Friday, January 22, 2010

A Quote, A Video and What to Do With That Naked Wall

Hi everyone!  Sadly, it has been an entire week since I have posted anything.  When I first started this whole blogging thing, I had high hopes of putting up a post every day, except for on the weekends.  Now that work is back to being as crazy as ever and I have started my small business course and all the homework and reading that comes with it, I have not found it to be possible.  So, instead of a post every day, I will aim for two, maybe three times a week.

I am not planning on taking any courses this summer (summer is way to much fun to have class), so I will have more time to decorate, work on DIY projects, cook, AND blog about all of it!  I love summer!  Refinishing furniture is much easier when you can move it outside to the deck!

So, finally here is my post for this week!  It is kind of a combo of different things – A quote, a video and some room inspiration.  Enjoy and have a wonderful weekend!

A friend of mine wrote this quote and shared it with me this week.  I love it and believe every word of it.  It is now one of my favorite quotes!

Be the cake decorator, not the frosting.  You don't go far being still, just sweet, and decorative.  The longer you stay still, the more stiff you get. - Corrina Crade

I just added some visual flair! See below:


Here is a video that another one of my friends shared with me this week.  I think all of the stairs in the world should be like these.  Take a look and you will see what I mean.  And what a great concept, huh?  The fun theory.


And now a little inspiration on what to do with that naked wall.  I prefer the uncommon solution to the problem: cups, empty picture frames, colorful plates, framed shopping bags, etc.  There are endless possibilities.



















Images: Image 1: Contented Me, Image 2: Elegance Redefined, Image 3: ?, Image 4: Furnishing My Home, Image 5: maedchenmitherz., Image 6: Martha Stewart, Image 7:Shelter Pop, Image 8: the style files, Images 9 & 10: You Are My Fave Jr.

Friday, January 15, 2010

Design on a Dime: Painted Floors

There are so many fun and creative things you can do with your floors, especially when you PAINT THEM!  It is an inexpensive way to make almost any floor work.  Concrete or hardwood, here are some great examples:













































For a tutorial on how to paint your hardwood floors click HERE.
For a tutorial on how to paint your concrete floors click HERE.
Images 1-10: Apartment Therapy, Image 11: Better Homes and Gardens, Images 12-13: CalFinder, Image 14: Casasugar, Image 15: Driftwood, Image 16: House to Home, Image 17: la la Lovely, Image 18: My Home Ideas, Image 19: Point Click Home, Images 20-21: Rooms That Work, Image 22: the style files, Images: 23: The Lennoxx

Saturday, January 9, 2010

Old Art Easel = Recycled Jewelry Holder







My friend, Jodie, found this old art easel in a thrift store for $20 and had the most wonderful idea to turn it into a jewelry holder!  She got the idea when she was shopping in Urban Outfitters and saw these:





If you ask me, our version is way better AND it cost a lot less!  Here is how we did it:





Logan and I had some old chicken wire left over from the garden last summer, but you can buy it any home/building supply store (Menards, Home Depot, Farm & Fleet) for about $15 a roll. We took a wire cutter and cut the chicken wire to fit the back of the easel.  We then took a power stapler and stapled the chicken wire to the back of the easel, trimmed up the wire around the edges and we had ourselves a very unique jewelry rack!  You can do this same thing with a vintage picture or mirror frame.  It was super easy and took about 20 minutes!
Here are some other images for inspiration:








Image 1&2: A Paperless Scrapbook, Image 3: Recyclart, Image 4: ModCloth Blog, Image 5: Cameo 24, Image 6: Easy DIY at Home

Friday, January 8, 2010

EVERYONE needs a hobby!

My husband, Logan, and I are pretty much complete polar opposites. Some might think that is a bad thing, not me! Yes, it can have its challenges, but in the end we make a great team. We make up for what the other one lacks. That is how I look at it.

I will not list all of our differences because neither you nor I have the time it might take; I will name a few though. I have creativity coming out of my ears. I love out of the box (or shall I say blue) ideas and creating something beautiful and unique out of something worn out, boring, and ugly. I simply love to create. My husband, on the other hand, might not have a creative bone in his body. Although, when it comes to CRAZY organizational skills, some of the best people skills I have ever seen, and being an all around good person, he takes the cake. My life would pretty much be chaos without him. I also tend to get overly excited about things, where he is as laid back as they come. He needs a little energy (me) in his life and I need a little bit of organization (him) in mine. All in all, we seem to fit just right.

Our very different hobbies
Logan comes home from work the other night and says to me, “You know how you have all these projects you are working on, well I have one of own!” He then whipped out this:






It is his father’s model aircraft from the early 80s. I guess it has only been flown twice successfully and during the last attempt there was a bit of a mishap. It needs some work, but my husband is determined to fix it and learn how to fly it. From what we hear, it is pretty hard to fly.

I come home from work the next night and say to Logan, with my over-the-top excited voice, “I think I bought all of craigslist today!” The look on his face didn’t exactly reflect the same excitement I was feeling, to say the least.

So, the next night we headed out to Columbus, Wisconsin in the middle of a snow storm. His father lent us his giant SUV to pick up what was posted on Craigslist as, “white cupboards on wheels,” aka a PERFECT storage unit for my creative workspace in the basement! Yippee! Our next stop was on the east side of Madison where a man was clearing out his grandfather’s old workshop. To sweeten the deal and convince Logan it was a perfectly sane idea to drive an hour in the middle of a snowstorm, I did not forget to mention that the man had a whole bunch of metal shelving units that would be perfect for ORGANIZING the basement. (That word wins every time.)

I was like a kid in a candy store in that workshop. It was full of junk, junk, and more junk. The quote “One person’s junk is another person’s treasure” might sum it up. It was full of old vintage orange crates, metal baskets, old wooden doors, bookcases, storage units, antique metal filing cabinets, and the list goes on and on. So, we DID come home with a metal storage unit, but we also came home with this:



1.) An old makeup display case from an American Eagle store
2.) One side of an old wooded shipping crate
3.) An old pink metal bookcase
4.) A long wooden bookcase
5.) The side to an old wooden crib (strange, I know)
6.) Old wooden filing shelves that used to be in a post office years ago
7.) And, as a bonus, the guy threw in an old window washer squeegee thing….. HAHA!
(Logan thought that was pretty cool!)

As we packed everything in the back of the SUV and tied the shelving unit to the roof rack, Logan asks, “what are you seriously going to do with all this junk!?!” I replied, “No worries, Hun. I will make it all beautiful!” That comment was closely followed by a semi-sincere promise not to look at craigslist for another 3 months. (Shhhhh!)

What I am trying to say is that I might not care about airplanes and he might not care about refinishing old furniture, but we both realize that making something work again or making something your own, can make a person really happy. So I encourage all of you to find the DIY project that works for you. I believe everyone needs a hobby, an escape from the every day grind of life.

I will keep you updated as to when my husband’s DIY project takes flight and my many transformations of trash to treasures!

I hope you all have a lovely weekend. I plan on making my favorite white bean chicken chili and corn bread this weekend, so look for the recipes on Monday!