String Art

Have you seen this string art floating around pinterest??

My friend is redoing her master bedroom and we were trying to come up with something cute for above her bed.  She showed me this picture and I got to work! You can go to Que Linda for her tutorial, because I just followed that and she explains everything great!  I ran to Lowe's and found this wood with grooves so they fit together and thought that I would like the look and it might help hold everything together...I poured wood glue in the grooves and stuck them together and gave the a LIGHT COAT of white paint...

the only difference from her tutorial, I "free handed" the word, because I didn't feel like busting out my Cricut. You can tell I obviously just chicken scratched until I liked it:)

Then I cut it out, trying to keep the thickness the same for all of the letters. Then I started nailing and when I was done, I pulled the paper off and was left with a bunch of nails!

(my little helper's hands finishing his cereal in the background;)

I went to the store to buy yarn and then opted for crochet thread, since it was thinner. I'm glad I did, because I like the end result better. 

I secured the back by nailing 2 vertical boards  onto my original 4 planks of wood and hung a wire across the back...

It wasn't too hard and I'm excited to see it hanging above Mandy's bed!

If you try it, let me know! I'd love to post it on my blog!

sign redo

WORKING TO BRIGHTEN UP MY LIFE...and I "LOVE IT"!!!

This sign has been hanging above our TV in our family room, since we moved in 2 years ago...

 I'm trying to BRIGHTEN UP this room a bit & take out the red & add greens & blues, so I gave my "Live, Laugh, Love" sign a makeover with a quick coat of spray paint, some green craft paint & a new vinyl saying, that was a little more personalized for our fam...

PS. I have a secret!
I was OUT of white vinyl, but had an entire roll of WHITE CONTACT PAPER & decided to see if I could cut it with my cricut & if it would transfer properly???

It worked PERFECT & is muchhhhh cheaper than vinyl!
***Blade at 3, Pressure & Speed at Low

I think I will be using it more often. I don't know about durability? But I think contact paper is pretty durable, so I don't see it being a problem...especially since this sign is hanging INDOORS.

Has anyone used contact paper before as "vinyl"???

Is this a common thing already going on, that I just didn't know about??

PSS.

Just googled "patterned contact paper" for fun and check out THIS cute find for only $6.57 for 8 yards at Amazon! Oh & THIS one! I can't wait to search around some more & experiment with it!!!

Am I the last to know about patterned contact paper & the ability to cut it like vinyl? Or is this news to you too!?!

Need your Opinion! CURTAINS OR DOORS???

I couldn't find a "BEFORE" picture of this wall in our house, so I pulled this off of an old MLS listing. 

Basically this is our Family Room & those double doors used to lead outside, but then the previous owners added on a room, so now those doors just lead into our playroom/preschool room...

After PAINTING the brown paneling & trim when we moved in, we took down the double doors...because they were BROWN on one side & BLUE on the other & definitely needed to be painted. Well...here we are, almost 2 years later & we have never put the doors back up. Once we took them down, I liked that it just created an "entry" to the playroom & made the house feel more open...

 BUT...there are times(like when our playroom is a DISASTER) that I wish I could close some doors to hide the mess ;)

Well, I recently came across this picture on Pinterest and now I'm toying with the idea of putting up curtains in that entrance.

What do you think? Would curtains look random in that spot? I like the look of them open, like in this picture...but if I actually closed the curtains to "hide the mess" would it look funny to have curtains hanging in the middle of my house?  Should I finish painting the doors & put them back up? Just leave it an open entrance?
I want your opinions!

I WISH I had the space to do a "sliding barn door"...I would LOVE that!
But there is very little room on the sides of the entrance...with a window on one side & another wall on the other :(

I can dream though!

housetweaking

Shabby Chic Pink

I started blogging about the Bathroom Makeover that my brother & I did for our mom HERE

& I FINALLY got over there to take a few more pictures to show you a little more!!!

---------

We decided to go from TAN walls to PINK!!!

The cabinets look SO MUCH BETTER WHITE!!!
My brother Matt is a painter & is AMAZING!

I wish I had a before of her countertop, but it was sort of beige & had the piece that went around the back of the toilet & looks so much better solid WHITE!

She had this cute shelf on her wall already, but we moved it to a different wall & I added beadboard to the back of it & spruced it up with some accessories...

She had this cute BATH bin already & I added some white washcloths & flowers & placed it on the back of the toilet...

Pretty white flowers in a ceramic pitcher always make for a smile!

Some more cute accessories to liven things up!

Another brother, just as talented...framed the beautiful mirror for the wall & hung it & it looks PERFECT! It looks a million times better than the wall to wall builder's mirror that was there!

I LOVE the way it turned out!

hopefully my parents do too;)...since they didn't have much say!

 Oh! And she has plans to tile the floor in a WHITE tile & I found these cute Shabby Chic PINK rugs @ Target that look so CUTE(but I forgot to take a pic)

Christmas Art

My brother Rob just put up a new wall of CHRISTMAS ART at his Custom Framing Store, Matage!

Don't live in Mesa?
Guess what...he will SHIP it to you!

AND...I promise you won't find this quality ANYWHERE else.

 I'm in love with this one.

I'll be honest, for a second I thought "Why did Rob put a sight chart in with his Christmas Decor?"

Then I read it & it is my favorite!

Check him out on Facebook HERE

or his website HERE

& get some BEAUTIFUL Christmas Art for your home TODAY!!!

Bedroom Sneak Peek

Our bedroom is coming together nicely.

A little slower than planned, but October was a CRAZY month for us!
We were BUSY, BUSY & I'm soooo happy November is here:)

Here is a little sneak peek of our progress & I will do some BEFORE & AFTERS with the Final Reveal, whenever that may be.

 Our "ledge" above our bed, inspired by Lettered Cottage.

I'm still playing around with what I'm putting on the ledge, but I threw some things up there that I had around the house for now & the LOVE IS ALL YOU NEED boards I made a few weeks ago.

I LOVE these baskets I picked up at Burlington Coat Factory for $5! 

I'm not sure where they will end up, but for now they are sitting on my husband's dresser...awaiting his wallet, keys & other crap,

I mean, pocket contents at the end of each day.

I still have to find several mismatched pillows for my bed. I want greys, whites & maybe a light blue. 

I have found several I love, like THESE...but the price tag is too much. I'm on the search for CHEAP, QUALITY pillows( I hope they exist!)

I did find this GREY one that I LOVE at Ross for $8.99, so it gives me hope!

Once I find some more PILLOWS,  LAMPS for our nighstands, and a BED SKIRT, it will be CLOSE to finished...

I have a CSN Gift Certificate that I need to spend & I'm thinking I want THESE lamps on my nightstands...
What do you think???

I'm SO HAPPY I went with BLUE on our WALLS & GREY for the FURNITURE. We have ZERO natural light in our bedroom. The previous owners, added on to the back of our house(which we love), BUT the ONLY window in our room, now backs the Armoire in our Playroom, creating NO daylight in our bedroom:( I think grey would have been too dark for our situation, but I love it on the dresser and nightstands.

The inspiration behind painting our WALLS BLUE & furniture GREY? The talented Erica with Tart-House Design. I must have found a million "inspiration" photos that incorporated GREYS & Erica's bedroom (pictured below) was the 1st one my husband really liked!
THANK YOU ERICA, for convincing my husband that GREY would work & for inspiring me to go with a light blue on my WALLS!

check out my sidebar for the fun linky parties I'm joining!

Master Bedroom-need input!

It is FALL BREAK this week!

I was GOING TO the cabin for the entire week to escape, but I've decided to stay home and WORK instead????

What am I thinking?

It is FUN work though!

I want to decorate our Master Bedroom & don't teach preschool this week, so I really want to tackle it!

Here is the thing. 

I have gone through every single color scheme in the WORLD for our Master Bedroom. I'm not exaggerating. And YELLOW and GREY were NOWHERE on any of the lists, but randomly last week I have decided that is exactly the colors I want.

The problem:

Every time I tell someone I want to do it yellow & grey(including my husband), 

they look at my like I am CRAZY!

Am I crazy???

It isn't like I want to do the whole room a dark grey...I want a LOT of WHITE, with greys & yellows & maybe some fun blue accents thrown in??

Here are some pictures I have saved for inspiration...what do you think?

Be HONEST.

Do you have a killer color scheme that I should choose instead & throw my YELLOW & GREY idea out???

Disclaimer: I have NO IDEA where these images are from! I was googling images to get ideas & I saved them, but never saved the links. So PLEASE, if you know where they are from...leave a comment & I will add a link!

A Drip Pan & a Dog Bed...

Last weekend, we were relaxing at a cabin & my husband brought me the morning paper & said, "Look!"

And what did I see???
This article

Erica is a TALENTED designer, who is also a good friend with my sis-in-law, so we get to cross paths from time to time & I felt so cool to KNOW someone that was in the PAPER!

She has some GREAT DIY TIPS to share in the article, including...
customizing your curtains,

re-covering a lampshade, 

making artwork with song lyrics,

painting wall stripes

and making an ottoman from a dog bed.

Wait...hold up, did that article just say she made an OTTOMAN from a DOG BED? 

she sure did & I am in LOVE with it!

using a WATER HEATER DRIP PAN...

& a ROUND DOG PILLOW...

image source

she created a beautiful piece of furniture!!!

Erica writes a decor blog, called Tart House. 

***Add her blog to your list of daily reads, you will NOT be disappointed!

And if you live in Arizona, you can hire Erica to come make your house beautiful!

Don't live in AZ???

She can still create a beautiful digital room board for your home...

PS. Be prepared to fall in LOVE with Erica's style & sense of humor from the 1st post you read...