My First, and Perhaps Only, Attempt at Flower Arranging

I definitely learned that flower arranging is not as easy as I thought it would be. I bought a huge bunch of flowers at the Farmer's Market for my mom, and while it was pretty, there were some flowers in the mix that I didn't like and the bouquet didn't really have a distinct shape.  I decided that I was going to DIY an arrangement.

This is what I had to work with:

I went to Martha for some help and found this:

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I don't think my tape was strong enough and after about 15 minutes my first arrangement that looked like this (not bad, huh?)...

...looked like a hot mess.  Everything started falling over.  Not good.

Back to Martha.

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I edited a little (less is more right?) and put the peonies, one apple, and a few snapdragons together with a rubber band.  I used a container with a smaller opening this time so I was able to shove in leaves and other branches of flowers without them moving.

Here's version #2:

Good, not great. 

Next time (if there is one) I'll have to invest in something to help me out a bit.  Like one of these or one of these.

I hope all the mommies had a wonderful day on Sunday, and since I didn't mention it on the blog yesterday because I was a little busy with our Mother's Day festivities (lunch out, trip to Costco, dinner at Gramma's), "Happy Mother's Day Mom!"  You're the best mom and Nana!

 

Happy Weekend

Happy Friday everyone!  I hope the weather will be as nice where you are as it's going to be here.   I'm currently in the middle of a few little projects that will get finished this weekend.  These are my projects in various states of incompleteness. 

I'll have lots to share on Monday.  

All the mommies have a great Mother's Day!

Anyone Need a Rug?

Because this one is on sale for for $70 at landsend.com.

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This one is not on sale, but it is awesome.

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This super short post is brought to you by my cold and the fact that I need some rest.

Y'all have a good Thursday!

Mixing Patterns & Prints

I showed off my living room yesterday, and let me tell you, even though it is far from groundbreaking interior design it was a little bit of a stretch for me.  I say that because I used multiple patterns in one space.  I'm typically a little afraid of pattern and color.  I usually have one pattern and then solid colors that match that pattern.  In the old version of my living room I only had two throw pillows that had pattern on them.  Everything else was solid.  Solid couch, solid curtains, solid throw, and the 10 other pillows I had were solid.

Here's what helped me get over my fear of pattern and color.

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The February issue of House Beautiful had an interview of Christiane Lemieux, the founder of Dwell Studio. (Did you notice that she has the yellow rosette Target pillow on her bed? Love that!)  Usually House Beautiful is just pretty to look at.  I feel like I, a completely untrained, non-designer, could never duplicate most of the looks in the magazine, the products featured are mostly way out of my price-range, and the tips from designers aren't all that useful.  After looking through an issue I just think, "How do they do that?  How do they make that look good together?"

I was surprised to read something so helpful in the short feature on Christiane and her bed.  This is what she said when she was asked about the prints she used in her bedroom.

"...Usually my formula is three prints--one large, one medium, and one coordinate that ties the other two together with color."

How easy is that?!    I, the completely untrained, non-designer, found that sooooo easy to remember and implement. Some of you may be thinking, "Duh!", but I had never heard a tip for using pattern and print explained so simply before.
  

It's definitely a tip I'm going to keep in my pocket and use as I try to finish the rooms in the rest of my house.

How 'bout y'all?  Any mind blowingly, easy tips you've put into practice or wanted to put into practice as you decorate your home?  I'd love to hear more!

My Thrifty Living Room Refresh

Well, here it is.  My little living room went to this (above) from that (below) for about $300.  Since I had such a small budget I had to rely on fabric and accessories to change the feel of the room.  The two main things that I would like to change about the space are still there.  I would love new couches (or even better, a couch and two upholstered chairs) and I would love to paint the walls.  I think it will be quite a while before I get to change either of those things.  Right now I'm genuinely happy with my space even though it is far from ideal.  

 

Here it is from a slightly different angle.

I had three main goals for the switcheroo.  #1:  get rid of the leaning shelves to prevent possible injury to my 14 month old son and to provide space for another seat.  #2:  edit.  As you can see I got rid of a lot of stuff.  I'm currently resisting the urge to fill up every inch of blank wall that I now have. #3:  freshen up the color palette,  rust, olive ---> aqua-ish teal, chartreuse-y green.  $200 of the $300 I had to work with went to the chair.  The rest was spent on the curtains, fabric for pillows, the jug lamp and shelves.

Oh, the shelves.  I could write an entire post on those shelves above the TV.  I will spare you the boring details and say that those are not the Lack shelves from Ikea (that I drove 3 hours to buy) because they were a nightmare to hang.  Those shelves are from Lowe's and I ripped them out of my son's room (which I was planning on doing any way) to put in our living room because I got so fed up with the Ikea shelves.  The shelves from Lowe's are shorter and more expensive than the Ikea shelves, but they are a breeze to hang.  Thank goodness I was able to cover the 15 or so holes that are now in my wall due to my attempts at installing the Ikea shelves.

I'm really happy with the way the shelves look now and I'm glad to have somewhere else to put photos.  I already had most of the accessories that are now on the shelves. The only new things I bought were the books between the bookends.  I got them from a thrift store because they went with my new color palette.

I took a photo of the pillows on my couch to show my fabrics off a bit more, and our dog Rufus could not be bothered to move, so here he his with my pillows.

Even though I won't be getting new couches or painting in the near future I'll probably be making small tweaks here and there.  I'm keeping my eye out for a large sisal basket to put between the TV stand and the side table to keep toys and extra pillows.  I'm also keeping my eye out for a new side table.  Our current side table is actually a $14 TV tray and it's just about as unstable as the leaning shelves that we had.  I pretty much have a small panic attack every time my son gets anywhere near it because my beloved $18 lamp is on it.  

Of course, I'll keep the ol' blog updated with any tweaks that I make.

I hope everyone is having a great Tuesday!

Stenciled Curtains

There has been a lot of fabric painting going on in the blog world lately and seeing painted chairs and rugs inspired me to paint my no-sew curtains using a stencil and some fabric medium. 

I decided that my living room needed a little something more after I got most of the new stuff in place for my living room re-vamp.  What was missing was a large scale pattern and a little more green.  I was inspired by the curtains in Kirsten's living room over at 6th Street Design School.

I wanted the look of large printed medallions on my curtains, but I could not find a large stencil that was cheap.  Craft stores only had small scale stencils and the big ones that I saw online were about $40 and up.  I'd already spent more than I planned on my curtains so I was not about to sink $40+ more into them.

I bought the biggest stencil I could find at Michael's (it was $10) that looked the most like the pattern I wanted, and even though it was the biggest stencil they had, the medallion was only 8 inches.

I had to put four of the shapes together to get the size that I wanted.  That's the fabric that I tested my paint and pattern on.

The paint I used was just plain acrylic craft paint.  I had to get a few bottles to mix in order to get the color I wanted.  I added fabric medium which makes the paint not crunchy and less likely to bleed.  The bottle of fabric medium was $4.50.  I think I've read that it's available at Michael's, but I didn't see it there so I had to go to an art supply store to find it.

Once I got my paint the right color I measured how large my medallion would be and used tape to space out the pattern on my curtains.

Then I started stenciling.

Not to discourage anyone from trying this, but stenciling took so much longer than I thought it would.  I think I ended up spending about 4 hours figuring out my pattern and then stenciling my first panel.

I was so worn out from the first curtain panel that I waited a couple of nights to get started on the second one which didn't take as long.  For the second panel I only taped off my pattern horizontally, I wasn't as precise with the paint, and it doesn't look any different from the first panel.

Here's what my complete curtains ended up costing:

• about $40 for the fabric and Heat 'n Bond
• $10 for the stencil
• $8 for acrylic paint and paint medium

$58 is more than I'd budgeted for the curtains, but I was able to cut costs in other places.  

Even though I spent quite a chunk of time (and money) on my curtains I'm really happy with the way they look.  And I'm looking forward to finally sharing my complete living room tomorrow. 

I'll be linking up to:

Welcome and Thanks!

I'm excited to have so many new followers!  Thanks for taking the time to skim through my blog and sticking around to see what's next.  I've got some pretty good stuff coming up. 

Thanks to Knock-Off Decor and Centsational Girl for likely sending y'all my way!

 

5 Pins

This has nothing to do with the rest of my post, but since everyone else is giving their two cents, I figure I'm gonna give mine.  How amazing was Kate's Catherine's dress?! 

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I love the lace sleeves and her teeny bouquet!

Well, here I go, about to give my two cents on something else a lot of people have already chimed in on.  I'm loving Pinterest right now.  I don't have a ton of stuff pinned because I'm fairly new at it, but it has been very helpful.

I can't count the amount of times in the past that I've seen something online, then wanted to refer back to it only to realize that I can't remember where I saw what I'm looking for.  Now if I see anything I think I may want to remember I pin it and it's there whenever I need it.  No random Google searches or trying to remember what blog I was on.  It all goes to one neatly organized place. 

I highly recommend signing up.  (It can take up to two weeks to get an account.)  I'm really trying to use the site as a tool and not let it turn into a huge time suck.  So far, I'm doing OK.  For instance,  I'm trying to find a paint color for our guest room, so I've been looking at rooms in different shades of gray and pinning them so I can refer back, and maybe go get the paint chip when I'm ready.

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Here are a few more things I've put a pin in just because they are pretty or I'd like to try one day :

 

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Have a wonderful weekend!

Dead Ringer: Pottery Barn Studio Wall Shelf & JCPenney Aubrey Leaning Shelf

I found another great look-alike on sale at JC Penney.  Originally it was the same price as the Pottery Barn shelf, but now it's on sale for $170 less! Same size and everything!

This is the 34" Studio Wall Shelf at Pottery Barn and it's $299.

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This is the 34" Aubrey Leaning shelf at JCPenney and it's $129.99.

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p.s.  the smaller shelves are 25" and they're $89, and JCP has free shipping on orders over $69.

More Stuff I Saw at Target

First, look who's got a jug lamp!  Sorry if this is not news, but I hadn't been to Target in a while and I just saw this yesterday.

It's $49.99 and it's available online.  The picture on the website looks different, but I'm pretty sure it's the same lamp.

Second,  the whole aisle of end/accent tables and little ottomans (ottomen?... just kidding) was on clearance.  Some were marked down as much as $40.

And last,  Target has black framed cork boards for $4.14!  We have two of these in our house.  One in the kitchen and one in our office area.  I bought mine a while ago when they were $11 though.  If only I had waited a couple of years I could have saved $14!  Oh, well.

I love the board in our kitchen.  Our kitchen/living room floor plan is very open and our fridge is one of the first things you see when you walk in the door.  I put all the stuff that would normally be stuck to a fridge on our cork board and our refrigerator stays clutter free.

I didn't get a great picture in the store, but it looks just like the framed cork board at Pottery Barn.  This one is an inch or two bigger and it's $99!

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