Blog Anniversary Week: Giveaway Central!

It’s time for another party here at Embellished Bayou, and this one is complete with prizes for YOU!  My one year blog anniversary is coming up on February 6, so to celebrate, I am hosting fabulous GIVEAWAYS all week long!! Be sure and visit every day for your chance to win some really cool stuff!

When I started this blog a year ago, it was really as a support for my Etsy shop, but it has developed into so much more.  I never dreamed I would be posting nearly every (week)day and have close to 300 followers.  I have discovered a whole new world and have gone into crafting and decorating overload!

This week I’ll be doing two posts per day.  One to look back at some of my earliest posts and highlight some of my favorite projects from the past and one hosting a GIVEAWAY!  So let’s get started….

Last April I did a quick post featuring a chandelier I transformed for my best friend’s little girl.  This is still one of my favorite projects I have done.  You see these fancy chandeliers all over boutiques and online, often for hundreds of dollars.  I used her old dining room chandelier and transformed it from this:

to this:

All it took was a can of spray paint and some new crystals (in addition to the existing ones that I cleaned) to have this chandy dripping with pink girly-ness!  How cute is it over her little drawing table?? Now, CLICK HERE for a SUPER giveaway!  Also, please visit these parties I’ll be linking up to:

          

Vintage Chandeliers, I Heart You!

I went to a few estate sales this past weekend, and while I struck out getting any good finds, I did spot a few vintage chandeliers in one house that I absolutely drooled over.  Unfortunately, they weren’t for sale, but I couldn’t resist snapping a few pics to share.  I really hope the family members will take these beauties and give them good homes (and perhaps a makeover) because I would hate to see them thrown out when new owners move in and want to replace them with more modern lighting.  

This one was hanging in the master bedroom:

This one was in another bedroom, it’s hard to tell from the photo, but the crystals on this one are iridescent:

And this one was in a smaller bedroom, how cute would it be painted pink or blue in a nursery?? The beads and drops almost looked like milk glass:

There was one more lovely in the dining room, but I didn’t take a photo because it was covered in ivy and you couldn’t really see its true beauty.  Gosh, I would just love to get my hands on one of these and give it a makeover!! 

How about these for some inspiration:

image courtesy heavenly-lights.com

image courtesy heavenly-lights.com

image courtesy heavenly-lights.com

Image courtesy gallery84.net

Image courtesy lampsplus.com

I’m trying to decide if I like this new trend of a shade over a chandelier, what do you think?  Actually, now that I look at all the photos out there, I think I’m digging this look.  It really combines modern and vintage, which I love.

Images courtesy gallery84.net

Image courtesy lampsplus.com

Image courtesy zgallerie.com

Maybe I’ll come upon another vintage chandelier to makeover soon, until then these inspiration photos will have to do!

Show Us Where You Live: Nurseries/Children's Rooms

It's time for another edition of "Show Us Where You Live" over on Kelly's Korner blog. This week features nurseries/children's rooms. Since we don't have any children, I'm featuring my best friend's nursery instead (she doesn't have a blog!). She has two girls, ages 6 months and 3 1/2, each of whom have the most darling rooms! I've made several cute things for her, so I'll also feature those.

Here's her nursery:She made the personalized wall canvas herself, as well as the large shabby chic antique tin memo board.

This is a door hanging/baby announcement that I made her from antique tin ceiling tiles. She hung it on the hospital door and it now hangs on the baby's nursery door:


The first tin says "It's a Girl", the second is the baby's name, and the third is the birth info.
This is a frame I personalized and then embellished with a bow and a vintage rhinestone brooch:

These are some burp cloths my mother-in-law made and embroidered:

I painted this memory box to put all the little baby gifts in, then mom can use it for the baby's cards and mementos. I just bought a plain white photo box from Michael's, painted it pink, used a stencil for the darker pink design, then glued on a few rhinestones for some sparkle.

Here's everything all together in the box (my mother-in-law also embroidered the blanket and the bib):

This is one of my favorite DIY crafts I've done....my friend had this brass chandelier hanging in her dining room and was going to get rid of it when they got a more updated fixture. We decided to give it a make-over instead and use it in her little girl's room. You can see the step-by-step process from my feature on Spearmint Baby's blog.

Here's the chandelier before:

And after:

Here's photos of the chandelier in her daughter's room:

That's it....I had so much fun making all the little girly accents and I think she did a beautiful job designing both rooms. Thanks for looking!

Pink Chandelier DIY

Many thanks to Spearmint Baby for posting about my chandelier makeover on her blog. Visit Spearmint Baby for beautiful inspiration and products for your baby. Here's the before and after of the chandelier I transformed for my best friend's little girl's room: