After you do the junking, thrifting, salvaging thing for awhile the people around you start to catch on. Family and friends start to tell you about an awesome curb alert or a item that they are throwing out. They start to learn the kinds of things that you are looking for and what you’re interested in. Let me tell you, it’s pretty amazing when this happens. You never know the things you will stumble upon.

This past Thanksgiving we were in Illinois visiting family when we were alerted to a pile of old windows. They had been removed from my husband’s grandmother’s home and just tossed out in a junk pile. I Instagramed a photo of my initial finds, you can see them HERE. While the hubs was rounding up all the wonderful windows I spied some old rung ladders. A couple of them were too weather beaten and were falling apart on the spot, but we were able to grab a couple of them.

I knew immediately that THIS ladder was exactly what I had been looking for. You see I have this archway in my home, it separates my living room from my kitchen and dining room. We have been in this home for a little over 2 years and I have been wanting an old rung ladder up there for about as long. This one was pretty much a mess. It was filthy, mildewed, and had a nice crack on one side. There were literally spots where the ladder was green. HERE is what they looked like before a good cleaning.

I whipped up a bucket of warm water, vinegar, and a drop of Dawn. A bunch of scrubbing and some hosing down did the trick! The ladder is perfectly weathered but now it’s free of gunk and green! We were able to hang the ladder up with 4 long screws and the hubby has assured me, they are in there good. I kept expecting at any moment that it may come crashing down, but that sucker is up there!

Isn’t it gorgeous? I mean, I admit hanging an old weathered rung ladder in their home may not be for everyone. But boy do I love it. So what do you think of My Old Rung Ladder?

Linking up to these great link parties!!!

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Love salvaged projects? Come take a look at my DIY Salvage Sofa Table……

Alright all my crafty friends!!! The time has arrived to snag some REALLY great deals with Silhouette! Whether you want to snag a Silhouette Cameo for a gift or a Silhouette Design Store Subscription for yourself, NOW is the time!!! So I won’t delay this any longer, here are the AWESOME deals that you’ll want to take advantage of……….

Through the last few years I have really enjoyed having my refinished furniture, re-purposed items, and crafts in craft/antique malls. Several months ago I left my current booth because it just wasn’t working out. I started a search for the perfect place to showcase my items; I got on waiting lists, I sent messages, and made calls. Nothing is really happening. So it was time for some plan B!

I decided, while I wait for the perfect place to call home for my handmade goodies, I would open up a Facebook page to share my items locally. So I opened up A Diamond in the Stuff Boutique on Facebook. I’m still in the process of getting my current inventory listed so I can start working on more items to add.

If you would like to head over and give my new page a “like” I would greatly appreciate it! Especially if you live in the Bossier/Shreveport area!!!

]]> http://adiamondinthestuff.com/2014/09/a-diamond-in-the-stuff-boutique.html/feed 0 http://adiamondinthestuff.com/2014/07/playing-photographer-engagement-pictures.html http://adiamondinthestuff.com/2014/07/playing-photographer-engagement-pictures.html#comments Mon, 14 Jul 2014 11:00:08 +0000 http://adiamondinthestuff.com/?p=3210

Last weekend my brother-in-law proposed to his girlfriend. Happily she said yes! My soon to be sister-in-law asked if I would take some engagement pictures for them when we went to visit. I am far from a professional photographer. Far. However I do have a camera and I was willing, so I figured why not? This is the part where I offer my disclosure….if you are a REAL photographer you may want to look away. I am sure that compared to others these need a lot of work but I’m pretty proud of my first real photo session!

This first photo was one of those moments where I just kept snapping the camera even though they were moving around. I happened to catch such a sweet moment between them and it became one of my favorite photos from the day. The beautiful gold frame that we used was pulled out of my garage to use as a prop for the day.

We wanted to try lots of angles and points of view. I grabbed an old quilt that my grandma had made to use for the couple to lay on. I climbed up on a large step (I’m a shorty) so I could shoot from above. I just love the lighting in the park we were in.

This is one of my other favorite pictures. It just came out so romantic and sweet.

I loved the pic so much I had a little fun with the editing. Which of the three edits of this picture do you like best?

The bride-to-be brought these little painted hearts to the photo shoot to sprinkle around. We just flipped the quilt over to the white side for a neutral background.

I wanted to use the quilt in a non-conventional way, so we picked it up off the ground and wrapped it around the couple. Sweet.

I love using typography in different ways. The bride-to-be also brought this ampersand cut out to use. We had a lot of fun with props.

I had some fun with lighting in this photo. The sun was popping through the top of the stairwell and I used it to my advantage.

At the top of the stairwell was a beautiful balcony that we took advantage of and snapped a few pictures on.

I had to bring the frame back out again because it was just too darn beautiful!

We kept exploring the park and found this awesome tunnel. We stopped to snap a few photos in front of it.

I adore the love and excitement in their eyes.

At this point I was realizing that I was spending all day looking at my brother-in-law kissing. Weird.

The fun part about taking photos like this is doing different things while editing. Obviously I did just “plain” editing on all of the photos and some of them I had some extra fun with.

The bride and groom are going to use these photos to decorate their reception. No pressure.

Of course we needed a ring shot! It wasn’t the easiest thing to do but I think we got a pretty good one!

Well what do you think of my first attempt at being a photographer? I’m sure they’re not perfect and I know they’re not professional quality….but I’m proud of them! And I hope the future bride and groom will treasure these photos for years to come!

Linking up to these great link parties!!!

]]> http://adiamondinthestuff.com/2014/07/playing-photographer-engagement-pictures.html/feed 5 http://adiamondinthestuff.com/2014/04/can-you-see-me-now-how-to-stay-connected.html http://adiamondinthestuff.com/2014/04/can-you-see-me-now-how-to-stay-connected.html#respond Mon, 14 Apr 2014 11:00:26 +0000 http://adiamondinthestuff.com/?p=2994

Whether you have your own FB business page or not, chances are you follow pages on FB. Also chances are if you follow pages you may notice that you are not always seeing the pages you want to. Facebook announced that they have dramatically decreased the visibility of pages and are going to continue to do so more. There are many ways to follow your favorite blogs but if Facebook is your method of choice you may be pretty frustrated by this . I have found a way to still see the blogs and pages you love! Because I love a good tutorial I broke it down for ya……

The first step is to find the “interests” tab in the left hand side of your screen. Click on “Interests”.

Once on the “interests” page click on “add interests”.

Then click on “create list”.

When you are creating a new list you can name it and you can also choose who can see your interests list. You can even allow other to subscribe to your interests lists.

Once your list is created you can then add pages to it. Just type in the name of the blogs you want to follow and click on them to add it.

Once you are done adding pages to your interest list you can leave the page. You will be able to find the list in your left hand side of your screen under “interests”.  When you want to catch up on your blogs, just click on the interest list of your choice and  you will see all of the pages you follow. They will be listed with the latest posted first.

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Now of course there are lots of other ways to stay connected with the blogs you want to follow! Here are some of my favorite ways…….

I follow all my favorite blogs on Bloglovin. It is a super easy way to stay up to date with all the blogs I follow in a VERY simple way. And let me tell you…this busy lady loves when things can be simple!

Of course there is Twitter. I always tweet my latest blog posts and other things on my mind. It’s also a great way to stay connected with all the blogs and brands that interest you.

I love love love Instagram. It shouldn’t be a surprise that I am a very visual person, so Instagram is an awesome way to share our life in pictures. I’m also a sucker for the fun photo editing. What is it they say “A picture says a thousand words”?

I know there are TONS more ways to follow your favorite blogs (like Pinterest or by Email) but these are some of my favorites. I doesn’t really matter which way you choose to follow your favorite blogs, I personally use all of these way to stay updated and connect in different ways. 

If you decide to follow me on any of these let me know, I’d love to check out your blog too!

]]> http://adiamondinthestuff.com/2014/04/can-you-see-me-now-how-to-stay-connected.html/feed 0 http://adiamondinthestuff.com/2014/01/i-found-a-new-booth-home.html http://adiamondinthestuff.com/2014/01/i-found-a-new-booth-home.html#comments Wed, 08 Jan 2014 08:00:00 +0000 http://adiamondinthestuff.com/?p=2652

Right smack dab in the middle of the holiday season I found a nice shop with an available booth to rent. Ironically I found myself in the exact same situation a couple years prior. Getting ready for Holiday shows, Christmas craziness, and a new booth to stock and get ready.

And here I was again.

I was very excited to find a place and even though the room was pretty rough….I knew I could make it mine with a little hard work.

(sorry for the poor photo quality, these were all taken with my phone)

The picture above was what the room looked like before I started. It originally had some really awful carpet and had the choice to remove it or not. I figured whatever was under the carpet was better than it…..so I took the gamble! What lay under was some pretty messy plywood. To cover it I grabbed some white paint I had in the garage and did some dry brushing in both directions on the floor. It covered the wood and the other paint that was on there pretty good.

There was only one sad light in the middle of the ceiling with no other light source. So obviously I needed to bring some more light into the room. I didn’t want to go out right away and spend a lot of money so I went shopping in my garage and came up with the idea of hanging some icicle lights around the room. It really brightens up the place and adds a bit of a glow to the room.

I decided to paint one of the walls in the room. I had a quart of bright aqua (even though it looks light blue in the photos) in the garage and painted one accent wall. I cut out some vinyl with my business name and added it to the aqua wall.

I think the room has made a huge improvement! Especially considering what I had to work with and that I strictly shopped my garage for all the things that I ended up using. Obviously the room is filled with Christmas goodies as these pictures were taken when I got the room filled up just before Christmas! Now I’m working to whip up lots of awesome goodies to fill the room!!! So excited to have my own little space again!!!

If you live in or are visiting Louisiana and want to drop by, you can find my booth here:

Antiques and Art on Main

700 Main St
Minden, LA. 71055

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