Monday, July 16, 2012

Redecorating-DIY style

For a long time I have been living a lie. I love decor. I receive Better Homes and Gardens, Southern Living, House Beautiful and other publications just because I love having a comfortable home. My home, however, is what I would call "stupid ugly". You asked what stupid ugly is? Glad you asked.

Stupid Ugly: [stoo-pid, styoo‐]+ [uhg-lee] adj.
1. very unattractive or unpleasant to look at; offensive to the sense of beauty; displeasing in appearance and dully tediously dull, especially due to lack of sense; inane; pointless.
2. Useless and horrid at the same time.

-used uncommonly to describe rooms that have useless knickknacks and offend the visual senses. Rooms that make you feel like you have become dumber by walking into them. Room that make you question if "sight" is a blessing curse.

Orgin: [C16: from French stupide, from Latin stupidus silly, from stupēre to be amazed]  combined with 1200–50; Middle English ugly, uglike < Old Norse uggligr fearful, dreadful, equivalent to ugg ( r ) fear + -ligr -ly.


Yes...it is THAT bad...Don't believe me, huh? Okay, but remember that you have brought this on yourself....Here are pictures.

Extremely unorganized bookcase

The last tube TV alive

Hubby on the sofa playing games

The hub's granny's table- which he protects more than myself and the child.

Uggg. I can't take any more..I may get sick!



Okay maybe it's not that bad but as an adult woman who works VERY  hard and has not made ANY large purchases (other than the cars we need to get to work) I think I deserve a remodel.

Now, the next thing you need to know about me is that I am frugal. My mom knows it, as does my husband, sister, daughter, boss...you get my drift.Its so bad that when I brought up the idea of new furniture my mom and sister talked me the whole way to the store, my boss called my cell to make sure I wouldn't get sticker shock and chicken out and my 5 year old sat in the back saying "cheeeeep, cheep, cheep cheep!..I got the hint guys!

Before diving into my project, to make myself feel better I had to justify the spend. So I found places in my annual budget that I could cut back like the $84/month I pay into a storage unit that I only visit once a year and I also found ways to offset my costs by selling things I was getting rid of (still working on).

Next, I researched my preferred style. It changed probably 5 times before I settled on this look for my inspiration....






 aaaaaaaahhhhhhhh! So posh, so elegant...so clean....(note to self).
I started by de-cluttering my home (still working on...too...much...junk...)
Next I went shopping for my new furniture. I found lots of styles that I loved and also discovered that I have Champagne taste and beer pockets! Dang it!

I loved this but it was more than I wanted to pay for an APARTMENT with a small child...one day my love, we will be together. 


I settled on this look instead.


(minus the red accents)

the new look will include on sofa and two arm chairs...similar to that sofa I wanted in black micro suede. Livable and classic.

Okay so get to DIY...I hear ya!
So once I get the furniture in (10 days or so) I need to have everything else ready to match the inspiration. The two things that stand out the most to me are the gold accessories and the color coordinated book case. I started with the accessories. I could have gone out and bought some gold items, I realize that. But, I am more of a project woman so I went to Michael's Arts and Craft store to pick up some gold metallic acrylic paint and a sponge brush. Then I dug through my closets. There were SO many things I found that I could just paint to make it work. I also went to Bed Bath and Beyond for shelves as well as a local junk antique shop for items.

Metallic paint and sponge brush came to a bit under $4.00


Shelf from Bed Bath and Beyond on sale for $19.99  $9.99! Score!
Also found cast iron hooks hooks for the wall at $4.00 each and various frames in the closet for free.

So here is what my collection looked like after painting!

I am really looking forward to seeing the geometric shelves hung on the wall!


I also noticed the gold lamp shades in the inspiration photo. I have two tall floor lamps with white shades...lets paint those too. The one thing that I did and suggest is remembering that since these
  are lamp shades they will look transparent when on- meaning an uneven painting job or product will leave it looking streaky.

To fix this I used Krylon's Black and Silver for plastic spray paint on the inside.

The black stops the light from showing so much on the outside and after it dried I sprayed a layer of silver to help heighten that light source that we are cutting a bit. This is what the INSIDE of the lampshade looks like. BE SURE THAT YOU HAVE A LAMP THAT HAS ENOUGH SPACE TO NOT CAUSE A FIRE FROM HOT BULBS! I was confident in this process for me because on the lamp I use the shade and bulb never come in contact. the shade attaches to the base of the lamp head, followed by a large plastic washer to keep it down and I use Energy efficient bulbs that do not get as hot as traditional bulbs. Team that with the fact that we rarely used the lamps in the first place and it made sense. BE CAREFUL!




This is the outside painted



And powered on.


Tada! see what I mean about the silver inside?
Lastly I tackled the bookcase but that will be in another post. I had a moment of DIY genius! Click the post "Turning Pages" to see how I took this...

And created this!


Things are shaping up!

Monday, July 2, 2012

Mourning Domino- Celebrating House Beautiful

When Domino Magazine went out of production I was devistated...no really. I did in fact shead a tear...or two. I'm so emotional.



sniff-sniff...

Well, find solice in newly found

HOUSE BEAUTIFUL

Hear the Angelic Chorus?
(aaaahhhhhhhh!)

Now, this magazine was founded in 1896 by Eugene Klapp, a Chicago-based civil engineer.
Back then, it looked like this

The magazine's Facebook.com page is VERY well done (makes me want to go back and do my company's page better!) in 1907 the site:
"By its third issue in 1904, the magazine had been turned over to Herbert S. Stone who ran it for the next 10 years. From the time he acquired the magazine, Stone wanted readers to know that beautiful homes need not be the private preserves of the wealthy. To illustrate his point, Stone created a popular series in the magazine, "The Poor Taste of the Rich," accompanying it with photographic evidence of their design transgressions."


Please see the Facebook page. If you are anything like me and love decor and history you will definately enjoy this page!  Today if nothing else they have earned a new subscriber. I can't wait to see all that House Beautiful has to offer. I feel so inspired to do new things and so happy to find a fix for my lack of Domino!
You can find them @:
follow @housebeautiful on Twitter
Can you tell I love it?
Here are a few of my favorite shots from thier site!
This is from local designer Naomi Stein



Use of mirrors to make a small kitchen look larger! Brilliant


Color blocked bookcase


Sunny Sun room


The ULTIMATE girly kitchen





color in the pocket


























I love this bathroom!





I love the walls...reminds me of Jolly Ranchers


Monday, May 14, 2012

Sharing is caring: D.I.Y. Natural Dolls

I found an article on Natural hair dolls for children on a blog I frequent regularly. Beads, Braids and Beyond is my go to place for care and styling advice for my mini me! One issue I have had is finding dolls that promote my daughters beautiful features. Although she has other dolls she plays with (Rapunzel of Disney's Tangled for example), I believe it is important for all children to have dolls that resemble themselves in their collection. I am thankful to be able to find "chocolate" (her word) babies but they still have bone straight hair! For those who know curl textures, my daughter is a "4A". Long and short of it, I wanted to share the post and link.  I hope to try this soon!
Ta-ta for now!




D.I.Y. Natural Dolls


I was so excited to try the Natural Hair for Dolls Tutorial that I went out yesterday and bought a couple of straight haired So In Style Barbie dolls. I did it a little differently than Kristl but all methods produce beautiful results. A absolutely loves all her new dolls!

Below are the two dolls I purchased. Grace (blue dress) and Chandra (white tee). I bought them both at Walmart. Grace was almost $8 and Chandra was almost $12.



Pipe cleaners in

I started by parting off a small section of hair. I wrapped the end of the pipe cleaner around the section of hair near the roots so it would stay put. I then rolled the hair on to the pipe cleaner. I left a little space in between as I rolled the hair on. Once I got to the ends I folded the pipe cleaner over the ends then wrapped it around once or twice and cut the remainder of the pipe cleaner off. I continued this process for about 40 minutes to an hour until I was finished. I then dipped her hair into a pot of boiling water for a 10 count,as Kristl mentions in her tutorial. I left the pipe cleaners in overnight. I removed them in the A.M. and separated her curls. I cut all the straight ends off.
Pipe cleaners in/the back

After removing the pipe cleaners

The back after removing the pipe cleaners

Separated the curls and viola! Big hair!

The back

For Chandra, I knew I wanted a different curl pattern, so I did the same exact process as above, only I parted off much larger sections so she didn't have nowhere near as many pipe cleaners in her hair. After dipping her hair into a pot of boiling water I only left them in for about 3 hours, removed the pipe cleaners and separated the curls.

Pipe cleaners in

And out

Separated

Natural dolls!

Grace and Chandra after their makeovers.