My Space

Wow, it has been a long time since I've thought of MySpace. Yikes, I am kind of glad I deleted mine years ago, I don't think I could handle it if I saw it again....anyways, lets move on.
My bedroom has been like my canvas. It's the one place in the world that I can to whatever to and change it as many times as I like. Needless to say, I have planned an entire re-do to our house, and I'm just waiting on Mom's "go for it" to get to work on it. I've already re-done the main bath room with the help of some nice fellas, and I'm itching to get to something else. Our house is not themed-throughout. Meaning, not one bedroom coordinates with another. So I was able to do whatever I felt like in my room.
I began with this inspiration board and went from there. I royally messed up my paint choice (It was supposed to be gray, but blue is cool..) and the fluffs complete the whole "cloud" vibe that I was not going for. Within the past week, I have been able to get my DIY canvas up and finish my collage wall.

 

 

 

 

 

Today I came home and painted all the trim and old yellow outlets in my room, because I painted my walls in September....and haven't fixed the mess-ups since. Oops.

I finally painted these...

 

 

 

....to look like this.

 

 

 

(Forgive the horrible phone quality)

I'll be back with a more detailed post on my room soon, I promise!

Are you finishing up any late projects?

 

Pinday: Valentines

 

Valentines Day is just around the corner! Pink balloons and heart-shaped candy boxes are everywhere I look. Reservations are being made, wine is being bought, and flowers are being arranged. Although I admit it is nice to have a flower to look at and a big box of chocolates to eat, it is clearly overrated! But hey, let's take another opportunity to celebrate something. That's better than not having a holiday at all right?

So these are three lovely pins that I have seen over the past few weeks:

#1

I feel like this is subtle enough to be cute all year. How about a pre-teen room?

 

Pinterest

 

#2

Okay, not technically for Valentines...but it has some red!

 

Pinterest

 

 

#3

You may recognize some of these fonts(: They are so pretty!! ...and free?!

They are beyond easy to download. Click photo for link.

 

We Lived Happily Ever After

 

 

Do you have any big plans for this Friday?

 

101 In 1001: DIY

Hey Y'all!

I hope you are having a great weekend! I just wanted to share a DIY post on a few of my crafts that I have started working on for my project.

Honest to goodness, these have probably turned out the best of the many DIY projects that I have tried. So, it's kind of like a big deal.

 

#1

I follow Sarah at Life On Virginia Street, and can I say that her office is a-mazing? She just shared a post on her office reveal, and it truly is beautiful. I had seen this beautiful painting behind her desk and thought how pretty it was. Luckily, she shared a DIY post a few days later (Que angels singing).

 

 

Life On Virginia Street

 

Her color combo is perfection. It's light, airy, and pretty.

I really like the idea of a thin frame too. It makes it look like a professional piece of artwork.

 

I knew that I wanted to paint a huge canvas to put over my bed since I don't have a headboard. My walls are a very light blue, almost cloudy, so I needed to use bold colors to keep my room from feeling like you are walking into a cloud when you open the door. It needed balance, no matter how much I loved the blue+green color combination.

 

Before going to buy my supplies, I looked online at a few craft stores nearby to see what specials they had going on. A. C. Moore had a few specials going on including a couple coupons that you could print and take to the store, and Hobby Lobby had almost the exact same special. I chose Hobby Lobby because the selection is HUGE and I was closer to it on Thursday. I was able to score 30% off my paints, and a coupon for 40% one regular priced item.

 

(Please excuse the lovely professional photos, my camera hates me)

If you would like a detailed post, view Sarah's here.

 

 

 

(I got excited when I started painting and didn't take any pictures...)

 

 

 

 

#2

I was walking through the JCPenny Home department and saw a few bins with 60-70% off signs. As I was looking, I found some lovely white mugs. They were originally $10 each, but with the discount, I only paid $2 each. I decided to attempt the "sharpie-on-mug" DIY project again. My first attempt was a disaster, imagine lots of time spent drawing and then sharpie washing right off.... :(

I didn't spend half as much time drawing this go-round, and I baked those puppies forever.

(@ 350 for about 45 minutes)

 

Well, they have started chipping already, but I don't even care. They are cute.

 

Inspired by this one.

Inspired by the much cuter one.

 

 

 

Did you try any DIY projects this week?

 

 

 

 

Chalkin

Chalkboard painting everything I can find.

That's what happens when you have leftover chalkboard paint. My painting began when I needed signs for the farmer's market this summer. I wanted them to be chalkboard painted, but I didn't want to spend 30$ on the supplies to make the paint myself and possibly mess it up in the process. I found myself at Lowes looking around for cheaper options when I happened to spot this little guy sitting on the paint desk.

How convenient. The pint was about $7, which is a much better price than $30, a big mess, and a possibility of my diy mix not working.
I bought it.
The color selection was really weird to me. When I think of chalkboard paint, I think black, grey, dark colors. The selection that I had was bright. B-r-I-g-h-t. I'm talking hot pink, turquoise, lime, etc.

The only color that was darkish was navy baby. Dohkay. I'll take it.
Some how I made it work. My signs turned out adorbs. But I had so much extra paint. Like the thing was still full. So what did I end up doing? Chalkboard painting everything I could find.
It first started with this piece of wood that was left over from a baby shower last weekend, then it trickled into my room (that I'm giving a new do...in a few posts.)



It was rough. I needed to sand-er-down to baby smoothness. I used a palm sander, starting with P90 grit and sanded until smoothish, then changed the pad several times until I finished with 320 grit. We are talking smooooooth.

I am really thinking that I needed to use some sort of sealer, or primer? Maybe? I have no idea, so I went ahead with the process anyways without asking anyone...or googling. There was a hole in the center of the wood, so I used puddy to seal it up. Wham, bam, done.

 

Paint paint paint. I painted all the way to the bark because I thought it looked better. Two layers works best and makes sure that it is sealed all the way. I always make sure to let the paint dry for 24 hours before writing on it that way I know it won't smear, or dent the paint.

The door:

 

My first thought on my bedroom closet door was to take it down and do something cool with my closet, but I reeeeally wanted to chalkboard something else. Hey, if it doesn't work out, I can always take the door down like I had originally planned.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This one is easy.

Tape.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Paint x 2.

Doneee.

I'll keep my instagram up to date with the new artwork<<<

Love always,

M

  

Why Not Always White?

I'm in love with white on white on white on white. Like Cozy. Cottage. Cute. How adorable?!
After priming the bathroom vanity, I learned that all the lighter colors looks SO BAD together. But why? Why do they look so bad when all the white white white pictures look amazing? It took me a few hours to figure it out. Its because my bathroom doesn't have windows! The reason that so much white looks amazing together is because of all the windows and natural light. Natural light makes everything look fresher, brighter, and can do wonderful things with the color white.
Even though my bathroom can't be white on white (sniff, sniff), I am not going to paint it dark. A mixture of neutrals will keep the space light and airy, without suffocating you when you walk in.
Hint: Dark paint in little rooms will make the room look smaller.
Use a lighter neutral color, and use dark colors to accent with in a small room.
Oh P.S. This is not my bathroom. *sniff sniff*

A Little Fabric Flower

I am making fabric flowers for my boyfriend's sister's wedding, and I am so excited! Before now I had never made a fabric flower, but did that scare me? a little....no. After browsing my Pinterest DIY board, I noted several different techniques and went to work.



This is what I used:

   Fabric--lace and sheer champagne

   Scissors

   Quilting thread (more dense and durable in my opinion)

   Needle

Step 1:

Cut Fabric.
For my base piece, I used the lace because it was more sturdy. I cut it about 4x4 (which will end up about a 3 1/2 inch flower). Each layer afterward about 1/2 inch smaller, rotating fabrics.
About 6 layers was all I needed.

Step 2:

Make petals.
Fold the squares (the same way you would fold paper to make a snowflake:))---half, half again, then once more diagonally.
You should end up with something like-

Cut the end to be round and even.

 

Step 3:

Layer.
Align the pieces of fabric in larger to smaller order.

Step 4:

Stitch.
Sew a small stitch into the middle of the flower to hold pieces together then fold in half.
Sew several stitches into the fold to bring the flower together.

In this part of the project, you will need to see what looks best for your flower, fold the middle in different and complementing directions and make stitches accordingly. I find that pinching different areas and then stitching what looks right works the best.

This step should bring the petals together and give the flat flower depth and life.

 

Turn your flower over and fluff!

 

 

That's it! Enjoy! xoxo-M