Category Archives:  DIY

Crafty Sunday

I wanted to share a little DIY project I did today. A little clustering of chalkboard painted clipboards for the kitchen.



John has been baking a lot of bread lately, but he hasn’t quite memorized the measurements yet. He wanted to have easy access to it and he suggested that we paint the wall next to the oven with chalkboard paint. I thought that was a really cute idea but decided to tweak it a little bit. I like the multi use of the clipboards and I also like the mixing of materials. It’s a fun new addition to the kitchen.





For those of you that are interested in trying it yourself, it couldn’t be easier. We already had the two larger clipboards, but we wanted to vary the scale a bit for interest, so John picked up the 3 smaller ones at an office supply store. Most places carry a chalkboard paint these days since they are so popular, I picked this one up at Sherwin Williams and I was happy that it came in a small size (about a pt) since we didn’t need all that much. There’s no prepping involved. I didn’t remove the metal clips or anything. I would recommend keeping your paint strokes uniform, i.e, keep all your strokes horizontal so it looks smooth and even. When you get to the area under the clip, simply pinch the clip open and paint under the area. Don’t worry if you get paint on the metal, if you catch it while its still wet, it will wipe off real easy with a paper towel. Go ahead and close the clip, it should open up real easy once its dry (so long as your paint isn’t too thick. The paint dries really quickly, so go ahead and do two coats so that they look nice and black. Then, hang them however you like and get cookin’!

Craft-mania

Before the holidays, I crafted up a storm. I wanted to share them all with you, but the problem was, most of them were gifts and I didn’t want to spoil the surprise. But now that they have all been received, I can start to share.

First up, I made was this large envelope clutch. I chose a buttery gray vinyl with hot coral stitching. Because I went with a cheaper vinyl rather than a leather, I hand painted the interior to disguise the textured vinyl backing. I chose to do it in the same color as my stitching as a nice punch of color and surprise on the inside.




Then I decided to jazz it up a bit and created a tassel using some scrap vinyl (painted interior to match) and 2 different colors of embroidery thread (braided to form the cord).





In case you are wondering, it’s perfect for toting your ipad in. In fact, I brought it with me on my interview at my new job.


I made one for myself, both my sisters and my bestie.


Then, I made matching phone envelopes, like so.



man…I really need to start talking my husband into helping me photograph things…awkward iphone mirror pics just aren’t cuttin’ it! ha. Might have to step up my game in 2012.
That’s all for now. I’ll share some more of the crafty projects soon!

Gearing Up

If you are anything like me, you like to drag the Christmas season out as long as possible. I’m sure many of you are unlike me and in fact cringed when you saw Christmas decor going up shortly after Halloween – to you, I apologize and you can stop reading this post here and now. Personally I have already purchased and decorated a tree (admittedly early this year as we are heading home for Christmas in mid December and wanted to get our fill of tree smell and Christmas joy in our new place), bought and wrapped many presents, broke open the seal on my new She & Him Christmas record and have started crafting/making gifts. So in the spirit of all of that, and for those of you who are beginning to gear up for Christmas, I wanted to share this super cute stamp set from Present & Correct. Perfect for making your own cute gift tags, or maybe for gifting to that crazy person in your family who is just like me!





£3.95

Mini Medicine Cabinet Makeover




I dunno what it is with me lately, but I keep starting projects at 10pm. Last night while unwinding with a little Pinterest, I saw an inspiring interior of a medicine cabinet (as far as medicine cabinets are concerned…) And I thought to myself “I should do that.”… ” I should do that right now.” Sure why not?


Seeing as how its 10pm and I’ve decided to half-assedly waltz through a project, rather than create a tile pattern I just did a quick search for one on google. Then I brought that art into Adobe Illustrator, live traced it and repeated my pattern to the scale of the interior of my medicine cabinet and changed it to my preferred color. Then I printed it out and tiled it back together. Being sure to label each of the four pieces with is location in the same corner of each piece. For example in the upper left hand corner of each one I wrote Top Right etc, because once you cut each piece out its easy to get confused as to which way was up etc.


If I were smart I probably would have used a spray mount to adhere each sheet in location, because its pretty forgiving and you can lift and adjust placement as well as get things pretty smooth. I also would have probably coated the top with something like ModgePodge to make it more water resistant from things like wet toothbrushes. In actuality what I did was do the whole thing in a mixture of one part water and one part elmers glue…its like a janky diy homemade Modge Podge. One of the downsides to this was that it did change the color of my print outs slightly, I had chosen a 40% gray but when I coated the top with my glue concoction it tinted it a bit blueish. But, C’est la vie.


All in all, are there things I would have changed if I were to do it again? Sure.
Do I think its an improvement? Yes.


Haha, so there you have it!
That empty middle shelf is being reserved for the toothpaste and brushes, but I want to find or make a little tray for them to sit in.

Thanksgiving is almost here! A free Print-able for you!

I’m so excited! My folks are coming into town tomorrow, yay! I haven’t seen them in a few months and I am really looking forward to their visit. This year we are doing something new (on both sides of the family). Instead of having Thanksgiving up north, we will be doing it south this year. My aunt and uncle live about 30 or so minutes from here and they have offered to host. If you are anything like me, you have never hosted your own Thanksgiving dinner. And maybe that’s something to be thankful for (sounds like a lot of work!). With that in mind I designed a fun free printable for you. This way, even if you are not a cook, you don’t have to show up empty handed to dinner. Simply print this bad boy out, and apply to a wine bottle (or sparkling cider if you fancy). You will just need to trim and adhere, I used spray mount for a nice even finish but you can keep it simple and just use double sided tape if you prefer. click here for the downloadable art (colors are optimized for print so they will look crazy on screen, but I assure you they will print normal). Have fun with it!

Notes

Does your desk need a little cuteness?

Download these free note sheets. (the link takes you to a site in japanese, all you need to know is that the top option is larger, the bottom option is smaller, just click on the blue arrow to download)
wouldnt these also be super cute for a party invite?

Sneak Peek

So I finally took some pictures of my new vanity/desk arrangement in our room. And while I was at it I snapped a few pictures of more of our room as well.

Just to recap, once we turned our second bedroom into an office, our large bedroom suddenly became very empty and awkward. We had an Ikea “Lack” shelf that sat above our love seat. But when the love seat relocated to the office, it was suddenly pointless and strangely placed.
I figured it was just about iPad width so i moved it down to make the feminine desk/vanity i had been dreaming of.




That little hook under the right side of the shelf/desk/vanity is for my purse. Clearly I didn’t put it away, hehe. I didn’t get a better shot but the framed piece above that hook is the Paul Rand striped ballet poster that I love. Excited about finally getting it printed and hung.



John built our super tall bed, the decorative posts at the end we found at home depot, they were supposed to be stair rails.



These mirrored frames were a wedding gift, they weren’t designed to hang but I rigged them up with some black satin ribbon which I think worked out pretty well.



This awesome print by Jose Pulido was a rad wedding gift.



Another amazing wedding gift. Jonathan Adler wiener dog book ends, soo cute.









A white porcelain key hangs from the rabbits neck (a bridesmaids gift from a good friends wedding) and a little white porcelain acorn hangs from the antlers.






John knows I love a bow, so he bought me these white bow curtain hooks without prompting. He’s the best.



That little wooden bear is a new addition. A friend brought him back from Hong Kong for me. On a side note, that Jim Houser painting is actually chocolate brown..it looks a lot darker in the picture…