Seeing Red No More

For a while now I've been planning on re-covering my couch. The red suede just isn't doing it for me anymore. I want a crisp, clean, looking front room and red has proven to be my adversary in finding harmony in that design.

I initially wanted to cover it in something very textural. Like a large weave linen or tweed in a grey or very pale blue. However, I need about 20-25 yds of fabric and finding something that was sturdy enough, cheap enough, and that I liked proved to be much harder than I'd hoped.

After dozens of swatches later (as well as falling in love with a select few then having to heart-wrenchingly break up with them after realizing there was no way I could justify spending $250+ on fabric alone, ew) I was pretty frustrated.

The thought of keeping red so central in the room really bugged me and I could not come to terms with keeping it as is. Finally, I was struck with inspiration as I remembered a current "trend" right now of using canvas drop cloths as rugs, curtains, slipcovers, etc. Though it wasn't an original idea of my own, I still felt pretty clever (and re-motivated) heading down this avenue.

I went to Lowes to see what they had and to determine if they would, indeed, be sturdy enough (and un-ugly enough) to work as my material. I was pleasantly surprised to see that it was just about the best option all around I was likely to find.

They have a slew of different options as far as size goes and I found one that is 9 feet wide by 12 feet long. I ended up buying 3 of them to start off with, figuring I can always buy another if I end up needing it. Total cost for these suckers? 55 dollahs. Done.
The color is pretty light. Lighter than I had wanted, practically blending into the color of my walls, but with the way I'll decorate around it it should work just fine. At least it will be a significant improvement from the red.

(Notice: Charlie has his socks close, just in case he gets bored destroying things.)

Last night I started cutting out the pieces. Since I want it to look as if its been upholstered (without having to actually rip off the existing fabric and re-upholster it) and I don't want it to look sloppy as if an, ahem, drop cloth had just been thrown over it, I decided to make a pattern of sorts. I used newspaper pages and pinned and cut them to fit the couch and then laid them out on the fabric and cut around them (adding an inch or so to allow for the seams).

Charlie, always having to be involved in whatever I'm doing, even if it means occasionally being stepped on (oops) because he is always underfoot, decided he was going to help. A few half-eaten patterns, flinging fabric scraps around the room, and dumping out all my pins from their container later though, I decided it was time for bed. For the both of us.

The rest of the couch will have to wait for another day.

(Next time I may also find a bunny babysitter... any takers?).

*I used a lot of ( )s this post (also commas). That's probably somehow bad grammar. April? Can you look into that for me? You're a pal.

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.

He's Hot

I just wanted to share with you all a tried and tested method for cooling off after a grueling workout.
Yesterday when I got home from work, Bradford was at my apartment doing a P90X routine with Tony and crew sweating away on the 50" TV we recently purchased for my place. I started on dinner while he was finishing up. Once he finished however, the wide open window letting in the crisp winter air still wasn't enough to cool him off. He quickly ran outside, and barely mentioned his plan to me before I was able to snatch my camera and run to stand in my bath tub to take pictures out the window of his adventure down below.


I'm still not sure if sweaty man covered in snow is better than just sweaty man, but he sure seemed to like it. And apparently it was quite effective in cooling him down. Feel free to use this method if you so desire.

(Please ignore the poor picture quality. My flash reflected off the window screen so I turned it off, and I didn't have time to make it any better since I would have missed the opportunity if I hadn't hurried. We wouldn't have wanted to miss this now would we?)

In other news, Bradford and I are working on getting Claire, his cockatiel, moved out of Bradford's parents' house and into my apartment. Her current cage is gargantuan and since my apartment is not, we purchased a more reasonably sized cage for my place. It is darling, and perfect for her since she loves to sit on top of her cage. I'm really looking forward to having her with me!

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!

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.

The Red

Here is a picture of my red couch that I promised some of you I would post. The picture is grainy, and makes the couch look more orange than red, but trust me, this sucker is red. Very red.


Soon I will have the pillows recovered and my decorations will be going up, so stay tuned for the final results!

I Love Tomatoes

Hey look! I wrote another post!

I don't really have a good excuse for how long its been, other than I moved last month and most of my time has been spent getting my new apartment put together. I don't have any pictures of the place right now but once everything is all up and finished I will gladly share with you my cute little studio apartment that I've really come to love.

My most recent addition to the place is a big red sofa bed. Since I don't have a bedroom (its a studio, remember?) I had to decide if I'd rather have a bed or a couch. The space isn't big enough to have both so I flirted around with a lot of ideas. At first I was going to get one of those loft beds. Basically a bunkbed without the bottom bunk, so there would be room for a desk or couch or whatever underneath it. But then I couldn't find any that were really worth spending a couple hundred bucks on and I then went to the idea of a futon. Not your traditional futon. Because I hate the way those ones look. I wanted something that looked like a couch but also flattened out into a sleeping space. There are "click-clack" sofas that are basically futons but they look like a couch. I spent a lot of time tracking down ones I liked and almost bought a few on seperate occasions. I was never really impressed with the reviews though, and never did find one I LOVED. They also made them out to be pretty cheaply manufactured and I wanted something that was going to last. An investment really. Plus the idea of spending $500 on a cheap sofa that I didn't love wasn't very intriguing.

I was just about to resign myself to sleeping on an air mattress for the rest of my time here when on a whim Bradford and I stopped at the RC Willey outlet Saturday morning. He had orginally suggested, back when I first rented the place, that I just get a sofa bed. His point was that it would be sturdier than a click-clack and probably last longer, which I agreed with, but for some reason I was really turned off to the idea of a sofa bed. I just thought I would find it a huge hassle to pull out and unfold my bed every night as opposed to just laying it flat. I really didn't even consider it. Plus, I figured the only ones I would be able to afford would be used ones bought on the local classifieds and that just screams "gross" to me. But, after all my other options seemed to fall flat on their faces I came around to the idea of getting a sofa bed. I even got excited about finding one in the classifieds because then I could recover it in whatever fabric I wanted and so it wouldn't matter how ugly it was! I liked that idea. I found a few that were reasonably priced but after going to look at them in person and watching a guy fall through the mattress to the ground (after he sat on it proclaiming, "its really sturdy too,") I was starting to feel a little discouraged again (after a good chuckle of course).

Back to RC Willey- We asked a sales associate what sofa beds they had and he showed us the first of three that he had. It was a red micro-fiber classic styled sofa bed that was deliciously priced at $419. Clearanced, since the style has been discontinued. After sitting on it, and seeing the price tag, what little hesitation I may have had over the tomato red fabric was gone. I loved it. "I'll take it!" I said, whole-heartedly, even after only 5 minutes of being in the store (that factor alone about knocked Bradford over with relief). The sales person then told us that if we came back to pick it up the same day we would get 20% off! That means I could get this sucker for $358 TOTAL. Tax included. I could have cried.

Even the smashed up toe and ridiculous frustration it took getting the blasted thing up the stairs to my apartment was so worth it.

Pictures forthcoming.

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!!!