Sunshine Decorating

This is a before picture of the entry from our garage door...bleh, I know.I do love the pics of newborn Samster but I've noticed that I tend to go overboard in the pictures department. I mean, yeah, she is just about the cutest little mammal on earth but it can be a bit cluttering to have too many framed pictures around. I think at least.

So after some rearranging of things around the house & a bit of sunny accents...I love it! This wall is the first thing we see whenever we walk in the door so I'm excited to have a new look. Those fabulous yellow Chinese dragon bookends? Target! I know, right?! And the yellow wreath? I made it using this fantastic tutorial from MaryJanes & Galoshes. The only difference is I used text pages from an old book & then painted them with some nice sunny yellow watercolor paint.Also a few notes about the books, I LOVE to decorate with books. They make a home look nice & cozy. I'm really not much of a reader but I feel like if I have them everywhere I can at least fake it. (;
To make books look good of course the older thrift store finds are the best. When you have to use new however there are a few things you can do. One, ditch the paper cover. Two, I wore down the sides of my new books by gritting them up with some sandpaper, then I dulled down the metallic title text by writing over it with a pencil & smudging lightly with the eraser.Here are a few other places I've decorated with books. Now you're totally convinced that I'm a literary genius aren't ya?