say cheese.

I'm sure my mom intended these cheese blocks

to be used for serving cheese & crackers

when she gave them to me.

I had different plans ...

The right one is us on the top of our first 

14,000 footer - White Mountain.

The left one is us on the top of Kilimanjaro - 

Africa's highest peak.

They fill the empty space well.

one dollar.

A neighbor was selling this 

cool little table at a yard sale.

It cost $1.

It's so awesome that I didn't even need to 

do any work on it.

Now our porch isn't naked anymore.

drift wood modification.

This was last year's porch Christmas decoration.

I loved it, but I changed it.

This great piece of drift wood was found on a private beach in Big Sur.  

I was there for a friend's bachelorette party.

In addition to providing more stability since it's pretty heavy,

I think it also balances out the large ornaments and offers substance.

I don't really like one better than the other,

but it's nice to have a switch-a-roo.

more plum.

The bed was pretty boring before starting on this room.

Let's be honest, the entire space was pretty boring 

before starting on this room.

I shopped for a new bed spread for a few weeks

but didn't come up with much I liked.

Then I found this duvet cover that went with everything really well.

The plum pattern matches the richness

 of the night table and compliments the green.

Oh, and since I didn't have a luxurious duvet to put in the duvet cover,

I just put a blanket inside instead ... maybe later.

church lamp.

This lamp came free from a "swap and share" our stake had;

 it used to live in our our Stake President's house.

I tried painting it white, 

but that looked terrible.

Then I gave it a lavender bath.

I'm not sure President Jex would even recognize it.

water damaged.

I knew I needed this night table as soon as I drove by it.  

Can you believe someone just abandoned it on the curb?

All the surfaces sanded down pretty easily, except for the top.

Paint wasn't going to cover up that much water damage.

But it was nothing a bit of scrapbook paper 

and mod podge couldn't handle.

I don't usually think any of my projects are "pretty,"

but this one actually.is.pretty!

paint play.

The pure white walls didn't look very nice

next to the antique white floor.

I had a bunch of the antique white

and a good amount of the grasshopper wing green left over,

so ... I mixed 'em.

At first, the result was a drab yellowish color.  Gulp.

Thankfully, I had more green of a similar shade 

left over from something else, 

which gave me this beautiful color that is perfect!