I've traded one obsession for another!

I know I'm not unique but for years I lived on the Real Estate listings website.  I would critique the listings, if a link didn't work or information was wrong I would email the Realtor to let them know of the problem.  If Frank and I went for a drive and noticed a listing, I could usually tell him about the house, the price and what the inside was like or I would complain about the lack of information with the listing.  My Real Estate obsession was so strong I thought becoming an agent was my calling.  I even enrolled in the course at one point,  I brought the study books home and then I freaked out! OMG, what have I done, when will I have time to study, how do I fit this in to my schedule?  Do I really want this?  Anyway, I decided the timing was not right and if I were to reconsider I would not enroll on a whim next time.

I wish I had started the blog Hooked on Houses, maybe I should start my Canadian version of Julia's blog. I'd share some fun interesting properties with you.  Everyone can find your average city or subdivision home, I'm attracted to something slightly different.  I love conversions:  Schoolhouse, Barns and Churches.   I'd share listings like this Schoolhouse on a 1 acre lot in the country.  I wish the agent had some better pics. 

Maybe it's the lack of good pictures with so many Real Estate listings that has me drawn to my new obsession, Decor Blogs!  Now here is a group of women that know how to take gorgeous pics of their home decor projects.  Currently I  follow over 100 blogs and I keep finding more.

Following are a few hi lights from some of the blogs I am following.

There's A Country Farmhouse, her open shelf kitchen makes me swoon, I love that she has posts on changing up her kitchen for the different seasons.

 Next Buckets of Burlap, her beautiful fresh decor with hits of chippy distressed items and yep, Burlap ... Loving It!

Canadian Cottage, the makeover of their home is beautiful, I'm inspired by their new bathroom!

City Cottage, Jenny shares some of her makeovers along with updates from her beautiful store in Bowmanville, Ontario where she carries some of the most beautiful quilts, pillow and shabby chic decor items.  I love her recent bedroom makeover, I may have to pick up that wallpaper for our bedroom makeover.

Ok, a couple more for tonight  Funky Junk Interiors, I love Donna and her Creativity.  All I can say is WOW!!! She is so creative.  Check out her Staircase makeover, and her Mom cave bedroom that was featured in Romantic Homes

I'm going to feature one more tonight, I'll feature more later.  I'm away from home for 2 weeks so I don't have any DIY projects to share, I'm going through withdrawal especially since everyone else is inspiring me with their makeovers.

Jennifer at Keswick & Country is inspiring me with her makeover projects, she amazes me how she fits in these makeovers between her many business trips.  I am crazy for coco pops over this cabinet she made over for their bathroom:

I'll be back with more!

Dreamy Giveaway over at Keswick & Country

Head on over and enter now!

Kitchen Storage solution ...

First, let me tell you how excited I am that our kitchen is almost complete.  Yippee!  We just have to complete the Island trim and paint it, oh and there's one wall that has been patched so it needs paint.  Then DONE!  Finito! Wooo Hooo!

I was off work this past week and had a mission to check a few things off the to do list.  I don't know what it is but if I don't stay busy with small projects I'll nap the day away.  Then I'd be all grumpy when I go back to work if I hadn't accomplished anything.  But, hey, that's not the case so all is good!

OK, now that my self analysis is over, back to our Kitchen Storage solution.  For the last 10 years I have had a Hanging Pot Rack for easy access to cookware.  When we moved to our new house in June we knew the Pot Rack would be too large for this house so we gave it to a friend.  The Pot Rack looked something like this one ...

We have been here 7 months and both Frank and I have hated wrestling with pots in the cupboard so we had to do something.  I suggested some sort of Wall Pot Rack. Usually at this point I need to give Frank a visual so he knows what I am thinking.   I didn't want too spend much, so the plan was to go to Ikea and pick up this Grundtal wall shelf with some S hooks, maybe one of those hanging pot thingies too.

I was procrastinating, I did not feel like packing a lunch for the road trip to Ikea, I did some searching online to see if there was another solution that I could pick up from a local store.   While I was doing this, Frank came up with a brilliant idea to use a shelf I had originally bought to use as a mantle.

We had the darker of the 3 shelves shown above but it wasn't rustic enough so I painted and distressed it, then went to the local hardware store and picked up some hooks for $2.78.  Porter, an American Labrador Retriever helped me find the right hooks (next time I'll take a pic of him, he has the best face)

and there you have it ... One Beautiful and functional pot rack!  No more clanging pots at dinner time!

Taaa Daaa!

I'm going to link up with Donna and everyone over at Funky Junk Saturday Nite Special #77

Floor Lamp Makeover

This project was originally posted January 2011 but I wanted to Spruce it up and link it to Funky Junk Interiors  Sat Nite Special link party #126 - unique lighting.

When I purchased this floor lamp I LOVED it!  Ya, not so much now.  Here she is ...

I wanted a lantern to fit over the existing light that was hanging, it was not easy to find but as they say when you least expect it ...

I found this red lantern at a local hardware store prior to Christmas.  It was exactly what I was looking for but the wrong colour!  So , I removed the glass, and got to work.

 We went out to the workshop, and I set up my high tech spray booth so I could paint it Oil Rubbed Bronze.  In Blog World there is White Paint, Chalk Paint and Oil Rubbed Bronze ... that's it!

Once painted, I covered the front and back glass panels with frosted contact paper.  For the side panels Frank came up with the idea to make it look like a lantern from an old train so I got the Cricut out and cut out AT & SF  1536  out of the contact paper "Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe ... Caboose #1536"
(side note, I no longer have a Cricut I have a Silhouette Cameo and it would have ACED this project!) 

Frank also found an old ticket from the same railway, that is what is tied to the top, here is a close up

Cool isn't it?

Here's the after 

Yes this image says Starwood Country Creations, did I tell you that I changed my blog name Ump-teen times!  It's 12am right now, I'm tired, I've been haggling with a kid on Kijiji who wants to buy Frank's golf clubs but would like us to drive 2 hours to bring them to him, oh and do you take a cheque (don't piss me off kid  I'm menopausal and the hormones are looking for someone to take it out on) Ok, where were we?  Right - my blog name changes.   One image missed the name change and I ain't changin it right now cus I am one sleepy grump.

Anyho, here it is in it's new resting spot (prior to my cool Coke End Table)

Nite Nite, sleep tight (why tight, what does that mean?  I throw the covers off ... oh geez Hot Flash taking over)

I'm linking to ...

The original "boob" light

I was just searching for an image that would resemble a light I am making over and I came across an image I just have to share.  A had a few snickers when I referred to our old kitchen light as a fancy "boob" light.  During my image search today I think I found "The" boob light ... it's antique milk glass so it has to be one of the originals. 

 

Image Origin 

 Anyway, I guess it's the kid in me.  

Stay tuned for the makeover results of our Spiral Shade lamp (similar image below)

Til then,

Happy Blogging!

Jo