my Christmas gift to you....

if you were teen or tween girl in the 80s or early 90s, I bet you dreamed of a Christmas like this...

thankful...

A trip to Iowa
A stay at a B&B in a sleepy little town
A visit to my hubby's alma mater
A wonderful dinner with great friends and their hilarious kids
A week with family
Drinking, eating and drinking and eating some more
Shopping with my mother-in-law
Visiting old friends
Hearing stories about my hubby in high school
Quality time with amazing in-laws
Driving 11 straight hours and having a blast
A fantastic Thanksgiving week
Lots of love
And one incredible man to share it with

So many things to be thankful for. How did I get so blessed?

pinned it then did it: nailhead trim tray...

while cruising Target one day, I happened upon the new Nate Berkus line. I really liked his lacquer serving trays but at $30 a pop, it was a little too much for something I knew I could make myself. so I pinned it, then – as usual – forgot about it.

a couple of weeks ago, we got a some new furniture for our loft area and I wanted to put a tray on the coffee table to harness magazines and remotes. So I consulted my Pinterest boards and was reminded of the Nate tray. The round shape wasn't going to work for what I needed, so I headed out to find the right rectangular tray. On a trip to Garden Ridge, I found this one for $12.99. 

I sanded it down...

then sprayed it with an olive spray paint. I struggled to find the right green and then low-and-behold I found the perfect color that was actually camouflage paint, like for hunting and stuff. but seriously it was the perfect shade to match the throw pillows on the couch. plus, the added bonus is that it has an ultra-flat finish. I am loving the look of furniture in flat finish right now, so this was a match made in heaven. 

for the decorative embellishments I found some nail heads at JoAnn Fabrics. they were perfect, except that they had the actual nail part. I couldn't nail it into the tray because it was too long and it would split the wood.

So I took some heavy-duty wire cutters and CAREFULLY (while wearing sunglasses so I didn't poke my eye out) snipped off the pointy part (that's the technical term, right?).

after they were all snipped, I used Gorilla super glue to adhere them to the tray. 

I love the flat finish paired with the brassy embellishments. 

and it works perfectly in the new room. another successful pin! 

nice rack! black and gold magazine rack...

black and gold is my latest design obsession. I may or may not have spent $40 on 9 clearance vases at Target and 5 of them may have been black and gold. OB-SESSED. I'd been looking for a magazine rack for a while and when I found this one at a local vintage store for $12, I knew I could restore it to some black and gold loveliness.

I loved the detail. It was a little beat up but nothing a little spray paint couldn't bring back to life.

First I taped off all of the areas that will eventually be gold. 

Then I sprayed the exposed metal with semi-gloss Rusto-leum black spray paint. 

I let it dry for 24 hours then removed the tape. After another 24 hours, I taped off the freshly painted black areas. If you're doing a similar project, make sure to let the paint dry for a couple of days before taping it off so that the tape does pull off any paint that hasn't set yet. 

I thought maybe the frame was tarnished brass, but some scrubbing with a good brass cleaner revealed it was not. It was beat up and rusted so I grabbed my gold spray paint, Rusto-leum again. 

After letting it dry for 24 hours, I removed the tape. There were a couple of areas where the gold had leaked onto the black so I just grabbed a small craft paintbrush, sprayed it with some of the black paint and touched up any gold overspray. 

The result was better than I imagined. 

Retro, glam and totally unique. I'm so in love with it. 

What doesn't go with a spray painting project...

two jammed fingers on your trigger hand. Ouch. just one of the hazards of volleyball.

Vote

It's your right. Do it.

doppelganger...

I knew there was something about Tom Brady.....

* If you like this graphic, by all means share it, but I created it, so please make sure to credit the photo. Thanks!