Upcycling At Its Best

Remember these beauties?


UPCYCLED:


P.S. If you don't hear from me for a while, it's because Lily has mauled me to death in my sleep.

My Own Personal Yellena Gallery

Considering my normal lazy approach to DIY projects, I'm still rather surprised by the effort I put into this one. It must mean I wanted it to look seriously good.

:)

In my last post I told you I had been buying frames at Goodwill, and like forever ago I bought these three Yellena James prints:

I finally got around to framing and hanging them! And I knew the perfect spot to display them. I combined these three with the one print of hers that I initially bought, and lined the four of them up against the short wall in my bedroom.

Since I don't own that chalk string device where you can snap a straight chalk line onto your wall, I had to be resourceful: I leveled my cat's string on the wall (hah!). You see, I wanted to line up the upper edge of each frame along that line.

Then I did the trick where you cut out newspaper to match each frame size:

And I indicated on the newspaper where the picture hanger hooks were for each frame, and nailed them to the wall accordingly:
You then yank down the newspaper and hang each respective frame in its place. Not perfectly aligned, but MUCH better than if I had just eye-balled it:


I also switched up this little nook in my bedroom by hanging that print to the lefthand side of the window and moving all my memoirs onto that built-in shelf going along the wall. I love the asymmetrical feel to this side of the bedroom.

And I love that I've finally got this art up on my wall!

Latest Thrifted Finds

I haven't done a post like this in quite some time, where I show a bunch of photos of my latest thrifted finds, so I'll do that since I really don't have much else to blog about. :/


I bought this 5" embroidered cat hoop at Goodwill for $1:

I instantly ripped off that country lace crap and now, it's kind of kitschy cute:
Oh don't worry, there's more! These are larger hoops (one 8", one 10"), and I paid $2 for each. I can rip off the lace and re-use the hoops. I mean, I was tempted to keep them as is and hang them in a prominent spot in my home...... ;)

A goose in a basket? Who DOESN'T need one of those?

I've been compiling lots of frames lately because I have a good project up my sleeve.
Eeeee these tiny silver bud vases are so adorable! Scored from Salvation Army at $.69/each.
Another Salvation Army purchase - these two wall tiles for $1. They have a picture hanger hook glued to the back so I've got them hung in my downstairs hallway:

This thing is just so weird and wonderful. It was $1 at an estate sale. It's like a metal flower sculpture thing? I just think it's so unique:
FINALLY I found my very own Matryoshka dolls! $5 from a garage sale over the summer.

I PROMISE I shall bring you some better posts soon. Found any good thrifty items yourself lately????

ScotchTape Winners and an ETSY GIVEAWAY

Ok, I know I've been taking care of lots of business lately, so I promise to get to some fun projects very soon. I've closed comments in the ScotchTape giveaway, and have randomly chosen my 16 winners:

I tried to email the winners if I could access an email address - but if you haven't heard from me, please email me at hennesseyhouseblog AT gmail DOT come with your name, mailing address and email, and I'll pass along your info to Scotch Tape so you can get your free roll of painter's tape asap.

The winners are:

Ashley at Le Mieux; Jen from EggsOverMedium; The Thing About Daisies; Mrs V. from On The V Side; Ashley from A Tale of Two Taylors; Brooke from Claremont Road; Fezfactiry; Macy Dawn; Leah at Storybook Ranch; Jen from Casa de Cowen; Katy; Emily H. Mary A.; MerrittTimes; Shaw byM&B; and Joline.

And also, be sure to check out Megan's blog, A Little Knick Knack, to enter a giveaway for a chance to win some of my artwork. HERE is where you enter. Good luck! :)

A Rewiew AND A ScotchBlue™ Painter's Tape GIVEAWAY

When the people at Scotch tape approached me about reviewing their new ScotchBlue™ Painter's Tape with Edge-Lock™ Paint Line Protector, I was admittedly skeptical. I have used several kinds of tape before with all similar results: sometimes the paint gets under the edge and bleeds, and sometimes it doesn't. I have even spent serious cash on frog tape, which is considered the best among many DIYers, but I wasn't completely impressed with that even.

So I thought, sure, send me some Scotch tape, what the heck, I'll give it a try.
You can imagine my surprise, then, when I received this wonderful kit full of painting goodness:
A personalized note, plus all the essential tools: TAPE, rollers in two sizes, a brush for cutting in, paint trough, sample paint and even this fantastic book for ideas on putting the painter's tape to use.

After purchasing lavender paint, I began taping the office. I had two door frames, giant double windows, and baseboards around the entire perimeter to tape off, and I made sure to run my fingernail over the edge as I laid the tape down. THIS IS KEY - I HAD to really get the edge down.

I was too lazy to tape off the ceiling, and it wouldn't have mattered because the previous homeowners got that buttery cream color on the ceiling anyway, so I'll probably end up painting the ceiling white someday.

I used my brush to get right up into the edges there, and I waited until the paint was dry before pulling it off.



CHECK OUT THAT STRAIGHT LINE, YOU GUYS:

The purple paint edge might not look straight because of that other, older paint on the door frame, but I assure you, I was SHOCKED and really pleasantly surprised to find perfectly straight edges almost everywhere I had the tape down. Now, I must be honest, on the parts that I didn't press the tape down hard, paint did bleed under a little bit, or in spots where the frame wasn't straight (if, say, there was a bubble of plaster or older dried paint).... but for the most part, I can say that this is THE BEST PAINTER'S TAPE I've ever used.

And I also want to be clear that I have not been paid, bribed, or threatened ;) to say so. This is my honest review. I LOVED working with this stuff.

With that said, Scotch Tape has asked me to host a giveaway of 16 rolls of their ScotchBlue™ Painter's Tape with Edge-Lock™ Paint Line Protector. So, how might you win a roll of tape?

Simply leave a comment and tell me how/where you'd put Scotch painter's tape to use. That's it! So have at it, let's hear those ideas......