Creative Juices Decor

Every day I drive 20 minutes downtown to drop my kids off at their new school.   Every day I see the gorgeous fall leaves turning color, and every day I tell myself I need to stop and take some pictures. Today was that day :-) Seize The Day I stand before this glorious morn As the sunrise harkens the day Shining its promising light on me “It’s your day”, it seems to say My mind still fogged with sleep hazed thoughts Last night’s dreams forgotten now I dare to question the new day’s promise Yet know I’ll make it happen somehow For laid before me, the fare of the day Everything from bread to gold My plans, my hopes, opportunities Don’t let them pass me by, take hold For each of us, with each new morn Begins a life renewed some way Another chance to get it right Take charge and seize the day By Dee Garner And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count.  It's the life in your years.  ~Abraham Lincoln ...

Is there anyone that can pass up on extra storage? Not me.  If I ever see anything, a large basket, an organizer, or anything that can be used as storage I won't pass it up. Best case scenario is when I can find those kind of pieces from the thrift store for a few bucks or other second hand avenues.  I got this wicker chest for 10.00 (off Craigslist). It was originally from Pier One (he said 150 bucks?) maybe it was because the thing was quite heavy duty.  Of course this couple stored it outside so it had seen better days.  But with a little help from Walmart (cheap spray paint!!!)  I fixed it right up to become my new favorite.                             You need an up close because this thing was pretty ugly Now you can see the weathered condition!  But no worries, next I spray painted grey primer on ...

G luten F ree, G ood F or you, G o F igure, G uilt F ree, cookies! Coconut Banana Cookie Bites :-) Coconut Banana Cookie Bites :   (found in a NuNaturals Stevia recipe book, although I modified it to fit my taste) 1 ripe banana (the riper the better - I usually peel and freeze all my over ripe bananas and pull out when I make banana bread or this recipe) 1 cup almond flour (I use my magic bullet or food processor to finely grind up my almonds into a flour - of course you can always use regular flour but if you are really going for UBER healthy using the almonds is the best.......at least in my opinion!)  1 cup coconut flakes (I use unsweetened)  3 tablespoons coconut oil (heated on LOW just to liquify) 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1/2 teaspoon almond extract 1/2 teaspoon coarse sea salt 2 teaspoons cinnamon (can add ginger, nutmeg, or cloves too) Stevia to taste Here is the "fu...

Now this was a fun project!  I'm happy to be able to show all of you a step by step tutorial on how to apply American Clay.   It wasn't my typical clay wall because one of it's purposes was to be used as a photography backdrop instead of having to put up canvases in this professional photographers family room.  I had to view this project as more of an art piece than "just doing a wall"  Thank goodness I have a fine arts background or I would have been terrified!  Believe it or not the hardest part for me is the "getting ready" part.  Mixing up all the clay (80 lb bag of clay!) and getting all the pigments right with the binder is always time consuming. Shop the tools!  Large bucket Mixing drill Hawk and trowel Water Sprayer Drop cloths Gardz Primer (mix w sand) American Clay products Getting the clay ready is a lot like baking :-)  You just dump in some water (generally a gallon is fine to start out) pour in the cla...

So this last trip was quite a sucess.  This faux plant was lots of fun.  It was very heavy and even though faux plants aren't my favorite you can't beat it when it looks so real (and it can't die)!   This fancy old world potted plant  was.......$2.50.  The candle holder next to it was .50 (I'm probably not going to keep it in that spot but it was fun for the picture.) Next I picked up this reallynice red flower print.  Nice heavy construction and it happend to go with the apple plate and holder that is in my laundry room! Red Flower Picture: $3.00 Plate with Holder $1.25 (I did spray paint the holder, it was originally shiny gold!) This last "score" was a cute fruit bowl or decorative bowl.  I could see those brown twine balls thrown in their too.  This piece still had it's 15.00 price tag on the bottom.  I was thinking I could even put in coffee and muffins and package it as a gift for a tea...

I need to begin by telling you all that I will never again buy a piece of furniture that requires me to use a saw to fix it up. I am horrible with a saw.  I suppose if I had bought a $200.00 electric saw instead of my $2.00 garage sale saw I might change my mind.  What would be the point though of spending $10.00 on an end table and have to spend $200 on the saw to fix it up?  Back to my dilemma of only having a $2.00 garage sale saw to work with.  No more woodworking for me.  I'll stick to spray paint!  Can you see the potential?  I love natural wood but I know some other furniture painter people would look at this and envision it covered in cream paint with an antique glaze to highlight the paneling!  Maybe when I get over my natural wood phase I'll do that with this piece.  Here's the kicker though, someone took off the top of this piece (could this be why I got it for 10 bucks!)  It was raw and...