Inspired Style Girl

2013-02-01T07:32:00.003-08:00

Hello Everyone!

I have been definetly MIA lately and I am so sorry! We have two weeks before my due date and I am trying to get everything in order and ready for our baby girl! We are very excited (and a little nervous) about the big day!

We received the area rug for our baby girl Ava's room yesterday and it took me a while to decide on what type of rug we wanted to get. Our home has tile and hardwood floors, so we have many area rugs and they are all pretty neutral in color. We have a leather strip area rug in the living room, a seagrass rug in the kitchen and the rest are a beige with some subtle design. I just couldn't decided on an area rug for Ava's room, I didn't know if I wanted color to go with her pink, blue/gray & white theme room or something neutral that would go with the rest of the house and something we could reuse in a different room down the road. I decided on a round rug because I love the whimsical shape for a nursery and I nervously decided on a jute rug, I say nervously because I didn't know if this would be too rough on little feet, but I figured that when we lay her on the floor to play, we will put down a quilt anyway. So I began my search online and found a 6' round jute rug on Overstock.com at a great price and it had many great reviews. Although the reviews were from people using this rug in kitchens and dining rooms, no nurseries-which didn't surprise me, I was a little nervous, but after it arrived yesterday I found it was MUCH softer than I thought it would be! So here is Ava's finished room! (I still need to make a frame for the canvas above the bookcase)

Sorry, I had to include a picture of the two sock monkeys! I hope you have a great day!

-Jessica

2012-12-20T12:07:00.000-08:00

Hello Everyone,

I hope you are all doing well today! It has been snowing and pretty windy all day. I thought I would share with you some projects I did for the ledge shelves we have in our living room. I had pinned this DIY Pottery Barn Santa Claus Canvas over a year ago and finally finished it a few weeks ago. It didn't turn out perfect but I really like it. I have included the link to the blog where I got the instructions.

Source

I originally painted mine with a silver paint pen but it was too light, so I painted over it with some red acrylic paint. Here is my canvas:

I painted a wooden letter G I had and glued it to a piece of paper and placed it in a frame I already had. I bought the "Let it Snow" sign at Michael's for under $1 and I had some galvanized metal number tags that I placed in the frame on the lower shelf.

Hope you have a wonderful day!

-Jessica

2012-12-17T07:48:00.001-08:00

Hello Everyone!

I can't believe Christmas is only a week from tomorrow! Time has been flying by and I thought I would share some updates of our baby girl's nursery. Yes, we are having a baby girl and before we found out I already had painted the nursery a gray/blue color because I knew I wanted that color even if we had a boy or girl. Here are some updates and keep in remind I still need to touch up some painting, replace that rug, finish my chair slipcover and get our baby girl a mattress!

I will post updated pictures when I get more projects finished!

Thanks for stopping by!
Jessica

Projects Around Our House

2012-09-22T07:42:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone!

I am absolutely LOVING this weather we are having as Fall is my favorite season! I love everything about Fall including the weather, pumpkins, desserts, Halloween, Thanksgiving and it is right before the wonderful holiday season!

I thought I would show you a project I had worked on over the summer (early) and FINALLY show the results. I decided to do the board & batten treatment on one wall in our living room and wrap it around to the hallway. Of course I didn't use the board, just the batten part. I was originally going to do both but I don't mind it without the board. I used a collection of frames we have and put random things in them including pictures, paintings, our dog silhouettes and one shadow box which had faux butterflies in it but I recently replaced it with a big Fall leaf. Here it is:

Like I mentioned, I wrapped the batten around the corner and down the hallway.

I will start to show you the many projects I had worked on over the summer in the next week!

Have a great weekend and thanks for stopping by!
Jessica

2012-09-05T12:55:00.002-07:00

Hello everyone!

I haven't been doing too many things around our house lately because I still get some morning sickness now and then, but it is getting better! We will hopefully find out if I will be decorating our nursery for a girl or boy in the next few weeks! :) Until then I have been interested in making some jewelry for myself since it doesn't require me climbing ladders or caulking/painting a lot!

I am sure most of you have seen this DIY Kate Spade necklace on Pinterest and other website but I had pinned it a while ago and finally got around to making one that was sort of similar. I won't bore you with a tutorial but I will give you the link to the one I used!

http://www.henryhappened.com/diy-kate-spade-bead-necklace.html

Here is the ogirinal necklace:

Source

I love hot pink but I knew I wanted a red for the Fall and I used smaller beads that what was used in the tutorial. I got the wood beads from the kids craft section at Walmart. I picked out the medium shade wood beads and got the other supplies at Hobby Lobby. Here is how my necklace turned out:

Like I mentioned before, it's not an exact match but I am happy with how it turned out! I have saved a lot ideas for some neat necklaces in the future and I can't wait!

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!!!

Jessica

2012-08-22T17:27:00.001-07:00

Hello Everyone!!!

It has been a long time since I wrote on my blog but I have been busy......being sick! Although my husband and I are VERY happy, I had terrible morning sickness for the last two months. We will be proud parents coming this February 2013! We couldn't be happier and cannot wait!

Of course I have been thinking of the possibilities for our nursery. We won't find out if we are having a boy or girl until the end of September but I know how I want to decorate the room whether we have a boy or girl. Here are some ideas I have for both:

Boy

My husband love, love, loves to fish and although I am not a huge fan of the cabin decor I still want to incorporate some fishing but add a nautical theme and use the colors navy, gray and yellow.

Source

Source

Girl

I do love pink but I think I will use it only as an accent if we have a girl. I will probably use pink, greige and mossy green. Here are some ideas:

Source

Source

Stay tuned to find out what we are having and the progress on the nursery!!

Thanks for stopping by!
Jessica

Inspired Sisal Rope Mirror

2012-06-10T15:41:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!

I finished a project recently that I thought I would share with you. If you haven't already noticed I love anything nautical themed and the last few years any home decor involving rope has been pretty popular. I love using twine or sisal rope to wrap an inexpensive vase or recently a lampshade. I have seen a lot of mirrors using a rope frame and I love them all but obviously they are a little expensive. Here a few I have seen and loved:

Bixby & Ball - $330

Pottery Barn - $395.....ouch!

My husband is an electrician and usually has many wood cable spools left over from projects and I have made sure that he gives them to me when he is done. Right now I just have three different sized wood spools because a lot of them are just plastic and I don't think I would use them. The large spool I am going to make an oversized clock, but I had a small one about 18" in diameter and I had some left over 1/4" sisal rope so I decided to make my own rope mirror.

I had stained the wood spool top before but didn't like how it turned out so I used that side to start hot gluing my sisal rope around the center.

Notice our smallest dog's little feet at the top left, somehow he always makes a little appearance in my pictures!

I kept hot gluing the rope down around the previous row and even wrapped the sides in rope.

I had a beveled craft mirror that I had bought from Hobby Lobby a while ago for around two dollars and I decided it could work for the center of the rope spool top. I glued the mirror in the center using an all purpose craft glue, stacked a few books on top of the mirror and let it set overnight.

I attached some hanging hardware to the back and hung it up in our hallway. It may not be as large or perfect as the other mirrors but I am happy with it....plus it cost me $0! Even better!

Thanks for stopping by!

Jessica

2012-06-05T07:57:00.002-07:00

Welcome to our house of many projects! Sorry I have been absent for so long! May was a crazy busy month for us. I am working on quite a few projects around our house right now and I thought I would share with you some of them!

I had mentioned in the past about the patio door we have leaning against the wall in our kitchen and how we will eventually get it installed....well it finally happened!

Please ignore the fact that the wall to the right is still not done :)

I am thinking about painting this door black/gray to match the other door in our kitchen that opens to the breezeway. We will also we building a cabinet to put above our refrigerator once the wall gets done and then build a beadboard surround around our fridge. Right now we are dealing with our old almond-ivory colored fridge in the middle of the room....

Pretty, isn't it? We don't usually have our cereal and other grocery items on our countertop but I can't get to the cabinet directly behind the fridge so I just leave them out for the time being. Also, please disregard my flip-flops and our dogs tiny tennis ball toy!

Of course in true Mrs. Inspired fashion, I almost never finish one project before jumping to the next so here is what I have starting in our living room:

Again, I know those items on that table don't mesh well and they are not supposed to. I had set somethings on that table to get them out of the way and I just took the picture with everyone on it. Anyway, the project I have started in our living room is well painting the walls (notice the color above the MDF board and beginning to add a board & batten treatment to the largest wall in our living room that will continue down our hallway to our bedrooms & bathroom.

Before we moved into our home 3 years ago, I had painted each room and well I think I have painted each room again. I love picking out paint colors and just when I think I found the prefect color I start to paint and regret my decision. This is the case with the color below the board in the picture here. If that is what the color actually looked like in this picture, I would keep it but it doesn't. I thought it was a light tan/camel color but it ending up with too much green in it. I love green but it didn't look right. I just lived with it for a while and I have finally got down to business with changing the color!

Well these our the projects I am currently working on and I hope to share with you the final results soon! Fingers crossed!

Do you have projects you are currently working on or do you have projects that you hope to start soon?

Thanks for stopping by!

Jessica

Inspired Hotel Key Rack

2012-05-06T15:14:00.000-07:00

Hello!

A great blog that I read almost everyday is Knock Off Decor because it posts many ideas from different blogs and there is always great ideas to add to my never ending list of stuff I want to make.

Suzanne from Meridian Road's blog was featured and she put together a inspired hotel key rack like this one from Mothology, but didn't want to pay $62 for it and she knew she could make one that was similar for much less $$.

I used the instructions from Meridian Road's blog and changed mine a little with the supplies I had around our home. I did purchase the metal label holders from Joann on sale.

http://meridianroad.blogspot.com/2010/09/hotel-inspired-key-rack_08.html

Here is how mine turned out:

It's not perfect but I like it!

Thanks for stopping by!
Jessica

When Pinterest goes wrong...

2012-05-06T11:05:00.000-07:00

Hello!
Almost everyone has a Pinterest account these days and now we have an unlimited supply of ideas for parties, desserts, photographs, clothing, kids, babies, etc and we all expect our own Pinterest projects to turn out like the pictures, right?? Wrong! I have had many projects fail and I tend to hide the evidence of that failed project so no will ever find it.

Pinterest is great and I love going there for ideas and it shows us how easy it is to make a homemade Elmo themed birthday for your child or sewing a new drop cloth slipcover for your sofa. Well it isn't always easy and it can be downright frustrating! Of course I become frustrated when I project I had high hopes for doesn't turn out but I also find humor in it as well....after I have said a few four letter words. :) So I found a website that lets people send in their failed Pinterest projects and hopefully it will make you smile and realize nobody is perfect and we are all humans. I find it pretty funny since I have been in the same situation a lot of these posters are in.

 http://craftfail.com/

I have seen many Pinterest pictures of the baby in the pumpkin for a fall/harvest photoshoot. Pretty much all pictures of babies are cute, but I always wonder how the babies can enjoy sitting in the cold, wet pumpkin for a long enough time to get some pictures? Well I found a post by a blogger where her baby didn't really care for it and I have to say it is pretty funny and cute!

pinklets.blogspot.com/2011/10/pinterest.html

Have a great day!

Jessica 

Finishing Projects!

2012-05-03T12:43:00.000-07:00

Hello!

I am going to show you some of the projects I have been working on lately but I wanted to talk about something first about a problem I have......with finishing projects! I have so many ideas and I want to get them done all at once, and that isn't possible! I can't completely finish a project before I start working on the next one! My poor husband has to deal with the consequence of my project finishing problems but I am working on it!

Anyway, here is a project I had planned for our master bedroom for some time and I just had to wait until the dear husband left town for a fishing trip! Unfortunately I did not finish (surprise, surprise!) but I thought I would share with you some pictures of the project right now!

I wanted to give the wall behind our bed a cottage-y look so I bought some tongue & groove board to give it that look. Now bear with me because the project is not done but this is what I have so far.

I painted our bedroom Sea Salt by Sherwin Williams but I had it mixed at Menard's with Dutch Boy paint and I painted the trim & boards with Natural Canvas by Dutch Boy which I love because it is a warm white.

I am going to paint our lamps a soft yellow and figure out something withe lamp shades.

You can see where I stopped at the light switches because I want to get the master electrician to help me with that (aka my husband). I need to finish painting the trim around the windows with Natural Canvas.

Here is another example of me not finishing one project and then starting the next....

Our closet doors! Eek! I need to remove the hardware and spray paint them with a ORB finish but that will be for another day!

The frame with the sideways art....well I am going to replace that with a wedding picture probably but I wanted to make sure it fit!

Have a great day!

Jessica

Board & Batten in the Kitchen!

2012-04-26T08:09:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone!
I love the look of board and batten that almost everyone has done in blogland the last few years, so I finally decided to go ahead and put it around our dining area in the kitchen!

I am not going to give you a tutorial because I didn't really do anything different that what anyone else has done, so I am saving you from another boring tutorial! Here is where I found some info on board & batten:

www.myblessedlife.net
www.onenuttygirl.com
www.itsthelittlethingsthatmakeahouseahome.blogspot.com

Of course, there are MANY more tutorials on board & batten but these are the three I found helpful.

Here are the pictures of the dining area in the my kitchen, keep in mind that I haven't accessorized the way I would like to yet!

I still have a long to do list for my kitchen so bear with me! See that bee-u-tee-ful refrigerator? We will be getting a nice stainless steel one in the next couple months and then we plan to install a upper cabinet above the fridge (to hide the lovely collection of crockpots) and build a beadboard surround. Also, see that door leaning against the wall? It has been there for about 6 months.....one day hopefully soon it will replace the window that is there right now and it will open to our deck.

More on the to-do list is:

-Replace the countertops, but don't know which color to get?
-I would love a dark cork floor but since we only installed our tile flooring a few years ago it will probably have to stay.
- Installed a beadboard backsplash.
- Paint the lower cabinets a darker color, kind of like Layla from The Lettered Cottage did.

One first projects I did at our home is I painted this door in our kitchen that goes the basement with magnetic and chalkboard paint. Since my husband and I love music so much we will write a line from a song and the other has to figure what song it is. We both love this artist and this song, can you guess what song it is from?

I plan on updating soon with the many projects I have been working on lately!