Guilt!

I loved the video Anthology magazine posted on its site that showed a bedroom wall covered in vintage book pages. I decided to do something similar in my guest room. I figured I'd put painter's tape in stripes along the wall and then on top of that put double sided tape so that I wouldn't ruin the walls. Then stick the pages to the tape.

I found a book at our local antique shop, didn't know anything about the author or book but I loved that it had photographs and renderings throughout the pages. It legit took me a few days to start the project because I felt really guilty about tearing up a book, nevermind one almost 100 years old.

Enter today's snow day and I figured I had no more excuses. I started tearing it up and stuck it up to the wall. I love how it came out. We'll see how the tape/pages fare in time, but then I thought about the book. Pictures to come soon.

Then I don't know why but I google searched the author and the book. Enter more guilt. He was a well known photographer and his books are fairly well know as well. I paid $30 for the book, so I knew it wasn't just any old book, but it was one of the only one I like the pages inside for the room. Eek.

I just ordered another copy of the book off of amazon.com because I feel so guilty about tearing up a book published originally in 1938 and it will be prominently displayed in the room once I finish all the other decorating. Who said interior decorating was easy!?

Score!

(Yes I know I've been M.I.A. for literally months. I apologize.)

But this is so excited that I feel the need to blog about it. I purchased a photograph off of etsy a while back. I find it very soothing and serene. It is the inspiration for my bedroom redecorating. I love the gray color of my bedroom but lately it's just been kind of blah to me. I found bedding at Anthroplogie that goes really well with my new vibe, except it was about $300 for he comforter and two shams. I found it back in May.

Well.

I just checked out the sale section of their website and the comforter is on sale for $70 and the Euro shams are $15 each- UM HI AMAZING!

So I just ordered the comforter and two shams for my new bedroom!!! Super excited for this bedroom re-do!

And just for the record I'm still doing ridiculous things that would most likely only happen to me I just haven't blogged about them. For example I have returned to my routine of going to the gym at night which I seemed to have abandoned pretty much the whole summer. I thought I remembered the combination to my lock. Turns out I didn't. And had to ask the gym to kindly cut my lock so I could get my stuff out of the locker. Way to go me.

I heart etsy.

Can I just say that Etsy is the coolest thing ever?

I've had my eye on a print for probably months. Originally it was printed on like paper from a book I think, so you could see the text from the page in the background, but that slipped from my fingers and once I got my taxes I finally ordered the print. Here it is in a frame I bought:

I loooove it. And along with the print came this note from the artist:

Oops, I probably should have put the card on mirror image. But it says, "Thank ya Jamie! Hugs from San Fransico, Charmaine"

I mean, I just think it's so cool that with each purchase pretty much, I receive a hand written note from the artist. I love it! Each purchase I've made from madebygirl has come with a note as well. 

I just love it. I will come back again and again as a result. 

April Vacation Goals

I am hoping to move my closet (a.k.a. second bedroom) into the actual closet that's in my bedroom, thus creating room for an actual second bedroom.

Right now I have an Ikea monstrosity in my second bedroom housing my clothing. I find that I don't put stuff away after I wear it/wash it and the room easily turns into a mess. Right now I have the Ikea set up, a three-drawer bureau and shoes in my second bedroom. In my actual bedroom I have a second three-drawer bureau and the skinny hard to utilize closet which holds dresses and some shoes.

A bit excessive, I know.

Here's the problem/challenge: my actual closet is narrow which makes it hard to maneuver in. Also, I can't put bars across it because it's the access point for my attic. So I have to be creative. In the back of the closet are two built in cubbies. I'm thinking of putting a shelf in each to act as storage. There are also three drawers below those cubbies.

So if I store workout clothes, sweatshirts, etc. in the built-in along with long sleeve shirts, short sleeve shirts and tank tops, I think that'd work. Oh and maybe skirts. Along the long wall where I can't put a bar I'm thinking of putting coat hooks and investing in some of these bad larry's  to hang my dresses on so that they're hanging, but out of the way. Maybe too, my button down shirts. I plan on utilizing under-bed storage for shoes and possibly some other sweatshirts. The three drawer bureau currently in my room will hold unmentionables, pjs and work pants (?).  I'm also thinking of getting a standing coat rack for in my bedroom to hang stuff that I have yet to put away.

And then the fun part of creating an actual second bedroom! Depending on if I get an actual roommate in the near future or not, I may buy a day bed, or a cheap twin bed, depending on price of each. That's coming secondary to whether or not I can pull this closet redo off or not. One more week to plan and then it's execution time!!

Even though

I don't like marshmellows besides in smores I want to make these for Easter.

Latest home update!

So I saw this amazing bureau here and other places that I can't remember at the moment:

So I decided that would work perfectly with my white bureau's- the one in my bedroom in particular.

My process was printing the words "secret", "sleep" and "lazy" in a jane austen font that I got off-line, coloring the back with pencil and then tracing those letters onto the drawers. I then painted those words onto the drawers with gray paint I got from Lowe's still from the giftcard I had from my house warming! Here are some pictures:

Margarita, music (lap top), cell phone.

Tool box (to maybe take hardware off drawers), gray paint.

Half painted already-half pencil stencil of "secret" on my drawer that contains the secrets.

The printed word "sleep" which I will color on the back with a pencil and trace onto the drawer for my pj's.

Primitive carbon-copy.

Finished product.

Close-up.

I love it.

Finished!

Ok, here's a picture of the completed "headboard" along with the creative process:

That would be the finished product. I'm thinking of getting some dark gray pillows to prop up behind the white ones, and then have the pink ones be under the comforter so you can't see them at all. When I have money.
Ok, so first I tested two light  yellows from Home Depot on the wall:

Then taped up computer paper to figure out how many fit width wise and height wise to make the stencil:

Then drew out the design trying to come as close as possible to this headboard I saw in Domino magazine:

*I used a pencil I received from a girlfriend as the "save-the-date" for her wedding this summer. Ridiculously cute/unique. 

Then I drew it on a regular sized paper I had folded in the same amount of squares that fit on my wall. 

Then drew each square from my drawing onto an individual piece of computer paper. 

Then taped them up to the wall to make sure they lined up and actually worked.

Then cut them out and taped them back up again.

Then traced the outline with a pencil.

And painted that biatch in!

And what you have now, is the final product with two coats of paint and the bed moved back up against the wall:

Total cost of the project: Nada!

I could have ordered a stencil from The Stencil Library which is what they used for the domino headboard, but that cost something ridiculous like $40 so I figured I could do it myself somehow. It may not have been the most logical process of how I recreated the stencil, but it worked for me. Plus for the paint I used a Lowe's gift card for, so that didn't cost me anything. Although at Home Depot I did pay $5 for the two paint samples, so I lied, it cost me $5. But I heart it!! 

Vacation projects

This week was February vacation and it was AMAZING to have the week off. I am currently in denial that it's almost over.

Things I accomplished:
1. Rearranged my whole living room (including couch, TV, desk, everything) by myself.
2. Painted a headboard on my bedroom wall that my bed is up against. Why? This is how I explained it to my Dad, who isn't really on the same decorating page as me:
Dad: What are you up to today?
Me: Not much, painting a headboard on the wall in my bedroom....waiting for reaction
Dad: You're what?
Me: It's going to look good, I'm painting the shape of a headboard on the wall in my bedroom.
Dad: Why don't you just buy an actual headboard?
Me: Because I have no money and a gift card to Lowe's so the paint will cost me nothing. Unless you want to buy a headboard for me.
Dad: Negative.

So there you have it, I just finished the second coat of paint and pictures will follow once it dries and I can put the bed back in place instead of in the middle of the room. Here's an inprocess picture to tide you over:

LaLa refused to get out of the way, and was in the middle of yawning. But that's the stencil/template I made on the wall, that I traced and then painted in. Also in the middle you can see the two colors I tried out before deciding on the one on the right of LaLa's nose.

Did not accomplish:
1. Grading anything.
2. Planning anything.
3. Working out as much as I had wanted.

Oh well. I still have today and tomorrow to do some grading and planning.

Or not.

I'm a Craft Machine

Friday night I finished my cross-stitch (picture in previous post), Saturday I took the doors of the really pretty tan/seashell cabinet thing that was in my bathroom (picture in previous post) and began the process of painting it white which I completed Sunday afternoon!

It only took FOUR COATS OF PAINT for those horrid seashells to disappear. I painted a coat Saturday afternoon and then Saturday night because I did nothing Saturday night except watch He's Just Not that into You (how fitting) and went to bed early. Sunday I woke up, made myself bacon and eggs because why not, and put a third coat of paint on the shelves (I really don't know what this thing is technically, it's not a hutch, it's not shelves, I don't know...) and hung around the house not quite sure what to do with myself. I went to Target (fun run-in with the Ex and the girl, he waved as we drove by each other....Happy Sunday!) for some random stuff and back home to finish my crafting projects.

My Dad was equally as bored as I was so we ran to Lowe's and Home Depot to check out potential shelving for the closet in my bathroom (next project) that afternoon and he ended up buying me three new lights for outside my house- Thanks Dad! Love when that happens!!

So here's the finished product for my bathroom, one step closer to organization!
*I had the white paint leftover from moving into my house
*Bought the baskets at pier1 with a giftcard I had from my housewarming party
*The mirrored tray was mine that I fell in love with at Target last year and waited for to go on sale before I bought it but hadn't found the right place for it in my house- until now!
*The "J" mug is from Anthropologie
*My perfumes- well, I clearly have a problem
*Bare necessities for makeup that I use everyday, my other stuff is in a train case stowed away
*Little dish for jewelry before I put it away also from Anthropologie a while ago when I went to visit Lizzie in Charlotte

I just love it now!!!

This is my next project- putting some shelves in here for towels and sheets, and also some storage for winter/summer clothes and my hamper. One thing at a time, don't judge me, it's a mess:

Happy Monday everyone, hope it's a great week!

Finished product and work-in-progress

I finished my cross-stitch last night, on another eventful Saturday night. I'm not happy with the "you" and the spacing of words but live and learn and hopefully my next one will improve on those things. Here's a picture of the finished product:

I'm also painting a cabinet thing I had in my bathroom that came with my house. It had a pretty sea shell motif on it, and for some unknown reason it's only taken me a year to paint it white. Right now I'm waiting for the third coat of white paint to dry. Here's what it looked like before:

I took the two doors off and am going to put baskets on the open shelves. I think I'm going to need a fourth coat, so once I'm done with that and have painted the *hopefully* last coat of paint, a picture of the finished product will be posted as well.

Happy Sunday!

My crazy Sunday night....

Tonight is essentially a Saturday night since it's a holiday tomorrow and no work.

This is what I'm doing:

Yes, I am cross-stitching and no, I did not age 40+ years overnight.

My life is really that exciting.

If you're curious I am cross-stitching: "all I really want is you" on navy fabric with turquoise thread. I was inspired by these. I love the monograms, actually I heart them all. I felt like I could make them though and save some money. I initially thought they were a bit pricey but I now know why she charges what she does- the plotting out of the writing is very overwhelming and super time consuming. My hands are cramping and my neck hurts. But I have a feeling I'm going to love it when I'm done. Pictures to follow.