Life of the Dinner Party | Decorating w/Plants

 I have these really awesome orchid pots

which are not in any of these pictures.

But you see,

I wanted to do something different with them.

I wanted to plant plants in them.

Not flowers.

So I picked up a Dracena Marginata Cane plant

for 9.99 from Ikea.

It had 3 canes.

I had two orchid pots and a wicker pot.

I split them apart into individual cranes

and promised myself I would not cry if they died in the next 3 days

because I split them wrong.

Thing is.  

I never get this kind of thing wrong.

No research,

just do it because I think it

and touch it with my green thumb

(who knew??)

and voila

on the dining room table

none the less

You'll notice in this shot

that a certain gold mirror

is still present

 and still very gold.

Wonder what else you might catch a glimpse of...

 Don't worry.  Only the eagle eyed would catch it.

Finally finished the upholstering the seats for the dining room chairs

And, of course, had to add a little life to this side of the room too

Small doses.

What kind of plants do you like to decorate with?

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Lovely, but not as fun

Be still my Target heart

Gorgeous (and inexpensive) as these clean whites are from Tar-jay, 

there is just something off.

It isn't as fun to collect all sorts of white kitchenware 

when you can just buy it in bulk from CB2 or, now, Target.

Although they did have a pitcher for under $15 that I might not be able to live without.

Might not.

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Promise not to stalk you back.

Unless you want us to.

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Thrifty, simple dining room chairs

So...I got the chairs off of craigs list

For free

With a huge table

that I really need to redo

but that I don't use in my dining room

because I already have a table there

that I love.

All said,

about 4 months ago

(maybe 5)

I took the chair seats off the chairs

I started to prime them

in white

with a brush

and I gave up halfway through

So I was a but dubious

as to whether

black spray paint

was really going to do the job

and it did

but that is no where near

the end of this here story

I took the seat cushion

and unpried about 974 staples



to get rid of

the hideous green

mini plaid checked fabric

that was pretty beat

Then I had to walk away for 17 hours or so

to contemplate

which black and white fabric

I was going to

recover the seats in

because you know the drill...

...if it ain't black

or white...

supposedly, I don't do it.

whatever.

because

from a distance

one of these bold print fabrics

looks a lot more black

than white

that's the one I went with



That I picked up 4 yards of this print

for 5.50 (50% off or it ain't coming home with me)

had me doing the happy dance.

I think I'll use the more white fabric

(which is actually a curtain)

in the place I bought it for

you know,

hanging

as curtains

in the yet to be unconceived

child's room.

Just saying.

I am starting to love prints.

In miniature doses of course.

Happy house frittering!

Check out the awesome furniture redos

at Miss Mustard Seed's Furniture Feature Friday 

(5/26)

Dining Room evolution

Because love is patient
and so are you
I promise to get up the post
on the great dining room chair
makeover

The table that came with the chairs
needs some paint too

I did the top
but need to do the legs

one day at a time

These chairs are in the dining room now though

and I LOOOOOVE
the paint job
and the fabric is TDF.

Just saying.

Thankfully Small Thanksgiving - 2010

Ahhh.

The one day of the year

where we are commanded

to be thankful

for all the stuff we have

and people we love

and just general goodness.

I'm thankful

that we don't

have a houseful of people

at Thanksgiving

All the better for me

to cuss my Cowboys out

all day long

with no one hearing the awful words

that spew from my mouth.

Carry on.

Happy Thanksgiving.

I'm truly thankful

that you take time to stop by

and humor my humor

every now and again.

Growing on me

A while back

I asked ya'll if I should

or should not

paint this mirror black

 Dining Room Mirror Original

Overwhelmingly,

ya'll said heck yeah.

Which meant that really,

I'd just be doing what everyone else

thought was cool

(I mean, really, that's what it means)

And I would be (potentially)

throwing away a perfectly good mirror

if it didn't work out right

A perfectly good mirror that has some really

good

deep

sweet

history for us.

And so I thought to myself

"Self, it really isn't THAT bad is it?"

And you know what,

it is starting to grow on me

Once I got through the

"with gray and charcoal walls, everything must be nickel/satiny/silver"

phase

I really started to like the idea of maybe darker gray walls

and keeping the mirror gold

Especially with the mustard colored curtains in there now

and maybe some gray trim on the curtains

(which needs to happen anyhow because the curtains are too short)

I think it might really grow on me

Thanks for helping me to see the light

I'm going to procrastinate hold off a little longer

and see if it really grows on me

Faux Milkglass

So.

Milk glass is all the craze.

Allow me to show you how to make your own faux milk glass

Faux Milk Glass Vases

What I love about milk glass is the milky (imagine)

consistency of the glass.

What I love about faux milk glass is the clear (imagine, again)

completely see through "layer" of external glass that peeps through to the white stain.

It's awesome!

To get your own, you will need to gather:

some clear, clean glass

some white paint

some patience

and place to work on

(preferably NOT your black granite countertops)

Quilted Glass Vases

I chose to use this set of three quilted glass vases.

I love the texture

I love the shape

I love the trio

Just enough to risk completely

screwing them up

Acrylic Craft Paint

For my paint

I had the choice

between using a white acrylic craft paint

(which we all have in abundance)

or some of the white laquer

that coats all the trim in my house

(which we don't all have, but I do and I love it so boo on you)

I started with the craft paint.

Clean, dry, pour in paint

And it looked...well...milky.

I wanted a thicker coating than what I got here

Streaky acrylic results, go for the lacquer

So I broke out the big guns

Don't hate on a sister.

Rodda paint (a PNW company) is AWESOME!

Rodda Lacquer

Which gave me to die for coverage

as seen in the short vase to the left.

One coat of acrylic and one coat of lacquer later

Faux Milk Glass

For under $5,

($1 each for the vases,

$1 for the craft paint

$1 for your patience)

You can have lovely faux milk glass too.

And trust me, it is so much more fun

to create pieces that fit your style

than to have to hunt for years on end

for a non-grandma piece of milk glass

Not hating.  It's a style.

That I love

My husband, not so much.

Go forth and conquer!

Oh and yeah!

I still have milk glass to give away right?

Perhaps we should jump start that

starter collection of real milk glass

giveaway.