Decorating Update: Master Bathroom

Back in the day when I first started this blog I probably wrote just as much about decorating as I did crafting. I honestly think if I had an unlimited budget it would be very similar today, but alas, I like many of you, do not have an unlimited budget.

And speaking of budgets, you may remember my budget concise/pillow making post from last month. I'm still very much on a vacation saving budget, but for my birthday, Chase agreed to paint the bathroom. After all, paint is not that expensive, and we already had most of it.

Now, what I did not do was take a before picture. I think I was just so excited to get going that I just blanked. I do have a before picture from a previous project (the mirror).

I've debated so many times what I wanted to do in here, and we've still got several things to work on (like those blinds). But we decided to do cream on cream stripes:

If you'd like to know how to create your own stripes, just follow the Young House Love directions. These guys are good, and one of my favorite blog stops. My only addition to their directions is to use Frog Tape. I will never buy the blue stuff again. We never would have got those crisp lines with the normal stuff!

Okay, so what's next on your DIY list? I'm thinking more paint, shhh... don't tell my husband.

The Numbered Pillow Project

Chase and I are already planning our vacation for next year. We didn't really get to go anywhere this year with me starting a new job and creating Practicing Creativity, so we are trying to go ahead and get something planned and on our calendars for 2011. To help save for the trip (because we are going to Europe), I've promised Chase that I wouldn't do any home projects until after that trip. AHHH! If you've been reading my blog very long you know that I love to decorate. I love a good DIY project. Here's just a few things we've done since we moved into our house two years ago...

Redid my craft room (June 2010)

Poured a larger patio (May 2010)

Put up bead board in our dining room (Fall 2009)

And before the bead board in Fall 2008 we changed the chairs pretty drastically:

And when we first moved in we painted our garage, both the floors and the walls:

And trust me that's just the beginning. We also redid our closet in a major way, made our fireplace into an amazing focal point and did numerous smaller projects. If you are interested you can see my decorating tag.  So I've been getting the urge to do some kind of project around the house, but since my budget to do anything is zero I'm having to get creative. I really love these pillows from Pottery Barn.

Of course these are $89 a piece at Pottery Barn. So, I have several pillows stuffed away that I don't either have a place for because of the color, or just don't like.

I have some canvas type fabric, so I just went to town with it. I knew I needed something decorative on the front. So I just printed out a large 5, traced on the fabric and painted with textile paint.

 I just sewed it up, and really if you can't sew, and I can't, pillows are the way to go!

Maddie has already broken it in! I think it looks really good in our living room!

So now that I'm done with that, anyone else know of any "free" decor projects?


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We've got some new wholesalers! Check out the list here to see them all!

Fabric Wreath Video

Well I said it was back to card making today, but I actually have a wreath project I wanted to share with you. Here's the video tutorial:



And here are a few pictures of the finished project:

Of course as always if you make one I'd LOVE to see it. Also, you can watch the video on YouTube here.

I'm off to watch the latest Harry Potter now!

Moxie Fab Tuesday Trigger

I wasn't that impressed with the card I made Thursday night, so I knew I wanted to hit the craft room this morning. Hopefully this time with better results... something more my style. Here was the image from Pottery Barn for the inspiration.

And here's my card:

Stamps: Merry and Bright (PTI)

Pattern Paper: Eskimo Kisses 6x6 paper pack and Thin Ice (Basic Grey)

Card Stock: Stampers Select (PTI)

Ribbon: Fresh Snow (PTI)

Ink: VersaFine

Pearl: Denim (Kaiser)

Thread: Double Duty

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In other non-crafting news. I think I've finished the dining room with some framed music sheets! I bought them from etsy, had them blown up at Wolfe (I wish I would have gone a little bigger but I still like it). And I just love the fun unexpected art.

What do you think? Cool or weird?  Also, please continue to ignore my curtains. I still have not ironed, and I'm so not looking forward to it!

Bead Board Project

Chase and I (um... more me) decided to add some bead board to our recently painted dining room. Here was our dining room before we ever started changing things:

And here is the current:

I'm pretty excited about it. Just in time for all the parties we will be hosting this year. If you are curious about the process, and how big of a mess we made doing this, you can watch our little video we made.


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Hey December Daily girls... are you ready? Today's the big day - Dec. 1!

Happy Halloween!

Here's Maddie in her Halloween costume. Yes, she's a lion. And yes, she totally hates us. She wears little sweatshirts and shirts from time to time, but man she hated her lion suit. I think it made her too hot... but isn't she still cute?

And yesterday two exciting things happened... I got this package of cards from my blog friend Lynnette with several swap cards! Aren't they fantastic?

What's interesting is I could tell you at first glance who's was whose.  Awesome cards... Kelley E, Kelly A., Lynnette and Winter! You girls are some FANTASTIC card makers!

Lastly... Chase and I spent last night painting our dining room and kitchen. Actually my downstairs is all one color! If you don't know this trick, painting one color really makes your space really open up. So if it's a color you really love go for it!  I do have plans to really do some special things in my dining room (aka bead board), but since we weren't sure when we would get to that we just painted. Also, now I have to change out my seat cushions.

Chase and I headed to Knoxville tonight for the Tennessee v. South Carolina game. Can you all start praying for no rain. My Alabama lovin' husband may not be very happy on the way back if we have to sit in rain the whole time!

Also, don't forget about Everything But The Kitchen Sink. I posted the new challenge yesterday, or you can get the link off my side bar.

Halloween Decorations and an update on Maddie

Well, my time line for showing you my Halloween decorations is almost running out. I can't say that they are super original because I saw an idea I just loved. This is totally ripped off from Country Living. Here's what I did:

First, I drew half a bat. You can totally download and print this out from Coutry Living, but I didn't have access to a printer!

I used poster board for my bats. I wanted something just a little thicker than cardstock. I cut two different sizes of bats.

And up they went! They are so fun... especially at night. I can't wait for Halloween. We got Maddie's Halloween costume in the mail today. She's going to be a lion. It's way cute. Speaking of Maddie, we gave her a bath tonight. We have only taken her to the groomer. We haven't ventured into this yet ourselves. I thought she was going to hate it, but she actually did pretty well. The only bad thing was she was freezing.

Look how cute:

And here's Maddie and I playing her favorite game. I think it goes something like this:

Maddie: I'm going to eat your hands off... JUST KIDDING!

She loves it! It's so funny.

I'm off to work on somethings for Everything But the Kitchen Sink! I hope you'll play along on Friday!

Super exciting post!

This was completely unplanned, but Chase and I would like to introduce you to the newest member of the Baker family... Maddie.

Isn't she cute? To be honest most of my friends are shocked that we got a dog. I've never had an inside dog, and I've only ever really liked my families dogs. But I can honestly say I already love Maddie. She's so cute, and she is tiny! Basically my boss saw her at a local adoption location website and knowing that I like Yorkies sent me her picture. I had to go see her. Chase is fantastic with dogs, so he was 100% on board! And now she's here. And currently sleeping in my craft room!

Also, it's been an exciting weekend because before we went to get Maddie my sweet husband cleaned the entire house, and hung my latest decorating project. Here's how it happened.

I got this large round mirror at a yard sale. It had a lot of scratches on it. When I bout it I thought maybe I could paint the leather.

 

I thought for a $1 I could try it out. When I got it home, I decided to just check what was under the leather.

I was so excited to see the pieces of wood underneath. I knew it wouldn't be perfect, but I thought it would look distressed and perfect for my style. So I went for it!

 

I really wanted it to be dark, so I didn't wipe any of the stain off, I just let it soak it all up! I also went back and made some sections even darker. It gave it a really nice effect. 

And here is hanging up on my mantle. Chase kindly took down the TV:

And here it is now!

Now I know some of you are probably wondering about why we would take down our tv. Well, to be honest we never watch it. When we are watching TV it is always upstairs! So the old TV is now my computer/monitor (more on that another day). Oh, and I have to show you this picture of Maddie. She fits in well with our living room.

And last thing... as you probably red yesterday, I have some exciting news to share with you on the 30th! Here's another clue!

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Halloween Wreath

If you watched my first video from CK Nashville (here) you saw the supplies for this wreath. My original idea was to make on similar to my Christmas wreath last year (here). However, I forgot one of the main reasons that paper worked so well... it was double sided. The glitter paper I was so excited about was not. Here's what I ended up with:

First I cut my glitter paper into 1x5 strips. Then, I just wrapped them around and pinned them into my foam wreath. I wasn't too worried about keeping the back pretty, since I knew it wouldn't show. For my letters, I just used some old SU! Chipboard letters and covered them with some American Crafts Halloween paper. I think the contrast worked out well.

Can you tell I'm excited about decorating for Halloween? I can't wait to hang this up on Halloween night when my trick or treaters come. Oh, wait, yea... that's right... I don't have any. I'll hang it up anyway! Maybe I'll go around and beg some kids to come to come.

In other news, on September 30 I have some very exciting news that I am going to be announcing with a few other fabulous bloggers, and I hope it is something you will be excited about as well! And if this helps any, there is a $25 gift card involved!

Here's a little hint:

Any guesses? I hope you're having a great Friday!

Decorating for Halloween.

***This post has a lot of picture. Don't say I didn't warn you!***

Okay, so I STILL don't have the big-super exciting project up yet. Chase and I tried to do it last night, but we were missing a tool. However, I do have another fun, simple thing for you.

***I got this idea from another blog, but for the life of me I can't find it anymore. It's not one of the "normal" blogs I read, but it was a great one.

Saturday I bought three cheap $3 pumpkins at target... cute right?

Well, if you know me well, you know that I love all things neutral. I really do (at least in home decor and my clothing choices). So... I decided to make some faux mercury glass pumpkins. First I started off with metallic silver spray paint.

 

Then while that was still wet, I used a brown metallic spray paint over it. I tried my best to make it blotchy and messy.  It actually looks better in person. And since my can was pretty full, I had to use a cloth to make the paint come out messy. But be warned your fingers will look like this afterwards:

But it was totally worth it because now I have these:

And I promise that last picture is not black and white. It totally looks like it though!

I also have a card to show you. I sent this to my little sister last week! She's so sweet.

Stamps: Brenda Watson (Inkadinkado); Go Green (My Cute Stamps); Sentiments (American Crafts)

Buttons: Hibiscus Burst (PTI)

Felt: Hand cut from my stash

Done. I promise!