Amber Lane Living

Kitchen/Dining Room Spruce up... Part 1

2011-08-01T17:09:00.000-07:00

I'm back!!!

First off, I would like to blame my lack of posting on Mr. Husband. This has been in the works for the past couple of months, but he said I wasn't allowed to blog about it until his parents saw it. Mr. Husband is from Atlanta (the source of all of my inspiration), so we're super lucky when his parents get to come see us because we don't get to see them quite often...

So he wanted to have this be a big surprise, which means I've been having to hold it in. Do you know how hard that's been?!?!?!?

It all started out when we were eating dinner at the table, and we had just finished watching HGTV. The dining room/kitchen had always felt a bit lackluster.

Case. In. Point.

I felt like we were stuck in a constant "autumn" state, and always thought to myself "come one D, we can do much better than this"...

I knew what I wanted to do in here but still needed the go ahead from Mr. Husband to do it. Well, who knew a little HGTV watching would give Mr. Husband the swift kick in the butt he needed to realized we HAD to do something with the dining room.

From what I remember, the conversation went a little like this:

Mr. Husband: "Babe?"

Me: "Yes Mr. Husband"

Mr. Husband: "I think you should call around and get quotes for crown molding"

Me: "And for Wainscoting too?!?!?!?!"

Mr. Husband: "Okay :) "

I was on freaking cloud nine... I was finally going to have what we Arizonans typically don't have... crown molding and wainscoting! But what Mr. Husband didn't know was that we weren't going to get typical Wainscoting he was used to having in Georgia, we were going to get Stills and Rails :) I first wanted this particular look when we were building our house. The model homes had the look in their bedrooms, but at the time it was just too much for our budget as we were planning our wedding at the same time.

I learned SOOO much through the whole process, from getting quotes, to the actual construction itself. First off, getting this stuff put up apparently costs a premium out here because there aren't too many companies that do it. I had 3 different company's come out (mostly because that's all I could find, or else I would have done more)... 2 of them over bid... like, over bid to the point that I was p'd off, and the third company came in just right :) It's what we expected to pay and they even negotiated with us a little bit.

You know it's a good deal when EVERYONE feels like they're getting a good deal.

Now, I know there are a lot of people out there that would prefer to do this themselves, which is perfectly fine, and it would be a huge money saver... so more power to you!!! But for us, I feel like there are some things I want to look absolutely perfect, and this was one of them.

Mr. Husband had to talk me out of that one by the way, the whole "do it yourself" thing... I totally thought I could have done this myself and could have made it look perfect, but I would have been OH. SO. WRONG.....

Here's a picture below at the halfway point with some helpful tips if you do plan on tackling something like this yourself:

1. The boxes: Every wall you "wainscot" on is going to be different in width, which means not all of your boxes are going to be the exact same size... and it's Okay. This is something that would have drove me absolutely insane. None of the boxes match on any of the walls, and you wouldn't have been able to tell unless I pointed it out.

2. To add to point 1, watch for your light switches... You don't want any of the "stills" or "rails" to fall on the light switches, or it would just look extremely awkward... another reason your boxes will likely not be the same on all of your walls.

3. For those of you that have texture on your wall, and want the smooth look: The company used plywood behind the stills and rails to do just that. I would have done that, but what I wouldn't have planned for was not having the seams be visible. You won't see ONE seam in the entire dining room because all of the seams are hidden underneath the stills...

4. This one is for the molding: Yes, we all know that walls are not 90 degrees in their corners. What they did was put the corners of the crown molding together first with super speedy wood glue (that dried in literally seconds, but apparently is very expensive). Then once dry, they simply butt it up against the corners and the ceiling, then nailed. They then caulked the spaces that needed to be filled in because of the wall not being straight. I never would have known.

5. TAKE YOUR TIME. It took the company 2 full days with 3 guys to complete everything, most of which was just planning and taking measurements to make sure everything was going to be absolutely perfect.

And for my final tip... Painting. Once they put a primer on, they had one guy paint (with a paintbrush) on the semi gloss, and then another guy follow with one of those skinny rollers. There was no additional paint on the roller, he was just going over what the first guy did to basically get rid of the paint brush marks and it ends up giving it a super pretty texture.

Here is something I'm most proud of. See, we don't have a fire place, which means I have no where to hang stockings come Christmas.... So I wanted a little faux fire place :) I can't take all the credit. I found a picture online when I was researching Wainscoting and I new it would look awesome for our little wall.

And we just HAD to get rid of the Autumn theme... so Mr. Husband opted for Navy blue.

Waiting for the paint to dry....

And here's how it turned out!

Mr. Husband deserves credit for the mirror above our faux mantle. I was completely against it at first, but have to say, it is one of my favorite parts of the new dining room.

We agonized, and agonized, and agonized over this print. Mostly because it was a special order fabric from Joann's, which means it wasn't going to be cheap, which then means you better get it right on the first try. The busy pattern made me the most nervous, but thankfully it turned out perfect.

So one more before,
and After!!

I'm so glad we did this... It's like we fell in love with Ms. Amber all over again. I would also like to give a GINORMOUS shot out to The Crown Molding Company in AZ for being awesome at what they do, and just plain FUN to hang out with all day.... and for putting up with me. Believe me, I asked lots and lots of questions :)

My Final Tip? Turn on HGTV so your husband can catch the decorating bug :) The possibilities are endless!!

P.S... Part 2 to follow soon!

Linking up to Thrifty Decor Chics Before and After Party!

3 days of fun :)

2011-06-01T20:24:00.000-07:00

I hope everyone had a wonderful and relaxing weekend! When we have nice long weekends I think to think to myself "D, how can you make a perfectly good weekend stressful and un relaxing?!?!?"

Don't worry... I'm very very good at figuring out these little riddles of mine : )

This past weekend was Ms. Amber's 1 year birthday. I can't believe we have been here for a year! To celebrate I decided it was finally time to tackle the master bedroom. I've struggled for the past year trying to figure out what to do, and how to do it, because this room has very weird walls...

Just take my word for it :)

Here is what I was working with. The keys on the wall was one of the first projects I ever did, and Mr. Husband just recently told me that he hates it and it only took him a year to tell me... He shouldn't have told me that because now he's going to hear it for the rest of his life, but moving on...

Lets talk about Quatrefoil...

Super popular right now, so of I course I wanted to have my share of all the fun. At first I was considering wallpaper, but I think it would have been around $200 for what I was wanting, and I am absolutely not willing to spend that kind of money on something that someone would likely rip down in the future anyways....

So what was my next option? To make my own template and trace and paint by hand....

I was super super nervous to do something like this because 1) having our entire house painted was a little expensive to just paint over it (we ended up going with Martha Stewart's "Sharkey Grey"), and 2) I was most definitely out of my comfort zone as this was going to be pretty modern.

So here's the before....

and after 3 days of straight painting...

and a heating pad on my arm/wrist every night from stenciling (it hurts just to think about it!!)

Ms. Amber turned in to this...

On top of the "Sharkey Grey", I used Martha's Mineral paint in "Silky". My goal was to have the pattern be extremely subtle but when light hits it, to have it pop out... and it definitely worked!!

Here's a close up...
Of course the rest of the room got a little bit of a makeover as well...

One of my favorite finds... Craigslist chair for $30 :)
So one more time... The Before
and After!!!
We still have a few more things we want to do to this room, like add molding around the windows and have crown molding installed (professionally... I've tried and can not do it!!)... but I'm pretty happy with it for now :)

On a side note.... I've wanted to do this project F.O.R.E.V.E.R. and it's Linky Party's like CSI's that make me actually start the project, and finish it in time to link up... I know I'm not the only one!!

Have a wonderful rest of the week!!!

Uh Oh... Mrs. Schulman got a new camera...

2011-05-23T16:23:00.000-07:00

This post isn't really about decorating, but I wanted to share a story.

Once upon a time, a girl had a blog. Then one day she said to herself.... you're pictures suck... they suck real bad. So she went online to shop for a new DSLR camera, and found a screamin deal she just couldn't pass up... and now, she can post pictures like this :)

Contrary to what I said in my last post... It is possible to have pretty flowers in AZ :) Granted, we're not even to June yet but the flower bed in the backyard seems to be holding up pretty well...

I've never really showed pictures of Ms. Amber, just projects... but here's one view :) I'm dying with excitement that I now can take fuzzy background pictures!

We had a little sprinkle sprinkle the other day, and Mr. Husband called to tell me there was a rainbow outside and that I should go take a picture of it... I love that man :)

He also tore out the hideous Hibiscus in the front yard and planted white roses instead which makes me love him even more :)

I managed to take a picture of our pretty white rose with a freakin fly...

Really fly? Really!?!?!?!?

If Pottery barn ever wants to make a catalog for "knock-off's" or "wanna be's", I'm submitting this picture :)

I went in to my neighbor's yard to take a picture of his roses... and it's my favorite picture so far

I still need to find some good photo editing software for the new Mac, but I'm unbelievably happy with our little purchase. So long story short... The Mrs. lived happy ever after.

I heart you Camera.

Front Porch Re-do

2011-05-15T07:16:00.000-07:00

When we first moved in to Ms. Amber, the first thing I wanted to tackle was the front porch... I was going for spring/summer vibe but now looking back, I'm going to call that a BIG PROJECT FAIL!! Notice how I can't even keep the flowers alive?

Step One...

So one of the first things I did when it started getting warmer outside (which was around February-ish because AZ gets freakishly warm too early) was give these nice ladies a quick re - do...

It was much easier than I thought it was going to be. I was dreading going from White to brown, but with one coat of spray paint primer, then paint they turned out amazing!!! By the way, when it comes to spray paint, I will ONLY use Rustoleum 2x spray paint. I'm telling you, others don't even compare.

Definitely going for a pottery barn theme here.... I also just grabbed some white canvas fabric and recovered the existing cushions, and then made some accent pillows with bird fabric...

Step 2....

Next in line was tackling the wreath on the front door. The one we had I still absolutely love, but it's more for fall... Target had some beautiful wreaths but they were too small, and I'm not going to pay $40... I'd rather make my own :)

I took a trip to hobby lobby, grabbed a "twig" wreath, then 3 "cluster vines", and simply tied them on to the wreath with wire...

This part was a little tricky but I glued on fish string to the four corners of this "S" (that was also from Hobby Lobby), and then tied the strings to the wreath so it has the allusion of being suspended...

Simple. Clean. Elegant. Looooooooveeee it :)

This was again one of those things where you cross your fingers and hope it works :)

Step 3...

Then I had to dress up the lantern just a bit by adding some apples and greenery at the bottom...

Which leads to me my Step 4.....

This looked absolutely awful. Again, we're back to the fact that I can' seem to keep real flowers alive... but I'll give myself a break because again, we're in AZ and flowers do not like to live here!!
My goal was to have something that looks like this (thank you Pottery barn for putting your catalogs on the Ipad!!)

Again..... Simple. Clean. Elegant

This is totally the look I was going for, and if I have to use fake flowers to get there, then so be it :)

I really did feel awful using fake flowers but 1) you totally can't tell when driving by 2) if you choose light colors, you can't tell as much when the sun tries to bleach them and make them even lighter (like it would to a fake red rose) and 3) anything is better than above :)

I'm quite happy with how it turned out...

And here she is all together :)

Have a great Sunday!!

Outdoor Chess Set

2011-05-08T13:39:00.000-07:00

The other day while I was watching HGTV, there was a quick tutorial on how to make a "Outside chess set". It was a huge life size chess set that involved lots of grass squares, concrete, and ginormous chess pieces... I thought it was super cool, but Mr. Husband would never let me rip up our back yard. So I thought I would try and make one to put in our front porch on top of a table, so it could turn in to a "chess table" : )

For the base, I ended up using a board that was for magnetic scrapbook stuff, and it worked perfect!!!

I grabbed some wood from Home depot, glued the sides together, and then glued the frame to the board itself...

To make it match our outside decor, I spray painted the board white and added some decorative trim on the top.

I then grabbed a square sheet of travertine tile at Home Depot for half of the squares. It was the absolute perfect size!

I then found this moss at Michaels... I loved that it was so vibrant. I really wanted to use real grass at first, but Mr. Husband said absolutely not :) I had no idea that they made moss in sheets and it was the exact look I was going for...

I filled the base with potting soil, and then it was time to "checker board" away!!

After I was done, I placed it on a small wrought iron table that was already out front, and here's how it turned out :)

I also found a super cheap chess set at Target and spray painted the pieces brown and white, but we don' t keep them outside because it can get pretty windy. I imagined that we would go out in the front every weekend and play chess while we drank yummy coffee in the mornings, but that has yet to happen :(

At least it's fun to look at!!

A Closet Makeover

2011-05-01T07:18:00.000-07:00

I love how my new years resolution was to be a better blogger... and that didn't turn out too well. It's been crazy in the Schulman household with lots of fun and new exciting changes! Sometimes I feel like I can't keep up with everything, and on top of it, I'm on a computer for at least 8 hours a day... The last thing I want to do is come home and use it for another hour or two... so it turns out I'm a much better blog reader than I am a blog poster :)

But it's funny how a new MacBook Pro can change things! I had no idea pictures can load so quick and blogging could be so much faster! It's taken some getting use to having never owned a Mac, but I know I haven't even come close to unleashing what this thing can really do...

Even though there hasn't been a post for quite a while, that's not to say I haven't been crafting away!

Thankfully, I finished the closet makeover a couple of months ago. This one took a lot of energy out of me and made me never want to paint again! I don't know what made me want to make a closet cute, but was determined to do something about the drab white walls. I also spend a lot more time in here than most would probably think. I start work at 5:15 in the morning, which means I get up pretty early. So I don't wake up Mr. Schulman, I go in to the closet and pretty much get ready in there.

Here is my small cute closet.... well... almost cute :)

It's a pretty small closet, but it's all mine :) Mr. Schulman has his own closet in the room as well, so it works for now!

...and I just wanted to say a quick hi to blog friends!!

I was pretty scared to start painting, mostly because I chose a dark chocolate. I wanted to paint pink stripes, but also didn't want the closet to look like it belonged to a 5 year old :)

I was pretty happy with how it turned out. I was also worried that the darker colors were going to make my already small closet look even smaller, but because we have such high ceilings, the stripes actually helped the room look even bigger.

In my previous post, I mentioned I was pretty excited about finding a certain something. Well... it was Martha Stewart's new line of Mineral Paint. It literally was just put on Home Depot's shelves the day I bought it, and they said I was the first one to try it! I felt honored...lol.

It's a bit expensive, but it's pretty awesome!

I chose a light pink to put on the ceiling... You can't tell in pictures that the ceiling has a "shimmer" to it, but it looks so pretty in person!

The last thing I did was decide I wanted Crown molding, and this is where I had a heart attack. It took me a while to figure out how to cut the crown molding, and was so disappointed when I started putting up the molding only to find out that wall's do no have 90 degree angles. Walls have 92 , 95 ish angles!!!!! I cried, and yelled, and threw things, and said words a lady shouldn't say... At this point I was so over the project that I went to home depot to find the "cheater" corners.... AND I'M PROUD OF IT!!

And here she is :)

You can't tell in the pictures, but I also switched all the plastic hangers with the nice velvet hangers and it makes a world of difference! It saves so much room, and just looks super nice.

I learned two things from this project. One was just a good reminder, but things don't always go as planned, and you have adjust and sometimes improvise. The second, is that it's okay to pay for some things.... and next time, for me anyways, we WILL pay for someone to come out and install the molding for us.

Even with all of the frustration, I am IN LOVE with how the closet turned out. I'm still on the search for cute little nick knacks but now it's at least easier to get up in the mornings!!

Linking to Thrifty Decor Chic's before and after party!

Spring Cleaning

2011-01-30T05:39:00.000-08:00

First off, Mr. Husband is sitting next to my while I'm writing this post, and he said that I can't call this Spring Cleaning because it's not Spring yet.

so...

I've asked him kindly to go make me some breakfast :)

All I can say is that it feels like Spring in Arizona, so I'm leaving it as is :) Anyways, when we came home from Georgia (for Christmas), I was definitely in the mood to do lots of cleaning. Particularly when it came to one closet, often referred to the "Wedding Closet". We moved in to our house a couple of weeks before the wedding and everything that had to do with the wedding was thrown in to this closet. Then, after the wedding, everything got thrown in to this closet. Over the months even more has gotten thrown in to this closet (spices, baking stuff, books, crafts, bags, household cleaning stuff, shoes, etc.). I finally decided it was time to tackle the closet, but that I was going to have some fun doing it :)

Don't you love the spice rack that's getting ready to fall?!?

I'm embarrassed even showing these pictures....

So... remember this post with our pantry (which by the way I had no idea people were still responding to... I have a lot of questions to answer!!!). I decided I was going to do the same with this closet. This time however, in stead of mod podging fabric on to contact paper, I was going to try spray adhesive. I've been wanting to compare the two methods....

Knowing how messy and sticky it is, I laid down plastic so it wouldn't get all over the garage floor. The process was the same really... I had precut the fabric to the height and width I needed and worked in sections. I sprayed about 12 inches worth, laid down the fabric, then sprayed, then laid down the fabric, etc.... you get the idea :)

I wanted to try the spray adhesive because you don't need to wait (if at all) to hang it, unlike the Mod Podge way, where I let it sit overnight.

Then you simply peel of the backing, and voila, you have a insta-cute closet :)

Then after buying a few jars, labeling, and putting everything in just the right spot, this is how it turned out :)

Here's a closer look.... Unfortunately you can't see the brown stripes in the pictures too well...

I had so many cupcake liners cookie cutters, and just baking stuff in general, so one shelf was dedicated to baking :)

I couldn't believe I had so much chocolate hiding in the closet (This isn't even half of it...lol) I am also a sprinkle junkie so of course I wanted those displayed as well!

Here is another shot of the brown stripes... I'm obsessed with it!... so much so I'm starting another project with them in another part of the house...

Here's another shot, with the magazine holders from last weeks post.

and the Recipe Binders as well....

I picked up these baskets from Michael's for 50% off. They were still a bit more than what I would have liked to have paid, but we just really needed them :( . One holds Decor items, one holds Cleaning items, and the other holds Linens (napkins, place mats, runners, tablecloth, etc.)

Here is one more before...

and after!

And now to compare the two methods:

Overall, I like the Mod Podge method better. The Spray Adhesive method is definitely faster, but I thought the Mod Podge produced much better results. The Fabric wouldn't always stick with the spray adhesive, and the corners especially wouldn't stick as well. The fabric in our pantry (which used Mod Podge) is still holding up so well, with no corners peeling off. But regardless, both methods work so now you can try either one :)

Now I'm off to paint brown stripes in my closet... and I'm scared to death!!! But I found a freakin awesome paint at Home Depot that I'm dying to share. It just came out on their shelves and I can't wait to use it... I'll be back soon!

Recipe Binders

2011-01-23T18:54:00.000-08:00

Happy Sunday!!

Every Sunday, (for the most part) I like to make a good dinner... not to say that I don't like that during the week, but on Sundays I have a lot more time to cook than I would on a average week day.

I was starting to feel like I was getting in a rut when it came to Sunday cookings. I have two major problems... 1) Most recipes I make have lots of ingredients that go to waste. For example, when the recipe calls for "half" of a onion... the onion that gets sent back to the fridge most always goes to waste... and 2) I was starting to make the same thing over, and over, and over...

Well, when Mr. Husband and I went back to Georgia, we often times hung out with his mom (who I call Mama Schulman Sr.) in the kitchen. This lady can cook. Even more so, she doesn't let anything go to waste. She also had two binders that were just full of recipes that she had printed out over time... so I thought to myself "D, not only did you steal her son, but your going to steal her cooking habits too" :)

First task: Binders

You know how when you go to the gym, it's so much easier to actually go when you're wearing a cute matching outfit with pink Nike's? Well, I think cooking works the same way, for me anyways. I decided that if I had super cute binders to keep my recipes in, it would make me not only look for recipes to fill them with, but also want to use the recipes :)

Solution? Mod Podge Contact paper... This seems to be my solution for everything these days. After taking FOREVER to find "cooking" scrapbook paper, I simply Mod Podged it to some contact paper.

The only reason I Mod Podged to contact paper as opposed to right on the folder, was because I was worried the paper wouldn't like it when you open the folder (and it would come off along the creases). I figured contact paper would give it more "give". I guess I could have just inserted the paper under the clear inserts like you typically would with a folder, but who wants life to be easy?!?

After it dried, I simply peeled off the back of the paper, stuck it to the folder, added some ribbon and irresistible flowers that I picked up at the Scrapbook store, and ....

I'm ready to cook :)

I made 3... One for "Prospects (food we want to try)", one for the "Index" (mostly for our Food Network inserts), and the other for "Yummy's" (or food that we know we like/love).

Here's a close up of the paper... I wasted all day trying to find paper with a pink mixer, and all I have to say was that it was a good day wasted :)

One more look! See the closet to the left? That got a full make over and there's a special shelf just for these ladies... So there's something to look forward too :)

Have a great week!

Magazine Holders

2011-01-20T18:50:00.000-08:00

Can you believe this will be my 2nd post in less than two weeks!?!?..... I haven't done that for a while! It's one of my new years resolutions.... I want to get in to a routine where I blog at least once a week. I have so many projects that never get posted because blogger just takes sooooo loooong to post and I clearly don't have the patience... I hope everyone else shares my frustrations!

Anyways... Mr. Husband and I flew out to Georgia on Christmas day and spent about a week there with his family... and apparently Georgia people have freakin awesome paper stores that we just don't have here in the desert.

Don't get me wrong... I have my absolute favorite Scrapbook store (Scrapbooks etc.) not too far, but they don't have really big sheets of paper like they do in the store that we went to...

We went to a area in Georgia called "The Virgina Highlands" and there were a variety of boutiques and restaurants. There was one particular store that caught my eye, and I darted over there right after we parked (with the entire Schulman family in tow.... a year ago I would have felt bad, but I'm their daughter in law now so they have to deal with me:)).

Well... right when we walked in, my jaw dropped, I smiled, and my heart started beating really fast, only to look at Mr. Schulman with the "oh no" look on his face :)

I'm sure many of you have been to Paper Source before, but we clearly don't have one here in AZ or I would probably frequent it every weekend. Not only are the designs sooo pretty, but the paper itself is really really big...

This one is my favorites...

I was going to use it as a background for our wedding pictures, but I decided I had a more immediate use for it. This weekend I decorated a closet (future post) and didn't really realize how many magazine subscriptions we have.... So off to Ikea I went!

They have cardboard magazine holders that are white, and come in a pack of 5 for $2. So I decided I was going to use the paper and Mod Podge it to the magazine holders...

I won't bore you with how messy I am with Mod Podge... I did have a little problem with the paper bubbling up, especially because I was working with cardboard. Has anyone tried the Mod Podge designed for paper? Does it work better?

Once they dried, I was pretty happy with how they turned out... eventually most of the bubbles subsided, but it still just irritates me :)

Then I wanted to add Labels to them. I always try and keep these label holders in stock. I get them at JoAnnes, and they come in a pack of 10 in 3 different sizes. I believe they are only $3.99 and most of the time are 40% off.

They come punched so you can put brads on the side of the labels (If using for scrapbooking), but they also are perfect for Rhinestones :)

Then, so they would go with the closet a bit better, and just for added "awesomeness", I added ribbon to the top.

Here's a close up...

And here is the end result! I am absolutely in love with them!

I never thought magazine holders could look so cute and make such a statement. Wait until you see the other friends that I've made to go with them!

First Project of the Year

2011-01-09T13:14:00.000-08:00

I can't believe it's been a month since the last post! I hope everyone is off to a wonderful new year! December was a super busy month for us, but it was so much fun having our first Christmas season in our new home. Much to Mr. Husband's dismay, I have so many projects planned for the Ms. Amber, one of which I started and actually completed in one day!

This is a project that I've been wanting to do for a while. Our walls are a bit tricky to work with, especially upstairs because there is limited space. I would love to put pictures on the wall up the stairs, but because we have windows there, i think it would look a bit awkward.

So... here is the space that we are working with upstairs....

I knew what I had in mind, but just in case, I wanted to see what it would look like if I had the space taken up. I took some of the paper that we have and hung it up to get a idea...

... and decided I couldn't decide unless I could see it altogether.

At that point, I felt okay moving forward. I think part of me was so hesitant because Mr. Husband wasn't crazy about "framing" a whole bunch of frames.... but he was away golfing for the day which meant I could do whatever I want :) Once I laid out the frames in the frame, I knew I was going to love it.

I made the frame from some $4 trim at Home Depot along with my Miter saw... best little investment I've ever made (when it comes to tools) so far :) The trim obviously comes in white, and I didn't want try and match it to the white trim already around our doors (knowing I would eventually get extremely aggravated)... So I spray painted it "Champagne" which worked out well because it matches the table.

Once the frame dried, I turned it upside down and hot glued the fabric on the back, then simply cut the excess off...

I hung it up by nailing small nails in each corner, then simply hung the frames along with the clock and here is the mini makeover!!...

If you saw the slit in the trim in the above pictures, it was to make room for the clock, which I hung directly on the wall...

I absolutely looooovvvveeeee this lamp... I've wanted one FOREVER and it was the impulse buy for this project :) I think it's Mr. Husband's favorite part too...

I'll eventually put a small plant or something on the table... i think...

Here is a close up of the fabric... I am absolutely in love with it too!! It was only $6 a yard... I really wanted to go buy a new chair for the desk that is opposite this wall, but now I just want to find a chair to re do with this fabric.

Here is one more look!

Here is the desk that sits opposite of the wall. Surprisingly, it came standard when we built the house, and it needs a little love... There's a cutout in the wall right above it, which I think is making it a little hard for me to try and decorate... It's also Mr. Husband's area, so I have to keep it somewhat manly.

With that being said, I guess you know what the next project is going to be!!

Have a wonderful week!!

Christmas Cards

2010-12-01T18:56:00.001-08:00

Something I’ve been super excited about since getting married is being able to FINALLY send out Christmas Cards! I was going to originally hand make them like I do everything else, but I decided this year to leave it to the pros, and finally give myself a break for once. Besides, if I did decide to do them, they would probably get put on the back burner and never even get sent out! (How do I know this??? Because it took me 3 months to mail out our wedding “Thank you” cards : ) )

So, I was delighted to find out that Shutterfly has their own line of Christmas cards. I’ve always ordered prints through their website, and have always had such a positive experience with their services!

I've had a chance to look through quite a few of the pages (there's over 800 cards to choose from), and there are soooo many amazing choices. I still can't decide.... but I've narrowed it down to three...

1) The Peppermint Pink Christmas Card

It's pink!! Need I say more?!? I also love it because we could put multiple pictures from our wedding on the card, and maybe even some of the engagements...

2) Starlight Joy

This one is just so classic. I've always been a fan of full size pictures, and I'm a sucker for cursive!

and finally...
3) Vintage Lace Frame Card

I love this one.... Throughout the year and for my wedding, I had a whole "vintage lace" theme.. and I absolutely love how the picture is framed with the polka dots in the background...

So I am completely torn.... I can't decide which one to choose! But regardless, I'm super excited to have Christmas cards this year, and to know that any card I choose is going to look amazing!

Click here, and you'll see for yourself all the cards Shutterfly has to offer!!

Christmas Wreath

2010-11-30T19:11:00.000-08:00

I have had this wreath in my mind forever, and this past week, I was finally able to work on it. Thank goodness for long weekends!

I first started out with a Styrofoam wreath (I don't remember what size it is, but it's the second biggest one that Michael's carried). Then I ripped pages out of a old book and folded them loosely in fourths going "the hot dog way". There's numerous ways on how you can place the pages on, but I found the best recommendation out there in blog land is to fold the bottom of the page and then stick in on with straight pins. By folding the pages at the bottom, it helps give the pages some body. I ended up doing about 3 layers of pages, then simply folded and pinned pages on to cover exposed Styrofoam on the top..

Then it was time to bust out these ladies... I've kept them in my craft room for the past month, and have been DIEING to use them! I bought was seemed to be about a gazillion, but only needed 7 for the wreath (I put the rest on the tree)...

I snipped off the wire stem, then simply took straight pins and pinned them on top of the wreath

Then added a cute bow, and walla.... The easiest, prettiest, cheapest wreath project EVER!!....

We have this super (huge) awesome mirror that fills up space in our entryway, and I just could not resist wiring it on top of the mirror... This week, I'll be adding some temporary shelves on each side of the mirror to make a type of "make shift" mantle for our stockings (which have yet to be made!).

Don't you love it when things turn out exactly how you hoped they would in your head?!?

Christmas Christmas Christmas!!!

2010-11-30T18:19:00.000-08:00

I can't believe it's finally here.... After a couple of months of buying supplies, decorations, ornaments, glitter, paint, fabric, etc. etc. etc, it is finally time to decorate! I was too excited to wait until the Friday after Thanksgiving, so I decided to start putting our tree together at almost 9:00 at night on Thanksgiving :)

I'm not sure I mentioned this on the blog yet, but I scored this 12 foot tree from a super nice old lady off of Craigslist for $50. It's my find of the century!! It didn't come with lights, but it was in practically perfect condition, and you honestly can't beat that price... Craigslist is the best!

This was when I was testing out my "candle" lights, but I couldn't resist showing how Mr. Husband contributed to this project... He left me alone :) It really was for the best. It's like there was a glitter storm while he was sleeping, and he would have probably had an anxiety attack if he knew what was really going on...

For the past four weeks, I had been getting about 10 ornaments a week (total) from Hobby lobby, Target, Michael's, and sometimes Crate and barrel. I'm so glad I did because I pretty much underestimated how many we were going to need to fill up this tree...

Here are the candles I was talking about... Next year I'm going to put glitter on the wax drippings, but these came from Hobby Lobby. I first got the idea when watching Little Women. One of the first scenes in the movie is when their singing Christmas Carol's and apparently back in the 19th century, they thought it was okay to put candles on their Christmas tree's (instead of having our modern day lights). Well, I liked the idea so much that I wanted to try and replicate it. They sell this lights in packs of 10 and they come in white. I wasn't to crazy about the white (it kind of stuck out like a sore thumb), so I painted a light coat of gold-ish paint on them, then took Rub and Buff, and used my finger to apply it to the wax drippings...

I also wanted a bunch of music note ornaments, but they were going to be pretty expensive. They had wood cut out ornaments at hobby lobby, and after the discount, I think they were only about .60 cents. So I grabbed a whole bunch of them, painted on glue and dumped lots and lots of glitter on them :)

And I of course had to make my own bows :)

Then lastly, I couldn't find a tree topper that I liked, so I took a whole bunch of ribbon that I had and made a bunch of swirls, and gripped them down at the bottom with a rubber band. Then I simply just let it rest on top of the tree and stuck a few swirl twigs in at the top. For now, it will work :)

And here she is!! I finally feel relieved to have gotten this out of the way :)

p.s. I never new how hard it was to pick up massive amounts of glitter off of tile. So here is your warning : )

Thanksgiving 2010

2010-11-30T17:44:00.000-08:00

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I wasn't going to post this, because it really has nothing to do with crafting, but I just had to get the word out about Alton Brown's Turkey recipe.

Seriously... hands down amazing. I started the brine two nights before the big day and it made our house smell amazing! P.S., I am now a huge fan of vegetable stock... It has such an amazing flavor that in my opinion, you don't get in just regular chicken stock...

and BAM! My picture perfect turkey :) I should probably start counting my lucky stars, because I have no idea how this turkey turned out so pretty... Those stars weren't with me when baking that pie though :(

I think we stared at the turkey for quite a while before we even started carving it. We couldn't believe how perfect it turned out... and it tasted even better than it looked. If you're looking for a good turkey recipe you have to try Alton's!! Thanks Alton!

Then, I don't know how I did it, but I convinced Mr. Husband to take a break from Football to start doing this.... I don't know if any of you have ever seen those poles with clips to hang up the lights, but it worked so well for us, and the lights are still up :) The pole is a little cheap, but it certainly did the job...

And I just had to capture Mr. Husband's first time on a roof... I don't know what was funnier... Him being concerned about being on the roof, or being concerned that the lights are going to burn the house down...lol...

His mom is probably going to kill me when she see's this post :)

Music Wreath Ornament

2010-11-07T13:12:00.000-08:00

This was my first weekend of Chistmas preparation. Mr.Husband and I will be busy one of the weekends between now and Thanksgiving, which means I only have 2 weekends left to get prepared!

I was also reminded this weekend when going to Hobby Lobby. The Christmas ornaments were already getting cleaned out, so I'm glad I've gotten mine taken care of, or started at least. I'm super glad I started early because last week I found a 12 foot Christmas tree off of Craig's list for $50.... can you believe that?!?!? I was sqeading all the way to nice old lady's house (who really took care of the tree... it was in perfect condition, and she said she had really only used it twice!).

The tallest tree I've ever had is 7 ft. tall, so needless to say, we're going to need quite a bit of ornaments this year! With that being said, I decided I was going to make some of the ornaments this year. I'm jumping on the "music sheet" bandwagon, as they seem to be so popular this year... I've seen music ornaments all over the place when ornament shopping! Perhaps it appeals so much to me because I have played the piano for about 20 years, and the tree will be right next to the piano in our home :)

I attempted numerous versions of a small wreath, and here is what came to be my favorite...

First, I started off with these plastic pearls from Michaels... They're a staple in my craft collection, and they're only $2.99. They will get you about 9 wreaths...

Then find a super old hymn book from your thrift store... I picked mine up for $1... You know when you have a good find when the book was printed in 1952, and smells extremely musty :)

For my particular book, I would rip out a few pages at a time, and cut them in to strips (the "hot dog" way). I got about 5 per page at about 5 inches each. Then I took 5 strips and glued them together like this:

I then cut some beading wire about the 15 inches long. At one end I made a loop... this is where you will tie your string or ornament hanger for it to hang off the tree.

I would then string the wire through the paper, add a pearl, then through the paper, then add a pearl, and so one and so on. I included a picture below (you can't see but there are also pearls on the other side of the paper as it alternates):

When you're finished, wrap the wire around the loop you made, and it should end up like this...

She's looking super cute, but I needed to make her cuter :) From Hobby lobby, I grabbed this stuff called Diamond Dust. It's not glitter, and looks a bit more like ice crystals.

Because Diamond Dust isn't glitter, I mixed it together with super fine glitter "dust" in a tupperware bowl to make it super sparkly...

Then with a paint brush, I painted on craft glue over the sides of the wreath....

Then dipped it in to the diamond/glitter mixture...

Then while the side already down is marinating in glitter, I painted the top.. and you end up with this!

But she still needs a bow! So I made a simple bow and rhinestoned the middle...

Then hot glued it on to the wreath, added a gold ribbon for it to hang from, and here is what I got!

I am absolutely in love with it... and so is Mr. Husband :) Now, hopefully I have the patience to make 10 - 15 more!!

The Backyard is finished!

2010-11-01T20:22:00.001-07:00

If it seems like I haven't been a good blog poster lately it's because I haven't.... and it kills me to say that!! But I know it was worth it, because we finally finished our backyard! We finished last weekend, and laying the sod was the hardest part (in my opinion) of the entire process.... (go here to see where we started!)

They delivered the sod the night before, and it looked so innocent just hanging out in our drive way... but little did we know that each of these were going to weigh in excess of 30 pounds!

It was awful, but we're so happy with the final result! By the way... This grass will stay this way ALL winter... one of the many advantages of living in Arizona :)

I planted these all by myself : ) Geraniums and Mums...

Now I can finally get back to crafting!

Christmas is giving me ANXIETY!!!

2010-11-01T19:35:00.000-07:00

Okay ladies...

Is anyone else squeading about the fact that you can officially start decorating for Christmas in about 3 weeks? Well I am. November 1st marks the day for me that I can officially start thinking about decorating, and marks the day when I can justify to myself and now to my new Mr. Husband that's it's time to start buying that Christmas Decor.

Aside from decorating, there are so many things I look forward to each year and many new things I'm looking forward to this year.

In no particular order, here are the things I look forward to every year:

1) Decorating my dads tree. It's a tradition that my sister and I do every year. We start out by going with my dad to Home Depot, and looking our hardest to find "the" tree. Whoever finds "the" tree basically get's bragging rights all year... what can I say, we're a very competitive family. Then we go home to decorate while my dad video tapes us so we can look back the next year and think "what were we thinking".... and this leads me to something else I look forward to:

2) Mariah Carey Christmas Music. That's right. HUGE tradition to be listening to her while decorating the tree.... we pretend like we're her choir. On a side note, my dad use to, and still does call Mariah Carey "babelicious" (babe-a-licious).

3) Going going to midnight mass each year. This is particularly fun for us now because we get to reminisce about a particular mass we went to a couple of years ago... When we walked in, the church lady asked us (my dad, brother, sister, and I (mom was working)) to walk down the isle with baby Jesus and place him in the manger right before mass started... Well my sister was too embarrassed to carry the ceramic baby Jesus, so I had to carry him. However, this particular night I was wearing super cute capri's, and I didn't realize I was going to have to bend over to place baby Jesus in his bed, so I kind of just "plopped" him in to his bed, fearing that if I bent over too much, the entire church would see too much. Well you know what kind of sound you get when you bump ceramic against ceramic... I've never heard so many people hold their breath at once, thinking I probably broke baby Jesus. But he survived!

I now realize I could go on and on, and I realize I've already rambled quite a bit... but now you know a little bit more about me...

Things I'm looking forward to this year...

1)Spending my first Christmas with Mr. Husband (This will be our 4th Christmas together, but he has always flown back to Georgia, and I would stay here with my family)

and 2) DECORATING OUR NEW HOME!!!

This time last year, we were looking for homes, and all I could think about is how I would decorate a house for Christmas... This is important right?!?! Well, now we're in our new home and I will be working like a mad woman getting stuff together to decorate the day after Thanksgiving... and it started this past weekend...

I had been eyeing these at Hobby Lobby for the past month, and they were finally 50% off... so I bit the bullet...

So Mr. Husband can get in on the fun, I'm going to start buying lights with Hobby lobby Coupon's so they'll cost a little bit less, and it won't be such a huge shock to have to buy 7 or 8 boxes of these next month...

I also bought material to make our own stockings... I WILL NOT pay $20 per stocking, when I could make them for less than $10 for both. And besides, they'll have more sentimental value down the road :)

And last but not least.... These Poinsettia Flowers... I saw these last week and promised myself I would not get them until they were 50% off. Well thank goodness that was this week! I literally could not leave work fast enough to go and get these today! I always panic when I don't get something right away, and then I think everyone else is going to go after what I want... does anyone else ever get this way? It drives me crazy and gives me crazy anxiety!!

I had a smile all the way home thinking about what I have planned for these ladies!!

So what do you ladies have planned, and what Christmas traditions are you excited for this year?!?

Spray Painted Computer Mouse

2010-10-24T19:28:00.001-07:00

This project was so easy, everyone should do it. Seriously... it will make you smile when you blog (if you use a mouse:) )

I really really wanted a pink wireless mouse for my office, but everywhere I looked, they just had a really dark pink. I did end up finding a light pink wireless mouse, but I was not about to pay $60 for it.

So while looking at Target I found a blue wireless mouse on sale for $13. I can totally live with that.

Then I got home, and said "D, you should totally spray paint this". So that's exactly what I did. I sat on the couch and taped the entire mouse off with painter's tape while Mr. Husband watched football. He doesn't even ask what I'm doing anymore... He just smiles and shakes his head :)

I know sometimes he's thinking "What did I get myself in to!!" :)

Here's what she started out as....

Here she is taped off... really wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be.

Then I primed it. I think this is probably the most important part, as it doesn't allow the paint to scratch off as easily. (I've used this mouse for a couple of weeks, and no chips or scratches yet)

And here is the final result! Yes, if you look real close it kind of look like she has a sand paper , grainy coating. Of course the spray paint I bought was somewhat defective... It was almost like it was spitting out silly string. Other than the texture, I was more than pleased with it!

Think of all the other things you could do with spray painting a mouse... seriously... someone try it with a stencil!

Officle Rug

2010-10-24T18:31:00.000-07:00

While shopping for "officle" decorations, I came across this lonely rug. You know how I knew she was lonely? She was on clearance for $2 ....

I immediately thought of a conversation with Mr. Husband's co-worker who told me she put a rug in her officle, so f course I scooped this little find right up!

I originally intended to just cover the outsides of the rug, but as always, I deviated from the plan!

I started by cutting strips to cover the outside of the rug, and then hemmed only one side of them. This was the only sewing I did for the entire rug.

I really liked the jute part of the rug, but I just loved this Amy Butler fabric so much better :) So I cut my rectangle and used witch stitchery to bond the fabric to the rug...

I then used witch stitchery again to bond together the ends of the fabric strips together at 45 degree angles...

I then flipped over the outside (with the sides together) and ironed it down with the stitch witchery stuff (yet again). One more flip of the entire rug and I hot glued the fabric to the underside of the rug.

Here's how she turned out!

And here she is in the officle :)

My officle is almost as awesome as my Scrapbook room, sigh :)

Front Porch Sign

2010-10-13T17:14:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it's been almost two weeks since my last post! Hopefully that won't happen again. This new job has had me working during the day and then coming home to learn more about material I needed to know at night, so needless to say the fun stuff got put on hold :(

Don't worry though... I completely decorated my officle (next post) :)

Anyways... our front porch was looking dull... a little too dull... and after reading some tutorials from the Fabulous Miss Mustard Seed (Mustard Seed Creations) I decided I wanted to tackle our own sign.

A couple of months ago, a friend of mine asked me to grab some palates (we have them all over the place because of all the new houses going up). So I thought "D, you should grab one for yourself just in case." So glad that I did! I tore off some of the wood slats, glued them together, and it gave me the foundation for the sign. These boards worked great, because they were all beat up.... which is what exactly what I wanted.

Then I used the Cricut to cut own my stencil just to make sure they were the size I wanted

I then randomly brushed a "antique white" paint, to help give it a type of aged look... Just enough to where some wood was still peeking through...

Then traced on the letters...

Then PAINSTAKINGLY painted in the letters... Let me just say this... I'm a pretty patient person and typically like projects that are very meticulous in nature... but this got the best of me! I don't know how some of you sign makers do it! It took so long!

After painting in the rest of the letters, I then went ahead and sanded down in random places, then applied a coat of walnut stain over the entire sign, and it turned out exactly as I'd hoped :)

I drilled my holes and attached the signs together with hemp, then topped it off with a little garland from Hobby lobby... and got this :)

One last look!

Now here's my issue... it's too heavy...lol. Of course right?!?!? I tried using one of those 3m sticky hooks outside, but when I tried to put it on it came right off... I just talked to my dad, and pretty much said that because our house is stucco, if I try and nail or screw something in I could crack a whole piece of the stucco off...

So does anyone have any ideas?!?

Tissue Box

2010-09-28T19:46:00.000-07:00

For about that past month and a half, I've been a little bit stressed out with a job I was applying for at work. My parents had always made the mistake when I was growing up by bribing me with a certain amount of money for every "A" I had gotten on a report card. So now, whenever I do something good or have a accomplishment, I feel like I need to be rewarded....

So I played my favorite game with Mr. Husband. It's a game I like to call "Let's make a deal". One night I said to Mr. Husband, "Mr. Husband... if I get this job, then I get to buy/make stuff to decorate my officle (office + cubicle) "D" style". After little convincing, he agreed, but I still needed to get the job...

Well................................... I got the job, and I'm beyond excited :)

Here's the plan... some Amy Butler fabric, fake Peonies in a vase, a rug, some picture frames, a wall organizer if I can find some cubicle hooks, a desk organizer, and a tissue box ...

Of all things, I opted to start with the Tissue box :)

I always want to have tissue at my desk, but I think the boxes they come in are just so ugly. I admit, they are now trying to make a effort with different designs on the boxes, but they're still just dreadful. Right now, I just use napkins from our cafeteria... can you believe that?!?

Anyways, I started with a tissue box just to make sure I had the right measurements.

I was originally going to mod podge scrapbook paper on a plastic tissue box cover (assuming I could find one), but then I thought "why don't I just sew it with some thick interfacing?". So I picked out my fabric. I had already picked out some Amy Butler and Heather Bailey fabric for my officle rug redo (next post), but wanted some coordinating fabrics too... so I picked up the big polka dot fabric (Amy Butler) and then a damask-ish fabric that I've had my eye on FOREVER from Hobby Lobby.

Then I cut three of the fabrics to a one and a half inch width, and the top fabric to a two inch width (4 of each).

Then sewed the four strips of fabric together, so I would have four sets...

Then I pressed the seams down so they wouldn't bunch up so much...

and now you have your four sets you're almost ready to sew together.

Then I measured the interfacing, and had it just a smidge bigger than the sides of the tissue box.

This part was kind of tricky... I ironed on the interfacing to the first side, and then lined all of the sides up when ironing on the interfacing just to make sure they all matched up to each other.

For the top of the box, I ironed on the interfacing and then used a template to have a decorative opening for the tissue...

Then I sewed all four sides to the top...

pinned together the sides and sewed them together...

Now here is where you hope all of your sides match up... I'm still practicing how to sew straight lines, so the mere fact that I even got to this point still amazes me. I only had one side that was just a little bit off :)

And now for the best part... flip it inside out!

I loved it, but was still wanting a pop of turquoise, so I added this turquoise trim with a few rhinestones here and there... and here's how it turned out!

How fun is the top!?!

The best part is, whenever the tissue runs out, you just switch out the box... no more ugly tissue boxes for this girl!

Linking up to CSI's Turquoise challenge!

More Patio Stuff....

2010-09-21T19:03:00.000-07:00

After finishing the Autumn Tree for the porch, I still wasn't happy with how it was looking. I do still plan on adding some fake hay and pumpkins, and also switching out the chair covers.... but it's still missing a little something...

So I sat and thought and thought and thought.... and while sitting and thinking on the porch I just kept staring at our light pole. I'm obsessed with light poles, lamps, lanterns, the like. I was so excited when we noticed these light poles when we were first started searching for our home, because you just simply do not find these little characteristics in Arizona. (Down the street in another development, they have the "Sesame Street" light poles... obsessed with those too!)

Then I went inside and watched Sherlock Holmes with Mr. Husband (I swear if I could have any chosen any era to live in, it would have been the early 1900's... the decor and the big dresses the women wore just make me drool!)... Towards the beginning of the movie, I saw this, and the light bulb went off!

So I left Mr. Husband and went to work. I started off with this lantern which we had bought from Crate and Barrel.

and added some lettering to it, just like in Sherlock Holmes. Looked super cute, but I wanted to make it a little bit more unique...

So I took out my Cricut, and my "Summer in Paris" cartridge. This is my favorite cartridge so far... and I bought it for only $12 from Joannes during national scrapbook month! I hadn't tried this cutout before, but it is a 3d chandelier cut out.

So I used some thick cardstock and had the Cricut cut out the 3d chandelier, then spray painted it with a brushed gold color.

I then thought to myself "D, how can you waste more of your Saturday afternoon? I know, you can rhinestone it of course!!"

Then I hung the chandelier with wire at the top of the lantern... Loving it!

I originally was going to hang the lantern from a Shepherd's hook I had leftover from the wedding, but then decided it I wanted it to really look like a light pole. A few months ago I had bought one of those cabinets that has really long legs that is supposed to go over a toilet. Well, I just wanted the cabinet part, so I rigged it in a way where I didn't use the legs, and saved them because I new I could use them for a project some day...

So I filled a planter with two bricks (for stability and weight), stuck one of the legs in, and covered the rest with potting soil...

Then hot glued the lantern to the top of the leg...

Then to make it look a bit more Autumn-y, I added some twigs from Hobby Lobby, and here's the end result!

I love that the Chandelier, and the font of the lettering gives it a little bit of a haunted look. This is probably as close to Halloween decorating as I will get for the year!

One more look! I love how she turned out! I think she needs a orange bow just to finish it off :)

And here's a preview of how I wasted the rest of my weekend! Can't wait for this post!

Saturday find....

2010-09-16T19:42:00.000-07:00

So, as part of the guest room re-do, I've been on the hunt for a side table... and look what I picked up.... for $12!! I loved the curves of the legs, and it has some pretty awesome detailing... perfect for some glazing!

I really wanted the table to match the blue I have in the bed spread, so I took the pillow cover in and had it matched up. I didn't know Home Depot does this, but you can buy a little container of test paint... but it ends up being the perfect amount for covering a small piece of furniture! I still have about half the container left over. Add on a small foam roller for about $1.50, and I spent about a total of $4.50 on paint materials.

The top of the table was pretty bad, and I was a bit scared because it has the wood going in all different directions... so I sanded carefully, making sure to go with the grain of the wood...

After I was done painting I was ready to put glaze over the top. I really wanted to have the glaze fill in all the small details, but it was much much harder than I thought. I was actually a bit surprised at how much of a problem I was having. I guess it will take some practice, but after a few touch ups, I'm pretty happy with how it came out...

I think I'll tackle the glaze over the leaf details when I've had more practice and feel confident I can make it look really good :)

Knobs are also 1/2 off at Hobby Lobby this week, so that worked out great!

Very relieved the top turned out!!

All in all, between the actual table, paint, and knobs, the total cost for this project was around $21... and I'm pretty happy with that!

p.s. Hopefully this will be the last time you see the wall that color!!

Faux Fall Tree

2010-09-16T18:11:00.000-07:00

I'm so excited to decorate (for the first time) for fall! My house was basically made to be decorated for fall because of all of the warm colors we have:) I'll probably only be doing a couple of projects because I want my house to "barf" Christmas... so I'd rather use my craft budget for Christmas projects this year. Nevertheless, I'm still going to decorate just a bit!

This is one of my first "fall" projects. I really wanted to decorate our front porch, because I feel like that is the place that will work best for fall decorations. So that's where we'll start!

Last weekend while Mr. Husband washed our cars, I cleaned out the garage. Yes, we've only lived in this house for 4 months, and I've already had to clean out the garage! It's mostly because I've been using my half of the car for bigger craft projects instead of using it to park my car :)

These are the branches that came from the ladder project. I only used about half of them, so they kind of just hung out on the side of the garage.... wasn't working out too well!

So I stripped off all of the leaves until I had just the twigs left... I first took them and arranged them the best that I could (can't really work with twigs !)....

Then wrapped the bottom with hemp... not only to hold them together, but to somewhat resemble the trunk of a tree

then made sure it looked okay before I moved to the next step...

I thought it kind of looked a bit too bare, so out to the spray paint field it went! I wrapped the hemp with a plastic bag, and spray painted the top brown...

So glad I did it... looks so much more "fall-y"!!

While I was out in the spray paint field, I decided that the green pot just wasn't going to work... so I started spray painting it with a brushed gold color...

and I swear I didn't do this on purpose... but guess what I ended up spraying?!?! I guess this is why you're supposed to wipe down stuff before you spray paint, but who has the patience for that?

Does this just make you shiver?!?! The spray paint pretty much fossilized Mr. Spider... so I left it on there... gives it more of a Halloween look... and I hope someone touches it to "see if it's real", because guess what kids... it is :)

And no I'm not joking... it's still on there

Back to the tree! I really only spent around $10 on this entire project, and the $10 was spent on all the leaves and twigs from Michaels and Hobby lobby. All the fall stuff is pretty much on sale right now, so I totally took advantage of it.

Also... I now it's crazy (and tempting) that they've started to put out all of the Christmas stuff already, but totally use it to your advantage! If they have orange, yellow and red stuff, you can still use it for fall! For example, a cute orange bird.. I also used glittery apples and twigs that had beads and glitter on them, which were all in the Christmas section!

Then I simply clipped everything off of their wire stems, and hot glued it on to the tree.... and after what seemed like HOURS... here is what you get, for next to nothing!

Don't mind the dirt... I still hadn't picked it up :)

Here's Lola the bird....

and her boyfriend Butch :)

On a side note, I already had this pot sitting out with flowers in it, so I just replaced them with leftover foilage I had from the tree...

I still have to change out the covers for the rattan chairs, and the wall desperately needs some type of sign or something... but I'm okay with it so far!

One more close look!

VMA's... Lady Gaga?

2010-09-12T21:17:00.001-07:00

Watching the VMA's... and Lady gaga just made her acceptance speech...

I didn't get the "Little Monsters" part...

She confuses the crap out of me. Just a random thought I though I'd share :)

P.S..... What's with the Mickey mouse head D.J.??!?!?!?!

Busy Busy weekend!

2010-09-12T19:39:00.000-07:00

Does everyone else get sad when their weekend comes to an end? Seriously, after putting in 40 hours at work, you look forward to your weekend and it's gone in the blink of an eye!!

Here's another question... does everyone's weekend start out like this?

Tori (my car) and I have had some pretty funny adventures in bringing home furniture, but this is the first time I've given her a hat to wear on the way home :) I was seriously texting my childhood bff, laughing, asking her to ask her husband (who use to be a DPS officer) if I can get pulled over for this stunt. Fortunately he said I should be fine.

Now, the best part of any furniture redo.... The before picture! By the way, the head and foot board were only $20... way happy with that price!

Real quick....one more question... Is everyone happy that football has started? I am... because now I can do crafts in peace while Mr. Husband eats leftover apple cobbler, and watches football : )

Sorry... I had just had to snap a few pics while the headboard was drying!

Here's the new headboard after she was done drying... I love love love the curves of the headboard, but it was still needing a little something... Luckily, instead of spraying directly on the dirt (in my spray paint field) like I usually do, I had put some cardboard stuff down first. This ended up giving me the perfect template for a "semi" upholstered headboard!

I basically just cut around the outline of the spray paint to start with the template...

Then outlined where I would want the upholstered part to go. I free handed half of it then folded it over, just to make sure it was symmetrical.

"The Test". I'm normally in a rush to do things, and just do them on a whim, but lately I've found if I take my time, everything usually looks and works out much better.... What a concept right?!?!?

Then instead of using a type of thin wood to upholster, I ended up using a white styrofoam poster board. I was a little skeptical myself, but it ended up being super sturdy, and way awesome for one of the next steps... Also, you don't need a jigsaw to cut through the curves, not to mention this stuff is a little cheaper, and less messy than wood : )

Then I taped the poster board pieces together, traced the outline, cut, and ended up with this!

I had also decided that I wanted to have a "tufted" look... so I marked the circles where I wanted the tufting to happen...

then added a couple layers of batting...

Then laid down the fabric with the marked side of the board facing up, and started stapling!

Be careful stapling though... I pretty much put a stapler through my finger, and it started oozing blood.... super gross and painful.

But it was worth it, because I ended up with this! Don't worry, I fixed those wrinkles...

Here's the cool part about using styrofoam poster board as opposed to wood... For the tufting, it was as easy as sticking a needle through the board to tuft instead of having to drill holes through wood...

After the tufting and a little bit of glue, here she is! She's not ready for her new home just quite yet though.

She'll be going in the guest bedroom. Also, remember the idea for the pantry walls stemmed from not wanting to paint? Well that idea went out the window real quick when I realized I wanted to paint one wall in the guest bedroom... and Mr. Husband gave me the okay. He said as long as I don't touch the kitchen or living room, I can do whatever I want... So I agreed I wouldn't touch the living room for a couple months :) I'm seriously so excited with the idea I have in my head for the room, that I'm squeading!

**Sqeading means I'm so excited, I'm squealing and p'ing my pants. It's one of my favorite words, and I use it quite often....

I wish I needed a study area....

2010-09-07T16:34:00.001-07:00

It's back to school time, and unfortunately Mr. Husband and I no longer need a back to school space.... Actually we're quite happy we don't need one! But my little sister is starting her first semester of college, so it will be a nice place for her to study when she comes over asking us to do her homework for her... Just kidding, well... not really :)

Here's my inspiration for this space... I had actually starting painting everything already, and took a break to go window shopping over the weekend. When I walked in to Pier 1, I just about had a heart attack. When I saw this table and chair, I knew exactly what I wanted!!

Isn't it to die for!!! I wanted the blue so bad, but went with white instead just because I knew the room I was working with needed to be lightened up a bit.

Here's what I had to work with. I bought this desk off of Craigslist almost 3 months ago for $10. I hope I'm not the only one that buys stuff and thinks "someday I'll get to that desk, or chair, etc." I'm kicking myself right now, because I also bought a chair from the thrift store for $9, but forgot to take a picture of it! Imagine a bar height chair with pretty curves.... yum yum!

After a full day worth of sanding and painting (because remember, I basically had to start from scratch after I saw the Pier 1 set), and sawing the legs off the chair to make it the right height, here's out she turned out...

I was really going for a super distressed look with the chair. I learned some cool stuff and some not so cool stuff when it comes to distressing! I'll have to share in another post...

Thank goodness for Hobby Lobby and their half off knobs! They worked so well with this desk!

Then it was time for some accessorizing :)

First, I wanted to make a seat cushion similar to the one on the Pier 1 chair, but a little more shabby. I've quickly learned adding burlap can give that effect real quick :)

I had this lamp in my Craft room, but spray painted her with this blue (forgot the name) and covered the lamp in burlap (NOTE: I won't be using the lamp... I'm pretty sure the burlap won't take the heat from the light bulb too well. I know from personal experience!)

This is also the first wedding picture that I've used in the entire house... lol ... I'll have to get to that soon!

Because this room is getting a entire re-do (later post:) ), I knew we weren't going to be using Mr. Husband's Ikea painting from his college days...

so I recovered it in some of my (favorite) leftover fabric from the "Script the Chair" re-do. I only used double sided tape, so if we ever want the picture again, it would be super easy to take off(but I don't anticipate that happening). I also made my own version of the book paper wreath after seeing so many awesome versions in blog land!

Picked up this frame for $2... I knew it had some potential.... the magic of spray paint!

The tea canister was a fun find at Marshall's... only $.70 because it was missing the lid, and I didn't need it anyways!

One more before,

and After!

Linking up to CSI's Back to School Challenge, and Thrifty Decor Chic's before and after party!

Update from Last Weeks Ladder Project....

2010-08-31T18:11:00.001-07:00

I was so excited last week to be featured on both Linky parties I submitted to!!

Eventhough I wasn't in the judges top 10, I was Amanda's pick over at the CSI project!

The ladder was also featured at My Backyard Eden!

Thank you lady's for having such fun and inspiring blogs!

Pantry Redo, with Mod Podged Fabric Contact Paper

2010-08-30T20:16:00.000-07:00

Get ready for a long winded post! One of the things I wanted to tackle this month was our pantry. So what better weekend to do it than my birthday weekend (after we tackled the backyard course)!!

Here is the before picture of the pantry...

I was inspired over at House of Smith's and would have copied her entire pantry if I could have. But I still wanted to be somewhat original. I really wanted to buy wallpaper, but there were a few reasons I didn't go that route; 1) I could really only order if off line, and I am one of those people that has to see it first before I buy it, and 2) I wasn't going to pay upwards of $30 a role with a 2 role minimum to only cover half of the pantry! I also WAS NOT going to paint the pantry. Don't get me wrong, I love paint, but Mr. Husband and I paid a pretty penny to have the entire interior of our house painted... so I'm not about to paint the walls or shelves just yet!

So I improvised. I have had my eye on some Amy Butler fabric for quite a while, and thought "D, where can you use that awesome (and a little pricey) Amy Butler fabric.... ummm, your pantry of course!" Then I thought "D, how are you going to put fabric on your walls?" After thinking about it for a while, I had a vision...

I decided I was going to "Mod Podge" the fabric on to contact paper. This way, if i ever want to take it down, it would peel right off...

So off to the races I went! I only needed one role of contact paper, Mod Podge, 3 yards of fabric, and I ended up using 8 sheets of scrapbook paper, 8 ft. of decorative molding, and some fabric flowers... for cuteness.

**NOTE: Yes, Mr. Husband was totally okay with this fabric and color scheme. When I texted him a picture of the fabric asking if he was okay with it, he said "of course sweetheart, whatever makes you happy." Ahhhhh.... I heart Mr. Husband :)

After figuring out how long I needed the paper to be, I taped it together so I could just cut strips when I was done Mod Podging the fabric on....

Flipped over the contact paper, and Mod Podged! I thought this was going to take forever... but really only took about 20 minutes.

While it was drying, I decided I should probably empty out the pantry... and holy monkeys! I had no idea we had that much stuff hiding in the pantry, for two people no less...

Once the fabric dried, it really was as easy as cutting strips the right height for each shelf... then peel the back off and stick on the wall! It really is a awesome version of wall paper, because you won't have to rip down your entire wall just to take it off one day.

I then decided we needed some more height (our house as super high ceilings). So I mod Podged some scrapbook paper to some of the leftover contact paper and did the same as listed above.

Then to kind of cap it off, I added some decorative trim to the very top after spray painting it with "Heirloom White." As a side note, I also ended up adding clear contact paper to our shelves. With the jars and baskets I was going to end up using, I didn't want to have to deal with scratches.

Then the rest was simply a matter of collecting Jars, and buying some jars and wire baskets at Crate and Barrel (with leftover wedding gift cards). I couldn't be more pleased with how it turned out!

A close up of the scrapbook paper with decorative molding...

I was so excited to finally be able to use my Pink mixer as a decoration... she hated her cabinet home!

The Pasta jars were sitting on our counter, but I decided they would be much more functional in the closet; we wouldn't have to worry about always keeping them full just for decoration!

I also took this idea from House of Smiths.... I went to our Ikea and used that jar to house the vegi oil... I hate those plastic containers they come in!

I am a cereal fanatic, so much so that we typically have like 7 different kinds of cereal at a time. So hopefully having just four containers will control my cereal collecting habits. Above the cereal I have my sprinkle collection, and used a cake stand I already had, added a layer with a candle holder and a wooden disk to give it a tiered effect...

I found these condiment holders at Crate and Barrel too. They were on sale for $4.99 a piece. But they were yellow... So I spray painted them green.

I also purchased these baskets at Crate and Barrel... you can find these anywhere for way way cheaper than at C&B, but I had gift card funds that needed to be used...

So here is one more BEFORE:

and AFTER!!!

Linking up to the Mod Podge CSI challenge and Thrifty Decor Chic before and after party!

Our Backyard !!

2010-08-30T19:10:00.000-07:00

When we bought out home, we had the option to have the backyard finished, but we figured we didn't want to spend a few thousand dollars on something that would look completely generic and not cool. Aside from that, Mr. Husband (Fiancee at the time) and I were like, "How hard could it be?". Of course my impatient self couldn't wait to get this back yard started (especially after finishing The Hanging Ladder ), in 110 degree heat no less!

Well, let me tell you... It certainly is one of the hardest, longest projects I (we) have ever worked on. Our first weekend, we needed to accomplish a pretty tedious task... Getting a PVC pipe under that nice green wall right next to Bo, the bougainvillea. Sorry for Mr. Husband's indecency... This blog just went from G to PG :)

Okay, now we're back to rated G :)

We couldn't have done any of this without my dad... seriously... he saved us at least $1,000 on the sprinkler system alone... (he wouldn't look at the camera... he was apparently too busy helping us dig a massively deep hole under concrete. The nerve of some people)

After a couple of days of repeatedly soaking the dirt, we FINALLY pulled the PVC pipe through! I never realized how awful Arizona soil is... after you get about 8 inches deep, you hit straight up clay.

Mr. Husband making sure everything worked okay...

But here's what happens when you go PG... you get a crazy sunburn!

The next week was phase 2. We had to dig all the trenches for the sprinkler system in the backyard. I quit on this one pretty early because I just can't stand the heat, but Mr. Husband was awesome. After he laid down the pipe, he made this happen!

The we moved on to Phase 3 the next weekend... I was determined to have a retaining wall and a fountain. I didn't care what I would have to do to get it... even if that meant laying the 10 pound blocks all by myself while Mr. Husband shuttled them to me from the front yard (where home depot had delivered them).

Then this past weekend, my Birthday weekend, we had rocks and plants delivered (no grass yet). After I had already had everything delivered, like a dummy not planning well, I had found out that we shouldn't have the grass planted until the beginning of October. Well, I wanted everything done next weekend, which is why I spent my birthday weekend planting trees and bushes!! I was furious, but oh well... at least we finally will get a few weekends to rest!

I can't wait to see the finished project soon, but in the mean time, back to some inside crafts!!!

Hanging Ladder with Lanterns

2010-08-25T20:07:00.000-07:00

I've been so excited for this post! A few weeks ago Mr. Husband and I were at Scottsdale Fashion square getting ready to spend some gift card money at Crate and Barrel (I already feel like a trader, but we got some awesome stuff for our pantry decorating... that post coming soon!!)... Well, Pottery Barn is right next door, and I couldn't resist going in. I saw this and just. about. died.!!!

If you can't tell what that is, it's a antique ladder with twigs on top. It was just so amazing!

So then I kept walking around, and died again. I loved the lanterns hanging from the jute.. sooo Pottery Barn-ish!

So I thought to myself "D, what can you do to have both of those elements without making too many new holes in your new patio ceiling (seriously, our house was just done being built three months ago), and without making Mr. Husband uber mad...."

Well, let me show you :)

I first looked on Craigslist for an old wood ladder, but figured I could just make one myself and get exactly what I want. I went to Home Depot and spent less than $5 on wood (the ladder is 6 ft. long). I then started assembling the ladder in the craft room, started staining, and then got a bit too nervous about staining the wood in there, so moved to the garage...

While the stain was drying in the garage, I started working on my lanterns. I just got married 2 months ago, and along the aisle in the church I had shepherd's hooks with lanterns lit up. I tried to buy stuff for the wedding that I new I would be able to reuse again, and I'm so glad these lanterns made the list!

They were white, so I spray painted them black...

These are the hooks I used to hold the fishing string (to somewhat give the ladder the illusion it is floating). Here's the deal... I am in Arizona, and for the next few weeks we'll probably be getting some amazing monsoon storms. So I needed to make this "ladder hanging thing" in a way that would allow me to take it down easily, should I need to. I also attached the lanterns with "S" hooks, so I could take them down right away if I need to.

After the stain and top coat dried, I took some nice twigs I found in this dumpster, dried them out and stapled them to the top... Everyone finds awesome furniture on the side of the road, and I find tree trimmings... I'll take what I can get !!

I had finally finished and was ready to hang it up, but as expected, we had crazy winds... So I opted to wait one more day. It killed me!!!

But finally, here she is!

The whole project cost me less than $20, and I would say it's well worth it!

Linking up to CSI's Pottery Barn Challenge and My Backyard Eden!

Upcoming Projects....

2010-08-23T20:35:00.001-07:00

We recently had a training class at my work, and the goal was to try and identify someones personality type. We had taken one of those "Character" tests, and you would fall in to 4 categories... Analyst, Togetherness, Motivator and something else (I don't remember : ).

I fell in to the Motivator category... basically a person who does not like negativity (so I assume, generally a happy person), but more notably, someone who "likes to chase shiny objects". Apparently that means I can become easily distracted! Then the teacher guy looked at me and said, "Danielle, I bet you have a billion craft projects that you've started, and have not finished one of them..." I just started laughing and told Mr. teacher "yup, that pretty much sums up my life!"

So with that being said, this is what I am wanting to accomplish in the next few weeks...

The Pantry.

I want to make her gorgeous! Right now I think pantry's are pretty popular in blog land, and I've caught the bug .... I was in awe of the pantry over at House of Smith's and can't wait to start on our Pantry (hopefully mid week), especially with some fun gift card spending at Crate and Barrel.

The Craft Room.

This room has so much potential, especially with the new Thinking chair! This is all basically leftover furniture from my apartment, so let's just work with it. I was in a crafting rage when I took these pictures so don't judge me : )

The Dumpster.

Just kidding :) But see those nice freshly cut tree stems. Oh yes, I grabbed as many as I could and now they're sitting in our garage waiting for my Pottery Barn inspired project (which I'm doing now, and will finish before I start the next project!!).

The Backyard.

We're in the middle of doing this project right now... and it's turning out freakin' awesome!!! I think Mr. Husband and I totally underestimated what we were capable of when it comes to yard work... Can't wait for this post!

We (I) have a busy couple of weeks ahead!!

The Spray Paint Thinking Chair Pillow...

2010-08-17T19:34:00.000-07:00

I have been itching to have a pillow for my newly finished "Thinking Chair". I just purchased a Cricut machine (from Joann's on sale for $85... score!!!) and have been obsessed with it ever since!! I was also browsing Joann's web site for Cricut cartridges, and ran in to the Paris cartridge. It is full of Paris themed "Shabby" cut outs, so of course I ordered it right away!

I knew I wanted to use the sofa cut out for my thinking chair....

So cue the Cricut!!!

So I took the cutout and also cut out a square to fit the front of my pillow from a piece of white fabric I already had...

Then I went outside and spray painted using Krylon's Ivy Leaf Spray Paint...

and FAILED!!! So it went in the trash :(

I knew I had one more chance to try it again before this storm became a full on monsoon (and it did, real quick)!

I now know you have to spray in nice, thin, light coats.... and thank goodness try #2 worked!

It looked pretty cute, but what would a thinking chair pillow be without rhinestones?!? I just can't stand how camera's don't do rhinestones or anything sparkly for that matter justice!

Still pretty cute, but she still needed a little somethin somethin... Cue the cute flowers!

My thinking chair feels much better now :)

Linking up to CSI's Spray Paint Challenge!!

Audrey, the "Thinking Chair"

2010-08-16T20:13:00.001-07:00

Meet Audrey, the cute but needs to be updated wing back chair. Audrey was another Craigslist find. A couple of months ago my sister was over and we were crafting in the craft room (go figure), and my sister said "sissy, I think you need a thinking chair", and so I said, "Mo, I think you're exactly right"!

Thus, Audrey was born :)

Audrey was neglected for a few weeks for two reasons: 1) She was a bit bigger than I thought (I learned the hard way that I should measure before I buy stuff), and 2) I couldn't for the life of me figure out what kind of fabric to cover her in. I love love love damask, and know that it's super in right now, but I didn't want another damask fabric.... but I gave in :)

I started with the front, and worked back for this chair, and didn't use ANY piping. I would like to say I don't use piping because I think it gives Audrey a more modern look, but it's really because I'm too lazy to use piping on a huge chair, and too scared I'll mess it up. One day though, I'll give in!

Isn't she amazing!?!

And yes, now I have a thinking chair that I think in ALL THE TIME!!

Now she just needs some cute "Thinking" pillows.... more on that to come : )

Meet Script, the Chair

2010-08-16T17:05:00.000-07:00

Here is one of my first Craigslist "chair" finds. I was always terrified of Craigslist, but it turns out that not everyone is too bad! This chair came from a nice old man who was downsizing and needed to get rid of lots of stuff. I was like "so.... how old do you think this chair is", and Mr. Old man was like "well, it's been in my family my entire life, which means its older than me." Good answer Mr. old man! That's exactly what I wanted to hear!

For that reason alone, I was a little scared to give him a makeover (yes, the chair is a him, and I named him Script). But look at Script... he looks awful and worn out, but still has some AMAZING detail work!

So, trying not to think what Mr. Old Man's grandmother would say if she knew what I was about to do, I went to work :)

We live in a new housing development, and there are no houses (yet) to the West of us... I know it's because they know if they got rid of my "Spray Paint" field, I'd go c-r-a-z-y :)

This is probably one of the easiest chair's I've redone. I'm not a fan of gutting the chair and then starting from scratch if it already has some good cushioning!

Needless to say, Script feels much better now!

and now we just need to find a place in our house for him to go :)

Designer Blogs...

2010-08-12T12:42:00.000-07:00

Do you love the new blog!?! After browsing around some other blogs, I ran in to a super cute blog, and at the bottom, saw a button for "Designer Blogs". I went to their website (www.designerblogs.com), and after looking through their portfolio and pricing, I was extremely impressed! I went ahead and ordered a pre-made design and Lauren (from Designer Blogs) had everything installed in just a couple of days. So here's a shot out to Lauren for doing a fantastic job!

I seriously recommend this site for any bloggers looking to have their own customized blog layout!

Fabric Shadow Box with Ginormous Keys

2010-08-03T19:26:00.000-07:00

So right now, (much like the rest of blogland) I am In. Love. with Skeleton Keys. Well, a good friend of ours mom owns a model home furniture liquidation business.... So Mr. Husband and I strolled over there one weekend and I almost gasped when I saw these...

Mr. Husband was like "D, what in the heck are you going to do with oversized keys?!?" And I was like "Mr. Husband... I'm going to build a huge shadow box frame with molding and fabric." And before he could give me his typical "you're crazy" look, I was off to Home Depot and Home Fabrics :)

I came back with some super thin plywood stuff, molding, and some yellow fabric I had had my eye on for some time, but I just could never figure out what to do with it... until now!

Here's the thing... I don't claim to ever know what I'm doing, because most of the time I'm doing it for the first time. But I always give myself a pat on the back (more like a jolt when I really impress myself) when stuff turns out like this:

Here's a closer look at the fabric...

And for the first time, I'm linking up to some blog parties! Yay! I never thought I would get to this point!!

Fabric Box Wedding Invitations

2010-08-03T18:21:00.000-07:00

So, this isn't entirely a home blog, because I do enjoy lots of other crafts as well... so much in fact, that I did all 100 of our wedding invitations. Here's the scoop... I really wanted a invitation that came in a nice fabric box and when you opened the box you would have a nice invite with a crystal broach. Was that too much to ask?!? Apparently not, if you are willing to pay the bargain price of $34 per invite (not even including postage).

Here's a Example...

It's seriously a beautiful invite, but there's no way Mr. Husband would have let me buy 100 of those, and even if he would let me, I never would!! So just because I wasn't willing to pay that price, doesn't mean I wasn't willing to figure out how to make them myself :) So after finding craft paper boxes in bulk, finding the perfect fabric at Hobby Lobby with a 40% off coupon to cover the boxes in, an amazing designer (www.belletristics.com) and some cute fabric paper at JoAnnes,I was on my way...

Yes, we had to cover 100 boxes (which is almost like 200 if you consider top and bottom)

Mr.Husband (Fiancee at the time) knew how important they were to me, so he was happy to help :)

And after a couple of months of hard work, here's how it turned out...

Okay, now times 100.....

I seriously couldn't have been happier and in all spent 1/5 of what it would have cost to buy online (which is still crazy, but typical for wedding invitations). Even though it was sooooo much work to put them together, I loved the experience of making my invites!!

Linking up to CSI's Fabric/Sewing Challenge!

"The Chair"... One of my first projects :)

2010-08-02T20:02:00.001-07:00

One of the things I had found to be super popular in blog land were gross, dirty, rusty, old chairs. Then I got jealous and was like, "D, you need to go find a super ugly, dirty, rusty, old chair and fix it up because it looks like so much fun"... and that was where it all started for me! Now I have a obsession with finding gross, dirty, chairs, and making them look so fan-freakin-tastic! But now I have to hide them from Mr. Husband and tell him when the timing is perfect that I bought more chairs, or I just let him find them on his own... but more on that later : )

So here she is... the first chair I birthed :) (FYI, half of these pictures were taken in my apartment prior to moving to Mrs. Amber) I had also purchased a cute lamp and table, for a grand total of $11. She actually doesn't look so bad in this picture, but it simply does not do it justice as to how gross and icky she was...

She must have been from the 70's... she had some nasty gross vinyl fabric print.

So, the ladies out in blog land rarely mention the treat I found... They never tell you about the possible Tetanus shot you might have to get from taking these things apart!!! G-R-O-S-S...

Some super nice, old padding underneath...

Then from all the nice tutorials in blogland, I laid out all the pieces to act as a template for the new fabric.

I had to stop and take a picture because the whole process was going too well.... so I wanted to catch it before I messed something up.

But as it turns out, I didn't mess it up, and after staining her legs with a Ebony stain, she now resides in our new home :)

Here she is alongside her trusty side table (which I simply spray painted black). The lamp was spray painted and used downstairs in our living room... pics on that later!

Not bad for a first project :)

Linking up to Thrifty Decor Chics Before and After party!

Hello!!!

2010-08-02T19:35:00.000-07:00

So... Hello!!! My name is Danielle and I am so excited to finally be starting our "Ms.Amber" blog!! After blog stalking/surfing so many blogs, I decided it was time for me to start a "house" blog separate from our "Chris and Danielle Newlywed" blog. Because I've been blog surfing for so long, I caught the "pick up something old and used and make it nice and pretty" bug.... so that's my recent obsession and I'm having so much fun with it! So here goes the blogging of a newlywed trying to make her house her own, with a cute, handsome hubby tagging along :)