Hand-Me-Downs

PB had a sweet, sweet grandmother who we called "Ma."  She was a good Christian lady who loved everyone she came in contact with.  This past October she passed away.  She left behind a legacy of love to all who knew her.  Our girl says that she someday hopes to be the kind of grandmother that Ma was to all of us.  I think that is pretty much the best compliment ever!   I hope to be that kind of grandmother, too, someday.

PB's dad and uncle have had the task of cleaning out Ma's home and get it ready to sell.  It has been filled with all of Ma's Earthly treasures for over 60 years!  Nowadays, it seems odd to hear of someone living in one place for so long but I guess that is the way it was for her generation.  As they were cleaning out everything and sorting through all of her things, we were able to inherit two pieces of her furniture.  I love   things that have meaning behind them in our home and now I can say that I have two of Ma's special pieces.  PB's grandfather, Pa, even built one of them.  I love that!

This is the cabinet Pa built!  

This piece sat in Ma's hallway and her telephone sat on top of it along with her phone book and address book.  It was filled with all kinds of books and mementos from Ma and Pa's past.  It even has a pen holder built right into the top.  For now, I have placed it in our little sitting room that sits between our dining room and kitchen.  It fits perfectly on this little space of wall.   

The other piece that we were given is a little metal cabinet that sat in Ma's kitchen.  It held her microwave oven on top and she used the inside as a little pantry.  It now sits proudly in the corner of our kitchen.

I love having Ma's hand-me-downs and hope that maybe some day one of the children might want to have them in their home as well.  These two pieces are sweet reminders of Ma in our home.

Do you have any family hand-me-downs that are extra special to you?

Bulletin Board to Jewelry Hanger

I have been on the lookout for cute ways to display a few of my favorite necklaces for a while now.  I've shopped around thinking I could just buy one that I liked but never found one that would work with my decor and my budget.  Well, after pinning about 5 or 6 that I really liked, I came up with my own solution for a jewelry holder.  And it was almost free!

I had an old bulletin board that I no longer used and it was just collecting dust in a pile of stuff.  I was afraid to get rid of it for fear that I might need it again one day.  Good thing I didn't haul it off to Goodwill!  I decided to re-purpose it into becoming my jewelry holder.  I broke out some ORB (oil rubbed bronze) spray paint and got busy.

Before ORB...plain old bulletin board.  

And...after ORB!

I knew I was going to use some scrap gray and off-white chevron fabric that I had left over from another project so I didn't have to be careful about getting the ORB on the cork part of the bulletin board.  I just measured and cut the fabric to the size I needed and glued the fabric right over the cork.  

It looked a little plain so I headed out to Hobby Lobby and bought some trim to finish off the edges.  This trim cost less than $3.00 and was just what I was looking for!  

I used hot glue to keep the trim in place.  It was looking good, so far, but I couldn't decide what I wanted to use to hang my jewelry from.  Several of my inspiration pictures used cabinet knobs to hang the jewelry from and I had several old knobs in my stash to use but wasn't sure this was what I wanted to do.  So...I put this project on the back burner while I thought it out.  About two or three weeks later I found another picture on Pinterest of a jewelry holder almost identical to mine.  Except the girl used the fabric and covered the entire bulletin board, frame and all.  She also used plain old push pins to hang her jewelry from.  I loved this idea since I was hesitant to make a permanent decision to use the knobs.  That would require holes in the fabric and I was not loving that I would be locked into the placement of the knobs.  So I went out and bought a box of clear push pins.  Oh, I also decided to use cup hooks along the bottom for more hanging space. I sprayed the hooks with more ORB spray paint, as well.  PB drilled holes in the bottom of the frame so that I could screw in the cup hooks easily.  Thanks Honey!  :)  

My finished jewelry holder!

I had empty wall space on my side of our bathroom vanity and have been on the look out for something to hang in this space.  But now my new chevron jewelry holder hangs there and it looks great.  Not too bad for an almost free jewelry hanger and new wall art in one!

Linking up with Kim at Savvy Southern Style for Wow Us Wednesdays!