Another room I've been working on a lot lately is our living room. About 6 months ago I painted it a green that I just love, I call it my happy color, moved the hutch into the dining room, and then found curtains that look great in it. Again, I had a big wall that needed something done with it. I had a small IKEA cabinet on it but it was too small for the wall so I shopped my house and took a dresser from our entry way. I then shopped the dollar store and bought a bunch of frames, spray painted them the same color, and made a photo wall.

Here's how the room looked before, the color doesn't translate well over the computer but it's Village Green from Menard's-a bright cheery green with almost yellowish undertones.
And after...


My PSA for the day: be careful when opening frames from the dollar store! I was putting my wall together and taking the back off a stubborn frame and it slipped and took a chunck out of my thumb-YOUCH! It has healed back together but I think I did bone or nerve damage because the darn thing still hurts. And to add injury to insult, I got a burn from the oven right on top of it.

Beware of frames!

I also put together a cute little picture wall. The top is a hand tinted antique photo that Russ and I bought in Hawaii when we were there for our wedding, the toile I found at an occasional sale in a nearby town for $6 (a bit more than I would have like to pay but I couldn't leave empty-handed), and the little strawberry print I found at the Salvation Army for .99. You can also see my pretty pink checked curtains.Things are coming together and I'm finally feeling more at home in this house after living here for 2 years. The little touches really do make a big impact!

I've been trying to make our house pretty and personalized without spending much money. Like I mentioned, I get a TON of inspiration from some great blogs out there. Here are some of my recent projects...

This was your typical natural wood barstool that you can find at any big box store. I had a pair of them that were looking pretty sorry. They had been ladders for painting jobs and had the splatters to prove it and just weren't cute. I read a comment about decoupaging barstools on a blog and thought "Hmmm....maybe....." So after going through my scrapbooking stash, picking out a pretty pattern, and using some paint leftover from our family room, here is the final result. Total cost: $6 for the decoupage medium which I will also use for many more projects.

A couple of months ago we also painted our dining room and made it back into an actual dining room after having been a classroom and playroom in it's former lives. I had a big, long blank wall to fill and was having a hard time finding what to fill it with. While playing outside with the kids one day a couple of weeks ago, I saw this frame that I had bought for $1 at a garage sale probably 5 years ago. For 5 years, and 2 moves, it's been languishing in the garage. I've thought about getting rid of it several times but liked it too much and knew it had potential. One glance and I knew it would be perfect. I was originally going to repaint it but decided the roughed up look was perfect with my rustic looking table (found on Craigslist for $15) so left it as is. I just bought some chalkboard spray paint and sprayed that directly on the already there plywood backing. I got a little on the frame when my newspaper blew off but like one of my favorite bloggers, The Nester, says "It Doesn't Have To Be Perfect to Be Beautiful".I love it!!

The butterfly garland hanging on it was a birthday gift from one of my very good friends. I absolutely love it. Almost 2 years ago we each got our first tatoos together and part of mine was a butterfly which has double meaning for me. It reminds me of my faith, being born-again and a new creation in Christ, and also of my mom's new life in Heaven. She said she thought of me when she saw it and it's just beautiful.
There's a few more things I've done in the past couple of weeks but these floors aren't vacuuming themselves and BabyCakes is finding too many "snacks" on them so the rest will have to wait.

Getting Started

This is not my first attempt at keeping a blog. It's not even my second. I've started blogs for various reasons but always had them specific to one thing; homeschooling, family activities, etc. I'm a stickler for sticking with the theme so wouldn't feel right posting about our trip to the park on a homeschooling blog or my personal thoughts on our family blog and there were many things that, therefore, went unshared.

I've recently discovered the wonderful world of home decorating blogs and have fallen in love. I could spend hours (notice I said "could", what mom of 4 has hours to spend perusing blogs??) reading through all of them and getting inspiration for my own home. There are so many talented and creative women out there with gorgeous homes! So I considered making a decorating blog of my own but then I'd run in to my same problem as before.

So, while trying to decide what to do, I came across this old blog I created years ago but never did anything with and felt it would be perfect! Abounding Blessings can cover anything and everything from the amazing blessings that are my children, to my thoughts on faith and family, to the blessing of finding a treasure at a garage sale and the added blessing of seeing what said treasure looks like transformed with a little creativity.

My goal for today? Take some pictures of my recent finds and decorating projects to share. More to come (hopefully!)....