A little pink, orange and gold makeover

First of all I want to tell you guys that I'm so honored to be over at my blog friend Anneke's today 

to share some random things about myself {click HERE to check it out}

Her blog is "This, That & Life". 

Anneke is sweet, beautiful and talented, so head on over to her blog, look around and stay a while, ok?

I also have a little DIY to share with you today. If you follow me on Instagram then you have seen a little sneak peak. But it all started with this box that I have sitting under my coffee table. It houses all our remotes. It was still pretty, don't get me wrong but it started to scream "boring".

See it sitting under the table? I'm sure you never even really noticed it! Am I right?

Well I'm sure you'll notice it now, because I gave it a little makeover.
I have been drawn to colors that I would wear more and more and the color combo that I used for the box is just one of those things.

First I removed the hardware and of course spray painted it gold, couldn't help myself!!!

Then I taped the top off and spray painted it with Valspar's Frosty Berry (pink). After that I spray painted the bottom with Rustoleum's Gloss Protective Enamel Orange.

And this is what the box looks like now. I can't stop looking at it to be honest.

Are you feeling the pink and orange like I do?

And Lilly Pulitzer loved this color combo, so I'm linking up to:

By the way, thank you so much for the sweet comments regarding my daughter. It was wonderful hearing all your supportive thoughts.

Talk to you on Friday my friends.

Tschüß

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Small Bedroom Update

On this fabulous and oh-so-hot Friday I wanted to share a small update I've made around the house. Just a little somethin' somethin'. Maybe I'll call it "a little somethin' somethin' Friday".

I have been really wanting to de-brown our bedroom. While I'm still loving our leather and nailhead trim bed, I'm kind of getting tired of the excess of brown. I still have the reupholstery of the chaise on my to do list but won't even think about tackling it before this fall or winter. It's way too scary for the fun summer time.

Anyways, I just took the frames of our silhouettes and painted them with mint spray paint. Actually the same as our bathroom mirror (click HERE). My 6 year old daughter was mad because she wanted teal. Sorry babygirl! Hey, maybe she was right though!?!?!

Here's a photo of what the bedroom artwork looked like before:

And here are the frames after:

Can you spot the kitty cat?

Ahhh, a little cat hair in the picture! Oh well it's reality in my house!

Aren't those large Hosta leaves in my thrifted vase awesome?

I'm still searching for larger end tables, as in small matching dressers. This search has been going on since the day we bought this king size bed almost 4 years ago. Come on Craiglist, seriously! I think I will cave in soon and get some dressers from Ikea.

You won't even believe the comments I have received telling me that they are the wrong scale right now. Here it is again officially...I know and am still looking!!

Should I have gone with my babygirl's suggestion? Teal instead of mint? I'm in love with the mixed color combo in the chair pillow fabric!

These photos where taken early in the morning when the sun shines into the bedroom. Aren't they so different from the first one when it was a later time of the day? The colors don't even look the same. I could have changed it in Photoshop but felt like showing you the huge difference.

My camera is still driving me nuts with the blurriness and graininess. Thanks again babygirl for running over the tripod while the camera was on it!

One more thing. Do you want to see the reality of what I do for my cats?
And all you animal haters just turn your head, uhm ok?

My rolly-polly 17 year old little Manx named Heidi was never a jumper due to the lack of having a tail and since she's gotten up there in age, she isn't doing much anymore besides snore and wobble.
I love her though (she is my first baby) and she is also my biggest nighttime snuggler. We have a total routine!
So what did I do since she can't jump up on the bed at all anymore?
Well, I built her a ramp and this is what my bedroom usually looks like:

Keeping it real folks, keeping it real, I tell ya! And there she is lying on the bed because she loves the ramp which is hooked into the bed frame with some bent ikea strips.

Anything not so pretty that you have done for your pets lately? Please do tell because I don't want to feel like the only cuckoo pet lady around! Well y'all know I'm cuckoo that's no secret and I wouldn't want to have it any other way ;)

Talk to you on Monday my friends and stay cool if you live on the East Coast.

Tschüß

(Youleeya)

A little DIY painting project

Hi friends did y'all (I said lots of y'alls this weekend in Virginia) miss me? We are back from our mini vacation at Smith Mountain Lake and we had a great time as every year. Great company, food, drinks and weather.

Great people and friends but a smaller group than usual! Missed you Luteyns, Hess and Koels!

I'm ready for a detox now though, haha. I've also had country music overload. Sorry not a fan, but I just can't hate it anymore either, because great memories are attached to it. How did my son put it, "it grows on you like a mole, not loved but part of you".
And by the way, I'm always thankful when I have a pet sitter because all of our traveling wouldn't be possible without one. I try to find a young student who lives at our house so the furry babies aren't alone. It's not an easy task finding someone reliable and trustworthy every year but so far I have always been lucky.

I also severely limited my electronics time on our mini-vacation. I only checked my email once a day in the morning and every time I picked up my phone to do a little instagraming (you can follow by clicking HERE), I got yelled at. I will have to catch up on some blog reading to see what all my fabulous blogging friends have been up to.

While in Virginia I went to three Goodwill stores and I did find some small things. I might have to share them with you on Friday or Monday. It was too dark to take pictures last night and I was tired. But my new Goodwill Locator App (click HERE to get it) sure came in handy. There were so many Goodwills right off the highway but I could only convince the hubby to stop at three. 

Anyways, today I want to share a little project with you that I did right before we left for vacation.
I had been searching for a way to add some color into the corner by the couch where I had the framed catalog pages of my former art teacher. I just needed a change!

I've had a huge crush on Made By Girl's brush stroke paintings and while I hate taking someones idea, the cheapo within me won on this one. While I was in art school this was/is obviously a total no-no. And that still sits deep within me, but not deep enough, I guess. So sorry, please forgive me!?!?!? OK? Because I came up with my own DIY version for our living room.

This project only cost me $12 for the 11x14 stretched canvases. I had a 40% off coupon for Michaels and purchased a pack of 7 canvases. My daughter loved that she was able to use a canvas for her room as well.

I also already have a large collection of acrylic paints, so I didn't need to buy anything else.

I determined what colors I wanted for our living room and went to town with some random strokes.

 DONE.

I was even able to use the nails from the old prints to hang them.

I love this simple, cheap and bright update. 

Don't you? The colorful strokes seemed perfect to me.

Hope you all had a fabulous Memorial Day weekend too.
Tschüß,

 

(Youleeya)

On My Mind Monday - Retail Therapy

Hi my friends, how as the weekend? Not much here, I finished my son's nightstand that I will share with you on Wednesday unless the weather will remain this crappy and I can't get any decent pictures. 

We watched our kids soccer in the rain with one loss and one win. Visited Harry's grave since the kids had painted him some rocks to tell him how much they missed him. And also had a fire pit with the neighbors. So all in all it was a pretty good weekend. But we still miss our King Harry.

That said I engaged in some retail therapy last week and wanted to share some great finds with you today. Don't worry it's not just clothes.

My favorite thing I bought last week are my new sandals. I know if you follow me on Instagram then you saw them already but I'm sharing them here again:

Marjorie sandal from Aldo

my Instagram photo

And I bought some things at forever21. I know I'm technically too old but they have some really great affordable stuff. Especially their accessories.

I bought this jacket:

Bouclé Moto Jacket

And then I got some accessories but I could have bought it all. So much great stuff:

Sorry that I couldn't find the links to the past two items.

Geo Bib Snake Chain Necklace

And also from Francesca's (no links again but there is other great stuff):

And last but definitely not least, I  found this whale at HomeGoods on clearance. I have always been a whale lover and I actually went as far as having a CD with whale sounds on it as a teenager that I used to listen to for relaxation. (So sorry for the bad photos but like I said, we had horrible dreary days):

I didn't like the grey antiqued busy paint job, so I used some gold Rub 'n Buff and now I'm loving him. 

For a moment I was contemplating sawing him in half to make book ends but I couldn't do it. Check these out:

white whale

Jonathan Adler whale bookends

Here are some other vintage ones I found online , which you can still buy:

vintage brass whale on etsy (click HERE to see the shop)

small vintage brass figurine (click HERE to go visit the etsy shop)

Pottery Barn whale bookends

So what do you think besides the bad photos? Thoughts? Are you a whale person?

That's it for today. Don't forget to come back on Wednesday for the midcentury nightstand reveal. I hope I can get some nice shots with natural day light.

Tschüß,

(Youleeya)