Friday, August 31, 2012

polish please | navy & hearts

Nail polish has been something that I have loved for a long time. When I was younger I would paint my nails all sorts of colors. I believe there was a time when I had polish on my nails {continuously} for 3 years. When I started taking black and white photography classes, by nails suffered. The chemicals, opening film canisters, et cetera took a a toll on my nails. I always had them cut short and naked. 

In the past year I have been getting back into my polish obsession interest, and pinterest has opened my eyes to nail art that I would have never thought of. There are three blogs that I follow regularly and get inspired from:
- thenailasaurus.com
- blognailedit.blogspot.com
- chloesnails.blogspot.com [although she hasn't posted in awhile] 

Well this is my latest creation that I am rockin' right now:

base coat, Savina in Caribbean, Savina in Hearts, top coat


 I used a dotting tool to apply the glitter hearts to the bottom of each nail.


no flash
with flash




 The mani from earlier in the week.


Sally Hansen polish strips in Lust-rous, accent nail Essie in Set in Stones


 

Sunday, August 26, 2012

pinsiration | frames

Another trip to Hobby Lobby this weekend, and a flood of ideas came to me. One of the sore spots in my decorating are the walls. We rent {and will for a while} so we have to do something besides paint to make the walls more interesting, and make our apartment feel more like a home.

So Hobby Lobby had custom frames, and wall decor for 50% off! I bought a few things, thinking that I knew what I was going to do, but my original plan was vetoed. So off to the web! I started pinning for inspiration, and here are a few things that I like...

Stairwell Inspiration: empty frame collage 



 via

I do already have a plan in mind, I will follow up with that hopefully with the next post.



Friday, August 24, 2012

long weekend

I have THREE days off in a row, and weekend days at that! Although I would love to spend the whole weekend out of the heat of the desert {and in the perfect 75 degree weather of the mountains}, I am only up here for the day. Back to the valley of the sun later tonight, but here is the fun that we {my parents and I} have had today:

- Got onto the rim and rolled down my windows {temps in the 70s, much better than triple digits}
- BBQ pulled chicken sandwich at the Pine Creek Smokehouse
- Thrift shop, and antiquing
- Quad ride
My mom, and her need for speed.


Look at that speed limit!

The rim




- And lastly... relaxing on the deck...


tgif.


Sunday, August 19, 2012

friendship bracelet

Now here is a blast from the past! I don't know if you all were like me, but I was a friendship bracelet addict growing up. It seemed like I was making a new one every week, giving them away and wearing them where ever I could tie the things on. Well this is a little revisit of the classic friendship bracelet, with a little twist.

I started by going to my new favorite store Hobby Lobby, we have only had them in Arizona for a few years, but my family in the mid-west have been talking about this place for years. I wish that they were open seven days a week, but other than that, I am in LOVE. I picked out a variety pack of embroidery floss, and brought my 40% off coupon. 

I picked colors inspired by a patterned dress from my place of employment, I figured that I could wear the bracelet with the newest collection that came in. I chose a bright blue, deep pink, orange, and purple, cutting each strand to 60" lengths. Take the four strands and folded them in half, tying a knot at the end creating a loop just big enough for my {peace sign} bead to pass through.

The easiest way to do this is to attach your bracelet to something stable. You could tape it to a table, use a safety pin to tack it to a pillow, a clipboard, or whatever works for you to keep it still while working. I taped mine to a lap desk, fired up netflix, and got started.



Arrange the stands in the order that you want the stripes to appear. I wanted to have consistent stripes so I put both sets of colors in the same order. For the "ombre" effect, place the first four strands from lightest to darkest, and the next four strands from darkest to lightest.


Now to the actual making of the bracelet. Take the first strand and place it over the second, creating a "4" shape like seen above. Hold the second strand tight, and pull up the first strand creating an overhand knot. Repeat same thing with the same two strands. Then take the first strand and repeat the steps on the third strand. Continue this with all remaining strands, and make sure to create two over hand knots on each strand.


When you get to the end of the row, start over with the next color. Easy as that. Once you get going it is easier to see what color comes next, and you get into a rhythm that makes it go by pretty fast. Once the bracelet is the desired length, tie a knot at the end, and braid the tail to make a closure. Add the bead of your choice, and you are ready to go. 


 After some trial and error, I did find that I liked the way the closure looked better if I braided the center of the four strands before making a loop, and attached the bead with a piece of embroidery floss into the final knot.


I kept one for myself, and have given the rest away to my friends, just like in the sixth grade!


Tuesday, August 14, 2012

pinspiration | fireplace

Even though I am living in 110+ degree heat, there is something so comforting and "homey" about a fire place; the heart of the home. When I finally have a place {that I an not renting} to call my own, I will have a little pinspiration...

via 


2008-03-06-wood.jpg 
via 

fire place. 
via


Sunday, August 12, 2012

dining chair mini-makeover

A few months ago Mike and I moved into a new apartment. We still had the same dining room table that we bought from Ikea {for a steal at $89} that we used in our first STUDIO apartment. So once we got mostly settled in, and decided to add another couple to our weekly dinners, we knew we needed a new {bigger} table.

After spending most of my free time scouring the inter-webs, I finally found the perfect table, at the perfect price, on craigslist.org. It was listed for $225, and I knew that I could talk them down to $200. Well it turns out that Mike is an AWESOME, I mean super AWESOME negotiator talking them down to $180 for the table and four chairs. The table is cherry and has two leaves that pull out from under the table so it almost doubles in size! The other thing that makes it perfect is that it is narrow enough for the width of our apartment dining "room."

The chairs however were not quite perfect. I loved the chairs almost more than I loved the table, but the cushion fabric has seen a few too many diners, and needed to be changed, ASAP. We found fabric at Hobby Lobby that we both agreed upon, and I used a little DIY magic to give these babies a facelift.

 This is actually pretty easy, and once I got the hang of it it took me a total of 25 minutes to do each seat. What you will need is a chair {with a fabric covered seat}, staple gun, and staples, basic tool box {allen wrench, flat blade screw driver and pliers will do the trick}, scissors and your new fabric.
 Now you need to remove the seat from the chair {Violet wanted to help}, and the staples from the backing {this is where the screw driver and pliers come in}. I got lucky since the cushion and original fabric were in good shape, but with minor stains and a little too plain. If need be you can take off the fabric and get new foam and batting to get a comfy seat.
 Once the backing and all staples that were in the way were removed, I cut a square of fabric for each seat, with about three inches of extra fabric around each side.You then start on one side in the center, pull the fabric taught and staple. Move to the opposite side, and do the same. Make your way to the left side, and then to the right.The goal is to get the fabric tight, without pulling, and even. Continue to work your way around working your way from the middle of each side, out to the corners, leaving two inches on either side of the corners.

Now for the corners. There are many different ways that you can finish a corner, my way isn't that scientific, I played with the fabric until I got something that I think looked the best, and smoothest. I then stapled the heck out of it until I was sure it wouldn't move. Ever. After the corners were complete I trimmed of the extra fabric and stapled the backing onto the chair for a finished look. If you don't have a backing to replace you could always hot glue grosgrain ribbon over the staples to tidy it up. Last, but not least you reattach the seat to the chair.
 Easy as that! Such a simple fix, that makes a huge impact. Now, the table and chairs look brand new, and we could fit TEN people at the table of we needed to. Although, I don't see a huge holiday diner party in our near future.


Monday, August 6, 2012

pinspiration | projects

Like almost all girls now-a-days I spend a lot, I mean A LOT of time searching through pinterest.com. I pin anything that I am interested in. My boards seem to be growing in size and amount. I have food boards (which I always have good intentions of trying it all, but have only made a couple of things), DIY boards, fashion, beauty, dream home, you know the drill.

Well I thought that I would share some projects that I was "pinspired" by that I plan on completing, hopefully in the near future.

  
via
store bracelets 

This is just a little taste of what I am likely to work on shortly. I am planing a trip to Ikea today! I was going to go yesterday with my best friend, but we had a little too much fun at ladies night, and I thought that hanging out on the couch was a better way to spend my time. 

Wish me luck!




Friday, August 3, 2012

welcome

So, I have tried my hand at this "blog thing" before and let's just say that it started out GREAT, and slowly declined to pretty much no posts at all. My best friend, Shawna, and I started a blog about our crafting and cooking, but it was hard with our busy [and opposite] schedules to keep the thing going. Well, we started the last blog with our hopes and dreams for the future followers, subscribers, and blog-stalkers; with the plan of what was coming up in future posts. This is what I have in the works for my future posts:
  • Friendship bracelets [my latest obsession]
  • Nail art/ polish/ mani
  • Dining chair make over
  • Bathroom re-do
  • DIY lampshade and photo lamp
 Hopefully your all will stick with me on this journey. Let me know what you think, what you have tried, and what inspires you.