Yard Sale Haul!

Yard Sales have become my constant for Saturday mornings at the shore. That area has the best older pieces that look great with my shabby beach chic makeovers. I love painting furniture. Mixing my own colors, and putting my personal touch on pieces that people admire. I mean, I'm thrilled people like my pieces enough to put them in their homes! How cool is that!?!

One house I went to was a mother-lode of a pickup! We were headed to another yard sale, when the hubster noticed a sign to this house. I have him trained already, he's a great 'hunter' with me.

I have already 'shabbied' some of these pieces and they have already sold in the store. I'll be sharing those pieces in other posts.

My hubster even picked up some weights (no pun intended here), at this house. He wanted another set for the shore house. What luck. 

Check out these old ice skates! Not sure what to do with these yet, any ideas you can offer? 

Look at this awesome chest (above)!! It was made in the 1800's. The maker even had a note inside with his, his wife and children's date of births. The young man we bought this from said the gentleman built his grandmothers house and also built her this chest. Take a look inside and at the note. Too awesome not to share. This piece is so beautiful, I'm not sure if I will do anything to it, or even sell it. I think I'll look at it for a while before making any decisions. 

 There are two other chests also! Told you. Mother. Lode.

An old slicer and a beautiful long, skinny shutter. I use this in my store to hang jewelry on. 

I can't wait to share all my shabby beach chic transformations with you! 

Enjoy your day!

Efffie Girl Goes Coastal!

I've been busy. To say the least. Like, nearly a year-long busy. I've been getting my DIY groove on lately, and I'm having a blast. So much fun that Effiie Girl is dabbling in retail. I've gone Coastal!

I am lucky enough to spend most of my summers near the ocean, and this has inspired me to make my own shore house decor. Friends and family have said I should open my own store, and so I did just that. It's a small shop of my own, in a gallery of shops in Ocean City, NJ. It's a cute little set up. I'm so excited! 

Here is a glimpse of the store-booth.

Some recent items I've created. Sorry, most of the pictures are not staged.

I'm proud to say, many of these items have already sold! I'll post more before - after photos as I go. 

Before     After

       

If you ever happen to be in Ocean City, NJ, check out my little shop, "Effie Girl, it's a shore thing".

It's all happening at Staintons Gallery of Shops. I'm starting small, and creating big!

DIY Christmas Cards

I've been creative with my Christmas cards this year.  Seeing so many handmade crafts and cards here and there, gave me the bug!  My love of trees gave me inspiration, as you can see below. With some crafts from Michael's and some already on hand, these are what I've come with!  Hope you like them.

My trees

 My mix 

My faves

Some I'll stamp, some I'll write a personal message

What do you think? 

What are your Christmas crafts, this year? 

You Are My Sunshine...

"You are my Sunshine, my only sunshine, you make me happy, when skies are gray, you'll never know dear, how much I love you, please don't take, my sunshine, away!" 

This is what my sister sings to her baby girl, so sweet.  Today I am sharing with you a gift I have made for my sister.  A sign made for her daughter's room.  I am so excited to have made this for my lil'sis.  It is my first very first attempt at one, and I think it came out pretty good.

Let me know what you think!

I collected all my materials.

Started painting sections.  The base light purple, and sections

of yellow for the 'sunshine'.  I had measured all the lines for my 1" and 2" letters.  

Painting and sticking on letters. As I went along,

I realized that I hadn't really done a great job with spacing for

each character.  I would place a word, move it more to the left or right, 

up or down, just a hair.  Although tedious work, still fun for the final project.  

I put dark purple on top, called Pacific Iris.  The canvas took 3-coats.  

With all the layers, I was afraid peeling the letters would be difficult.

It actually worked out fine. I even had help from a bored college kid :)  

Ta-Dah!

I am very happy with my finished project!  I wasn't sure about all the mixed up, angled letters, but I do like the final result once the letters were off, and I did minor touch ups. 

It will look perfect in 'our' little girls room :) 

I think she'll like it :)

Oh Deer!

For some reason lately, I've had this love for deer heads.  I think deer are beautiful and graceful, so I wanted some to grace my walls :) No, I don't want a real one, but I do like the paper mache ones I've seen. I also like the silhouettes. So I bought one, and put it on a navy blue poster board to match to paisley in the spare room.

I framed it with one of those "you size it" kits, in black. Then hung it in the spare room.  I was intending to do a head above the bed, or this stencil with a wide frame and matting, but that never happened.  I like this, in it's minimalist frame near the dresser, best.

Although it looks like a brighter blue in the photo, due to the flash, it does match the dark blue shade on the dresser, which makes the whole corner look less empty.

I also found a storage bench for the spare room.  Stumbled upon it at Marshall's for $35.00, yay!  It was perfectly burlap with a black stencil top.  The room is too small for a large chair I was originally going to attempt to reupholster. Funny, I know - but, I can do that, husbter! I just wanted something for guests to use to sit and put their shoes on, or luggage or whatever.

The burlap will match the other DIY project I'm working on now for the walls in here.  Sharing soon.

It's just laundry!

In the spare bedroom?

So, not too long ago my girly step-beauty moved out, for the second time, but this time more permanent. *Sniff-sniff* The kids are growing up, becoming their own.  Heck yeah, baby!  Play time for me and the hubster :) Okay, back to the point of this post.

Little by little, I'm fixing up the 'spare room' (how I beam to have this princess suite the "spare room"), because I love decorating, and I want a comfy pretty place for visitors.  It is tucked far from the noisy part of the house, so they have all the quiet comforts of privacy as well.

Because we have company coming from California next week, I had to scurry to get some things done. I have this wicker laundry basket, do guests really use laundry baskets?  I guess it depends how long they stay.  If it's someone I don't want staying too long, I can remove that, right?  Haha, just kidding!

The lid to the basket was fraying apart, as wicker would.  For a quick fix, I used some random ribbon to wrap around and clean it up.  See, all is well.

Here is the somewhat boring corner, where it stands.  

Hey, it works for a nice temporary fix. I think I should paint the wicker, white.  Your thoughts? 

The lamp on the dresser is a navy blue to match the paisley duvet cover. 

When the girly was in college, I flipped her bedroom with flower stickers, mirrors and pretty pinks and browns. (Should have had a photo prior to removing everything. Who knew I'd need it for a blog!) I have a photo somewhere, I'm sure.  It's plain for now, as I rid of the previous girly state.

I'm starting with paisley, love paisley. Navy blue with tans and whites. I think a guest room should be suited for male or female visitors. Here is where I'm starting. You can see the mirror on the wall, above the bed.  Flower stickers.  They were really cute.  The bathroom had flowers too.  I want it to be more of a 'guest' feel.  Contemporary accessories to complete the contemporary vanity.

Can't wait to finish this gust room project.

  

This is a peek at what I'm doing for a wall. I've framed some wrapping paper. I'll be adding some burlap and stencil fun!  Stay tuned! 

Stop in for a spell!

Halloween is a real treat!  Get it? Okayyyyy.  Well, Halloween is a real treat in my house, because we buy treats that only we eat!  I don't really eat it much of it, anymore though. Who can resist at least one piece? We sadly have no trick-or-treaters. I guess that's what you get for living in the 'country' type areas.  Blah!  Or, BOOooOOOooOO! 

Yeah, okay...I decorate anyway!  I love to decorate on holidays. Plus this year is special, I have my nephew that comes each year, for the past 3 or 4, and his little sissy, and my sister!  I am so thrilled to have them coming for a fun night!  Bonus, they are sleeping over.  Yay!

So here are some things I worked on this year.  

It's a spider with jewels, (I didn't make this but it was too cute to not buy) sitting on a candy jar!
Too cute to spook!

The white pumpkin was an old orange one I've had.  I painted it white, added some bling and voila!  

The smaller pumpkins are real.  I painted a little on them and added bling as well.  

A table cloth of spider webbing, I made into a runner.  The green wasn't working it.

The small black pumpkin, I blinged out, of course. 

My front door is ready for my niece and nephew to arrive! 

Even the dog statue, which is always there, has a little bling on the a bow-tie!

I'll have more photos from Halloween, next week!  

Have a boooootiful Halloween!