Inspired By Felicity Blog

Redoing the Kitchen Cabinets { & the whole kitchen for that matter }

We have been hard at work on our 1970something model kitchen. As with all projects we do Felicity loves to get right up in the middle of it and make sure Mommy & Daddy are doing it right.

Seeing our new kitchen come together and working side-by-side creating and building something with my best friend (who I happen to be married to) has been amazingly rewarding and fun at times and then extremely stressful at other times.

My husband and I see things so differently, so it makes things interesting.

For example: He doesn't understand why we spent so much redoing our cabinets and painting them perfectly just so I could go back through and "ruin them".

I try to explain,

"I'm not ruining them - I am distressing them and making them beautiful!"

(I'm sanding down to the wood here and there in spots and also using Valspar's antique glaze)

There's a lot of give and take involved.

He agreed to let me "ruin / distress" the cabinets if I agreed to not paint them turquoise like I originally wanted. We compromised on doing the bottom half brown and the top half white.

Once the cabinets are finished we will move onto finishing the counters, back splash, and putting in a new window and sink as well as finishing up some other little details.

Random Painting Tip:

Okay, a lot of you will probably already know this but I'm always surprised at how many people don't realize this. If you need to take a break while painting you don't have to wash out all your brushes to keep them from drying out. Instead, just put them in a ziplock bag and the paint won't dry. I've left brushes covered in paint in a bag for hours and came back later to pick them up and start right where I left off.

Well, now I'm off to go package up some orders to send out, but before I go I must show you a couple of new pictures of some new headbands.

Get 20% OFF and a Free Hair Bow with discount code, "welcome2012"

www.InspiredByFelicity.com

Have a great day!

I'm linking this post up at some wonderful blog parties - Click Here to see where they are happening!

-pamela

The Story of my Mantle { that only I love }

So I want to tell you a little story about one of my favorite things in our home....

My lovely turquoise mantle, which serves the purpose of holding up our TV.

This mantle was a point of many "debates" when it first came to live with us.

My husband complained about it everyday for the first month or so and mumbled,

"Why can't we just get a normal entertainment center for the TV like everyone else?"

(I would have thought he knew me better than that by now).

My mother couldn't understand why it had to be turquoise (or any color for that matter). She asked,

"Why didn't you just paint it white to match the baseboards?"

(my love of art and color did not come from my mother)

My dad and step-dad didn't get the "point of it". They both said,

"Why do you have a mantle, but no fireplace?"

(okay, so my creativity didn't come from a paternal side either)

Here's how I ended up with my little mantle....

When we bought our house I immediately knew I needed to find something to put our TV on or in that would fit in with the rest of the house and decour (which consist of a lot of handmade, painted, salvaged and antique/vintage items)

My Nanny and I spent an entire weekend searching for the right piece the week before my husband, Felicity and I were to move into our new home.

Unfortunately I don't have any "Before" pictures, but when I found the mantle it was a creamy yellow and in sad shape.

Even though it was in need of a makeover I fell in love with it the second I saw it out of the corner of my eye.

It was funny how it seemed as if it were meant to be.....

After an entire weekend of running around through several towns finding a lot of things that "might work", but nothing that I loved, I was feeling down and frustrated and then at our last stop of the day we walked into a little store and I immediately exclaimed, "That's it!"

Have you ever had an experience like that looking for something for your home?

I painted it turquoise and then sanded it down quite a bit to reveal some of the yellow underneath and then painted the low middle part in a navy blue. I went back just yesterday and added a little bit of Valspar Glaze in a few select places to create the darkened effect you see below on some of the paint.

I hung leopard print fabric in the open part at the bottom to conceal the wall and cords behind the mantel.

I think all the "debates" and negative comments about my mantle in the beginning made me feel the need to love it and "protect" it even more.

I know that sounds crazy since I am talking about an inanimate object here, but seriously, that's how I feel about this piece, I am deeply attached to it now.

I'm constantly changing out what is on the mantle, but here's a closer look at some of the things on it at the moment.

This embroidered scarf covering the top was made by my great-grandmother and is a treasure I adore.

This is a new floral arrangement I just fixed up this week...

So that's the story of my lovely little mantle, which holds a TV that plays pretty much nothing other than "Dora The Explorer".

Have you had any similar experience with a piece of furniture or object in your home others didn't like or understand, but you deeply loved it?

I also wanted to show you a new piece just added to my store.....

Introducing our new funky peacock feather hair fascinators for kids & adults:

Funky Purple Peacock Fascinator-purple, green, turquoise, feather, fascinator, funky, feather clip, feather bow

www.InspiredByFelicity.com

Just some little gifts I made....

Just stopping in for a quick hello today! I keep meaning to post pictures of the brooches I made my mother-in-law for Mother's Day and I somehow always manage to forget.....

so here they are (only a month-and-a-half late)

My mother-in-law is a big fan of pink so I wanted to make some kind of pink pin for her and this is what I ended up with.

It sounds odd but when I start making something I usually don't have a plan for how I intend for it to look when I'm done.

I just play around and put things together as I go and hope it evolves into something pretty when I'm done.

I actually loved the pink pin so much when I was done with it that I was quite tempted to keep it for myself.

I also made my Mother-in-law this more casual brooch with denim from a pair of my husband's (her son's) old jeans and decorated it up a bit with some lace around the edge.

Felicity is going to wake up any minute and I have a few hundred things I need to get done before she comes running in here bright eyes and bushy tailed ready to get the day going, so I have to go get to work.

I wish I had her ability to jump out of bed smiling, full of energy, eager to greet the day!

{ Wordless Wednesday } Some More Birthday Fun!

To see my original post on Felicity's birthday with pics of all the decorations, food, etc, Click Here.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

www.InspiredByFelicity.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Felicity's Girly Vintage Birthday Party

My baby girl is now 2 years old!!!!!

Warning: If you are one of those people that hate all things pink and super girly back away from this post immediately!

For her birthday I threw Felicity a vintage inspired feminine party that I thought would represent who she is - she's all about jewelry, shoes and all things girly.....

I made everything for the party and used pretty much just supplies and things I already had or borrowed so I think the party only cost around $25, including food, decorations and all!

The food was served on an old vanity that I actually had in my room as a young child. I threw some zebra print fabric on it and topped it with edible goodies.

The cupcake toppers were made by using some plain white and black "F" tags I bought at Hobby Lobby a while back on clearance. I used some scrapbook paper I had to put behind the "F" labels for some color and embellished the edges with glitter.

Felicity's favorite treat is chocolate covered marsh-mellos so I made lots of them and stuck some on chocolate wafer cookie sticks I picked up at the dollar store.

I hung leopard print fabrics on the back wall of my canopy tent with clothes pins and pinned some pink balloons on with some clothes pins as well. I made the balls hanging above the mirror from coffee filters - Click Here to go to my post on how to dye coffee filters and make the balls.

The punch fountain was borrowed - Felicity absolutely loves it!

Some of the gifts she opened included colorful sunglasses and jewelry that she put on immediately and wore for the rest of the day....

I made the lace tiara for her and she liked it a lot more than I had expected. She wore it around for several days after her party.

Funny Story: when the pinata actually burst open she started crying. I guess she was mad that someone broke her new pink flamingo.

and of course I had to share this.... At the end of the party Zoey decided she had waited long enough....
it was time to steal a cupcake!

It was a lot of work getting things ready for the party, but it was totally worth it because Felicity and all of our family enjoyed it. I still cannot believe it's been two years since we were blessed with this beautiful baby girl. I cannot even remember what our lives were like before she came along.

I am linking this post up at some great blogs. Click Here to see who they all are!

P.S. You can still use coupon code "Welcome2012" to receive 20% OFF any order & a
Free Hair Bow at my online boutique: www.InspiredByFelicity.com

Just Some Artistic Experimentation....

Felicity has recently started experimenting with her markers.....

Every time she gets a marker, she immediately starts drawing on herself. I usually just let it go. I try to give her space to experiment and learn and make her own little artwork. The markers are non-toxic and safe so I figure there's no harm in letting her get as "creative" as she wants.