Isn’t this such a romantic mantle perfect for Valentine’s month? Only my good friend Karla could create this. I was able to spend a whole day with her a couple weeks ago and it was just wonderful!
Here she is with her little ones and her main squeeze. She’s just adorable and always makes me laugh. She’s definitely got some Bridget Jones in her, always has and probably always will. In fact, during our day together we decided to load the kids up in the mini van and head over to a garage sale that her sister had called her about. Okay, I was kind of thinking garage sale in the middle of winter? hmmm. We stopped for a coffee and hot chocolate on our way (that’s a whole other story) and headed over to the house. We pulled up to a nice house, 4-5 cars in the driveway and a FSBO sign in the yard. So we tromped down the steep driveway and up to the house where Karla opened the front door, walked in and peeked around the corner then stopped in her tracks and said “HELLO???”. I’m behind her with the kids on the porch and all we hear is a teenager-ish boy saying “hello”? Then Karla asks if this is where the garage sale is and he says ummm, let me go find my parents. So Karla turns around and says okay, we’ll meet you at the garage (the garage doors that were closed should have been our first sign). She shuts the door, busts out laughing then says, “well that was awkward” and next thing I know her little ones are giggling like no other and repeating “that was awkward”!! So incredibly cute. So we hang out for a few seconds, the garage door opens and the kid says, “umm, my parents said the garage sale is next weekend!!!!” Low and behold, we check the posting online when we get home and true to what he said, the ad is dated for the following weekend! Bridget Jones strikes again!
Oh how I love her for making me laugh!! And not at her, it’s always with her. Karla blogs over at Back At Ya Babe. Over the last year or so she has been repurposing old sweaters into beautiful scarves and shawls. Yes, she’s amazing and so is her house. It’s an old arts & crafts house and is just gorgeous, her style fits perfectly with it and I was able to snap a few photos of it to share with you! Her house was recently featured on the “Christmas Walk” so she did a few posts on her blog with many photos of her house during the holidays, please be sure to check it out!
It’s all in the details, sparkly details that is.
And look at that repurposed piece of artwork above her piano, she made that out of an old broken down piano! If you look close you can see the very cute pieces created at Pink-a-bella. See, Karla’s sister Lynn is also amazingly creative and each year they take their daughters out of town, stay in a hotel and craft and create all weekend long and they’ve named their weekend Pink-a-bella! Very special.
Not to brag about this one or anything but Karla did say I inspired this one, she spray painted this piece that used to be a nasty old dirty gold color!
She sanded it a bit to make it look weathered and worn.
Looks perfect adorning the wall in her creative space now, doesn’t it?
Lots of fun and eclectic details in her creative space.
Who would have thought an old door, with a crystal door know, set against a wall and decorated with a wonderful deep mustard rose vine would turn into such beautiful wall decor?
Even her old mason jars hold cute, random things that just work together!
Thank you for always inspiring my creativity Karla!
Where do you get your creative inspiration?
Smiles!
Megan
I found this gorgeous hunk of crusty old door frame at 
Isn’t the crusty and crackly-ness just amazing?
I need some major help with my photo taking skills, I apologize! I cleaned up the piece and sanded the bumpy parts being very careful not to lose too much of the crackles and paint. Got out my Purdy paintbrush and 
So I painted this baby up and went to town “weathering” it. There was probably 3 or 4 layers of paint and a couple layers down was this really great 1950′s turquoise green color. I was super happy that after the paint dried, the crackling showed really nice.
Whenever I need some creative inspiration, 
At first I tried to use measuring and math to space them out easily but there’s a reason why I’m a creative, not a numbers person. In the end I just eyeballed it which I’m sure ended up more precise than if I measured!
I drilled holes and screwed them in. Some of them were longer than the thickness of the board so I finally got to use my Dremel to cut some metal! Just trimmed the ends of those little suckers off like cutting butter!
And there you have it! I hung it up by itself and it was really boring so I found some knick knacks around the house and arranged them on top. See that big brown plate? I found the gem at Goodwill for $1.99. I’m going to paint it a funky color. . . I’m sure you’ll see that project soon!
Isn’t it so cute? I keep staring at it I love it so much! Did I mention it’s 44″ wide? HUGE I tell ya!
Look at that old nail sticking out. I thought it was a cool detail so I left it in there.
