Gallery Shelves

Our master bedroom has been a work in progress for what seems like FOREVER. It was re-painted well over a year ago, and every since, we've been slowly changing things out or updating them. The most recent addition has been some gallery shelves that W whipped up a few evenings ago. 

You can buy these from Pottery Barn for the hefty price of $55 but that would only get you one 4-foot ledge when I wanted two five-foot ones. Instead, we used Ana White's plans for these..she calls them the "$10 shelves" since that's how much the wood costs to make these. We just used pallet wood that we already had so they were free! Yay! Favorite price. They're basically just three pieces of wood nailed together. Super easy to make in a single night and very easily custom size-able.

So W built, I painted {high gloss white; 2 coats}, he hung, and I filled 'em with this and that from around the house/garage to have a look-see.

And so they sit above our yellow dresser,

where I can enjoy more memories from my bed! Yay for fewer blank walls!

Time for some more gushy, lovey dovey, romantic prints and pictures, no?!?!

Gettin' Spooky! {decor}

A few weeks ago, the fall box came down and slowly but surely our house is turning a bit spooky! I've made a new front door wreath which I'm in absolute love with. Already scheming up Christmas ideas so I can keep it out!

{tutorial found here}

Our entryway inlet has a few added touches:

I got the print a few years back and added my mustache hoop art that wonders around downstairs without a permanent home. The beware sign was a dollar store score.

Our mantle:

At this point, just a hod-podge of what was already on it plus a few random additions. The candy corn garland I made out of felt and is hung on black ric rac. The witch print is found here. And the centerpiece pallet sign is incomplete {still need words} and will eventually go to another home. But it works there for now until I mail it off.  

The winning space thus far is our bat wall! It turned out so awesome. Amazing what 50 little card-stock bats can do! The flight of the bats:

{tutorial found here}

Happy harvest month! 

Rise & Shine {Pallet Art}

Mmmmkay, so I know how I mentioned here that I was working on a piece?! Way back in MARCH?! So, that piece. I didn't really love it. It took up the dining table for way too long since I just couldn't get to finishing it. I was forced to move it into the garage where it was abandoned. Until last week. 

Leave it to crafty inspiration or whatever, I lugged my big pallet canvas back into the house one night and just got to work. I actually already had some words stenciled on it so I had to work around those and cover them as I went. I was inspired by this google image...

{source}

With some frog tape, sponge brush and craft paint, I just went for it. Most of it was free hand and I worked pretty quickly through it. No lolly-gagging this time. I just wanted to create something and finish it. Well most of it.

I used the cricut machine to make stencils for the "Rise & Shine" then painted those on a few days later.

 W hung it up with some screws, wire and a heavy weight picture hook.

Ta-da!

This is what it was meant to be...right?! It's such a fun bright piece that lightens up our downstairs!

It looked a little lonely up there so I added something else. Excited with my version of the "pallet art madness" trend!

Rise and shine and give God the glory!

Craft House

Still recovering from an amazing weekend away, but I wanted to at least update this poor blog again. So here are just a few pictures of the amazing craft house I stayed at. More on the weekend later! Meg's craft house is a beautiful inspiration!

And those were just from downstairs. {How I miss capturing the charming upstairs is beyond me!!}

Striped Curtains {DIY}

One of the projects that really got me smiling in our updated eating area was the striped curtains. I'd fallen for stripes when they began to pop up all over the place. I wanted some of my own somewhere in the house. But anything worth buying was out of our price range. I went so far as to pin some other ways of getting stripes: painting, buying fabric and making it from scratch or using some other material. Well, I ended up going with the third option, but only after finding the best resource off one of my favorite blogs. I saw this post mentioning how Ashley from Under the Sycamore turned this duvet from Target into curtains. Perfect! I thought. I could totally do that! 

Off to Target to purchase this...then time for some quick math on the back...

Since the curtains had to cover our sliding glass door, the width of the duvet was perfect. I didn't have to mess with the measurements. The duvet's back made for a perfect lining. So I just cut the duvet in half, turned it inside out, and hemmed those two sides. By doing it that way, I had clean lines on both sides of each panel. 

I made the button end the top. The first stripe was gray. I folded that over to make a loop to slide the pole through. That took the length up by 6 inches, making it the perfect height for our door. I sewed on the front side of the curtain, along the line where the white stripe met the gray to get it as straight as possible.

Before...

After...

I truly LOVING these $35 curtains. I may or may not spend extra time downstairs during the day just to be near them. Or invite more people over than necessary just for them to see them. Wanna come by and visit?? ;)

Things I learned along the way...

...having a large space/table was super helpful. I used my mom's huge island to cut and pin...

...I'm still not a very straight-line kinda of sew-er-- W was the one who recommended sewing against the line where the two colors meet...

..the iron was my BEST friend with this project...

Stay Awhile {Dining Area Re-do}

Our eating area has gotten a big fat face-lift these last few weeks and I'm so excited to share the updates. I really didn't intent to update this space, although I constantly see it since we spend so much time downstairs. I think it must have all started when I added our up-cycled chalkboard-- from there, things just kinda morphed into lighter and brighter.

So here's a peek of what it looked like before {that is after two large, dark, flower prints were replaced with the chalkboard}...

And here it is today...

We've had {and still have} many gatherings so I've kept the two leaves in our table. I've updated the curtains, added a paper circle garland to the chalkboard {more on those later}, and hung a custom banner {courtesy of my talented new friend, Heather, from CMHandmade}.  I also still have some spring loot hanging around on the cabinet, including the faux blossoms I made`with tissue paper.

Our jasmine bush is currently in bloom. It smells oh-so-yummy in our backyard. E has been helping me bring in some of its flowers to fill a jar with. It's seriously the only plant we haven't killed yet and is so massive right now. We're getting ready for veggie garden attempt #3. Third times the charm, right?!

I would love to exchange the chandelier for something more simple and re-cover the chairs. Upholstery definitely terrifies me, or at least the tops of the chairs. But maybe there's a pinterest pin for that? ;)

I wanted to eventually update this space, but figured it'd be while. So, things just happened without much forethought. Ideas and resources that I'd been looking for just seemed to pop up at the right time so I jumped on them. It really is a fun place to eat, craft, and entertain now. Hopefully, folks will be encouraged to stay for awhile.

March Mantle

I wasn't planning on doing anything much for March. I pulled out a few things that work and re-dressed our mantle. And that's about it.

 The mantle started with my glitter shamrock garland from my teaching supplies...

Then I pulled out my yarn wreath and a wooden frame from the garage..

Then I filled in the sides with things from around the house, a free print, and E's latest art project.

And that's that.

Beyond a bowl of Lucky Charms, I don't think we'll be celebrating St. Patty's Day much. Will you?

Valentine's Decor {What I've Got Thus Far}

I've still got some tweaking to do, but William pulled down my decorations from storage the other day which gave our house a more festive face. Nothing much, just little things here and there. Most of them were from my teaching days so it was fun pulling them out and remembering. I bought most of my decorations my second year...when I could finally breathe past curriculum and into the fluffy fun stuff. Annnnnnd then I was laid off. Heh. Still, our home has been a great new place for them.

Our mantle {still hasn't changed since its last picture}:

I have a slight obsession with my mom's cricut machine right now. I used it for this banner and another one for a baby shower recently and am in love! It's so easy and has endless possibilities for using it. I hung them on some jute string with some clothes pins.

 Then I pulled out this old Pespi tray that I found while antiquing {that's a verb now, right?!} almost a year ago. It was sitting in our garage. I still have other plans for it, but I brought it in a few days ago, determined to use it now.

Then I just started to fill it with random stuff we had around the house. Boxes from the packaging of earring I just bought, a ceramic bowl with twine, a bird house that was already on the mantle before, a bird, and a vase from my vday stash.

To the left...

I had some straws left over from E's party and put them in a mason style glass, wrapped a vase with some red rick-rack type ribbon, and put some red flowers in. I spray painted the two frames on the mantle and on this side, put this free print in it.

On the right...
An "S", empty jar awaiting to be filled with...? and

one of my favorite maternity pictures. Ezra's bright eyes match our headboard. And our shared pose that was completely unscripted just kills me!

Our chalkboard area got some red highlights.

I got these red Chinese lanterns in China town. Does that make them authentic? Either way, I love them. In fact, they may stay post-love month. My little nook with my heart bunting is still lacking. I ordered some prints in 5x7 {???} instead of my normal 8x10. Frame Fail. I just reorder them in the correct size. Sheesh.

And lastly, our little nook by the stairs.

Another lantern, paper hearts hung by floss, and a pitcher {Home Goods!} full of flowers.

{Hi!} So I basically just used what we already owned. I'm hoping to score some new items on clearance afterward or try to do another craft {maybe a wreath?}, but if not, no sweat. I still have a few more lanterns that I'd love to find homes for. Maybe somewhere upstairs?

Hope you are enjoying your LOVE month!