My story

I'm a southern girl who has been swept away to the north.  My husband accepted a job in Ohio and we packed everything up and headed north.  We have been here about 3 months and so far so good.



I once lived in the land of HOT summers and where saying YA'LL was socially acceptable.  Now I have to have to make sure we have enough warm clothes to get us through the winter ahead. 

It has already snowed here!!

And when I talk, I have to explain why I sound like I'm not from here.


We have a grown son who choose to stay in Arkansas, but I'm constantly hopful he will decide to come join us.  We have a daughter in high school and a son in middle school and their transistion seems to have gone ok.

I love to shop for anything that can be used to make our house a home.  We live in a rental and couldn't be happier, it feels like it was built for us.  Blog land has been such an inspiration to me, hence the name Inspiration Overload.  Somtimes I have so many ideas I can't keep up with them all.  I would love to have you follow me on my journey to discovering the joys of northern living as well as how I make this a home we can be proud of.

Guess what I did today...

Put up the tree!!  We will be heading to Arkansas for Thanksgiving next Saturday, so my idea is to have the tree finished before we leave so that when we get home the following Satuday we can come home to a decorated tree.

We bought a new tree this year and this is the first time I have had a 9 footer so I am excited!!  Stay tuned for updates on the decorating.

Lorna

Coffee Table Before & After



This is about an outdated coffee table in need of a makeover, not about my garge floor that also needs some help.  Maybe we can tackle that another time.

I bought this table at Goodwill a couple of weeks ago and don't  intend to keep it, I would like to sell it, but we will see.  I started by lightly sanding with my trusty hand held sander, then putting on a light coat of primer.

  Nothing special, just rolled it on, then a couple coats of Better Homes and Gardens Creamed Coffee.  After it was all dry, I then made a my own glaze by taking some white paint, adding a touch of gray and some water to thin it down.  I dry brushed the glaze onto the table and in some areas used a cloth to wipe some off or spread it around a little.  I wanted to highlight the edges, and the legs, but I also used a back and forth motion on the top to add some depth.

The lighter color glaze is only slightly noticable, it mostly adds depth to the piece.



I am linking up to these fabulous parties:

Not only am I suffering from inspiration overload, but now I am trying to sort out how to be a blogger.  I have been reading blogs for about two years now and I can honestly say, you guys make it seem easy.  I'm not finding it to be so easy.  I think if I understood the technical stuff better I could sort through some of this better.  I have a lot to learn, and look forward to improving my blogging skills as I go, and that is hard for me.  I like to know what I'm doing and know that I can do it well before jumping into something. 

I want to show another project that I did that now sits next to the two candle holders from my last post.  I bought a decorative plate and the stand, several months ago, at a yard sale for $2.00.  I did not like the fruit that was painted on it but I knew I could change it.  Sorry, I did not take a picture of the fruit, but just image grapes and an apple.

Here I have painted it a neutral beige color that I already had on hand.  I then went to Graphics Fairy and looked at all the wonderful things she has to offer.  I have always been drawn to Fleur de lis and found just want I was looking for.  I printed to out and kind of tore the edges off because I wanted a ruff edge.

                                                           I used coffee to age the paper

                                     Once the paper dried, I used Mod Podge to attach it to the plate.

Using the coffee aged the paper nicely, but it didn't give me the look I wanted.  So, I got out my paint and mixed it with a little water to make a kind of glaze and just smeared it on. 

I am a messy Do It Yourselfer, I use my fingers, paper towels, paint brushes, whatever gets the job done for me.  Here is the finished project. 

I am linking to Savvy Southern Style's WOW Us Wednesday.