The Vintage Barn: June 2013

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Stay connected with The Vintage Barn and keep up on

cool yard sale furniture makeovers,

Photo: Happily Ever After!!

BIG home decorating ideas on a small budget (bathroom makeover = $150!)

and delicious and easy recipes!

I sure hope you will follow along...there's lots going on around here!!

Have a great weekend!

Love & Junk~

Julie

Thursday, June 27, 2013

This Ol' House Thursday....The Light at the End of the Tunnel

This picture seemed to fit how I feel about this project right about now...

I see the light at the end of the tunnel!

We patiently waited for the contractor to do his part, then it was my turn to do the finish work.

Look at my little helpers!!!

We cleaned up the mess, I painted the walls...AND the ceiling.

You can see the part of the chalkboard wall on the right...the girls played there

for a good while as I was painting the ceiling.

That chalkboard wall was a lifesaver!

My husband and I cleaned, prepped and stained the cement floor.

(I will have all the details on that soon!)

This may not look like much of anything to you...

but, to me...it is a FABULOUS start!!!!

This is how far we have come...I HATE sharing these next few pictures...

but, you need to see the mess we had before.

My laundry area was open to the whole garage...which is not sealed off very well

from the dust, flies, feed...dirt and more DIRT around here!

We are almost done...and I will have more pictures next week.

I hope you have a great day...it is supposed to be over 100 degrees here for the next few days!

Love & Junk~

Julie

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Dairy Wife Wednesday...A "Dairy Good" Snack!

June is National Dairy Month...so let's put some Real California dairy products in an ol' favorite!

Creamy California Guacamole

www.realcaliforniamilk.com

Ingredients:

1 package (8 ounces) Real California cream cheese, softened
2 cups (16 ounces) Real California nonfat plain yogurt, drained
4 whole ripe medium avocados peeled, seeded and mashed
1 cup salsa verde (green chile salsa)
2 - 3 teaspoons of lemon or lime juice
a dash of salt and pepper

Directions:

In a food processor or a medium mixing bowl using an electric mixer, mix cream cheese and yogurt until smooth. Add mashed avocados, salsa and 2-3 teaspoons of juice to cream cheese mixture and combine well. Finally, add the salsa verde and mix it in lightly. Season to taste with salt and pepper and add addition lemon or lime juice if needed.

Serve with chips or crostini...or use on your next salad, taco or burger. Mmmmmm!!!

You can find a TON of delicious recipes at the Real California Milk Website...

I have been working on LOTS of projects...and will have some to show you soon!

Love & Junk~

Julie

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Summer Spruce Up...Planters!

Welcome back to our Summer Spruce-Up Series!!

Check out what Jamie, with Better with Age has been up to...

In May we had our Summer Spruce-Up link party that was all about your patio and backyard. Here are some photos of our patio.

The kids love to play around our patio area even though we have a huge grassy backyard and playhouse for them to play in.

What I love most are my new planters!! I got these G. Wolff & Co. planters at Superstore here in Canada for an amazing price! They used to sell them at Restoration Hardware a few seasons back. And I love lavender.

This old metal urn had seen better days. A little matte black spray paint did the trick!

Across from our kids sandbox area I planted some boxwood in some more G. Wolff planters. It doesn't get a lot of sun in this area for the most part of the day so I thought some boxwoods would be the perfect fit.

Oh yeah, my little girl love planters too!

Be sure to follow my co-hosts!

Julie from The Vintage Barn

Selene from Restoration Beauty

Jenna from Rain on a Tin Roof

Follow the series this summer!

July 24, front door/entry area
August 21, anything goes!

Be sure to be note of the dates and link up to the parties!

Now it's time to link up some of your favorite planters or containers!

Love & Junk~
Julie

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

What?

YEP, you could win a Gift Card full of fun!!!

You choose the store...you choose your stuff!!

WooHoo!!

Just enter this FABULOUS giveaway and good luck!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thursday, June 13, 2013

Summer Spruce Up...First Party Features!

Our next Summer Spruce-Up party is coming up next Wednesday!

The theme is Planters!!

Here are some of our favorites from the backyard & patio link-up last month!

FEATURES

Decking out the Deck for Summer from Krista at The Happy Housie

Patio Makeover from Amanda at Speculating Jokebird

Side Entry Mini-Makeover by Dawn at Inspired Living

Weekend in May from Angela at My Place 4 Tea

Outdoor rug from Becky at this is happiness

Christine's back patio at Little Brags

Heather's Back Porch at Southern State of Mind

The Playhouse Project by Tara at Suburble

*****

What kind of planters do you have? They certainly don't have to be the traditional kind. Have you thought of using different containers? How about a wine crate?

source

Or galvanized buckets?

source

Even a tin can will do the trick!

source

How about adding some paint to some terra cotta pots?

source

Come back here next Wednesday, June 19th to join another fun Summer Spruce-up link party and show us your favorite planters!

See you next Wednesday!

Love & Junk~

Julie

This Ol' House Thursday....MY "NEW" BATHROOM...for Less Than $150!!

This is one MAJOR before and Happily Ever After!!!

(Ewww...it really hurts just to see that awful before mess.)

The pink tile was sure cute (in it's day) but, I had trouble decorating around it.

We decided to go ahead and lay the neutral tile in there, as is in the rest of the house.

It clashed...terribly with the pink. To put it nicely.

I tried painting the brown cabinets white. Fine...for a while.

Then they were black...kind of a classic powder room look.

Finally, I decided to change the tile...and I did NOT want to spend much!!

You can read a little bit more HERE about how I went about changing the tile for $99!

Click HERE for more information on the tile transformation kit and for

tips and tutorial videos that helped me, check out my Pinterest Page.

This might look like it was a lot of work...but, really just a few nights of painting

when our girls went to bed...and voila! A "new" bathroom!

I LOVE the clean, neutral colors...the bathroom feels BIGGER!

That is an old wooden school chair I found at a yard sale last summer...our oldest daughter and I decided it would make a cute step stool for little legs (mine included...I am not very tall!)

That beautiful wood ceiling (above picture) is all throughout the house...so, I need to be careful not to pick too dark of a color for any wall in our home.

Dear Lillie:Benjamin Moore Alexandria Beige

This picture from one of my favorite bloggers, Dear Lillie...was my color inspiration.

Check out my Pinterest Board on this bathroom for more inspiration.

The color is Benjamin Moore's Alexandria Beige...and it is beautiful!!!

(So beautiful...that I am going to use it in my new laundry/craft room.)

I only used about half of the gallon...and it cost me a little less than $40. I know that is a bit high, but...it is a paint and primer and I supported our LOCAL family owned hardware store.

I like to do that whenever possible (they didn't carry the tile kit.)

It is summer...so, of course we need seashells in our apothecary jar.

Decorating and switching things out is one of my favorite things to do...

so, topiaries, pictures, holiday stuff...it will ALL look so much nicer in here now!

An added bonus...is this tile transformation kit actually helps to extend the life of your tile.

This is my linen closet on the left...built in and TONS of storage!!

The cabinets are old...and used to be black.

They were painted about 5 years ago and not by best paint job...by a long shot!!

I have a ton of paint...and just happened to have enough of the Antique White

I used on our Farmhouse Dining Set left for these cabinets.

Since, the cabinets ~~had a coat~~ were SLOPPED (sloppiest job I have EVER done) with black paint, I used a primer coat and then applied two light coats of the Antique White to the cabinets.

Keeping with the rustic wood ceiling, I decided to distress them.

The natural color wood coming through matches my home...not for everyone!

The cabinet hardware was silver...

nothing a quick coat of Rustoleum Hammered Bronze spray paint can't fix! $9

Rust-oleum Hammered Dark Bronze Spray Paint. Love this stuff!

I LOVE this stuff...I may have been walking around my house looking for things to "shoot!"

So...shower curtains can get a little pricey, can they not?

After a little online shopping and finding that the LEAST expensive shower curtain with the rustic look I was wanting (burlap and all) was gonna run me around $65.

Um...I think not!

So, I made my own!

Yep, I sewed burlap ribbon right over the black stripes on my old (not that old) shower curtain.