Happy May!  A lot going on this month too… Birthdays: two of my brothers, a niece & my son. Weddings: a sweet cousin & a dear friend. For fun: camping in an Airstream for our 15 year anniversary.  Looking forward to all!  Should have some photos to share.

xo

This project is a desk I found at a local thrift store for my daughter’s room.  I’m not done with her room, but you can see the direction I’m headed with it.

The desk before and after:

owl pic: by Macy herself

acrylic supply holder: from a flea market

magnet boards and magnets: IKEA

5X7 fox print: Sick Feet Studio

Rabbit drawer pulls (that I now notice are crooked): Anthropologie

So….everyone has their way of painting furniture.  I don’t claim to be an expert but have found this technique to be easy and quite durable quality.  I thought I’d share.

-I removed the broken beadboard and purchased another at Home Depot and they cut it to the size I needed. Then this desk had a drawer of melted Jolly Rancher candies and other stuck-on items I scraped out with a chisel. Such a treasure!! Then I sanded with coarse sandpaper with my electric sander (so quick and easy). I just basically wanted to roughen up whatever slick finish was already on the wood. Then, I wiped everything down with a moist cloth.

-A coat of primer over everything using a paint brush and smooth finish roller brushes (thin). When dry, I went over the desk tops/work surfaces with a fine (in between coats) sandpaper, quickly with my sander. My daughter helped and did such a great job but there were a few lumps and bumps.  No problem, right?! My favorite primer that goes on smoothy is Cover Stain.  Here, you even get to see my “needs to be organized” garage.

-My gorgeous assistant who specializes in opening paint cans, who by the way, heard that painters are supposed to wear white.

-The paint: From Home Depot, Behr Premium Plus Ultra Stain Blocking, Paint & Primer in One, in the color “Sweet Rhapsody.” Even though I did a coat of primer first, I still like to use this type of paint and primer in one as the paint.  It’s so durable and easy to clean for furniture.

-Painting: I used a paint brush for all of the corners and little spaces to fill, and then a fine finish roller brush for all of the larger surfaces. One coat, then a fine sand on just the work surfaces (desk tops) when dry, and then a second coat to finish.  

My daughter’s room is still a work in progress.  I have plans to add to the curtains, make pillows, make a fun hanging lamp, and some other DIY projects. Here’s an “after” of the desk: And, Sage….our new puppy coming in to play.

Tent: Land of Nod

Curtains (in which I’ll add to): One Kings Lane

Rug & bed spread: Overstock.com

Print above bed: Super-Rural

Still a little way to go, but at least she has a functioning room now.

had to share….just for fun

Best wishes you two! Looking forward to the wedding!

It seems like March flew by so quickly, eh?

Here are some of my favorite iPhone/instagram photos from the month of March:

Here’s what I made and where it’s currently hanging:

The items I had hanging around the house to use:

scissors

string my husband keeps in his toolbox (you can use thicker string, small rope, twine, etc…. add beads or colored string)… I wanted something that would be fine for hanging outside.

small terracotta pots

I’m not a big “follow the instructions” person when it comes to measuring.  I tend to “eyeball it” mostly.

The way I measured the string was… I figured I wanted the hanger to hang about the length of a yard.  When I was young, my grandma taught me that a yard is about the length from your nose to the tip of your fingers when you fully stretch your arm out at your side.  So, I tripled that length to allow for all of the knots and just in case I goofed.  There are 8 strings at 3 yards each that I used. (tip: I learned that if you separate each string when you cut it, it will be easier to lay out and you wont have a knotted mess… thicker string is less likely to get tangled. For some reason, I like to find things out the hard way!)

1. I tied all 8 strings together to make the end and grouped 2 strings together to make 4 separations total

2. I placed a pot over the bottom knot to see approximately how far to start tying the knots

3. I then tied my first set of knots…. tied each of the 4 2-string pieces together

4. then… separated the the original 2 and tied them to the others next to it… and then repeated that again for a 3rd set of knots

5. then I placed a pot back over the bottom knot and hug it in my hand to determine where to tie the bottom knot for the next pot like this:Then repeat 2 more times and tie the top as you wish for hanging. It’s not perfect, as you can see, but I like that it looks like I made it.

It’s hanging on my front porch.  I may try to make some leather hanging plant holders next if I can find the supplies I need.

I put some cute little succulents in the pots…  there ya have it.  Simple but fun to have.

xo

You may have seen the link in my “favorite links” tab above ^^.  I Love this new company ARTIFACT UPRISING to print my photo books.  Over the past many years of shooting professionally and printing at a variety of print labs…..I discovered them when I started my “simplifying life a little more” venture, this past year.  I wanted to print for me.

The way this company prints, and the media they print on….is just me… rich color/printing, they use only recycled materials, yummy finish, and extremely user friendly to create a book/printed product.  I could actually go on and on about them, and I actually have to people who have asked about them.

So, here are the 3 books I have printed with them so far:

(oregon: 11 X 8.25 landscape/partial dust jacket hard book; 2012 instagram: 8.5 X 8.5 square soft book; San Francisco: 8.25 X 11 vertical soft book)

I noticed that my San Francisco book was featured on the ARTIFACT UPRISING BLOG today…. where you can see one of the inside spreads.

(below: the cover, china town, and from the golden gate bridge…being held by my son’s friend)

love them!

So… my daughter, Macy had a play at school called ‘Squirm’ and I helped a little with the set design and the making of her costume.  One thing I did for the set was make earthworms… and this is how.

SUPPLIES NEEDED:

dark pantyhose

scissors

string (earthworm color if you have it)

stuffing (I used polyester fiberfill)

hot glue & hot glue gun (optional)

I went to a discount clothing store and found the darkest pantyhose I could find. I cut the legs off.

…stuffed them with the fiberfill and tied the ends like I do a garbage bag.

I googled “what an earthworm looks like” and tied the yarn according to what I thought.  Because I always go overboard when I do a craft project, I tacked down the yarn ends with a little hot glue, but not necessary.

…and we have earthworms:

I know…. but, hey… could come in handy for you some day.  I think they would be fun for Halloween.

Here’s my little Gray Jumping Spider via my iPhone. My mom and I had fun making her costume out of items we already had.

I’ve been following her on Pinterest, as her style is drool worthy.  If any of you have been to my home, you can see glimpses and beginnings of this kind of style, so you can see why I adore her… and why I’m inspired to keep trucking along with styling my own home.  What I love about her style and why it’s fitting for me… I love to repurpose old items, have a bright light filled home splashed with color, incorporate our (my family) quirky personalities, and ….of course, incorporate my favorite plants.

So….no brainer…I jumped at the chance to take her new online Interior Styling Class ….a 2 week class for only $20.  You can learn more about the class on her blog and sign up here. We can be classmates. The class runs April 1st- 12th.

So sign up if you love her style and artful philosophy.  If anything….go check her out.

Golden Gate:

more around the city:

Lombard St. & Alcatraz:

right inside the building, right next to this ^ ship/boat was this awesome vintage arcade:

….a little chocolate binging:

the Painted Ladies (houses) of Alamo Square Park:

I fell in love with Alamo Square and the dog park at the top here….and of course, with the dogs I met:

China Town… so festive at night with all of the hanging lanterns:

iPhone//instagram pics:

Two weeks this past summer we visited Oregon and took my brother, Paul, with us.  My husband is from Oregon, so it’s a yearly deal… but we try to mix it up each year to see new things, especially when we have visitors.  There’s definitely so much to see.

We usually drive from Portland to Bend (Sunriver) and then venture around there.  This year we explored Crater Lake and did more hiking around the Mt. Bachelor area and along parts of the Deschutes River. A huge perk…. I usually lose at least 5 lbs on these trips… main mode of transportation all over Sunriver, where we stay, is by biking… it’s worth the sore tooshie!

on the way to Central Oregon (I’m the backseat passenger):

hanging out at the family place:

kayaking on the Deschutes:

hiking around:

tree hugger…. so fitting:

just flattering myself…since this is the only way to be in the photos sometimes:

and…. I don’t know what sort of meditation they’re into or what my brother was trying to communicate. ha:

hike down into Crater Lake:

the boat ride to Wizard Island….our lovely park ranger was quite a story teller:

our hike around Wizard Island:

time to flatter myself in his glasses again:

back to Sunriver to play with the kids:

some of the iPhone/instagram photos:

Maybe this summer we’ll have some extra friends with us, along w my brother, Paul, again.