home remix

so, mymichael and i have lived in our house for a whole 3 years this month.  crazy to think that we have been back in t-town for that long.  3 years is the longest i have lived anywhere in the past 10 years!  now, this is nice b/c it means i don't have to pack and move and all that jazz, but the packing and moving and such always allows me to change my "home" space.  redecorate, paint, change things up a bit.  now that the 3 years are here, i am definitely ready for a home remix/redo/redecorate/repaint/etc!  to be honest, mymichael isn't too excited b/c when we bought the house 3 years ago it had just been professionally painted on the inside and i proceeded to paint every single room before moving in.  so, the thought of having to do that all over again is a little daunting to him!  but, here's the deal, i want a change, something different, and the least expensive thing you can do that can make a MAJOR impact on the feel of a space is paint.  so paint we shall...after the new year and after i determine what colors and such.  back in may i picked up some fabric to use in our office.  it has since sat in the corner b/c i had a feeling i was going to want to repaint everything and wanted to wait until i knew what the rest of the house was going to be.  lately i have been drawn to the light interiors w/ the greys and blues and lots of white.  my house has wood stained trim and since we won't be there forever, i don't want to go to the hastle and expense of painting everything white....although i would love that.  my walls are greens and blues right now (which i like....just want a change) so going with a lighter grey/blue color will really change the look.

here are some things that i am loving right now.....

wallcoverings. 
these are all suzy hoodless designs from osborne & little.  i saw the first one, green and purple, in my friend francie's new york apartment and completely fell in love.  she had it on one wall and it was gorgeous!  b/c i'm going for a lighter look i wouldn't use the first colorway, although i love it.  below are some other designs from the same designer.

now, i wouldn't be doing every wall, if anything, just one.  haven't made up my mind.

white ornate frames

bold patterns

combination of patterns - geometric w/ organic

the possibilities are endless!  feel free to share input, links, photos, etc.  i always have a hard time deciding what to do for myself.  i can help someone else all day long w/ no problem....but me?  i'd hate to have a client like me! 

garden planted

sunday we got our garden planted!  it was a beautiful day and we both got some much needed sun.  here are some quick snap shots...

as you can tell we bought the plants already started, we didn't plant from seeds.  we are trying out a couple of new things this year, lettuce and eggplant.  can't wait to be bringing in fresh vegetables for dinner each night! 

square foot gardening

it's that time of year...time to start the garden.  last year was the first time mymichael and i planted a garden.  my grandma plants a "square foot garden" each year in addition to my grandpas traditional row garden.  the square foot garden is nice because it is above ground and it is much more manageable.  they can be as large or as small as you want.  last year mymichael and i built a 6' long by 2' wide and 6" deep box.  you want your box to be located where your yard gets lots of sun.  once you have your spot selected it is good to put landscaping material (or i have heard of newspapers) under your box to prevent grass and weeds from growing.  then fill your box with all new gardening soil.  to make the square foot gardening easy they suggest that you use string to divide your box into square foots so you can actually see your boundaries.  then select what vegetables or flower syou want to grow.  some vegetables you can only have one plant per square foot, but then others you can have 9 in a square foot.  so that we could figure out what we were going ot plant and where, i drew up this handy dandy square foot garden layout...your lucky i didn't put it in autocad to scale! 

our garden this year will consist of okra, tomatoes, onions, bell peppers, banana peppers, spinach, lettuce, zucchini, white squash, yellow squash, cucumber, jalapenos, and multiple herbs such as basil, oregano, thyme, rosemary, cilantro, parsley and sage.

here is a list of a few vegetables and how many you can plant per square foot (there is an actual square foot gardening book...so look to that for exact details and such):

okra - 1 plant

tomato - 1 plant

corn - 1 plant

onion - 9 plants

bell peppers - 2 plants

lettuce - 4 plants

spinach - 9 plants

zucchini - 1 plant

yellow squash - 1 plant

cucumber - 1 plant

basil - 1 plant

i can't wait, i love fresh vegetables and herbs.  just fyi, we don't plant from the seeds.  we buy the little plants that have already started to grow and transplant them to our garden.  if you want to start from seeds you can it just takes a lot more time and work and you have to start much earlier in the year.  last year we got quite a bit of produce, we had some plants die but over all it went well.  there is so much to know about gardening and i really don't know anything other than to water them.  my grandma and granpas are pros and have beautiful gardens each year.  mymichael is pretty good as well...i credit him for ours last year.  the things i tend to grow on my own...well they die.  so thank you mymichael for the future watering of our garden this year!

are you growing anything this year?  if so, what?

just a little spray paint

it's amazing what spray paint can do!  if you remember this post ,about an old bird cage i found at a junk store, then you will be happy to know that i have completed the makeover!  the rusty birdcage went from this:

to this:

all it took was one can of glossy white spray paint, a cute fat bird, some books and springy blossoms.  i have seen pictures with many birdcages, different sizes and different colors and they are just adorable.  i will say though, i have a new found respect for those people who build ships in little bottles.  this particular cage only had one way to get inside...a 3" x 4" door and it was a pain...the cute fat bird almost didn't make it!  i have another spray paint project that i will post about soon, so stay tuned, ya hear?

what have you transformed with spray paint?

flaky & rusty

this past weekend a couple of my friends from dallas came to visit.  saturday we headed to jenks to see if we could find any "treasures" or future diy {do it yourself} projects.  our first stop was rivercity trading and my oh my!  we spend a good 2 hours going through the store.  for those that aren't familiar, the building is an old grocery store that has been divided up into booths that individuals can rent to sell antiques/crafts/old stuff/you name it.  it is a very interesting combination of items...one booth will have an old milking stool and the next will have embroidered baby items...definitely keeps you guessing!  during our 2 hour trip we acquired a multitude of things.  here are a couple "before" pictures of items i found.

i have full intentions of fixing these items up...they will not sit in my garage untouched!  both of my friends went home with windows as well as some other items.  i'm curious to see how theirs turn out {hint, hint tiff.....blog!}

so, check back to see what i turn the old flaky window and rusted bird cage into!

new pillow covers!

i love hitting the after christmas sales.  i was in target last week when all of their christmas/winter items were 75% off.  as i was walking by their table cloths, one in particular jumped out.  it was red with white snowflakes.  it had originally been marked $16.99, but with the sale it made it only $4.25 for the biggest one.  obviously it would make a cute table cloth, but then i thought to myself..."that's a lot of fabric for a cheap price, what else could i do with it?  winter throw pillows for the living room!".  i picked up a couple for myself and one for my mom. 

i don't know how to sew really at all.  i can kind of do a wiggly, not straight line, but it's not great.  because of that i always call my mother for her help.  we have covered many a pillows in the past few years.  i found out that crate and barrell's fabric napkins are the perfect size for a throw pillow...you sew two together and voila you have a super cute pillow for not much money...especially when you get them on sale.  so, back to this story...i called mom and had her bring her sewing machine over to help me out.  here's how it works...

items needed:

pillow {i got mine from ikea...feather pillow 20"x20" for like $5}

material {i am using a fabric tablecloth from target $4.25}

velcro squares {$3.50 from joanne's}

buttons {$1.50 or so from joanne's}

sewing machine

thread

needle

step 1:  determine what size you need for your cover.  my pillows are 20"x20" and i knew i wanted the top to fold over with a button.  i needed the width to be 21" to accomodate sewing the edges.  our "pattern" was a long rectangle with a triangle on top {shown in the pic} for the flap.  the overall dimensions were a rectangle that was 21" wide by 40" long plus the fold over triangle which comes to the middle of the pillow, so an additional 10".  is this confusing enough yet? 

step 2: sew the side edges together and hem the edges of the triangle. now you will be able to put your pillow inside the case...but please do a BETTER JOB THAN I DID so that mom doesn't have to redo it for you!

step 3:  sew a button onto the bottom of the triangle flap...we didn't want to mess with button holes and such

step 4:  place 3 squares of velcro along the edges of the triangle flap to hold it down.

finished product!

that one table cloth was 60" x 120" and made me 4 pillow covers and two table runners. 

i got all of that for around $14.00 {already had the pillow inserts}.  that my friends is hard to beat! 

when you are shopping keep your eyes open for great deals and ways you can use them unconventionally!

crafty ideas

i wish i was more of a "crafty" person.  i always see things and think, "that is so cute and i could so make that"....but rarely do i actually tackle the project. 

for instance....i have a super cute chair at my house that i found at a garage sale in guthrie a couple of weeks ago.  with a change of upholstery it would be perfect.  but i haven't gotten that far yet, so it sits in my living room screaming at me everytime i look at it! 

anyways...i was browsing a couple of blogs that i frequent and came across these pictures....

{found here at smile and wave}

click here

and here

and here

and here

are these not adorable?  i'm not a big fan of cheesy decorations, but these are vintagy {which i'm really digging right now} and just plain cute.  the first one that i found on smile and wave is quite a bit too tedious of a job for me.  i like the idea of using an old shirt or something, but the whole hand stitching aspect just doesn't work for me.  that's why i love the next 4....it's yarn!  they are super, super cute.  i also love the felt flowers that are one them...i need to check etsy on those.  i think i might actually attempt one...we will see...they would be cute christmas gifts!

any easy crafty projects that you are working on?