projects only seen on my instagram! (some of what I've been making this month)

 a pom-pom garland I finally strung and hung in my girls' new shared room! (I made the pom-poms almost a year ago)

 and the felted ball garland I strung after buying the balls a year ago to make a wreath (but discovered what I had bought would only have filled a 1/4 of a wreath form).

 a Gold posterboard triangle bunting/garland for my tree!

 died (food coloring) and glittered (spray adhesive+glitter) pasta garland (I re-strung onto twine and tied each pasta bow on, rather than gluing which didn't work well).

 Made stockings for my family (and made 3 extra just.in.case.) out of a felted wool blanket, antique doily trim, and turkish (antique) wool felt coasters! All things my mom had so nicely passed on to me as she cleaned and organized all her vintage finds.

  spray-painted the front of Amélie's new $2.50 shoes (on sale) from H&M.

And bleached a bunch of bottlebrush trees that I bought  last year for this very purpose!

 The last trimester of pregnancy (plus not having to do a fab.com sale this year) really helped me kick my butt in gear! And this is only maybe 40% of what I have actually made and done. I don't like to be TOO obnoxious on instagram or this blog so I try to leave some of it out... or spread it out:)

Thanksgiving decorations to hold you over....

 My daughter was really upset when I took down the Halloween decorations this year. And I felt a little tug to put up Christmas decorations, but knew that November 1st was a bit too early... So I decided this year I would make some Thanksgiving bunting!

Now, I made THREE different buntings, but the third one has yet to be hung because I have yet to punch the holes in it to be strung. 

1.I made the circular accordions out of book pages for my wedding 6.5 years ago. My mom saved them, and here they are finally being put to use again! I mounted them on black posterboard and scalloped the edges. Then I cut out cursive letters to spell "give thanks." I couldn't think of anything better (I'm not so clever with words).

2.The wooden bunting was inspired (copied) from this and though I never read the tutorial, I had a visual in my head when I was at the craft store. I have no idea where you would get the veneer cards they are referring to, but I just bought thin balsa wood (not the thinnest, the next one up) and cut it with an exacto knife. I thought about dipping them in gold, or adding something to them, but then I realized that's what I always do, and maybe a little simplicity would be better for now:)

The pink/cream decoration on the side is a tutorial I have coming soon (as well as the 3rd bunting!). and lastly, I spray-painted this giant toy rhino gold, because he hangs out on the shelving that divides the living room from the "play room," and I thought it looked more sophisticated! Also I plan on strapping some presents on his back for Christmas.

Bat Silhouettes for Halloween! With free pdfs.

 This year Olivia is 3 (not pictured) and old enough to be super into Halloween. So I finally decided to do some real decorating. I've been waiting for the day I had kids old enough to make the holidays magical again! I can't wait to be an awesome holiday mom, like mine always was! (Speaking of... check out her shop for high-quality, beautiful paper holiday decor (including some sweet large crows for Halloween!)

 So here are my flying bats. I need to cut out more so I can continue them onto this wall.... (and the little circles on those wood things are actually skulls).

 So, if you want to make some of these bats yourself, here are the ones I drew, which you can print onto cardstock, and then cut and trace them onto black posterboard! So easy (though it takes awhile).
BATS 1    BATS 2   BATS 3

And here are the decorations (the only ones) I've been putting out for the past 3 years. Still love these skeletons, and this year olivia and I made fingerprint spiders. She was so proud of her "spooky" spiders, she kept trying to show and scare her daddy (and when he feigned fear, she told him not to worry, "they are just cute daddy, they aren't real").

Bull-wrap!

 I am over wrapping things in yarn as of yesterday.  

 I also have no idea where to put it. I originally thought Olivia's room but it is so packed with stuff right now, I am not sure! Anyway,  here is my finished product. I just papier-machéd over the bull skull (wrapped in saran-wrap), cut it off, and then taped and re-papier-machéd it. I then wrapped it in yarn with hot glue. Don't you love how I accidentally reattached the horns going two different directions?? WHOOPS! It drives my husband crazy, but I kind of think its funny and I don't care enough to fix it.

Oh yeah, and there are my wrapped and braided cords that have no covering for the lightbulbs. Eventually.

This week/end

Here is what I have been up to (besides our spontaneous trip to Disney with the kids yesterday). I have started sprouting buckwheat groats and wheat berries! I love reading about healthy eating and from what I've read, sprouting is a great way to bring live foods that are rich in in vitamins and minerals into your diet! Today I through some of the sprouted buckwheat into my morning smoothie (which also had flax seed, almond butter, almond milk, banana and a touch of raw honey in it---the honey was very unneccessary turns out). Right now I have the rest of it, along with some "reactivated" raw nuts and seeds in my dehydrator (that my husband surprised me with for valentine's day!!!) in an effort to make some raw granola. Can't wait to try it!


And my fingers are working around the clock (okay during naps and nighttime) to get  ready for my next fab sale!!! Its gonna be full of new stuff---or stuff never seen online at least--as well as some popular styles!

Pimp your Cord

All links and more ideas can be found here! I have at least 10 projects in the works, and another FAB sale I am preparing for so this might not be done soon, but it WILL be done!

HOW TO WRAP YOUR CORD: when I wrapped my cord,  I just got out a bunch of yarn colors that I liked and would wrap them around the cord. In order to switch to the next color, I would just overlap the next color over top of the previous one about 1 inch. At the very end I hot glued the piece down! done. And it really doesn't take as long as you think. Like maybe one or two movies worth?

Petal Lamp Shade

I wrapped this lamp cord from Ikea about 2 months ago and it has been sitting in my kitchen waiting to be hung. I really wanted to go with an "industrial" look, but the cord with just a lightbulb was visually lost when hung in our high-ceilinged apartment. So I made a shade for the time being! I really have other plans for this cord in the future, but for now I think this looks great! Here's the tute:

Materials:
paper (newsprint or better)
flour
cold water
bowl
saran-wrap or press and seal
felt
hot glue

1. our about 1/2 cup of flour into a bowl (not the bowl you are molding the lampshade on!!). Using a wisk, place the bowl under a small stream of water and wisk vigorously to combine it with the flour. when you get sludgy/gluey consistancy (it will take very little water), you can turn it off and keep wisking until its smooth.

2. cover your bowl with the saran-wrap (I used press and seal, its sooo much better).

3. dip your pieces of paper into the flour sludge and remove the excess liquid with your fingers. place the pieces on the bowl, overlapping and covering it completely. do 2-3 layers

4. let dry overnight
5. cut a hole out of the top, big enough to JUST slip the plug through.

6. Cut a whole lot of "petals" from the felt (I used wool for the cream color and acrylic for the white). Mine were about 1.5 inches long.

7. hot glue them to the paper bowl, starting at the bottom and working your way up concentrically.
done!
I did hang it up, but couldn't get a good photo of it. I felt like you could see it better just sitting on the table:)

Here is my next papier maché project.... I am in super love with it but its not finished. I just wanted to give you a taste of what's to come:)

another version

 Fine Little Day 2012

 blue-eyed freckle 2008/9

I always like other people's stuff better than mine, so I am being tortured by what Elisabeth Bunker of Fine Little Day did with her IKEA malm dressers (sort of wanting to do a version on my own). Anyone else ever feel that way? I know I'm not alone.

I love/hate pinterest

This DRIVES ME BANANAS. Back in March, when I thought I was buying that house which had all those tans walls, I had the idea to use white contact paper and PAINT designs on it for the baby's room. I had painted these large, abstract flowers using house paint and acrylic paint, and then cut them out to apply to the walls (mine were more like large, long decals). Well, we didn't move into that house, and the apartment we DID move into had/has the horrible textured walls that contact paper won't stick to. So I threw them all away.

Fast Forward to this morning when I saw the above image on pinterest. Oh what a great idea, painting on contact paper. As seen on Apartment Therapy and now going to be all. over. pinterest! I know this shouldn't get to me, and there are rarely ever any completely original ideas (my art teachers used to always emphasize this), but still. I want my blog to bring you fresh, new ideas and things you haven't seen done a bazillion times! And now, because of good ol' pinterest (which I really do love most of the time), ideas like this (and many others believe me) are no longer new. So boo. If I do do it for a future apartment I'll let you know:(

Does this happen to any of you??!!!

Olivia's room, Florida, 2011

 I wanted to do Olivia's room in red and cream with hints of aqua this time around. I was inspired by this awesome vintage dress I bought her this summer. Except then I had to face the annoying fact that I can't paint or do anything fun to these annoying textured walls (no contact paper for me this time around. boo).

I wanted to have her entire room done in the 3 weeks between moving in and having my baby (as well as the rest of my apartment and all the furniture I had to repaint... I completed most everything though! thank goodness since I haven't had a chance to do anything like this since Amélie was born).  I went back and forth and became very frustrated trying to come up with something that wasn't already pinned all over pinterest (I love pinning, but I also like having my own ideas!!). I thought clouds! ohhhh so done already. scallops! no did that in her last room... I went around and around.

Finally I decided I wanted to continue surrounding her with abstract art/decoration so that she learns that art doesn't always have to be creating things that already exist (people, animals, etc). Maybe you think I am making this up, but I really do want my children to be creative and open to what art can be.
Anyway, I made the bookpage blobby things you see above. And I really don't love them them. But sometimes I like them. but mostly I don't. You see so indecisive about this room. When she switches to a bed (instead of crib) I will change the wall hangings, but keep the color scheme. Anyway, hopefully someone out there likes them!

long explanation. sorry.

 This is my favorite piece in the whole room! Another piece that I painted using the paint from this series of redone furniture... (I did all those pieces with only 2 little paint samples!!). I taped off the legs and used this trick to make sure the paint didn't bleed through. I love the legs on this thing.

 Those are the pinfamous ikea spice rack bookshelves.  I spray-painted them red.

 corner of the room... (the yellow on the side of the bed is leftover from her old room/color scheme, as is the  dust ruffle...). made the crib sheet of course. and that big ball/pouf (see here).

 I was really trying to get Olivia more interested in numbers without forcing them on her....
These are mini canvases that I spray painted and then glued book page numbers and white paper on. The praying children are from Goodwill. I planned on painting little red triangles around the edges of the "torn" paper edges on them, but haven't gotten around to it.

 I do love the way the book pages look around this window though! I happened to have that rug from anthro (when I worked there years ago) that I was sick of using elsewhere in the house. It went perfectly in here!! yipee!

 alphabet (Martha Stewart--my mom gave it to me), dress-up box, trash can. exciting.

And here is all the crap I cropped out of the photos:) Thought I'd make this real. I like it when people show how things really are in their house so you don't feel like a domestic failure when you see their blog photos.

So there you go! what do you think?

My apartment: Headboard re-do

If you've been reading my blog for the past few years (or even better, since 2008- when I started it), then you have seen my bed go through periodic changes. I really just get bored of the same thing after awhile and I have to switch it up! Before I show you my most recent (and favorite) version, I will take you down memory lane (haha):

One of my very first posts! This was my bed when we first moved to GA and I was teaching high school art (hadn't started selling my headbands really yet) and my husband was in a masters program.

My bed along with the guest post I did for Made By Lex back in March 2010, Olivia was 8 months old, my husband was in med school, and I was doing blue-eyed freckle stuff in a major way.

In July of 2010, when my husband, Olivia and I all went to Europe, I purchased my favorite bedding of all time: this Orla Keily duvet! And to make it better, it was on sale (in PARIS???weird) and its a king size, which I just temporarily have sewn smaller until the day we can afford to buy a king:) This photo is from my valentine's bunting post.

I don't know if you have noticed, but for all these years I have been trying to make up for the fact that we have no headboard. One day we will be able to buy a real bed frame I suppose, but for now we just have a cheap metal one that the mattress just sits on, while I attempt to make "headboards" out of random things. Well, the time has come. Not for a real bed by any means, but I have a real headboard to stick behind our cheap metal frame at least! I purchased this caning KING size (that seems to be all I can ever find) board at my favorite local thrift for about $20. And I loved the caning, but wanted the trim to be a different color. So..... 1,999 coats later (and it was paint+primer!!!)....

I had my favorite headboard of all time! Its a hot chili red to match the shapes on the duvet (which, while in FL, is not filled with a comforter because it is too darn hot! I just leave it empty like a sheet). And the bench at the end of the bed is another of my favorite things I re-did---it had been painted gold with black speckles on the wood parts--ICK! But I bought it for $5 and repainted the bottom with white. Thanks to my mom who found it for me!

White Flutter Baby Mobile (tutorial)

Amélie's room has been a design enigma for me. I just can't seem to figure out  how to make all of Olivia's old stuff work right in there! And with her little mini-crib (got it on craigslist for $25 and painted it gray) in that big room, I feel like it will never look right. Anyway, one thing I DO like about her room is the mobile!

I was trying to figure out how to make something that didn't add MORE busyness to the eye while still making it interesting for her to look at. So I decided to hide the fun part, and make the rest white and easy on the eye! Here is my little tutorial.

Materials:

Stiff paper for base of cones (I used vinyl that I eventually removed but I suggest cardstock)
notebook paper
glue (elmers, pva, etc)
little cup for water/glue mix
cheap paper (notebook, copy..)
tissue paper
hotglue/gun
paint (optional)
permanent marker
paper doilies (dollar store)
string, hooks for hanging

1. wrap paper into different sized cones and tape together

2. a)tear the cheap, thin paper (copy paper) into little squares, and mix glue and water 1:10 ratio (I didn't measure mine but I am guessing) b.) dip the papers into the glue mix and apply to the cones. do a few layers to make it strong.  c)let dry over night

3.cut strips of the tissue paper  about 2-3 inches wide and the entire length of the paper. zig-zag one side.

4. cut a line in-between each point of the zig-zag (you are creating the flutter!)

5. Before you do anything else you need to take your marker and draw designs inside the cones (this is the surprise! Your plain white mobile actually has lots of interesting things to look at, they are just hidden inside!)

6. hot glue the strips around and around starting at the bottom. I made some cones that had strips all the way up to the top, and some that just had a few rows at the bottom.

7. OPTIONAL: For the cones that just have flutters on the bottom, you can paint the top part of the cone. It seems unnecessary but up close it looks really nice that way.

8. sew a few strips of doilies, varying sizes. I did 3 doilies on each strip.

9. hang em up! I used thick string to hang the cones. I tied a big knot at one end, poked a hole at the top of the cone, and strung the knot so that it it was inside the cone, leaving the long string to hang it with. I used thread to  hand the doily strands. (And I used "c" hooks and "eye" hooks to hang them all on the ceiling.)

This is what the baby sees........

and this is what YOU see! ahhhhhh. If anyone makes this I would love to see your version! Shoot me an email!

Before I had the baby...

The month before I had Amélie (I found out how to put the accent on!) I was working on lots of projects because I knew it would be a while before I could do any of that again (and believe me, everything that I didn't finish beforehand is still sitting there waiting. and waiting.) I have lots more to show you all, but for today I am just going to give you a peak at a few random things I did that were inspired by pinterest!

I made 22 meals and froze them! I knew a few people would bring me meals, but I hated the thought of  grocery shopping and making dinners while trying to balance a newborn and a toddler. I've seen this a million times on pinterest but never got the guts to try it until now. I bought THIS book  which teaches you the secrets of freezer cooking and also has tons of recipes! I probably could have figured out most of it from researching more on the internet, but its nice to have all the info in one place. Here is what I made:
pizza dough/kits (with cheese and veggies already portioned out) 4 nights
tortilla soup (4 nights)
chicken/cream cheese/beef rolls (4 nights)
chicken enchiladas (3 nights)
pulled bbq chicken (3 nights)
Hawaiian chicken (3 nights)
pre-cooked and pulled chicken for a tortilla salad (1 night)
A lot of these meals are just needing rice, fresh veggies, or some tortilla chips which is no problem. And let me tell you these things have SAVED me! I think this is my new way of cooking. First of all, it takes me no time to have dinner ready and then I am only spending around $30/wk to get the rest of the essentials (milk, bread, fruit, veggies, and some fun stuff). I DO use coupons though, so that helps. My initial cost for the freezer meals was only $60. I didn't buy any fancy meat though, like I would've liked (fancy as in free-range).

Okay I could go on and on, but let's just say freezer cooking is the bomb!

I saw this several times on pinterest and though it might be overdone, I still kinda loved it. Its this picture frame, and I just cut a piece of board to fit the frame and painted it with chalkboard paint, and spray-painted the frame yellow (no priming). It had two holes so I used my trick to hang it:)

 Last, it was my husband's birthday (and then Olivia's)  so I wanted to put up some simple decorations for our family parties. I had seen these on pinterest as well, and let me tell you they take very little paper and time to make! so simple (and so much cuter in person)!  I didn't have time or energy to make anymore decorations though and since it was just my parents, brothers and sisters coming over I didn't feel any pressure to put on something over-the-top. I still haven't taken them down...