DIY:Target wall art

It's after midnight and I'm getting up to drive to b'town in the morning. Point being I should probably be in bed. However, I can't sleep. So, what do I do instead? I design wall art. Sounds so professional. Don't get your hopes too high.

I fell in love with this Target Wall Art a few months ago while perusing the clearance aisles at Target. Of course this wasn't on sale. But it was beautiful. You can search through these and more lovelies here.

I really would love to have this sitting atop my new white dresser. No I didn't find one yet, but I can imagine it so perfectly in my mind. This dark, bold blue accented against the crisp clean white furniture and canvas curtains. I can almost feel it.

But, at $29 per frame, I had to walk right on by. Each time I do, I say to myself "Pfft...29 dollas?? I could sooooo make that for much less." Then I go home and forget all about it. Not tonight.

I ran home and got right to designing. Photoshopping my little heart out. The Target Art was a little to "floral" for me anyways, so I was happy to make some adjustments. And, after a few different rough drafts, here's my latest creation. You will have to just imagine the frame.

I can't wait to get it printed!

If I weren't doing this to save money, I would totally get it printed on a canvas. And no I didn't expect you to guess it, but yes, the middle block is the exact same stamp I am using for the block printing on my rug! All about the details people. :)

Since I already have a frame, I will just have to pay for the print which brings my grand total to: $4.86. Take that Target! (I still love you.) I'm contemplating doing 2 smaller matching prints - one with the middle print and another with the outside print - and framing those next to the large one. That would up my printing cost to $6.86. Yipers. Under 7 buckaroos for all 3. I'll take it.

Welp, It's now past the 1 o'clock hour so I better get some beauty sleep. I am spending the day tomorrow with Jen and her babes. I obviously pumped or I wouldn't be up photoshop designing at 1am.

G'nighty Night!

One of these things is not like the other

I finished one project this past week. Another I did not.

Unfortunately, the project I finished wasn't even my project. I know, I know, I'm never going to get around to getting my bed done if I don't just do it. But I am stuck. Really. I have painted it and sanded it and glazed it and assembled it...and its just not right. It looks absolutely gorgeous construction-wise. With a few little adjustments it's perfect. However, it looks dirty. That's right, dirty. And no, I'm not being over dramatic here. I have had a few people validate my fears. So, I'm opening up discussion for any advice on how to "antique" a white bed. I've painted and antiqued many things before, but I guess never have I done it with new wood. It's a whole new monster. Pine soaks up the paint and when you sand it, you don't get that old, dark wood peeking through. You get gross light pine which just makes it look unfinished. I have spoken with 3 "professionals" and all told me to use this Mocha Glaze from Lowes. So I did. The pine showing through looks a little darker, but everywhere I used it on the white paint just makes it look gross. I'm stuck. I don't want this bed to forever disappoint me. I want to love it. I need help.

So, here are the main questions:

Can I paint another coat even though it's assembled now? Will it not just get stuck in all the cracks? Should I have picked a darker white? I didn't want it to be yellow-y but maybe that would help?

How do I use this glaze without looking dirty? (I've tried all the tricks...water down/not water down/wipe off immediately/let dry for a few seconds/etc...)

Anyone know any other finishing techniques besides using this mocha glaze, because I have a feeling nothing I'm going to do it going to work?

Oh, but the project we did finish ended up just loverly:

Meet Kris' new dresser/hutch:

before:

after:

Kris and I seriously finished this in about 3 hours...hardware and all. Oh, and did I mention the entire project cost her less than $50? Welp, it did.

Now if only I could get my bed finished...

Unfinished Business

So, thumbing through our wedding photos to find the perfect image for my v-day post made me realize that I'm a sub-par bride. It's been approximately 929 days since we were married and I have yet to order our wedding books. Now before you freak out on me, I am not one of those brides who is making their photographer steam because I still haven't finalized my album design. (besides, even if I was, I would just be making myself mad, because I am the chicka who works for my wedding photog who designs the wedding books, but that's another complicated story :)...

Anyways, all to say, my wedding package didn't include books, and so I always said I would create my own. I have access to all the amazing book companies, but I still just can't bring myself to pay even the at-cost prices for those companies. I've looked into a few other consumer book companies and just have never been sold. Until now. I think I have finally decided. But, I'll wait to announce the company until after I am 100% sure and have pressed the "confirm order" button. Because there's a decent chance I will change my mind. It's what I do :)

So, reminiscing over images & creating book page layouts is what kept me up into the wee hours of the morning. Here's a preview of what I've come up with (disregard the blue border):

And, of course, I can't say thanks enough to Kyle for capturing our day so beautifully.

Now if I could only bring myself to actually order the book, all would be well :)

Never Let it End

Note: This was supposed to go up yesterday but I guess I never posted it...better later than never, right?

Never let it end, God,

never - please -

all this growing loveliness

all of these

brief moments of

fresh pleasure -

never let it end.

Let us always

be a little breathless

at love’s beauty;

never let us

pause to reason

from a sense of duty;

never let us

stop to measure

just how much to give;

never let us

stoop to weigh love;

let us live -

and live!

Please, God,

let our hearts kneel always,

Love their only master,

knowing the warm impulsiveness

of shattered alabaster:

I know you can see things

the way a new bride sees,

so

never let it end, God,

never - please.

-Ruth Bell Graham

Bryan and I received a little book of Ruth Bell Graham's poetry on our wedding day from a family member. It was only a few days after we got home from the honeymoon and started unpacking that I opened it up and couldn't stop reading. While reading (and loving) all of the poems in this little book, I came across this one. "Never let it End." After all the new emotion, our beautiful wedding, and an amazing week of honeymooning in the Mayan Riviera, I couldn't put it in better words myself; "never let this end, God, never please - all this growing loveliness, all of these brief moments of fresh pleasure, never let it end."

This continues to be my prayer 2 years later. When reality hits and bad days and bad moods enter our lives - I'm reminded to "never stop to measure how much love to give," Because it is all too true how quickly things can shatter.

Happy Valentines day to my love.

May we always be a little breathless...

Room Layout Options

According to my husband what I have spent my day doing is "weird." I don't get it. Am I really the only one who would do this?

Here's where it all started: I've been going back and forth with dresser ideas (I know, shocker...) and I think I may have come to a happy middle. Many wise people told me the cubby idea was cool, but maybe not too practical. When I started looking at the basket sizes I was faced with the reality that 2-3 items of clothing was all I was going to be able to fit per basket without them overflowing. And with my inability to fold and put away clothing neatly, I just have to veto the idea. I cringe just imagining being able to see into baskets of un-perfectly folded clothing. What was I thinking? I'm still not giving up on my perfect antique dresser search, because there is still time, but for now I'm looking into a different option I found at Ikea. I'm embarrassed to even show yet another idea because it proves my inability to make decisions, but here it is. Check out the Vallvik dressers. Solid wood, check. Good price, check. 6 drawers, check. Short and long, not so much. Short, yes, but only 55" long. Most 6 drawer dressers are at least 63" long. Ugh. What now? Well, Bryan came up with an idea that at first I was totally against, but is growing on me more and more. Now hold on to your seats people, but I'm actually contemplating getting both the 3 drawer and the 6 drawer dresser to create an amazingly long dresser. I know, it's crazy. And expensive. No, not expensive. For 2 dressers this is probably cheap, borderline ridiculously cheap. But if you know anything about me, you know I'm about to throw up just thinking about spending that much money on dressers. Ugh. So, ignore the price tag and don't judge me, just look at the dressers and dream with me.

So, to really know if my idea was going to work, I needed to see it. Not see the dresser, but see the room. See the vision. Feel the space. Maybe I really am weird.

Anyways, I designed the room. Took measurements and then created a miniature, yet perfectly proportioned, replica of our bedroom. I'm a graphic designer people, back off.

Welcome.

Option # 1

Option # 2

Option # 3

The biggest issue we have is the windows. I'm pretty sure whoever designed this room was not thinking about furniture placement. There is nowhere to put a bed that is not in front of a window or just plain awkward. And yes, I know there is one whole wall with no windows but have you ever walked into a bedroom and not seen the foot of the bed? It's the weirdest feeling ever. Totally bad chi. Not that I even know chi, but if I did, it's gotta be about the worst chi decision you could make. That's just out of the question. Plus, I'm not putting all this time, effort, and hard earned dolla bills into making a bed and side tables just to hide them on the back wall where no one can see them. Not happening peeps. :) So, again, the only 2 walls that are actually options are filled with oddly placed windows. No matter what I do, the window will be partially covered. With a taller headboard now, I have to be even more careful cover no more than half of the window as to not block out all the wonderful natural light.

Time to vote. Let me know what you think. Or I'm totally open for suggestions of other layouts. Just keep in mind I do not, I repeat do not do angled furniture. The chair being slightly angled is something I have accepted only after months of counseling, but I will do no more.

Okay, okay, it's official, I am weird.

Ready, set, feedback.

I'm Thinking...

About giving up on my dresser dreams.

Yup. Just giving up. I don't think the perfect dresser exists. Sure, I have found a few on craigslist, but none that I would even think about paying for. People in central IL stink at selling their old crap. They get emotionally attached and think that someone else wants to pay $400 for their 20 year old broken ugly dresser. Not this chica. Ugh.

So, I'm thinking about giving up and going a new direction. Ikea has this cubical bookcase for about $70.

Imagine with me: Lay it on it's side, top it with a cool table runner and accessories, and then If I could just find a great deal on some storage baskets to fill the holes I could use them for my clothes. Perfect? "No.... you can't use a bookcase as a dresser!" "And you surely can't put your clothes in baskets." Says who? There are no "rules" to this decor game. Sew me.

Looking for some baskets like these ones at Land of Nod:

or these (ikea):

So, unless anyone out there can find me a cute antique dresser for less than $70, I'm giving up.

And in other news, I've been playing around with some rubber mat designs for my rug-redo project. I'd hate to spend any money on a mat and hate the pattern in the end, so I've found 2 mats I like and photoshopped them onto a "rug." Here are my 2 favorite options.

The first is from Crate and Barrel:(sorry for the wonky picture uploads...not sure why they are all weird sized)

And this one is from Sears:

What's your vote?

Bedroom Overhaul: Part II

Slow and steady wins the race, right? I sure hope so because we are apparently taking our sweet time with this project :)

Thought I would throw up some pictures of some of the progress.

1) Bed: We bought and cut all of the wood. It didn't look like much, but believe you me it is.

Painting this many boards takes a looooong time. Like 5 hours to be exact. Per coat. No joke. Because of the blizzardous conditions out, we are painting in our basement and therefore our space is limited.

Oh and yes, watching paint dry truly is the ultimate boredom. Unless of course you watch the entire season 11 of Law and Order: SVU.

We primed and painted the first coat. The white I selected was a bit too "bright white" for my taste once I got it home, so we got another slightly darker white. But that means another coat of paint.

Another 5 hours. Oh and incase we were keeping track I still have another coat of paint to do in the bathroom remodel from 3 weeks ago. Painting is not one of my favorite things.

For the love.

But,it's coming along. After the paint we will use this stuff called "mocha glaze" to darken the edges and make it look a little more antiqued. Then, it's party time. aka: assembly. Can't wait!

2) Side Tables:

We decided to do the "Simple stools." We have enough left over scrap wood to make them for free. Anything free = amazing. So, I'll take it. I'm thinking I will paint them blue or green for a color pop...still deciding. Maybe chocolate brown...oh the options. Any thoughts?

3) Lighting:

Ugh..Lighting. Somedays I care, somedays I don't. On an "I don't care" day, I found a boxed set of lamps at Target for crazy cheap. We've been looking for 2 side table lamps for the bedroom and a tall lamp for the living room. Viola. Perfection. I mean perfection if you don't care at all about getting cute lamps with any character. On that day I didn't care. Everyday after, I did. The tall lamp works perfectly in the living room, so it wasn't a total waste, but I just don't think the smaller ones are going to work. They are so dull.

What is definitely not dull is the $1.50 small blue glass lamp I found at a thrift store over the weekend. Yup. All it needs is a cool shade and it will be amazing. 1 lamp down, 1 to go. Boring lamps will take their place in our guest room for now.

4) New ideas:

The longer I take to finish this project, the more small projects I will add. It's a sickness, I know. I am working on taking our boring off white area rug and turning it into something like this:

(Project found here)

It's okay to drool, I did. :)

Bryan isn't aware of my desire to blockstamp our area rug, but I feel like this is the best way to break it to him. Who am I kidding, he doesn't read my blog...well...not my fault. He's been officially warned.

Framed art. The last project I have been working on is framing my favorite poem as art for the room. Yup, I guess do have a sappy side. A love poem for bedroom art? Yes, please :)

I snagged this amazing frame at Goodwill for $8. It had a $59 price tag from World Market originally. Love me a good deal.

Off white and distressed. Detail detail detail. It was meant to be. And it's big enough to hang on the wall with a couple other frames. One thing that makes me cringe is when people hang small pictures on large walls. No, you don't have to be annoyingly large, but fill your space people. Please. Now I shall get down off of my soap box.

Moving on...So, I typed up and printed out the poem on a piece of canvas. Only took me 4 different printers which all happened to be out of ink before I finally got it to work. It's a little hard to read, but I'll take what I can get for now. The faded look is actually pretty perfect. Someday down the road I may attempt to print it better. Or I may not. We shall see.

Welp, stay tuned - I promise to keep you updated :)

On another note, I found my Christmas decor pictures tonight, is it kosher to blog those almost 2 months after I took them down? My blog. My choice.

Off to catch up on Grey's and fall asleep reading the latest Flannigan drama...