You Betcha — More Aha Uses!

As we are currently in full blown scarf mode, I thought I would show off my scarf holder to you. Although I like my occasional glass of wine, I am not a collector so this beautiful wine holder given as a wedding gift has never really felt useful until I figured how to roll my scarfs into it. Now it holds them neatly and tightly, tucked away in the closet. Maybe someday it will get to do something fancier…

Household Item: Wine Rack

Aha! Use: Scarf holder

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I think I showed this one before but I use it everyday and love it. (I see a pattern here –Maybe I should have titled this post “New Uses for Fancy Wedding Gifts”?)

Household Item: Candleobra

Aha! Use:  Necklace Holder

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Okay, good. This one was not a wedding gift but I didn’t use it as much as I wanted but I needed something to hold all my coffee accessories. It puts a smile on my face every morning. (Or maybe that is the smell of my coffee!)

Household Item: Tiered Cake Platter

Aha! Use: Coffee Tray

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And my new favorite! I got an idea of transforming a plain brown pillow to make it a little fallish. I simply put packing tape on the back of a $2.00 placemat from Walmart and stuck it on the pillow.

Household Item: Placemat

Aha! Use: Decorative Pillow

Wait…I loved it against the pattern of the Ballard pillow but too many people sit in that chair and although I love the look — I don’t have that much confidence in it holding it’s place.

So…

It was moved to the piano chair…right at home.

♥ Katie

{Transformation Thursday}

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And if you can believe it (I’m still pinching myself) another person wanted to do a giveaway in celebration of My Favorite Gifts Newsletter! In order to recieve the Newsletter via email and have the chance to be entered TWICE for the giveaways, you can still sign up by clicking My Newsletter button. The Newsletter has gifts my favorite gifts inspired by some of my favorite bloggers (and one of them is actually the gift giver!) The Favorite Gifts Newsletter will be sent out on Monday November 2nd.

See you next week for the week of giving!!

Primping My Pumpkins

After our annual trip to the pumpkin patch, I thought this year our pumpkins needed a little primping. Out came some ribbon, a hanging photo holder, stickers and mod podge.

All dressed up with no where to go. I’m looking forward to these guys staying put through Thanksgiving!

And folks, this is how spooky I get…

(Do you spy the fake spider ring?)

♥ Katie

{Get Your Craft On @ Today’s Creative Blog}

{DYI Day @ ASPTL}

Sorry, but Can’t Do Peacock or Blue…

Have you been keeping up with Nesting Place’s 31 Days To a Better Dressed Nest? I loved Day 4 - Surprise! - Adding an element of surprise, because it hit me - I LOVE surprises in my life but not in my decor. I was also drawn to her vase with sticks in this picture where she had added feathers and a nest.

I know the nest was intended to be the surprise but I was taking baby steps and decided to just start by adding some feathers to my stick vase.

Here is the before:

And after my FIRST element of surprise (Peacock Feathers!)

Did not love it, but tried my best to convince myself I did. (Ever done that?) So I went back to Hobby Lobby for some more inspiration. After a bunch of choices and a long, angry line of people waiting for me to return all the bad ones…

Here is the final result:

Not really a surprise, but a perfect pop of color for the room.

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Now, on to the WWYD bathroom accessory dilemma. Again, you all came out like troopers and gave such great advice! I had a major moment with my friend Tami’s comment. “Black… with cream/white towels hanging!! Best of both worlds!”.

Duh. So right Tam. Here ya go.

But here is the thing…Never was really feeling the blue color that I forced myself to paint. Sooooo….while I was painting and trying to avoid watching the tight football game … I thought I would just mix up a little grey and go for it. Nothing like starting to paint at 9pm.

Now I have a new bathroom color and new black hooks.

And thanks to Erica’s advice, I also painted the bulletin board window frame black. I’m still adding things to it and also getting used to it (that’s CODE for I’m not 100% in love and might be painting again sometime soon).

Until the next WWYD! (Which knowing me…will be soon!)

Hope you all have a great week!

♥ Katie

And stop by later to see what I did to dress up my pumpkins this year with some mod podge and ribbons!

{Met Monday}

{Transformation Thursday}

WWYD

Welcome to this Post Called:

What Would You Do?

{or WWYD for short}

So here I am again, asking for your advice. I had such a great response to my drape dilemma and I appreciate all your honest and gut reaction opinions. Nester even has it as one of her 31 Days to a Better Dressed Nest - Day 7 - ask advice. It’s nice to get a fresh view sometimes and what better way through you all.

Are you ready? Here is the space:

See, I painted my bathroom, added some new accessories and just wasn’t feeling it. I found this plaque at Hobby Lobby and of course, wall hangings were on sale at 50% off.  This plaque was drawn to me because I knew it would be the right demensions and help to fill the space above my hooks. What you are also missing is a large bulletin board to the right of the sink that is also cream with black fabric on the inside - can you see it through the mirror?  I think that plays a key role in my balancing problems.

Although, when I got it home and hung it, there was a problem. Hopefully you see it. The black and white clash and just don’t help the wall to balance with the mirror frame and the sign above.

So here are my choices: (and I have issues with both - see the notes below)
1. Black - Leave the plaque black and paint the hooks black

2. Cream - Leave the hooks cream and paint the plaque cream.

I just didn’t want to jump into anything so I did what I could to adjust the colors with things around the house to give me similiar looks. Hopefully these pictures will help you make your decision.

1. Plaque black and Hooks Black that I covered with black socks (it’s all I could think of…)

(* For this option, I am worried about the balance in the room being really heavy on black on that side since the other accessories in the space are cream.)

2. Hooks cream and plaque cream - I just replaced the plaque with another wall hanging I had to give it a balanced look.

(*For this option, I don’t like how the cream of the wall hangings and the white on the countertop clash.)

So, here you go ladies! WWYD?
1. Both black
2. Both cream

…or be like my husband and go with #3 - leave them alone!

The polls are open!!

♥ Katie

☛ Don’t forget — “My Favorite Gifts, Inspired by My Favorite Bloggers” Newsletter is coming in the next couple weeks and let me tell you — it is the best one yet! You can sign up by clicking the link on the top right side of my site. (and yes, it is completely free!)

It has been so much fun putting it together…

and…

one of my favorite blogger is giving a GIVEAWAY for it!!

And there are more surprises that you will not want to miss - promise- but if I start talking about it - I will just give it all away!

So I’m zipping up!

{Transformation Thursday}

The Smells of Autumn

I have been on the candle kick lately. I don’t know if it is just the fall weather or the fun candle holder that I copied from my cousin Vicki after a girlie weekend at her beautiful home.

But if you are on the look out for some good, fall, warm, smells…my nose nose has tested them all for you. Here are a couple of my favorites:

Beanpod:
American Harvest, Pumpkin Pie, Cinnamon Bayberry

Root:

Oakmoss, Hosta

Tyler:
Stardom, Vanilla Orange, Diva

Mainstay @ Walmart for $5.00!!!

Mulled Cider

I wrapped a ribbon around it and placed it on a little leaf plate. Love it!

What is your favorite candle/scent?

♥ Katie

{Hooked on Fridays}

{And speaking of favorites — I have been gathering all my favorite bloggers, favorite things, and have compiled some gifting ideas in my next newsletter. If you would like to receive it via email, just click on the button on the top right side of the page.}

It’s gonna be a fun one!

And the Winner is….

No, you didn’t miss a giveaway or anything, but I did have a major drape dilemma, and let’s just say — you all were awesome! I loved the quick and desisive responces. Now only if I could have you shrunk and sitting on my shoulders when I’m at the store.

So here is the vote rundown…
Black/Gold: 15
Neutral: 4
Green?: 1 (That would be my husband - thinking the neutral was green looking so I guess we can put it under neutral)
Undecided: 3 (My sister-in-law/best friend, who lives across the street said she had to see them in person, but never got the chance because it was my brother-in-law that spotted the elephant in the room).

Here is the elephant:

Do you see it?
You see when I took this picture:

I pulled the ever so important curtain to our bathroom back, but again, with it in the picture:

Doesn’t THAT scream at you?! CLANG! CLASH!

So sadly, I am sorry to all of you that cheered on the black/gold, but in my brother-in-law’s words, “Isn’t it obvious?”

So I returned the black/gold and went to purchase one more neutral and I literally had to sort through ALL the drapes, until I found the last one in the store. Whew!

But they are hanging now and they are not only exactly what I first imagined, like Carrie’s Buffalo Check, but they also tie in beautifully with my sharpie silhouette frame:

…and most importantly, they lighten up the room, just like I intended!

And just for kicks, I thought I would show you the drapes in all their seasons, starting with the day we moved in with Pepto-Bismol pink wallpapered walls, with matching carpet and these coverings that they graciously left for us:

So I added a BURST of sunshine!

Then calmly retreated to my dark/neutral palette:

And finally my attempt to declutter and lighten things up a bit:

Thank you again for all your suggestions and advice. I still need to hang them correctly and I love the idea of moving the rods up and extending the length with a solid fabric or trim. Someday that will be my next project, but now onto the other 50 that are patiently waiting for me to finish!

But first I think I will let you in on one of my new favorite things and my nose has been hurting because of it so stay tuned!

♥ Katie

{Met Monday}

{Room a Month}

{Transformation Thursday}