Silver and Gold

Apparently making clay ornaments is addicting.  24 hand made clay ornaments was enough to cover the tree, although I could have kept going.

I used A Beautiful Mess' clay ornament tutorial for inspiration and went wild.  This year for our tree, I decided on a silver and gold theme (with a few splashes thrown in, cuz that's how I roll), so once baked, I decorated my ornaments with silver and gold Sharpie paint pens.  It reminded me of doodling on middle school notebooks, but a whole lot more sophisticated.  With no "wrong way" to decorate them, the possibilities are endless.

I used extra gray burlap fabric that I already had as a simple tree skirt and swagged my Mexican souvenir antiqued mirror star light as the tree topper.

After an initial lack of holiday decorating motivation, I think I found my mojo.  All it took was a little clay and some Sharpies to make my tree really shine.

Clay Time

After being inspired by A Beautiful Mess' DIY Clay ornaments, I played around with a few of my own this weekend.

The block of clay that I had made 7 ornaments, but I'm so happy with them, I want to fill the tree with them!  I was initially planning to show you the full reveal today, but you just get a sneak peak instead.  I'll wait until I make about a dozen more to show you the full effect.

I think I'm addicted now- they were sooo easy to make and have such a simply chic effect!

Have a Seat

In my recent bout of project energy, I've finally made significant progress on my dining chair collection.

All 4 got primed...

And the first set of chairs are painted, recovered, and living in the dining room.  It's about time: I started collecting these chairs shortly after moving!

If you're very observant, you may have noticed a sneak peak of these on my new (and in progress) Home Tour page earlier this week.

The curvy one on the left was the one that needed the most help.  This is what it looked like when I rescued it from a tag sale for $5.

I'm absolutely in love with the new fabric and the fact that I got an amazing deal on it just makes it all the better (3 yards for a total of $23)!

I'm really liking the new look of the room, but I'm thinking about how to take it to the next level- add a real WOW factor.  I have a few ideas, but I need to let them marinate a bit.

Whichever WOW idea I go with, it will certainly have something to do with colors.  A more developed color story in here will go a long way to making it pop.