Small Updates

 Let's talk creativity for a moment.

This is a cup cake tower that I recently made after seeing one on Shabby 2 Chic that I loved!  You can see hers here:

My Cupcake Tower!

Source: shanty-2-chic.com via Elona on Pinterest

How awesome is it?!  But here's a confession.  I'm not really a Shabby Chic girl style wise.  While I admire it in other people's homes, it doesn't work in mine.  So I decided to use the one I pinned last year for my inspiration!  I started with wooden chargers from Hobby Lobby.  This did add to the overall cost of the project, but I used  my 40% off coupon on each of the chargers because the big one is $10 without the coupon! (side note, I work right next door to Hobby Lobby - I assure you, it's a truly heaven burden I carry knowing that I can walk over even when I have a 30 min. lunch!) and the top piece was a round wooden 'disk' a little further down the wood aisle. 

I did have one EPIC failure while working on this project.  I first thought I wanted to stain this so the wood grain would show through.  On the wooden chargers, this looked great.  On the lower quality wood pieces, it looked awful.  So I thought I would 'just' spray paint over it.  I even bought a can Valspar with primer spray paint, recognizing the stain might be hard to cover.  Can I just tell you, it's the worst spray paint I've ever used?!  One whole can, and it still looked streaky.  So back to Home Depot I went and got Rustoleum spray paint.  One coat, and it was done - ok, one or two small touch ups, but really, it coated beautifully.  I will never use the other brand again.

This really fits the scale of my dining room too.  I didn't want something that would take up so much room that it would be hard to use the dining room table.

Here's a glimpse of my table runner too!  I've never had one for St. Patrick's Day, but I saw this fabric at Hobby Lobby (I did mention what a sacrifice it is to work so close!) and knew it needed to be a table runner.  I love that it makes my Kelly green chargers pop, which I got on clearance at Walmart after Christmas - 49 cents each!  My friend M told me she found green tinted carnations at The Dollar Tree, so I picked some up to go in my tea lights. My daughter is already planning on use it for the cupcakes she wants for her birthday sleep over that's coming up soon.

But of course, with Easter being this month too, I'll be switching things out as soon as St. Patrick's Day is over this weekend!