Dining Room

My amazing mother in law decided that, after spending two years remodeling our entire house, we couldn't just bring our old table and chairs back in, so as an early Christmas present, she bought us a new dining set.

Of course now that I have a new dining room and a new dining room set, I need new table decorations.  Hubby and I went shopping today and got the new fall decor for the table.

The milk glass pedestal bowl in the center is actually a piece I have had my eye on for two years at a local antique mall.

I told Mr. Gem that I'm lucky others don't have the same taste for vintage things as I do because this is the second time I've seen something, checked on it every time I'm there, and then bought it a year or two later.

Seriously though!!!  Isn't this an awesome bowl?!?!

A perfect end to a great birthday week.  

Updating Picture Frames

Wow!  I can't believe it has been 2 weeks since I made a post.  The really sad part is that I have made note of several things to make posts about, I just haven't gotten around to actually making the posts.  Oh well, I guess I will just jump in and start.
I recently came across 2 prints I saved from my childhood.  They are really beautiful but the frames were horribly dated. 

I forgot to take a picture of the other one before fixing

In December when I was  making Christmas presents, I bought some Rub n Buff but I didn't realize how bright it would be.  I ended up not using it for that project and I have been trying to find something to make with it since.

Well, how perfect!  My older two girls share a room and it is decorated in bright colors like pinks, oranges and bright blues.

Here are both prints.

Not only do the blue frames go perfectly with my daughters' room, it also really makes the prints pop.
A great solution to updating the look of a room without spending a lot of money.  You could also spray paint a frame but I wanted to use the Rub n Buff so some of the gold would shine through and the frames would  have more depth than if they were all one solid color.

Collecting

There is something I like to collect, something which may seem odd at first glance given that I have a baby, a toddler and a preschooler.  I like to collect glass.  Amberina, Vaseline, Baijan, Fenton, Fostoria and anything else that catches my eye.  I am not concerned with its value to others, it could be a piece that is only worth a penny, but if I like the way it looks, I want it.
Here are some of the pieces I currently have and, as you can see, they are protected from small children by being displayed in a lighted glass fronted curio cabinet that my Dad built for me.

I need new drinking glasses.  I haven't gotten new glasses in 10 years and, as is wont to happen, I have had several break and now I have a hobnob of mismatched drinkware which doesn't serve me well when I have company.  For my birthday last month my parents gave me money to go and buy new glasses.  So I went to every store and all the glasses I found looked pretty much the same.  Standard and boring.  If I'm only going to get new glasses once every 10 years I want them to be unique, pretty and go with my style.  I ended up turning to Ebay, land of all things beautiful and strange!  I found not one, but two sets of glasses that came with matching pitchers and they just got here yesterday!

Aren't they beautiful?  They are vintage West Virginia blendo glasses with almost no wear.  I snagged both sets, along with an orange chip and dip bowl that hasn't arrived yet, for 85.00, which includes the shipping cost. 
My husband immediately made the comment that they should be in my case with the rest of my collectable glass and you know what?  He is right.  They are a collectable, but I didn't buy them to sit them in a case and get dusty.  I bought them to use them.  I'm certain they will show signs of wear here in a few years, namely the gold band will be rubbed off, and I'm sure the value of them will decrease when it does, but who cares?  They are meant for drinking, as long as they don't get broken, THEN I will wish I had just put them in my case.

Autumn!!!!

A strange and wondrous thing happened in my house yesterday.  The heater came on!!  It officially feels like fall now!  I realize that "fall" started almost a month ago but when my kids are still running around outside in t-shirts and shorts, it is hard to really feel like it is fall. 
I have a love/hate relationship with fall and winter.  I love the smells of all the spiced breads, ciders and pies.  I love being able to wear some of my comfy clothes, I love curling up in front of a cozy fire and I love decorating my house for the changing seasons.  What I don't love is actually having to go anywhere and get out in the cool weather.  I am fairly cold natured so it seems no matter how much I layer up, once I actually go outside, I feel cold all day.  If you give me a cold blustery day where I can stay inside curled up next to the fire with a cup of coffee and some pumpkin muffins and watch the deer passing by outside my window, I'm in heaven.
I am glad it finally feels like fall though.  I have had enough of the insane heat we have had this year!  Now that it feels like fall, I can actually change out my decorations.  "But Gem," you say, "there was nothing preventing you from decorating earlier."  That is very true, my dear friends, but it is hard to get in the spirit when you walk outside and it is 90 degrees.  Here is my dining room table which, aside from the tree during Christmas, is always the focal point of all my seasonal decorating.

Next time I go grocery shopping I will have to buy a pie pumpkin and make some awesome pumpkin muffins!  Happy fall to everyone!!!

Refinish a Filing Cabinet

I bought a great Hon filing cabinet in an auction from Public Surplus for only 20.00.  Thanks to the wonderful bloggers How About Orange and Design Sponge I transformed my 20 dollar filing cabinet from a blah brown to a beautiful piece that I get compliments on all the time.  I sanded, primed and painted it like How About Orange recommended and then I wallpapered the front of the drawers using Mod Podge the same way Design Sponge did.  The result is, I think, really wonderful, especially for my first try at something like this.

You can see the paint job doesn't look perfect on the side, it is the result of using a satin finish and the fact that I am not very good at applying an even coat of spray paint.  Thankfully, it is really only noticeable with a bright light hitting it like the flash.  I used Rustoleum's Green Apple satin finish that I purchased at Home Depot and the wall paper is Allen Roth Spanish Tile pattern from Lowe's.  The pictures don't do the wallpaper justice.  It is textured and has a greyish silver sheen to it which I completely fell in love with the moment I saw it.  I used some left over brown paint to paint the handles and label holders since their original silver color didn't stand out against the wallpaper.  All together, the project cost me about 70 dollars for all the supplies and I still have plenty of Mod Podge and wallpaper to use on something else.

$20.00 for the filing cabinet
$16.00 for the paint
$22.00 for the wallpaper
$10.00 for the Mod Podge

I look forward to my next creative project.  If anyone has any ideas what I should do with the rest of the wallpaper, I am all ears!