Gold Dust Woman!

I don't know about you, but I have been loving all the rooms on new show Pure Design. Samantha Pynn has been hitting the nail on the head with every episode. All the rooms so far have been beautiful, elegant, a little glam, and apparently very "green" and eco-concious. Who doesn't love that?

I find that all her rooms seem pretty attainable to re-create and I love some of the projects they do.

Case in point: I am filing away this Project for when we move.

Gold Leaf Mirror

Supplies:

~ Frame to gold leaf

~ Gold leaf sheets

~ gold leaf sizing/adhesive

~ Brush

~ Soft Cloth / 2nd soft brush

~ Cheese cloth

~Satin Sealer

How To:

1. Apply adhesive/sizing to frame with brush. Make sure area to be covered with leafing is fully covered, but not sloppy. (Adhesive will dry clear)

2. Apply leafing to adhesive-covered areas. When surface is completely covered, smooth it all out with fingers. If leafing cracks and tears off, simply cover with a new piece. Use 2nd clean brush to flake off excess. Once complete, polish with cheese cloth.

3. Once everything is completely covered, and polished, apply Satin Sealer. Allow to completely dry for at least 2 hours and apply 2nd coat.

Reflecting on it all... I scored me a knock-off!

One of the first things my mom did when she started renovating her little old house, was to remove all the mirrors the previous owner had put up. I think that person was trying to use the old decorator's trick of making a room house look bigger by adding mirrors. It was simply not working in this place. They even had a mirrored backsplash in the kitchen....

Anyhow, afterwards there was only one large one, that still in really good shape- but she had no use for it. So she called me up, asking if I still wanted that large mirror from Ikea. I did, and said yeah, but didn't really have space for it right now, so wasn't going to buy it. She asked if I wanted her to make me one instead.

I was a little skeptical at how it was going to look. Especially since my mom's style is pretty traditional, and the mirror - the Mogstad from Ikea, is NOT. But she really wanted to do it, so I let her go to town.

Last week, when she came for Christmas, she showed up with this:
Boy, was I impressed. It turned out great, even though it doesn't show so well in the photo... I need to work on my photography skills for sure!! I wasn't sure if we had a place to put it, but after a little brainstorming and some picture moving, the wall in our bedroom was the perfect place for this full-length stunner.

**Mom put 4 coats of this ebony stain on it, and it was still pretty light. She left me the can and I will probably add a few more to get it a little closer in color to the rest of the furniture!

Thanks Mom!!

We been Framed!

After looking at all the Christmas stuff we have and thinking about what I want to bring to the new house, and what I'd like to get new..... I realized that we have NO framed pictures of Cory and I together!!!???

At first I thought it was just cause I was lazy and hadn't had photos printed since I got a digital camera.... Then I realized that I didn't have any nice frames... Plus coupled with the fact that I don't have any pictures of the two of us, that I absolutely LOVE......I realized it wasn't that far-fetched!

(This one turned out awesome.. but I couldn't take a nice picture of it, to save my life lol)

But, I really wanted some nice pictures of us. But since we are not spending money right now on non-essentials, I knew this would have to be a low-cost project.

Armed with a couple dollars of my stocking stuffer money, I picked up 4 frames at my local Dollar Store. I kept everything black and silver, to avoid looking too cheapy and dollar-store like.

I knew there were a couple photos in the loft, that I had printed on cheap photo paper for another project, so I dug those out, and cropped them to fit.

Here is how everything looks on my dresser, with the addition of the three new frames.

The last frame contains a picture that I absolutely love. We look incredibly happy. Unfortunately, the angle it was shot at, makes Cory look HUGE. So I am respecting his request to not post it. :)

Holiday Clearance Score

Wouldn't you know it, I found a great little Clearance item at Save-On-foods last night.

Yup, as I was clearing the meat section, these little burlap wrapped mini tabletop trees caught my eye! Strangely enough, I used to do some Visual Merchandising and used to use these a lot in displays.

Best part of the deal? They were $2.00 each!!!

They also had 4 silver charger plates at $1.00 each, but for whatever God-forsaken reason, I decided to put them back. I am totally regretting that decision and may have to swing by on the way home to see if they were snatched up by someone else yet...

Gotta love a great deal!!!

Good news!!

We tracked down the camera. I told Cory he wasn't allowed to do anything til he found it last night. So he did, it was in his coat pocket!!

Here's the house over the holidays:

First, here's the tree. Yeah, I realize it's a small tree, but it was free. A gift from my dad, so I am not complaining.

It looks a little sparse of decorations, but don't worry, it was nice and full. Plus, you always have a to leave a couple prime spots for decorations you get as gifts. I received about 10 new ones, so those filled in any empty spaces. Unfortunately, the flash washed out the Christmas lights....

The stockings ( well ours at least) were hung from the thing masquerading as a mantle fireplace mantel from gorgeous hangers found at Walmart. Thankfully, they were the last two silver ones left!

I've had this pretty silver sleigh for a couple years. I didn't have a plan for it this year, so I simply loaded it up with some Holiday stuffies and they rode the sleigh all over the island counter!

The dining room sideboard is a nice place for a little Holiday vignette. The snowman guy is from the Dollar store. That large white bowl holds pinecones and holiday berry sprigs. I also believe one of our poinsettias ( we have a white and a red one), ended up finding a home here as well.

There were little knick-knacks everywhere... but I did't get photos of everything. I did however, get photos of my favorite part: THE TABLE!!!

I wanted something really Dramatic, and whimsical this year so red, white and silver was the theme!

The beautiful red tablecloth and napkins were found randomly at Save-On-Foods on a grocery shopping trip. The bright color really helped to make my Holiday dishes POP! These white dishes with silver band and stars were in a Superstore flyer years ago, when I fell in love with them and my mom surprised me.

The matching etched-star drinking glasses paired nicely with Ikea wine glasses and the Hampton House flatware in brushed stainless steel, is our everyday stuff.

Since it was a big "meat and potatoes" crowd, I opted to forgo the charger plates, and went only with dinner and bread plates. But to add another layer, I placed the napkins, complete with Silver Snowflake napkins rings, found at Canadian Tire many years ago.

Since the table was really long, I really wanted to fill it out, and make every part of it, visually stimulating. I'm not really a red person, and it was a lot for me, so I added some interest by using my Martha Stewart Limitied Edition Snowflake punch and some white cardstock to punch out snowflakes, and I just let them lay as they fell.

I knew the centerpiece had to be something unexpected, and something silver and sparkly. So I set off early that morning with a vision in my head. What I found were 2 of these reindeer candelabras!! I didn't want anything taller, and was worried about the stability of taper candles in those large cups, so I opted for silver, LED tealights instead. I think they look amazing!!

There was a lot of space to fill still, so I threw the sleigh and snowman in the middle as well. Silver-foil wrapped mini-presents, glittery white snowflake ornaments, and white tealight holders lined with gold leaf added extra sparkle!!

Pretty Place settings...

Yeah, I know, Christmas has come and gone so quickly. But who says I can't post new ideas now, so that I can shop for things throughout the year, and be ready to go when next December rolls around.....??

Anyhow, here are some pretty table and place settings I came across the other day in Better Homes and Gardens. What I love about them, is that they don't scream Christmas, and that most of them could actually be used for different occassions, with a tiny change or two.

Hope you love 'em just like I do!!

This one reminds me a lot of the table I did this year, except I didn't use the blue accent color.

I think this might be one of my favorites!!! My favorite colors!!! I think I would add a bit more turquoise though... like in the trees and christmas balls!!

Now, this one didn't say Christmas at all to me, but essentially, would love amazing if your place was all blue. Plus, sub the blue for red or green, and it's perfect!!

I love the idea of a placecard, and I think these curtain clips are such an easy, inexpensive way to tackle two items: napking rings and placecards!!

A little cutesy, and a lot more traditional this would also be very well received at a Kid's table!!

This has a very Country-traditional vibe but still very cute!

This is another one of my faves and goes to show you, you don't have to use conventional "Christmas-themed" items...

These napkins were made using an iron-on transfer from a regular printer, and the napkin rings are vintage forks, bent into shape!!

if glitsz is your thing, try this Gold-decked affair!!!

Ship-shape

Yup, I took some time to stress out over Christmas enjoy the Holidays, but don't you worry - Christmas means there's no stuff taking shape over at Casa Thibault/Savoy!

Posts in the works:

~ Christmas Gift DIY - Mrs. Thibault-style! What did my mom give me, and what Big-box store item did she knock-off??

~ Under the tree - What we asked for; what we got; how we're using them!

~ Decoration Re-vamp : Making those traditional decoration suit your personal style

~New Addition: we're working on two pieces of furniture right now...Including step-by-step tutorials on how to re-create them!

~Goodbye Christmas! - see how we store our Holiday decorations - it's surprisingly orderly!

~Cleaning up and Clearing out: In the process of cleaning up, and trying to find space for all our new stuff, I clear out old stuff and mentally prepare for our new house.

That's just a few of the pieces I am working on right now, but I promise the next couple days will be chalk-full of new stuff we're doing.