New Year's Resolution Fail.

I am pretty sure waaaaaaaaaaay back in January I resolved to make 1 Pinterest project per month. Well, over half the year is gone now and I have little or nothing to show for my lofty goals. So I am perusing my "I think I can do that..." board and picking out 5 projects to finish before 2013 rolls around.

1. Photo Plaques

I picked this one because it looks fairly simple and well-within my skill set and I need to print out more recent photos of the hubs and I. Besides, I also want to re-do the bedroom, so this is a great and inexpensive way to have some new art for the walls!

2. T-Shirt scrap rug

I chose this one because I had high aspirations once upon a time to make a T-shirt blanket out of my old NIU t-shirts, so I cut them up. Fail. They are still in pieces in a bag in the closet. Perhaps if I cut them up some more I will actually use them! It's worth a shot...

3. Braided bracelets

If I can pull these off they would be lovely, inexpensive, yet meaningful Christmas presents.

4. A holiday wreath of some sort

There are ALOT of fun options for this one. It just depends on the season and amount of time I have to spare for it.

5. Some type of "word art"

Again, there are a lot of options out there for this one, it's just a matter of finding the right quote and medium to make it happen

A few honorable mentions if I can bang out the 5 above:
Ornaments as magnets for Christmas - another possible cool gift idea
Wire hanger words covered in yarn
Photo tiles/coasters/canvas
Upcyling frames and old cookie sheets
Date night jar (maybe for Valentine's day?)
A DIY cake stand 

Oh yes, and I want to make a quilt.

And I just started re-decorating my bedroom, including a giant dresser-painting project. 

Just color me crazy.

I can't wait to get started!!

Christmas 2011

Oh my dear neglected blog. December has been the whirlwind month I expected it to be, and even more, since I have gotten sick, sleep-deprived, and jet-lagged all in the past 3 weeks. Unfortunately, my blog is the area that has suffered most. Well, no more! I am finally going to post some unfortunate iphone pics of our Christmas decor (which has been up since before Thanksgiving, but I am pretty sure some people would have sent out a lynch mob after me had I posted these sooner!)

 Brandon often balks at my 'no colored lights' rule and my 'matchy-matchy' decorating approach, but I don't have a lot of sentimental Christmas stuff from my past. (I have promised him a 2nd tree with colored lights and handmade ornaments when we have kids, I am not a total Christmas snob!) But for now, my trees look like this:

Our Tree

I knew I really wanted to do a contrast of silver and the natural burlap fibers, then Alli and I went to the Kane County Flea Market. Oh man, there was an entire display that was like my dream Christmas decor. I swear these women had been inside my head!! It was fantastic! I snagged my stockings and the window frames for my mantle at the flea market.

 

The wreath was made by me, inspired by Pinterest (of course) and you can read about that here. I also made some of the larger ornaments. Hopefully I can post some better photos of the ornaments later. There are some covered in tulle, feathers, and twine. I love the way this turned out. I actually got the idea for the window frames on the mantle from a Home Depot commercial of all things.

I also have (but not pictured) a couple greenery wreathes hanging on either side of my couch with a feathered ornament hanging in the center and another plain green wreath replacing my fall wreath with a white feather stuck on it. :) 

And here is me as Sugarplum Mary the elf, Mrs. Claus's personal assistant. Oh the things I do for my job... I love it. Please don't mind the TV tray in the foreground... I was rushing the photographer.

Now here is Izzie, getting into the holiday spirit. I ordered these Christmas tutus from an etsy shop, Tutus N Shirts for Dogs and I love them! The dogs were more excited about the bones that came in the package, but this is just all kinds of Christmas cuteness! Happy holidays everyone!!

Pinterest Project #1 - Fluffy tulle wreath - complete!

I am halfway to one of my November goals! I have completed a pinterest project!!

I was inspired by this beauty here:

Unfortunately, there is no tutorial, just a link to the etsy shop, so I had to wing it on how to make it. Luckily, Mama Derry and I made tulle tutus a couple years ago, so I had a good idea on what to do.

Materials:
Twine/jute string
Tulle (in different shades of silver and white and GLITTER!)
foam floral wreath
Embellishments
push pins

I wrapped a foam wreath in jute/twine first. Then I started tying on tulle.
Here is a halfway photo: (I ran out of jute string!)

I just pinned on the flowers and the twine one is actually an ornament. That was a flea market find!

Here she is pre-flowers and in dire need of a hair cut:

Unfortunately, I had no idea how much tulle to buy, so of course, I overdid it. I have a TON of it left over, but good thing I am hand-making lots of Christmas decor this year! yay!

The finished product (who may still get another haircut):

Stay tuned for another project... or 2... or 3!!

Before and After: Ottoman

One of the many projects on my list was to cover this sexy blue jean ottoman:

Tell me how many of you want that sexy beast in your home! haha It was a $10 score from Savers. It is super light-weight and I really liked the shape and softness of it. It will be great as a seat for your bum or your feet. But really - blue jean? There was no way that blue jean was going to have a place in my living room. I had visions of a more sophisticated textile:

A rich, creamy suede. I am drooling just thinking about it. My only problem with this project was that I don't have any real experience with re-upholstery, so naturally, I did what any smart, capable, and crafty woman would do: I took it home to Nana. 

 

We literally just tossed the suede on top of the ottoman and started tucking and eventually stapling. Papa is very handy with a staple gun folks. I highly recommend using an electric staple-gun for these types of projects. I have done stuff with a manual one and it is just so much more efficient to have the power behind it.

We started by securing one side with a couple staples and then pulled it tight and stapled the side directly across. We did the long sides first because our ends were going to end up with some pleat-type things and we thought it would look better on the short sides.

Observe said pleats above.
I do need to throw it out there that I am no-where-near being a perfectionist. We made them all as even as possible without pulling out our hair. I think it does look pretty cool - even though it may not be perfect.

To finish off the bottom of the ottoman we cut a rectangle out of a bed-skirt that I had also gotten at Savers. This just gave it a cleaner finish.

Just for fun, I think you all should know I was wearing these shoes during this entire project. :)

And for the big reveal:

Ta-Da!!!!


You like??? I do! I will post some pics in the next week (or 2) of the whole living room, so you can see it in its new home and not on my grandparents' kitchen table :)

Bathroom Face Lift

For a few weeks, every time I would get into the shower I would think "Oh man, we need a new liner". It was to the point where it could no longer be cleaned and it was starting to be a little icky. However, by the time I had gotten out of the shower, I had moved on with my day and completely forgotten about it.
Then as I was walking through Target one day, I remembered and bee-lined for the bathroom aisle, fully intending to only buy a liner. Wellllllllllllll.... I couldn't talk myself out of getting a new shower curtain. My rationalizations were: We have had ours for almost 2.5 years. I really, really like it. It was only $19 and it has completely changed the look of the bathroom. See:

Before:

After:

It definitely has a bolder look than our other curtain, but I am a fan. Thankfully, so is the hubby, because he didn't see it until it was up. :) What do you think? Ya like it?

Kitchen Light Loathing

I HATE my kitchen light fixtures. HATE them. I thought they were all cute and modern when we moved in, but living with them on a day to day basis has revealed more flaws than appeal. They give off more heat than light. The bulbs are like little individual spot lights and there are areas of the kitchen that do not get adequate lighting. The bulbs are also a HUGE pain to change - Brandon and I have broken more than our fair share in the past year and I am a little bitter at a light fixture that requires more than one person to change a bulb. These are the current fixtures:

Not so bad at first glace. Just live with them for a year. So, I am starting to look for some practical light fixtures that I can replace these with. From what the men in my life tell me, it won't be difficult to do. We will just store those bad boys until we move out and we could be in this apartment for a pretty long time, so I might as well love my lights :)
Here are some inspiration photos. I am just looking at style right now - I will worry about finding some bargains once I have a clear idea of what I would like. Keep in mind too that my kitchen-style is pretty countryfied now. I need something that is going to give off a good amount of light - and have 2 places to put up fixtures. I was also thinking about supplementing with some push-on lights, mounted underneath the cabinets, to give a little more light to the cooking space.
OK- now pick your favorites!!

Option #1

Option #2

Option #3 - kinda similar to 1

Option #4 - kinda similar to 1 and 3

Option #5

Option #6

Option #7

*sigh* Ultimate-fantasy-someday light.

 Alrighty - tell me your thoughts kids!

Living Room Quick Change

Well, I teased you all a while back saying I moved around the living room furniture. The whole feel is much more open, but cozy. Perhaps you will see why that makes sense in the pictures :)

Before:

Gosh it looked so darn clean right after we moved in :)

Gosh - I cannot WAIT for it to be that green and beautiful outside again. It's just a big mud pit these days!

Fairly traditional set-up of couch w/ both end tables and lamps

And AFTER:

Couch is angled into room to create more of a conversational area w/ the big brown chair

I didn't take pics (because the aforementioned mud pit is tracking its way into our house) but there is a decent walk-way behind the couch for an entrance since we use our sliding glass door ALOT. Also, the pups just love lounging on the back of the couch and watching out that window - they may be turning into cats... only nicer :)

Little reading nook :)

Coffee table (which wasn't in the other pics) is now a double end table for the chair and couch. One of the end tables is against the far wall by the TV to display knick-knacks and puppy pics :)
Bonus: Izzie looking a little perplexed and yet, adroable :)

Don't mind the blue and yellow table and red wall combo there in the kitchen. lol That's still a work-in-progress :)

I like it for a change. Thoughts??

Post- Christmas Mantle

I know this has been a long-time coming, but I only recently got it "just right". After the Christmas set-up:

So festive!
Well, since this was a new edition over Christmas, I hadn't really had anything lined up to go on a mantle so for quite awhile it looked pretty sparse. There was nothing up there but the candlesticks and some pine needles. Sorry no photos available of that depressing look. Then, as I continued to tweak, it looked like this for a little while:

I still was not thrilled with it. at. all. I was living with it though. Then, after I re-did the Warren Cupboard, a lot of the things that were on the mantle migrated over the the top of the cupboard. Then I was left with a bare mantle again. Well, here is the final product, which I am finally happy with. 

It is pretty much a Nana-philosophy that putting some tulle and lights on anything will make it look better, and she's right. I picked up the light green frame on the far left at Home Goods on clearance for $5 and the green bottle in the middle for $5. The frame in between the two Home Goods items was a Target Clearance item for $3.50 I think. I like it. What do you think?