I finally finished a project!

I have been pretty lame lately in the whole house project department. I have started a few projects over the last couple weeks but haven't finished any of them until now! I made my pillow for my bed this weekend. I am very proud of myself too. I used cording for the first time and I am pleased with how it turned out.

Just don't look too closely. It is definitely not perfect. I LOVE it in my room though!

I feel like my bedroom is finally starting to come together a little. It's fun!

Kitchen Chalkboard

I forgot that I hadn't posted my chalkboard yet. I finally did finish making the chalkboard for my kitchen. Remember my DIY Pottery Barn wall art that I made for my apartment like 5 years ago...

well, I used the frame that my husband made out of molding for my chalkboard.

For the board part, Calvin cut to size a piece of really thin particle board stuff...I'm not really sure what it is called, but you can get a big piece of it at Home Depot for $10. Then I primed and painted it and attached the board to the frame with a staple gun. As you can see from the smudges on the board, I have been using it. It's been great to jot down quick reminders and grocery items we need.

DIY Wall Art

This is a project that I did a long time ago when my husband and I were first married and lived in an apartment. I needed some inexpensive art for above our sofa. As you know, I love Pottery Barn, and while looking for some inspiration, I saw this wall art in a Pottery Barn catalog:

 My first thought was, "I could do that, and I bet it wouldn't cost that much." So I went to a thrift store and found a bunch of old frames. I purchased three modern frames from Target for the letters. Then, my very crafty husband made a large frame out of some inexpensive moulding from Home Depot. I painted the frames, printed off a few random letters on cardstock and voila! This is what I got...

It's not Pottery Barn perfect, but I think it turned out pretty good, and the best part is it only cost me around $40. It was just the right size piece I needed for over my sofa, and it's unique so it was always a conversation piece. So here is what our apartment living room looked like.

I bought inexpensive pillows and curtains so that when we moved I wouldn't feel bad about not using them if they didn't fit with our next place.

Apartment decorating can be fun and inexpensive. You just need to get a little creative sometimes.

Clothespin Texture Ball

My friend from design school came up with a fun little group project. Our first semester of school in our Design Basics class we had to do a texture ball project. We could use anything we could think of to create a ball with visual texture. So along with my other classmates we decided to do this project again.

Here is what a started with. A paper mache ball and some clothespins.

I painted the ball and glued the clothespins randomly on it.



The clothespins make the ball versatile. Since Valentine's Day is coming up I decided to add a theme to my ball by clipping some paper hearts and the word "Love" to the clothespins.

And then for a different look I just clipped a bunch of random letters to the ball.

It looks pretty good on my entry table next to my lettered ceramic balls in my apothecary jars.

Now here's what some of the other ladies came up with, and be sure to check out their blogs to find out all the details.

Andrea at Strawberry Chic

Caley at Design By Caley

Sarah at Sarah Dawn Designs

Dawnelle at Home Vestures

New Curtains

My Wilmington Multi fabric came last week and I LOVE it! When it arrived I instantly got started on my curtains. Here is my kitchen window before the new light fixture and window treatments:

And here it is now:

I love the simple changes.

Free Halloween Decor

I am not much of a holiday decorator. Not because I don't want to, but because I can't afford it. When you're on a tight budget it isn't easy to justify spending money on decor that you only have up for a few weeks out of the year. This year for Halloween I decided to get a little creative. I love finding free printables on Pinterest, so that's exactly what I did. I turned my entry gallery wall into a spooky Halloween display for FREE.

I love how it turned out! I will definitely be switching up my pictures for other holidays too from now on. Here's what I did and where I got it:
The bat idea I found here.

I used black cardstock and stuck them on the wall with tape. So far they have stayed on pretty well. I made the silhouette of my daughter using photoshop. Here are the rest of the printables I used.
The "Keep Calm" came from here.
The Halloween Subway Art is from here, and also comes in three different colors!

The bat can be found here.
The vintage skull image is here.
I found these great labels, like this one,  here.

Simple and Inexpensive DIY Art

I mentioned in my last post that I would tell you how I did my DIY art for the craft room, and here it is! I made the pictures of the iconic chairs using magazines. I got the idea from my friend, Andrea, over at Strawberry Chic.
First, I went through my old magazines and cut out different pages with similar colors.

Then, I printed out two copies of a picture of the chair in black and white.

One of the copies I cut apart. I cut out the different pieces of the chair by it's lightness and darkness.

Then, I took those pieces and found similar shades of color and traced the shape onto the magazine page and cut it out.

I used the other black and white print out to lay the pieces on so I didn't get the different pieces mixed up as I went. I just kept cutting out all the pieces until I had the whole chair, and then I glued it all on a piece of cardstock. I had some old frames I wasn't using, so I painted them white, cut out some mats from some left over mat board I had, and that was it! This project didn't cost me a dime!

I loved the way they turned out. They're a little abstract and artsy, and it was super fun to do!

I did something similar to this in my baby girl's room, except I used scrapbook paper.

Super inexpensive and cute! This little collage cost less than $20. The frames I found on sale at Michael's for $3 each, and the paper cost me $5. I love it when I can do stuff for that cheap!

The Craft Room

I finally am posting pictures of the craft room! Most of the room has been done for a month or so now. I was just adding the finishing touches and making sure it looked perfect. So here it is...

The shelves are just some boards purchased at Home Depot that I stained. Calvin hung them with inexpensive metal brackets. The total cost for the shelving was less than $35. The boxes are from Ikea and hold all of my stuff perfectly.

I went with the green for the dresser. I love it! I had some old knobs from my bedroom dresser that I painted white, so I didn't have to puchase any. Always love it when that happens!

My DIY art. I will explain how I did it in a later post.

I love the way it turned out! I'm not a huge crafter, so it's the perfect size. I love knowing where everything is now and having a place where I can leave my sewing machine out. Also, I would like to give a big shout out to my wonderful and very talented husband who made it all happen. Love you!

The Desk

Calvin built the desk in the craft room last weekend. It looks amazing! I love it. I can't wait to use it.




Don't I have an awesome husband?!!

Calvin's Nightmare Shower Remodel

A few months ago I posted pictures of our, what we thought would be, weekend project of replacing the tile in the shower. After a leak in the basement ceiling, re-grouting and resealing the tile 3 times, taking many showers at my parents house, and having a baby :) I can finally say it is really finished. Calvin was really sick of this project, but he did an AMAZING job and I love it! Just look at the results.

Here is the before. Nasty pink tile, original to the house.

During part of the process


And here is how it looks now!


Calvin replaced all of the fixtures with brushed nickel and combined with the crisp white subway tile it makes for a classic look that I think goes perfect in our 1940's home!

Nursery Preview!

I made this crib skirt for baby "E's" room this weekend, and I LOVE it!


It's so girly and fun, and took FOREVER!

It's Project Time, Again!

Something we have learned while being homeowners: a weekend project is never just a weekend project. This is what Calvin has been dealing with for the last week.

Believe it or not, the floors are done!

I am finally posting pictures of the finished product! We finished the floors and we're able to start moving our stuff back upstairs 3 days before Christmas. We are really happy with how they turned out.
The entry way, which used to be linoleum that Cal spent several hours scraping off...
Looks so much better!

Dining room.

Couple shots of the living room.

Calvin got me this new rug for Christmas.


Second bedroom. Please look past the ugly bright red futon. :)


Hallway.
Master bedroom.


Didn't Calvin do such a great job? I love that boy! :)