Dresser Repaint - Part One

Let me start with the before. 

Doesn't it look like it belongs in a seven year old's room? Yup. That's because we painted it when I was seven. That's part of the reason I love this dresser so much. My mom and I (let's be real, I was a tiny child so it was probably all her) repainted all of my furniture when it was given to me by my great grandmother when I was little. It was peach colored when it lived in her home. And underneath all of the paint we found an olive green color, so we are not the first to strip off old paint and add new to this little gem. 

I am SO excited about this. And only about 80% of my excitement is due to the fact that Landan did all the hard work and I got to do the fun parts. No, seriously, I got home from work and my dresser looked like this. 

(PS we need curtains.)

He's amazing. If you cant tell in the picture, he did all the hard parts and left me one super easy side to scrape the paint off, because it's fun. He also knew I would want to feel like I helped. Yup. He even got it started for me, that's what he's doing in the picture. Sorry, ladies. He's taken. 

See the olive green that I was talking about? I wonder how long ago it was painted that color. 

Oh! And did I mention he remembered to take these before pictures for me because he knew I would want them? I've got a real keeper. :) 

I can't wait to share it with you when it's completed! 

Jewelry Box - Part One

I'm splitting this up into a couple posts, because it's just a lot of information. Or, it's because I'm just really excited to share it even though it's not done. Yup. That's it. 

I made this jewelry box a couple of years ago and it did the job decently. But it definitely had flaws. 

Issues:

1. The way we hung it was stupid so I either needed new hardware or a different box. Wonder what won?

2. There was no where to put stud earrings. Sure, I could just throw them in the box but that's not very neat/tidy/effective. 

3. My watches had no home, probably because at the time I had exactly *one* watch.

4. I saw some cute drawer knobs on clearance at Hobby Lobby and I really wanted them but had nothing to do with them. 

I looked on pinterest some, but AS USUAL not one of them was everything that I wanted. So I laid out my (sad and small) collection of jewelry so that I could get an idea of sizes and measurements. I ended up deciding I needed about 14 by 20 of space. I wanted to construct a shallow box to hang on my wall, this time displaying the jewelry IN the box instead of ON it. 

I stole all the hardware right off of the old box. I spray painted it gold, obviously, because I'm me and I have a genuine obsession with gold. It's getting out of hand.

Also, when you live in an apartment, you have to be creative about spray painting. The people who work here are probably a lot more strict about having their grass spray painted gold by accident than my parents are. So I ended up getting a basket and lining it with foil and painting in the bottom of the basket. Even though I personally liked the gold grass. ;) And then I decided that I want to eventually paint that basket. But that is another project for another day. 

To finalize the measurements for the hooks and knobs, I laid out all my jewelry again and used a tape measure (and my pitiful attempt at a ruler, as seen in this post).

And that's where I'm at! 

Next up:

-Paint (I lost my paintbrushes, so I either need to buy more or figure out where I packed them.) I'm definitely going to use the same paint I used two years ago because I still stand by that choice. As long as I have enough of it left. 

-Find new screws for the gold (formerly black) knobs. The original ones stick out from the back of my box and definitely will not work. 

-Actually buy those pretty drawer pulls I have my heart set on from Hobby Lobby. I'm crossing my fingers that they are still there.

Makeup Bag

Let me start this by saying: I'm not a very experienced sewer, so if I can do it SEW CAN YOU! (See what I did there??)

PSA: There are a lot of pictures here. A lot. Sowwy. 

Being the extremely frugal person I am, (and was raised to be, Shoutout: Mom and Dad!) I am always looking for a less expensive way to get what I want. Maybe that's what makes DIY projects appeal to me. Or, maybe I'm too high maintenance to just buy something as is, even if it's not *perfect*. Probably both.

 I looked for tutorials online and none of them were exactly what I wanted to do. Until I ended up finding one tutorial for a bag I liked, and it was LITERALLY just pictures. Now don't get me wrong. Pictures are great. 1000 words and all that crap, but ya girl needs more help than that. I attempted it on my own once and I got this. Can you see how small it is??? It's barely big enough for my (very small) collection of jewelry.

This sad, sad small tiny doll person bag. The whole point was to make something my Naked 2 eyeshadow would fit in. Not going to cut it. This is where WORDS and MEASUREMENTS would have helped me. Although I guess if I successfully made a bag, the tutorial couldn't have been completely bad. I'm probably just being a diva about it, to be honest, but here are pictures AND instructions for anyone else who wants to attempt this.

Materials:

Fabric for Outside: 1/2 yard

Fabric for Inside: 1/2 yard

Interfacing: 1/2 yard (preferable iron on. Make it easier on yourself!)

Zipper: 16 inch (you may be able to get away with a 14 but I need more room for error, oops)

Thread: Obviously.

First, cut all of your material into rectangles, 8 x 14 inches. The pretty outer fabric, the inner fabric (which is also pretty, I'm sure. Equality, people!) and the interfacing. Pat yourself on the back because cutting fabric is awful, hellish torture.

We moved over two weeks ago, and yet I still haven't found my ruler or yardstick. So I made it work with some extra wood and a tape measure! :) 

Next, iron your interfacing onto the BACK of the INSIDE fabric. Trust me on this. If you iron it onto the outer fabric, it looks awful. (See above: mini makeup bag disaster) If you can't tell, the outside looks wrinkled and the inside looks beautiful. Obviously we want the outside to look the best so iron onto the inside.

Now. Take the outer piece. Lay it face up on the table. Put the zipper face down, on top of it. line up the TOP edge of the zipper, with the top edge of the outer fabric. Put the inner fabric face down on top of that, lining it up as well, so your ironed on interfacing is looking up at you, begging you to sew it into something pretty. 

                                                             Pink: Outside facing up

White: Interfacing facing up

Laptop: Netflix, Parks and Recreation. Wussup.

Sew along the top edge of the zipper. Make sure not to get your seam all up on the zipper or else it won't open and close well and you'll hate yourself for not making sure it zipped right before you sewed the whole thing. 

Can we also pretend I painted my nails for these pictures? Thanks. 

Now do the same thing with the other side. If you're nervous just look at it and make sure that when it's unfolded, your insides will face one another and your outsides will not. Also take note that since you flipped it over, your zipper is now face up.

Now put the outer sides together. They're faces should touch. Outer fabrics sitting in a tree. K-I-S-S-I-N-G. You will see the fabric side of the two inner sides sew along the bottom. By that I mean, parallel to the zipper, but on the opposite end of the bag. 

Take the zipper and the seam you just sewed and put them together. Theres really no way to explain it, so heres a picture. The bottom seam is directly underneath the zipper. 

In the photo above, you can see that I'm about to sew down the right side of the bag. Do it. Flip that bad boy over and sew down the left side too. YOU ARE ALMOST DONE. YOU CAN DO IT. 

This sounds complicated but you can totally handle it. I mean come on, you've made 4/5 of a bag by now! What can't you do??? Take the left side and smooth is towards the bottom. You're making a point here. 

Next, measure 2.5 inches down on each side. Draw a line between those points and sew across it. Then cut off the point. I only took one picture of that process, for efficiency. (Meaning: I forgot to take other pictures.)

It should looks like this once you do all four ends. Now turn it right side out and enjoy. You can iron some seams if you want but don't get too crazy or it will look like a kleenex box. (Thanks for the feedback, Kate!)

I'm going to use the first one I made to show you the finished product because it has the pretty monogram (made with a Silhouette machine, will post about it in the future), and this one doesn't. Maybe I shouldn't live 3 hours away from the person with the Silhouette machine. (Hi, Mom!) 

Disclaimer: The bag I just made is definitely going to be a gift so if one of you reading this post receives this gift, pretend to be seeing it for the first time. (Another reason the monogram isn't on it yet... I don't want to spoil the surprise!)

Apartment Tour

Since I've been working on so many projects for decorating and organizing our new home, I thought I would take a moment to post some pictures of what it looks like completely bare. These pictures aren't the greatest, I literally snapped them in about five seconds between bringing my cat up the stairs and starting to unload the trucks/trailer. (Which was awful. Texas heat: You Suck.)

It will be so fun to look back on these as we get more and more settled in, to see how far our first little home together has come. 

When you walk in, you see this ADORABLE little archway cutout. Our TV stand is there currently, but it doesn't fit right so it looks ridiculous. Landan has drawn up a plan for what it will look like, all we have to do is make it. One drawback of an apartment is that we have much less space for DIY projects.

Next to the arch is our breakfast nook. It currently houses the table and chairs that we repainted and they look AMAZING. They fit right into the space and look even better than I hoped they would. I plan to do a post on them soon! 

Opposite the breakfast nook is our kitchen. It may look small, but compared to Landan's last kitchen, it's huge. We enjoy cooking together but it was legitimately difficult to even stand in there together, so to us this is a giant upgrade, whoop! 

Now turning around, if you are facing the TV cutout and turn to your left, you'll see our sunroom. It's amazing and I love every thing about it. We put my desk there so it'll be a nice little cubby for me to study in when I start nursing school in January. 

 Now I didn't take any pictures of the bedroom for some reason, but I did snap one of the closet. Isn't it pretty?!?!?! If you saw my scarf storage post, that space is the wall you can't see in this photo. It's to the direct left of the doorway that this picture is being taken through. You can see my side in this photo, Landan's side is the same, except not quite as deep. We really want to add more shelving on that back wall. It's not very functional this way, and we could both use more storage space, we just haven't figured out exactly what we want just yet. 

Well that's it! I hope to keep you guys updated on progress of our decorations and furniture. Hopefully there are lots of DIY posts to come!

Speaks to my Soul - September 3

I don't know what it is but every time I move, its almost as if my entire decorating taste changes. Even in college, when I moved three years in a row. Each time I had a completely different idea of what I wanted my home (aka dorm/apartment) to look like. This year was no different in that respect, but since I HAVE TO LIVE WITH A BOOOOOY (<-- Monica on the show, "Friends") I definitely wanted a more neutral look. 

We've made several things for our new home but we are currently on the hunt for several more pieces of furniture including: 

Bed that's not ugly. Headboard. Nightstands that aren't tiny. Side Table(s). Tv Stand. Decorations for pretty much every room. Because mine are all girly/glitter/flowers. And his are all sports themed. 

We wouldn't be us if we didn't plan to make them ourselves so I wanted to share some of my inspiration before we actually tackle them ourselves. 

This mason jar sconce. Did anyone else know the word "sconce" before today? Yeah, I didn't either.

This wooden crate for blankets and throw pillows. That's why they are called throw pillows. Because they are constantly in the way and you just throw them off the couch so you can watch Netflix in peace, without being crowded by 16 (extremely adorable and made with love) pillows on your couch. 

This headboard and bed. I literally spent 2 hours (ok it was days) doing nothing but reading this blog. Yet, somehow I didn't come across this post until I was looking on pinterest. I opened up the link and I freaked out. "LANDAN, I read this blog ALL WEEK and LOOOOK!" Yep, it was a week. Whatever. I'm not ashamed.

No, seriously, LOOK HOW PRETTY!

Also this end table which I swear is straight out of my wishes and dreams, except ours will have to be much larger to fill the space, and will eat this table for breakfast with a smile on it's face. I can't wait to see this in the currently empty corner between our couch and chair. (Really though, our table lamp is just sitting on the floor. It's sad and lonely and needs help.)

I swear, I could go on and on (and on, and on, and on... see??) with my ideas for our new home, but that's all I'll leave you with. For now.

 Although, these are literally other peoples ideas, so that may not be the best phrasing, but I trust that you know what I mean. ;)

Scarf Storage for under $10

What do you do when you are awake at 6:30 am with nothing to do? Obviously, go to Home Depot. Oh is that just me? Yup, ok.

Our new closet is huge and amazing and my happy place, (it walks through between the bedroom and the bathroom with double doors). However, I've never been satisfied with any type of scarf storage. I've seen so many ideas, most of them using shower rings, but those don't work as well for infinity scarves, which I happen to have a lot too many of. I could always unclick the shower ring and re-click it to put the infinity scarves on, but then they'll just slide around on whatever hanger I put them on. I'll let my girl below tell you how I feel about that. 

I have this pretty large empty wall that was just BEGGING me to hang some sort of accessories on it.  Can't you hear it? It has my favorite paintings on it now, but I plan to raise them a little higher and put both a jewelry display (currently in the works), and the scarves, in three rows. 

Materials: 

Wood: 3.29

Hooks: 4.49

Paint: Had on hand. 

You barely need any paint so whatever you have will work. Or none, if you prefer that look!

I started with 3 pieces of wood that are 3/4" thick, 1.5" wide and 12" long. I measured out my hooks, each 2 inches apart, before I painted so that I wouldn't leave any marks. I tapped the pointed edge of the hooks in so that I would be able to see where they belonged once I painted. 

I painted it gold before I realized that gold would look terrible with the gold hardware I bought. My first layer of paint really thin so it still shows quite a bit of the wood grain and I actually loved how it looked with the solid gold hooks. Happy Accident!

I painstakingly started to screw in the hooks, (seriously my finger has hurt all day. First world problems), wished I had pliers to use, contemplated going to buy pliers, and finally just "manned up" and made it work. 

Lets all pretend that the middle one isn't awkwardly uneven with the rest of them. Thanks guys.

This is what it looks like with scarves on it! I'm beyond please with my project. It was crazy easy and quick. Although I say that now, while one row is finished and the other two are staring at me from the coffee table begging to be created. I can't wait to get these 100% completed and on the wall. Just in time for scarf season!

Except not, because it's September and we have way too many 100 degree days between now and scarf season.

And because no post is complete with out a picture of my fluffy little helper, here's your daily share of adorable-ness. 

Light Up Marquee Letter - DIY

I have seen people using initials in their Engagement Pictures everywhere lately! I love the idea of taking your first formal pictures together with the first letter of the last name you'll soon share. Obviously I wanted to follow suit, but after perusing the aisles of Michaels and Hobby Lobby, nothing appealed to me. I saw these more modern looking light up styles, but I wasn't willing to shell out an upwards of 200 dollars for one, especially if I was going to have to order it online. I'm the type of person that prefers to see EXACTLY what they are buying before pulling the trigger. 

Spoiler Alert: This is the finished product, WHOOP!

Seriously, that's actually us. Don't we look fancy???

But back to the initial problem. 

Found here for over $200.

Found here for $300.

While these are crazy adorable and I would absolutely love to own one, I'm a poor college kid, and they are just so far beyond my price range that it's comical. I gave up on the light up idea completely, lowered my standards and headed back to Hobby Lobby. 

Supplies: 

Letter you want to use ($15)

Lights ($10)

Paint ($5)

Drill (Free to daughters who smile and say please... in my case at least!)

We were going to use one of the chipboard letters and as I affectionally say, "glitter the crap out of it",  but then my parents and I stumbled across some battery operated lights in the chipboard letter aisle. It is apparently impossible to find these on their website, but we got two packs of them for $7.99 each. If you're anything like me you will be ALL OVER that Hobby Lobby coupon and they will come out a little cheaper. The original plan was to use them on the chipboard letter, until I lucked into seeing this much larger, metal letter T. 

Found here for $29.99, but we lucked out and got it half off, because hobby lobby weekly ads are a magical, magical thing. The back was absolutely perfect for a marquee letter. This project practically made itself, I swear. Although if I say that it makes me look less spectacular so I'll keep that to myself. 

I went home and immediately two weeks later, got to work. I measured out the lights so that they would be evenly spaced from each other and each side. I use the back to measure so that any marks wouldn't somehow find their way through the spray paint. 

From there, my dad and I drilled holes for each light. We found that if we drilled a small hole and then used a larger drill bit to widen the whole that it worked a lot better. With the holes drilled, I went outside to spray paint. We used a flat black for the entire inside, and a gold for the outside. LOVE. It turned out SO pretty! (If I do say so myself.)

I slipped the lights back into the holes we drilled and secured them with a little hot glue. Most of them were pretty solid with out the glue, but I'd rather it not fall out. :) Here is the final lit product and I think it's going to look amazing, not only in our pictures, but at our wedding and in our home in the future. :) Also who let me take pictures in front of all the wild TV/Wii cords?? None of those cords belong to this T, I promise you. 

Disclaimer: The back is Ugly as sin.