One of the pictures I shared last week in my post about 17 Pretty Planters Ideas was these beautiful planters from Ballard Designs.  I love these planters, except I don’t really like the scalloped edge.  Plus, I did not like the price tag!  The largest planter in the picture below sells for $149.00!!!

So I was so excited when I saw this large wood planter at Goodwill for $6.50!  I snagged it up and took it home!

It has wheels on it to make it easy to roll around.

And it is a very large planter!  Large enough to hold a small child. ;)

So I cleaned the planter and then rubbed some Liquid Deglosser all over it to get it ready to paint.  Next, I just painted the planter white (with paint I already had), except for the wood trim and wood handle.

$6.50!!!  Isn’t that great?!

I decided I wanted to add a monogram to my planter for an extra little touch.

I used a stencil that I already had, and yes, I painted it on my couch! My house is a construction zone right now, so it doesn’t really matter where I paint. :)

I used this stencil on two previous projects.  Just click on the pictures to view those posts.

Here are some pictures I took of my monogrammed planter.

I love how the monogram matches my black patio furniture.

I am so thrilled that I got the same “look” of the Ballard Design planter but for $143.00 less!

Woo to the Hoo!!

Have you found any great deals at Goodwill or yard sales lately?

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Today, I am so excited to have one of my new blog friends guest posting for me today.  Susan and I  met for this first time this past February, and I fell in love with her heart and her genuine spirit.

She is super talented and has a wonderful blog that I hope you check out and start following!  You are going to love her post today.    Thank you,  Susan, for being here!

Hi there! I’m Susan from Living Rich on Less, and I am thrilled to have the opportunity to guest post for Traci today. I met Traci at Blissdom this year and, let me tell you, she is just as sweet and genuine in real life as she is on her blog. I’m truly blessed to know her. Today I am going to show you all what I have been up to in my dining room and I am also going to include a quick tutorial on how to cut decorative molding.

I got the inspiration for my dining room wall color (Behr’s Cinnabar) and some of the accessories from Sarah over at Thrifty Decor Chick. Of course, almost everything I buy is very budget-friendly.

In an effort to break up the dark walls and dark furniture in this space, I decided to add chair rail molding and finish it off with picture frame, box molding. I began by painting the lower portion of my dining room walls with the exact trim color used throughout our house. This made it a breeze to paint around baseboards and window casings.

After that, I primed and painted four 12-foot sections of chair rail molding, which I purchased at 84 Lumber. (I’ve found molding is often much cheaper at lumber yards than at home improvement stores.)

Next, I got my dad – a lifelong carpenter and handyman – to help me cut the molding so it fit perfectly into all the corners (no buckets of caulk or putty needed).

Check out our video on how to do this the RIGHT way:

Here’s another tip:   if your molding is not long enough to stretch across the room, you can easily splice two pieces together. Cut them at an angle and the seam will be more inconspicuous. (We cut ours at a 45-degree angle). This is our splice without any filler or paint:

Once I fill and paint this seam, it will virtually disappear! My next step is to cut and install the picture frame molding, which I’m hoping will turn out something like this:

Oh! I will also need to make curtains for the room. So far, I’ve had no luck finding fabric I like.   Here is what our dining room looked like when we bought our home:

And here’s what it looks like today:

To keep up with the progress in our dining room and all the other crazy projects we have going on around our place,

be sure to “Like”  Living Rich on Less on Facebook,

follow @LivinRichonLess on Twitter,

or subscribe to updates via email by signing up for free on my homepage.

Traci, thanks so much for letting me stop by. God bless you and your family.

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Happy Friday, friends!!

Are you ready for a wonderful weekend?!

We are heading to the Finals of the Ky Opry to hear Jonathan give it his best this weekend!  I am so excited about going down there again and sad that it is our last weekend.  We have had so much fun being a part of this competition.

The past few days, I have been working on sprucing up our back patio.  (I will be sharing pics soon.)

So I wanted to share with you a beautiful outdoor space with you today.

Source

I have always been a fan of blues and whites in home décor.  They look so stunning and fresh in this space.

The dark blue drapes frame this area perfectly and add such a beautiful punch of color to this patio.  This is such an easy look to achieve on your own porch.  Just buy some metal rods, drapery clips, your fabric of choice, and you are good to go!

I love the lantern and gorgeous silver lamp that adds light to this area.  Bringing a lamp outside to your back patio will give it such a cozy feel.

I also love the soft wood tones of the furniture.

The only thing I would change about this space is all of those gorgeous blue and white urns behind the couch..  Although I love the look, my boys would knock those down and break them in a heartbeat!  So I would have to find something more practical to put there that my boys couldn’t destroy.

What do you like our dislike about this picture?

Not on Pinterest yet, but you would like to be?  Leave me your email address in the comments, and I will send you an invite.

You can follow me on Pinterest by clicking the button below!

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Do you have a small bathroom in your house like I do?  When the boys finally move upstairs to their new rooms in the addition, we will have a small “guest bath” downstairs to decorate.  Sometimes it can be hard to decorate such a small space.

However, small spaces can make a BIG impact sometimes!

I found some beautiful photos of bathrooms online that I wanted to share with you.

Look at this gorgeous bathroom!  I absolutely love the way they used a split curtain to reveal the beautiful art piece inside the shower!  They also added a beautiful shot of color on the floor with a yellow and white rug.  Rugs can make a huge difference in a small space.

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Oooh, wallpaper….

Yes!  Wallpaper can make a big difference in a small space.

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The next two pictures are so bright and Springy.  Just the accessories along make these bathrooms fresh and vibrant.

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Changing out the shower curtains and rugs would create a totally different look.  I am currently loving this type of pedestal sink.  And adding a basket underneath creates the perfect storage for extra towels.

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I also love the look of traditional wooden bathroom furniture.  This bathroom made me think of my boys.  I love the barn light and the brown door.  I’ve been thinking about having Cy make me some wooden vanities for the boys’ new bathroom.

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Here is another example of making great use of the space beneath the sink with baskets.  You can hold extra toilet paper, washcloths, or even your blow dryer there.

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This bathroom is so cozy and calming.  I love the tile pattern on the floor.

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White bathroom suites can bring a small space together and make it look cohesive.   Look at this beautiful matching toilet and pedestal sink.  Isn’t that chandelier gorgeous in this small space?  Maybe you could update your bathroom with a chandelier?

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Hopefully these inspiration pictures will help you find new and easy ways to update your small bathroom.

What is your favorite way to decorate a small bathroom to add BIG style?

If you missed this post, check out our small master bathroom in our previous home.  Just click on the picture to view it.

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I’ve been looking up ways to decorate our front porch and back patio with planters this summer.

I wanted to share with you what I found.  ENJOY!

(Just click on the picture, or the link below it, to pin from the original source.)

via Ballard Designs

via 0.tqn.com

via WindowBox.com

via Centsational Girl

via DesignWarrior.net

via HomeStoriesA2Z

via HomeEdit.com

via Coastal Living

via Coastal Living

via dishfunctionaldesigns

via soafdigest

via design sponge

source

via Pottery Barn

via Pottery Barn

via Pottery Barn

If you would like to see our back patio makeover from our previous home for more outdoor ideas, click on the picture below!

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Well, we had another wonderful time at the Ky Opry this past weekend.  Jonathan was one of the top 6 in the beginner’s division during this semi-final round.  The top 3 in his division advances to the final round this weekend.

And Jonathan made it to the top three!!

We just had Eli with us on this trip.  Adam and Luke decided to stay with my brother and his family for some “cousin time.”

It was a packed house this time because the top 6 winners from all four categories were performing (beginner, junior, adult, sr. adult)!

Here’s my favorite part of the Opry…

I get a coke and popcorn before every show!  YUM! 

The music was great as always!  So many talented singers singing so much wonderful country music!  Jonathan sang Tim McGraw’s “Live like you were Dying.”  It was the first time he had every sung with a live band.  He said the music was so loud in his hearing aids that he had a hard time hearing himself sing.  So he seems to be straining a little when he sings.  He also messed up on the words a little too. 

But overall, he did a GREAT job!  I am amazed that that is my sweet little 12 year old boy up there singing.  I can see his confidence building on stage with each performance.  He is so in his element and loves singing more than anything else.  He has learned so much by being a part of this competition.  Such a great learning experience!!!

(This is a shortened version of the song because they have to keep their performance under 3 minutes and 30 seconds.)

While the judges were tallying up the votes, we had the pleasure of listening to the Ky Opry band play!

Clay Campbell is the owner of the Ky Opry and an amazingly talented man!  They put on a great show!

You would not believe the talented young people that play on that stage every week!  This young lady, Carson McKee (only 12 years old!), is one of the most amazing fiddle players I have ever heard!  I could listen to her play for hours!  That’s her brother on the fiddle too, and another young man on the banjo.  They are so, so good!

Here is clay singing with one of the beginner division contestants, Laney Evans.  She is such a doll!

Here are the winners from each division…

Skylar Cain, Jonathan Hutcherson, Laney Evans

Caylee Hall, Clint Fisher, Lauren Smethwick

Austin Cunningham, Drew Baldridge, Marshall Dowdy, Brandi Gibson

Maddawg, Dennis Wayne Bass, Dee Dee Guthrie

Now we head back to the Ky Opry this coming Saturday for the Finals!  Jonathan will compete against all the other contestants from the other divisions as well.  He will be singing a slow song and a fast song.

We are so thrilled to be a part of this competition and have already gained more blessings than words could express!  We have made so many wonderful new friends and made so many great family memories.

Many, many thanks to Clay Campbell for hosting such a wonderful event and investing so much time and energy into encouraging and mentoring so many amazing singers!

Eli loves getting to see “Tay Tampbell” each time!

On Sunday mornings, the Ky Opry hosts “Cowboy Church”, and we had the honored of attending.

Eli was EXTREMELY proud of his Cowboy Bible!

We sang many wonderful hymns that took me straight back to my childhood.  I could hear my mom singing them in my ear.  My heart was overflowing with joy and gratefulness to God.  It doesn’t matter how we sing his praises, it just matters that we praise Him!

Carson Wright is another amazing young man who plays the mandolin.  Such a precious, talented kid!

Jonathan sang with the band that morning. He sang “How Great Thou Art.”  He had already started singing when I thought, “Hey!  I can video this on my iphone!”  So I quickly started filming, but didn’t get the first verse or so.  If you listen closely, you can hear Eli singing beside me.  It’s not the best picture, but I think you will enjoy hearing Jonathan sing. 

My cup runneth over, y’all.

After church, we ate lunch with our new, sweet friends, The McKee family.  When we were finished eating, the kids got out their instruments and started strumming away.  They are truly amazing!!!  Eli enjoyed dancing to the music.

Jonathan listened and loved hanging out with his new friends.  He is begging me for a guitar.  He has taken piano lessons for 6 years, but wants a guitar so bad he can taste it!  (His birthday is this summer, so I guess you know what we’ll be buying.)

Stay tuned for next week!  The competition is really tough this round, so it will be a great show!  Thanks for letting me share this fun time in our family’s life with you!

Blessings!

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I’m a little late posting today because I am worn out from another fun weekend at the Ky Opry!  Jonathan sang his heart out and made it into the finals this coming weekend!  I’ll share the video as soon as it becomes available.

But for now, I wanted to tell you how excited I am that we are going to have a garden this year!

I wanted to start one last year, but we had sooo much going on last summer (since we had just moved into our house) that I couldn’t quite get it together.

So this year, we decided to give it a try.  There is a spot in our back yard that we think used to be a vegetable garden and maybe a flower garden?  Not sure.

But there is a long, raised garden area that was overgrown with trees and brush.

My husband, boys, and I have spent hours clearing this area of our yard up!  Here is what it looked after several hours of clearing out this area…

I thought I took a “before” picture of what it looked like, but I couldn’t find it.  Just imagine tall trees and lots of overgrown brush growing up in that area. 

If you look in the picture below, you can tell where this garden is located in respect to our house.  There’s our house with the addition on the left, and you can see our red barn behind the trees on the right.

Can you tell what this is?   Look closely and see if you see something growing in there…

Yup!  Grapes!!

We saw this grape vine last year, but it had so much other stuff growing in and around it, we just left it alone.  But this year, we started clearing it out.  Jonathan helped Cy with the work.

Now you can see our grape vine! 

It was such a beautiful day, and we had so much fun working together as a family to get this done.  I am so proud of my boys’ hard work ethic!  They are such a great help to us!  We carried a ton of limbs to the “burn pile.”

Jonathan

Adam and Luke

(Carrying some stuff to the burn pile)

Adam

Eli

Whew!  That’s some hard work!!!

When we were finished, we had a beautiful place to start a new garden!

After we cleared everything out, we found this…

I think the wood crosses on the right were maybe for green beans?  There is some wire between the poles.  What do you think they planted there?

Here’s another picture that gives you an idea where this garden is on our property.  You can see our “guest house” on the left.  (Oh ladies!  I cannot wait to get my hands on that little cabin!  We just have to get our house finished first!)

Of course, we had to celebrate our hard work with some roasted marshmallows!

(Oh, Adam and those silly faces he makes!)

Good times, good times!

Are you planting a garden this year?  What will you be growing?

If you want to see more pictures of our property when we first moved in, click HERE.

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Happy Friday, Friends!

I hope you have had a wonderful week.

Tomorrow, we are heading back to the Ky Opry to hear Jonathan perform in the semi-finals.  I am so excited about it, and I will be sure to share the results with you.  We are hoping he makes it to the finals next weekend.  Fun!

Today, I wanted to share with you one of my favorite bathroom “pins” from Pinterest.

This has to be one of the “freshest” bathrooms I have ever seen!

via http://images.meredith.com/bhg/images/2010/11/550_101290607.jpg

Here is what I love about this “Pin”…

*I love the cool, calming colors they used in this space.

*I love the use of that ladder for holding towels and bathroom supplies.  (I would have to be sure to secure the ladder to the wall or my boys would have that thing torn down in a heartbeat!)

*I love the medicine cabinets.  I am thinking of doing something like these in my boys’ bathroom to hide all the bathroom “uglies.”

*I love the use of dark contrasting colors in the ladder and the stool, plus the shots of color with lime green towels and bright flowers.

*I love that gorgeous tile floor, the wood treatment on the walls, and the vintage looking faucets.

*Did you notice those adorable little soap holders with lime green soap?  Gah!

The ONLY thing I would change about this space is the lighting.   I would place them a little lower and chose fixtures with a little more character.

What do you like or dislike about this bathroom space?

If you would like to follow me on Pinterest, click on the button below.

If you are not on Pinterest yet and would like an invite, just leave your email address in the comments, and I will send you one! 

Also, I am guest posting over at Just a Girl today!

I am talking about ways to develop friendships in blog world, come check it out!

One more thing!

I wanted to introduce a really cool new product to you…VECCO!

What’s Vecco?

Vecco is a painting technique for creating rugs and carpets inspired by you. With stencils,
colorant sprays and sealants, you make custom designs that’ll tie any room together.

Click on the ad to check them out!

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Last week, I shared a post with you on Simple Ways to Store Your Cook Books.

Mainly because I had “cook book storage” on the brain.  My hubby just built me an under the cabinet shelf to store my own cook books on. 

He accidentally called the shelf our “menu holder” in the video he took of it.  Could it be because we eat out more than I cook?  Hmmm…

Well, he is currently making me another shelf on the other side of our microwave for my spices.  So I have been looking around the internet to find cute ways to store and display my spices.

I want to share the ideas I found with you today.

This first pictures is so beautiful to me.  Aaaahhh, organization!  (Something of which I have very little of at this point in my life!)

I am particularly loving those pull down bins beneath the spices.  Aren’t they cool?!  This is so DIY do-able!!

via BHG.com

Spices in test tubes?  Who would have thunk it?  It’s not really my style, but a cool idea nevertheless.  And I like how they have everything they need on one tray.

via BHG.com

Every wander what to do with all those baby food jars?  How about recycling them into spices jars.!  The small size fits perfectly into a drawer, and a little chalkboard paint on the lids makes it easy to label and view.

Brilliant!

via FrugalDecorMom

If you have a little open space on a wall in  your kitchen, maybe you could purchase a beautiful stainless steel spice rack?  It’s functional and beautiful.

via BHG.com

Another way to be “green”  is to use upcylced etched glass spice bottles.  Those colorful spices look amazing.

via Instructables

Here is a DIY idea for storing  your spices on the wall. 

via Shelterness

If you like to have your spices hidden and out of sight, why not store them in a drawer or a pull out spice rack?

via Shelterness

via Shelterness

Open shelving in your kitchen is also a great way to store your spices.  You can store them in all different size glass jars with labels.

via OurHomemadeHappy

And for fun, why not display your spices with a chalkboard background.  It’s fresh and funky!

via Shelterness

via Shelterness

Do you have a creative way to store your spices? 

Feel free to stop by my facebook page and share the link!

And if you don’t already, click on the buttons below to follow me on Facebook, Pinterest, or Twitter!  It’s a great way for us to “connect” beyond my blog! 

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If you didn’t get a chance to link up your Best DIY Projects of April to my party yet, just click on the button below to do so.

Today, I wanted to quickly share with you the wonderful trip I took to Utah for the SNAP! conference.

I am so very, very grateful that I was able to attend this conference.  For a mama that hasn’t done much traveling over the past 13 years while I’ve been raising boys, I feel so blessed to be able to do such things now.  I am also very grateful to Dee from Red Letter Words for helping sponsor my trip.  And to everyone who purchased one of Dee’s products to help sponsor me, THANK YOU!!!  I truly do not deserve such kindness.  You bless my heart!

This was the very first year of the SNAP! Conference, and Tauni and the SNAP team did an amazing job putting it together!

I flew out of Ky at 6:00 am EST, and arrived in Salt Lake City Utah around 10:45 MST.

I was able to get a couple of amazing pictures from the plane.

Which is all I got because I broke my camera on the bathroom floor during my layover in Chicago.

(Good news about my camera!  The camera wasn’t damaged, so I only had to replace my kit lens.  I was able to get another lens this week, and I am thrilled to have a working camera again!)

One of the very best parts of the whole conference was my roommates!

I roomed with Beth (Homes Stories A2Z), Rhoda (Southern Hospitality), and Beckie (Infarrantly Creative).  This is the first conference I have ever been to that my sister wasn’t my roommate.    I did miss my sis, but I was blessed to be rooming with three amazing women.  I cannot express how much I love and adore them.

Here are Rhoda, Beth, and I being silly at dinner the first day.

My dress was a hit at the conference!  Two other girls had the same ones.   However, I would like to mention that mine was the cheapest.  The girl on the left had a little bit of a different dress on, but the girl on the right had the exact Calvin Klein dress that I had on.  She paid over $100 for hers at Nordstroms (I believe).  I got mine for $39.99 at Marshalls!!  Booyah!

(Photo by Destiny, A Place for Us)

Here I am with some of my favorite “home girls”.

Kate (Censational Girl), Stacy (Not Just a Housewife), Rhoda, Me, Beth, and Wendy (The Shabby Nest)

That was the first time I had ever met Stacy and Wendy in real life, and they were so awesome!  It was like we had know each other for years.

There were many great sessions by the “home girls.”

Shelley (House of Smiths), Ana (Ana White), Emily (Décor Chick), Kate

I have been wanting to meet Shelley for what seems like Fo-ev-a!  That girl is a hoot!  She is every bit as precious and vivacious as she comes across on her blog.  And it was an honor to meet Ana too!  She’s going to be speaking at our Haven 2012 conference next month, and I look forward to seeing her again.  Kate and Emily were also speaking at the same session as Shelley and Ana.  They were already  my  “in real life” friends, and it was so good to see them again!

I got to meet Cassity, who is a doll, and I also got to see Brittany again.  LOVE HER!

Cassity (Remodelaholic), Brittany (Pretty Handy Girl), Emily

My roomie, Beth, was a speaker at one session, and she did an AMAZING job sharing how to decorate with vignettes.  In the picture below, she used me as a “sunburst mirror.”

(photo by Destiny, A Place for Us)

I spoke on Saturday at a session called, Power of Personal on a DIY Site.  Char from Crap I’ve Made, and Rhoda and Beckie were also speakers in that session.  Don’t I look all serious and professional in this picture? 

Well, it wasn’t ALL serious.  We laughed a lot too!

Then Saturday night, we had a big ol’ dance!  One thing you need to know about me is that I LOVE to dance.  And there is nothing more fun than about 300 women dancing to “Girls just wanna have fun!”

Emily, Décor Chick, snapped this picture of me dancing.  How funny is that?!  Jenn, from Tatertots and Jello, is feelin’ it too!  (Love how my shirt straps are hanging out, don’t you?)

Beckie was a crazy lady on the dance floor!  That girl can bust a move!

I learned so much at SNAP!

But the main thing I learned (again) is how blessed I am to be a part of such an amazing community of women.

It is such a honor to grow with them, learn from them, laugh with them, cry with them, be stretched by them, dream with them, and be loved by them!

This little blog of mine has blessed me beyond my wildest expectations!

Maybe someday, I will get to meet some of you in real life!  Wouldn’t that be great?!!

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