Last month at the flea market I picked up an old dresser with every intention of turning it into a little kitchen island.
It was a sweet steal at $30.
But it’s been sitting in my sun room for a month now…completely untouched.
That’s all about to change.
I’ve got a few ideas involving chalkboard paint, a cutting board, wire racks and a LOT of sanding.
If you where taking this on, what fun add ons would you be thinking about?
Filed under DIY
My youngest sister turned 19 last week. 19! We all have to grow up sometime I guess.
To celebrate her birth, I decided to make a special cake. After looking over a few recipes, I settled on making a chocolate and strawberry layer cake.
I found a solid chocolate cake recipe on Real Simple. I thought it was a little odd that it had me boiling water and butter to add to the dry ingredients, but it definitely worked.
For the strawberry layers, I looked to my favorite recipe site, Smitten Kitchen. This cake was so dense and delicious. If you are a strawberry fan, or even if you’re not, you need to try this. It was quite a bit of work, but definitely worth it. I also used the cream cheese frosting recipe on this site.
Happy Birthday Jaci!
Remember when I showed all my fab flea market finds a couple weeks ago? Well, one of my purchases was this seriously awesome lampshade frame.
I had quite a few ideas of what to do with this beauty, but landed on something that I’m quite pleased with.
One of my most favorite things about Christmas is Christmas lights. I love sitting in a dark living room with only the Christmas tree lit. Just thinking about it makes me feel warm and cozy. So, I thought to myself, “Why not have those warm fuzzies all year round?”
I called a couple places around town, but to my horror, all the Christmas lights were off the shelf. I’m not going to lie… I was really sad. I thought I would have to put this project on the back burner for an indefinite amount of time. However, my parents came to the rescue. I called my mom to see if they had boxed up and stored their Christmas lights and found out their outside lights were actually still on the front yard bushes! If you know my family…that’s crazy talk. My parents take down Christmas on Dec.26. Lucky for me they’ve been really busy this year. :)
My dad brought up a few strings of lights to Nashville and I got to work. It actually took a lot longer than I thought it would just to wrap lights around a frame, but after two attempts (the 1st was a failure because I realized that one string of lights was out a little too late) it was ready to hang.
I got our ladder all set up, climbed to the top wrung and hung this beauty from the ceiling in the corner of our living room.
You can now find me almost any night of the week reading by the soft glow of my new year-around Christmas lights.
Filed under DIY
I recently came across one of the most ambitious DIY projects I’ve ever heard of. A girl in Australia is completely renovating a 1970s double decker bus! She’s put a blog together called Double Decker Days where she logs her daily work on this beast of project.
Crystal Thomas is a self-proclaimed interiors addict. She bought this bus off eBay after years of trying to find new ways to create a unique and personal environment. Her dream is to get this bus on some beautiful land in Victoria, Australia for a sweet vacation home.
Right now, her crew includes her multiple younger siblings, parents and friends. She hopes to have her new weekender home ready by the end of this year.
She’s tackled moss, removed paint off aluminum, stripped carpet and dealt with old kitchenettes.
Even though I have zero experience renovating, I would absolutely ADORE getting myself into this kind of mess. My hat is off to you, Crystal Thomas.
You can keep up with her progress here at: Double Decker Days.
Filed under DIY, Random Facts
If you and a roommate are looking for a 2-bedroom house or apartment, the trick is to find a really awesome 1-bedroom place with a big dining room you can turn into another bedroom. My roommate and I have done this in two different houses and it works so great (plus the rent is much cheaper).
In our first place, I got the actual bedroom so with this move I took the dining room.
Con- no closet…Pro- I get a fireplace in my bedroom.
As you can see, it’s a bit dulls-ville with the colors so I’ve been thinking about how to add some color therapy. The obvious answer for me was bunting. I heart bunting.
So I pulled out my fabric bag (it’s basically a trash bag full of spare fabric- I need storage solutions) and brainstormed. I cut out some different-sized circles and sewed them onto a string of yarn. But it wasn’t enough yet. I wanted to add some kind of 3-d element to it. And then it came to me…mustaches.
I admit…I’m on this weird mustache craze. I think they’re funny and love all the ways people have been playing with them. Am I the only one?
But then I realized how weird that would be to have a string of mustaches hanging from my fireplace, so I thought, “What’s the next best thing to a mustache?” Well, a bow tie of course!
I cut out smaller circles of fabric, folded them into 3 flaps and then sewed them onto my other circles.
Bunting is the easiest and cheapest way I can think of to add a little something-something to a dull space. Does anyone else loving bunting like I do?
Filed under DIY
