Interior Design Bingo: Flowers

Chris and I saved his boutonnière from the wedding and I decided I wanted to display it in a shadow box next to my vanity in our bedroom. I was lucky enough to score a free shadow box from my sister-in-law when she was cleaning out a closet. It was raw wood when I got it so I spray painted the outside white and painted the inside with a purple that matches the mirror that is already in there.

(sorry for the glare)

I put our unofficial monogram from the wedding in the bottom right corner to commemorate the day.

(again, sorry for the glare)

I've been wanting to complete this project since, oh ya know {APRIL}, so I'm glad that I finally got around to it. I haven't hung it up yet because I am waiting for my lovely husband to spray paint a few other frames for me to put Barbie sketches in. I want to wait and hang them all at the same time. 

I originally had the idea of framing the Barbie sketches after I got a Thank You card with one of them on it. I was on a hunt for the rest of the card series when I stumbled upon a calendar at Bed, Bath, & Beyond and decided that would be even better. Well evidently someone beat me to the punch because I saw it on Pinterest. Such is life. Here is what it will look like (except I plan on only framing 2 or 3):

I can't decide which 2 or 3 to use!

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I'm participating in the Interior Design Bingo challenge hosted by His Birdie's Nest- check out her blog for more info and for a list of participating bloggers.

Interior Design Bingo

A blog that I follow, Love & Renovations, is participating in an Interior Design Bingo and I decided it would be fun to play along.

It's a 30-day photography challenge. Each day you post something interior-design related. There are 30 different prompts and you decide on your own interpretation of each and the order you want to do them in.

I think it sounds really fun and maybe it will get me to blog regularly. I'll want to *try* to post at least every other day.

I brainstormed a few ideas already, now I just need to take pictures. I will probably take a lot of them this weekend since I will have some light. Have you adjusted to driving to work in the dark and driving home in the dark? This is my least favorite time of the year. Each night I have to convince myself it is only 7:30, not 10:30 which is my bedtime.

Back to the topic at hand...after I read through the prompts I realized there are still a lot of things I want to get done around here! A few of them I will have to get creative with like wallpaper and mid century modern.



**Interior Design Bingo created by hisbirdiesnest.

Room Redo: Guest Room to Studio

I'm taking vacation at the end of this month and am planning on converting our Guest Room to my Studio.

Studio = fancy pants name for Craft Room

The reason we decided (it was actually Chris's idea) to make the change is because I love crafting but don't do it as often as I would like. It's a pretty big pain to drag everything out from the Guest Bedroom closet, set it out on the Dining Room table, hopefully finish my project in one sitting, and then clean it all up when I'm done (instead of shutting the door behind me and leaving the clean up for the next day). Wouldn't that deter you from crafting too?

And for the record, don't be fooled into thinking that I keep everything put away nicely in the closet. Guests wouldn't even be able to stay in that room in the shape it's in right now. It's a craft explosion in there right now. I did clean it up from this disaster but it's on its way to looking like that again. 

Shameful, I know.

Anyway, I've been pinning a few things that I like for the room.

The current color scheme I think I'm leaning towards is teal, dark lime (similar to the cubes in the 

picture below), white, and yellow accents. 

I'm sure there are few naysayers of my color palette mixed but I can see the vision. Trust me.

See how it can come together in real life?

via www.younghouselove.com

via Design Star Season 6

via Design Star Season 6

I need a pegboard to hold paint brushes, markers, ribbon, etc.

via Pinterest

I can use a few leftover Mason Jars from the Wedding for this...maybe on the pegboard?

 

 both via Pinterest

I LOVE this giant "Inspiration" board. 

Chalkboard, Pegboard, Cork board, Dry Erase board all-in-one!

via Pinterest

I'll definitely be needing one of these from IKEA for more storage.

I also want to try to either make Chevron curtains or canvases. I don't really want to do anything too permanent with Chevrons like painting the wall since they are pretty hot trend right now and I'm not sure how long I'm going to like it. 

I love chevrons...

more chevrons

I'd also like to try to paint upholstery and up-cycle a chair from Craigslist like this:

seems risky

I'm pretty excited about the room makeover. 

Hopefully I can get it done all in one week. Fingers crossed!

So, what do you think? Love or hate the colors?

Any other ideas for clever storage? Or low budget decorations?

P.S.   Sherry- this one is for you.

The Griswald's

(you can click on picture to make it bigger)

Chris really did a great job this year with the Christmas lights at our house. 

I LOVED THEM! 

When I was growing up my Dad always put out Candy Cane sticks made out of plastic pipe and red electrical tape. Well this year I decided I needed some so Chris helped me cut them and then get them in the ground. I think this will be the last year I will be able to use my little penguin from Walgreen's. He is very wobbly and his arms always fall off, embarrassing for him. We even got them all taken down and put away on New Year's day. There are still about 4 houses in our neighborhood that still have their lights up. At least they don't turn them on...

My Favorite Collector's Item

Need I say more?

I found this little gem at H&M in Seattle. 

I decided to pass on this purchase because there were a few other items that I could NOT leave the store without. Plus- I don't know if I would have been brave enough to sport that on the street! 

I guess I could have added it to my collection in the laundry room...

I'm back-

So the semester is almost over [I have to take finals nest week] and I think I can finally breath. At least until January 12th (that's when class starts again).

So for those of you that haven't seen it- I would like to introduce you to our living room:

I'm really happy with how the gray walls turned out.

The TV is opposite the sofa. The black cat is from halloween  I have had these pictures uploaded for a long time and never got around to posting them. Everytime I would walk past the cast I would catch a glimpse of it out of the corner of my eye or in the mirrors on that table and think it was real. Literally- every time. You would think over the one thousandth time I would remember that it was there.

The sofa table is my favorite piece in this room.

I saw on Etsy that moss terrariums were all the rage this summer and I decided I wanted for about one second. Then I realized that I didn't want to keep up with it, clean the vase, etc so I found these fake moss rocks and tossed them into this birdcage. I think a lot of people don't "get it" because everyone has to get a closer look at what's in there. It's kind of funny- but I like it so that's what counts I guess. :)

I love my owl lamp. Enough said.

Our huge dining room table that we have squeezed into both apartments finally has a real home. We upgraded our chairs when we upgraded our living space. The chairs that came with the table literally fell apart. It was embarrassing when guests came over and we had to point out 4 of the 6 chairs NOT to sit in.

Finally our picture collage in the entry. My Nana and Grampy had a picture collage in the hallway in their house when I was growing up and I always wanted to have one too. Mine is a little different spin on theirs (they never had a dress form hanging on the wall) but it's exactly what I wanted.

Our house is perfect for hosting. There is plenty of room for everyone to sit. I love it.

Rub-a-dub-dub

I'm so glad I decided to take on one more stripe project. I love how our bathroom turned out. Rhino and all...

I had left over blue from our bedroom and leftover gray from the living room so I decided to give it a go in the bathroom. We got the blue towels as a housewarming gift. They match almost perfectly! I can't seem to find anymore of them anywhere so I think I am going to get a few gray ones as well.

                                   

I picked up these prints at IKEA originally for the bedroom but then once I got the bathroom finished I realized they were a perfect match.

                                              

I saw this floor to ceiling shower curtain on a blog that I stalk and I HAD to HAVE it! Chris complains that it blocks that light and I agree, but shhhh don't tell him. I'm sure most of you remember our bathtub saga. Our salesman promised us a garden tub and they installed a regular sized tub. Very disappointing. Well you know me- I always get my way ;) so they agreed to change it out to a garden tub at no extra cost. Chris did most of the leg work to get them to agree to do so. I don't think he wanted to hear me whine about the tub for the next 30 years. 

                                   

And finally...our rhinoceros. I love him. Isn't it ridiculous? I know right now you are agreeing it is ridiculous, but I will have you know that it is backordered online until 12/1/09. So it's a pretty hot commodity.

Hotel Brown Sugar

Ta-da! Here is our guest room. I'm not sure why I haven't posted this sooner since this room has been done for about a month now.

We decided to donate all of our old decorations to the guests. That way- I could get new decorations for our new room!

Chris and I have already spent a night in Hotel Brown Sugar while we were painting our room. We decided it would be best to stay in the guest room so we weren't sniffing paint all night long!

Eventually I want to paint this room. I just don't know what color yet so it might be a while. Any suggestions?

Happy Halloweenie

I was going to wait and put my Halloween decorations up after the Housewarming party, but I just couldn't contain myself. I put them out at about 11:30p on September 30th!

I love the little "spooky" and "beware" signs 

I scored on the $2.50 rack at Target.

Batty Love Buttons flying in my mums. 

The wings are on springs so they flap in the wind. Love it.

Sadly I can not find the rest of my rest of my Halloween decor. Who knows where to start...

What are you going to be for Halloween this year?

Pretty Pretty Princess

Well at least that's what I feel like sitting at my vanity.

The chair is on loan from the dining room until I can get my Lucite (clear) chair replaced from work. I special ordered one and when I got it home it was missing hardware and there was a scratch on it. Boo. I'll re post the true final product once it gets there.

Those are snazzy placemats from tar-jay that I put together to create a protective "desk pad".

I scored that little jewelry tree from Marshall's a looooong time ago and had forgotten all about it.

It was like Christmas unwrapping it.

My very own makeup aisle in a drawer. I love it.

Macy was pretty impressed, that counts for something.

Once again, the other side of the room is still "under construction". Hope to have the finalized sometime in the near future.