i officially joined the club

This club, that is.

I don't really pin any of all the creative ideas and do-it-yourself's that are all over Pinterest. I'm more into pinning anything that makes me happy or inspires me instead of collecting tons of DIY ideas. I do use the Pinterest search engine every now and then though if I'm interested in looking for something specific. Like window valances.

I was just going to have one made. I even went to a fabric store on Saturday to put in my order. Then, today I started getting curious if there might be some easy way for me to make it myself. Because that would be much quicker than waiting on someone else to sew one. So I typed in "window valances" into the search option.

I knew I found a winner when all that was needed was fabric, a hot glue-gun, straight pins and a polystyrene panel from Lowes {6 panels for $10!}. I went by Lowes on my way home and got the Perma foam panels and ran by the dollar store for a bunch of straight pins. I followed this tutorial and it literally took me under 30 minutes before I had a window valance on my window.

Notice the fabric? I've had it a while. The only thing I did different from the tutorial is that instead of nailing or straight pinning the valance to the window molding, I just made sure the two sides I hot-glued to the panel were tight enough for me to just slide the panel over the molding. So simple.

DIY Fall Wreath

 It's amazing how empty my brain can be until just one look at something can instantly set off ideas. I guess that happens because until I see that something can look so great, I never imagine that it could actually work. Like this wreath I made in about 10 minutes. The idea would have never occurred to me if I did not run across this: 

I wasn't even searching for ideas for our front door even though I needed something, but when I saw this wreath in an HGTV online article about easy accessorizing with metallic spray paint, it specifically mentioned "sprucing up an inexpensive wreath".

I first thought about running out and getting a cheap wreath similar to the one above, but then I remembered some garland we had in storage. We already had gold spray paint and a hot glue gun, so I figured I would try out what we had and see if it came together. I first hot-glued the garland in the shape of a wreath, then spray-painted. While it was drying I pulled out some of my unused zig-zag fabric and cut off a strip.  

Now, I'm completely aware my little do-it-yourself project didn't exactly turn out as fancy as the one in the article, but I decided to use what I had instead of buying new materials and it took very little time and hardly any effort. And because of that I'm extra satisfied with the outcome!

 

 

a personal touch

I am about a year behind getting some Las Vegas pictures on the wall {or even developed at all}. I have the hardest time getting my pictures from my camera to an album or a frame. But an idea had sparked to get some 5x7's and 8x10's of our year old trip and make a small collage of them on a wall in our house. So when I finally had the hard copies, I then went off to find some frames to paint for my idea to come together.

easy wrapping

I tried hard to not labor over wrapping this year. I love wrapping since it's part of Christmas, but wrapping dozens of gifts is not so good for this back of mine! I did a few "gift baskets", which were either nice huge serving bowls or seagrass baskets that included all the gifts inside going to that one person and then wrapped it up in cellophane and tied up with a bow. For the rest I had boxes from years previous but using only the ones that still looked new, I tied them with bows and then I purchased ornaments {2 for $1 at Dollar Tree} to tie on to the bows. It turned out to be much less work than normal wrapping!

day-o-fabric

Saturday, my new iPhone 4 followed me around and it was a day all about fabric. I have been inspired by Wendy, who is on a roll with her home design projects. Last Sunday, I was out and about snapping pictures of rugs, lamps and side tables and sending them to her for feedback. And by the end of day, I was able to transform our den with just a few small tweaks. I am so pleased with the results! So, this weekend it was all about fabric because I have now moved onto the dining area and was looking to cover our dining room chairs and for 10" curtain panels.This time I had Wendy to accompany me and she was persistent on this fabric below.
See what I mean:
I left with 2 yards of the blue zig zag.
Fabric hunting can make you very hungry. So, I met my brother for some lunch.
And then had to go into Lounge. This mirror had me sidetracked from fabric for a moment. And that ottoman reflecting in the mirror. Don't you love it!
And my last stop for the day was to Persnickety to see if they still had this certain tree decor that I fell in love with. And they did!
And so I certainly left with all they had left to run home and finally finish decorating our tree!

a little transformation

This Karen Kane number was gifted [thanks to Emily Anne for pulling it for me!] from ginger's. Since it was so long when I put it on {almost as if it was a tunic}, I strategically snipped off the tied bow, which was attached to the neck area of the top like the pink & white one below. I carefully only cut the thread that was attaching the ribbon to the top, watching closely not to cut the top itself or the ribbon itself. Once it was off, I tied the ribbon around my waist and voila!

5 days before Christmas...

What we are doing 5 days before Christmas...

Getting crafty and making gifts for mine and Wesley's co-workers, {I saw this on another blog and it looked so easy that I decided I could do it!}

Getting crafty with gift wrapping....
Spending time with family.... and extended family, {my sister-in-law's adorable Westie!}

And Wesley's new obsession: making smoothies. So much an obsession that I get asked every morning, "coffee or smoothie?". Um, coffee please! {This is a 10:00 PM smoothie by the way.}