D*S Lighting Guide

Can I tell you how excited I was when I saw Design Sponge's under $100 lighting guide?  When we bought our house, the only cheaper lighting options I knew about were from Ikea.  So, four out of the six main lighting fixtures are from there.  I only wish I had this guide when we bought the house...Oh well, I'm filing it away for future use!

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Click here to see more.

Tape Art

So I really love art.  I especially love painting.  Here's the thing though...I am not a painter by any means.  The other night, while Adam and I were watching The Best of Bob Ross (yes, that's a real show and yes we were watching it...it brings back great memories),  Adam wondered out loud who actually painted along with Bob.  Well, I had an answer for him: me.  When I was probably 7 or 8, my Dad got some canvas and paints, and I tried to paint just like Bob Ross.  Only his "happy little trees" did not look so happy on my canvas.  It was a disaster...even at the young age of 7, I knew it was terrible.  I can still picture that horrific painting to this day.  Perhaps that's why I became best friends with a painter!

Anyway, this picture below is my type of painting.  I can do this type of art!  I've seen this idea before and I think I really want to give it a shot. 

{via How About Orange via The New Domestic}

All it takes is some paint and some tape and voila! You have a beautiful piece of art!  More details here.

Dollar Store Crafts

I've been inspired by a few Dollar Store crafts around the web.  One of these days I'm going to take on the Dollar Store challenge myself and see what I can come up with.  I like the idea of being thrifty and creative and really stretching myself to make something interesting.

I actually have made 2 of these book wreaths already.  One is at my house on our front door.  I love these!

{book wreath}

{kitchen art}

{basket chandelier}

Rethink Design

I saw this kitchen on Full House and checked out the rest of Rethink Design's work.  Wow, do I love it!

Love the cabinet color, lights, numbered baskets and framed black and white prints.  Pretty much everything!

Check out this before/after.  Here is the bathroom before:

That light is fantastic!  Such a dramatic difference from what it looked like before.  Check out more here.

Pillowcase Dress

Woo hoo!  I broke my sewing dry spell!  I picked up this vintage pillowcase over the weekend and decided to use Susan's tutorial.  It is an extremely simple project...I think I spent maybe a half hour total working on it.  I can't wait to put Rilo in it!

Delayed

Due to the crazy storm we had last night and the lack of internet for the evening, my planned post will be a few hours late!  Stop back to see the cute pillowcase dress I started/finished yesterday!

Baby Girl Tutorials

I've been in a sewing funk I suppose.  I have all this fabric I've been amassing, but I haven't gotten around to using any of it.  I'm trying to inspire myself so here are a few tutorials around the web:

{tights }

{ man's t-shirt dress }

{pillowcase dress}

{bubble skirt }

Address Stamp

Adam and I have been meaning to get a self-inking address stamp (Adam insists it be self-inking!).  Wouldn't it be so much easier to just stamp your return address instead of writing it out every time?  Especially if you're sending things en masse!  Here are a few on Etsy we've liked:

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I think we'll go with one of the more simple designs, that way it will work on any piece of mail.  I think the first three are my favorites!  Decisions, decisions...

Bow Pencil Skirt

Heart heart heart this pencil skirt with a big bow on it!  Kudos to Liz from Say Yes to Hoboken!

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It's just the jumpstart I need for this week!  I picked up some fun vintage fabrics at the thrift store over the weekend.  Now I need to start on some sewing projects I've been meaning to do!

Summer Rental Redesign: Bedroom Before/After

I've just about finished our bedroom.  It ended up costing around $65 but we feel much more comfortable!  Plus, I'll sell some of it back and keep the rest (like the frames and letters).  I'd say this whole project has been worth it!

Here is the boring before:

And the after:

(Yikes, I don't know what I did to these photos but the coloring is awful!  I'll try and fix these sometime today)

Print from Kantan Designs.

Project Costs:

Headboard- $27
Nightstand- $4.95
Lamp- $8.95
Silver Accessory- $2.95
Navy Pillowcase- $ 3
Pink Pillow-$3
Cardboard Letters- $8
Frames-$6

Total: $63.85

To read about this project, click here.

Baby Kaiden

Remember that baby shower we threw a few weeks ago for Sami?  Well Sami had her baby boy on June 6th!  He is the cutest, tiniest little guy.  He really doesn't have an ounce of fat on him!  Rilo was never that tiny (well, in the outside world anyway).

We decided to take some pictures for fun yesterday.     Meet Kaiden Lawrence:

And my absolute favorite:

What a little cutie!!

Sarah's Farmhouse Kitchen

Michelle's post reminded me of the farmhouse kitchen Sarah recently completed on HGTV's Sarah's House.  Adam and I kept rewinding so we could really take it in.  The subtle color combo and all the little details are just perfect.  I wish I could find a picture of the before because it was quite the transformation.

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To see more of her kitchen, click here.

Summer Rental Redesign: Headboard

We finally put the headboard up in the bedroom.  It was such a simple project and I think it really adds to the room.  I plan on revealing the bedroom sometime this week! The only thing I have left to do is to decide which prints I want to put in the frames I bought.

Here is a quick peek at the headboard:

Do I wish I had made my bed better for the picture?  Yes.  But I'll redeem myself in the final reveal.  

I mentioned before that I wasn't going to make the headboard the same way many I had seen many bloggers do.  Most of the tutorials I've seen use wood, but that means I'd need some tools that we don't have out here.  Plus it would be heavier to mount, again needing more tools that we don't currently have!  So instead, I used their basic ideas but skipped the wood.  I used foam board as a substitute!  I bought 2 pieces of foam board and used duct tape to hold them together.  Then I stapled the batting and fabric onto the board.  Next, I spray painted the trim pieces and then glued them together with wood glue.  To attach the trim to the foam board, I just used a hot glue gun. We rested the headboard on the mattress and then used a few sticky velcro pieces we already had to attach it to the wall.  Simple as that!

Here's a rundown of the costs:

Foam Board-$6
Batting-$3
Fabric-$4 (Navy corduroy on clearance at Joanns)
Trim-$14 (Here's where I goofed! I wanted to buy trim by the foot but I accidentally grabbed the fancy trim you by per piece.  I had already started cutting it down at Home Depot when I realized my mistake.  So I had to buy 2 pieces for $7 each.  Oops!)
 Total Cost- $27

More than I was hoping to spend, but I'm still under my $200 budget so I can't be too upset about it! Lesson learned?  Look before you cut!!




To read about the Summer Rental Redesign project, click here.

Tulle

I just found out about the clothing site Tulle.  Have you heard of it?  I'm liking a lot of the pieces, especially the skirts.  They have some really great sale prices too!  Now that I've lost almost all of the baby weight, I'm so ready to pick out some new clothes.  Everything here is under $30!

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