Yellow Before, Purple After

I've had this yellow buffet for awhile, and I had been wanting to paint it for sometime. I was inspired by these pretty little purple flowers to paint it purple. It was definitely an impulse thing, but 'm happy I did it. I went to Anthropologie and found these gaudy drawer pulls on sale! Thank goodness because I had to buy eight of them.



I love how it turned out.. . it's not forever, but it's fun for now.

Heart Clips

Had to re-post this simple, cute Valentine's paper clip. Just bend!

Saw it first on designspongeonline.com

It was Just a Paper Bag

I know the holidays are over, but here's a simple wrapping idea that can be used all year. I found it on the always inspring blog, An Apple A Day.

Screen Diddly

Um...neato. Target is selling screen printing kits as a part of their Red Hot Shop series.

It's basically a collection of cool, quirky stuff you would find at smaller shops.
This would be such a cool gift idea! For me. Oh, hey how's it going?

Black Friday

With everyone freaking out over the economy, how could I possibly go out and spend a bunch of money on cheesy Christmas decorations? I enjoy the Christmas season, but I personally like to keep it simple around my own house (mostly because I could be packing it all up the moment I'm offered a bitchin' job). I don't want to lug around a bunch of useless crap, so I made this little spark of cheer for $3.00, with string, white pipe cleaners and bells.

Gold Buzz

Saw these neat gold leaf painted bottled on design*sponge via vivre.com. For a $140, you won't see these on my table-- it pains me to see something super expensive that could EASILY be replicated at a lower cost. Who are these people kidding??

Barnacles

Last week I was frustrated with my living room and decided to "make art." I usually lose interest in my projects before they're finished, but this time I was determined because I really wanted to see it happen.

I started making little fabric flowers out of some super soft, creamy ribbed cotton. I arranged them on more this lovely green avacado fabric to look like barnacles. What do you think? Could be a little too "crafty" for my taste.

A few days after I started my project I found John Paul Planche's industrial barnacles and this simple DIY doilies+thumbtack project found on flickr.

Thrifty Fleur Find

Last Monday I hit up Goodwill during my lunch break and found this lovely picture of a citrus flower in a heinous faux gold/marble and toile matte. I couldn't pass it up for $4.99, so I purchased it. A quick matte change and a coat of basil spraypaint, I had a brand new botanical print for my apartment.Easy-Peasy-Japanesey.

Light Feather-Headed Girl

Not much going on today, just planning the company Christmas party. It feels like "The Office." Christmas parties got me thinking about dressing up and silly accessories, so I had to indulge on a little headband search.

I've seen a lot of 20's inspired, feathery headbands in the magazines, on the runways. Etsy has TONS available.. the first two are VieModerne and the last is GaiaTroveChicago.

VieModerne has a lot more to offer and is definitely worth checking out. The latter is a little more practical for everyday wear and a very easy DIY project.

Sew Ready.

I hate the word craft. I think of stenciled country-cute white trash crap. Today's "cool" crafts are now called DIY projects.. GRROOD NEWS: Sew Crafty is Houston's first craft studio and sewing lounge and it's opening this weekend. Finally.. sewing classes in Houston that don't aren't taught by 70-year women. (I snagged the image above from their website).

The grand opening will offer free sewing and craft classes. I doubt I'll make it down there, but I do look forward to eventually going to a Gocco class. Gocco is a Japanese form of printing that I had no idea even existed until yesterday.

This cute card from Jules128's Etsy Shop was made from GOCCO:

and that is cool. Bye.

Tiny DIY Project

A cute thing I saw on Martha Stwart's website. It's simple.. just cover the tin with self-adhesive cork and label away. I'm just picturing a bunch of labeled tins inside the drawer of a super clean parson's desk that I don't have. I'd be so pleased with myself.

Plant Thereapy

Call me a nerd, but I was soo excited when I received a terrarium for my birthday. A couple months ago I saw something about the terrariums at the Ace Hotel lobby in Portland (ALL of its interiors are amazing).I'm out of town just about every weekend so I've had some trouble just keeping my mint leaves watered and alive, so this is perfect. I can't wait to add to it.. Thanks Chelsey :)

Pigment-Injected Showers Bring Rainbow Flowers

How awesome, yeah? I found this at a random blog, JustinSpace, which might be my new favorite thing. Justin says the pigment-injected roses were ordered them from a shop in L.A. at $6 a stem.

I'm thinking it wouldn't be too hard to recreate this with a little experimenting, especially if you can nab a needle from a diabetic friend or Amy Winehouse. I love them so much.

Faux Headboard

Saw this at Apartment Therapy today. It might be the solution I'm looking for in respect to a headboard. I thought about making an upholstered headboard, but I know that when I move in a year I'll really want to change things up. And I'm lazy.

Such a Travel-sty!

Last week I set aside some vacation time for next week. I've been so excited to go on a spontanious vacay. This morning, when the specials were released, I realized how much they SUCKED. I'm effing ready to get some stamps in my passport, yeah?

Did find this cute cover on Etsy from stiksl. This shop has tons of cool graphic passport covers that will make all the patent-leather-passport-cover-carrying fools envious. If I don't go anywhere this weekend, I'll sit at home and make my own.

Okay, that's a little grumpy. There's still a chance we're headed somewhere...it could be to see Radiohead?! ha!

Mother's Cont'd.

Here's the bag that I made for my Mom yesterday. Hopefully it will come in handy this summer. I like it so much better than the one I made in my sewing class. (I told you Amy Butler fabrics were adoreable!-- I'm already ordering more).

We're having our early-Mother's Day-Celebration at Las Rosas.. I don't even remember if the food is good, I'm just excited for some much-needed Mexican food in my life.

Inspi'ad

I found this image (left) of an art installation, saved it yesterday, but for the life me cannot remember where I stole it from or who did it. So, obviously there is some artist out there who deserves some cred for being the inspiration for my Mother's Day card.

My mom is going to Minnesota this Mother's Day and she'll be away from her kiddies for the first time, so we're doing celebrating the holiday tomorrow. Sidestory: I started sewing her a little tote, but I cleverly (ahem..accidently) sewed the handles between the lining and the outside of the bag. So, today I'll start all over, hopefully with better results.

P.S. It's a vase of flowers, not golf clubs!

It's My Bag, Baby

Grooaaann to the Austin Powers reference!

I'll totally admit that I wanted to learn how to sew after watching Project Runway. I began taking sewing classes five weeks ago in Pearland, Texas. Those were the only classes available, so for four weeks I drove 30 miles to take 2 1/2 hour classes. The first two classes were pure instruction- I felt like I was back in school. The second two classes we worked on our project, a tote complete with interfacing and a sturdy bottom insert.

I enjoyed the class and I can't wait to make more totes (with fabric of my own choice this time..) So anyone who has a birthday in the next 4-5 months will more than likely receive a variation of this bag, but definitly with fabulous fabric from Amy Butler. If you haven't seen her fabric, you must. So Cute.

Wasting Time, Saving Paper

I print and print all day long. I'm feeling guilty for it, man. About 10% of what I print actually gets used for something legit. The rest of gets set aside into my ever-growing scratch paper stack.

I decided to put a little more function to my savings by making a notepad. I cut the sheets into quarters (with a large paper-cutter), punched hoes in it, and binded it with a reusable metal prong fastener. They have a 480-sheet capacity-- heavy duty stuff.

If you don't happen to have these convenient prongs lying around, a pretty little ribbon would do the job just fine. Give it a try.

Raincoat Room

Domino Magazine has this bit where they take an outfit and use it as inspiration to design a room. In the May 2006 issue they took a chic little lady in a raincoat and made the Raincoat Room. I got pretty excited since I already had an obnoxiously yellow Kate Spade blanket I found on sale at Marshalls (score!).

When I moved back to Sugar Land, this was my big project for the first couple months. It's still a work-in-progress and it's been really fun finding stuff for my room. I think an upholstered headboard would totally make the room complete and I'm determined to learn how to make one.

Can you tell which room is mine? The grainy cell-phone picture might give it away...

Also, shout out to Dara Quackenbush, my former PR Professor! You're making me nervous reading my blog! How am I doing???