The Kitchen NO Woman had been in before... in 100 years

Pretty depressing, right? I mean, I cook! Can you imagine... Sadly, I did do beautiful tile in here and paint the 100 yr old cabinet, but I didn't get a picture...

The Hideous Light Fixture Gets a New Skirt

The back door needed something, so I found this old blue scarf and pinned it up there with some clothes pins that were out back. First I put glue on them and sprinkled glitter all over them. Then I hung that pearl necklace from the $1 store as an accent. I love that stuff!

I hung this dish towel inside this glass and kept it on with push pins. I didn't know how to paint yet, I never had. This red trim was the very first thing I painted. I was scared!

I did what I could. Kitchen light before & after.

Little details really count. Everything being really clean always counts. I love that little tray table. It's from Anthropologie. The rug is from Company C.

Three Screen Doors To Keep Open Every Day

The bookcases had two sides, and for the first time in my life I had a place to put my dvds and you seriously can't imagine how many I have. There were ceiling fans! And huge overhead storage in both bedrooms. Maybe my favorite feature, (below) , was that there was a screen door in our bedroom too! 

It also went out to the back porch where I would..... hang laundry. Who knew that I would enjoy this? I didn't. But because Bisbee has the best year round weather in the United States, (50-80 all year) and no humidity, I loved hanging the laundry out. We had a washer but no dryer. The birds were singing. The 90 year old neighbor man would smoke his pipe and tell me stories. It was magical! Still, my kids were horrified that I was living there and everyone made fun of me. I didn't care.  Off the subject of decorating a bit, I tend to do that but My welsh corgi, Bella disappeared for six hours one day. Did the evil dog catcher come and take her away? No. I went out on the front porch and heard someone yell "I found her!" and she had really made the rounds. The police called me and gave me the address of the guy that found her. He had fixed her a plate of bacon and eggs and was taking pictures of her when we came. He said they'd all had a hell of a good time. He said he knew she was "too perty to be a stray." The next day when I walked her everyone in town knew her, and she knew them. I took this picture of her  when she got home after six long hours. She looks really upset doesn't she?

The Shack Becomes a Home... sort of

here is my treasure

My friend Danielle is a "real" artist. By that I mean, of course, she's awesome, but being educated in the arts can sometimes make you forget that it is your inner creativity that you must always listen to. So, when we entered a horrible stinky house for a garage sale, (my breath held tightly), I could feel her disgust as I excitedly told the (also stinky) woman that I would take it!

For a few days, it sat on the floor and I stared at it. It was actually making my house smell so I had to take action! I took it outside and threw it in the grass, still holding my breath. I even cut my hands trying to scrub the repulsive old globes. All I had was some lavender and silver paint, but the important thing was to cover every inch of this ugliness. So I did.

My friend Johnny Bee took this picture of it hanging on my patio. He's an artist too. I thought about painting the globes but I couldn't find 2 of them. For days. When I did find them, I couldn't find the other 3. They were even ugly painted! Now, I would add really cool lightbulbs if I could find some. My cool ones are in my livingroom chandelier that I made. Wish I had a before of this, but think HOME DEPOT. $29. UGH.

anyway, where was I? So Danielle really likes it!  And lucky for me, she's a skilled and educated artist, because she put the headpins on my beads and showed me how to wire the beads on so they don't fly off.

So, in less than an hour, (okay, maybe a little more than an hour), and for only $2.00, I have a beautiful chandelier. You can too! Speaking of garage sales, (thanks, Danielle!) we found this retro wonder:

and first I made it look like this. I hate the color too, again, it's all I had enough of.

Danielle redid it. She was painting it black when my creepy upstairs neighbor, Kenneth B. Hale came driving in the driveway. He scolded her because he thought he "drove through a cloud of paint." He should watch where he's going! Now it looks like this:

It looks great, right? After all, it was only $4.

I had just printed out this cool design, but I don't like to cut things out. I even got into trouble in first grade for "refusing to use my scissors." So, Danielle came over, and she started cutting it out. She goes to one of the most prestigious universities in the country! I better not tell you which one, because if she gets a stalker, she'll be mad. Here's the design:

But then Danielle had to go, and my friend Johnny Bee came over.  I layed the design down near him with the scissors on top. He picked it up and cut out the rest of it, every little teeny spec. I knew he would! (He doesn't know that I set him up) Then he thought.. and thought... Here he is thinking:

and he made the first ever "coolightescope" and yes, that is how he spells it.

I just felt that the $4 table didn't deserve this new invention, but he put it on anyway.

This is Danielle. I told you she was awesome. She's single too. Just thought I'd throw that out there for her.

windows without curtain rods

So you can't hang curtain rods, or you can't sew? My favorite windows have all been created with thumb tacks and (unsewn) material. This material was $3 from Walmart

You can create amazing windows with scarves too! This scarf came from Claire's in the mall for $5

Rope lights can help you to create something different

also, certain Christmas ornaments can create a dazzling display

or you can buy beautiful expensive (worth it) curtains from Antrhropologie