Equine Art Print~

Maybe you've noticed the trend toward equine art in decor lately.  If not, allow me to show you some of the pretties I've been seeing....

Source: veranda-interiors.com via Wendy on Pinterest



Elle Decor



Ballard  Designs



Tonic Home

I love horses.  They are such beautiful animals.  So I've been enamoured with all of these pretty horse prints for a while now.  And I've been wanting to add a print to our dining room.  Luckily after showing them to the Hubby, he starting liking them just as much.  However, because he is a photographer, he didn't want to purchase a print, he wanted to take one himself.

I was all for that!!

Luckily, we live next to a pasture just filled with lovely horses.  And one day I found the Hubby out there with his camera, just talking to the horses and taking their pictures.  Those horses, turns out, really love the camera.  In fact, they couldn't get enough of posing for pictures.  It was really quite funny!

But then the photos sat for a while.  Every few days the Hubby would ask when we were going to print one up, but I would always brush it off with some complaint about the cost of framing a large print.  Little did he know I had something up my sleeve.

You see, the Hubby's birthday was last week.  So I chose one of our favorite prints from that series, and edited it to  make it a  monochromatic black on white print.  Then I had it printed, and framed it in a large 30"x40" frame from IKEA (only $29.99 - can we hear a Woot Woot!)

While he was gone one evening, I put it up on the wall...and this is what he came home to...



He loved it...and was actually very surprised (and yes, happy) to have it as his gift this year!

We just love us a little equine art! 

Painting 101: Preparing the Walls~

The Hubby is a painter extraordinaire.  So since we are in the process of painting the walls around here, I thought it might be nice to have him share a few of his best tips.  Take it away, Johnny...

Hi, John here.  Today I wanted to show you a little bit about prepping the walls for paint by filling all those annoying holes.

I'm going to use the example of a drywall screw that has "popped" out, but the process is basically the same for any small hole, including nail holes.

Have you ever run across one of these on your wall?

This is a drywall screw that has "popped" out.  It's easy to fix if you follow these steps.

1. Take the corner of a small drywall putty knife and pry the plaster loose from the screw. 

2. Once the screw is exposed, tighten it. 
3. Then you want to use the end of your putty knife to indent the wall around the screw.  If you don't do this, you will have a little mound once you apply the spackle which kind of defeats the purpose of all of this.

4. Take a very small amount of spackle (or joint compound) on the end of your putty knife and scrape it over the hole. 
5. Go over the hole again with your putty knife removing as much spackle as possible. You might need to scrape it a couple of times.  You want to get the wall as clean as possible to avoid having to sand.

Side note:   If you put too much spackle or joint compound on the wall, you'll have to do a lot of sanding, and the sanded area will be smooth and will probably not match the texture of the surrounding wall once it's painted.  Plus, it's a lot of extra work you can avoid.

Just let your filled holes dry, and lightly sand them to remove any spackle that is still on the wall.  Now you're ready to paint.

Filling nail holes is basically the same.  Just skip steps 1 & 2.

THANKS John!!  That man knows his stuff!  Can't wait to show you all our freshly painted walls...hopefully soon. :-)

Off to paint...

Welcome to the Shabby Nest

Welcome to the Shabby Nest. I have been toying with the idea of starting a blog where I can share my dual passions of decorating and creating! I have no idea why I have put it off for so long, but I finally decided to bite the bullet and here I am. I hope that some of my ramblings might be inspirational (even a little bit) to those out in blogland who love decorating/design and creativity as much as I do.

My name is Wendy. I am the mom of four beautiful children (3 boys who I will call One, Two and Three since all their names begin with the same letter – as do their nicknames) and one girl who I will call the Princess – for obvious reasons! I have been married for twelve years to an amazingly talented man – The Hubby – who works as both a Home Improvement Contractor and a Professional Photographer…How. Lucky. Am. I? I graduated from college with a major in Fashion Merchandising and started my career path by working at a Department Store in the Advertising Department, after that I worked for a professional Ballet Company in Marketing and Public Relations. That led into the jobs I currently have as a part-time editorial assistant (so I can be home with my babies) and an aspiring photographer – learning from my über-talented hubby. How’s that for a round-about career path?

Don’t let the fact that I work as an editorial assistant fool you. My grammar is far from flawless. I write like I talk…and that tends to make me ramble…sentence fragments…lots of parenthetical remarks…etc. etc. (See what I mean?) But, I hope that in all my ramblings, there might be something of interest to someone.

My true passion is decorating. I have always loved it! So welcome to my Shabby Nest. Make yourself at home. I hope you enjoy!

I am more than happy to answer design related questions or to answer any other questions you may have. You can contact me by email at shabbynest (at) yahoo (dot) com.