Pinterest Challenge and a Feature

I was hoping to share a Pinterest challenge with you today, but yesterday we decided to go on an impromptu getaway.  I brought my laptop, computer and camera with pictures of my project, but I forgot my camera cord to get the pics from the camera to computer.

I will be home later today and hopefully I'll get my Pinterest challenge post up then.

I recently "met" designer Lori May through our mutual blog friend Holly of West Pear Avenue.  Lori was recently featured on West Elm's blog, Front & Main, for this sitting area in a loft she designed.

Lori is featuring my daughter Mary's pink and orange room today on her blog.  Thank Lori!  Please stop by and say "hi" to Lori if you have a chance.

Hopefully, I will be back later with my Pinterest challenge.

Etsy Finds: Green and a West Elm Feature

I haven't done an Etsy Finds post in a while.  So, in honor of St. Patrick's day, here are some Etsy finds in green to add a wee bit o' the Irish to your home. 

Sources:

1/2/3

4/5/6

7/8/9

Nicole Scott was one of the participants in the One Room Challenge along with thirteen other bloggers and me. Nicole shared some exciting news this week.  Her bedroom, which she redesigned as part of the challenge, was featured on the West Elm blog Front & Main.

Isn't that moody gray and the gallery wall perfection?  Congrats to Nicole!  It was kind of thrilling to hear our little challenge mentioned by West Elm and for one of our own to be featured.

Happy weekend!!!

The One Room Challenge: Week 6: The REVEAL

The One Room Challenge wraps up this week and that means that the tranformation from nursery to big girl room is complete!  I have had so much fun participating in this challenge and meeting some new-to-me bloggers; but most importantly, I've created a room for my daughter that she likes. 

Here's where we started:

I kept the dresser and the bed, but that's about it.

I love the elephant print from the Pink Pagoda.  Mary loves the picture of our puppy wrapped in her blanket.

I made a few prints using Picnik.

My mom sewed this for me when I was a baby and it was in my room as a child:

Painted butterflies

Embroidery hoop collage

If you look closely, you can see the DIY ombre art and tissue paper pompoms on top.

 Here's another little print I made on Picnik.

I had to include this sweet baby picture as well as Mary's favorite stuffed animal, who she calls "Baby Jaguar."  He's missing an arm.

Here are links to some of the projects:

DIY Upholstered Headboard
Supersized picture
Striped Curtains
Painted table and lamp
Throw Pillows
Make your own prints
Ombre Art

Stop by some of the other One Room Challenge participants to see how their rooms turned out too!

Dutch.British.Love
Trapped in North Jersey
Nicole Scott Designs
Kim Macumber Interiors
Rue de Emily
The Pink Pagoda
refresheddesigns
Nana Moon Shop
Taylor Morgan Design
Insideways
My Crafty Home Life
House Four
Living Savvy
(A Lifestyle Thing)

Linked here:

Random Musings on New Pillows and Downton Abbey

I recently dropped off this stack of fabrics at the seamstress:

The seamstress is named Margie and her shop is called Margie's Stitch and Sew.  Margie is at least 80 years old, probably closer to 90.  Her business occupied a little storefront in my town until recently, when Margie slipped on the ice when coming in to work.  Now, she works out of her home and she gets around on a little scooter.

I asked Margie if she could make some piping to put around the pillows and how much it would cost to complete pillow covers.  She said it would be between $3 and $5, depending on the size.  I couldn't believe the price!  I left the fabric with Margie.  She didn't take down my name, phone number, or any other information.  She just told me to come back in a few days to see if the pillows were done.  I wasn't sure what to expect.

When I came back, I saw a stack of four pillows piled neatly in the corner.  I had asked for a simple envelope style cover, but Margie went ahead and put in invisible zippers.

I could tell she was not thrilled with my color choices.  She wasn't sure why I wanted orange piping on the pillows.  To each his own, right?

I'm thrilled with the way the pillows turned out.  My only complaint is that on the dog pillow above the fabric is upside down on the back - the dogs face one way on the front, and then they are upside down on the back.  But for $5, I am not complaining!

I will definitely be bringing more projects to Margie in the future.  My sewing skills are not good and it's worth paying a few dollars to avoid the frustration and time it would take me to sew something.

Come back on Wednesday to see the "big reveal" of Mary's room as the One Room Challenge wraps up.

In other news, who watches Downton Abbey?

I watched the season finale last night.  Big K, who has watched maybe three episodes, even got teary eyed at several points during the show.  It was SO good and now I'm anxiously awaiting season three.  Does anyone know when it comes out?

Check out the Downton Abbey site on the PBS website while we're waiting for the next season.  If you are freakishly slightly obsessed with the show, the website has all kinds of video clips, cast interviews, and other interesting stuff to keep you occupied.

This weekend, I also watched True Grit.  Talk about the opposite of Downton Abbey! Big K has been bugging me to watch this with him for awhile.  I wasn't interesting in seeing it because I thought it would be a boring Western.  I was wrong.  It was a great movie and I would highly recommend it if you haven't seen it.

The One Room Challenge: Week 5

We are in the home stretch of the One Room Challenge!  If you are just joining us, 15 bloggers have been challenged to completely makeover one room in six weeks.  I'm working on my daughter Mary's room.

I have a confession to make.  I didn't do a single thing in Mary's room this week...and there's only one week left until the end of the challenge.  Yikes!  I only have a few small projects left and here's hoping I get to them this week.

Remember this mirror that I showed you last week?

My super-junker friend Cindy found it for me.  She also found these butterflies:

I think they would look really cute painted and hung on the wall.  On the other hand, I'm afraid the room is getting to busy and I don't want too much "stuff" in the room.  I might put them in my other daughter's room.

Cindy also found this adorable little chair.

At first, I thought about spray painting it, but I think the golden color is pretty.  It just needs some foam and pretty fabric on the seat.  Again, I'm not sure if this will go in Mary's room or in my other daughter's room.  I guess you'll just have to wait and see!

Now, go check out the other One Week Challenge-ers to see some real progress.  Be sure to stop back next week.  I promise you a completed room then!


Dutch.British.Love
Trapped in North Jersey
Nicole Scott Designs
Kim Macumber Interiors
Rue de Emily
The Pink Pagoda
refresheddesigns
Nana Moon Shop
Taylor Morgan Design
Insideways
My Crafty Home Life
House Four
Living Savvy
(A Lifestyle Thing)

Linked here:

The One Room Challenge: Week 4

It's Wednesday.  That means it's time for another installment of the One Room Challenge!  Fifteen bloggers have been challenged to complete a room within six weeks.  We are now on Week Four, over half way done.

I am working on my three-year old daughter's room.  The process has been going along pretty smoothly...up until this week.  This week I had a couple of project failures, but some successes as well.

Let's start with a positive.  My friend Cindy is a thrifter/picker/junker extraordinaire.  She can find all kinds of cool things that can be transformed.  She brought me a few items this week for Mary's room.  One of which is this yellow mirror:

A few coats of white spray paint later:

I also had some embroidery hoops that I hung on the wall filled with different scraps of fabric.
This is a simple and inexpensive project that can cover a lot of wallspace.  I think it looks cute too!

Don't they look like colorful polka dots?  I found a few more hoops at the thrift store that I'm planning on adding to the wall.  I was just waiting for some new fabric to arrive in the mail.

Speaking of fabric, look what arrived on Tuesday!

I'll be bringing some of these to the seamstress this week for throw pillows.

I originally thought this huge picture was a failure, but it has started to grow on me.  I like how the black and white tones down the brightness of the other colors in the room.  Best of all, Mary LOVES the big picture of herself. 

Look here for a tutorial on how I made this picture.

We also tried to hang the headboard using flush mount hardware.  I think hanging the headboard is more difficult than actually making it.  As you can see, I still need to straighten and lower the headboard.  Hopefully that will happen this week.

Here's a failure that will be repainted this week or next:

Painting the orange line was not as easy as I thought it was going to be.  Steady hands are not one of my better qualities.  I think it makes the dresser look a bit busy too...especially with everything else going on in the room.

One more positive.  I received this cute picture in the mail on Tuesday. I bought it from the Paper Sparrow on Etsy.

Mary is obsessed (to put it mildly) with "baby jaguars."  She loves all things leopard/cheetah print and we all must refer to her as "Baby Jaguar."  If we call her "Mary," she'll probably ignore us.  Did you see the jacket she's wearing in the huge print above?  When I hung up the picture of her in her jacket, she started jumping up and down and cheering, "Look!  It's baby jaguar!"

In case you missed the earlier posts, here they are:

Week One
Week Two
Week Three


Be sure to check out some of the other bloggers to see how their rooms are coming together.

Dutch.British.Love
Trapped in North Jersey
Nicole Scott Designs
Kim Macumber Interiors
Rue de Emily
The Pink Pagoda
refresheddesigns
Nana Moon Shop
Taylor Morgan Design
Insideways
My Crafty Home Life
House Four
Living Savvy
(A Lifestyle Thing)

The One Room Challenge: Week Three: New Furniture and Art

We are into week three of the One Week Challenge!  It's fun to watch everyone's rooms coming together.  In case you missed the previous weeks, I'm transforming my three-year old daughter's room from nursery to big-girl room.  Here are links to Week One (introduction and paint color) and Week Two (upholstered headboard and striped curtains).

This week brought some brand new furniture and a furniture piece that received a makeover.  I knew an Ikea Expedit bookcase would be perfect for the room.  However, the nearest Ikea is more than four hours away.  Luckily for me, my parents were coming to visit.  Before they left Minnesota, they stopped by their local Ikea and picked up a few things for me.  My parents were so sweet to deliver these things and also to help me put them together!

Here's Mary's new bookcase.

I still need to purchase some baskets and fill the shelves.

Next, I went "shopping" out in my garage for a bedside table.  I found this cute little end table waiting for a makeover.  I've had this table for a while, but wasn't sure what to do with it because it's missing a drawer.  I just put this side against the wall in Mary's room and no one knows about the gaping hole.

This table was in near-perfect condition.  I did a very light sanding, sprayed it with my favorite Kilz primer, gave it another light sanding and a few coats of Rustoleum Painter's Touch spray paint in orange.  This is the best spray paint in my opinion.  It covers very well and seems to be more durable than some of the other brands.  I let the paint dry and then sprayed it with several coats of poly.

Here's how the table looks now.

As I was shopping the garage, I also found this lamp.  My husband made this in a highschool woodworking class at least thirty years ago.  I think he's happy that he got to contribute to Mary's room too!

I had already started spraying it with primer when I remembered to snap a before shot.
Some primer and white spray paint, and it looks like a new lamp!

I had a drum shade I purchased a while ago on clearance at Target and some leftover pompom trim that I hotglued onto the shade.

Here's a picture of Mary's dresser.

This was the very first piece of furniture that I painted, just over one year ago.  I didn't know about blogging back then, so I don't have any "before" pictures to share.  It has a distressed white finish and crystal knobs.  I'm not sure if I should keep it as it is or if I should change it.  What do you think???  I was thinking of painting it a bright white semi-gloss or maybe just adding a thin orange line on the detail on the drawer fronts?  Maybe some new hardware?  Maybe I won't do anything?  What are your thoughts?

In other news, I ordered a print from the Pink Pagoda and it arrived this week.  I love this pink and orange elephant!  I placed it in a Ribba frame from Ikea and spray painted the mat to match the bedside table.

This elephant is also the reason that I'm participating in the One Room Challenge.  When I ordered in on Etsy, I mentioned to the seller that I was redoing my daughter's room.   She told me about the challenge and invited me to participate.  I'm continually amazed by the connections we are able to make through the internet and blogging!

Yesterday I posted some fabrics I was considering for pillows.  Check it out here.

Be sure to check out some of the other bloggers to see how their rooms are coming together too.

Dutch.British.Love
Trapped in North Jersey
Nicole Scott Designs
Kim Macumber Interiors
Rue de Emily
The Pink Pagoda
refresheddesigns
Nana Moon Shop
Taylor Morgan Design
Insideways
My Crafty Home Life
House Four
Living Savvy
(A Lifestyle Thing)

Linked here: