Pinspiration Monday: Simple Halloween Crafts

October 31, 2011 8 Comments

Happy Halloween!!!! Today is officially the day for all the ghouls and goblins to come out…At least the kid-sized ones :) I think the majority of us party-hardy adults celebrated this spooky holiday over the weekend, John and I included. But we are looking forward to doling out the sweets to adorable children roaming through our neighborhood this evening.

The other night while John and I were out walking the dog through the neighborhood, we took a look around and noticed just how RADICAL our area is for trick-or-treating. As you may know if you’ve taken our house tour (also linked to on the right-hand side of the blog, and which we DESPERATELY need to update…Adding to “to-do” list now) we live in a townhouse. As such, we are surrounded by many other town homes, making for one loooooooooooooooooooong line of front doors. John hates this word, but it must be EPIC to troll through our neighborhood, pumpkin bucket or pillow case in hand. The haul away must be pretty tremendous. And we are happy to add to that with our own ready-and-waiting bowl full of candy!

But let’s backtrack a few days to Friday, when we hosted an adult-worthy Halloween bash. As any good host, I wanted the house to look festive and Halloween-y, so I spent a little time pinning away on Pinterest to get all the inspiration I needed to transform our little abode into a haunted house. Truth be told, I didn’t really get as much done as I wanted…I felt like I spent a good amount of money for not much of an impact. But I was working with zilch in the Halloween decorations department since I had never hosted such a soiree and neither had John – I just keep telling myself that we can buy a little each year and eventually have enough to enter our house for a holiday spread in Martha Stewart or Better Homes and Gardens. A girl can dream!

For today’s post, I chose three DIY projects to explain step-by-step. They were SO easy to create and cheap too!

The first is a pair of over-sized candy corn pieces:

Pin Source: Alexa Westerfield of The Swell Life

The tutorial pinned above used bottles as their candy corn forms, but I decided to go with two foam topiary forms that I found for about a dollar – They were the perfect size and shape.

First, I gave them each a coat of white paint to cover the green foam. A lot of the foam came off on my paint brush because the topiary surface is so fragile. But once the first coat of paint was on and had time to dry, the surface hardened up enough to prevent more de-foaming.

Before:

And after:

After the primer coat had a chance to dry for a couple of hours, I started at the bottom by painting on a ring of yellow…

And then orange!

It was literally that simple…And since I had all of the paint on hand already, the project cost came to about $2. Awesome! If I am able to store them safely enough with a bunch of padding so the foam doesn’t dent, I think they will definitely stand the test of time until next year. They were a cute addition to our entry table, which also featured a collection of books in Halloween colors (black and orange of course) and a few reusable faux gourds from Wal Mart for 97 cents a piece. Not a bad set up for $5 worth of accessories!

Next up, we have the ever-popular bleeding candles…I LOVE the end result of this project! Not sure why they excite me so much, but I just think they look really neat. Plus the cost was under $2! Gotta love all of these inexpensive decorations…

Pin Source: Martha Stewart

All you need for this project is a pair of white taper candles and one red one, which cost about 50 cents each at places like Wal Mart or the grocery store. The first thing I did was switch out the daily blue taper candles we usually have out on the kitchen table with our new white ones.

Next, I took my red taper candle and lit that, letting the wax get a little drippy. To finish the look, all you do is hold the red candle over the white ones until you get some good layers of gory looking red wax dripping down the sides. After a few minutes of burning my hands with errant hot wax, I made a mental note to tell you all to burn the WHITE candles instead of the red one. You can control the melting of the red candle better this way.

Once all was said and done, the red candle was shot – Definitely won’t be putting this one out in a candle holder for dinner parties. But I did pack it away for next year’s bleeding candle project.

Oh and definitely put a paper towel down when melting because you’ll inevitably make a mess…A pretty gruesome looking mess, I might add.

Here they are all done!

I just think that looks SO cool! Hands down my favorite Halloween decor trend of the year.

For the last project, I’ve got another (simpler) candle holder idea:

Pin Source: The Project Queen

A couple of candles, a dish and some candy corn, and you’ve got yourself a sweet little festive candle centerpiece! I ended up getting a brown candle instead of the black ones shown in the pin above – (1) because I couldn’t find black ones at Wal Mart, and (2) because I wanted to be able to use the centerpiece through Thanksgiving and thought the mellow brown candle would be more season-general.

And voila! Definitely the easiest project and so cute. Oh, and boyyyyyyyyyy does it smell good – Between the Hazelnut-scented candle and the candy corn, this is one sweet centerpiece.

Here’s the completed centerpiece arrangement for the party, decked out with the bleeding candles and the candy corn candle holder. The perfect touch for our Halloween party!

Hope everyone has a safe and happy Halloween :) Would love to hear about your costumes, projects and/or candy inventory!

UPDATE: See our projects (plus a TONNNNN of other amazing ones) linked over on Young House Love’s amazing blog here! We are adding to their Pinterest Challenge to share the pinning love :)

Filed Under: DIY Projects, Inspiring, Seasonal/Holiday, Weekly Pinspiration Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Help us decide!!!

October 28, 2011 8 Comments

Today’s post is going to be a bit of a quick one…John and I have the day off together and it’s probably going to be our last this year (besides holidays – Which I don’t get much of since I work at a newspaper) so we are going to take advantage of it! We thought about going out-of-town to one of our neighboring cities, like Roanoke or Charlottesville, for the day but eventually decided to stay close to home. We scheduled an appointment with a travel agent to discuss honeymoon options, plan on doing some last-minute Halloween party shopping and set aside some “no plans” time to soak up some laziness. It’s going to ROCK.

But I didn’t want to leave you guys with nothing to ponder or look at in terms of our constant home renovation/redecoration. So here’s where your advice and opinion comes in…

The big question of this Friday morning isssssss: All horizontal or some horizontal and some vertical?

If you are just tuning in, we are in the process of gearing up for a pretty huge kitchen renovation. We have decided to reuse the kitchen cabinets, which are in perfect shape, but will paint them to give them a new life. Right now they are a sort of peachy color that clashes badly with the beige walls…We’ve already chosen the new paint color and purchased our hardware (see them pointed out in the photo below), so we are on track to get this project started. As I mentioned in this post last month, we just need to muster up the courage to get it started – The thought of painting those cabinets ourselves is proving to be a very daunting idea and we just keep putting it off.

So instead of the “action” phase, we are happily strolling through the “planning” phase – It makes us feel SLIGHTLY productive. Our next item on the planning to-do list is the hardware placement. I have seen a lot of people recently mounting their long, thin, silver handles (like the ones we bought) vertically all the way through the room instead of horizontally on the drawers and vertically on the doors. I can’t decide which one I like. In my opinion, the “all horizontal” look is a TOUCH more modern and streamlined then the “some horizontal and some vertical,” which I definitely like. But are we that hip? I don’t know!!!

Here are some more images of the options – We’ll start with the “some horizontal and some vertical:”

This next one is my favorite because of the rich, dark cabinets. I would definitely use it as my ultimate inspiration image if we went the “some horizontal and some vertical” route…

And now here are some more images of “all horizontal:”

An artist’s rendering, but we get the idea:

We’d love your input!

(Photo credit for “some horizontal and some vertical” #1, #2: here; #3: here; #4: here; #5: here; “All Horizontal” #1, #2: here; #3: here; #4: here; #5: here)

Filed Under: Inspiring Tagged With: , , ,

Pumpkin Masterpieces

October 26, 2011 6 Comments

Last Friday, John and I had some friends over for some good, old-fashioned pumpkin carving – I don’t think that carving big (or little) orange pumpkins will ever get old when this time of year rolls around…Get seven people in their mid-twenties into a room with pumpkins, templates and carving tools and you’re bound to have a good time. In fact, I think this activity gets BETTER with age because you’re able to carve real works of art rather than just the standard smiling face.

We’ll get to all that in a moment (and I’ll explain how my friends KICKED MY BIG OLE ARTIST BUTT with their intricate and beautiful pumpkins), but first I wanted to tell you the story of a little party treat that went awry…

So since we had people coming over, I though it would be nice to bake a little seasonal treat for everyone to munch on – I had been craving some fun-fetti cupcakes for a while and decided this would be the perfect opportunity.

I picked up some Dollar Store cupcake cups with tiny little pumpkins on them to continue the party theme. Here are the finished cupcakes fresh out of the oven!

After giving them some time to cool down, I grabbed brown cake icing and a bottle of orange cookie icing I had on hand to start decorating. My plan was to put the brown icing all over the top of the cupcakes and then draw an orange face on top that looked like a carved pumpkin.

Unfortunately…That didn’t go as planned…

The cupcakes were SOOOO “Super Moist” (as advertised on the cake mix box) that they fell apart as soon as I tried to frost the top!

I thought maybe I could get away with not using the brown icing and going straight to the orange pumpkin face on the bare cupcake, but that didn’t work either. The icing was really drippy and wouldn’t stay in place at all…The center cupcake below was the closest I got to making it work, but after a minute or two it started to look like its messy neighbor to the right.

So I gave up entirely and simply stuck some little Halloween flags in the remaining bare cupcakes to finish them off! I still thought they tasted pretty yummy, even without the icing, and they had enough paper decoration to designate them as Halloween treats. Good enough for me!

After everyone arrived (and we took a moment to partake in the cupcakes I made and the cookies the other girls brought) we made our way down to the basement garage where John and I had laid out two Dollar Store shower curtain liners as our easy-clean-up solution to all of those pumpkin guts. It was REALLY nice to be able to dump everything on the floor without having to worry about clean up later.

Here’s our friend, Chris, carving a wolf face into his pumpkin – You can tell by the motion blur that he was really getting into it :)

Everyone (but John and I) bought pumpkin carving kits from Kroger that came with a handy book of templates – Turns out that they were THE COOLEST THINGS EVER! As you’ll see in a moment when I show you the “After” shots, these templates transformed the pumpkins into little masterpieces!

Here’s Beth concentrating on her design, which was a couple of little ghosts swooping into the foreground. Wait till you see the neat finished product…

And then of course I, the person who spouted off last week about being a so-called artist, created these two little juvenile pumpkins! I love them, but they are definitely a little less involved and detailed then everyone elses…

For the one below, I used little $1 googly eyes to fill the holes in the pumpkin face. I think it gives him a pretty distinct personality, don’t you? :)

And then here’s John’s – He was “too cool” for templates and knocked this bad boy out in about ten minutes. As you can see, his marker marks are still clearly visible ;) And gotta love the little errant google eye in the center!

Now for the finale…Here are the shots taken after everyone completed they pumpkin and we lit them up along the wall inside the garage. We all stood back and stared for probably close to ten minutes. There was definitely something surreal and spooky about them all being in one spot. Not only that, but a few of them were downright SCARY!

My lovely friend, Tara, created this pumpkin…It is SOOOO beautiful in detail but seriously – This thing is terrifying!

Now for the rest of the details as we make our way down the line…

Here’s Tara’s again ::shivers::

And Beth’s:

Heidi’s:

Justin’s:

Mine:

Chris’s:

And John’s (sorry…It’s a little blurry – It was NOT easy to photograph these well in the pitch dark. The shutter stayed open for probably a good ten straight seconds):

We had a great time reverting back into kids (with vastly improved motor skills) again. We joked about how this particular get-together was the quietest we’d ever been – Everyone was so intent on carving and getting the details just right, that we were more silent then chatty. Definitely an oddity!

What did you guys do with YOUR pumpkins? There are so many cute ideas out there this year…

Oh! And can someone PLEASE tell me what on earth I did wrong with my cupcakes?? I must not have gotten the baking gene or something…Should I have microwaved the chocolate cake icing until it was runny? It was room temperature at the time I tried to use it – Never been refrigerated. I am flummoxed…

Happy almost-Halloween!!!

Filed Under: Seasonal/Holiday, Yummmm Tagged With: , , , ,

Pinspiration Monday: Brick by Brick

October 24, 2011 4 Comments

I think I can safely speak for all of us when I say that sometimes we just need a day to ourselves…I feel like it’s been AGES since I was able to do my SSB (“Secret Single Behavior,” if you’re not a big Sex and the City fan like me), which typically consists of playing the Sims 3, watching sappy chick flicks in my pj’s, taking a bath every other hour or so because I get chilly so easily, etc. etc. Don’t get me wrong – I ADORE our “us” time, but it had been a long time since I had a little girly time alone…

But this Saturday changed all that when John decided to go on a camping trip with some of his buddies. When he left the house at 2:30pm, I heaved a big sigh in the contented silence of our near-empty home, kicked off my high heels…

…and got comfy in my fuzzy slippers. It was time for some “me” time :)

After a bit of random lazy-around-the-house activities (mentioned previously), I decided to do something productive and got to work on a Pinterest project I had been wanting to try. The idea was to wrap a pair of bricks in pretty fabric to create bookends. Genius!

No real source for this one…The link didn’t seem to catch properly on the pin – Sorry about that!!!

Instead of doing the smart (and free – although possibly illegal) thing and grabbing a few bricks from a construction site, I went to Lowe’s and did the responsible thing. Only problem was that my karma was DEFINITELY not with me that day, because they had run out of standard bricks, and all I could buy were these mismatched pavers. One was a bit thicker then the other, but they were the same measurements everywhere else so I bought them anyway…They were pretty cheap too – No more then $3 each – so I couldn’t get too worked up about the predicament.

As you saw in this recent post, I had a lot of fabric to choose from – I just grabbed the top pattern in the basket and went with it. I ended up with the big, wide pattern.

Using nothing but this handy-dandy, much-loved, often-used tool…

I got to work attaching the fabric to the brick!

Only problem was that, after cutting the fabric swatch to size and test-wrapping the first brick, I realized that the “big, wide” pattern was a bit TOO ” big” and “wide” – You could hardly see any of the pretty details and shapes on the small brick!

So on to the next option! This second fabric is a bit tighter in pattern and the shapes are smaller, so more can fit on the brick’s surface.

Starting over, I cut the fabric to fit and then laid the brick in the middle. Then I put a few squeezes of hot glue right on the surface of the brick, folded the fabric on top and pressed until it seemed secure.

Then I put some hot glue on top of the fabric I had just laid over and then pulled the other end over the remaining exposed brick. This is when I realized that I should have folded over that raw edge of fabric so that my uneven cutting didn’t show…Oh well! I’ll just put that side towards the books to hide it. Oh, and don’t worry about that excess glue showing. Once it dried, it was easily peeled off and discarded.

For the ends of the brick, I just folded the fabric over like you would the wrapping at the end of a gift box – My sister is SOOOOO good at this, I wish she had been around to help me…But mine came out okay!

Here it is all done!

On to the next one – This time I made sure to fold over that pesky raw edge to get a nice finish…

MUCH better:

Time to test them out.

I first tried them on the inside of a bookcase, as seen below. I liked them in that arrangement, but they seemed a bit hidden.

I put them sideways inside the book case because their “spines” (i.e. the thin,outside edge of the brick) were a little boring. If the bookshelf walls hadn’t been there to hide the pretty outside, flat edges it would have been fine. But alas, they would have been hiding in the recesses of the enclosed shelf.

Solution? I took them out and put them out in the hallway in a place of real visual glory!

(Sorry for the terrible lighting…No windows makes it hard to photograph anything in that hallway!)

I love how, when out in the open, the fabric pattern wraps around the brick. And of course I picked books off the shelf in the same color scheme as the fabric (blue, white, yellow and green) – Gotta be consistent!!!

One thing I have to mention is that the hot glue and extra folds of fabric on the ends of the brick make them a bit wobbly…But once they sandwich some books and have something to lean on, physics (or something…) takes over and all is in tip top shape and balance.

Not only do the pretty finished edges look refined and elegant, they also remind me so much of Christmas presents – What’s not to love about that?

A fun, simple and ALMOST free project! And they help keep my extensive book collection in check all with a little style to boot. You should DEFINITELY try this one at home :)

Filed Under: DIY Projects, Simple Fixes, Inspiring, Weekly Pinspiration Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Channeling the artist…

October 21, 2011 4 Comments

For those of you who don’t know, I actually went to school for art. I found my love for the subject in a general high school art class and just couldn’t stop. I eventually found my niche in drawing and now draw charcoal and graphite portraits as sort of a side business (find out more about that venture here at my artist website). With that said, I want to reiterate that I DO NOT consider myself a painter. I have dabbled in it and was forced to spend many an hour at it in the art studios in college to meet a prerequisite, but I definitely do not think I ever got “what it takes” to be a real painter.

Luckily though, at least for the project I’m about to tell you about, my absolute favorite era of painting is abstract expressionism. Artists then used paint in graphic, expressive ways to portray emotion rather than imagery. It was definitely more subjective and you might know it better by the typical reaction phrase “Oh, I could do that.” Yeah, for the most part you could, but a lot more goes into a painting like that then just the surface medium….

Before I start sounding like a pretentious intellectual (which I promise you I’m not, just a little over enthusiastic and protective maybe), I found out the EASY way that you really can do it yourself :)

But let me take you back to the beginning of this idea…As you can see in the photo below, our yellow stencil wall was still bare and sad (although looking a bit more finished since the last time I talked about it with you guys – I have since started hand-painting the stencil at the top). The idea was to fill the space with an abstract-expressionism-inspired piece of artwork, namely a painting of my own creation.

So I went out to Michael’s and picked up a tall, skinny canvas – 16 x 40 inches to be exact.

Next, I needed some inspiration. Whenever I envisioned a piece of abstract art on the wall, I kept coming back to a well-known 1940s/50s artist by the name of Franz Kline. His pieces were mostly slashes and jabs of black paint on a white background. Here’s a screen shot of a Google search of his stuff – He really liked the black and white look…

But I eventually went with this one because I liked the vertical composition (it went well with my tall, thin canvas) and it wasn’t quite as busy as the main bulk of his work.

Keeping the website open on my desktop to serve as a reference, I grabbed my paint brush and got to work!

I used a cheap, wide, wirey-bristle brush to make sure the jagged lines looked as raw and unfinished as possible. I wanted to at least TRY to be true to Kline form!!

In no time, the canvas was definitely looking “raw” and “unfinished”…I was sort of starting to worry at this point that I was going to botch the whole thing and had a “what was I thinking!” moment…

But once all was said and done, I didn’t HATE it. I figured I would just hang it on the wall in the living room and see what I thought after a week. One of three things would inevitably happen:

  1. I’d hate it, take it down and paint over it
  2. After staring at it for a week or so, I’d see a spot that needed more (or less) paint and I could tweak it over time until it was perfect
  3. I’d LOVE it!!!

 

Here’s the “before” again…

And now the “After!”

Like I said, I don’t think that I hate it, but I’m not sure that I love it either…It’s definitely got the vibe I was going for and I like how it really speaks to that era of art I love. But I’m not sure if it’s too much “graphic” on one wall – The shapes in the painting may be competing with the shapes in the wall detail. I thought about simply adding a frame to give it a little separation from the wall. In fact that might be just the ticket, but do I want to go to the trouble of building a frame for it if it’s not going to work?

I’m still trying to figure out how I feel about it. I’m glad I went with my gut and gave it a shot, but not so sure the two were made to go together afterall. I’ll keep you posted! Would love to hear your thoughts…

While I was taking photos of the space, I thought I’d give you a quick shot of the sofa side of the living room…Not sure I’ve posted that side of the room lately! We are still l-o-v-i-n-g our new couch :)

That’s all folks! Have a great weekend and see you back here on Monday :)

(Photo credit for chosen Franz Kline painting: here)

Filed Under: DIY Projects, Inspiring Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Color goes a loooooooong way

October 19, 2011 6 Comments

Color is a wonderful thing…Sure, it can change the look of a room in a moment – But it can also change the way you FEEL in a room. That’s powerful stuff! I remember hearing once that Pizza Huts are often painted red on the inside because the color red makes people eat faster. Blue, on the other hand, tends to make people eat slower and linger longer. If you can control the way that people behave and react in a commercial setting, why not try it out at home!

This blog post is not about mind control, however…I just think that the concept is fascinating!!! Perhaps I’ll spend a 1,000-word post on the topic soon, but today I am going a simpler route.

As I said before, color is powerful…Sometimes it’s very obvious making a big splash, where other times it’s more subtle and subdued. Sometimes you don’t even NOTICE that a certain corner of your space needs color, but when you do happen to catch on it’s all you can think about. At least that’s what happened to me.

There was just something glaringly wrong with the picture below.

Here’s a slightly different angle…

You may have seen it – It’s SCREAMING at me…But to get to the point, I just couldn’t stop staring at the lamp and how “blah” it suddenly was! I don’t know if it was the bright yellow stencil wall or just the cream-on-cream of the base and the shade together, but it was buuuggggiiinngg me.

Something else wasn’t sitting with me either – The shade. I’m not a huge fan of standard lamp shades. For me, I usually go for 70s-style drum shades. So I made a quick trip to Target where I bought a new white lamp shade in a more mid-century shape.

We went from this:

To this:

Don’t worry…I saw it too…Definitely seems a little small for the lamp base :( Luckily, I had a larger drum shade on hand!

You probably have a comment on that one though too…Sorta seems too BIG now! I was out of options, so the big one stayed. I will probably keep my eye out for a medium-sized shade in the near future…

But on to the issue of color.

When John and I found this lamp at Goodwill earlier this year, we initially planned to spray paint it. But for whatever reason, we liked the monochromatic look and it stayed as is. As the months went by though and a brighter color scheme started to emerge, the cream look was out and I was left wanting a bit more visual “oomph.” So I grabbed a can of yellow spray paint that I had sitting in the basement, taped off the exposed wire near the base and the lamp neck and then got to work transforming this little light fixture into something bold and beautiful.

One quick coat of paint later and we were good to go! I was sort of surprised that it only took the one coat, but I guess you don’t need much paint to cover beige.

It seems more 70s-esque to me, with its vibrant color and new contrast between the bright yellow lamp base and dark wooden neck.

From far back, you can see that the newly painted lamp brings that yellow pop from the wall into the once-quiet little corner.

Before…

And now after!

See?? Isn’t it amazing what a little color can do? :)

Filed Under: DIY Projects, Simple Fixes, Thrift Store Tell All Tagged With: , , , , ,

Pinspiration Monday: Embroidery Hoop Wall Art

October 17, 2011 4 Comments

I just love versatile framed wall art…Frames are wonderful because you can easily change out the art inside them to give a space a new color scheme or theme. But these days, people are going beyond expressing themselves with what’s INSIDE a frame – They are getting creative with the frames themselves!

For instance, today’s Pinterest project comes from the new trend of embroidery hoop wall art. What could be more simple then framing fabric in wooden hoops? And really, what could be cheaper too…

Source: The Purl Bee

I was able to pick up five hoops at our local craft store for – Wait for it…UNDER TEN BUCKS!!! This project ended up being far cheaper than I had anticipated and the final product was just brilliant! Coupled with incredibly simple steps and a quicker-than-quick process time, I am going to be recommending this art project to anyone and everyone for the next week!

As you can see below, I decided to go with all different sizes – The largest is over a foot in diameter at 14 inches and the smallest is 4 inches.

Here’s my receipt if you don’t believe me on the final purchase price…$8.56!!!

Next, I needed to get some fabric. I could have gone to the nearest fabric shop and picked up a few scraps to make this work, but luckily, I had a few lengths of fabric on hand in my little fabric/sewing basket.

Here were my options: Some leftover brown curtain from this project, leftover green/teal/brown/yellow fabric from this project and this project, and a brown and white graphic print tapestry that I had picked up on clearance at Urban Outfitters a couple of years ago:

I started with the largest hoop (the 14 inch one) and used the big floral print. I wanted to plan it out so that I could frame one of the giant flowers in the center of the embroidery hoop.

After flipping it over and finding my spot, I used a pen to draw around the circle. I made my line about half an inch to an inch away from the actual edge of the hoop since it needed a little of the fabric to “grab on to” in the last step. If you’ve worked with these contraptions in the past, you understand. But if not, you’ll see exactly what I mean in a moment!

After cutting out my circle, I took the two pieces of the hoop apart by loosening the screw at the top and then I placed the fabric upside down over the bigger hoop.

Then I placed the smaller, inside hoop on top and gently pushed down. Now you can see where that extra fabric came in handy around the edges.

I lightly pulled on the excess fabric around the edges to make sure everything was taut and smooth, then I tightened the screw at the top of the hoop. Here it is all done! Well except for snipping away the excess fabric…

NOW it’s done, with pretty edges and a lovely smooth finish.

On to the next one! I worked on the biggest hoops first, mostly because I wanted to make sure I had enough fabric scrap for them. The smallest ones just got whatever was left over. I won’t bore you with typing out the process again, but you can at least see it one last time in this spiel of photos:

I liked this one because the little antique keys sort of play off of the vintage vibe, courtesy of the feminine embroidery hoops. I don’t know about you guys, but I definitely picture a sweet little old lady in pink, sitting on a velvet settee working away on a hankcheif when I see people using embroidery hoops as wall frames. There is an undeniable feeling of “old meets new” in this project.

But I digress…Here are the final three hoops with their fabric art on the inside – This is the smallest one with the curtain fabric inside:

This is the 10 inch hoop with leftover canvas-wrapping fabric from the studio (again, here’s the link to that project if you’re curious):

And the 5 inch hoop with more of the same fabric used on the first hoop, just a different flower:

All together now!

I love how, in the detail shot below, you can see all of the patterns and colors working together – For being random scraps thrown together on a whim I’d say I lucked out…

Alas, I don’t have a photo of the hoops up on the wall…I don’t want to jump the gun because I actually have a special spot for them. John and I have been wanting to create the traditional idea of a family photo collection along the blank wall of the staircase to the second floor.

The problem is that we don’t yet have enough family photos to do so! But with our engagement photo session coming up next month and our wedding next year, we are sure to have quite a pile to choose from in the near future. I’m thinking of hanging the frames (possibly with place holders until we get the photos back) with the hoops interspersed between – It’s just a matter of finding the time to do so…Maybe next weekend :)

Hope you have a great Monday!

Filed Under: DIY Projects, Simple Fixes, Inspiring, Weekly Pinspiration Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Pumpkin pondering!

October 14, 2011 2 Comments

Lookie what weeeee bouggghhhhttt….

I know, we are a smidge late in purchasing our holiday pumpkins…But better late than never! It was really Martha Stewart who tipped the scale for me. Did anyone else watch her quick segment on the Today Show the other day? She offered tons of fun, simple ways to dress up your jack-o-lantern this year. My personal favorite was the Christmas lights option – Instead of having to conspicuously remove the “top hat” of your pumpkin, she suggested cutting out a section on the underside and setting your hollowed pumpkin on top of a jar wrapped in lit Christmas lights. So cute! And also safer than candles…

Now I’m trying to decide what we should do with our little pair of ghords…Do I copy one of Martha’s always-genious tricks? Or traverse the world of Pinterest to get inspiration? Speaking of, check out all of the neat ideas people are pinning:

We’ve got monogrammed pumpkins…

Source

Pumpkins covered in shiny, metallic gold push pins…

Source

Pretty painted pumpkins…

Source

The always-trendy CHEVRON pumpkin…(looks pretty cool when lit!)

Source

A cannibalistic pumpkin…

Source

And some vampire pumpkins to finish off the set!

Source

Who knows what we’ll end up trying…But I’m sure that, once we do, we’ll let you know right back here on the blog :)

As for Halloween plans, I think John and I are going to have our friends over to the house for a little fete the Friday before Halloween Monday. On Monday, we think we’ll have some trick-or-treaters from our neighborhood, which will be nice! Time to give back after our childhoods full of candy-filled pillowcases. I can’t speak for John, but I know when I came home from trick-or-treating when I was a kid, I’d dump my loot on the floor and categorize. Couldn’t for the life of me tell you what I used as criteria, but I would GUESS that it was by type, size and color…Yeah…I was THAT kid.

So your turn!!

Filed Under: DIY Projects, Inspiring, Seasonal/Holiday Tagged With: , , , ,

My new Fujifilm Instax 210

October 12, 2011 6 Comments

I’ve got another electronics review for you today! I am the proud new owner of a Fujifilm Instax 210 camera – For those of you not familiar, this is the modern-day version of a Polaroid camera. It spits out instant photos, all with that delightful characteristic white frame and vintage flair in the colors.

This purchase was made possible with Amazon points I had saved up from my credit card and also through the generous donation of a $50 gift card from “One Project Closer” when our bathroom redo was featured on their blog. I knew that I wanted to use this money for something useful around the house or for a project – The camera was my way of combining both goals. I’ll be able to document the house with unique photos from the Instax, and I’m also brainstorming a fun project with more artsy Instax photos.

I ended up going with this listing since it was a bundle deal, including 100 exposures of the special Instax film. It came to $146.80, which is a pretty great price, but I was able to knock it down to about $70 with the gift card and credit points. Not too bad!

You can imagine my giddiness when this box arrived at the door:

I gleefully sliced through the tape!!! Only to find another taped box…

Ten seconds later, we were in business. Is there anything better than seeing your latest big purchase all shiny and new in its box???

Once I finally got the camera out of the box, I had to sit back for a moment and visually digest it all. Maybe the photo below doesn’t give my reaction justice…Scroll down.

Now with something to compare it to (i.e. my standard tiny, thin digital point-and-shoot) can you see what threw me for a loop?

IT’S HUGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It instantly took me back to when I was about 10 years old and got my very own first camera. It was black like my new Instax and pretty much the same size (although I wonder if it was even a bit thinner way back in the 90′s now that I think of it). Like me, if you ever decide to purchase one of these cameras, you’ll get over the behemoth size in no time. Especially when you start to take pictures – Which is exactly what I did in a matter of moments after opening the box. Here’s the film specs from the package, in case you’re curious:

And the film package, complete with handy little drawings and instructions:

I was SOOOOO excited to take my first photo. You can probably tell from the photo below, which is literally me taking a picture of my new camera with its VERY FIRST exposure sticking out of the top!!! I gingerly removed the brand new photo from the slot on top of the camera and laid it on the counter…

…then I stared at it for about 30 seconds in confusion. This doesn’t look like my vision of beautiful vintage-looking Polaroid-like photos!!!

Then I realized that I was looking at what must be the cover on the film – Not a photo at all. Just a piece of plastic. Deep breath later, I went back to get my shot again and was delighted to see a glossy picture roll out of the top of the camera.

It was definitely kind of neat to watch the image slowly come to life in color. SO neat in fact, that I took incremental photos of the picture until it was all in :)

All done! And yes, I took a picture of our tomato plant with the sky in the background. Believe it or not, this was pretty much the only good photo from the first batch of five that I took that afternoon…

Here’s one of our plate wall:

And our record player (although I would never believe it unless I had taken it myself, it’s so blurry…)

A little side table arrangement:

And my kitty cat:

Lots of pretty colors and definitely a vintage vibe, but I think we can all agree that I’ve got a while before I master this new camera…If you haven’t picked up from my blog posts, I tend to photograph super close to my subjects – Apparently Mr. Instax isn’t a fan of the close-up. Nor is he a fan of indoors in general – Things are a little too dark for him to focus correctly.

Hopefully I’ll get the hang of it soon and can show you some actual post-worthy Polaroids. Despite the initial trouble, I would definitely recommend this product to anyone loving the look of instant film – It’s pretty easy to use and, unlike a lot of modern Polaroid cameras and film, the Instax is pretty affordable.

Anybody else have experience with the Instax? I think our wedding photographer uses an Instax…Maybe I’ll chat her up about it during out engagement session in November :)

P.S. In case you were wondering, I’m not reviewing this product for compensation, just for your general FYI :)

Filed Under: Product Review Tagged With: , , , ,

Pinspiration Monday: Spanglish Sandwich

October 10, 2011 2 Comments

Happy Monday to everyone! Hope you had a great weekend :)

I wanted to welcome you back to the blogging week with a little something different today…After brainstorming this past weekend trying to figure out which Pinterest project to work on, I finally decided to try out a pin from my “Yummm” board. As I’m sure you can gather, these are all the D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S things I see people pinning – I’ve seen recipes for casseroles, seasonal holiday dessert ideas, even drink ideas! Oh how I love Pinterest…For my first foray into Pinterest recipes I chose a sandwich:

Source: The Kitchen

Obviously this isn’t just ANY sandwich.

Have you all seen the movie Spanglish? It’s an Adam Sandler movie from 2004, one of his more serious roles – Very good family movie. A must-see for sure :) Sandler plays a chef in the movie and, one night, decides to make this incredible sandwich. You should check out the quick feature below – It gives a play-by-play of the thought behind the sandwich and you can see it all come together in real-time:

Here’s MY version of the Spanglish Sandwich…

Ingredients:

  • package of bacon
  • shredded cheddar cheese
  • eggs
  • loaf of your favorite artisan bread
  • tomato
  • lettuce

We also took out our panini grill for this recipe – They don’t use it in the movie (instead, they just broil the slice of bread with the cheese on it), but we love any excuse to use our panini grill. It works REALLY well and seems to add a little something special to a sandwich.

Time to get the bacon and eggs all fixed up!

We made fried eggs for our sandwiches but ended up breaking the yolk ahead of time in the pan – While the real Spanglish Sandwich has unbroken yolks until you bite into the sandwich, I thought it might be a little too messy. In the end though, I wish I had left it unbroken because the egg was a bit dry. Live and learn!

Bacon’s done!

The next step is to layer everything on the sliced bread: tomato, cheese, egg, bacon. We left the lettuce off until after the grilling so that it didn’t wilt in the heat. Here are the sandwiches pre-grilling:

And now all pressed and gooey/toasty…

The sandwiches were soooooooo delicious…A really nice combination of salty and sweet between the bacon and tomato, and the pressed artisan bread had the perfect crunch to it. Like I said, the egg was a bit dry since I broke the yolk ahead of time, so whenever we try this again I’ll definitely let the yolk break when we bite into the sandwich for the first time.

Another successful Pinterest project…

Have a great day!

Filed Under: Inspiring, Product Review, Weekly Pinspiration, Yummmm Tagged With: , , ,
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