~our dining room table~

 I have had a lot of questions as to how I like our dining room table since I sanded all the paint off.

Well, I love it. 

I am so glad I did it. 

It was previously painted black and I wanted a lighter look, so I sanded all the paint off with a palm sander and finished it off with a furniture wax.

It has held up to us eating dinner there every night, even the kids' spills.

 If you have a painted piece of furniture and are after this look, I can say, it was super easy.

A little time consuming and hard on the arms, but worth the effort I think.

Also, I will be completely re-doing and re-stocking my space at Ruffles and Rust Square this week.

If you haven't been in, or want to see some new fun stuff, head on over to Snohomish!

I have made pillows out of vintage grain sacks from the 1800's, and I have a ton of new signs and chalkboards.

Furniture, silver trays, a gorgeous antique dress form, cast iron pieces, and much much more!

xoxo

~French clay pots~

I can't even begin to tell you how much fun our trip to California was to visit Maria.

She is BEAUTIFUL and her and her family were so welcoming and made us feel right at home.

I ended up purchasing a few million things from her.

I wish I could have fit everything in my suitcases with me.

I took so many pictures it may take me a while to edit them all, so I thought today I'd share with you what I did with some French clay pots on my dining table.

 I actually got these a month or so ago, and am just now pulling them out of the box.

Maria sells them in her shop.

You can purchase them here.

 I put a few on my dining room shelves.

 And the rest on my dining room table with a pear in each one.

They look cute on top of each plate.

 I also got this vintage French grain sack from Maria.

I was going to use it as a pillow case in my sons room,

 but I'm ending up using it as a table runner for now.

I will be back tomorrow with more photos of our trip and some more things that I bought.

Thank you Maria for making our trip so fun, and thanks to my friend Jodi who couldn't have been a better traveling friend!

xoxo

~changes in our dining room~ {big surprise}

 Well, I did it again.

Made a few changes to the old dining room.

First thing I did was paint over the stenciled wall.

It was never perfect and it got on my nerves, so away it went.

 I picked up these gorgeous sunflowers today and have them in my Pottery Barn drink holder.

I used old green wine bottles as vases.
{my friend Kasey would be proud}

I have a ton of these and I like to use them for water when we have company for dinner too.

 On a whim one day I decided I was tired of our black table, so I sanded it down

{took about 4 hours}

and waxed it.

I love how it turned out.

There is still little bits of black paint here and there, but after 4 hours, I called it quits.

I tried to go for a Restoration Hardware look on the shelving.

I ripped some covers off of old books and tied them up with jute twine.

I had some heavy cast iron urns I used as book ends and framed a couple pages out of books.

The rest of the accessories I purchased at Ruffles and Rust Square.

But, hands down, my favorite new addition to our dining room is this pair of chairs!

I found them at a flea market and had them covered in French grain sacks from the 30's.

I bought the grain sacks from a very nice lady in Europe over etsy.

You can find her here.

She was super friendly and the bags got here very quickly.

I highly recommend this seller.

Angie at A & D upholstery did my chairs.

She had them done in 4 days!

I was very impressed with everything.

I had purchased 6 bags, but unfortunately that wasn't enough.

Angie was kind enough to go fabric shopping for me, texting me photos along the way, until we found the perfect solid to compliment the grain sacks.

Part of the arms, the skirt and all the welting is done in this faded black denim.

This used to sit in the middle of my dining table, now it rests on the wall.

My myrtle topiaries are doing great thanks to skylights and a little bit of sunshine!

Do you like the changes?

It's very simple, yet cozy, and I think the look should last about 12 minutes year round.

Don't forget to enter the giveaway below if you haven't already!

xoxo