burlap wreath tutorial

 

I was getting tired of the wreath on our door and had been brainstorming some ideas of what to replace it with.  I have seen burlap wreaths everywhere lately, and when I found this burlap ribbon at Joann's I knew it would be perfect for a wreath on our front door.  I love the contrast of black and white.  Too bad our front door is brown.  But, I was in love with the ribbon so I went ahead with the project anyway!

I used a Styrofoam wreath, LOTS of ribbon (I had to go back to buy more...4 spools in all, and I still could have used more!), and small pins (you want them to blend in with the wreath).  If I were to do this project again, I might try a wire wreath instead.  The white foam is really difficult to completely cover with burlap ruffles.

I simply made loops with the ribbon all over the wreath and secured them with pins.  The nice thing about this project is that it's easy to re-do if you don't like it since you are using pins, not glue.

 

I cut smaller pieces of ribbon and made loops with them to cover up some "bald spots."

 The final touch was this burlap rosette.  It was made from some wide burlap ribbon. 

To make the rosette I folded the ribbon in half, and twist/turned it loosely around the center.  I then pinned it to the wreath to make it secure.  That's it!

I'm happy with the final product.  As with most DIY projects, you learn as you go.  It's not perfect, and I kind of wish our door was black or white....but, it will do for now!

closet clean out

I mentioned weeks ago that I had plans to clean out my closet.  There were numerous problems with my closet...1-Most of the clothes I never wear but hang on to thinking I might need them for "something." I have no idea what that "something" is, but it never seems to happen.  2-Now that I am postpartum, almost all of my clothes seem to fit differently each month   3-A lot of my maternity clothes have been lingering in my closet even though I haven't been pregnant for four months.  I didn't care for the first few months, but I'm thinking it's about time to move on.

 

My Goal:  I simply wanted my closet to contain clothes that actually fit, not necessarily look like a celebrity/Pinterest/perfect closet. :)

 

my method...

 

The changes do not look drastic but the functionality of my cleaned out closet is waaayyy better.  Plus, I added a little air freshener in there and all of a sudden I like my closet again.  hah

So, what did I do with all of the clothes that I wanted to get rid of?  Well, I figured that there were a handful of items that were still pretty cute and I could make some money off of them at Plato's Closet.  Boy, was I wrong!  I felt so OLD when I walked in.  Apparently, they didn't see the value in my conservative, Banana Republic style.  I made a whopping $10!  Not really worth all of the time I had to wait while they sorted through my clothes, but it did cover the ice cream we bought in the mean time :)  Anyhow, I am sure the clothes will get put to better use at Goodwill anyway!

DIY burlap pin board

I recently did this DIY project to enhance my mini creative space a couple of weeks ago.  It didn't take a whole lot of skill and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out!

 

Materials: burlap (fabric store), cork board (craft store, came in a package of four square cork boards), scissors, paint brush, paint, stapler

Cut the burlap so that there is about 1-2 inches of extra fabric to cover the cork board.

Fold each corner tightly onto the cork board and staple.

Once all four corners are stapled, pull the rest of the fabric over tightly and continue to staple it securely to the cork board.

You could really get creative with this step.  I decided to paint light grey stripes accross the boards to match the rest of the decor in our room.  Some other ideas might be to stencil a pattern on the boards, or add some type of fabric to them--like lace.  It just depends on what kind of look you are going for!

I was having fun, so I went ahead and painted an old coffee tin to match, and used it as a pencil holder.

Taaa daa!   

Even if you don't end up pinning things to the board, it still looks cute just as wall art. 

If you end up doing this project, I would love to see how it turns out!  Please share :)



mini creative space

I have always dreamed about having a "creative space" in my home.  Basically, a room solely for sewing, crafts, gift wrapping, blogging, and scrapbooking.  We don't quite have the space yet for me to have an entire room dedicated to a creative space (I'm not sure if we ever will), but I decided to transform a little corner in our bedroom into my own mini creative space!  The goal: Be as cheap as possible and try to blend it together with the rest of the room.  Here is the final result!

 

The only items I bought were the lamp (Target) and the materials to make the burlap pin boards (Joann Fabrics).  Everything else, including the desk, I found from the garage or around the house.

We moved the dresser in the corner to under the mirror on the left.

 I really wanted the desk area to flow with the rest of the room.

This is the "before" picture.

Inspiration from pinterest. 

source

 

Someday, maybe?  It's always fun to dream a little.

Don't forget about Christmas!

In the midst of preparing for the baby we managed to decorate a little for Christmas.  I love Christmas but I have to admit that I don't really have my usual Christmas spirit this year.  I have been very distracted with getting ready for our little girl to arrive.  So, in an attempt to keep my Christmas spirit alive here are some pictures (taken with the camera Matt bought me for my b-day...I was having fun practicing :) to spread the holiday cheer!

 

Baby Inspiration

I am obsessed with BabyGap.  I pretty much love everything they have.  There is something really addicting about looking at baby girl clothes.  Aren't these cute?!

The nursery is coming along.  I was inspired by this nursery, even though our nursery doesn't really look like it..haha..I wish!  Hence, I was "inspired." ;)

Getting much bigger at 27 weeks (almost 28 as I write this!).  I am starting to feel the discomforts of getting bigger, but I love feeling my baby girl squirm around in there throughout the day.  Can't wait to meet here!  Only 13 more weeks!!!

 

I'm looking forward to my first shower up north this weekend!  Stay tuned for pictures!

DIY=I would rather spend our money on the nursery ;)

 

 One of the issues with moving and getting ready for a baby is BUDGET.  I'm in love with our bed but we don't really have any matching furniture to go with it.  I really didn't want to spend a lot on our bedroom since we pretty much only sleep in there.  So, the McCauleys helped us paint some old furniture we had been hiding in our closet and garage.  It really helped to have the extra hands with getting it all done.  This is the final product below!  I was VERY happy with the results :)

The Process...This was the first time I had ever painted furniture.  The steps were pretty simple.

1. Supplies-Primer, Satin Primer + Paint (we chose "Sweet Slumber" as our color...close to white but has a nice blue/grey tint), and paint brushes

2. Remove the hardware and wipe down furniture (Thank you, Jim!!!)  I would have struggled with this step if I had to do it on my own!

3. 1-2 coats of primer and then let it dry

4. Apply paint color!

5. Add hardware (we bought some very inexpensive handles from Lowe's)

I must add...Polly (Matt's mom) really helped get this project done.  However, for some reason I have NO picture of her working on it as documentation!  haha  I know she wouldn't care, but I have to give her some major credit here.  Thank you!!!

Project Nursery

I am really excited to get the nursery started.  So far we have the crib (Pottery Barn) and a changing table (Ikea).  (Obviously my parents bought the crib and we bought the changing table haha)  I have a list of other things to add but I'm not going to even get started on that.  Here is the room!

 

 Matt's Dad helped us with putting up some curtains (which need to be hemmed) and setting up the crib and changing station.  Apparently the changing station was more complicated to put together than the crib!

 

One more random thing...I made my first purchase on Etsy and it was a success!  We already have baby clothes stacking up in the closet and I figured I might as well start getting it organized before it gets out of control.  These would make for a cute gift (my sis bought me some cute stickers on etsy too that you can put on a onesie for each month after the baby is born).  A lot of stuff on esty is a little pricey but I thought these weren't too bad. 

The Big Move

We have accomplished A LOT in the past week, thanks to all of the help from family and friends!  Last weekend was the actual "move."  Matt was able to get some buddies together to help.  (We may have lured them with BBQ too.)

 Did I mention we have some really good friends?  I actually have never tried KFC in my life, until Kacey dropped it off for us so we wouldn't have to worry about dinner.  It's probably a good thing that this was the first time I had tried it because I had no idea how good it is! haha

 Enough said.

 Our settling in continued this past weekend when Matt's parents came to town to help us.  They were a HUGE help.  Hanging curtains, hanging pictures, moving furniture around, painting furniture, cleaning, you name it--they did it!  We felt so blessed to have their help and enjoyed their company.

(Baby is definitely making more of an appearance these days.)

 Finally sitting down after a job well done.

Thanks again friends and family!!

 

 And, stay tuned for more pictures of our place!

 

Classy Craft

I was looking for a craft on pinterest that didn't look too crafty (AKA-like I made it myself).  I think I was pretty successful.

 Supplies: Old picture frame (I bought one because I didn't have any), paint, handles (Lowe's had exactly what I was looking for), fabric, and hot glue gun

 

 This is me being a dork trying not to inhale fumes from spray painting the frame white.  This step probably took me the longest because the frame needed many coats to cover up the gold finish.

 

 Side note-This is Matt "weeding."  I guess this is what happens when you neglect your patio in Florida. hah

 

Okay, back to work.  Next, I hot glued the fabric (which needed ironing-not so fun) to the backing that came with the frame. 

(Notice-I also hot glued some cork to the corners of the frame so that it wouldn't scratch the table and I also removed the saw-tooth hangers.)

Finally, I hot glued the glass onto the top of the frame (not like how you would usually put the glass in a frame) using a small dot in each corner so it wouldn't be obvious.  I also glued the handles instead of screwing them in because I didn't want to break the frame.

 I had fun playing around with how to "dress up" this new accessory on our coffee table.

This is definitely a project worth trying!