Bedroom Overhaul: Part 1

My Christmas gift from Bryan was a master bedroom makeover.

Oh, how he loves me.

We have had to postpone the project a few weeks, but that's okay because it only gives me longer to dream :)

Here's our plan (thus far)

1) New Bed: Picture and plans found on www.ana-white.com. She's brilliant. Check it out here.

Yes, we are making this ourselves. Yes, I think it's very possible. And yes, we plan to paint it white and distress it. Oh, and my wonderful husband did the unthinkable. Hold on to your hats ladies...yep...he bought me Pottery Barn bedding. I think he's pretty cool. Oh, and even cooler because he bought it on clearance and used a couple gift cards we earned as rewards so it cost us pennies, but looks like gold!

I'll keep the style a secret for the final reveal :)

2) Side tables: We are looking at a few different options. They are both from Ana-White as well. The first is more typical bed-table-ish, but we are working with limited space. So, we are contemplating option 2 because I love the unique/simple-ness of just a fun colored stool.

3) Lighting:

Completely at a loss here. I want something vintage-y, yet cottage-y, yet in my budget. Which is low people. Here are some lamps from Pottery Barn I've been pining over, but never going to spend the money on:

Lamps are one thing that definitely can't be "hand-made" (not by me at least). So I fear this is going to be the hardest purchase. I'm headed out today to hit up goodwill and the Habitat ReStore and hope for some good finds :)

Dresser: This one will take some time. I'm picky, and, oh, did I mention cheap? I search craigslist every morning and will wait my little heart out until I find the perfect antique dresser that I can restore and distress white. Wish me luck!

Other "accessories" like curtains, some re-furbished picture frames, and possibly a canvas art project are all in the works, but we will just have to see how that all goes. I'm also contemplating repainting the whole bedroom...yikes.

No worries, I will keep you updated fo sho.

Out with a bang...

Nothing says "out with a bang" like a tornado on New Years Eve. Yup, leave it to good ole' central Illinois to have snow and tornados in the same weekend. I'm almost 100% sure that we went 364 days in the year 2010 without even a tornado scare. Seriously, if anyone would know it would be me. I'm a tornado-freak like that. (Aka - scared to death of dark skies) So, yes, 364 days in and I'm golden. Then day 365 arrives. And, boom, tornado.

and that's the end of my story.

Oh, wait. Did I forget to mention that our car was killed in this tornado? oops.

Happy New Year :)

Here's to 2011!

A Simple Sewing Project

Nothing for me is ever a simple sewing project. FYI.

Up and at'um at 7:00 this morning. Daylight Savings has made me a new person :)

Anyways, I found a cute shirt at Old Navy yesterday. However, even though the tag read XS, it was nothing of the sort. But for a mere 4.99, I couldn't pass it up.

Back to this morning. Woke up early. So I decided that I would just do a little stitchity-stich up the side seams of the shirt and it would be golden. No one would ever know (except that now I am putting it on the world wide web. So technically, everyone knows.) I digress.

Put the shirt in the sewing machine and what do you know, I get about 2.5 inches in and my bobbin runs out of thread. (For those non-sewers in the house, it's the underneath thread that is super important to finishing the full stitch.) I was not lucky enough to realize that it was out until I went all the way down the seam, took out my shirt to marvel at my masterpiece, and found no stitch. Annoying for sure. I sucked it up and moved on.

Wind a new bobbin. check. (Though it wasn't that easy because I forgot how to do it so I had to pull out the old manual. 25 minutes later bobbin is wound. check.)

Sew half inch in on both sides. Try on. No luck. Still look like a hippo. Really old navy? I can take a whole 2 inches of fabric out and still looks bad. Ugh. Try again.

Go in another half inch on both sides (doubled though so now I am taking a whole 4 inches of fabric out.) I didn't sign up for this. Oh and let me just mention I make up everything I do on the good ole sewing machine. I have zero training. And not much more practice.

I got one side stitched in. Then I start to do the other side. Halfway through, oh yes, the belt breaks. You heard me. I have a foot pedal-powered (yes that's the technical name, promise) sewing machine. And the belt which powers the needle snaps off. Unfixable. So, now 1 hour into a 5 minute project I should have quit. But I'm no quitter.

So, I hand powered my mechanical sewing machine. You can read it again. Add that to the list of things no one in the world has ever even considered doing. No, I did not 'hand sew', I put my finger in the hole on the side of the wheel and pumped it in a circular motion all the way down and back the seam of my shirt.

dedication.

So, long story, I mean loooooong story short. Don't ask me for sewing tips.

but, I do have a new shirt out of the gig. Go me.

Shelves

Slowly but surely we are filling up our new apartment. By new, I am, of course, referring to the "place we moved into almost 10 months ago." It's all about perspective. :)

Bryan and I are constantly struggling to find a balance between having a cozy "home" and just having lots of "stuff." So, after much deliberation and budget finagling, here's what we came up with:

We bought some mis-matched frames, painted cheap(er) shelves the color/finish of the ones that didn't quite fit our budget, added some clearance candles, painted a cardboard "T", added some personal touches, and filled our frames with pictures of family. The end result is a collection of things that each tell their own story.

My personal favorite is the scrabble board peeking out behind my favorite wedding picture. And yes, I strategically found a way to display the "Marry Me" part of the board while hiding the "clown" word played just to the side of it. Apparently it would be rude/wrong for me to remove those tiles from the board. Something about "you can't change memories...blah blah blah..." Alas, victory.

Another story is the one sitting atop my stack of books. "At Home in Mitford" is just one of the many (and I mean many) books that Bryan's Grandma Gen gave me last Christmas-time. Until now, these books have done a wonderful job making our bookcase look full. Until now. I am falling in love with this fun little Mitford series and so glad that I have all 5 of them!

What's the point?

Su-per-cal-i

fra-gil-is-tic

ex-pi-al-i

do....ious!

Even though the sound of it

is something quite

atrosicous!

If you say it loud enough,

you'll always sound

precocious,

Su-per-cal-i

fra-gil-is-tic

ex-pi-al-i

do....ious!

(All photos courtesy of Bryan & Kendahl's collection of seemingly unexplainable and completely random yet hilarious iPhone pics)

Recent work & announcement

A lot of design projects have come my way recently.

Here are just a few that I have loved working on:

Oh, and my announcement: I think I need a new fresh look to really get my blogging juices flowing. So, Blog makeover coming soon!! Keep an eye out!

in which I have nothing to say

I have not been blogging. Because I have nothing to say.

That's right, nothing.

If I did have something to say, it might be that I am in dire need of a pedicure. Okay, I know, need is a ridiculous word to describe a pedicure. Who really needs a pedicure? Well, I do. Get over it.

Also, work is crazy. Busy for me equals checking out of other areas of life. Like blogging. Priorities people. Sigh. I want this part of my life back. Conundrum if you will.

Oh and incase you were wondering, we watch HGTV every night whilst falling asleep. (Yes, I said whilst, and no, I'm not going to try and defend the fact that we watch TV in bed, it's just how we roll. To each his own.) Anyways, I have discovered recently that by brain has now associated HGTV with sleeping. So, when I walk up my spiral staircase to have a nice relaxing lunch with the husband and he is watching a writhing episode of "House Hunters," I have to do everything in my power not to fall into dreamland. So, HGTV is now banned in the Throckmorton house anytime before 10pm. Oh, and on a side note, I might be reconsidering my nighttime TV channel because the past 3 nights there has been a super loud infomercial that comes on around 4:45am which promptly puts both Bryan and I into a fluster to try and find the remote to turn it down. My life really is rough.

I'm still processing camp. I've been back for 2 weeks now and I feel incomplete. Don't know why or how it's just honestly the first word that came to my mind. Maybe I left something there. I should take inventory of my clothes.

See, absolutely nothing on my mind. Except for designing conference logos, creating blogs, Siesta Key, baked spaghetti, Dave-O-Rama, ear wax, contracts, baby onesies, washing saliva off of every window in my house, and sleep. I will spare you the details.

Not me :)

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week. For those of your unfamiliar with the idea, Not Me! Monday was born out of a desire to admit some of our imperfections and reveal a few moments we'd rather forget. You may find it therapeutic to

join in and do the same thing!

Too many things happened this week for me

not to post a Not Me :) Enjoy!

First off, after seeing this adorable indoor violet-wine-glass masterpiece on designsponge, I surely didn't get inspired to recreate the look. Upon attempting and failing miserably, I did not decide to go ahead and display them in our living room anyways. I would not be so stubborn as to decorate with wilted, dying weeds just so that I wouldn't have to admit that I couldn't recreate the look. Oh, and said decor would not still be upstairs as we speak, even more wilt-y and dead. Not me!!

And it wasn't me that you could have found camped out in the laundry room all weekend. There is no way that 2 people could possibly let laundry get out of hand to the point of needing to do 11 loads just to catch up. Seriously, that's disgusting. These are not my piles of laundry spread out around the basement floor!

And, if I did happen to have had some laundry to do, I would have checked to make sure that I had enough laundry detergent to do all of the loads. So, it definitely wasn't me who only made it through 2 loads before realizing that we were completely tapped dry on soap. I am always prepared and never get in over my head. Ugh, not me :)

Furthermore, had I realized that I was out of soap, I definitely would not have decided to make some soap (That's right, you read correctly, make some soap) instead of driving the mile to the nearest Walgreens and picking some up. Nope, I would not have searched recipes online and found one that I happened to have all the ingredients for. So of course it wasn't me who spent 45 minutes making detergent and (in the process of grating the bar soap) cut my hand numerous times with the zester. I would not have gone through all of this when the Walgreens is seriously minutes away. Not me!!

And to top it all off, while at church yesterday, it was not me who, after quickly teaching the preschool church lesson, let the kids get out the box of "Musical Instruments." I did not let them go hog wild, oh and I certainly did NOT join in. I would never grab a set of castanets and march right along side 6 screaming kids while there were other classes going on around me. Not me, seriously, not me...

So, tell me please, what did you not do this week?

The view from here...

And yep, I'm working...

Happy Birthday!

Bryan and I had a great time celebrating our niece's first birthday this weekend with family and friends up in Chicago. I'm super tired so I will just let the pictures tell the story :)

Happy Birthday Charlotte!!