Category Archives: DIY

Feelin’ Flakey

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Happy Friday!

What’s amazing about the blogging world is how there are so many amazingly creative people out there. I’m constantly impressed with the style, creativity and wit of my fellow bloggers.

On that note, I wanted to share this awesome paper snowflake tutorial from Bon Temps Beignet that had me TOTALLY inspired. Not only does Liz show you step by step how to make paper snowflakes yourself, but she will literally blow your mind with her amazing designs. How she managed to create a snowflake with a fluer de lis design is beyond me, but the girl is from NOLA so she must have  built-in skills.

Obviously after seeing her post I had to make some flakes for my own apartment window.

 

Now, I do want to admit that my snowflakes kind of stink. BUT, you only see them from a distance (I’m on the 2nd floor) so I figure it’s okay. Plus, they make me so happy. And that’s all that really matters, right?

Have a fantastic weekend, all! xoxo

Holiday Madness

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I am so thankful for my mom. She’s my best friend, plain and simple. We talk every day and never run out of things to say or do together. She’s my favorite shopping partner, life coach and cooking teacher. Overall, she’s the best role model a girl could ask for. I hope that one day I’m half the mom she is.

***

Can you believe Thanksgiving is only nine days away? And Christmas is next month?

I adore Christmas. It’s my favorite holiday, and I am so beyond excited to start crafting and decorating to the tunes of “A Chipmunk Christmas.”  I’ve already started making notes on what I want to do this year, and even bought this bad boy to help spark my creativity.

If you’re wondering, it’s a pretty good magazine. Nothing so original that’s probably not already on Pinterest, but it’s still a fun read.

Anyway, I noticed that I have kind of skipped over Thanksgiving as far as decorating. Yea, I have my mini-pumpkin on the coffee table, but that’s about it. Since we aren’t hosting Thanksgiving whatsoever, the thought never crossed my mind to spruce up the apartment.

However, we ARE having friends over the night before Thanksgiving for a little pre-bar hopping cocktail party. It’s technically for my birthday, but it’s really just a “Thanksgiving Eve is the biggest bar night of the year so let’s get a few pre-cocktail party cocktails in us before we head to the bars” party.

Phew, that was a mouthful.

So I think I might need to jazz up the apartment a little. Not sure what to do though, since I don’t have much energy time for this. But, there’s so much eye candy out there…how can I not be inspired?

via SAS Interiors

via Frenchie and Flea

via Star Shine Chic

via Old Sweet Water Cottage

Being that Thanksgiving is almost over and it’s literally JUST about time to decorate for Christmas, I’m going to see if  good ol’ nature can inspire my decorating this weekend (cough cough…free stuff).

I’ll keep you posted!

Stick a Cork in it

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Well folks, I can happily say that I have completed my second DIY! Remember last week when I talked about my need for new fridge magnets? I actually did something about it!

I’ve been collecting wine corks for some time now because I have my mind set on one day making cork artwork for my kitchen. I don’t have enough to do it just yet, but my little cork centerpiece is totally full and I had some extra champagne corks just sitting around in a bag waiting for me to be crafty.

So I tried to be.

First, I started by slicing six champagne corks in half.

Then, using an exatact-o knife, I carved a little divot in the center of each cork for a magnet. I did this because I wanted the finished product to lay flush with the fridge,  rather than have a space in between the cork and the fridge because of the bulky magnet.

Then, I hot glued a magnet to each cork.

And there she blows!

Cute, right? I’m pretty sure John thought I was going insane for doing this craft, but even he admitted that they are super cute in person. And it only took me like 10 minutes, and the $2 it cost to buy the magnets. Success!

Here’s what my fridge currently looks like:

See that picture with all the hearts? That’s my absolute favorite drawing of all time. My niece Emma drew it before the wedding, and it shows me in my wedding gown and John in his tux. Adorable right? I’m pretty sure I’m framing it, so it’s stay on the fridge is limited.

Hope you are all having a wonderful Tuesday!!

Magnetized by Love

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Yea, this post is about magnets. What? Not thrilled?

I’m in desperate need for some new magnets. Who knew cute ones would be so hard to find? My niece loves to draw, and is always giving me pieces of art to display, so the three magnets I currently have are just not cutting it.

I know some people don’t like clutter on their fridge…but I’m not one of those people. I love throwing cards, invitations and the latest family masterpiece on there. Makes our apartment feel more cozy and “lived-in.”

But back to the problem at hand. I need magnets and can’t find any good ones anywhere! So I decided to do some internet searching, and found a couple really cute DIY ideas:

via Martha Stewart

via Etsy

via Pinterest

Buttons, corks, flowers…oh my!

My creative juices are definitely flowing and I feel a little magnet project in store for this weekend. So stay tuned for next week to see what I come up with!

I know displaying things on the fridge isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. What do you do? Do you prefer to hang things like artwork and invitations on your fridge, or do you like to keep things clean and clutter-free?

Have a fantastic weekend, everyone!

My Pinterest Challenge: Fall Edition DIY!

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So I have a confession: I stalk Young House Love and the Bower Power Blog like it’s my job. So obviously I was very excited when they both posted that the Pinterest Challenge was happening again. I hadn’t started this blog when they held the last one, so this was my chance to get involved (and subsequently hope Katie and Sherry become my BFF’s).

Of course, deciding to participate was the easy part. The hard part was deciding what to make. Can I even make something? I’m not crafty! I can barely walk and listen to my iPod at the same time.

I’ve made a bunch of recipes from Pinterest before, but I wanted to venture out of my comfort zone and try to be the DIY expert that I so dream of becoming. So I decided to go for it.

I saw this awesome keyring holder on the blog My Sweet Savannah. Melaine actually saw this keyholder on Pinterest as well, but from an Etsy shop. It didn’t look too complicated, plus it’s something we genuinely need at the apartment. I’m constantly losing my keys (in my jewelry box, in the seat cushions, under the couch), so I need a place that I can put them whenever I come home from work or running errands.

So, there was my inspiration. Time to turn inspiration into real-life.

I started by going to Michael’s. I didn’t have any scrap wood lying around (I live in an apartment, so renovation scraps are hard to come by in these parts) and bought a cheap wall plaque. I also didn’t have any old baby blocks and didn’t want to spend money on buying a set just to spray paint, so I bought cheap wood blocks and letters. I had the stain already, so the items I needed to buy were limited. So I guess my overall theme for this project was “keep it cheap.”  Just how I roll.

To keep with the decor of my lovely mansion apartment, I decided to veer off My Sweet Savannah’s design and put a little Lewis in Love spin on it. I gave the wood a light sanding, and stained the plaque a dark brown.

Lookin’ good, right?

I then glued the wood letters to the blocks. Unfortunately, I did this a little sloppy (and was annoyed with how it looked after I painted), so if you end up doing this, I would suggest use the glue sparingly.

I gave the blocks a light sanding around the edges, and had my handsome husband screw cup hooks in the bottom of each block. Hey babe!

After that was done, I sprayed each “baby block” white.

Ooh, pretty.

Then, I used liquid nails to glue the blocks to my plaque. Obviously make sure you are happy with the location of each block before you do any gluing.

After the blocks were dry, it was time to hang up on the wall! I decided my new keyholder would live on the wall next to my front door.

We LOVE it. It goes perfectly with our decor and we needed it BIG TIME. With four cars between the two of us (only one of them is mine) it’s nice to finally have one spot where all the keys live.

Hooray! I actually made something!!

How did your Pinterest Challenge go? Thank you again to Sherry at Young House Love, Katie at Bower Power Blog, Ana of  Ana-White and Erin at House of Earnest for hosting this season’s Pinterest Challenge. I’m excited to see what you all created!

Apartment Update: The Kitchen!

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First stop on the “I swear our apartment looks lived in” train! I thought I’d kick things off with the kitchen, since it was the room in the apartment that really sold us on the place. We loved how big it was, the fact we could have a little table in there, and obviously the black and tan tiled floor.

For a reminder, here’s what the bad boy looked like when we moved in (don’t mind the mess)…

And here we are now!

Looking in from the living room

A glimpse of the cabinets, window and fridge

Fun kitchen storage

Kitchen table and wine wall art

Better shot of the cabinets

So there you have it! We are going for a red, tan, black and white color scheme. We love wine, so we are really tying that theme into this space.

Right now we have our wine and champagne cork centerpiece, as well as the wine wall art. I also have a few DIY’s in mind for the corks I have been collecting…

Cork centerpiece

If you are wondering what other changes we have in mind, well you may notice the eye sore of a microwave hiding in the corner by the kitchen table. We have plans to put some form of corner shelving unit there that we can put the microwave on, as well as some other fun decorations. Plus, I’d love to get some more wall art up in this space.

There you have it with the kitchen! Stay tuned for updates on the rest of the apartment!

 

Mirror Mirror on the Wall

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I’m the worst. I started this blog only last week and then I disappeared for a few days. Already?? Who am I?

Truthfully, I wanted my next post to be a “Where are We Now” apartment tour. But I’ve been so crazy at work that I haven’t had 2 seconds to take pictures of the apartment. Sorry. So instead of writing about other things, I haven’t written. I’m a glutton for punishment like that. But enough is enough, it’s time to post. I’m never going to get this blog rolling if I hold off on posting things!

So needless to say, I’m back and ready to party. I wanted to tell you a little bit about the mirror search I have going on. I adore sunburst mirrors. I want to make out with them. I have been obsessing over finding the perfect one for our living room (pictures to come soon!!) but haven’t been able to snag what I am envisioning.

Take a look at the “inspiration” picture below. Amazing, right??

via Decorpad

I’m envisioning a stainless steel-looking sunburst mirror for my living room, above our bookshelf. I think it would even out the stainless steel wine wall we have on the other side of the TV (again, I promise to show you ASAP) and would just be ferosh. Oh yea, baby.

The dilemma is all the [affordable] starburst/sunburst mirrors I’ve found have been in an antique gold/yellow finish. That doesn’t work in my living room. Does no one like silver in these joints?? I’m thinking I might try to buy one (cheap??) and attempt to spray paint it silver, like this DIY beauty by 4 Men 1 Lady.

via 4 Men 1 Lady

Be still my beating heart….this is literally the sunburst mirror of my dreams! Didn’t she do an amazing job????

So now the objective is to find an awesome mirror and make it my own like Michelle (my new hero). I’m still trying to become more crafty, so this should definitely be an adventure. I’ll make to keep you posted. Wish me luck!!!