Lately

Remember the Bed Skirt dilemma? I have been looking for my materials to make it and on a family outing, we happened to venture into Nebraska Furniture Mart and we saw a bed that we really liked:

The bed itself isn't what we really liked, we LOVED the casters instead of feet.  I have been looking for a vintage/antique bed that I can up-cycle into something current but it's pretty hard to find an antique King size bed.  This bed had that old "up-cycled" feel, without having to actually overhaul it.

On our anniversary later this year, we will be celebrating 10 years of marriage, and in that entire time we have not had a bed.  We had the mattress and the box spring but they were sitting on the free metal bed frame that they came with.  So, we figure that after almost 10 years of marriage, we probably should spring for a bed. 

A week after 1st seeing the bed, we decided to go get it.  Any of you that have ever shopped at Nebraska Furniture Mart knows where this is going...  they didn't have the bed.  OF COURSE.  Not only that they were dropping the whole line so "you can't even place a special order".  And most of the time this would have been a huge bummer, and initially it was.  But the hubs convinced me that we should look around and see if there is anything else that we like because, after all, we did drive all the way over there with the trailer in tow.  And let me just tell you..... I AM SO GLAD that they didn't have the bed that we came for because I LOVE LOVE LOVE the bed we picked out!!!!  

Here is the before picture (Don't Judge!!!)

Let me explain a little,  the bedding was on major sale a long time ago and I was kinda like, "Well it will go, sort-of" and we have been living with mix matched stuff ever since.  I finally got tired of it (hence the bed skirt dilemma).  Also, for those of you that don't know, my bedroom is painted a dark red.... however the above photo makes it seem MUCH darker....   this is more accurate:

Anyhow, here is the after:

A black Chippendale 4 poster...  I LOVE IT!!!!  The quality is much better than the caster bed and surprisingly was actually less expensive.   I had to really go against myself with the bedding and pay full price but I am super happy with it.  I had the sheets, just had to get the duvet stuff and the blanket at the bottom.  Bought a few more King size pillows, since most of ours were standard size.  Now I just need to change out my curtains on my next Ikea trip, when I go to Chicago this year (at hem, Jessica) :-)    Side note: the teal color of the sheets is the same color as my master bath, so not as out of place as it might seem in this picture.   Also notice, no need for a bed skirt!!!  WOOHOO... the hubs and I feel like actual adults now... with a real bed and everything!!!

So now that I have this awesome bed, I have been on a cleaning kick around my house.  Last night I went down to my craft room and instead of cleaning I made a project :-)  Let me start with my inspiration have you seen this tutorial on Elsie Larson's blog?

She has the best tutorials and the greatest vintage style...  check out here blog here.  Anyway, I thought this project was clever and had it in the back of my mind but didn't have a reason to make one until I saw this on Pinterest: (which is available on Etsy here)

Perfect for my craft room!!! And as I was cleaning last night I put the 2 ideas together using an old Cinderella book.  Here is how it worked out:

I bought this 1950s Cinderella book at a flea market a while back.  It was literally crumbling and I had intended to use it for some sort of craft project, although not certain what. 

Some of the better and more specific images I would still like to keep for something else (not sure what), but this one on the inside back cover seemed to be more of an unimportant image but still had a lot of color, plus it was already mounted on the hard cover.

While cleaning earlier in the week I noticed that I had these letter stickers.

I eye-balled it.

Used some white craft paint.

And whaaalaaa.  My vertical spacing could be better, but I love it and it matches my craft room really well.  I liked how on Elsie's version, you could still see though the white paint a little, so I mimicked that a bit...  and the paper on mine wrinkled a little, which I kinda also like.  What do you think?