Shabby Apple Giveaway

Happy Monday! I've got a great giveaway for you this week from the online dress shop Shabby Apple. If you haven't checked out their designs, you are missing out. Shabby Apple offers women's dresses and little girls' dresses in classic silhouettes at a great price point. Here are some of my favorites . . .

The Gondola

The Nantucket

The Overboard

And this classic, the Azure Coast wrap dress, can be yours through this giveaway. 

Isn't it cute?

To enter, simply become a follower of this blog (if you aren't already) and leave a comment. For an additional entry, you can "Like" Shabby Apple on Facebook, then just come back and leave another comment telling me you did so. The giveaway will close Sunday, July 17 at 9 p.m. CST, and the winner will be announced next Monday, July 18th. Good luck!

X-ceptional Makeover

I've been a little under the weather this week . . . think our whole family has a low-grade virus. Anyway, I just wanted to check in and share a great X bench makeover I ran across recently in the blog world. I "blog-met" sweet Hilary from Mrs. Dow-Ward's Neighborhood when she left a comment asking about some items in my antique booth. After further emailing, I realized she also works at Worlds Away and is the person responsible for their blog. So, of course she has fabulous taste! Without further ado, here is her X bench makeover . . .

First, she purchased this X bench from Target . . . I didn't even know they carried these. You can find them online for $79.99, plus free shipping. Not super cheap but compared to other X benches, not bad either. 

Then, she tried her hand at recovering it in a cotton canvas.

She felt it was just "okay" and might be lacking something. So, then she turned it over to the artisan at Worlds Away (a nice perk of working there) and voila . . . 

Doesn't it look fabulous?! I didn't get all the details but it looks like the base has been gold leafed (or painted with gold leaf paint, at least) and possibly rubbed for an aged finish. Not to be left out, the top got a sumptuous chocolate velvet makeover as well.  Yum.

Hilary now loves the way it fits in with the rest of her furniture and decor. Check out that chair, by the way. I would die for that. The stool definitely looks like something right out of Worlds Away and is somewhat similar to the St. Regis stool from Amy Howard:

You must check out Hilary's blog if you haven't . . . she's got really great style!

Mission (Almost) Accomplished

Over the weekend I finally finished a project . . . well, sort of (is anything ever finished, really?). Remember my Parson's-style console/sofa table I got off Craigslist? I bought some grasscloth wallpaper a while back off eBay and finally set to recovering it this weekend. Here's the result . . .                                       

Just to remind you, here's what it looked like before . . . 

Bad 70's laminate.

Now, fresh grasscloth . . .

Let me tell you, this was not an easy task. And seriously, I don't think you want my DIY steps . . . I'm not the most adept DIY'er. I don't always make the best decisions. Like the laminate, for instance. Some of it was peeling off, so I thought, "I'll just remove it all and that will make a clean surface for the grasscloth to adhere to." Boy was I wrong. Once I started removing the laminate, I realized that it was starting to peel off the MDF underneath leaving holes. So, I quickly scrapped that idea and didn't remove it all - just some small sections (two of the legs and one of the sides). Second came the issue of how to adhere the grasscloth to the table. I had read spray adhesive worked. Not in my case. So, I went to plan B - hot glue. I used a box cutter to cut most of the paper, then I just wrapped it like a present. The legs still need some fine tuning. My husband took a very flattering photo of me during the process . . . 

If you'll recall from my previous post, I was hoping to paint the grasscloth to provide some contrast with my sofa. I had been leaning toward a dark, saturated blue, but now that I changed my lamps to black and I'll be painting my adjacent dining room blue, I think the table needs to be brighter. Now, I'm thinking of either a creamy white or going in a totally different direction with a coral. Any thoughts? Here it is again . . . 

Of course, I'm still searching for the perfect fabric to put on the stools which will reside under the table (at least some of the time). So, that might help make my decision as well. One decorating dilemma solved just to create another. Does it ever end? I kind of hope not, because I love the process (even if it sometimes is painstakingly slow in my case).

And through it all, my dear, patient husband humors my decorating whims. So, it's only fitting that I thank him today for putting up with me for all these years as today is our 14th anniversary (as I've said before, I was a child bride). 

Happy Anniversary, Matt . . . I love you!!