The sparest of rooms...

Welcome to our spare room!

After a year of living here, you'd think we would have had this done a while ago. For the longest time it held all our extra wedding decor and wedding presents until I could sort through it all. Now it is finally an office/ music studio/ extra bedroom.

Most of the furniture is from my college days. I'm pretty sure that the book case was given to me by a friend that was graduating and moving out...I was a freshman. I suppose you could call it vintage...or just old and falling apart! Ha! All the rest were hand-me-downs from my parents that I painted black. My bedroom looked exactly like this in college, except with tons of books and minus the desk. Oh the desk! I can't tell you how long it took us to find it. We searched for something inexpensive but still sturdy FOREVER. Well, many thrift stores and yard sales later, we got this one at Office Depot. Then my sweet husband spend hours putting it together. Needless to say, we are so glad to have it...finally!

We needed a place for all our music/ recording equipment. Call me a neat-freak, but I really didn't want it in our living room floor. I'm so glad we finally have a place for all our chord sheets and random song ideas.

I had to add a few feminine touches here and there, of course!

Oh, this room also serves as a storage place for all my jewelry. We should just call it "The Everything Room".

This is one of my favorite parts of the room: my vintage window and hymnal wreath. They compliment each other so well! I am happy just looking at it.

What office is complete without a bulletin board...and a place for headbands?

So there you have it. If you ever come to visit us, this is where you will stay. I hope guitars don't look scary to you in the dark...because we have several in there...in big black cases.

I still have a few more things to add, but all in all I am very glad to have a "finished" spare room that I might actually show visitors instead of hiding. Granted, it's nothing fancy or new but it's more than a lot of people have for sure!

So...what is in your spare room?

...lover of old things...

I adore spending some of my spare time in antique stores. There are several good ones around our area...they are my frequent haunts.

I went the other day just to unwind for a bit. They relax me. I used to go during the crazy wedding planning phase of life. What is so calming about old things? I'm not sure, but here are some for you gaze upon.

Enjoy!

I hope you all have a wonderful Wednessday!

PS: Thank you Jhen Stark for featuring me the yesterday here. She is incredibly sweet. Really, go check out her inspiring blog!

Guest Blog: Five Thrifting Tips

Hey guys! I have the great pleasure of introducing my first guest blogger here at the blair affairs. (I'm guest posting for her today as well. You can check it out HERE.) Rylie is such a sweet girl who loves Jesus, pretty things, friends, vintage and so on. She has a great post about thrifting in store for us today. But enough with me babbling on!


Hey Rylie, I am so glad that you are my guest here today! Would you mind telling us a little about yourself? You know, the usual - who you are, what you do, where you call home, etc...

Hello, my name is Rylie. I live out in the sticks in Missouri (about 45 minutes outside of St. Louis). I am a student wanting to graduate with a double major in psychology and theology. My all time favorite verse is Proverbs 4:23 which says, “Above all else guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.” I also have a love for reading. Author John Eldredge is my favorite.

Wow. College is going to be intense for you then! You sound like a very driven person. What are some of the things that you are passionate about? Feel free to pull out your soap box for a while. :)

Oh boy. You just opened a big can of worms… In short, my passion is freedom. I intend to be a counselor to girls in the sex trade in Southeast Asia with my cousins over at Ezekiel Rain. I want to be there for these girls and help them not just find physical freedom, but spiritual freedom that only comes through Jesus.

That is so awesome. No wonder you're double majoring in psychology an theology! You should pack me up in your suitcase when you go. I'd love to see that ministry in action.

There are so many lovely DIY project on your blog. What makes you like to DIY, or in other words, do things yourself? Where do you get your creative inspiration?

Why thank you. Crafting is in the family. My mom especially. She has the crazy ability to see the potential and good looks of something while it is still in the smelly, dirty pile at the GW Boutique (aka, Goodwill). Thankfully, she is teaching me her ways… And I’m proud to say, I am slowly catching on.  

Ok, last one. It's very obvious that you are a Christian. Your love for Christ seems to effortlessly seep through onto your blog, so I can't really leave it out of this little questionnaire. How did you get to this point?

THANKYOUTHANKYOU! I just love to hear people say that. I love to blog. I kinda live to blog too. Every time something fun happens, every time I have my camera in my hand I’m thinking, “How can I blog this?” And to hear people say that they see Jesus in that is too awesome. Another one of my favorite verses is Psalms 27:4. It says, “One thing I ask from the LORD, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the LORD and to seek Him in His temple.” In everything I do I want to gaze on the beauty of the Lord… And I only hope that while doing so, I invite others to see His beauty as well.

Thanks so much for introducing yourself to us Rylie! Now please take it away.

Five Thrifting Tips

Hey guys! I love to go thrifting. But I am still a beginner myself. So I had my mom, the expert junker, help me out on this one. So here is some “motherly advice” about thrifting.

1). Do not just window shop.

The diamonds are always in the rough. So dig, dig, dig! Roll up those sleeves and get dirty. And don’t be afraid to throw an elbow or two. (wink, wink)

Dress + Belt: GW Boutique, total of $12.

2). Shop early, shop often.

You have to remember thrift shops don’t have a big room in the back with duplicates of everything. This applies in a huge way to Goodwill and Craig’s List. At Goodwill, the whole store can change overnight. On Craig’s list, the good stuff can go really fast. So if you like it, get it.

Chandelier: Craig’s List, $50.

3). Persistence is key.

My mom calls it the “1-8” ratio. You will peruse about seven crappy garage sales before you find the one that makes it all worthwhile.

Vintage frame: Antique Mall, $15.

4). Be aggressive.

As I said before, there isn’t any big back room with extras of everything… Once it is gone it’s gone. At garage sales and flee markets there is no time to think. If you like it, grab it. One too many times someone else has scored on our moment of hesitation.

Typewriter: Antique Mall, $20.

5). Stay ahead of the trends.

Great example: my mom has had a forever love of old vintage frames. She could go to any junkin store and find a plethora of frames that would cost next to nothing… BUT, in recent months Pottery Barn has started selling frames for $129.00. So now that PB has drawn attention to their ‘yumminess,’ you can’t find them… And when you do they are ridiculously over priced.

Hope this helps! Happy Junkin! :)

-Rylie from www.rylierenee.com

A lovely shade of blue

My hubs came home the other day, noticed a few "updates" to the house and said "You didn't ask me if I wanted that white!" He loves to joke with me about the changes I make around the house. What's so funny about it is that he couldn't care less about decorating, that is as long as I don't use pinks and purples everywhere. (Not that I would ever do that anyway.) I love earthy shades and he does too, so it works for us. You can guarantee that I will love just about anything blue, green, beige and especially white. 

One of my favorite ways to decorate is to take old not-so-great-looking things and spray paint them! Here are some of my latest projects:

We have this horrible piano on our back porch that is too heavy to move (long story), so I decided to make use of the bench.

It was in awful shape, but with a little white paint it looks much better. To create a shabby chic look I rubbed some sandpaper along the edges. I really like the result.

Now it lives at the foot of our bed. I can't wait to put some fresh flowers there in the spring!

Since putting away our Christmas decor, I realized our bedside table needed a facelift. 

I found the vintage window pane a while back and really wanted to use it somewhere in our bedroom. So on the bedside table it went.

Then I added the vintage books and one of our engagement pictures. 

(Props to T2 Photography. You should check them out!)

But what I'm really excited about is this lamp! It was a light gold color (which neither of us were crazy about), but now it is a lovely shade of blue! The lamp shade was a dark gold, but that was soon changed as well. I love this lamp now! 

I love decorating that costs me next to nothing! Spray paint is seriously my best friend. Now if only I could paint all of our furniture white. (Just kidding babe!) 

Humpty Dumpty, Shelves & Elves

Is anyone else super exhausted besides me? Goodness! I wish a little elf would come and help me get ready. I feel like the first of December was yesterday! Au contraire my friends. Christmas is THIS SATURDAY! I can't believe it. Time has really gotten away from me. It's just like him really. He likes to drag me behind him while he rushes forward like an excited little dog. Shame, shame. I blame him for not being able to post this earlier. I found this stuff a week or two ago. What kind of blogger does that make me?

You don't have to say. No really, it's ok.

Enough with the charades. Here are some of the fab things I picked up a while back.

I have been looking for a shelf like this for a while now. It's taken me several months because I refuse to barter my arms and legs. Seriously, they are so expensive! Now I finally found it!

We have mantle of sorts now.

I think it helps the little wall.

Merry Christmas to you too shelf.

There were two. How could I resist? This is before gitterification. (And yes, I just made up that word.)

Post - glitterification

I like.

Unfortunately, I am not so great at putting theses things up. I thought it was secure, so I proceeded to put my china on the shelf. WRONG! It came crashing down like Humpty Dumpty. All of my horses and all of my men couldn't put them back together again. Oh wait, I don't have horses. I do have one man though...but I threw the pieces away before he got home. It was quite tragic.

Nonetheless, the shelf is up and I like it. I truly appreciate the 4 tea cups who gave their lives for my endevors.

I also got these little mini shelves. I haven't decided where they will live yet. Poor things. They are homeless for now. Oh, and I also got a big old window. I forgot to take a picture of it though. Shame on me.

And what you ask was the total for all this? I will tell you.

2 matching shelves + 2 mini shelves + a cute window = $30

I'd say that was a good buy!

Pointless to Practical

Sometimes I get the greatest ideas from our storage closet. About a month ago I found an old picture that we had in our closet since we got married. It never went with our decor, so I just stuffed it away. One day I was looking for something and saw it chilling out in the closet. Suddenly it spoke to me and said, "I would look great as a chalk board in your kitchen." (Side note: When things that don't normally speak tell you something, it's usually a good idea to listen to them. Take Baalam and the talking donkey for instance. The donkey was trying to save his life.) What was a girl to do in this situation? Go get her chalk board spray paint, that's what! So I did.

First I painted it...

Then I hung it up, but the goldish-brown frame just wasn't doing it for me. Please know that I did not write "Yo Mama." 

My dear husband added that for me.

So I painted it green. I wasn't particularly fond of this color either, but its better than it was at least.

Now we can write all sorts of fun things on it.

I figured since I didn't like the color I should put on a sheet music garland to make it all better.

So there you have it. The picture went from pointless junk to have a practical use. Thank you for speaking to me that day picture. I like you a lot better now!