Showing posts with label Decor. Show all posts

Craftaholics Anonymous's 2013 Summer Gift Exchange

Posted by Anonymous on Thursday, July 11, 2013. Filed under: ,
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I love making crafty projects, but after awhile I run out of people to give them to.  Or, I just don't have anyone to give something to.  And while I love decorating my own home, since many of my rooms are "in a transitional phase" right now, I don't want to spend a lot of money creating something that I'll just have to re-do and/or donate once I finally get around to decorating that room.

Enter Linda, the fabulous mind behind Craftaholics Anonymous.  Twice a year, she totally rocks it out and sponsors a handmade gift exchange.  I wanted to participate during the one last winter, but I kind of lost track of time and missed the sign-up date.  Shame shame on me.  So, I've been (im)patiently waiting for the past 7 months for the summer exchange to roll around.  As soon as I got the e-mail in my inbox, I bounced on over to Elfster to sign up for this summer's exchange!


I was paired up with Melissa from California, and I immediately got excited when one of the items on her wishlist was a large vinyl wall decal of song lyrics.  I've had my Silhouette for about a year now (you can read about the search for it here, here, and here) and while I've used it for small basic tests and to cut out things from the Silhouette store, I'd yet to really create anything of my own.  I'm a member of a Silhouette group on Facebook and seeing all of the awesome projects that those ladies and gentlemen create really gave me a kick in the pants to start experimenting with the capabilities of this machine even more.  After all, that IS why I bought it, right?

So to start off, I opened up my Silhouette Studio software and kept an open Safari window next to it, so I could reference back to the original vinyl decal Melissa had included on her wishlist.  Then, it was just a matter of picking a font and re-creating what I saw!

It didn't occur to me until much later that a screenshot would have been much more effective than taking a picture of my computer monitor - sorry :(

I designed it using one consistent font since that's how the original was and despite my love of unique fonts, I actually used one of the stock Apple fonts on my computer.  I sized it to 12" x 36", loaded my vinyl in to my Cameo, and clicked cut.


Not gonna lie, while it was cutting I was freaking out a little bit since I'd only ever done vinyl designs that were about 4" x 6".  But hey, computers know what they're doing, right?  Most of the time?


But hey, any day you can see the cut lines is a good day, right?

Here's where I'm going to share the most common sense advice ever with you.  Do not attempt to weed black vinyl at 11:30 pm when you are tired in a poorly lit room.  You will lose letters and apostrophes, then go to bed feeling flustered.  Admission:  this photo from above is from the second time I cut the design, when I got smart and worked on this project around 10:30 am.  You know.  When it's light out.

So after my duh moment and using the second piece of vinyl that I was smart enough to buy in the length I needed (hope for success, plan for failure?) and about an hour of weeding, my decal was looking pretty awesome if I do say so myself!


So then I just popped some transfer tape over the top - I chose to put the transfer tape on right away to help prevent the letters from shifting during shipping.  I had to layer two pieces of transfer tape since I only had sheets that were 12" x 24", so I hope it worked out okay.

After that, still making use of my awesome Cameo, I decided to play around with the print and cut feature.  Using some sticker paper I had, I created a cute little shipping label.

Sorry for the blurring, but I'm pretty sure Melissa wouldn't appreciate me plastering her name and address all over the internet

And then I also used the print and cut feature to make up a little note.  You know, hey, hope you like your gift, how to attach vinyl to a wall, if you hate it or there's a problem e-mail me.  That kind of thing.  Nothing too special, but I thought they were cute and it was feature of the Cameo that I hadn't ever played with before.  Turns out I'm completely in love with it and want to make all sorts of stuff using it now.

It also turns out that I desperately need a pedicure.  Poor little toes.  

Anyway, thanks Linda for hosting the exchange!  And Melissa, I hope you like your gift!



If you'd like to see what some of the other "exchangers" made/received, check out the Handmade Gift Exchange Linky party here or go here for info about the exchanges and to sign up for an e-mail reminder for the next gift exchange!





Decorating the Bedroom: Part 2

Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, May 15, 2013. Filed under: ,
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After writing this post about trying to pick a paint color for my bedroom, I headed over to my local Sherwin Williams store to grab some paint chips to hang on my bedroom wall to try to pick a paint color.  Husband loves the paint color "Anonymous", and I'm a big fan of "Dovetail" and "Keystone Gray".  I also stopped by my local Menard's, and picked out the Dutch Boy colors "Dried Plain" and "Lake Cottage".  Husband really likes "Lake Cottage", too. 


I really like all of these colors, and was having problems narrowing them down, so I figured maybe I was going about this the wrong way.  Maybe I needed to find some new bedding that I loved, and pink the paint color to match the bedding!  Stroke of genius, right?  So I headed to Target.  I recently re-discovered Target as an amazing store for home decor, after going years with only buying from Kohl's, Crate & Barrel, and Bed, Bath & Beyond for any home decor I needed.  I took Husband to Target with me, figuring that it was his bedroom, too, so his input was important.

This was probably a combination of the worst two ideas I've had in quite some time.

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I'm in love with this comforter set, and thought it would look fabulous with the darker Anonymous-colored walls that Husband loved...but Husband vetoed this comforter set right away.  No hesitation.  I was devastated.

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Husband is a big fan of this comforter.  It's a darker teal than it looks like in this photo.  I'm not 100% sold on it...to me, the pinched pleats just look wrinkly.  

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This is a quilt option that we both liked.  I love the gingham look and how easy it would be to dress up with accessories, but with the wall colors we're considering I worry that it would be too much gray in our bedroom.

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We both agree on this one, too, but again with the overwhelming gray.  The nice thing about this one that you can't really see in this photo is that it has a bit of a metallic shimmer to it that I think is really pretty.

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Husband and I both like this set...it comes in a quilt option and a comforter set.  The comforter felt scratchy, but the quilt was nice and soft.  The quilt would be a nice option for summer, too.  We have a memory foam mattress and our bed gets really warm, so I like the idea of a quilt.

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I'm loving the deep teal of this duvet cover, as well.  I like having duvet covers, because they're so easy to pop in the washer when they get dirty.  With two dogs in the house, it's a requirement to have a bedding set that we can wash in our washing machine - I don't like to have laundry that I have to take to the laundromat in order to get it clean.

So, after my bright idea, now I have 5 paint colors that I really like AND 6 different bedding sets.  I'm thinking I should probably put the bedroom redecorating project on the back burner and tackle some pending projects that I have like refinishing a dining set that I got from ReStore and building a console table for the TV in our master bedroom.  Maybe some time simmering will tell me what I want to do...

Has anyone else ever experienced design block?  Or an overwhelming number of ideas and problems narrowing them down??

Linked up here...




Help Me Decorate My Bedroom! Please!!

Posted by Anonymous on Friday, April 26, 2013. Filed under: ,
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When Husband and I bought our house, I was overwhelmed by the blandness of it.  Our house was a new construction build.  It had been used as a model home, but it was still builder beige everywhere you looked.  All of the walls were the same color, and the cabinets in the kitchen were the same as the cabinets in the bathrooms.  The linoleum in the kitchen also matches the linoleum in the bathrooms.  When we were preparing to move in, I made a trip to Home Depot and stocked up on about a dozen gallons of paint, and three pretty light fixtures for our two full bathrooms and one half bathroom to upgrade from the builder basics.  Now that we've been settled in to our home for awhile, I'm finding myself dissatisfied with the color choices I made in that desperate weekend of painting.

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Our bedroom is currently painted Whitened Sage, by Behr.  It's an incredibly soft green.  So soft, that when my husband came home that night after I busted my bum after painting all day, his response was, "Didn't you paint this room?"  I'm pretty sure I growled at him.  I wanted a really nice neutral for this room, because I'm one of those people that change out my bedding with the seasons.  For fall and winter, I have the Sakura bedding from Crate and Barrel on our bed:

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And in the spring and summer, we have Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...Calvin Klein's Maldives Collection Bedding on our bed:

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I'm not even going to show you pictures of our bedroom now, because I'm that ashamed of it.  I will, however, show you photos of how I want it to be :-)

Husband and I are electronics addicts, so nightstands are a must for both of us.  I want to build these, lovelies, courtesy of the uber-talented Ana White.

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I love how this poster painted the bottom nice and bright but stained the top.  Totally stealing that idea.  I'll find some cute knobs for this project from Hobby Lobby.  I have to drive about 45 minutes to get to the nearest Hobby Lobby, but it's worth every mile!

I also want to build the Farmhouse King Bed as featured on Ana White's blog.

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For the furniture, I'm thinking that I want to just paint it a nice antique white color and distress it a bit, and stain the distressed edges the same color I want to stain the tops of the nightstands.  I'm also wanting to get a seating area in here, with two little arm chairs and a small round table.  I think the room is large enough to support it; I'll put it where I now have a huge, dark, over-sized dresser that I can't wait to sell on Craigslist and wait to wave bye-bye to.

Here's where I NEED your help!!!

I have NO CLUE what color to paint the walls of my bedroom!!  I still want something neutral that will go well with both of the bedding choices that we use in the bedroom.  These are the color choices that Husband and I have been considering.  (I know that it totally depends on how they look in the room and we need to try out samples, but I'd appreciate opinions of what colors y'all would lean towards!)


Tapestry Beige by Benjamin Moore

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Palladian Blue by Benjamin Moore

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Copley Grey by Benjamin Moore

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Creekside Green by Benjamin Moore

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Sea Salt by Sherwin Williams (I know it's everywhere, but I love how chameleon-like this color is!)


Right now, my favorite three are Perfect Greige, Creekside Green, and Tapestry Beige - in that order.

What do you think??




Living Room Dreams

Posted by Anonymous on Sunday, April 21, 2013. Filed under: ,
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My living room right now is very beige. I mean very. Beige carpet, beige walls, beige sofa. The dark wood furniture and window treatments just add to the overall brown scheme. I try to incorporate color through throw pillows and blankets, but that's just a tiny spot of color in all of the beige. Take a look:

The view of the living room from the dining room.

The view of my living room from the front door - and our older dog, Squirt
And the view from the den and coming down the stairs - and more of Squirt.
The gate between the living room and the dining room is for the dogs for when Husband and/or I have to leave them home alone.  We close the gate and they have free reign of the kitchen and dining room.  It makes it easier to clean up any puppy messes that may occur.

The decor in this room is fairly bland, as well.  I hate the entertainment center.  It's a pain in the butt to keep clean, and the shelf for the DVD player is all the way at the bottom, which messes with the function of the remote.

Please excuse the mess; I was too lazy to pick up, lol

I'm also less than enamored with this table.  I picked it because it fit so well in the opening of the sofa (if you can't tell, it's a sectional with a chaise on the left and a love seat section on the right).  What I didn't plan on was Husband using this as his dinner table every night, so what inevitably ends up happening is crumbs get stuck in the grooves and we have to vacuum them out.  It's nasty!


We've got two of these leaning bookshelves - one on each side of the entertainment center.  Around Christmas, we move both bookshelves to the right of the entertainment center, then we put the tree to the left of the TV by the window.  These bookshelves encourage me to fill them with stuff, but I don't have a lot of cute stuff in them, and I don't think everyone that comes to visit needs to see every single TV show that Husband and I own - which is kind of a lot.  And I want to get Criminal Minds, too - love that show!

Anyway, I'm less than in love with the torchiere lamps, as well.  They're so bland!!


I like our bamboo window treatments, but I'd like to put some nice valances or cornice boards or something above the windows for more decoration and a classier look.  The picture frames are family photos and pictures from our engagement photo shoot, so they haven't been updated since April 2010.  I feel like this wall could be used for cuter decorations.  The one thing I do like is at Christmas I use Command hooks and stick them up there, and our 4 stockings (mine, Husband's, and one for each dog) fit perfectly in the "empty" spaces.


We also have this random little crooked wall in between our foyer and Husband's Game Room (AKA the den) and I feel like it's screaming for a cute little secretary desk.


As random as it seems, this clock is the thing I love about my living room.  I got it from a home decor store here in southeastern Wisconsin called Kirkland's.  I love the blue color, and the distressed look.  It hangs above our TV, but I need to bring it down a little from the ceiling.  It's a little too high right now.

We also have a large sectional that is that faux suede material.  I stained part of the couch with the dye from some of my super dark jeans - I find that dark Old Navy jeans have dye that rub off on everything, no matter how frequently they are washed!  I think the sectional is too big for the space, and it closes the living room off.

I've been daydreaming lately about what I want my living room to look like, and I thought I'd share some of what I've come up with.


I want to replace the sectional with a sofa, then get two chairs and put them to the right of the sofa, over by the wall of windows.  I don't want to push the chairs right up against the wall, but rather have them "float" out a foot or two from the wall.  This combination is one of the options I've been thinking about.  It's the Ektorp sofa from Ikea in Abyn blue, and two Ektorp armchairs in Svvenby grey.


Another combination I've been thinking about is the Ektorp sofa in Svenby grey and two of the Ektorp Jennylund chairs in Sagmyra grey/check.  I'm ridiculously in love with these chairs.  They make me happy.  :)


I want to build the Becca trunk from Shanty2Chic and use it as a coffee table, and use it to store blankets to keep them off of the couch.  On the wall between the windows, I want to put up two of these glass bottle jar wall vases, also from Shanty2Chic.  (What can I say, I love those ladies' style!)  Between the chairs, I want to build that cute little end table, which is from the fabulous Ana White.  I also want to refinish a dresser or a buffet, and replace our entertainment center with that.

My goal now is to start figuring out what colors I want, other than the grey and blue - accent colors, and the color for the paint and stain for the building projects.  I also need to keep an eye out for some alternative lighting solutions.  There is no built-in light in this room other than what we get from the windows, so I need to have lamps...I just want ones that are much bigger.

I'd love to paint the walls later down the road, but I want to hire a professional or something for that, because due to the open concept layout of our house this color covers the entire bottom floor (except the den and the half bath) then continues up the stairs and throughout the upstairs hallway.  That's a lot of paint!  

We're also planning on ripping out the carpet and installing hardwood floors but that project is a couple of years down the road. 

Even without changing the painting and flooring, redecorating the entire room is still a pretty big undertaking.  It's going to take me some time, but I'm hoping it will look completely different - and elegant and stylish!

Thoughts, ideas, comments, suggestions?  I'd love to hear them!!






O Christmas Tree

Posted by Anonymous on Sunday, December 16, 2012. Filed under: ,
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Last year, Husband and I got a real Christmas tree to celebrate our first year in our house.  This year, because things have been so crazy with my medical stuff and finances and a couple of other things we didn't have time to go cut down a tree, so we went back to the artificial tree that I had from my very first apartment.  I thought I would hate having a fake tree, but the no maintenance thing is super nice, and I don't think it looks super fake.


Husband put the lights on this year, so I'm not sure what's going on with that big dark spot on the tree.  It's kind of sad looking, isn't it?


We got a new star this year.  We used to have one with sparkles all over it (clearly picked out by me) but I got tired of vacuuming up the sparkle remnants from the star every year so we picked this one up at Menard's.  I'm normally a much bigger fan of silver than gold, but I really liked this star.


Every year for St. Nick, Husband and I exchange ornaments.  I got him a Hallmark ornament shaped like a movie box of popcorn that says, "I like you more than movie popcorn with butter" and he got me this camera.  I love it.  I'm thinking about putting 2012 in the lens.  


This is one of my favorite gifts that I wrapped this year.  I had all of these left over clothespins from a mirror project I did, and I thought they'd go well with the wrapping paper I had for this year.  I just really like how it turned out.


I also really like how this gift turned out.  I think the little bow is really cute and I like how the ribbon around the box turned out.  

So, that's the extent of my Christmas decorating for the year.  My house it definitely not the cheeriest on the block this year, but I commit to make that different next year.






Kitchen Inspiration with Picasa

Posted by Anonymous on Monday, October 22, 2012. Filed under: ,
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One of the last rooms I plan on decorating is my kitchen, but it is one of the rooms I'm most excited to do.  I've got an entire makeover in mind for that room - re-painting the cabinets and the counter tops, all new color scheme, and some new furniture and wall art to give it a homier, cozier feel.  I was playing around online today - home sick due to vicious migraine, thanks giant thunderstorm - and I discovered the awesome ability of the Collage Maker function of Picasa due to the lovely Anna over at Ask Anna.  Oh my goodness, if you've got some time to spare, head over there.  She's a wealth of information when it comes to cleaning and organizational tips, and she has some amazing decorating inspiration as well.  I totally added her to my reader.  So, thanks Anna!!

Anyway, I've been collecting all of these pictures on Pinterest, but I wanted somewhere that they were saved all nice and pretty.  Enter Picasa.  I downloaded it, and created a folder on my desktop with the photos I have saved for inspiration for my kitchen.  Then, you select the folder with your pictures in it over on the left, click "Create" then "Picture Collage", like so:


The nice thing about Picasa is not only that it will automatically create the collage for you, but it also gives you different styles of collages to choose from.  There's an option for "picture pile", which just looks like a scatter of pictures on a page, for those who like a little whimsy.  Or if you're a little more Type A like yours truly, you can choose a mosaic option that will arrange the photos in a grid.  There's a frame mosaic, too, which puts a large photo in the middle and scatters the others all around.  I'm thinking I'm going to try that one for the master bedroom.  You can also play around with the size settings, and optimize for a standard or a widescreen monitor.


I actually like how this collage turned out a little more than the final product that I saved did, haha!!  I went to go save it, but then my silly computer froze.  Oh well, at least I have this screen shot.  Anyway, I saved my collage and opened it up in Photoshop so I could add some text to remind myself what the different pictures were.  Here's my final product:


I can't wait to get my hands on that kitchen.  I can already see it so clearly in my head and I want to complete it!!

Decorating the Media Room

Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, September 29, 2012. Filed under: ,
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