Remember this?

I haven't forgotten about the giveaway.  We just got back home and I am off in just a bit to try to find our live Christmas Tree.  In my next post, I will show you exactly how crazy I am about snowflakes!  And, have a little tutorial for those who have asked for it!  So, please, if you would like to enter the giveaway, enter here and I will announce the winner on Monday.

Please be sane when you are out shopping this Black Friday!

Studio (check) + Giveaway

I am going to have to put a "check" by studio even though it isn't completely finished... it is 95%  and since I did 80% of the work (cheerfully!) I get to call it.  I really just need to spray paint some baby food jar lids and clean up the closet again.  If you forgot what the "befores" looked like see this post and see this post for my inspiration.  I wish I had a before photo of Mr. Hughes' old office before we relocated him and Baby Hughes.  Just imagine a tiny room with a huge desk and the floor covered in toys.  Here is one more before that I want to show you before we get to the afters.  It was the first project that was completed in the studio.

This is a lovely, brassy Goodwill lamp... wait til you see what I did with her!

Okay, here we go....

These first 2 shots were taken by yours truly, first thing before I left the house... Mr. Hughes so sweetly took some much better shots... I just wanted to give you the overall layout.

This is the after of the formerly brassy lamp... I silverleafed it!  Don't you just love naked shades?

It is on top of the formerly green cabinet that used to live in our entry.  It just so happens that the sewing machine that I confiscated from my sister fits perfectly...hmmmm....

I think this may have been an old time card holder... now it holds cards and receipts behind the door.

My little industrial tray that holds all kinds of supplies.

Bill and Linda... one of my very first flea market purchases.   They are Dick and Jane's cooler, more colorful cousins.  They haven't been on a wall in a long time... they were from my single girl apartment days,  I have missed them!

Ahh... the vintage post box that so many of you wondered if I was going to paint it... cover up those numbers and the grey?  NO way!  See how much stuff it holds?  See all those baby food jars kept out of the landfill?  Now I just need to spray paint the tops.

Its little cubbies are the perfect size for ribbon spools.

The larger of the two metal cabinets that I painted... this one holds all my etsy treasures.

Here is the money shot of the brassy chandelier that I painted... I am quite pleased with my spray painting abilities!

A couple of the vintage frames around the room

Another shot by me... my camera is not so good compared to Mr. Hughes'... but here is one chair painted, recovered and trimmed.

I couldn't decide on a trim, so I doubled up!

Bedsheet curtains and fabric rolls

A simple chandelier cord cover. Spray paint goddess I may be, I wasn't about to attempt to spray paint the chain and cord!  I made it also with a bedsheet... I just snipped the top hem of the sheet off and shirred it over the chain.

The table... it is the perfect size for the room and for projects... I even have one for Baby Hughes' room laid out... see I really will use this space as a studio and keep the mess contained to this room!  And, I know some of you thought I was crazy for painting it....I may distress it a little still...

Check out this giant flower frog!!

This is the lamp from my inspiration post all rewired and prettified with an Amy Butler fabric shade.  It was nearly impossible to find a shade that fit.  I really didn't want to go to Target and buy a new one just to recover it, but that is what I had to do.

Another naked shade... I adore them!!

Here is a less than perfect shot of the top of the bedsheet curtains.  They seriously were 99 cents a piece... and we had already used them as a sunblock under the pergola for Baby Hughes' Pirate party.  They didn't turn out how I had planned, but I like them better.

Well, that is it... I have many more photos of frames and baby food jars and my Inspiration peg board, but I will save them for later.  I figure though, if you have read this far, you deserve a chance to win a little prize!  This wonderful vintage scale can be yours.  I have been waiting for the perfect time to give it away and it is now... after all my hard work and painted strands of hair!

You know how it works:  if you are a follower, just leave me a comment and let me know you would like to win.  Or, become a follower and  leave a comment...if you want to blog about it, I will put your name in 3 times more.... just leave me the link so I know that you really, really want it!!

And, I will announce the winner next Friday to celebrate the fact that for the 4th year in a row, I am not working in the Black Friday retail craziness!!!

Next week, I hope to work on Christmas decorating.  Some of you have mentioned a paper snowflake how- to, so I will include that as one if the posts.

Now, I have to get beautiful for my hot date with a vampire (and Mr. Hughes!)

I am going to join in Miss Gina's fabulous Transformation Thursday.

and I am joining Miss Mustard Seed!

and Donna at Funky Junk!

and Cheri at It's So Very Cheri!
Go by these blogs to see some great transformations.

Why Thursday is My Favorite Day

image found here

Have I ever told you that Thursday is my favorite day?  I usually have a favorite everything or at least a top 5.  Well, I was born on a Thursday and my Baby Hughes was also born on a Thursday (both on the 7th my favorite number.)  And, it is the day before Friday.  And, in college, I had alot of fun on Thursday nights.  The tv shows that I actually watch have always been on Thursdays.  This week is no exception.  Tomorrow I am going to get a much needed haircut, color, and brow wax (can we say Burt?)  I will be 95% finished with the studio and I am going to post photos rain or shine.  Then, my mother is coming to watch Baby Hughes for the evening because I have a hot date with a certain bronze haired vampire.

  Okay, okay, I guess several million women are going on this date with me.  And, Mr. Hughes will be there too, but it counts, right?

So, come back here tomorrow to see  the studio in all its partially finished glory.  Oh, and to celebrate my favorite day, I will have a little giveaway too.

And, have you been by The Brocantess lately?  She is having a FAB-U-LOUS giveaway.  Visit this post to find out all the details.

And, if you are wondering what snowflakes have to do with any of this... well, I am ready to start decorating for Christmas after we get back from Thanksgiving traveling and I am going to go paper snowflake crazy!!

Thoughts on Christmas

While driving home today, I came to a conclusion:  Baby Hughes is not going to leave the Christmas tree alone this year.  How am I certain of this fact?  I don't know, it may have something to do with him constantly trying to grab knives out of the dishwasher while I am unloading or loading it.  Or, maybe the fact that he has a routine each time one of us uses the downstairs bathroom: beat on the door and then try to squeeze through the door while we are leaving to grab something out of the cabinet. Or maybe it is because he cries when we leave an area in the store that has Christmas lights. Or, maybe I have acquired that 6th Mommy Sense.  Whatever it may be, I know he will not leave it alone.  I had already decided earlier that we would only have paper snowflakes and lights  on the tree.

 So, after calling Mr. Hughes to see if he minded terribly if we didn't do a big, real tree this year (I think his exact words "do I mind not having to lug  a large tree in the house? No") I decided to do a tabletop tree this year.  Did I mention that there is a table that I want to refinish just for this purpose?  Did that have anything to do with the decision?  Probably.  And, that is why I am feeling a little guilty.  I almost feel like a bad Mommy for taking away a large, glowing, shedding, tree.

But, I am going to go over the top on the other unreachable decorations... think the store that Buddy the ELF decorates.  I love, love, love paper snowflakes, so I will be making quite a few more of those.  And, we are planning on getting a live tree that we can plant in our yard later.   And, I will do a big tree again when Baby Hughes gets old enough not to bother it and decorate it.

I thought I would leave you with a few photos of tabletop trees... Martha did not disappoint!  Here is an entire article on the subject.

Martha Stewart 

Martha Stewart

Better Homes and Gardens

Better Homes and Gardens

The last two photos are from one of my favorite places, Scarlett Scales Antiques.  If you are in the Franklin, Tn area you have to go here.  If you can't make it, visit her blog.

I am still putting off decorating until after Thanksgiving, especially now that I have a table to refinish!

Studio... progress, rethinking and the table

I am about painted out!  I have been painting furniture all week with the intention of having the studio completed (almost, at least) by this weekend.  Apparently, I forgot to run this by Baby Hughes who has not been feeling well and now has an ear infection.  He has decided that only Mommy can make him happy.  He is on my lap as I write this while Mr. Hughes is out picking up his prescription and a copy of the December issue of Vanity Fair... but that is entirely another topic *wink* (Let's just say that Mr. Hughes is a wonderful, understanding man!)  Even with all of that going on, I have managed to paint everything that I needed for the studio... the chairs need one more coat.  And, I wanted to show you the table that is going to be in there... it takes up the almost whole room.

Now I am sure that some of you are groaning inside and thinking, why oh why is she painting that?  It is okay... I was thinking the same as I was painting the primer.  This table, although lovely, has seen better days.  There are chunks out of it and scratches and I really didn't want to get into refinishing it to its former glory.  It is just what we needed though.... a big enough table to spread out our projects .. especially Mr. Hughes... he has a little problem with paper.

And, I had to rethink the cane chair once I put the table in there.  It fit but there would have only been room for one chair and since I convinced Mr. Hughes to give up his office and move into the library, I didn't think it would be fair to hijack the whole room. (giant run on sentence... I am kind of proud!)  Anyway, I am using a few chairs that I brought in from outside.

I had painted them creamy white and covered the seats with coffee sacks.  They didn't like the humidity, so I had alot of veneer to take off... they are a fine example of shabby!!

I still hope to get this all finished this weekend... at least the big projects.

Oh, and if you happened to click on the link up there and are thinking I am terrible person for painting the table AND sending my husband to pick up that magazine... I just want to let you know that Mr. Hughes himself has a very large crush on Patricia Heaton and Zooey Deschanel.

What I Have Been Up To

 I have been pretty busy lately.  I have been trying to get our studio finished before Thanksgiving.  We just aren't able to do projects downstairs with busy Baby Hughes anymore.  And, I just can't bring myself to decorating for Christmas when our house is in shambles.  We have many, many projects that just need to be completed.  This week I painted the entire room and I am currently working on painting the furniture and making window treatments.  And, I am usually pretty bad about taking before photos, so I decided to show you the raw materials that are going to become the bones of  our studio.

This is a vintage set of cubbies... maybe a it is a vintage post box.  It has lots of little spots to help us organize our supplies.  See the letters?  And it is grey!

This pile of sheets will become the window treatments.

This lovely brassy chandelier is going to replace the light in the room.

I found this little vintage trash can in our garage today... it will be painted.

Mr. Hughes picked up this cane chair for $15 and then he ripped out the old fabric and foam.  I have big plans for it!

Then there are these metal and glass bookshelves.  It was too hard and time consuming to strip them down to the bare metal, so I am painting these as well.

I also have a beautiful table that is also going to be where we do our projects.  I would have taken  a photo of it, but I couldn't exactly get to it.... if you could see our garage (which you won't) you would understand.

Well, with any luck, I will have some finished projects to show at the end of this week.  Wish me luck!

Want this?

I bet you do!  I do too!  So, all you have to do is go visit Susan aka Peanut Petunia.  Become a follower... trust me... you want to do this!  This girl has style and she is pretty hilarious too!  I so wish I lived near her so we could be besties!