Turning Trash into Treasure

I start my fall semester of school on August 24th and I've been racing against time a bit to get my house to feel more like a home (hence the excessive thrift shopping).  I also have a few projects going on that will hopefully pretty up the place as well.  We have decided to stay here another year (we are renters) which is highly unlike me.  I have moved at least once every year for the past 10 years and I moved a lot as a kid too.  It is just in my blood  I guess, after a year I start craving some "newness".  Here are a few of the things I have been doing to appease my nomadic spirit.  I hope you enjoy!

First is the front porch swing.  It was old and had sun-bleached wood (sorry no before pics) so I painted it this lovely yellow!  The color is called "patchouli" and it makes me seriously happy!!  I want to paint everything this color. 

Then there was this hideous seat cover........

I had a really sweet, psychedelic vinyl tablecloth which I simply stitched together to make a really nice slipcover for the pad and viola!

Carol Brady would be so proud, don't you think!?  :) 

The next project was inspired by the jewelry display at one of Free People's new stores in California.  Check it out!

Click here for source/more pics.

Here's my version, which I used to display my jewelry......even though i don't have that much.

 They were super-easy to make!  I just stapled a piece of vintage fabric to the back of the antique frame and screwed a couple of hooks into the wood of the frame to hang the jewelry on.

I also made the girls a Barbie house out of this old cupboard that was here when we moved in 

 I know it's a gross picture, we took it to show the condition of the floor in the laundry room when we moved in.  The cabinet had some kind of ugly wallpaper decal on it.

so, we cleaned it up and painted it.

I also had to buy a shelf to make it have 2 floors.

Now, keep in mind this is a work in progress.  I still plan to paint the door, some windows and flowers on the outside and then get wallpaper and carpet samples for the inside.  For now, it's functional and still pretty cute.

This brings me to today's project.  I have these antique end tables that were in our living room when I was a kid.  My mom painted them with this dusty, country blue, textured paint.  They're hideous.  In her defense the whole "country-blue/ducks-in-the-kitchen" thing was in back then. 

I had every intention on putting them out in the garage sale until I saw this on Etsy.

cute huh!?
 I can so do that with my tables so......
I put the whole family to work today trying to sand that god-awful blue paint off.

She looks thrilled!  lol!   Seriously, before you call someone about child labor she voluntarily got out of the pool to "help".
After an hour or so of sweating and plenty of sore hands we realized that we really need a power sander.

Sigh. Another unfinished project.......