Spring Please

It may not technically be Spring but it sure feels like it with this warm weather we've been having.  I decided that to go along with it, I was going to set out some flowers.  Here's to Spring coming soon!!

A Balancing Act

I can find inspiration in just about anything. I am always coming up with ideas and things I'd like to do inside and outside of our house. I could walk you through every single room in the house and tell you something new or different I'd like to do. My problem is that time and money don't always align with my project ideas. I accept that, most of the time. I use the winter to compile ideas and first sign of warm weather, I get started. Pinterest hasn't helped because it has provided inspiration and ideas well out of my realm of creativity and has tripled my "Want To Do" list for this year. I even have a "To Do" list app on my phone to help me organize my ideas by room and I have it at my fingertips when out shopping.

My goal in 2012 is to not have an overabundance of ideas and materials sitting around the house that I just don't get to. I have a dresser, wooden student desk, and some mirrors and frames taking up space because I never completed all of my 2011 projects. I painted the boys' room to decorate it like a big boy room vs a nursery and never did anything else to the room. I refuse to have uncompleted projects. I will find a balance between being a mother and creative soul and I will finish all the awesome projects that I set out to start!

Here's one I finished up at the end of last year before the weather turned cold.

I wanted to change the look of the house with small touches. First thing, paint the door.

I felt red would be dramatic and still go with the brown shutters that I have no intention of painting. I also added some pillows to our chairs to give an additional pop of color. The picture isn't the best and it's still a work in progress. We have a lot of yard work to do to complete the over look. The tree needs to be trimmed back, the flowerbed is going to be tilled and we are going to start fresh this spring. I also painted some flower pots red too but those haven't made their appearance yet. At the bottom, you can see the head of the yard owl I painted red too. I'm excited to get started on it again. Come on Spring!!!

Addicted to Pinterest?

Why, yes I am. I have been for a long time. Before I got my smart phone, I'd have limited time during the day to pop on the computer and look. I'd use my husband's iPhone at night while laying in bed to catch up on the pins I'd missed during the day from those I was following. The idea of Pinterest was genius! Collect all of your ideas in one location making them easy to get to. See something you like or want to try out there in internet space and pin it. Bam, there it is on your board to see and get back to. On top of that, you can see what other people have pinned to gather even more ideas.

Thanks to Pinterest, I've been cooking so much more, doing things from scratch. I used my stand mixer for the first time yesterday and it was a wedding present 6 years ago. I appreciate all the wonderful recipes and DIY tips and tricks it has opened my eyes to. The down side (because there has to be a down side) is that I want to look at it all the time. It's sad really. And after getting my smart phone over the summer last year, I'm able to do just that. For this reason, my husband has a love hate relationship with Pinterest. He loves that I've been cooking better foods, but doesn't like that I access the site all the time.

Saturday, Andriod sent me a message that there was a Pinterest app. Oh My Word. I had been waiting for it and it had finally arrived. Previously, I had just been getting on the internet to view things but no longer, or so I thought. I do not have good opinion of the app. Everything is small, significantly smaller than just viewing from the internet. My biggest complaint, I tried to upload a pin and it said I couldn't upload a pin unless I rated the app 5 stars. Uh, big NO. Back to the internet I go. I don't appreciate apps that tell me I can't use them to the fullest unless I rate them the best, no matter what they actually deserve. So Pinterest, if you ever see this, I'm not going hold this against you because I still love the site, but it definitely rubbed me the wrong way!

It's time to start weening off the site. I have tons of pins, just look . It's time to start actually making the things I've pinned. I mean, what's the point of spending all the time pinning and looking through other's pins, if I don't do anything with it?? So, here to come, look for my "Pinterest in Action" post each week. I challenge you also to complete one pin each week and tell me about it. We might even do a link party! Check back next week to see :)

Christmas Soon

Christmas is just a few days away. This has been a primarily homemade Christmas. My sister asked for jewelry and I found a new appreciation for my sewing machine and so I made a lot of gifts with it. I hope everyone likes everything and after the last one has been opened I'm going to give you a show of everything. I am super proud of how it all turned out and was even tempted to keep (or make) some of them for myself! Thanks to Pinterest, I found many of the ideas and/or inspiration for what I did and what I intend to do after Christmas. So excited!

The Desk that Rocks my World!!

I've seen a lot of inspiring furniture renovations in blogland and have taken a real interest in it myself. I wish I had more time and actual work space to dedicate to it, but no dice. When I came across THIS desk on one of my favorite sites, www.betterafter.blogspot.com, I knew I had to have a super fab desk of my own. I was super excited for Yard Sale season to start so I could score me a super cheap desk I could make over. Thanks to a sweet old man, I found one for $15 that even came with a chair. Granted, the chair didn't match but at $15 I didn't care one bit!! It found a new home in my garage until I found inspiration and could decide what to do with it. A few trips to Hobby Lobby later, I saw this fabric and the idea was clear.

The background is black with white & charcoal gray damask type pattern with a magenta pink damask for a pop of color. I saw it and immediately knew what I wanted to do: a black high gloss desk, white handles, white chair and this fabric as the seat of the chair. I was so excited to get started.

Here's the desk originally. It was a beautiful cherry color and had the top not been scratched up, I may have went a different route, but it was so, yay!

Look at those lines!!

And here's the chair that totally doesn't match!

I worked on the chair first. I took off the seat, sanded it down, primed and spray painted the chair. It's not 100% perfect but it's still adorable!!

Sanded

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Primed & Painted

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Ta-Da!!! Love!

I had some help using the heavy duty staple gun because it was a major pain. After completing the entire project, this girl had a Christmas list going...

Arrow Heavy Duty Electric Staple/Nail Gun

Homax Aerosol Spray Gun

Electric Sander

But I digress....

After removing all the handles and taking the drawers out, I got to sanding. I decided to put a spin on it. Even though the desk would be black, I wanted the drawers to be a different color when you pulled them out. A little more visual interest. Here we are in painting progress (and by we I mean the different parts of the desk. There was no way anyone was taking a pic of me in that funny looking mask!)

I used painters tape and news paper to cover the front of the drawers that I didn't want gray. I used my left over gray primer and white primer to prime the desk. I must be honest at this point though, once I saw the white primer on the desk, I was starting to wonder if choosing black was a mistake. It looked so pretty and feminine with the white, but I already had the black, and the idea in my head, so I kept going. I got out my Glidden high gloss black and went to town. It took 3 coats to get it just right but I loved it!! Then I coated it with this bad boy:

Minwax Water Based Polycrylic Protective Finish in Semi Gloss. I wanted something that was an easy clean up without the smell so this was the perfect option. It goes on cloudy and dries clear. I finished up by spray painting the handles white. For my final touch of fabulous, I used spray adhesive and lined the inside of the drawers with fabric. I really couldn't love it more. After seeing how wonderful it turned out, I'd love to do another one but in a completely different way!! Here she is in all her glory...

Wanna see her in action? She's settled into her home and is doing a fantastic job :)

So chic and so stylish!! I love it!!! Yes, I also made the garbage can to match!! Don't you just want one too??

China Cabinet of Awesomeness

I told you about the steal I found on craigslist...a $60 China Cabinet. It was something out of the early 80's with someone's attempt at sprucing it up, with turquoise trim. Hideous? Yes. But my good fortune!! Here's a reminder.

Yup, ugly, but such potential. I knew I wanted to do something different with her (yes, she's a she!) since I was revamping my dining room. I wanted to get rid of the wire things in the side windows and also remove the hideous gold with black flecks background. I know nothing says modern and chic like gold with black flecks, but it had to go!

I took it apart and got to work. My dining room was going green and I wanted it to be sophisticated so I knew I needed to find awesome fabric to make curtains. I decided after seeing some cool furniture reno's that I wanted to have fabric as my background. My favorite color is turquoise so when I found this awesome fabric that allowed me to tie in the green using turquoise, I couldn't be more excited!! This was my inspiration:

The green matched the color I picked for the dining room, it was predominately turquoise plus had some awesome plum in it. I mean, who doesn't love a splash of purple??

I have an awesome dad who knows people and got me some primer and paint for my cabinet so all I had to out of pocket for the project was the $60 and $40 on fabric, but the $40 included the fabric I made the curtains from. Not too shabby!! I busted out my ipod, put Mumford & Sons on repeat and spent 3 days removing screws, painting, adding the fabric, then replacing the screws. Here's the in progress.

Here are the gold handles before silver spray paint

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See that turquoise up close? This is pre-primer.

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Now see how much better that looks??

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Here's the top painted, before the fabric is put over the awesome gold backer

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It's laying down so I can stand in it and put the fabric down with glue.

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I was happy with how it turned out. I had intentions of antiquing it with black glaze but I loved the stark white against the fabric and also the green walls. It's not perfect by any means, but I'm super proud of it and extremely happy with how it turned out!! Here she is in all her Awesomeness!!!

You know you love it!!

Wristlet facelift

Here's what I had:

thirty one wristlet - Google Search

Here's what some awesome Hobby Lobby clearance fabric and some Modge Podge turned it in to!!

The Forgotten Project

Forgotten in the sense that I neglected to tell you about it, not that I forgot to do it. It's been up in our bedroom two months I guess. I love it. I saw an awesome idea for a jewelry hanger onTHIS great blog and thought I could make it my own. Since I make my own jewelry I have plenty of it just laying around and don't have but a tiny little jewelry box for storage. When I saw the idea, I knew I had to make one for myself! I didn't follow her steps exactly, but that's because I'm impatient and didn't want to wait until I collected all the same materials she did before I could do it.

It started with a trip to our local peddlers mall. Oh how I love that place. I could spend hours in there taking my time looking at everything. Usually, though, the boys are with me and therefore I'm on a tight schedule to find what I need and get the heck outta there before the first meltdown is activated. I wanted to make two originally so I bought two ornately framed mirrors but I only ended up making one based on where I decided to hang it. I primed my gold mirrors and then sprayed them my fun yellow that is my master accent color. It's such a fun splash of color in an otherwise muted room.

Next I got out my quilt batting and cardboard. I used the back of the mirror to trace and then cutout the cardboard so it would fit the frame.

I then laid my quilt batting over the cardboard and taped it with masking tape.

I got out my awesome turquoise and white damask fabric and put it over my cardboard and batting. Again, I used tape to put it in place until I got the frame back on, which was the next step.

After all that, I screwed in little hooks in different places then hung it up on the wall and decorated it with my jewelry.

Voila!

Simple as that and I LOVE LOVE LOVE it! The hubs of course said it looks too girly, but that's ok. A little feminine touch is good and once I'm 100% finished with our master, there will be a few more things feminine to spruce it up!!

Last Bedroom Project Completed!!!

I love the color of our bedroom. It's a teal but toned down with a lot of gray in it. I decided I wanted yellow as my accent color in there. You've seen the jewelry hanger and the picture over our bed. But we had one more wall, a long wall, that was empty and boring. I had been looking for something to do and when I came across THIS adorable idea over at A Diamond in the Stuff (one of my fav inspiration blogs!) I knew I wanted to do my own little spin on it. I went on a search for the "&" and wasn't able to find it. Another trip back to Hobby Lobby and I found them...50% off!! Yeah baby! So I got to work.

The gold letters before spray paint. I love how they are 3D and not just flat letters!

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Here is my bare wall.

The painters tape marks where the bedroom door is when it's open.

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I wasn't sure of their layout

so I tried a few out on the floor first.

Option 1

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Option 2

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Option 3

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Option 4

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Option 5

I liked this best and went with it!

I love how it turned out. The picture kind of makes it look small but it spans the entire wall and looks great!!! I had to throw a pop of yellow in there too to tie in the yellow on my other two walls. For now, this completes our bedroom. Do I love our comforter? No. Will it due for now? Yes. Since my walls are grayish teal and my accent is yellow, I wanted a gray comforter. I want a neutral and with a dog and two toddlers, white isn't an option. I can't find one anywhere. I'm so bummed, but oh well. I'll find one eventually!!

In Transition...Need a little Organization

We have started the transition into toddler beds. It's going so much better than I expected at night and about what I expected at nap time. We'll get through it, I know. In the process, it's time to get rid of the baby monkey nursery and give the boys a room for toddlers. I didn't want to do a character room but I still want it to be fun and playful and intriguing to a toddler. My original thought was airplanes, but guess what. They are nearly IMPOSSIBLE to find. Trains was the next best thing. They boys love choo choo trains and love Thomas and so it seemed like a good choice. I did get them a Thomas blanket but that will be the only character item in their room. The dresser I got from the yard sale is in the garage waiting and longing to be painted. I have the paint, it's just finding the time. I've narrowed the room color down to 3 choices and I think it's going to require samples on the wall to determine what's the best choice in their room. I'm making tiny tiny progress but I'm starting to get ideas now and before I was roadblocked. What's the crafter's version of writer's block? That's what I had. It seems to be fading, thankfully!!!

I am craving organization! Is that something that you can really crave? I don't know, but I definitely need it right now. In a house with twin boys and people in and out helping, my house never feels de-cluttered. My basement is the worst. I need to get the basement organized first and I feel like other things will fall into place. Our basement looks like three daycares crashed into each other. It's truly sad. I need to go through and pack up baby and infant toys and then organize what's left. The beautiful bookcase my dad built for the nursery will soon be taking it's place in the basement to help with that. It actually makes me a bit excited to know that there is a light at the end of the cluttered tunnel :)

Yard Sales

This past Saturday was perfect weather to have a yard sale. Many people agreed because there were yard sales all over the place. A girlfriend of mine, who also has twins, met up with me and we went yard saling together. She was great in helping me decide which pieces I could or couldn't live without. I got a $10 dresser for the boys room and a $15 desk for my art room. A super successful day!!!

Since Ethan has been climbing out of his crib, we have ordered toddler beds. When they arrive, we are going to give them a big boy room. The monkeys are on their way out and I think we are going with a touch of aviation in their big boy room. We've looked at some colors and I'm compiling ideas so we'll see where it takes us :)

Bathroom Reveal

Our half bath on the main living floor is a very awkwardly shaped space. It's a mustard color, although you can't really tell from the pictures. There was never much thought put into that room. It had a rod iron cross hanging on the wall over the toilet and a candle thing on the wall next to the sink. BORING. There were so many beautiful colors in Hawaii it was hard not to be inspired there. I knew I wanted to decorate with that in mind but didn't want a tacky bathroom. There is a fine line sometimes. I wanted to go vintage so I edited some of the pictures we took in Picnik to make the colors more vibrant then put a 1960's haze over them to make them feel more vintage. I eventually plan to get a vintage poster but for now, I'm happy with how it looks!

The cross previously hung over the toilet

Blank boring walls

The candle thing, I guess you'd call it a sconce? (not sure why the color looks booger green)

More blank space (can you see how oddly shaped it is?)

An almost black and white picture of a lighthouse and palm trees

All 3 walls as best I could get

Love the turquoise towel!!

The pictures look straight on the wall, but not here. Odd!!

Over the toilet and the wall next to it

On top of the toilet. That's a real Hawaiian Hula Girl (at least purchased in HI, probably not made in HI)

A recycled picture from our old house. It's finally found a home!

So there you have it. Our half bath. It looks so much better in person. The colors are so vibrant that it makes you feel so happy!!