Feather for Our Nest

Do you remember the Doves we had nesting our front porch this Spring, thanks to them I was able to create some simple art. One afternoon my son and I where outside watering our plants on the porch when, he found a feather. I thought the feather would look really pretty framed { remember Nate framed a feather } and would be a reminder the Doves. I wanted to create a simple piece of artwork for very little money. I stopping in Micheal's and found a clearance frame for $ 1.99 and then bought a matte for $ 2.99. I sprayed painted the frame a glossy white, which is a nice complement for the clean lined frame.

For the background paper, I used leftover white linen paper from our wedding. When I placed the feather on the linen paper, it was just too much white. I decided to paint the linen paper a grey white from a left over sample paint we have.

I used a sponge brush to paint the paper. I love using sponge brushes for simple projects, they are super cheap and can be thrown away. I like the no clean up factor.

I wanted the paper to look more like fabric, so I gently applied one coat of paint horizontally and the next coat vertically. I didn't apply a perfect coat, so the background will look more textured.

Fifteen minutes later the paper was dried and the feather was ready to be assembled. The result a nice natural art piece for our home, that will remind me of the doves. I like that the art makes me smile. Next time you spot a feather think of its artful qualities.

Art Cost Breakdown:

$ 1.99 for frame

$ 2.99 for Matte

n/a - feather, spray paint, sample paint { hand on had }

$ 4.99

Eventually the feather will be hung on our yet to be completed art wall in the living room. Have you framed in natural elements for art in your home?

A Stack Here, A Stack There

If you walked into our living room, you would see stacks of books with their discarded covers on the floor. Over the weekend I spent some time in our garage, digging though containers looking for books that have been packed away since we moved to add to the books I've recently bought on the cheap.

I came across so many books I missed, including a ton of books my mom bought us. She bought us a ton of great books on gardening, home improvement, and party basics. Thanks again mom. I really glad I looked our garage, because I found a trio of books I really missed a , The Little Lady Agency books by Hester Browne. I love reading books set in England, so your looking for a summer read check this series out.

After removing the book covers on the books, I began sorting the books spine color. I ended up with a stacks of white books, blue books and black books. Out of all the stacks, I loved the colored stacks the most.

We have a good collection of hardback books and softcover books.

While I was looking for books in the garage, I came across a few few Jane Austen novels, I own - love her. I've always wanted to own a few of her books in hardback.  I decided to get to buy two of her books from Penguin Classics via the great deal from Amazon.com. I'm buying Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice for a mere $ 13.60 each. In the future I'll likely end up buying the The Odyssey, this is a classic I've yet to read and have been wanting to read it for sometime.

{ via design sponge }

Next I need to decide where the books will land on the shelves and apply some styling tips I mentioned today in this post. I'm pretty sure I'm heading to a thrift store tonight, you never know what you'll find there that just needs some paint.

Don't you just love the Penguin Classics book cover designs. So timeless and elegant. What's on your summer reading list?