Flower Tutorial

Aren't these flowers lovely! How cute they would be in different sizes and colors all over your throw pillows?! There is a tutorial here over at Grosgrain Fabulous that you can check out and learn how to make these beauties! You can make these for scarves, pillows, cardigans, girls' dresses, gift boxes...the list could go on!

Go check it out!

Cabin Style

Yesterday evening, we went up the mountain to visit one of my husband's work pals. When we got to his house, I was in love..it was my dream house! And no, it wasn't this giant perfect mansion. It was a modest sized cabin style home that was begging for me to give it some love and tlc. It had wood beams on the ceiling, a wrap around porch, and a cute little kitchen that had a fabulous view of the ocean. To live there would be divine. Oh how I love it!

So today, I felt compelled to do a post about ceiling wood beams. I want some in my home. They can be added to a ceiling for decorative purposes, they don't just have to be structural. Here are some inspiring pictures that I love...see how they add such coziness?!

This cabin in Park City, Utah


This photo from Vermont Timber Works


This Lydecker House


Can you tell that I want some wood on my ceilings?!

Hope you have a great day!

Message Boards

Need a place to store all of your pictures and notes? Maybe some of these message boards will inspire you!

A Message Board in a frame from coleyB...


Here is one from Delairen...


Try this one made from a cookie sheet by Julie Stamps...


Cork can be found at your local hardware store, and you can cut it any size or shape you want. You can also place pretty ribbon at the backing of a bare frame like the one here. Look around your house and be creative!

will work for $1

Anyone interested in hiring an Interior Designer for the low, low price of a dollar? I am excited to help anyone who needs it! Head on over to my website and check it out! I am dying to get some new clients and I wanna help you with your design dillemas!

Tutorial: Dramatic Shelves

I wanted to post more pictures of them on here, but my camera batteries just decided to die...so only one picture unfortunatley!

I designed these shelves for a wall that needed a little something, and lucky for me, my husband could build them! I first saw something similar to these on an episode of Color Splash with David Bromstad on HGTV. I thought of how super simple they would be to make, and don't cost a lot of money AND you can make these any size you need them to be.

1. Go to Lowe's or Home Depot and buy a sheet of MDF, or medium density fiberboard (if you don't have a tool to cut up the mdf once you get it home, you can have them cut it there for you into the sized pieces you need for free). Mine are approximately 18" x 30" each. MDF costs about $18 for a 4' x 8' sheet that you will get plenty of use out of!

2. So you will need two cut pieces that are for the backing that will be against the wall (again, mine are 18" x 30"), and two pieces that are for the vases or whatever you want to sit on. Mine are approximately 18" x 10".

3. Paint every surface of the 4 cut pieces of MDF in whatever color your heart desires!

4. Take some wood glue, and adhere the two pieces together first. After you've applied the wood glue, use 1 1/2" screws with your drill gun and screw in about 5 screws on each. Pre-drilling the holes is important because it precents the MDF from splitting out. To reinforce, you can use caulking on the seam to make the shelf a little stronger. Make sure to paint over the caulking once it's dry. Once all the wood glue and caulking is dry, they are ready to hang. We screwed ours directly onto the wall, using 1 1/2" screws in the middle of the backing and then painted over it.

Obviously you can't use it to hold anything too heavy, but mine hold up the vases pretty darn well! You can do one by itself, or as many as you want. It is a great and cheap way to fill out a wall.

And p.s. my walls are NOT white! They're a light neutral because I have tons of color everywhere else!

Subway Art Tutorial

Ever since I saw Jen's Subway Art project over at www.tatertotsandjello.blogspot.com, I knew I had to create one for myself! She made one using Valentine's Day words, but I will be making one with french cooking words to hang in my kitchen, like mirepoix, cucina, florentine, poche, saute, and bleu. Hopefully by the end of next week, I'll have it completed and hanging in my kitchen so I can share my version!

For now, I thought I'd direct you over to Jen's tutorial for Subway Art, because she is fabulous, and I love all of her tutorials! She has given me a lot of inspiration! Go check out her tutorial:
http://tatertotsandjello.blogspot.com/2010/01/valentine-subway-art-tutorial-with-pdf.html

Chalkboards

Chalkboards can be cute, as well as keep you super organized!

In the past, I've bought picture frames from the Dollar Tree and turned them into cute chalkboards. If you have any picture frames laying around that you're not using, you can easily paint the frame any color you want with craft paint, and spray the glass with chalkboard spray paint found at any hardware store. You can always find inexpensive frames at the thrift stores and garage sales. Even the ugliest of frames can become a cute chalkboard! And you can make a chalkboard as big or small as you want...just find a picture frame in whatever size you'd like. Jen from www.jenbowlesdesign.com posted the photo above of her kitchen.

Or you can make multiple chalkboards and implement them into a wall collage like Janell did over at: http://isabellaandmaxrooms.blogspot.com/2010/02/just-when-you-thought-art-wall-was-done.html


Another way to implement a chalkboard is through the use of chalkboard paint. You can buy quarts of chalkboard paint at Home Depot or Lowe's, and they come in different colors! You can paint a small section or a whole wall if you're feeling gutsy, like Nick Harris did in his uploaded photo to flickr.com: