Here is where we are with that desk chair that was destined for the Kid's room. This is what I spent an hour or so this past weekend working on.
After (in progress):
If you remember from this post, this chair that I scored for free was a little lacking. And that seat was NASS-TY!
Before:
It was super easy to take apart the chair (just four screws into the plywood seat) and after a couple of trial and errors with the spray paint (more on that tomorrow) I settled on the perfect purple for my girl's chair. I had a little spray paint left over, so I hit up a couple of random picture frames that I already had from IKEA and thrift stores with the same purple. Not sure what will go in these yet, but I figured a few accent pieces in the same purple would be great.
Tomorrow (or maybe later in the week, let's be honest), I will be posting a step by step on the chair re-do, including supplies and tools.
What about you, how was your weekend? Did you do anything exciting?
Before I let the holidays pass me by, I figured I have to post about our tree and my recently discovered way to simplify gifts wrapping and to make Christmas morning go a little more smoothly.
First the tree...
This year we I decided to go for a silver, gold and red theme for our main tree. I still have grand plans to turn our Christmas cards from years past into mini framed ornaments for the tree this year. We'll see.
This is our gold and brown tree from last year, if you want a comparison.
As for gift wrapping, I spent an inordinate amount of time (much to the Kid's chagrin and whining) trying to pick out wrapping paper. However, I had an revelation in the middle of Target about wrapping paper and I figure that you might want to hear about the "Great Wrapping Paper Miracle/Epiphany on Aisle 23", as I am calling it. Here are the realizations that I had.
Pick the least "holiday-ish" wrapping paper that you can find, which for me was this damask, patterned paper which I got in both black and red for $2 each. That way, when the holidays are over, you can still use it to wrap birthday and shower presents.
Instead of gift tags for family, assign a bow color to a particular family member. For us, red is the Kid, gold is MrDrama, silver will be me (there is a conspicuous predominance of red and lack of silver and gold so far under our tree).
Don't bother with premium wrapping paper, unless you really want to spend twice as much on something that will end up shredded on the living room floor. It's the same reason I rarely spring for fancy envelopes.
The silence of your child can be bought with promises of marshmallows.
Before the Thanksgiving turkey has even made it to the table, people start thinking about Christmas cards. I am aiming to have my Christmas cards out this year by the first week in December. That said, if you get your card sometime in early January, don't say I didn't warn you!
The main problem with summer pictures was photo-shopping out the forehead mosquito bites! We recolored this one to make it look less summery.
This one just needed recoloring and cropping...
While this one was rotated and recolored...
You probably recognize this from the blog header (this will be on the flip side of the card).
While I consider myself to be a relatively intelligent, rational person, the selection of Christmas cards reduced me to a quivering mess. Geez Louise, I am can be indecisive! After FINALLY selecting the pictures we wanted, I put out a Twitter plea for people to vote on which of the "Big Three" online stationers (Snapfish, Shutterfly and TinyPrints) they liked the best. I had considered using pricier stationery stores, but let's be honest, these are Christmas cards, not wedding invitations. There is no way I am shelling out $5 a card for Christmas cards, no matter how cute they are. While most voted for Shutterfly, I went with TinyPrints because I fell in love with one of their cards immediately. Here is what we are sending out...
All I need now is a house elf that will address and stamp all of my cards for me. Where is Dobby when you need him?
Quick tips for great Christmas cards:
Do them now before the hubbub of the holidays overtakes you!
Get in close to take pictures. Don't be afraid to lay on the ground or other craziness.
When in doubt hire a photographer. We got a friend from church to take these pictures for a fraction of the price we would have been charged by a studio professional.
Get the rights to the digital files. I was able to edit the high-res pictures myself that way.
Keep clothing simple (minimal prints, coordinating colors but not too "matchy-matchy").
Well-fed, well-rested children + silly distractions +/- bribery make for great pictures.
Bribery, bribery, bribery of children. Spoken like a true Nigerian. Kidding. Maybe.
I saw this tutorial on Centsational Girl's blog and have been wanting to try it since we have a huge-arse magnolia tree in our front yard. Magnolias and dogwoods are my two favorite trees down South and remind me of when we used to live in Georgia when I was little. I love the sturdy waxy leaves of a magnolia and it makes for a perfect craft project. If you can't find a magnolia tree nearby, maybe try bay leaves spray painted gold or brown.
One of the best things about #Thanksgiving is the crafts that are associated with it. I remember (in the not-so-politically-correct 80's) making a fringed Indian Native American vest out of a brown paper grocery bag and a headdress to match using red, orange and yellow construction paper.
And who can forget the ubiquitous hand turkey?
Source unknown
I swear people have been doing this for decades! I had a patient draw one for me and I was immediately transported back to first grade art class.
This year for our early Thanksgiving celebration with my parents, the Kid and I made napkin rings with acorns. Which was basically excuse for me to play with my glue gun.
Paper towel tube (I cut them into approximately 1 1/2" sections)
Acorns (or mini pinecones)
Hot glue
Instructions: Self explanatory. Seriously, if you need instructions on how to glue three acorns onto a piece of cardboard, I would suggest going back to kindergarten and taking "Introduction to Art". And get thee off my island.
The centerpiece was recycled from the flower arrangement that I had made after I threw out the sunflowers and other live flowers and used the nicely dried eucalyptus and other grasses.
Tell me, do you decorate your home for Thanksgiving at all or is it all about the food?
Here is one that I did (literally took me about 5 minutes!), since I already had Paint.net installed on my computer.
Original picture of the Kid:
For ease of design, it worked best to make sure her hair was as smoothed back as possible and I shot the picture with her in a dark room against an open window. I also had her shirtless to minimize any lines from a t-shirt or tank top. It already helped that my daughter is naturally dark skinned, but I think you could do this with any child's skin tone, as long as you take a picture in a dark room against a bright window!
After following the tutorial here, I came up with this shot (using a purple fill, since that is the Kid's favorite color). Final result:
Wouldn't this make a great present for a family member or a picture for her room? Planning on printing this one out later today and framing it. I am also leaving the edges of her hair a little rough to highlight the texture of her hair. Super easy!
Who would you do a silhouette of? Yourself? Your kids? Your pets?
I pinned the brooches to a length of grosgrain ribbon. It is a bit magpie-meets-Bedazzler, but I could see it being really stunning with a simple white button down or shirt dress.
Fourteen years ago this past weekend I was starting my freshman year at Vandy. Remember being a freshman in college and going to the poster fair? It was your first opportunity to decorate the way you wanted, I mean the way you really wanted, without anyone to say a thing as to what you wanted to hang up in your dorm room. These are posters I picked as an 18 year-old freshman at Vanderbilt...
A little Einstein to appeal to my inner science nerd...
A little Audrey to appeal to my inner fashion fiend...
A little Matisse to appeal to my inner artist...
Art is still important to me. I was an art history minor in college (much more fun than my boring biology degree) and spent a summer in London studying British art. Here is a little sampling of what we have on our walls in our home right now.
A going away present from some dear friends depicting bridges in Pittsburgh...
Some garage sale finds (the best place to find original art!)...
A Japanese watercolor...
Original art from a med school friend...
My favorite is a Monet-ish version of a photo from our wedding...
Do you remember what posters you had in your dorm room? What sort of art do you have in your home?
So we had grand plans of going to the beach this past weekend, especially since I had a rare four-day weekend this week. We had thought of going to the Gulf Coast of Florida, but the whole BP oil spill put a kink into those plans. Then we planned to take a weekend trip to Asheville, North Carolina to see the Biltmore Estate and do some great eating. But after last weekend's marathon trip to Chicago and back, we decided the driving and cost of hotels and tickets could wait for a few months. So we threw together an impromptu barbecue at home. In the words of the A-Team, I love it when a plan comes together.
Decor:
I usually have difficulty finding a tablecloth that I like that isn't obscenely expensive. Champagne taste, beer budget. This time I decided to just go to my local Joann's and get two yards of patterned canvas cut for our table. Easy peasy. Only $20 on sale.
I love the nautical-inspired rope pattern on the fabric. Very Nantucket (if I had ever been to Nantucket).
Simple centerpieces of canning Mason jars filled with grocery store roses and hydrangea leaf cuttings from our front yard. Since our lazy-arse hydrangeas haven't bloomed yet, I drove all over Nashville looking for white hydrangeas to no avail. Note to self: get flowers earlier than the day before a holiday. Had to settle for some Wal-Mart roses. You gotta make do.
Close up of the grosgrain napkin rings that I made last year. Pretty sure these are going to be a tradition. Super simple to make, requires about a foot of ribbon, D-rings and fusible webbing (all available at you local fabric store). No sewing involved!
Same outdoor decorations as last year (sheer laziness) minus the lanterns that we lost in the recent storms.
New addition is a Ziploc bag full of water which, according to my friend's husband, is an old Southern remedy to keep the flies away. Something about the reflection of their image messing with their vision. Not sure it worked, but it was certainly a topic of conversation!
Tomorrow, the FOOD!
How was your weekend? Any fun decor or partying involved?
I hate it when socks disappear in the dryer and you are left with a single pair.
I hate it when you are looking for your favorite gloves or mittens on a cold day and you can only find one of them.
I especially hate it when I lose an earring. Nothing pains me more, because I tend to get pretty attached to my earrings and losing one feels like I lost a friend. Melodramatic, I know. But it sucks. I hate earring orphans.
I was sorting through some jewelry for the upcoming jewelry swap and ran across my tray of misfit jewelry. You know...the graveyard of broken necklaces, orphaned earrings and dead watches. I saw a particular orphaned earring that I used to love and attached it to a random gold chain that I had and (as my child would say) TA-DA!
Repurposing an old earring is my contribution to Planet Earth on this Earth Day.
There are a million tutorials out there on how to do this. If you've been following over the past month, you have already seen this video with the Kid dancing with tulle-inspired glee. Or maybe you saw this teaser.
I will give you basic instructions on how to make a tulle skirt with a minimum of fuss. This is a skill that comes in handy for future ballerina and Tinkerbell costumes, petticoats for school musicals - yes, I danced a mean "Shipoopi" in The Music Man - and possible goth/rave outfits if done in the appropriate shade of black.
Materials List:
1" Elastic cord, cut 1 inch shorter than the wearer's waist
4 inch strips of tulle (length varies on the height of the wearer - for a 3 year old, I went with 5 yards of tulle)
Scissors
*Note that you can either buy the tulle in 3 or 4 inch widths on a spool or cut a large bolt of fabric using a cutting mat and rotary cutter (my method)*
Directions:
Tie the elastic into a knot as small as possible, leaving as little free ends as possible. Optionally you can sew the ends of the elastic together for a slightly more finished look, but that sort of negates the whole "no sew tutu" thing.
Stretch your elastic around something sturdy - the back of a chair, your legs, etc.
Take the tulle strips and make slipknots all the way around the length of elastic.
Twenty minutes of Project Runway later, finish the skirt.
Convince your toddler not to take every finished tutu and try it on and dance like a club kid at a rave.
More tutorials (with actual pictures) at the following blogs...
And I learned three things: 1) I am seriously out of shape because I am really sore from all of the contortions I had to do to paint this thing, 2) I need a paint spray attachment for our compressor and, 3) they aren't kidding when they say work in a ventilated area. I am pretty sure I lost some brain cells.
I am thinking of lining the back wall of the cabinet with fabric using some Modge Podge. Watcha think?
