My Newest Piece of Furniture

I am wrapping up the week by unveiling one of my latest pieces of furniture. This coffee table took me WAY TOO long, but I am really happy with how it turned out and if I ever make another one it should go faster, but that will probably never happen. Half of the fun for me is figuring things out the first time and then I don't want to do it again. Enough talking, on to the pictures and I even included a video!

At first glance it looks pretty simple, but when you look a little closer...

You can see there is more to it. It is actually a slide puzzle coffee table.

There is storage concealed under each puzzle piece. All you have to do is slide the puzzle pieces around to uncover each cubby.

I know all of you are NBA basketball fans, but not all of you cheer for the Dallas Mavericks. I made this piece for a friend of mine who has suffered through many years of heartache. He was looking for a way to remember and celebrate last year's championship. I haven't been working on the table quite that long, but it sure seems like it.

One of the reasons this thing took me so long is, I tried a lot of new building, finishing, painting, and assembly techniques. One of my favorites was using grey oil based paint as a stain. Instead of letting the paint dry for 24 hours after I brushed it on, I would use a rag moistened with paint thinner to wipe most of it off. I really like the way it highlighted the grain.

My favorite feature of the table is the 9th puzzle piece. Everyone knows that in slide puzzles there is always a piece missing, but that doesn't make for a great coffee table. Here is how I solved that problem.

Kara was kind enough to shoot a short video of the pieces sliding around and showing how I remove the last puzzle piece.

This retro logo works great for Wes's space but if you were going to put this in your house, what would you want to see as the puzzle? I just painted this one on, but if I ever get around to making another one I have a few ideas I would like to try out. Be on the look out for those in 2014 or 2015. Haha, hope everyone has a great weekend!

Inspire Me Series- Dana Dives Into Design

It's Thursday and time for another "Inspire Me" post! This time you get to hear from an amazing lady named Dana! She has just recently made the choice to follow her dreams and is currently in the thick of a ton of hard work! I feel like Dana and I are a lot alike and I consider her a friend even though we've never met face to face. After getting to know her sweet spirit and amazing creativity, I think you too will come to be a fan of Ms. Dana!

First of all, can I just say what a great series this is that Kara and Tim have put together? I mean, really, who doesn't need a little inspiration every once and awhile. Now you know exactly where to come to get your fix!

So, let's talk about dreams a little bit. I'm 36 y.o. and only in the infant stages of my dreams. It has taken me the last 10 years or so to even realize what it was I wanted to do with my life. What was it that got me to this point, you ask? Well, there are 4 main factors and I'll break it down for you in no particular order.

1) Prayer- One day, upon the heels of my daughter learning to ride her bike and tie her shoes all in the same day, she said a prayer. It went something like this..."God, please put new talents in my heart." Out of the mouths of babes, I tell ya! I liked this prayer so much that I started praying it for myself.

2) Someone believing in me- I have a mentor who called me a 'decorator' one day. I was blown away that she viewed me in such a role. I always called her for decorating advice and here she was using that word to describe me?! What a compliment!

3) Kara- Now, the last thing I am is a brown-noser, so I'm not just writing this because I'm sharing on her blog today! Kara wrote a post once about believing in yourself and gave some very wise advice with practical steps to achieve your dreams. She discussed having business cards made and starting to verbalize your dreams and make people realize you're serious! In other words, take yourself seriously so that others will too. Good stuff, right?

4) Last, but not least, Stripes- I had been in a funk for about a week and I realized my not-so-nice attitude was because I had so many things I wanted to do and I kept telling myself "I can't." Well, I woke up one morning and decided I was going to achieve one of those things and get over my "I can't" attitude. Here's a little peek at that project...

So here's the deal, math and patience are NOT things that I'm great at or have a lot of! I literally said a prayer before painting my stripes and asked God to make this project a success if I was supposed to entertain the idea of beginning a new career in design. Was it smooth sailing? Not at all. Did I shed some tears during the math part? Maybe. Did I literally pound the floor with my fist a few times? No, not me (insert sarcasm)! But guess what? I DID IT! And, I loved it! Okay, God, I guess this means I've got the green light...here goes nothing.

Days later, I created my blog. Did I mention computer skills are not on the top of my talents list either? This was another huge obstacle that was keeping me from following my dreams. Since I erased the words, "I can't" from my vocabulary, I didn't have an excuse anymore. And lo and behold, this computer thing isn't as hard as I had created it to be in my mind. Have you ever noticed yourself doing the exact same thing?

So where am I now? I officially have a business named Dana Frieling Interiors and a design/inspiration blog called, Make Them Wonder. It's growing, slowly but surely. I'd love to tell you I've got clients knocking down my door and magazine features lined up for months, but that's not reality. I'm in the sweat equity phase of business. I've given myself a year to pour myself into house projects. This may seem like a short period of time, but I don't want to go broke in the mean time. I hope to prove to others through my projects, that I'm serious and worthy to be hired. After a year, I'll reevaluate things and reset goals!

Here's what I've got so far...

Here's the how-to guide for the Diamond wall treatment my husband and I created.

Kara was so kind to feature this project...

If you're dying to read more about it, you can click here or here.

And, our latest project...creating a Woodland room for my daughter, complete with arbor and hammock!

Okay, so if you've stuck with me this far, here's where I really let the cat out of the bag and tell you the juicy stuff. As much as I love decorating and design, I think it's secondary to the real reason I'm being led down this path. I see my purpose as touching the hearts of others, and if I get to make their houses pretty along the way, well, that's just an added bonus! That's why I'm breaking the 'normal' design blog rules and posting series like 'Transparent Tuesdays' and 'Random Acts of Kindness Challenges' every Thursday.

Transparent Tuesdays is a way to encourage others to 'be transparent.' If we'd all be real with one another, then life would be so much easier! I've shared stories about relationship struggles, my battles with food issues and helping my dad recover from a brain injury, just to name a few. Also, I encourage readers to shoot me an email or leave a comment so I can give you the best gift I have to offer...prayer!

And, those RAK challenges...they're a blast! My kiddos and I have done everything from leaving positive sticky notes on strangers' cars, to giving out balloons, to hiding dollar bills in the toy section of the dollar store for a kid to find and buy a treat.

I'll leave you with a few quotes from my very first blog post in August...

and

Following your heart is a gift that only you can give to yourself. I'm super excited to be on this new journey in my own life. I've felt renewed and refreshed since making the decision to follow my dreams. Honestly, I'm proud of myself for erasing the 'if onlys' and 'I can'ts' because they were only getting in the way of my plans. I'm determined to make the most of the talents God blessed me with and fully believe this is what I was created to do!

A huge thanks to Kara for asking me to share my story today. I hope you'll each take time to pray, go after your dreams and be kind!

Isn't Dana a talented lady?! I can't wait to see what the next year brings her! Won't you leave Dana some encouragement and kind words today?!

Tomorrow Tim is revealing an AMAZING piece of furniture that he just completed so make sure you stop by and check it out!

Colorful Sneak Peek Pics

There is a lot of stuff going on here at the Paslay household and right now there are a few projects that are currently half way done. So I don't have a completed project to reveal, but I do have a couple of colorful sneak peek pictures to show you.

Any ideas on what I'm creating? :)

Styling Tips from James

Hey Friends! Boy, do I have a treat for you today! I was able to convince James to stop by and do a guest post for us! Knowing that he works creating displays for a huge, amazing store/brand I thought we would all like to hear a few tips on how he and Jamie go about styling table tops and/or bookshelves in their home. So, I'll turn it over to him!

Greetings and Salutations....
I'm James from The Cavender Diary.

Kara asked me to stop by a share a few of the styling tips that my partner Jamie and I use at our own house.
A few weeks ago, we picked up 3 of these chrome and glass shelving units for our living room. That meant that with the shelves almost filled with books, we would have the entire top to display art and a few tchotchkes. When you have as much "acquired stuff" to display as we do, it can become a little overwhelming. Fortunately, after 20 years of display for retail stores, I've picked up a few styling tricks to keep all our inexpensive treasures looking like treasures, and not......well...... just plain clutter.

Want to know the secret to arranging your possessions so that everything looks balanced? It's a pyramid. Seriously, group taller items in the middle, and shorter ones on both sides. Try to avoid everything being the same height ( except for a collection of the same thing....like the jars ). The color story is pretty much just black, white and natural, but there are also small amounts of red and yellow interspersed for just a little energy. The wall mounted hurricanes act as "book-ends" for the whole she-bang.

Art doesn't have to cost a fortune or even have matching frames to look cohesive. An African mudcloth with an IKEA picture light, mingles with an Edward Curtis Indian portrait, a color copied vintage map and a Pop-Art alphabet piece. They have very little in common..except for similar clean lined frames and crisp white mats. Your pictures don't need to be professionally framed to look expensive. Any framer will cut a white mat, perfect for a frame you may already have, for about $20. White mats = instant art pedigree.

Not every picture has to hang on the wall. Because we move our ever-changing art collection almost monthly, I usually just lean them in groups. This keeps our sight line low and tight and makes the ceiling appear to be higher. Too make the alphabet print the highest point I set it on a piece of scrap wood. There is even a small pyramid configuration in this grouping too.

Don't overlook a purchase just because it's a little damaged. The chalkware Jesus was a junk shop find that looks like a cherished family heirloom with his chipped patina. The Indian portrait came out of a $4 Amazon book that was missing most of its binding. I just taped it into a simple Ikea frame that already had a white mat. We used a plate stand as an easel.

We always add small details that evoke memories. Jamie and I both travel for work, so we constantly pick up vintage postcards, old black & white photos,and Letterman's patches on our travels and then tuck them into the corners of frames all over our house. I'm all for souvenirs that only cost a buck or 2. Even a set of "Silver Screen Cowboys" stamps become a part of the mix. This is a perfect thing to do with family photos, ticket stubs and fortune cookie fortunes.

Plants don't have to be contained in just flower pots. I love orchids, but sometimes they are a little too "precious" for me; so I repotted this one in a tomato can. The colors couldn't be more perfect together. I'll pretty much use anything I have available to pot a plant in..... a silver trophy, an ice bucket, a wooden box. I've even used old paint cans with dried paint dripped down the sides. Think outside the box, or pot.

Anything in a frame will instantly look like art. I've never found an object that I wouldn't hot glue into a shadow box. These celluloid indian toys look like a one of a kind piece and they were just a couple bucks each on eBay. We have also framed Pezz dispensers, baseball mitts, belt buckles and even paperback Western novels. Trust me, this is a fool-proof stunner every time. I use hot glue, but velcro or bank pins will make things easier to change later.

Contain your collections. These jars are just kitchen canisters from a department store. 3 of the largest size looks way more graphic than one of each size. We used paint stripper to remove the way too bright enamel color from the lids and reveal the "much cooler" galvanized metal underneath. The croquet balls were just gathering dust in the garage, now they add a visual "punch". Ok, so we didn't drink all that wine alone, we had a little help....... the Champaign corks have the dates that we opened them ( Birthdays, New Years, Anniversaries...etc) written on each one. Any collection, like baseballs, dominoes, or sea shells, will look less "junky" in a canister.

Once we place a big piece of furniture, it stays put. Now all the accessories, on the other hand, rotate constantly. And rotate constantly is what they do.
So there y'all have it. Just a few pointers on how we accessorize our home without letting all the "stuff" we've collected take over.

James and Jamie, your home is amazing and I love that everything you display tells a story about your lives! Thank you so much for sharing some great tips with us to make our homes look collected rather than cluttered! I feel so strongly that our homes should reflect us and celebrate who we are. You guys rock!

Good News!

Hey Friends! We have some great posts lined up for you. . .

Your kind words were persuasive, James from the The Cavender Diary sent over a guest post that will be up later this week. He has some great lessons to share, here is a small glimpse.

Dana from "Make Them Wonder" is also stopping by to contribute to our "Inspire Me" series!

. . .but I wanted to start the week out with some great news! Late Saturday night Tim and I got and accepted an offer on our home!!! We feel so blessed and are thrilled to soon be moving on to another chapter in our life!

We still have inspections to go through so nothing is set in stone, but we feel like things are going to work out.

You might remember the post Tim wrote last week about really feeling like God had led us to go ahead and start moving forward with our plans to make a warehouse space downtown our home. Well, we definitely feel like God is working. It was actually a complete accident (aka- God's hand) that the buyers even looked at our house in the first place.

The couple had told their realtor about a home they wanted to see. They knew the numbers were 1536 but couldn't remember the street. When the realtor searched MLS there was only one house that matched, ours. So he set up the showing. Soon after, the couple realized ours was not the house they originally wanted to see and was slightly outside the area they had decided to search, but decided they would go ahead and come take a look, just for kicks. Strangely enough ;), they came and fell in love with our home.

Now some people would call that a crazy coincidence, but Tim and I believe that it was all a part of God's perfect will. We have experienced too many "coincidences" in our life to believe that it is just random luck. We have always prayed that God would work in our lives in a way that would make it impossible for anyone, including us, to take credit for his work. And I like to think that God made the story unusual in order that we could see his hand in it and learn to trust Him more!

I feel like maybe God was waiting to provide an offer on the house until we made the conscious to trust what we felt like He was telling us. We felt like he was telling us to go ahead with the shop plans, but for a while we wanted to rely on the earthly security of knowing our home was sold and we would have money in the bank to support our new endeavor. Now hear this- I am not saying you should go and tank all your money into some random investment. But I am saying if you hear/feel God telling you to act on something, do it! You won't find this advice in any of Dave Ramsey's Baby Steps.

I know there will be a lot of people of there who think this advice is wrong but for us, we feel like God was saying, "I don't want you to find your security in anything but me." We'll be a work in progress until the day we get to Heaven, but in this moment we feel beyond secure in the arms of Christ!

Is there a chance this deal could still fall through? Yes. We won't officially celebrate until the keys are handed over, but are we convinced that God will provide for us one way or another and our peace and joy are not determined by the status of this transaction.