decided to give this look a try and see how it turned out.

It does take some time to get done but the project itself is easy and the results are

awesome!

So far it's been pretty popular at the shop....

It's our first Christmas decoration that we have out (the Christmas chaos starts next week!)

We plan on doing the 6 foot tree next.....


to use in a Shabby winter wonderland display!

Every once in a while the stars align and a great idea is born!

(either that or my vitamin must have kicked in that day...lol!!)

I was excited to share this with you!

Let me know what you think!

I am linking this to

Air Your Laundry over at Freckled Laundry.

Have a great day!!

I'm dreaming of White Pumpkins.....

If you aren't ready for fall yet heres a warning~ you just landed smack dab in the middle of a blog post from someone who is WAYYYYY more than Ready.

I can understand if you want click off and come back another day.

In like a month maybe.

For those who are stickin it out with me~ I ask the question......

How soon is too soon to be wishing you see white pumpkins for sale?

White pumpkins for sale generally means cooler temps and THAT my friends can't come soon enough. I long to wake up in the morning and feel that "crisp" in the air.

I'm ready for sweatshirts......

I'm ready to decorate with my multitude of white pumpkins while wearing a sweatshirt!

Sooooooooooo ready.

Christmas Touches around my house

I just put a roast in the oven so that gives me a little while to share with you some of my Christmas decorating I have done around the house.

I wanted to do something different this year. Ever since I have left home and have been decorating for Christmas in my own home I have always gone the country primitive route. All my ornaments were adorable handmade santas, snowmen, candy canes you name it.

Stuffed gingerbread men filled baskets, snowman pillows were on every chair. I still love all of those things but I wanted to see if I could pull something different off this year AND it had to be CHEAP! With Mr. OTM laid off ~ buying all new Christmas decorations was not a priority so I challenged myself with a budget and went THRIFTING! My finds also include yard sale items like this piece d'resistance...

Remember the mail bags I found this past fall? Well...I kept one! I can be a stinker!
I love how this looks and it took all of like 2 minutes to put together.


This little tree was a thrift store find. I love that it has that "real" look to it. The little star ornaments were only .85 cents each at the Depot. I bought all they had left (six) and wish they had a few more. I need a bit more on this tree yet and I was thrilled when I found 12 miniature glass bulbs for .99 at Goodwill. Those will get on after I type up this post!

The white pointsettia was 3.50 at Wal-Mart. The shabby little white bucket I already had and the adorable oval clock was a 4.99 thrift store treasure!

I also found these beautiful marble dove bookends at Goodwill for 9.50 for the pair. I'm not sure if they are staying in this vignette or not...might be a bit much...buy hey it's Christmas so go big or go home right? lol!

One of Mr. OTM's farmhouse stars nestled in a wreath I already had....

The tree we had....EVERYTHING on the tree, ALL the glass bulbs were bought at a thrift store. Price for all you ask??? I dropped a cool 10.00 for the whole she-bang! I have NEVER used glass bulbs on my tree....EVER! This is a first and I am loving the different look. I made the burlap bow for the top out of ribbon I used at the shop.

Little ole ice skates! Well these really set me back! Listen to this one!!

I found these at a yard sale for 1.00 and I turned into a pathetic mess!

You see, I forget my purse and didn't realize it until I went to pay for these. I knew I had change floating around the car so I went scrounging and you'd a thunk(sp?) that I found gold when I
came upon a quarter under the drivers seat then ANOTHER one under the floor mat in the back. Can you picture my rear end hanging out of the car while I scrounge? I was quite the sight I am sure! The rest was in the console but my total was .98 cents. Just two cents short and the lady felt sorry for me I guess because she told me just to take them. She didn't want to take my last dollar. Good grief...so okay...I took um.......but laid the .98 cents on her check out table when she went to help another customer.
Pathetic huh?
Sorry to anyone who may have drove by and saw the aforementioned rear end. I was on a mission.

Sorry this is so dark. The large metal star was a 10.00 garage sale find years ago when I still lived in Ohio. Thankfully I had my purse with me that day...geez!

The old windows (converted into mirrors) I purchased from a gal that walked into my shop one day and said" I have these old leaded glass widows you might like"....I fell over.....then got the checkbook. These I have had for years and never get tired of looking at them.
Below is an adorable handmade cookie cutter ornament made by my friend Tammy of JUNKWILD! What you don't see is the carton of handmade fudge it was attached to. The fudge had since been inhaled and it resting nicely on my hips!

This old post was a garage freebie! The BEST kind right??

I was rummaging on the lower shelf in a Salvation Army store when I came across a huge plastic bag filled all these pine cones! Some are painted white, some are glittery and some are plain. The whole bag was 3.99.

I love the natural look....

Meet my.......tree skirt! I saw this lone drapery panel and fell in love with the texture...

It had that burlappy look yet was a woven nubby cotton...

and it was CHEAP! The sticker says 7.99 but lucky me, all blue tags were HALF OFF that day!

I came home and cut off the part where the drapery hooks went and then just folded the edge over and hemmed it. It will be great as a table cloth after the holidays.

I just pooled it around the bottom and that's it!

I would loved to have found 4 of these panels because I would have used them on my windows~ but a tree skirt/ tablecloth makes me just as happy.

The pine cone wreath was yet another thrift store find~1.99. I layered in on top of another wreath I already had and hung it up with burlap ribbon. It's a bit hard to see but some of the pine cones look frosted and I love the bits of greenery that were already tucked into it.

I think this old firewood sign looks pretty good above it. I bought that along time ago at a yard sale for 5.00.....had my purse with me that day too in case you were wondering! lol!

So there ya have it....I am really happy with how all my thrift store Christmas finds have created a comfortable, new, sparkly, natural theme this year. When you add up what I spent just on the Holiday items I bought this year it's under 40.00 and my budget was 50.00.

Look out...I still have 10 bucks just burning a hole in my pocket!

Hope you enjoyed peeking!
P.S. I am linking this to Cottage Instincts Make it 4 Monday! Hop on over to check out all the inspiration!