Simple Valentine's Mantel

I don't do much for Valentine's Day, although I think I have more going on this year than last. When I put up the faux mantel for Christmas, I intended to take it back down. But when it was sitting there bare after taking the stockings off I just decided I'd decorate it for all the holidays. So here's Valentine's.

The XOXO bunting and the tiny dictionary bunting (which I am just gaga over!), were super easy and it only took me about 30 minutes to do both. Here's a close up of the ADORABLE dictionary bunting. Inspiration from here.

OMG I love it!!! It is soooo cute! When Valentine's is over I think I'll pin it up somewhere in my girly girl Emma's room. And this was so easy to make. I have a couple of old books (they're old encyclopedias, but let's just call them dictionaries for fun) that I use for projects like this. I just free handed the bunting shape with my scissors, layered some scrapbook paper hearts, and then fished out some white buttons from my sewing box. I didn't even bother gluing the hearts or buttons on, I just sewed them right through and that's holding the whole thing together. Plus the stitches are my favorite part!

The XOXO bunting is pretty self explanatory. I free handed all the shapes, punched some holes and strung it up. (I really love the shadows it makes!) And I just did a simple print out of the classic Beatles lyric, "All You Need Is Love." If you're curious, I use Microsoft Publisher for things like this. I don't know many people who use this, but its easy and I'm familiar with it. Those tissue pom-poms are from a cousin's wedding shower. I made about 30 of them. And yes, I kept every. single. one. They come in handy, and when I'm not using them, they just hang from the ceiling in Emma's room.

The finial thing and the turquoise bowl are some of those things that migrate around my house year round. I think they finish the mantel out nicely. And did I mention, this whole project was free! I had everything on hand. Love it when that happens!

I know we'll only enjoy it for the rest of this week, but it's one of those things that makes me smile when I walk past. And I do think my family appreciates the little bit of cheeriness in that corner. That's what I tell myself anyway. :)

So what about you? Do you decorate for Valentine's or just let it pass by? Are you doing anything for St. Paddy's Day? I have something I made last year that I'll be putting back out. That is if it survived being packed in my craft closet all year. We'll see . . .

P.S.: I've linked up to Katie's Lovely Crafts Linky Party over at Bower Power. Check it out!

2013 Goals: Part 1

You may be thinking, "2013 Goals? Isn't it February already?" Yeah, I'm a little behind. But only if you're sticking to the conventional idea of making resolutions at the beginning of the year. And we don't have to do that! Yay! So here we go:

Goals for my home:

#1 - Finish it! I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but we've lived in our house for almost TEN YEARS. We've done a ton of work, but there are so many finishing touches that need to be done that it drives me crazy! And when I say finish it, I don't mean decorating, I mean I need baseboards and thresholds in places, plus a few other small things. Don't get me wrong, my house doesn't look like an unfinished mess - in fact most people don't even notice until I point it out (which I can't NOT do - it's an illness).  The goal here comes down to me choosing ONE thing to finish every week. I'll make a list and keep you updated.

#2 - My dining room. 'Nough said.

#3 - The girls' rooms. I have some ideas for redecorating my girls' bedrooms, I just need to make a couple of mood boards.

                                                            via                                          via

#4 - Sell this house. Yep, you heard that right. And you may think the other goals seem pointless now, but as long as we live here I'll be making it as comfortable (and pretty) as possible. We want to sell this house and buy something with more space, inside and out. This has been a goal of ours for a couple of years now, but we haven't found anything in our area that makes us want to take that leap. We live in a VERY small town and there's not that much for sale. So we just keep looking. The good news for this blog is it'll be a whole new place to decorate (and probably renovate)!

I'm worn out just typing all this down. I'll be back tomorrow to share my simple Valentine's mantel and later this week I'll share my blog goals (that would the Part 2). Please tell me I'm not the only one with these kind of unfinished projects? I'm telling ya, I think they multiply!

The Only Reason For Time . . .

. . . is so that everything doesn't happen at once. Thank you for the perspective Mr. Einstein.



(my kitchen chalkboard)

 



I've had this thought-inducing quote pinned for a while now, but only when I came across it during the hectic holiday season did it hit home. My last post was like, nine weeks ago. Things got a little crazy around here. I won't bore you with all the details, but there was a lot of basketball, eating too much at Thanksgiving, and many Christmas festivities with our families.

(my tree, making cookies, Christmas morning, and a couple of my gifts)

In the middle of it all, I would stop and think about this little blog and that I needed to post something, anything. But I just never got around to it. And the most I got done with my dining room (which was going to be done before Christmas, remember that) is some paint samples on the wall.

All this to say, I realize I can't do everything at once, but it will come IN TIME.

I'll be back soon to share some of the goals I have for my home and for this blog. Peace out.

FAUX FAUX FIREPLACE

No, that's not a typo. I really did make myself a faux faux fireplace. Let me explain. It all started when I dreamed up a faux fireplace to go next to my Christmas tree this year. I thought of this, like, a month ago. And then I kept thinking about it. Along with my dining room plans . . . that's right, my plans to have the "big stuff" finished before Christmas are quickly running away from me. Of course, it doesn't help that I coach 3rd and 4th grade girls basketball two nights during the week and almost all day on Saturdays. AND I still have to participate in all the normal holiday insanity, too. Anyway . . .

Here are a couple of the faux fireplaces that sparked the thought:

 

(from here and here)

Here is the spot for my fireplace. This is my buffet that I decorate for every season. I didn't do a whole lot for fall:

 

 

And here it was for Halloween:

This morning I decided to get a move on the faux fireplace. I woke up and drew some plans to figure out what materials I would need from Lowe's. And then I got lazy. I didn't really want to leave the house. (I get that way on Sundays.) Luckily, I already had a perfectly good shelf I built months ago. And I knew I wanted a chalkboard "firebox". So, a four foot already DIYed shelf, plus a large already DIYed chalkboard, equals a faux faux fireplace!

Here's my lovely assistant helping me decide whether this was going to happen or not. (Insert child labor joke here :P )

 

I really didn't get any "during" pics, because it was that easy. Hang shelf, prop up chalkboard, draw a cozy fire, and style shelf. Easy peasy!

 

The shelf is hung four feet from the floor and the mirror is about five inches above it. You may have noticed I turned the mirror horizontal for this. I just switch the hardware to the long side. It's easy. I've done it a couple times over the years. I really didn't plan on styling it for fall, considering I'll just be taking it down to do Christmas next weekend. But alas, I couldn't resist.

 

 

I made the "FALL" banner last month before I started the blog. It's super simple. Just some fake leaves I already had, and some pennants cut from a drop cloth. I borrowed a brown marker from my girls' school box and free-handed the letters. It's all strung up on a length of twine. If you haven't noticed, I like easy. :)

The basket on the floor holds winter wear: gloves, scarves, hats. I want to put birch logs, greenery, and twinkle lights in there for Christmas.

 

In these pictures, it looks like it needs something along the sides to make it more fireplace-y (you know what I mean.) But, in person it's pretty awesome. Obviously, this will be the landing spot for our stockings this year (they were just hung on the wall in the past.) And I can't wait until I get my tree up next to it!

 

So there you have it, the lazy girl's faux faux fireplace.

Dining Room Mood Board

This project is the real reason I started this blog. I wanted to make myself accountable for actually getting it done. I dream of a beautifully decorated dining room that ties perfectly into my living room. But that's the problem . . . all I've done is DREAM about it. I've stalked mood boards on other blogs for a couple years now, not really thinking I could just put one together myself. So that's what I finally did. But first, here are the before shots.

Scary. I know. I've hated the terra cotta color for a looooong time. I'm not sure I ever really liked it. A big problem with the paint is that the finish is a semi-gloss. Big no-no, because this room has a MILLION imperfections, and every one of them is shining because of that finish. (Bad advice from the guy at the paint counter.) I've never repainted because I wanted to have a clear direction for the whole room before I just ran out and got more paint.

Another thing I hate about this room is that it doubles as my husband's office. This house is only 1532 square feet, so there's not an extra room to be used as an office. No matter how many times he straightens this corner up it inevitably ends up looking like this.

Unfortunatelly, I can't move his workspace elsewhere, so we'll be working that into the design. On the bright side, I'll be getting my own workspace, too. Yay!

We have done some good things in here like open it up to the living room and raise the floor (oh yeah, did I mention this room used to be a one car garage? The previous owners closed it in, but left the floor where it was - about a foot lower than the rest of the house.) Obviously, we ran the dark laminate into this room after we raised the floor. We also added some HUGE closets that provide awesome storage space and help make the room more proportioned. Now it's about 11x15 instead of 11x19.

So without further ado, here's my dining room mood board.

1. Wall color: This one is Restoration Hardware's Silver Sage, but I'll probably color match it at my local home improvement store.
2. Built-in bookcase with a window seat and double desks, painted in the trim color to match the rest of the house (bright white).
3. Crisp white drapes layered over natural bamboo blinds to tie in with the living room window treatments.
4. Gray 8x10 rug for a graphic punch like this one from Z Gallerie. This one is a little a lot pricey for me, so I'll hopefully be hunting down a deal.
5. Storage bench in a lively lime green for a major injection of color ~ I'd like to DIY this.
6. More natural texture in the form of a couple of these dining chairs from Pier 1.
7. Pillows for the window seat in a bold graphic and a modern floral.

As you can see from the before pics, we already have a great pendant (this one from Lowe's) hanging over our dark mission style dining set. We bought this set from JCPenney eight or nine years ago. It still looks great and I love that it expands, so I just want to change up the seating.

 

As far as a schedule, I'm hoping to be finished by the end of January. I want the laborious stuff, paint and built-ins, done before Christmas (I might have just LOL-ed at that sentence, but it's worth a try.) That means January will just be a matter of accessorizing.

I'd like to do this whole project for between $500 and $750. I know the built-ins are going to be a big chunk, but I'd like to save some money with sales, shopping around, and DIYing as much as I can.

Of course, I'll let you know how I'm doing along the way!

IT'S HERE!

And it feels like Christmas! Yay! Have a good weekend!

Fall Bucket List

I didn't plan on writing a post tonight, but my in-laws were just over and my sister-in-law noticed the Fall Bucket List I threw together a few weeks ago. It gave me the idea to share it, so everyone could be reminded to stop and make some fall time memories with their kids. I know fall is more than halfway over, but maybe you've already done a few of these things and could go ahead and check them off. I love checking things off a list. I feel so accomplished. :)

I originally got the idea from Pinterest (where else) and I wish I could give credit to that original bucket list, but my pin didn't have a good link. Hate it when that happens. I printed mine out on cardstock and stuck it in an empty 8x10 frame (I had to trim the edges). I check things off with a dry erase marker on the glass, so I can easily wipe it off. Not that I can reuse this because it's dated, but it seems to make it neater.

Here's how mine looks at this point:

 

 

I haven't quite gotten the hang of taking good pictures of my house. I need to figure out lighting and flash and basically everything else. In case you can't read it, here's the list. 

•  Apple picking
•  Make leaf art
•  Go on a hayride
•  Have a photoshoot in a leaf pile
•  Enjoy a bonfire with s'mores
•  Make caramel apples
•  Corn maze!
•  Go to pumpkin patch
•  Make fall cookies
•  Pinic
•  Take a nature walk (bring the camera!)
•  Trick-or-treat
•  Bake pies
•  Decorate (carve/paint) pumpkins
•  Drink fancy coffee drinks

 

We may not get every single thing checked off, but I didn't make it so that we would be pressured to do them. I just want to be reminded. Here's the list. Now go have fun!