Inspiration

Friday I had about 20 minutes between dropping off and picking up kids, and I was aching to do a little something for our home.  I stopped by home goods and found....some goods.  I found this Diner sign above, and some of these goodies below.

I found the LOVE OFTEN picture, the Octopus, and Do All Things With Love, at Home Goods.  

Lately I've been really wanting to decorate my home.  However, 1) I'm not rich.  2) My idea bucket was dry.  So, I was so happy when I found some items that I actually liked, and that didn't cost a ton. When I got home, I knew we needed a little something extra to balance it all out.  This is when I do best, I need a jumping off point.  Starting from nothing, no ideas, is tricky for me.  But, I finally had a little jump start.

So, I got to work.  I positioned all the frames, and saw I needed something to fill the upper left square, and the lower right rectangle area.  I had a VERY OLD forest green square frame with a botanical print inside.  No problem, I used my Silhouette, cut out my super awesome state, and left a heart cut out for my favorite AZ city, and painted the background gold.  Then I had some trusty black spray paint, and painted the frame.  Lastly, I had to paint the mat (it was also a lovely forest green) with some acrylic paint.

Next came the arrows.  After looking for some idea, something that sparked my interest on pinterest for a bit,  my daughter and I came up with arrows.  We luckily have a garage full of spare wood, and pallet wood, I pulled a couple planks out, sprayed them with gold and black spray paint, and then got to work with the silhouette.  We cut out an arrow shape, and used vinyl as my template (it might be best to use another medium, but it's what I had), and then painted the arrows.

Can I just say....so simple.  I did all of this in about 1 1/2 hours, from start to finish.  Just in my pjs, gathering stuff from my garage.  Sometimes I just need a kick in the bum to get started.

And then here comes my joyful plug for the day.  Sometimes, I am just so happy we do our own projects.  It seems crazy at moments, and it is.  But on Saturday, when I wanted to get a little something done to brighten my home, I already had all the supplies I needed.  Not because of good planning.....heavens no....but because I was stocked with goodies from before.  If you ever feel like you really wish you could just get rid of your three thousand can of stain, paint, or other stuff.  Just wait, and be glad that you have all that stuff.  Because you can do amazing things with it on the fly.

Next came the shelf below.  I kid you not, this came together in about fifteen minutes.  Tutorial can be found here.  My hubby had some wood left over from making me desks, shelves, etc..  And I noticed that the DINER sign needed something else with it.

  Enter a tiny little shelf idea.  Hmmmm, we can put that under the sign and put in little tiny herb plants.

So, he built it in like 10 minutes.  I stained it in about 10 min.  Done.  Sweet goodness, this was fun.

And now we get this, so maybe there aren't plants yet.  That may take me actually visiting the store.