Begin Again

(Yes world, I am still alive. Thanks for asking.)

I have recently been revamping my apartment. Shocking, I know. Some of you may ask yourselves, "Self, hasn't Julie been 'revamping' her apartment since she moved into it a year ago?" The answer my friends would be yes. Yes she has been.

Little did I know at the time, but in hindsight, I had no idea what I wanted to do in my very little space I call home when I moved into it last August. I thought I had an idea or two, I even went so far as to custom paint some fabric for a chair I recovered. Finally, about a month or so ago, I realized that everything wasn't coming together like I wanted and I wasn't satisfied with the way any individual element was headed in. Add in the frustration of an unfinished apartment, still, after almost a year, and you have a complete redo of the partially done place. (Question- can you technically 'redo' anything if you never finished 'do-ing' in the first place? Hmm.)

Since I've re-evaluated and set up a different game plan, things have moved along much more swimmingly. Projects have come together quicker, rooms are no longer looking mismatched, and I am finally seeing an end in sight. Soon, the money I've been spending on decorating can be spent on more practical things... like clothes... or maybe shoes...*cough.* Anyway, the point is, I am thrilled to see my vision taking form so nicely and smoothly.

For my kitchen, I have gone with a more vintage/shabby chic feel, I have quite a few projects I've done already and a few I'm finishing up in there, but today's post is more about my living room/bedroom/study/movie room/dance studio (hey why not?). To keep things simple we'll from here on out refer to it as my 'Main Room.'

Now, in my main room, I have stepped a little bit outside of my comfort zone and have adapted a more modern theme to the space. I would say it's still a very mild modern, and probably would be rejected as such by connoisseurs of that sort of thing, but it is the best label that I can come up with right now. I have always had an appreciation for modern styles but never really felt like it was my ideal for my own house. I have found though, that it has been a lot of fun to decorate. I feel like I've been able to take a few more risks and play with things a bit more than I normally would have. Its allowed me to see how I can have a little more creativity in my style too and that adapting modern styles doesn't have to be sterile. I've also noticed that it's even fairly easy to combine certain styles to make it my own (ie-a few modern elements with a generally traditional style room, or vintage with a modern twist...) I have found the whole process so far very refreshing. Once I realized that the only rules are the ones I make, I felt much more confident in my decisions and thusly, my creativity took wing and has created a much more livable space.

So, without further ado (sidenote- anyone else realize how ironic the name of my blog is? Since when do I ever write the nutshell version of things? Wishful thinking I guess...) Anyway, without any further, further ado, here are some projects I have under way in my main room:

First up, a frame collage. I happen to be a bit of a picture frame collector. I love picture frames. So, I pulled out my stash of frames and set about arranging some of them into a collage. I laid them out first on my floor, then painted them, then laid them out again on a large sheet of paper (newspapers taped together, actually) marked where each one was on the paper, taped the paper to the wall, nailed nails, took the paper off and then hung the frames. I was a little excited about getting the project done so I didn't stop to take too many pictures in process. Also, my only working camera right now is my EVO and I didn't think that handling it with painty fingers was really the smartest thing to do. Also, the only working camera I have right now is my EVO so picture quality below is less than ideal. Just squint and they won't seem so blurry...

Before:

After:
I painted the frames white, light grey, and one or two dark grey. I wanted them to blend in fairly well to the wall, to keep the room looking as open as possible. I felt that if the frames were too dark, it would close up the already small room too much. I'm really happy with the way it looks. I just need to get some art in them and it will be done-done.

I picked up the lamp below at TJMaxx. When I found it, it had a glorious clearance tag on it knocking the price from $65 to $13. Despite it's ugly, clear, orange and brown color I knew it would be perfect in my space. It came with a shade too but it's too ugly to be photographed just yet. I spray painted the base a metallic silver. Looks muuuuch bettah. PS- WHY in Sam Hill are lamps so expensive? I'd like a 500 word, double spaced answer on my non-existent desk by Monday. Thanks.

This next picture is a close up of the "A" in my collage. I initially painted it a dark glossy grey but then had an idea to jazz it up a bit. I used one of those paper doily things that usually go under sheet cakes, laid the lacy edge across the long sides of the A and then sprayed on a lighter grey paint through the holes and it left the lace pattern when I removed the doily. I could have executed it a little better but it was an experiement after all. Overall it turned out pretty cool.


Stay tuned for other news in my redo/do. I've still got a few things up my sleeve. Perhaps even some more fabric painting in my future? I think the chances are likely.

*For those of you who read this whole thing: Bless you. I shall try to nutshell more. Maybe. No solid promises.

Time to Retire

I'm picky when it comes to purses. I have a hard time finding purses I absolutely LOVE that aren't hundreds of dollars. I'm really good at falling in love with purses, but its usually quickly crushed by shock once I turn over the price tag. I don't like expensive things. Okay, I like expensive things, but I don't like paying for expensive things, nor do I believe that those expensive things justifiably cost what their staggering price tags scream they do.

Back to the point- once upon a time I was in the market for a purse. I searched high and low and couldn't find anything I was satisfied with. My purse at the time had suffered a severe handle fracture and therefore I was in dire need of something to carry around all my chapstick and receipts and gum wrappers in (STAT!) so I decided to find a "go between" (read: a-cheapie-$6-purse-from-Ross-that-I-embellished-with-silk-flowers-I-made-into-pins-to-hide-its-plainess-so-I-had-something-to-cart-around-my-belongings-in-until-I-found-something-I-loved).

It has been 10 months and I still have my go between. Now I need a go between for my go between. I've been doing some projects for my apartment and am apparently just living up to my klutzy tendencies because I got some of the paint I was using onto my purse's flower pins. That, and the fact that the petals are starting to fray and they're looking kinda dingy anyway. *Sigh*

I guess it's time to start the purse hunt again. Wish me luck.

P.S.

I also need to start looking for a new everyday coat... I just discovered a strikingly similar smudge of blue on the elbow of my current one. At least for this I have until it's winter time again.

P.P.S.

Which by the way the weather's been lately means next week.

Helpful Hint

If you just so happen to be dressing up some plain old picture frames by gluing wooden decorations to them, and your adhesive of choice just so happens to be Gorilla Glue, and when gluing said wooden things you happen to get Gorilla glue on your fingers do not continue your project thinking you'll just wash up later. In addition, do not proceed to paint the aforementioned picture frames while the Gorilla glue is still lingering (and yes, drying) onto your poor little fingers, black paint and all.

Unfortunately, just about any home remedy you can think of at this point will be in vain. You are now stuck with black paint smudges glued to your fingers until your skin cells decide to cycle out. And yes, it will still be just as bad the next morning while you are frantically scrubbing trying to improve them before work. Shoulda washed your hands at the first sign of contact, genius.

Please learn from my mistakes. I think I'm going to invest in some disposable gloves...

(PS- wearing your brand new, silk, J Crew shirt while carrying out this project is probably not advisable either. Thankfully, that was one casualty averted.)

Full of Fluff

This weekend I finally sat down and made my long overdue couch pillows. After struggling with the large amount of red in my living room, I finally settled on my complimentary color(s). I chose a range of blues that I felt would play well with the red but not seem too overbearing or out of place. I'm pretty happy with the end result.

I had a bunch of random throw pillows that I've kept around with this project in mind so I used those for my pillow forms instead of going out and buying some. They worked really well and were virtually free since I've had them for so long. To make the covers I used the same simple pattern I used on the last pillow I made, a simple envelope type idea so the pillow forms can be removed easily if I ever want them to be.


For one of the pillows I made I used the same linen fabric I used on my stockings (you'll be seeing this fabric elsewhere in other upcoming projects also- I really love the look and feel of it and its super cheap). I had the idea of stenciling some kind of pattern onto the front and I decided on a crown (don't ask me why... I think I remember seeing something similar in a Pottery Barn catalog).


I searched online for an image of a crown, found one I liked, printed it out, and used my x-acto knife to cut out the parts of the crown I wanted to use for my design. Then, I used a sponge brush to paint on the pattern with some dark blue acrylic paint.


After the image dried, I stuffed it and finished sewing up the two side ends (I'd sewn the top and bottom together before I painted) while adding a blue ruffle trim into the seam. Ta-da! I didn't end up absolutely loving the end result of the pattern but I think it'll do just fine for now. The next day I had the idea of doing an antique key stencil instead of a crown, so maybe on the pillow I'm going to make for my chair I'll go that route.


I think the pillows look pretty good, and its pulling together my color scheme nicely. I still have lots of projects to go until I feel I can call my place "done" but I'm really enjoying the progress I'm making.

I still have some pillows to make for my ottoman/window seat. Luckily this is one of the easiest and fastest projects so I can probably whip those out one of these nights after work.


Stay tuned for this weekend's project: wall art for my kitchen!

It Isn't Christmas Anymore

I know that Christmas was SO last year (har har...) but I am a slacker and the only post I have for the whole month of December was on the 31st. And I didn't even write it. And it definitely wasn't for lack of material to blog about, I just never made the time to sit down and actually do it. So, though this post is a bit late, I am going to post it anyway.

A few weeks before Christmas, Bradford's mom let me know that she would no longer be stuffing his stocking for him and that if I didn't want his Christmas to be ruined I'd better pick it up this year. Or, something like that... Anyway, since Bradford no longer had a stocking to call his own and mine (and my family) are hundreds of miles away, I decided that to stuff a stocking there must first be a stocking to stuff! Ergo, I had a project on my hands. I guess I could have just gone out and bought a couple stockings and called it good, that would have been the easy (and sane) thing to do, but apparently I relish a challenge (and am not sane, but we all knew that didn't we?).

Having never made a stocking, or even thought of making a stocking, I only had a general idea of what I wanted it to look like. I went to the fabric store, picked out some fabrics I liked and that complemented each other, brought them home, scratched my head a few times, stared at them, scratched my head again, and then held my breath and started cutting. I did have the idea of drawing out on tissue paper what I wanted the final shape of the stocking to look like and I used that as my pattern. I laid it on the fabric and used a crayon to trace around it about an inch from the egde of the tissue pattern like so:


I had linen fabric for both stockings and then a red striped fabric for one and a green fabric for the other. I cut out four shapes of the linen and then two each from the red and green fabrics.

After they were cut, I laid two of each piece together, marked with my crayon where I wanted the stitch to be, pinned them and then sewed them, leaving the top open.

Next, I grabbed one of the linen stockings and one of the colored stockings, turned them both inside out, sewed the openings together with a bit of lace in the seam, then turned them back right side out and the result was a lovely stocking that was reversible to be either red/green with a linen cuff or linen with a red/green cuff. And I must say, they turned out MUCH better than I expected them to. My seams were clean and straight, the shape turned out well, and they looked pretty close to what I imagined.


I decided to dress them up a bit by making pins for each of them. One had a bow and snowflake (the bow I made and the snowflake was an ornament I found at the dollar store) and the other was a rose that I made from ribbon (which was surprisingly easy to make and turned out pretty). I made them pins so that if I wanted to reverse the stocking I could unpin and re-pin them interchangeably.
I really enjoyed making these and it re-boosted my desire to get cracking on the ever growing list of other projects I have brewing up my sleeve. Hopefully I'll be getting one or two of them knocked out this weekend. Wish me luck!

P.S. Yes, one of those projects is to fix my blog background. Promise.

Its Done!

I've finally finished my chair! After painstakingly hunting down a fabric, and then modifying it to fit my decor perfectly, this weekend was the crux of the whole operation.

I've made covers for this chair before (I decorated the living room in the house Bradford used to live in and his beloved bright red and black trimmed chairs did not make the cut for the color scheme). So this time around I knew better what not to do and what would work well. They ended up being a nice snug fit and looking pretty darn good.



They were super easy to make. All I did was pin and sew the fabric around the cushions to get a tailored fit and then I added a zipper to the back sides so I can take them off and recover them again if I ever feel like it. The hardest part was getting the zipper on, but even that was more or less a cinch.

Above is the twin to my chair. Its currently residing in Bradford's bedroom. He loves them. And I love them too. They are super comfortable. But I like them best when they are covered :) ... they're just so... RED. And my very red couch is PLENTY red for this room.

I was nervous that I might not have enough fabric for both cushions but- wonder of wonders- not only did I have enough fabric for both cushions, I had enough to make a pillow cover too! I haven't decided where I'm actually going to put the pillow yet, I have some other ideas in mind for the pillows on my couch, but for now that's where it sits. Side note- I've never understood why throw pillows or even just pillow covers cost so much to buy from the store. Seriously, they are so easy to make that I have a really hard time buying pillows from the store. Unless they are on clearance at TJ Maxx or something... Anyway, to make this I basically just made an envelope with the fabric and had the two ends overlap eachother in the back so I can slip the pillow in and out if I want to change the cover or something. Easy peasy.

Also, on another home operation note- I recently purchased and recieved from Amazon a little vacuum for my place! I couldn't afford a normal vacuum, plus I only have about a 12' x 15' space of carpet, the rest is wood flooring and tile, so I don't really need a full size vac. And this guy is perfect. He was only $46, I can use it on my wood, tile, and carpet floors, and it actually has a pretty powerful suction so it does a great job. Its also easy to store in my limited closet space since its compact. And its red, I love red... just not red chairs obviously... strange. And the cherry on top- its called a Hoover "Flair". How cute is that? I can't take the credit for this find though, Bradford, with his astute deal finding skills, did some research and found this one after comparing reviews and products. Gosh I like having him around.

Update from the Home Front

I am still in the process of finishing all the nooks and crannies of my apartment. (Moving and situating a new place is expensive- both monetarily and time wise.) The most recent thing I have been working on is getting my fabric ready to cover my chair and ottoman. The material I found for my chair was a great price, but it was missing any red to tie in the big red couch sitting in the same room with it. So, what I decided to do was to paint some of the flowers on the material red myself. This is what it looked like before:

And this is what it looks like now after my handiwork:

I was pretty satisfied with how well the red ended up matching the red of my couch. And I think it livens up the fabric quite a bit too.

All that is left now is to sew the covers! That is my project for today after work.

Slowly but surely, I am getting this apartment looking snazzy.

P.S.
Stay tuned for pictures of the kitchen buffet Bradford built for me. It is lovely and now I can actually cook without pulling out my hair or having to sit down with a cutting board on my lap in the living room... Bless him.

Must be Fall

I have officially hung up my "spooky" sign on my apartment door.

I am ready for October.

Spooktacular

I have made a few decorations for our apartment this Halloween season and I've taken pictures of some of them so I decided to post them for those of you interested.

This is our "Spooky" door sign.


This was a lot of fun to make. I used Halloween paper, some eyeballs from the craft store that I think were meant for a stuffed animal or something, ribbon, buttons, glittery scrapbook letters, and an unfinished wood board (I actually ended up using an unfinished wood picture frame because I couldn't find just a board anywhere that was the size or price I wanted...). Then I put the paper on with a clear drying glue and painted over the top too so it wouldn't rip or anything. It was a lot of fun and super easy and pretty inexpensive. I'm thinking I'll do some for Thanksgiving and Christmas too.

This next little project was way easy and I spent less than 5 dollars on the whole thing.



The spider web I got at Big Lots for four dollars and I tacked it up into the corner of our living room. I made the spider out of some of Kathi's old soccer socks, a few buttons, little paper fangs, and fuzzy pipe cleaners I got at a craft store for seventy cents. For his body I rolled the socks up into themselves until they made a ball. Then I hot-glued some orange and black buttons on for his eyes (I guess technically he should have 8 of them but he just looks so darn cute with only two of them...). I cut two little triangles out of some white paper and tacky glued them below his eyes for his fangs. The legs are the pipe cleaners hot glued onto the bottom of his body and then bent a little. He was so cute when he was finished that we had to give him a name. Everyone, meet Rufus. I wanted to make him crawling off the web on to the wall or soemthing, but I was having a difficult time figuring out a good way to get him up there.

I also bought a ceramic jack-o-lantern off of a clearance table at Michaels for $1.50. He looks nice with a candle lit inside of him on our coffee table. I bought a garland of some really cool looking fall leaves that we hung above our window too so our living room looks nice and halloweeny.

I'm having a lot of fun finding different things to decorate with. I especially like to use things to make something that they wouldn't normally be used for. Like Rufus made from socks (who knew?!).

If anyone has some fun ides, send them my way!

Its in the Air

I am SO excited for Fall this year!!! Granted, Utah falls aren't quite as vibrant or long as those back in KY, among other places, but it will be wonderful all the same. No matter how soon the time runs out from now until the snow starts falling, I will cram as much autumn into my days as I can handle.

I love fall clothes, the weather, the BYU football games, the smells, the food, and of course those begging-to-be-stepped-on-ultra-crunchy leaves! I am going to make sure that this is an Autumn of enjoyment, taking advantage of all the fun, festivities, and beautiful nature that can be had.

I can hardly wait to go fall clothes shopping. New shoes, sweaters, jackets, jeans... I'm tickled at the very anticipation of it! Bradford will definitely humor me because I'm pretty sure he will also benefit from the fruits of my sprees. Sometimes its more fun shopping for him than it is for myself.

I'm starting a fund for our Fall O'Festivities, as Bradford fittingly christened it, so that we can be sure to go to the pumpkin patch to pick out our lucky pumpkin friends for this year, and also so that we have plenty of resources to attend all the fun things like farmers' stands, haunted houses, haunted forests, haunted corn mazes, haunted toilets, whatever! I get so ridiculously into those, no matter how unbelieveable, I push all logic aside so I can get thrououghly scared at every cliche chainsaw man and scary clown face (don't have to try too much be truly scared of those ones...). What fun is a haunted anything if you aren't going to let yourself be scared? Bradford can testify that I truly do denounce any reasoning that would allow me to walk through one of those without much clinging and shrieking. Not to mention the heap of entertainment for him as a product of that behavior...

And food! Thanks to the most recent Better Homes and Gardens magizine that was just bestowed to the doctors' office I work in, via the friendly postman, I have oodles of mouth-watering recipes and treats to try out. From pumpkin curry soup, spice-rubbed chicken to savory plum salad and chocolate cherry bread pudding... I think I will easily become a fan of the feasts of fall. Also, what fall is complete without several caramel popcorn balls and jugs of hot apple cider?! Come one, come all, I WILL be in the kitchen this season.

I hope that there are lots of fun parties and things going on... wait, this is Provo, land of the Cougars and home to BYU, of COURSE there will be parties, campus parties, community parties, ward parties, and hopefully a few parties by friends. Heck I may throw one myself if I feel ambitious enough. Now... what should Bradford and I dress up as if we need costumes? Hmm, that'll give me something to mull over.

Decorations! I want to do something fun in my apartment... maybe a fun squash arrangement or some fall leaves... There will definitely be scents of cinnamon and other delectable autumny smells to be had. Ooo! An autumn wreath on our door! Brilliant...

One of the canyons out here has what they call "The Alpine Loop." You go up one canyon and "loop" around the mountain and come out another canyon an along the way there are tons of aspen trees. They are gorgeous when they change color. They usually change pretty quickly though so you have to get up there at just the right time when they are at their most vibrant. I'm sure Bradford would love to go up with me and look at them and take some pictures. I also want to find a yard that needs to be raked so I can play in a pile of leaves. I loved it as a kid and and positive I would still find some kind of joy in it now.

With the days getting crisper, and whiffs of autumn in the air, Fall is going to be here before you can say Jack Robinson! So do something exciting to enjoy this wonderful season! Shower the kiddos with handfuls of candy come the 31st of October, try a fun recipe, sit outside and enjoy a beautiful afternoon with a good book. Let me know of plans you have so I can borrow your ideas and add them to my list.

Happy Fall everyone!!!

One More!

One more card! I made this card last night. Its for my sister's birthday (mother of Emma).

Pulling Out the Spit Shine

Following in line with my new goal of trying to do more of the things I love as well as shining up some of those left-to-rust talents I know are lying around somewhere, I have rediscovered my love for making cards. I'm not much of a scrapbooker, mostly because it would take me forever to catch up to my current life in photos (maybe I'll start that up again when I have a family of my own...), so I have instead found that making birthday cards and thank you cards and a card for any reason at all really has been something I thoroughly enjoy and I've done a few that I'm pretty pleased with. I wish I had taken pictures of them all but I didn't think to start taking pictures of them until a couple months ago. Anyway, here are a few of the most recent ones I've done:

This is one I made for my sister's graduation.

This one was my Dad's Father's Day card.

This was a card I made to go with a baby present for a friend. (Its also probably my favorite. It took a long time to make but I had a lot of fun with it and it turned out pretty cute.)

This is the card I made Aimee for her college graduation.

This I made for my grandparents in California.

And this is my niece's birthday card. (Shh... don't tell Michelle... I haven't sent it off yet.)

They, aren't the best pictures in the world, but they give a taste of what I've been making. I like to have the pictures of the cards I've made so that I can see that I really can make a decent card (if I'm stumped or feeling discouraged on a particular card design), and also I can see progress I've made or reuse ideas if I'm feeling lazy :). Its really fun and surprisingly therapeutic. Some of them definitely are better than others but they have all been fun to create. I don't have a lot of tools, mostly just paper and scissors and a few add ons like ribbon and buttons, but the more I make the more I notice the things I'd like to get. Its kind of nice because when I started I didn't spend tons of money on tools and supplies that I'll never use but also sometimes frustrating because I can only do so much with the resources I have now and it takes a while to cut out letters and flowers and things. I'm going to keep a list though of the things I'd like to get and then slowly add on to my supplies.

Now... who's got a birthday coming up?