making coffee filter flowers.

this is kind of an exciting day. at least in the decor side of my brain. i have finally sort of kind of maybe pinpointed a favorite style! yikes! i feel hesitant to pick one style because i don't want to get boxed into one kind of style and never be able to find my way out... you know what i mean. but holy cow listen to me. you must click this link and check out this style i have realized i am totally in love with. seriously. click it, then come back. i mean it. you won't be sorry.

see what i mean? oh. my. goodness. gracious! so i have realized i looove the style of mixing rustic and romantic pieces together. i mean, some exposed beams with a crystal chandelier is like heaven to me. i just love the two opposites working together to balance each other out. i think it's pretty close to french country style, which makes sense. but it's kind of exciting because i thought i just liked what i liked and didn't really have a sense of direction. now i have one and it's nice. not that i'm going to run right out and make my entire home "fit" this style, but i just like having a favorite, you know?

so this being the case i thought i should go about mixing some romance with some rustic-ness (no, i couldn't think of a better word, sorry) to celebrate my new found love for this style. recently i collected these from outside when i de-red-ified our living room

i mean, let's be honest. this is already pretty feminine but i wanted a little bit more. so i decided to make flowers for a few of the sticks. i am sure you have all seen at least one of the gazillion pictures out there of tissue poms. that is where i got my inspiration for this project. i thought of cutting the tissue paper down smaller and making tiny poms to go on the sticks, but then i remembered i had a bunch of coffee filters. they are already small and have scalloped edges which look more flower-like so i realized it meant much less work. always a plus. so here is what i did.

first i gathered everything i would need

yup. that's it.

then i took 2 coffee filters

stack them together and fold them in half

then fold it in half twice more

then glue along the bottom with glue and fold it over to make it all stay together

don't fold over too much or you won't be able to spread the flower out as much

then just fan it out like you would a tissue pom

then since my sticks are against a wall i just glued the flower to the front of the stick intead of facing toward the ceiling so i would see only the pretty part

if you wanted it to sit as a centerpiece or something you could just make another flower for the other side and glue the backs together so you wouldn't see the folded and glued ugly part

i made 3 big flowers and 1 small one. i made the small one by cutting the tops off of 2 filters and rolling them into a little rosette. simple.

hobbes like to help me whenever i am crafting on the floor.

see how cute and pretty? so easy. and i love it! it makes a big difference to me.

now my only challenge is to keep my style from getting too girly so my husband still feels at home... i'm sure he'll help keep me in check : )

advice.

this is a serious problem here. i need help deciding about a color. i know, always the dilemma for a decorator. but for real, i am kinda stumped here! (no this isn't about my new stump i just got).

okay i have these side tables in my bedroom, right?

well i decided i wanted to put glass on the top to make it a little more formal looking... or something.. i don't know exactly the term i was going for, i just know the look i was going for. well, one day i was thinking in the shower (this is where a lot of my good ideas hit me) and i thought about how i don't want to get glass cut especially for the table because hello, expensive. so i thought i could buy some wood boards and spray them with some really shiny silver paint and that would add the bit of reflectiveness and formality (or whatever) that i want there.

oh, and i forgot to mention my hairy cat hobbes likes to sit on the tables. i have NO idea why. he sits there and gets fur all over the table cloths. crazy cat.. so i figured with glass or something, i could just dust it and it would be easier than getting the hair off the fabric.

so i went to home depot and bought two wooden boards for $5 a piece. they cut them for me right there to the exact size i needed. i bought some krylon metallic silver paint, and i sanded and painted the boards. i didn't buy finish yet, so maybe it'll be better once i put some finish on them. but here they are

you can see the wood grain, which i think is actually kinda cool. i'm just not sure about the color though. i have a lot of brown in that room and i wonder if i should have gone with some sort of bronze-y kind of paint. or was this a bad idea and i should just find something else to do with these guys and stick to the original plan of glass? will adding finish change it a lot? see, i just don't know these things and i need some advice. i will be putting finish on them anyway since hobbes still enjoys sitting up there and i don't want his little claws ruining them.

so what do y'all think?

a small look outside.

so i promised i would be back some time soon with a project. i am making good on that promise right now. also i just now i realized i start a lot of sentences (and proably blog posts) with the word "so". i guess i feel like i'm just in the middle of a conversation and i'm bringing up a new subject.. who knows. well anyway, i have done a few projects around here and i have to say, it was hard to choose which one i should show first. well, since it's summer and all i have decided to show a little of the outside progress on our little balcony. first i must show this

my stump!

yep. i got a stump! i am sure you have seen the stumps popping up all over blog world. the nester inspired me awhile back with her stump table post. i was so inspired by this picture

which originally came from karen at the art of doing stuff in this post. i was also beyond inspired by this picture

from alicia's post over at thrifty and chic. i loooove the rustic stumps painted glossy white. i also love the stained version with the lovely legs and shine. well, luckily my stump is big enough so that i don't have to choose! i am making two tables out of that guy. one will be stained and finished to go outside, and the other will be painted white to come inside. i've had it for about a week or so and it was very nicely suggested that the stump stay outside for about a month to dry out. i've been peeling bark off in hopes it will dry faster, but mostly i just don't want bugs in the house. also it's so super hot here this week that i wouldn't mess with going outside to work on that stump anyway.

oh and i just realized i forgot to tell you the good story of how i got it! well last week men came to cut down trees around the apartment complex. the one in front of my bedroom window that was blocking all the sunlight from coming in was one of the unlucky few chosen. so after they chopped it i told my husband something like, "oh i wish i could have a stump from that tree..." and phil, being the greatest husband ever put his shoes on and went right down there to ask if they would cut us a piece off the tree. i am not even sure what kind of tree it was. i looked up trees with very peel-y bark (technical term, don't worry about it) and it looked like it might be a river birch. but who really knows. i don't care. it's pretty and it's gonna be even prettier once it's dry in a few weeks. yessss : )

so now onto an actual project. since i got this stump i thought, hmm maybe i should put some seating outside so i will have something next to my table. yah i did it backwards. so i took the coffee table-turned bench out of my bedroom. i was sooo happy to do this by the way. it was taking up like, gallons of space. i know, space isn't measured in gallons but it seemed the only appropriate way to describe it. but i mean, really look at this

this is an old picture taken around when we first moved in, so you'll have to get past that to see that this bench takes up all kinds of room. seriously. gallons. it just made the room feel smaller and too cramped. so i wanted to move it outside. but i wanted a different fabric for it so i thought i might have to wait until i can buy fabric. nope! thanks to my new shower cutain i now had a big piece of nice fabric. it's called the old shower curtain.

yep. this pretty blue one in the background : )

so here is what i did. i yanked my bench out of the bedroom (seriously. it's heavy and large and awkward) and pulled it outside to make sure i liked it there first. i did. so i brought it back in to cover it. i also found some ugly pillows that came with our sofa to cover and put with the bench to make it more homey.

seriously lane furniture? why, oh why would you put those hideous pillows on my gorgeous sofa? who gave you that advice? i would never listen to that person again. for real.



first i had to cute all the loop-y things off the pillows

i like to call these mexican crazy strings.

after that was all done i was left with quite the pile of strings



i didn't take any pictures of the process because it's pretty easy and there are about a gazillion tutorials to choose from, so i will spare you. basically i just laid the shower curtain on the bench, lined it up how i wanted, then i just went around stapling it to the under side of the table top. then i just cut off the excess fabric. super easy. it took me like, 10 minutes at the most. then i made covers for the pillows out of the extra that was cut off. at this stage i realized i didn't have enough fabric for two large pillows, so i went and got one of our smaller sized pillows and forgot to take a picture of it. anyway, awhile later i was left with a covered bench and 2 pillows.

tah-dah!! isn't it pretty? i like it waaayyy better now. and the shower curtain is pretty water resistant, so i think it'll do well outside. i'll let you know after a little while.

pretty! i just love it!

soon that stump will be cut down and turned into a lovely table next to that bench. yay!

i have done a couple things out here since, but it's not ready for that reveal yet. mostly because i've been peeling the bark off the stump and it's just all over the little balcony. so it's a mess. one i don't feel like cleaning up to take a picture. but soon i'm gonna add curtains and a few other things, then it'll be ready for the full reveal. 

in the mean time, does anybody feel like peeling the bark off my stump in the 100 degree weather? anyone? yah, me neither.

exciting things are happening!

so do you remember this post where i basically spilled my guts to y'all about what God has been doing in our lives lately around here? well.. he is doing more. again. : ) some things are just silly decor things. other things are bigger. much bigger.

one blessing we've already received is that our sofa that i am sitting on as i type this is 100% completely ours. it's totally paid off. YAY! no more monthly payments on this lovely little... er... big piece of gorgeous furniture. it's all ours. yesss. : ) so if you read the post i spoke of above, you know that what's left is the car. we're praying like crazy that we can pay it off. and also trying to spend very little money. i think we're doing a little better at the praying thing ; )

also i have been thinking about our outdoor space for some time now. we live in a good-size-but-still-small-compared-to-a-house apartment. so it seemed a shame that the outdoor space was being wasted, but i just didn't have a prayer to do anything out there because there just isn't any money for it. i figured maybe when fall or next summer comes around. no no my friends. this space is getting done as we speak. and so far all i've spent for it is $19. i will show you some of the projects out there soon. it's so exciting! i thought i would have to wait forever to get that space done.

well of course another exciting piece of news is that our 3rd anniversary is coming up! the summer has a lot of exciting events. my sister celebrated her birthday the end of june, my brother celebrates his birthday this coming weekend (yikes! better get his present...) and then the 25th is our wedding anniversary (!!!) and the 28th is my birthday! of course we also celebrated the 4th in there somewhere, so summer just sails by for us. yay! bring on the fall! i love fall... : )

SPEAKING of fall, have you seen any fall decor out yet? pottery barn has a fall preview on their website and when i was at hobby lobby recently i saw pumpkins and leaves out. i even saw some christmas stuff at hobby lobby already. sheesh! i admit july is too early for christmas (and i am a christmas lover!!!) but i am so happy to see fall things! it means it's coming around the corner! i mean, it's too early to say it's "just around the corner" but it's walking down the street trying to get to that corner at least. i love it. come on, fall! apple picking, pumpkin picking, mantel redecorating, cooler weather, sweatshirts, jeans, cider, beautiful leaves changing... i LOVE it!! it's my very favorite time of year. i am so excited for it! aaaand it contains my favorite holiday, thanksgiving!!! man. what's not to love? i feel bad wishing for it though because my husband says, "noooooo. i love summer. fall means i'm back teaching at school and stressed out!" so i am trying to just enjoy summer instead of trying to wish it away. but it's hard when the weather channel says it's  88 degrees but feels like 98 degrees. at 10:30 in the morning??!! geesh, weather. come on fall!!! (maybe my husband won't see that one ; ))

so next post i will show you some of the latest happenings around here. for now i am just too lazy too busy to upload and edit my pictures. sorry, total honesty here. well, okay somewhat honesty. : ) it's true, i really just don't feel like the hassle of editing my photos and i know y'all would appreciate nice edited photos much more than the good-for-nothing pictures my camera likes to take. aaaaanywaaayyy, i will probably feel more inclined to do it later... or tomorrow... or something... if you really miss pictures you can go here and look through some beautiful pictures that other people took in my pinterest account. or you can be awesome and browse through my blog : ) there is a list of every post waaaay down at the very bottom. either option is good. it just really depends on what your little heart desires.

be back soon with projects. i promise!

my new shower curtain; a love story.

this is a story of love, loss, and eventually a happy ending. i promise.

recently i showed you my bathroom changes and my inspiration picture. originally i thought i wanted a grey and kinda peachy/coral-y color together with white. then i saw my inspiration picture and i wanted to add that lovely blue with it. i had wanted to find a white and peach/coral striped shower curtain, but i didn't find one anywhere. so i was going to make one. i figured people have painted fabric before and it would work. then when i saw my inspiration picture

(couldn't resist. it's gorgeous!)

i decided i wanted a white and blue curtain like they did. this is where it gets fun.

i had been to target about 4 times in the recent past. every time i had somehow made it to the bath aisle to look for shower curtains for other people. every time i saw this curtain and was drawn to it. i wasn't looking for a white and blue curtain, i was looking for a peachy one. so even though every time i saw it i loved it and thought it was so pretty, i just walked away thinking it wasn't what i was looking for. so now that i WAS looking for a blue curtain, i had forgotten about that one. well, not for long.

i was reading i heart organizing a little while after the search for the shower curtain was under way. she was the one who brought us this beautiful office nook

yah remember that? gorgeous. she took a closet and made an office that i completely envy. well anywayyy, she showed her guest bath and i fell in LOVE with her shower curtain. you can see here where i pinned it and said so.  i realized it was the one i had seen at target and was drawn to every. single. time. i knew then that i had to make this shower curtain mine. then sad news came. it was in my target store but guess how much it was. if you guessed $30 you were right. 30 bucks for a curtain? no, i knew my husband wouldn't go for it. i was right.

well, i was pretty much right. what he said was, "well i can tell you love it a lot. i think it's a lot for a curtain, but if you love it you can have it. you decide pretty girl." (yah he calls me pretty girl all the time. he's done it forever. i like it. : )) psh. so of COURSE i have to decide no because he's left me to make the rational decision here and i don't want to let him down. so i say, ohhhweeeelllll. i will find another curtain i love as much soooome daaayyyyy.... (you know that feeling, right? you know it probably isn't true and you know you'll look back on this moment and say, dang it i should have bought that thing i loved so much!)

well i couldn't let that be "it". i had to keep trying. i was in love and i needed this curtain to be mine. so i did a search online in an act of desperation. i know i am sounding completely dramatic here, but when i find something perfect for my space i'm working on, i feel dramatic and desperate to get it. i have this crazy thing about me where once my mind is set on something, nothing else is as good "that thing". i'm thinking of seeing a doctor. so anyway, guess what happened. go ahead guess.

my search paid off!!! somebody was selling this beauty on ebay for $15! yep, half price. i snatched it up immediately and paid $5 for shipping. so i paid $20 for a $30 curtain. sure in the big scheme of things, what's $10? but i think it was more the principle of the thing. it's somewhat reasonable to spend 20 bucks on a shower curtain that you love... but $30 for a piece of fabric to hang just seems like too much no matter how many times i've made eyes at that curtain. so needless to say, i did a jumping up and down excited dance : )

a few short days later my curtain arrived AHEAD of schedule! i promptly threw it in the dryer with a wet rag (a clean one) to get the wrinkles out and it was hanging in my bathroom before the hour was out. i love love love LOVE this curtain. i mean, just look for yourselves

seriously? i know. i LOVE this pattern and these colors. so. beautiful.

i had these hammered curtain hooks before on my old shower curtain, but i love them even more now that they are teamed with my new curtain. i fell in love with them all over again.

the curtain is light and beautiful and makes a big difference. i still love the old curtain, just not in this space anymore. in fact, i already finished a project with it that i will show soon. but look at the difference.

i love the dark blue curtain, but i wanted to bring more light into the space since i painted it grey in there. it's softer and prettier. i have a few other things to do in there, then i'll be able to call it done. i'm waiting until my birthday at the end of the month so i can spend my birthday money on new decor stuff. so excited! my birthday is july 28th for anybody who would like to send presents ; ) i also accept cash and gift cards.

i wish everyone could come see how pretty my curtain is in person! LOVE IT!!! : )



at it again.

hi again all! i realize i have been away for a little while and i keep doing that to you guys! well there are reasons, i promise! all last week i stayed at my parents' house because they were out of town. my husband and i stayed with my brother and sister for the week. we had a fun week of hanging out, shopping, celebrating my sister's birthday, playing mario, tanning at the pool and other generally fun summer stuff.

i hope everybody had a wonderful 4th! we had dinner with my parents then went to see fireworks... but they were rained out : ( sad! i hate when that happens, but people seem to think they might happen tonight instead, so maybe i'll get to see some after all : )

so if you've been reading my blog for any period of time, you know i like to use peel n stick laminate for things. it's such a great tool and i am happy we have found each other : ). well i used it to cover my cabinets in my master bath and kitchen and now i am at it again in my guest bath. the process is seriously easy. like, for real. so super easy. i have never really shown the process so i decided to this time. if you're not interested in the process of it then you can just skip to the pretty after picture : )

here is my bathroom after painting

i worked on taking out everything red and then painted in here. this is what it looked like at that point.

i still disliked the cabinets and wanted them to be different.

this is my inspiration for this bathroom

**i have seen this picture a couple places and i'm not sure where it belongs! here is the pinterest link you can follow.

i love everything about this bathroom. i love the colors so much. i love that they have a lovely grey and white background to show them off and i even love that little girl : ) it's an awesome bathroom. so since i wanted the bathroom to have these colors i set about covering the cabinets. here's how i do it.

i start by taking the doors off.

in case you're wondering, yes this is much easier with a drill. in case you are also wondering, no i do not have a drill of my own.

i take the doors somewhere with a lot of light and where i can lay them flat. sadly the bathroom is not the place for this. then i take the hinges off completely.

one should probably wipe down the doors. i don't know. i don't because i don't care that much so i just leave them as is. all that junk just gets covered right along with the door. but if you aren't lazy care more then this is the part where you could wipe the doors down.

then i roll out my peel n stick laminate with laminate face down. then i just lay my door on top.

i love this stuff because they make it so. easy. i line it up with all the little dots so i know i'll have straight lines when i cut. that's what i like to see people.

i make sure it's long enough to fold over the edges of the door

a couple inches extra is a good amount so you know for sure you have enough on each side to wrap around the edges of the door.

then you just cut away



what i like to do is then flip the whole thing over, peel the backing off and lay it sticky-side-down on top of the door. then i can take care of the bubbles that will inevitably pop up under the surface much easier, before i fold the edges over. it's much harder to get the bubbles out after the edges are folded over. i didn't take a picture of this part because well, i was holding a large sheet of stickiness. not easy to take a picture at that moment.

after that i turn it over and fold the edges over the sides



then before you fold the other edges over, you have to do some cutting to make everything lay flat and come together, like wrapping a present.



at this point all you do is trim off the extra paper that is hanging over the sides

then you are left with a flat corner. super easy. i think my cat could do this if he would just apply himself to something other than eating and taking naps....

after doing this with each corner, you are left with 2 covered doors

i forgot to take a picture of putting the hinges back on... all you do is just poke the screw through the paper and it goes right through. i screw the hinges on right over the paper, no need to cut out spaces for them.

okay, this is where the annoying part comes in. at least for me. i took one picture of it because well, it's an annoying process and i didn't want to make it longer. sorry.

to cover the rest of the cabinet, i cut out strips of the laminate to size, then stick them on. first i hold it up to the piece need to cover and make creases where i need to cut

this makes it easy to see how wide it needs to be without measuring and all that. i do that with each strip i need and put them all on the cabinet. (i hope you enjoyed my one picture of this process. i regret it's not even a very good picture.)

once you're done with this part you will be oh-so-happy and you will be left with something like this

annoying but easy. and such a better look for not very much effort.

so now i would generally put my cabinet doors back on and call it done, but i decided i didn't want my cabinets to be white. i decided to get some more color in here and paint my laminate i just put over the cabinet. it is hard to paint this stuff, and it scratches off kind of easily after it dries so i just put a coat of mod podge over the paint. i know i probably should have used some sort of finish, but i didn't want to buy anything and i had mod podge on hand. people may cringe at this, i do not care. it was free and is keeping my paint on : ) ** for those of you who are wondering, "why didn't she just paint the cabinet then, instead of this crazy process?" and the answer is that i rent, so these cabinets are not mine to paint. sadly. so to get around that, i cover it first, THEN paint! : )

the paint color was my own mixture of behr's harbor paint (which is what i have all over my apartment) and martha stewart's picket fence paint which i just used to paint the bookcase recently. it turned out a turquoise kind of color. darker than my inspiration picture above, but still just lovely. i started with the blue base and added white, but i think i should have done it the other way around to get it more like the color in the picture. i guess mistakes are how we figure these things out. but this turned out to be a great mistake.

since then i have added a few new things that i will show you all later. i know, such suspense! it is looking so pretty in there!!! just wait till i show you : )

here we go, before and after time

before

after

so for just a little bit of my time and very little effort, i have practically new cabinets in the bathroom. what did i say? that is why i love me some peel n stick laminate! come back soon to see the rest of the bathroom reveal!

what makes you mad?

i am wondering what makes people mad. i think sometimes i blow things out of proportion... ok i know i do. and often. i don't try to. it generally happens when i am either stressed or super hungry. apparently i am more irritable at those times. well today my poor husband caught me at both.

i am working on the guest bathroom today and a couple other little things around the house. i have been working since this morning on getting all my curtains wrinkle-free. i have also been painting and some other things i will blog about soon on here.

well last night i had to chop up all our chicken. we get a huge thing full of chicken breasts at the grocery store and before i freeze them, i cut all the fat off and if i know it'll go in something like a salad, i chop it in little pieces. if i know i'll need a whole breast i trim the fat and call it done. then i put each meal's chicken in it's own freezer bag. well last night we had chicken breasts and i spent extra time chopping up chicken for a chicken salad we were to have tonight. i decided i would just cook it real fast while the other chicken cooked, then i could save it in the fridge and make it today. easy...

about 30 minutes ago i went to make my chicken salad. now, let me explain. i HATE spending lots of time in the kitchen. i hate chopping things. i hate cooking them. i hate doing dishes after i do that. i hate it all. i don't know why. i blame my teeny tiny kitchen. also, i plan every meal in advance before we go shopping. i make sure i have just enough for each meal so we won't spend extra money and waste food. well, as i am sure you have guessed, my chicken was gone when i went to make the salad.

"where was it?", you ask. in my husband's lunch at school. so many things wrong with this. 1) he took plain chopped chicken in a container for lunch. 2) i now have no dinner for tonight. 3) i labored chopping that chicken and cooking it. okay, maybe i didn't work THAT hard, but i sure hated doing it. and i have nothing to show for it and no dinner. sheesh. 4) a whole dinner is gone out the window, so my budget is totally off now. dang it. 5) i can't think of a fifth reason, but there probably is one.

now, i don't blame my husband at all. it's not his fault. i should have told him what it was for. it's just situations like these that make me feel upset and mad. why? i don't know. it's just some chicken. who cares, right? well for some unknown reason i care. that is why i am wondering, what makes you guys mad? what's something you feel like is irrational but you don't care, it makes you upset just the same? please tell me and make me feel better about being angry over chicken here people. : )