HAPPY HUMP DAY! THERE. I SAID IT.

“There. I said it.” As many of you may have recognized, I completely stole this title from a Miss Mustard Seed post written back in early October, but it struck such a cord with me that I’d like to ruminate on it just a bit more.

I think for so many of us, putting ourselves out there in any form can be an enormously daunting prospect. The possibility of embarrassment, of failure, and the ensuing disappointment and heartache…it’s just too much. So instead, we keep our feet solidly on the ground, silent in our pie-in-the-sky dreams, but secretly hoping – if we dare – that one day, perhaps that pie will drop right out of the sky and fall directly into our very ready laps.

Unfortunately for most of us, that’s simply not how life works. To transform dream into reality takes effort, a tremendous amount of trial and error and, I think most importantly, the ability to fall and land softly. What determines success is what you do after the fall – do you pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and move on with timid grin? Or do you loll about, dejected and spent from something you’ve really only just begun?

For me, starting this blog was a huge step forward. But every. single. day. the thought of putting myself out there makes my heart lurch. I’ve spent sleepless nights wondering what people are thinking about me. Are they laughing? Do they think I’m nothing more than a joke? A failure? Or perhaps they’re not thinking anything at all because no one is even reading this itty bitty blog in this big, bad Blogdom.

I need to consistently remind myself that it doesn’t really matter. What does matter is that I have taken that step forward, I have put myself out there, and I have found the courage to dream out loud…

…but with all this said, even I have fallen, and I don’t always land softly. In fact, I’m only just beginning to pick myself back up after a recent hard fall, which is exactly why I felt so inspired to write this post.

I love decorating, I love styling my home and offering inspiration to others; I love antiquing and “picking” and realizing the potential in dilapidated furniture pieces; I love transforming these pieces into something unique and beautiful, and I love having the opportunity to find them a new home.

I have a dream to one day own a studio and showroom space, a little piece of creative heaven, but in the meantime, I have very little storage and work space to build on this endeavor. So while I wait (and wait and wait…) on an appropriately priced opportunity, I find myself losing a little bit of faith. Frankly, my work has stalled and my drive is failing me.

I need to remember to believe in myself; “pushing through the self-doubt, the fears and anxieties, and the nay-sayers” (per Miss Mustard Seed). And, as she also so wisely advised, I need to put it out there in writing.

So, as much for myself as for all those silent dreamers out there, this is my dream:

I want to find a healthy balance between my love for home styling, furniture refinishing, and events planning, and have a conglomerate of these things within my small business. I want to have my own studio space in which I can showcase my services: provide styling ideas, tablescapes, and vintage and refinished products all available for purchase. I want to be able to articulate my dreams fully, because so often they become lost amidst so many other ideas and aspirations, and I want to create a clear and concise business plan that I can pursue without hesitation

I have no doubt that it will take time, a huge amount of work, and I’m certain that I will fall more than a few times, but I have every intention of getting back up each and every time. All I ask of myself is a little patience and a lot of strength, and all I can ask you, my dear readers, is for an encouraging and supportive community!

There. I said it. And I hope you have the courage to say it too. So tell me, what’s your dream?

DIY THURSDAY: SHEET MUSIC WREATH & A GIVEAWAY!

Don’t you just love Thursdays? With the holiday season quickly approaching (I can’t believe it’s already the end of October!), I thought I’d share with you a quick and easy project that just may help with your holiday décor…

I’m sure many of you have seen Miss Mustard Seed’s sheet music wreath:

When I first set my eyes on this adorable wreath, I fell a little bit in love, so I set out to make my own.

First, I loaded up my makeshift work station (aka my living room floor) with all the items I needed:

1. A stack of vintage sheet  music (which I happen to have BOXES of…)
2. A glue gun and glue
3. Ribbon
4. Scissors
5. Pine cone (optional)

Really, that’s all it takes! Now, some of you may be wondering where in the world am I going to find vintage sheet music? To help you along with this little problem, I will be giving away TWO large stacks of vintage sheet music for TWO lucky readers! The how and the when is revealed at the end of this post, so read on my friends!

After I had all my supplies on hand, I began by folding and carefully ripping a few sheets into eighths (you’re welcome to use scissors, but I happen to like the distressed affect ripping gives). With a few more sheets I then did the same with fourths and then with halves.

Once I had enough pages torn, I folded each set of eighths, fourths, halves, as well as full pages into cones, using the glue gun as needed.

I continued to fold these miscellaneous sized pages into cones until I had enough to my liking, and then the fun really began!

*Please note: if you happen to be doing this project on a surface you do not want to get glue all over, make sure you lay down a mat, newspaper, scrap piece of paper, what have you, BEFORE you get glue gun happy in order to protect said surface!

Per Miss Mustard Seed’s wreath, she may have begun by gluing her largest set of cones together into a circular shape to create a solid foundation, and then proceeded to layer each varying size set of cones over that to get the final product you see above. I, on the other hand, wanted to go for a slightly more disheveled look, and so began with the smallest set of cones, using a cut out circle as my backbone…

This is the backside of the wreath in progress (and I was actually working on newspaper, but moved the wreath to the carpet for picture purposes only!)

I then began vaguely layering each varying size of cones into the gaps, using plenty of glue in the process, until the wreath was to my liking. Once all the cones were in place, I glued a small pine cone into the center just for that little extra oomph, and glued ribbon onto the backside to hang. And the final product….

Viola!

I just love how it turned out! Of course, this wreath could stand on its own anytime of year, but with a little added garland, it would make the perfect holiday décor. You could also consider making miniature versions of this wreath as Christmas tree decorations, or to use as a bow for those special presents.

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Now on to the important part!

TWO lucky winners will receive a large stack of vintage sheet music for your crafting pleasure. All you have to do is follow me via Facebook, Twitter, or email (or all of the above), and leave a comment below each time you do so. I will select two winners at random.

This giveaway will close on 10/28/12 at 11:59 EST. Winners will be announced on Monday!

If the wreath wasn’t inspiration enough, here are just a few more things you can do with sheet music…

If you weren’t one of the lucky winners, you can purchase stacks of sheet music from my shop

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DIY THURSDAY: MILK PAINTED DESK.

I’ve been waiting with bated breath for Miss Mustard Seed’s Milk Paint to arrive (via Red Posie) and the big moment finally arrived yesterday afternoon. It was a bit like Christmas morning opening the box and a shiver of excitement came over me as I peered down at my powdered paint. I couldn’t wait to use it!

Unfortunately, it was already late in the day and since I was only 85% recovered from the bug I had caught earlier in the week, I decided to give it one more day….but come this morning, I popped out of bed and went straight to work (well, after a cup o’ joe or two, of course).

Now, I’ve been saving a particular piece for this paint – a piece small enough to finish quickly and cheap enough that if I screwed it up, I wouldn’t be heartbroken.

A cute little student desk!

I’m embarrassed to say, but this piece has actually been sitting in my kitchen – sort of as a kitchen island – for almost a year while I’ve been (very patiently) waiting to repaint and lightly renovate the walls and pantry. Hey, desperate times call for desperate measures! Needless to say, when I got wind of the MMS line of paint, this was the first piece that came to mind.

So, with the powdered form of milk paint in hand, I happily began the  transformation.

Before I get into the details of the project, however, I must give you a pre-painting tip that is particularly useful if you’ve never used milk paint before: I would highly, HIGHLY recommend watching the MMS milk paint tutorials! In my excitement to use the milk paint, I decided to forgo this and immediately regretted this decision when mixing the paint. Frankly, I had no idea what it was supposed to look like, what consistency it was supposed to be, etc. It is very different than your typical latex, acrylic, or chalk paint!

With this said, I added just a little more water that I should have and ended up with what I like to call “skim” milk paint rather than what should have been “whole” milk paint. Hence, when applying the paint, it was a bit runny.

I went with it, nevertheless, and after sanding the top of the desk to its original grain (which took a heck of a lot of sanding!), I painted the base with the first coat of my runny milk paint in Ironstone…

You can’t quite tell from the above picture, but when the milk paint begins to dry, you can see areas in which the paint doesn’t fully adhere and actually begins to chip. If this is an affect you’d rather avoid then make sure you mix the bonding agent in with the paint mixture! I happen to love the chippy affect, so I left the mixture as is.

I allowed the paint to dry for approximately 30 minutes then took a putty knife to very lightly remove the chipping pieces. I then added a second coat of milk paint and repeated the process. Once I achieve my desired “chippy” look, I added one coat of MMS clear wax to seal the paint and give the piece a nice, natural sheen. Finally, I brushed on a coat of Danish Oil in medium walnut…

One coat of Danish Oil down, which you can see is still a little wet.

…allowed it to dry for 30 minutes before applying a second coat, and voila! After allowing the second coat to dry for another 15 minutes and wiping the whole piece down with a cloth, it looked like this:

Did I mention that we’ll be repainting soon?! As you can see, it’s much needed!

I actually love how it turned out (I’m still working on my photography so the piece looks a bit better in person…) and particularly love the chippiness of it, but it’s definitely important to be aware of how milk paint works before applying it! What do you think?

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