Improving Our Storage & Organization ~ At Inspiration Cafe Today

January.  

It's that time of year.

It happens every year...the feeling overtakes me and I just have to take action.  I feel the overwhelming need to purge, organize and streamline our environment.  I start analyzing our spaces to see what is working well and what needs to be improved on.  

This looks like a great system for organization in an entryway, right?

Well, we've made it even better.

Come by Inspiration Cafe to see how we've streamlined our entryway for even more storage and ease of use:

Clicking on the cafe will take you there.

See you at the Cafe!

Sherry

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Go-To Holiday Recipes by Sweet Little Bluebird

Hello There!

Are you ready for a new week?  

I can't believe there are only nine days left until Christmas!  And just in time for all of those Christmas gatherings, Mary from Sweet Little Bluebird is over at Inspiration Cafe today, sharing FIVE recipes that are favorites of her family and friends! 

They are ridiculously easy to make, with just a few ingredients...

 Head on over to the Cafe and grab the printable recipes too...

See you at The Cafe ;)

Sherry

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Multi Time Zone Clock & Wall Art on Inspiration Cafe

I'm posting at Inspiration Cafe today.  Come by Inspiration Cafe and check out the wall art that I've created in honor of my friends across the country and across oceans.

Click on photo to go to Inspiration Cafe!

Anais Nin put it best when she said, "Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.”

As I ponder the friends that I've been blessed with, I marvel at how fate somehow brings us together with the most unlikely of people, who turn out to be irreplaceable friends.

Meet me at The Cafe :)

Sherry ~ Contributor @ Inspiration Cafe

             Author @ Pondered Primed Perfected

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Inspiration Cafe Features Fox Hollow Cottage

I want to wish you all a warm, safe, love-filled Thanksgiving shared with loved ones. 

 

I'm inviting you over to the Cafe today to meet Shannon of Fox Hollow Cottage.  Shannon has been decorating her home with thrift store finds and we love what she's accomplished! 

You will definitely want to meet Shannon!

"And since Christmas is quickly approaching, we are loving the great ideas shared in her 'Decorating with Thrift Store Finds {Christmas Edition}' post." excerpt from Inspiration Cafe

Just pop on over to Inspiration Cafe today for more and be sure to say HI to Shannon while you're there.

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Pre-Feast Activities for the Kids...Inspiration Cafe by Heather

It's Monday Everyone...you all know by now what that means, right!?

Time for another Inspiration Cafe.  So come on by the CAFE, grab your favorite beverage and get settled into a comfy seat for some INSPIRATION with Heather, from The Beating Hearth.  

Heather has some great ideas for keeping the children entertained while the cooks are busy cooking and the feasters and fans are all busy watching football.  Here's a teaser but hurry over and join us...

AND... 

So....you know the drill...Click Here For More... and thanks for reading!

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The Better Half on Inspiration Cafe

 Happy Friday Everyone,



Inspiration Cafe is so excited to have our first Feature Friday post!

Today we would like to welcome the lovely Jocie from
The Better Half . 

The Better Half,is a new sister site to One Project Closer (OPC)  and is
dedicated to the finer things, like DIY home decor, crafts, and sometimes kid-friendly stuff too. 

To read more....

Have a great weekend everybody!

Sherry

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What Inspires Natalie of NorthShore Days? (A Necklace Tutorial)

My friend Natalie is sharing what inspires her at Inspiration Cafe today...

Look what she is sharing today...

 "I can't tell you how much fun I had creating this necklace... its so simple to make and so rewarding to see the finished results."

Head over to Inspiration Cafe to see what inspires Natalie and 
for the tutorial on this beautiful necklace!

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Inspiration Cafe ~ Spanakopita Crescent Rolls Recipe

 

Today it's Mary's turn to share over at Inspiration Cafe!

She is sharing what inspires her.

She is also sharing her yummy 

Spanakopita Crescent Rolls Recipe...

Head on over, we'd l.o.v.e. for you to visit our cafe...

Sherry

We would love for you to follow along!

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Cooking with Wine ~ with Grace Grits & Gardening

Not sure how to cook with wine?  Head over to Inspiration Cafe today 

for a great Guest Post by Talya from Grace Grits and Gardening, to

answer many of your questions!   

Talya's blog shares amazing stories from her life with humor, 

and grace, and she even throws in some delicious looking 

recipes for good measure! 

"Usually when thinking of food and wine, most people are only 

worried about which wine pairs best with a particular meal. But 

if you follow a few simple guidelines, cooking with wine can 

enhance your dish."  

To read more...

             

Sherry

We would love for you to follow along!

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INSPIRATION CAFE'S GRAND OPENING!!! What Inspires Us

Welcome to Inspiration Cafe! 

The day is finally here!  Welcome to our Grand Opening!!! 

We've got loads of fun and creativity planned for the weeks ahead.
We would love for you to join us.

For this round of Inspiration Cafe each of our Contributors will be sharing What Inspires Us personally.  On the sixth Monday we will be launching our very first link party!!!   You must come join in!  The theme for the link party will also be 'WHAT INSPIRES US'.   So stop back each Monday to see what inspires each of us, and then on Monday, November 26th, come back and link up a project, a post, a tip...anything that shares Your Inspiration with all of us.  It can be anything that inspires you.  We will be featuring our favorite links from the party on our individual blogs, sharing teasers on facebook, and of course the overall winners will be featured on Inspiration Cafe!  Won't you share your inspiration with all of us?

And now onto what inspires ME!

Hi!  If we haven't already met...I'm Sherry.  :)  

I blog over at Pondered Primed Perfected.  I hope you'll come by and check out what we've been up to there.  I have been doing DIY projects with my husband for many, many years.  We are inspired to create something out of nothing, so to speak.  It really is rewarding for us to take something discarded, outdated, or unwanted and transform it into something new and useful.  We've rescued quite a few Roadkill Pieces over the years.  We've scoured thrift stores, made over Craigs List freebies, and even pulled things from trash piles.  Sometimes we just want to upgrade something we already have instead of throwing it away.  You should check out our Project Gallery to see some examples of our work!

BUT...

One of my biggest challenges is keeping my busy family organized.   And when everything is all chaotic and unorganized I have much less motivation to work on my projects.  So here's what I came up with recently:

A while back we went to a garage sale and I bought some stuff for my classroom.  As we were leaving the lady threw this corkboard in for free.  You should all know that I LOVE free stuff! 

It wasn't fancy, or fabric covered, or anything.  Just pure utilitarian corkboard, and that was okay.  The perfect spot for all of the school, sports, friend and family photos, as well as various schedules, appointments, and events.  Did I mention it was free!?

I'm not going to act all cool ~ like I'm ultra organized.  I'm not.  There have been times when I've struggled keeping up with a family calendar.  One that will keep us organized and where we need to be on time.  We lead very busy lives, like most families do ~ with work, school activities, playing sports, coaching, college courses, volunteering and keeping up with friends and family.  We like being busy, don't get me wrong, but it can be challenging keeping it all straight.  (It does help to be informed of events before it's time to leave...eh hem...not naming any names!).

Now...

I wanted to maximize this corkboard's usefulness.  It still needed to be utilitarian, but I was envisioning it being more ORGANIZED at keeping track of our appointments, events, important papers and notes, as well as keeping our favorite photos out for everybody to see!

Here's what I did  ~ Click here to read the entire post...

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Welcome to Inspiration Cafe ~ Distressed Donna Down Home

Natalie - NorthShore Days

Mary - Sweet Little Bluebird

Danni - Silo Hill Farm

Sherry - Pondered Primed Perfected

Heather - The Beating Hearth

I am so excited to be invited as guest host here at The Inspiration Cafe.  I have been following them for a while and love their Monday features. 

I am Distressed Donna Down Home.  I am a retired middle school English teacher.  I haul and refinish rusty, crusty stuff to resell in my booth at a local antiques mall.  I started blogging back in April and have written at the speed of light ever since.

My posts are as scattered with ideas and projects as my brain is.  I love photos, but am chronically bad at taking them.


Hang onto your coffee cups or iced sweet tea.  It's going to be a bumpy ride!

For this post I chose three unsuspecting little benches.  I love to stack these in vignettes.  I have chosen a bird theme for these and some painting and some distressing and some stenciling and some stamping and some torn cotton and some tags.

Well, you'll see - I just go too far sometimes.

I bought some sample pots of Valspar in (from the left) Summer Sky, Rain, and Prairie.

Very close in shades of blue-gray.  They turned out beautifully and most would stop here.

Not me!

 I hopped over to The Graphics Fairy and chose a nest for the round bench, a dove for the small bench, and two black and white images - a bird and a nest - for the large bench.

On the two colored images, I used the regular Mod Podge method.  Thin coat on the back of the image and placed carefully on the surface and let dry.

 On the large blue bench I decided on the placement of the bird and the nest.  I carefully cut the images out so that there was just a small border of the white paper.  When you are placing the image, remember you will be reversing it so it will actually be on the opposite side.

I put a coat of Mod Podge on the top of the bench and placed the images face down.  After gently smoothing them out, I let them dry overnight.

The next morning I wet the back of the image with water. When the paper soaks up the water, you gently rub the paper backing to release it from the ink.

This takes practice!!!

 Here the bird image is revealed with the nest yet to go.

The results are really worth the effort.  If you mess up, you can:
A.  Leave it and say it was on purpose.
B.  Sand it off and start again.

Finished - finally.  After rubbing the image off, let it dry and then sand with a cheap rough paper towel or a knee-high stocking or if you are fancy, super-fine sand paper.

If you would like, you may go commit a crime - you have probably rubbed your fingerprint off!

 Yes, I know, most would be happy and stop here.

Not me!

I took the benches outside and gave them a distressing using a heavy grit sanding block followed by a fine grit one.

The round bench got a heavy distressing.

The small one got a medium distressing.

 And the large bench got a light distressing around the edges.


Most would stop here.

Not me!

This next part is  Danni's favorite thing to do!

STENCILING!!!

I decided the round bench with the nest needed a bird on either side of the legs.

First stencil in Folk Art Barnwood.

Move the stencil about an eighth of an inch to the upper right.

Stencil the bird in Sea Mist and the leaves in Clover.

Using a fine liner brush and Linen paint lightly create highlights where natural light would hit the object.

I also gave some details to the bird and the leaves to make them pop.

The small bench did not need much extra - the distressing really brought out all the different coats of paint it had endured during its life.

The name of this print is "A Dove At Sea" so guess what?  I pulled out my stamps and put the title on it!

I thought of something special for the big bench - a skirt!

I love tearing up cotton calico.  I purchased this fabric because it went with all three benches.  My sewing machine is hiding somewhere in the house so after ripping and fraying one edge, I ironed down an inch.  Using Peel 'n Stick tape, I taped that down.  Simply slip a piece of elastic through there  and you have a skirt for your bench that can be removed when necessary.

 Here it is a skirt for a bench!

 Most would be happy and stop now.

Not me!

I made a small copy of the black and white nest, colored with with pencils, Mod Podged it to a distressed blue shipping tag, made a torn cotton tassel, and attached them to the skirt.

Whew!

All three benches received three coats of satin varnish - I forgot that step somewhere along the way.


Most people would be happy and stop here.

And I am definitely happy!

THE BIG REVEAL

 Baby bench in blue with a dove.

 The round bench in summer sky paint with stenciled birds.

What's that I see?

I know I said I was happy, but I could not resist adding a nest of eggs underneath.

The shy bench with a skirt covering her legs.

If she gets frisky, she can just strip that skirt off!

All three sit outside to pose for a picture.  I must admit to being slightly attached to these three.  I hope you don't regret coming for a visit.  I am sure the ladies at Inspiration Cafe wondered if I would ever shut up, but I am Southern - when we have something to say, we just talk and talk and talk and . . .

Well, you get the picture.  If you ever have the time, come over and visit.

See y'all!

Thanks Donna!

 

Happy Monday Everyone,

Sherry

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