Curtain Update and My Next Project

Y'all are going to be SO PROUD!! I cut out ALL the gray material for the curtains for our bedroom windows and slider.  Now all I have to do is cut out the gold.  I should be able to get that finished by tomorrow and maybe even start sewing!! WHAAAAA?! i know I'm pretty excited and impressed too =)

I posted this picture last night to FB and Instagram:

 

I wanted to know which gold fabric to go with - I had asked The Husband and he preferred A over B.  The majority of people also preferred A over B.  I didn't realize until someone else mentioned something about the pattern that it kind of looks like two DIFFERENT fabrics.  They aren't.  It is two different sides of the SAME fabric...a heads and tails.  Same exact pattern.  

As for my upcoming weekend - the plan is to get these curtains finished and hung.  And finish the craft room....is there an echo in here?! I know, I know - same sad song.  Seriously though we have been talking about it for the past week that I would like to get it done.  He is frustrated because all my craft room stuff is in totes in the office and blocking the closet in there. The Husband is not thrilled with that - nor was I this morning when I had to move a bunch of totes of the way to get a jacket since it was actually storming out! Legit - thunder and lightning style...before work...before 8!! ridiculous!

If we get that finished on Saturday, I am leaving towards gel staining our bathroom vanity.  I'm so scared to do it but I want to so badly!!! I don't love the color of the vanity in relation to the color of the walls. It just doesn't work for me.  I found a tutorial on Pinterest (anyone surprised? no? ok, moving on).  I want to go from this to this - pretty much just like One Good Thing by Jillee did:

 

 Seriously - I can't wait to have this completed.  It will look so much better with the deep gray I painted the walls in the master bath. Unfortunately, I have to order the gel stain because apparently it isn't sold in stores.  booo!!! I am going to trek to some of the local hardware stores and see if I can't find some of the stain recommended in her post.  It is sold through Sears online but not available in stores.  Why must they do this to me?!  Well since that won't get done this weekend, maybe we will finish my plans for the spare bathroom or the laundry room...yeeessssss!!! =)

As always, I am definitely being ambitious in what we will accomplish this weekend.  I know I can do the gel stain on my own while The Husband does something else. The craft room would be a much bigger challenge so I'm going to go ahead and let him take care of it =) 

If absolutely nothing else I am finishing those silly curtains....hopefully.... ;)

Woo - it is almost Friday!!!

My Life As a Procrastinating Crafter

That should PROBABLY be the title of this blog.  Let's face it, I am the world's best procrastinator.  If there was an Olympic sport devoted to it, I would win the gold.  Not only do I procrastinate beautifully, but I STILL manage to meet every deadline.  My procrastination of projects, crafts, and DIYs definitely deserves its own post. 

I did finally start cutting the material for the curtains I want to make in our master bedroom.  There has been something NOT quite right about our master.  I couldn't figure out what it was...so I thought I was going to paint.  The Husband said there HAS to be something I can do differently.  So I thought and thought and thought some more and determined i REALLY hate the curtains.  They are very cheap - and I bought them because we needed something to shut out the world.  Well the time has come to make it better! 

So I started searching for what I could possibly want.  I couldn't think of anything at first because our comforter is very ... ornate?  it is beautiful and I LOVE it. the problem is finding something that is complimentary but not boring.  Here is our set:

 

Its from Kohl's - my parents bought it for us for our second anniversary.  It is a lot more gray than blue like it sort of looks.  so I needed something that would compliment it without fighting against it.  Our bedroom furniture is black and the walls are gray...here's a refresher:

 

This picture was taken like a month after moving in.  A lot has changed.  anyhow - I decided I really hate the curtains; and with how much the temperature differs in our bedroom versus the rest of the house, we knew we needed blackout curtains.  

Off to JoAnns I went with my mom and sister.  This is what I found on clearance:

GORGEOUS! I hesitated .... and carried the material around with me for a good half hour.  I finally decided to bite the proverbial bullet and buy it.  I needed 12 yards....I walked up to the counter and sadly, it was all they had left and there MAY have been 8 yards.  Well that wasn't going to be enough for the two windows and the slider.  So I pouted, and then I carried the material around with me.  There HAD to be another option.  I found the PERFECT contrasting gray material (also on clearance).  It isn't dark gray and actually has a blue/purple undertone to it.  

At that moment I remembered that I saw paneled curtains on Pinterest....but could never find the ones I loved again.  After DAYS and countless hours of searching online, I finally found what I had been looking for - and I will never forget the title - Pimp My Curtains.  This would be my inspiration from The Design Pages:

 

So I bought all the material I could possibly need - plus a little more.  And hey, it was on sale for something like $4 a yard AND my sister used her teacher discount.  WHOOOO!!! 

I was so excited, I took the material in and laid it across the comforter to make sure it would look perfect.  It does. It is going to be magnificent....my problem is that I have been too scared to cut the fabric.  Then I had a mini panic attack because I was worried that maybe I didn't buy enough material.  So after a month - seriously, I bought it Father's Day weekend - and three different counts of the yardage and three different diagrams, with associating math. I finally cut out material for the FIRST slider panel.  That's as far as I got last night but now I am ready to go.  

As you can guess, I don't have pictures of the finished product. Not even close. I didn't even take pictures of me cutting up the fabric - which I totally should have done; a little celebratory or mischievous picture because let's face it, I'm proud of myself.

With The Husband's birthday quickly approaching, I am looking over my to-do/project list and marking the ones that NEED to be done.  It is quite the impressive list. I may be a little over ambitious...don't touch that dial, let's see if I can get it all done! =)

 

A Quick DIY - Refashioned Earrings to Necklace

Hiiii!!! Ok so I have only 3 more full work days left with my current company.
I am starting to feel some sadness - I'll miss the people in the office.
I will miss the familiarity of it all; I mean what if the people at the new office don't like me?!
Psh - yeah right!! haha OK I am NOT that confident but I have to keep smiling and laughing.

A couple weeks ago I ordered a jewelry grab bag from Sassy Steals
I was SO happy with the loot I received yesterday...
except for the bubble earrings.  I think they are darling but the reality is that they are pretty big.
And heavy - I knew I wasn't going to wear them.

As I looked at them, I realized that I could remove one of the dangles, and combine them to make a necklace!!! you know, one of the short bubble necklaces that are floating around the Internet.
I removed one of the bigger dangle pieces, took the main piece off the earring and combined them

TaDaa!!!  Seriously -this took all of 2 minutes before heading out for work this morning.
I try to always look at something for its possibilities rather than the face value.

Have you ever done a refashion DIY?

SPD {Hanging Ironing Board}

Like many of you, we stored our ironing board leaning against a wall, behind a door, next to the washer...it doesn't look great and honestly it was kind of a pain no matter where we put it. I was fed up with it last week and remembered a pin I saw on Pinterest.  I knew it was time to make some sort of rack for the ironing board - something to get it out of the way, but still have easy access to it, AND something bordering on cute.

Here is the orginal picture for my inspiration from Blissfully Ever After

Her laundry room makeover is just beautiful! I love it!

My ironing board holder isn't quite as fancy as hers....I haven't decided if I want to add a saying to it or now. For now, it is cute and simple and to the point.

FIRST THINGS FIRST!
Your supplies list:
hooks of some sort (big enough to fit your ironing board)
wood
paint
something to hang it from the wall
tools - drill, screw driver (or screw bit), sander

We had the wood and some saw-toothed hanging hardward leftover from a previous project.  I ended up buying a paint that I liked...it isn't just plain ol' white - it is iced arctic or something....basically it is a very muted ice blue color.
I also had to buy some hooks.  I tried cutesie hooks like Jennifer used for her stand but i must have a strange sized ironing board because those were too small for the 'feet' of my board.  I went back and bought this:

 

We took it apart and actually had to cut up the over-the-door part to make the hooks sit flush again the wood. That was a pain but thankfully The Husband is super handy! =)

The Husband routed the edges of the board and I spray painted the pieces for the hooks. I had to paint them because they were a little dinged up from the husband making all the adjustments for them to lay flat on the board.

He drilled out some holes for the screws and I sanded the board.
***oh and in this photo, you can see where he wood-filled the holes he drilled because we couldn't find screws small enough and long enough so we thought we were going to have to liquid nail the hooks to the board.  thankfully I found some screws that we could use later that day!

After I finished sanding the board, it was time to paint! Then we put it all together - adding the mounting brackets to the back of the board.  We used two mounting brackets clost to the hooks since that is where most of the weight would be distributed.

Time to hang! I love it! It makes me feel more organized.

 

Now we need to build a cabinet for over the washer and dryer and mayber a clothes rod to hang the clothes that must be line dried.

 

PS: sorry about the filters on these two pictures I just couldn't help myself - I had to make my phone pictures looke better haha!!! My SD card quit working in my computer so I haven't been able to recover the pictures =(

Super Bowl Su...um Tuesday... Mini Recap

Happy Tuesday ALREADY!!! These days are just flying by! The crazy thing is how much I look forward to my weekends, starting on Monday morning during my drive to work.  Sad huh?  I just love doing things that are NOT me working haha! I’m sure that would be so much different if I absolutely loved what I did or had my own company of something cute, fun, and girlie.  Until that day, I shall continue to look forward to my weekends =)

You may or may not have heard that Sunday was Super Bowl Sunday.  My team didn’t make it to the playoff, let alone the Big Game.  That’s alright – they didn’t have a stellar season and they ended with a few too many injuries.  Then the team I wanted to cheer for in the playoffs, didn’t make it to the Super Bowl. SAD!  SO I had to pick my ‘favorite’ of the two competitors.  I went with the 49ers.  Who didn’t win but DID make an exquisite attempt during the second half. I ended up getting pretty caught up in things this year…I made themed cupcakes and even a BANNER! WHAT?! I know crazy!

I saw a picture of these SUPER cute cupcakes that had two colors of frosting on them…SO cute! I hit the Google search to see if I could find some sort of problem free tutorial on how to achieve the look.  The best one I found was here, at Grin and Bake It.  I ended up using a home-made disposable icing bag with our vacuum sealer and then a disposable icing bag I had in my baking cabinet.  I filled one with the red frosting and one bag with the yellow frosting.  When I put those both in the large icing bag, only the red was coming out.  After a couple attempts (and fails to combine the colors) I stuck my hand in the piping bag and forced out some yellow.  From there, it was perfect and worked really well.  At the end of it all, I said “well I won’t do that again….who am I kidding?! They are so cute this way!”  The Husband promptly rolled his eyes at me but agreed they were super cute!

 

For the ‘tags’ I found a logo for SF via Google and pasted 16 in a word document.  I then cut them out by hand and taped them to a toothpick.  A LITTLE time consuming but they were the perfect cupcake topper!!! 

For the banner, I used my cricut for the letters/numbers and then ‘hand-cut’ the pennant out.  I punched little holes in the corners using my crop-a-dile and then found some gold ribbon to attach it all together.  It was super easy and fun to make.

The party was hosted at my parent’s house, which is always so much fun!  I was thinking the other night about whether or not it is ‘weird’ that our friends are also friends with my parents. It is totally the norm for me but I was wondering if anyone else is like that??  I’m not talking like we all just hang out and my parents join in.  I mean a couple that The Husband and I are friends with went on a trip with just my parents.  I think it is awesome because our friends end up being a major extension of our family and not just on mine and The Husband’s level, but my extended-immediate family.  

So let’s take a second to discuss the halftime show.  You may love Beyonce.  You may despise her.  But you can’t deny the girl has incredible breath support and she can dance.  You don’t have to like her dance style – heck she may not but that’s what the choreographer went with – but you can’t deny her talent.  I know what your argument is – she lip synched the National Anthem at the inauguration this past January.  Let’s take a moment here and remember that she was probably nervous – the National Anthem has been botched on more than one occasion and truth-be-told, it isn’t an easy song to sing. Anyone who has paid any attention to her career knows that if you don’t include that ONE time, I have a hard time recalling any other lip-sync scandal that included Beyonce =) Just saying!  

Oh and I saw an article on Yahoo! – well I saw the title and little blip , I didn’t actually read the article lol – but it stated that people were upset about Alicia Keys’ rendition.  I’m not going to lie, I loved it…though she was a little slow and had excessive breaks in the music/vocals, I was moved by her rendition.  I thought she did it justice. 

How was your Super Bowl?
Did you enjoy halftime?
How about the National Anthem?

Friday Happies!

Yay Yay! it's Friday!!!! Wooooo!!!!

I'm so excited to get this weekend going!  The Husband and I are going to be building an end table for our living room and I get to do most of the work! I am really looking forward to figuring out how to make a piece of furniture instead of letting The Husband do it all.  We officially designed the piece last night and figured out what materials we needed to buy. When I get off of work today, we are going to meet at the home improvement store for wood and stain! So excited! AND if time permits, I am going to finish my closet re-organization! So far it is going well, I just need a new nail polish rack...which we will DIY.  It will be very similar to this but will go on the wall...my collection DOUBLED over the holidays!

This morning officially start Operation:Work Out again.  I have taken some time off after my half marathon at the beginning of December because I have been having knee issues.  BOOO!! I go to the doctor on Tuesday and will have it checked out but in the meantime I HAD to start doing something again.  I feel so good after this mornings workout.  Let's keep it up!

I found this really neat website/app for books - it is called goodreads.com.  you can look up authors,books, genres, and create a 'shelf' of books you want to read.  then when the time comes to read them, you can compare prices online and in stores...the site will tell you where the cheapest copy can be found! I have set a goal for 2013 - I want to read at least 30 books this year.  I have book #1 picked out...now I just have to open it haha!

I want to add a custom clock to our gallery wall - I think it would add a lot! These are the two options I am tossing around:

 

For All Time Clocks

Rosy Red Buttons Blog

The second example was the first I fell in love with but the problem is that The Husband and I don't have a picture together off set enough OR far enough from the camera...MAYBE I can talk him into a photo this weekend?! Just one before my seeester's birthday!

Tomorrow is this pretty lady's birthday! LOVE love LOVE my baby seester!! she makes my heart happy and puts a smile on my face..don't mess with her or I'll come for ya! =)

More on that Monday!

Have a wonderful weekend y'all!

Do you have big plans??

Saw It. Pinned It. Did It. {DIY Key Holder}

We've all seen it.  That cute little key rack with the toy cube letters spelling out 'keys'.  Yep - that is what I used as my inspiration. Let's face it; this was so easy especially compared to the other projects we have been tackling! Here is our version:

The best part about it was cost - THe only purchase for this project was the block letters that I got at hobby lobby with a 40% off coupon. soooo total for this one was probably close to $2.50.

Here's the pin-spiration:

Source: glanerie-moderne.tumblr.com via Ashley on Pinterest

I made a sign for the finance department when we shared an office. 

Then the department outgrew said office and we split up so the sign came down.

Step 1: I had to pull off all the bling and sand that puppy down to the point that most of the paint and all the lettering was gone.

Step 2: I sprayed it brown and each of the letter blocks an off white.  This took a lot of coats because the spray paint wasn't real thick.  In hindsight, I probably should have used an acrylic paint and paint brush.

 Step 3: I screwed in the hooks to the bottom of the blocks.

Step 4: Put it together!
The tricky part came when it was time to screw the blocks to the board...I had every intention of doing this myself, but I came home and The Husband had done it for me while I was at work.  Apparently it is a good thing he did! He said the wood was so hard that the drill bit had trouble grabbing on and getting through the wood.  Thankfully The Husband is a big strong man =)

I LOVE it so much and I always know where our keys are!

Except when this photo was taken haha - where are The Husband's truck keys?! =)

Where do you store your keys?
Do you often lose track of them?

Sangria Stain

Happy Monday Everyone!!! 

So I am sharing a project today that was ACTUALLY completed in 2012 but I just didn't get a chance to share.  we had this BIG wall in our living room that has a really big painting on it but there is a LOT of empty space in the room. I decided that I wanted a pretty table to go on the wall.  

We found the biggest problem was going to be finding a table for a price we were willing to pay.  Enter the Internet.  Thank goodness for it too! I found the PERFECT table to put in our living room for this wide open space.  Now the task of convincing The Husband that it is, in fact, that perfect. 

Shanty 2 Chic had the CUTEST farmhouse style desk that she built for their bedroom. I instantly fell in love and THEN I saw how much it cost her to build it.  I knew this was it and it was going to be amazing! and people it IS amazing! I love the table! 

We went to the home improvement store and picked out all the wood for the table.  then it was time for the dreaded color decision...do we paint it? do we stain it? We should just go with a wood color...but wouldn't it be fun to have an actual color?! So we decided to stain the table a color...Sangria. 

  

Don't you just LOVE it?! 

The table is 5' X 2' X 3'.  I love everything about it from design to color to cost! PLUS I helped The Husband build it and that in itself is highly rewarding!!!  Our next couple projects include a coffee table and a possible buffet for the gallery wall - and we are considering making one or both sangria as well!! I'm so excited! I can't wait to get started!

Have you built any furniture by yourself with someone?

My First Ever Baby Shower Gift

A couple weeks ago, we hosted a baby shower at work for one of our employees and his wife.  

I have only ever been to one baby shower and for that one I made a cake and just bought a gift to stick in a gift bag.  It wasn't creative but the cake was cute at least =) 

This time around, I decided I wanted to do something super cute since I wasn't the organizer.  I didn't have to worry about who brought what and what was I going to make and how was I going to finish the cake.  All I had to worry about was a super cute gift =)  Away to Google I went. 

I thought about doing a big diaper cake and I was satisfied with that since I think they are really adorable.  As I was browsing I came across a diaper motorcycle!!! I was so so excited that I knew i had to find out if there was any sort of tutorial on what made up the different parts of it.  Thankfully Sweet Aprils had the perfect how-to for this cute little project =)  Once I saw what supplies were needed to create this little cuteness, it all made sense and was pretty simple to create! 

 

With the left over ribbon and diapers, i decided I would make a mini diaper cake and then tie the other diapers into little bundles =) it made for such a darling display!!

 

I was really thrilled with how it all turned out and so were the soon-to-be mommy and daddy =) Oh and have you been to a baby shower!? that stuff is SOOOO tiny and adorable! The entire party was so cute and was a big hit with the parents-to-be. Shout out to my girl Corin at Corin Bakes for co-hosting the shower with another lady at work. Everything was so so great =) 

Have you ever been to a baby shower?

DIY Filing Cabinet Redo

Have you ever bought a filing cabinet? 

If you have, you KNOW how incredibly expensive they can get! 

We have been using a little pitiful excuse for a filing cabinet that I bought while I was in college. it is a little two drawer, vertical cabinet that is so awesome that when I try to open the top drawer, the metal bends like a piece of card stock. Seriously it sucks. I'm sure it doesn't help that I have STUFFED it full...

I was talking to Jackie one day about wanting to get one but how expensive they are - she suggested I check a Habitat for Humanity Re-store. I did and was pleasantly surprised to find that I had a choice from three different cabinets. I'll admit, none of them LOOKED great but two of three were in good condition as far as functionality is concerned.  All I had to do was pick one.... I went with a four drawer brown vertical cabinet.... If I would have purchased one at an office supply store, I would have easily paid over $150.  I paid $20 ... yes TWENTY for one at the Re-store. 

I knew I could make it prettier with some paint and new drawer pulls. So I bought it on the spot - and let The Husband know we had one! I was VERY excited; probably more than I should admit =) Once my parents picked it up for me - THANKS MOM AND DAD! - I went about making it look nicer. Enter some pretty pretty spray paint of choice and some time...have you figured out yet that I am willing to spray paint JUST about anything?! 

Here is the before and after:

To achieve the after, we bought 2 cans of black spray paint and 1 can of 'Tiffany Blue'; I already had the metallic silver for the hardware from a previous project. 

  

I pulled out all the drawers and removed the hardware.  After wiping down the entire cabinet and all the drawers, I sprayed the body of the cabinet with the black and the drawers with the blue. Yes - it was that easy. 

After removing the drawer pulls, I realized those needed to be replaced in a bad kind of way.  I took a pull and one of the bolts with me to the home improvement store and picked out four pulls that were the same length and matching bolts. 

 

I am so happy with the way it turned out! Now we have a 'custom' filing cabinet for under $40!!!  We are so happy with it and as 'nerdy' as this may or may not sound, I can't wait to get organized and have it all set up!!! 

From The Couch: Easy Bathroom Decor

HEY HEY!!!

What up y'all?! I have been SO MIA the past two weeks.

I PROMISE to try harder to be present! We are so so busy with work and then weekend/evening activities, I can't believe how fast the days are flying by!! I'm CRAZY busy at work and then it is time to leave, get my work out on, eat dinner, then it is practically time to go to bed! Lately I have been staying up MUCH later than necessary; last night for example, I was up until 1 am! Why??? I don't know - i just wasn't ready to go back to work today haha! 

This weekend I became Pinspired =) I have wanted something little to add to our master bathroom. It needed to be something cute and something that wouldn't be too expensive to create. I am finding that my best inspiration happens when I'm not looking for anything in particular.  For those of you who have been around - that gets difficult because I am constantly looking for something SPECIFIC. I was surfing pinterest last week and found this. 

My results are SUPER similar to that of My Heart's Desires. My rosettes are a little more 'disheveled' than the ones she made but I really like the way it turned out! 

 

This project cost me a total of $12!!!!

Large Vase: Walmart $4

Medium Vase: Walmart $3

Tall Candle: $2.50

Small Candle: $1.50

3 bags split peas: $2

 

AND best of all - I did this from the comfort of the couch while we watched a movie =) 

I don't LOVE the little rosette on the smaller vase - I may have to redo that one. It won't be tonight - I have too much going on right now to be re-doing something that NO ONE should be judging lol 

Where do you get your decor inspiration?