Back with a vengeance

It has been one heck of a long time since I have posted a project. Over the summer, as I was in my temporary residence, I was itching to do something creative. I couldn't wait to get in to my new, permanent house and go crazy making it lovely. Seriously, there were moments I was giddy with anticipation. Embarrassing picture? Yes. But I am not above embarrassing myself, and now you know what I sometimes do in my free time. Yeehaw.

My roommates and I have been in the new house for a month. Things are getting pretty and pretty settled as of a few days ago. For the first few weeks, I had spurts of organizing, hanging pictures, and general new-house activity. This weekend, we hosted a house blessing-housewarming party. It was an excellent excuse to put the medal-to-the-metal, as it were, and finish up my To Do list. While I am still editing House Tour pictures, I wanted to share two projects I tackled in the last few days.

These two projects are ones I've been wanted to do, and simultaneously putting off, for two years.  Perhaps because I am a procrastilaxer extraordinaire, I suddenly felt very motivated to complete each last week instead of doing other things that might have been more worth my while. Something tells me this is a skill I should leave off my resume....

Moving on. There was an informal "Thirsty Thursday" organized for people in my program. It was optional, so I took them up on that. Instead of getting my drink on, I locked myself in my basement with some paint fumes and gave this set of boring black mirrors a face lift.

  

Before aaaaaand After

I went into the project intending to paint two mirrors solid gold and two solid silver. Though I didn't snap a picture of it, I found the scheme too boring so I went on to add the check/stripe effect on the two gold mirrors. I was, and still am, very pleased with this second result.

Can you say, "Fabulous"?

The quartet now takes up wall residence next to our front door. Prime location for last minute beauty checks as we dash out the door.

I know you love it.

Up next is this baby:

After returning home from dinner and drinks with friends for one's birthday, I whipped this pillow up. No sewing machine. No pattern. Just an uglya$$ pillow, new fabric, and needle'n'thread. Oh, and can't forget Grooveshark.

closest thing to a before-after...I.e. I still have another one to cover=the fun ain't over yet(!)

As I said, I had no pattern to follow while sewing. I have a little experience making pillows, but I did not want to replicate that pattern since this pillow would be in the same room as the first. Still, with no sewing machine, my options were pretty limited since there is no way I can hand stitch as well as a machine. So--simple it had to be. Thanks to my mom, I know how to make a ruffle, which came in handy in making the design less boring that it otherwise might have been.

I have to admit, I am pretty surprised and impressed with the outcome. Call me a design geek, but each time I catch a glance of this baby I'm like, "Did I seriously made that?!"

Talking to oneself = Super-cool.

As they say: Pride cometh before the fall; I expect to face-plant sometime soon. So I should probably stop while I am ahead and you are still awake. As always, thank'ya muchly for reading. Up next: Re-cap of the move-in and a house tour. Get excited!

Shopping for free

What? No, I am not kidding. Psh, come on, I don't kid about this stuff. Free shopping is serious business.

While visiting Tess last weekend (as I mentioned in my last post), we struck gold at an estate sale that a local parish was holding after Sunday Mass. Estate sales are usually one of the most wonderfullous events known to mankind. This particular estate sale was even better because it was free!! Granted, it was free because it was just the sale's dregs/bottom-of-the-barrel. None the less, we found some gems.

I've often admired wall hangings that are/mimic architectural salvage pieces. But, as it seems to be my lot in decorating, I never seem to find something that I like OR that I can afford. That all changed last weekend when I found these babies:

Not only are these right up my style-alley, they were right up my price-alley, too (i.e. FREE). When no one else wanted them, I was thrilled to pick them up to bring home with me. I mean it when I say "thrilled." I felt like this inside:

GIFSoup

I was equally pumped to

Time Tunnel

Oh. Heeey...Three months goes by way faster (like, WAY FASTER) than I can believe. Was it really April that I last checked in with you? Geesh. That's embarrassing...

Excuse: The rent contract was up for renewal in May. Since I had a few loose ends in my life, I debated long and hard about the possibility of moving. Ultimately I decided to stay put. During the deciding period, I put all projects on "hold" for the entire month of May while I sorted through my options. What's the point of home improvement if [1] you are going to move really soon and [2] you don't have to spruce up the place for selling? 


After re-signing the lease and settling in (if you can say that, it's not like I ever unsettled) for another year, I got busy with my back log of projects--only I never got around to sharing any of it with. Whoops! Now here we are in July. If I had a tail it might be between my legs at this moment. But, alas, tails were snuffed out of my species quite some time ago.

Enough of my pseudo-self-chastisement/CYAing. Let's get down to biznizz. And, yeah, I have been biznizzy (i.e. "busy" for all the non-gansta folk readers). Though I left you out of the loop, you can now expect a steady stream of "what I've been up to" posts as I catch you up to speed.

First up, the bedroom.

As you recall, I have been trying to fix up the other half of the room because it was, well, embarrassing the nice half.

I cringe looking at this picture. Something is afoul in Denmark and it is this corner of my bedroom. (For those of you who didn't get the reference, pick up the nearest copy of Bill Shakespeare's Hamlet).

The highest priority for this corner was rearranging the gallery wall(s). Over the course of the months of March, April, May, June and July (I am not exaggerating), I tried numerous times to remedy the sorry situation. Here is a photo-review of my earnest stabs in the dark. Seriously, I felt like I was in darkness...

This was my first attempt. I mapped it out on paper beforehand and was pretty excited to see how it looked up on the wall. Let's just say it was a major letdown. I had a bad taste in my mouth about the arrangement by the end of the week. Being the eternal design optimist that I am, I decided I would leave it be for a little bit and see if it grew on me.

Nope. Not a chance. In fact I got more dissatisfied with it each day I had to wake up with it staring back at me. Something had to change. I chronicled my many attempts for happiness-a-la-wall.

Psssh. No.

Nice try. Not.

Failed at failing.

Voted off the island.

I was getting pretty down about the prospect of having a half-pretty-half-embarrassing bedroom. Something had to change. I slowly had built up my stash of wall hangings, but things just weren't falling together like I had hoped.

For a while I had entertained the idea of painting the frames of the pictures white and possibly swapping out the old photos for new ones. After one too many new nail holes in my wall, I decided it was time to get down to business and simply change what I was working with. Cue the spray paint.

Boom.

Bang

BAM!

While the paint dried, I printed out some new family photos and picked up a few photo mattes at my friendly neighborhood Wal-Mart. I forgot to get close-ups of the new family snap-shots, sorry. But, trust me, my family is really good looking.

After reassembling the photos with their appointed frames and spending about and hour and a half deciding on a gallery layout, this is what I ended up with.

I am pretty happy with the outcome! I had hoped to be able to spread the pictures, etc., across the two walls. Check! I also craved some kind of continuity or unifying element that would allow the walls actually to smell something along the lines of an eclectic style, instead of the "here is a bunch of random crap I've collected over the years and slapped on the nearest wall" look. 

To help create the look I was going for, I swapped the brown desk chair out for a white one that I had in another room. Not only does the white go well with the new white frames, it also is a better match for my white desk (you can see one of the desk's legs in the photos). The chair's cushion goes well with the warm, yet bright tones in some of the wall hangings as well as the color palette of the bed's quilt (not pictured, see it in an earlier post). I already had the green-black-n-white side table bookcase in the room, only you probably couldn't tell because it was always pushed off in a corner since I couldn't find a satisfactory place to put it in the room. Since I painted the table myself, I was glad to finally be able to fit it comfortably in to the room's layout. 

So, there it is: A new conversation-corner-slash-reading-corner-slash-guest-quarters (the futon lays out for a very comfy sleep arrangement for overnight visitors). It's a far cry from landing on the cover of Elle Decor Magazine, but it will more than do for now. I finished up the arrangement almost three weeks ago and I am still very happy with it. A big change from the previous attempts!

Mix-n-match: Bathroom Bonanza

I should probably admit, right off the bat, that this post's title is a bit of an overstatement. I didn't go all crazy and redo my bathroom. I just made a few tweaks, but I think they are splenderific tweaks at that. 

Until last weekend, I really hadn't put much effort into spiffying up the downstairs bathroom. 

If ever were the saying, "If you snooze, you lose," true--it was true for this bathroom. And that is a fact. Although this bathroom is on the main floor of the house, I don't really use it all that much. Without going into much--if any--detail, it seems that Mother Nature calls me at home only when I am upstairs. Yet, whenever I have visited the first floor commode (whether it be to tidy things up for guests, or to figure out why the toilet is running yet again, or to check out my awesome self in the mirror), I never left that closet-of-a-room without thinking, "Ohmuhgudnizz, something has to be done to that room."

Now, despite the underwhelming state of the bathroom, I am making a very conscious effort to spend as little money as possible these days. Instead of acquiring new stuff to stave off my decorating woes, I wish to use what I have before succumbing to hoarding at my relatively young age.

I did succumb to hoarding urges, slightly, while visiting a local consignment shop. But it was only $6 (total) for two sweet pastoral landscape scenes in lovely ornate frames.

Thing One

Thing Two

Aren't those classy and elegant? I instantly fell in love and, at $3 a pop,  it was $6 I happily parted with. My purchasing weakness behind me, it was back to the bathroom with my treasures. With some quick rearranging and a few extra nails, this is what I had.

Simple and not super glamorous (or even all that different, I suppose), but it does make a difference. Believe or not. I also pulled in a dried floral arrangement, previously was in the kitchen, and put it on the vanity counter.

Here is a quick before and after for you:

Again, not much, but it's a start. Maybe one of these days I'll go crazy and paint a mural on one of the walls. 

But--for now--I like it. 

Anybody else making small-but-still-worth-it adjustments to any rooms in your home?

I have an Eyedia. I think it's *just* right!

Perhaps no one will know the song to which I am referring to with this post's title. I think it is from a Christmas play I was in during my very formative grade school years. I don't even know where to begin to find any information about the song's title, the composer, or even the play's title. So let's get on to the rest of the post, shall we?

I visited my family a few weeks ago and took the opportunity to hit up an awesome local consignment shop.

It is called eyedia and did I say it was awesome? It's like a paradise.

One thing I really appreciate about this store is the way in which the owners "style" the items for sale; creating vignettes, niches, and the like. I understand that this is a sales technique: People want to buy things that [a] look nice and [b] they can imagine having in their homes. But it also is so helpful in the way of being "food for thought" for people like me. Although I don't buy much from the store, I get tons of ideas! (No pun intended, seriously) Ideas of how to arrange furniture, how to style displays, how to make the most of an eclectic array of items. So much fun!

This latest time I visited the hallowed store, I did walk away a bit poorer in my pockets but all for a good cause, of course. I bought a lovely green detailed pillow and a pair of candle sconces.

The candelabras most likely will be painted another color. Perhaps a sunny yellow or avocado green?

Speaking of avocado green, my mom scored a sweet avocado green urn from the store. 

That is one of my sisters striking a sassy pose in the background. I cut her head of to protect her anonymity, and because I can't cut her head off in real life (just kidding). 

The green urn originally was one of a pair of matching green urns. Mom only wanted one. Initially the sale lady wasn't going to let her have it. But, then, after she "checked on something in back," she said it was a-okay for Mom to have the one and for a discounted price too. Yeehaw! (Oh, yeah, and Mom also bought [another] cherub figurine for the house. She is a fan of angels.).

If I were a millionaire...

...that would probably not last a long time because I would most likely spend it all on the things I can now only look at and drool over.

The funny thing about my "style" is that I like a whole lot more things than what I would actually choose to include in my household. I found this out the hard way when I first had my own house, my own paycheck, and the need to put the house and paycheck to work to create a living space for myself. What do I mean? Well, what I mean is that I would buy the things that I like and that I thought looked pretty, but then I would bring them home and be totally disappointed in how nothing in my house matched. There wasn't much rhyme or reason to my spaces. Not that I am a fan of cookie cutter styles (though I do like cookies), I simply lacked any coherency to my space.

I solved this problem (well, it is a work in progress) by adapting a mentally of being extremely conscious and purposeful in my design purchases. The nice thing about this is that I am able to save my money and my sanity (having a disjointed home is very stressful for me). Nevertheless I still love looking at things that I can't (and probably wouldn't if I could) spend my money on.

Not following me? Well, don't worry, like a good teacher I have pictures.

Last week I went to Anthropologie with my BFFL Tess. Let me tell you in pictures how great it was.

I about died when I saw each and every one of these. Pictures do no justice.

Tess is a ton of fun to shop with and she is a total sweetheart not only for not being embarrassed by my squealing at things I like, but she even would squeal with me. Here is a picture of us being awesome at H&M, trying on the same hats because we are cool like that.

You know you're jealous.

Mix and match: Armoires and Mantles

In my last post I debuted my recent garage sale finds. You will recall that I scored this neat globe:



Meet the globe, he sometimes goes by "Planet Earth" or "World"

One thing you may not know about Mr. Globe is that he is "vintage," he is so cool that he still rocks out in the U.S.S.R.  

Yay, world history!


  

A little closer



Though not everyone is a fan of the U.S.S.R., I respectfully am still a fan of this garage sale find. I was nervous about buying because I wasn't sure if it would "fit" with my house. But, for a $1, this girl couldn't pass up an artifact such as this! (To be honest, I was interested more in the classy artistry, not the historical/vintage value).

It took a a number of tries to find the perfect place for this globe in its new home.



On the coffee table, perhaps?



Nope. Too big and doesn't match.



Not the side table either.



No--WAY too big!



It seemed like it was going to be a three-strikes-and-you're-outta-here kind of situation. I was beginning to get a little nervous that I couldn't find a place to put the globe. "Gosh, self, who cares if it was a buck, this globe works no where. You are turning into a hoarder!" I thought to myself.

In a last ditch effort to save face (for no one but myself, of course), I moved some things around on our armoire and--eureka!



No fail here

The globe fits right in on our armoire. But, this new arrangement presented another problem..what do I do with the floral-monument-thing (we are very technical and precise around here) that lost its place on the armoire to the globe?


When I first took the figurine off of the armoire, for convenience sake I stashed it on the fireplace mantle which is but an arm's reach from the armoire. This absent-minded action turned out for the best, I actually kind of liked how the figurine looked on the mantle. If you recall from the post about the living room, this is what our mantle originally looked like

After a little bit of time moving things around, I had this picture.

I liked the look of coupling the floral figurine with the milk-glass candy bowl (which we have turned on its side so people can see the cute patterned rim); however I wasn't too sold on the look of the figurine lined up with the candles and faux-floral plant--took much vertical-ness for me and I thought the various heights created a chaotic look.

Moving a few more things around and throwing in a few books, here's what I ended up with.

Even though I ended up decoupling the milk glass dish and figurine, I still like the outcome. I there there is a nice balance of traditional-classic flair (with the milk-glass dish, floral plate and figurine, and the lampshade) with a touch of mid-century modern practicality (the books, the faux berry tree plant and the candles).

This wraps the latest edition of "Mix-and-Match". I hope you enjoyed! Please share in the "Comments" section any updates you've made recently to your space, I'd love to hear from you!