Gracious Southern Living

Welcome another blog friend, Judy from Gracious Southern Living.  We met the first summer I started blogging when she emailed me back and forth a few times and then we ended up meeting in person and have been “buds” ever since.  Love this fellow Southern girl!

I was so excited when Rhoda asked me to guest post on her blog.    Rhoda is one of the first blogs I found and I fell in love with her style.   Later on when I had the pleasure of meeting her in person, I found her to be exactly as I imagined….a true Southern belle and every bit as charming and talented as she appears to be.   So I wanted to “do her proud” with my project she is going to feature.

Several months ago hubby and I attended an auction and I bid on and won a bench that I saw.   Wasn’t in the greatest condition and he wasn’t too happy when he came back into the auction house from loading what we’d already bought and found out I’d snuck in another purchase!    But I justified it by telling him what I had in mind to do with it and besides, I only paid $25 for it!

After the bench sat in my sunroom for many months, I decided to put it on my front porch.    Then of course I couldn’t decide what color to paint it.     After trying out several colors, I decided on painting it black (is there any other color?) and make a stenciled burlap pillow to put on the bench.     Kinda like one I’d seen in a Pottery Barn catalog but without the price.
So I got busy and painted the old bench and it turned out just like I wanted it to.  Then I got busy making my pillow.   I bought a pillow form at Hobby Lobby, gathered up my burlap and stencil and went to town on this little project.

Took me a few hours (I’m not a seamstress at all) but in the end, I’m really happy with the pillow and bench.

You can read more about the bench and the pillow making process on my blog at Gracious Southern Living.

Thank you Rhoda for featuring me on your blog and I’m looking forward to our next “thrifting” and girl time.”

Isn’t that gorgeous?!  Great job, Judy and I love your porch and those black shutters, perfect spot for the bench. I’m continually amazed at all the creativity out in blogland, right at our fingertips.

It’s enough to make you want to paint something. 🙂

Back from the beach, we had a great time, in spite of rain every other day. 🙁   I’ll be back real soon with some beach pics and updates and we’ll go ahead with a Thrifty Monday post, so look for that on Sunday afternoon.  I may not have much to share, but we’ll play anyway. 🙂

Don’t forget the Homegoods giveaway in the post below.  It will be open for a month, so be sure and sign up.

And be sure and come back for the Beadboard Wallpaper party on Tuesday, the 22nd.  I can’t wait to see who all shows up for it, I know we’ll all be inspired again.

Lastly, the Southern Lady book giveaway winner is Anita.  Big congrats to you, Anita!  Enjoy those books.   And just so ya’ll know, I use a random number generator site to choose the winners of these giveaways.