Mom to the Rescue

This past weekend my Hubby and I went to visit our son and daughter-in-law.  (Man it's the pits when your kids move away... just say'in!)   Anyway, Bethany and I were sitting at the table eating breakfast one morning, and I was looking into her kitchen.  I made the comment that I had always wanted an open area on top of my cabinets because I think it's such a neat area to decorate.  Bethany had that open area, but had not yet decorated it, so I asked her about it.  She said that she had wanted to put things up there, but wasn't sure what to do.  We started discussing a few ideas and I could see she thought it would be a fun thing to do.  She knew that she wanted black and white, with a modern flare. Wellllll, say no more... it was time for a trip to GW!!!!!!  

As soon as we walked into Goodwill I saw a set of white dishes that I knew would work.  Add to that a few black dishes, several glass vases, and some black frames.  OH, and we even found two sets of horseshoe bookends which were perfect since they have horses.  This is we left GW with...

White dishes (place setting for 8)

Some black dishes

Frames, vases, and horse-shoe bookends

We made one more quick stop on the way home to get some fillers for the vases (rice and black beans), a small bottle of black paint, and some plate stands.  For a total of about $30 to $35 we had everything we needed.

The next day everyone left to go to a cross country meet.  I stayed at their house because I wasn't feeling well.  I started looking at all those things just waiting to be put in place.  I had an idea to make some of the dishes look a little more "modern", so I sat down with a few of the plates, black paint, and a small paint brush and started seeing what I could do.  I just worked with the design of the plate and added a little black here and there. 

Put some paint on the sugar bowl as well...

Now, this was as far as I was going to go.  After all, this wasn't MY home (you know, the "mother-in-law" and all"), I shouldn't take it upon myself to actually decorate the area... or should I???  Well, my hubby called and said that Jason and Bethany made the comment, "I bet we get home and Mom will have that entire area decorated!!"  OH MY WORD... you mean they wouldn't MIND if I did it???.  That was it... that was all I needed... let the decorating begin.  Now mind you, I had very limited items to work with, and I knew they didn't have the exact same decorating style as me, so I wanted to keep it simple for them.  This is what I ended up doing.

I started in the corner with one of the black plates and worked my way out.  The one vase was to tall for the area, so I tilted it and rested it on one of the horseshoe bookends.  I filled the vases with the rice and beans.

I made a few more "tweaks" after these pictures were taken, but that was basically it. (I should have taken some pictures from farther back to give you the full effect... sorry!)  Now... what would they think?  They walked in and immediately checked the top of the cabinets.  Drum roll please... THEY LOVED IT!!!  I assured them that they were NOT going to hurt my feelings if they didn't like it or wanted to change things, but they said, "Nope... we love it just the way it is!"  SUCCESS!!!!

Sooooooo, I guess even when I'm on vacation, the crafting juices continue to flow.  What about you?  Are you able to turn off your brain, or are you always thinking about your next craft project?  Would love to hear from you.