Monday, April 29, 2013

More On The Guest Room

Last time I gave you a glimpse of the guest room it looked like this.




Ha, I forgot about the bathroom.  Isn't she pretty?  Not!




And the closet.


And here it is now.  Nothing terribly exciting, but progress is progress and it makes me infinitely happy.  
That back wall is the one that is getting wallpapered.  And no, the tub isn't staying in that room.




Improvements in the bathroom as well.  Just ignore the pink patch on the wall.  I had toyed with the idea and then decided against it.  



That closet looks so much better except for the venting.  Whatever, it's a closet.  I'm going to try to not get too anal about everything.  After all, there is still a lot of the house that hasn't been touched.  Money pit!

It's a start anyway, and a huge improvement from what I originally showed you.  So here's the to-do list.

Bedroom
-Wallpaper back wall.  Waiting for the cutting for approval.
-Buy a light.  Still haven't picked one but I'm working on it.  I'm trying to find a semi flushmount in brass.  It's practically an oxymoron.
-Carpet.  So I'm not a huge carpet fan, but this room is right above our bedroom and it's the third floor.  I'm making exceptions.
-Finish up electrical.  Obviously this list isn't in order.  Ha!

Bathroom
-Pick a paint color.  Easier said than done.  I don't really want the same color as the room, but I may change my mind
-Tile floor
-Bead board
-Buy pretty much everything.

So, not a lot to do, right?  Heh.

Monday, April 22, 2013

Making A No Sew Personalized Pennant Banner

Let me start by saying that I'm not a huge DIY person.   I know my limitations, but that doesn't mean I can't be inspired by others' ideas.  Besides the poms that I put up (yes, I finally put those suckers up)  I wanted something else to go above the Peanut's crib.  Originally I was going to do some artwork above, but then decided that I really liked the pennant banner thing that I'd seen around the internet.  So I scoured the web looking for something fool proof.  I found it at Faye's blog Frugal Faye.  Simple, concise, good pictures, done.  I knew that this was something that my pea brain could tackle.  So now I will recap and show you what I did differently.

The first thing I did was measure where I wanted it to go.  Then steam came out of my ears and my brain shut down.  I have a science background and yet I can't figure out simple math.  Go figure.  I kind of winged the measurement thing and then crossed my fingers and rubbed a rabbit foot and whatever else you do for good luck.  Next I made a mock up of what I wanted it to look like.  I played around a bit with the size of the triangles and then decided to do alternating sizes.  Hey, why not?  



Then I made the official template out of something I found in the rubble of homeless crap in our house.



Next I ironed my fabric inside out just like Faye told me to do.  I think it would have been fine to do it right side out though since I used a disappearing ink fabric pen for the next step.  



I traced my template onto the fabric,



 and then used pinking shears to cut out the triangles.



Now I'm veering from Faye's banner since I'm going to personalize mine.  I knew I wanted to have some lettering on the banner but I had no clue how to do it without making it look like crap.  Before I even started the project I thought maybe I would just have someone with more time and talent make me one on Etsy.  Then I had an idea (twirling my imaginary moustache).  I bought vinyl letter stickers from Michaels.  I know someone out there probably has an easier way of doing this, but this is what I did.

The fabric I was using for the letters was pretty thin so I took some lining fabric that I had leftover from the curtains and used stitch witchery to adhere them together.


Then I stuck the vinyl letters on, cut them out and peeled off the vinyl.




And yes, I really need to invest in a new ironing board cover.  C'est la vie.  

Then I used the stitch witchery again to attach the letters to the pennants.



At this point I went back to Faye's instructions to finish up.  I opened up the pennant, put hot glue in the center and layed my cording down.




Then I used the stitch witchery (this stuff is kinda awesome if you don't want to sew)  again to keep the two sides of the pennant fabric together.  



And voila!  Here it is hung in the girl's room.  One step closer to the reveal!



Thanks to Faye for making this so simple!  I encourage anyone looking to make one of these to check out her blog.

Monday, April 15, 2013

Ideas For The Guest Room

The third floor guest room is starting to take shape.  In the next few weeks it will be ready for the lipstick.  Here's my inspiration for the room.



The fabric is Llyta Canovas.  I found  it on Calico's website.  Side note, did they really drop the "Corners" from their name?  Seriously?  They're not fooling anyone.  Anyway I saw this and knew that it would be perfect for the room.  I think I'm going to pair it with this wallpaper (Schumacher Zimba in soft chartreuse), but only on one wall.



And then I picked up some cheapies at Home Goods and SteinMart.  I really do love these stores.  I can always find some little goodness there.





It's a good start, I think.  Hopefully it will look as good as it does in my head.  If only I knew how to make a moodboard. Seriously, I've made one on power point, but it never looks as good as the ones I see on other blogs.  Tips?  Anyone?

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

I'm Calling The Girls' Hallway Done




I finally finished (mostly) the girls' hallway.  I went on an etsy rampage looking for quotes for the walls.  
I wanted a mix of some of our favorite song lyrics, inspirational quotes, and a bit of my 4 yr old's art mixed in.







The picture on the bottom left is one of my favorites.  For a while boobear drew every "person" with a frown.  I swear she's a very happy child.  I also love the vertical line for a body and how the arms are coming out of the face.  She's since graduated to a more traditional body, but these first drawings were too cute not to include.  


And lastly I dedicated one wall to their beginnings i.e., ultrasound pics, newborn pics, and outfits I brought them home in. 


You can see I'm missing a couple of pictures, hence the "mostly" done hallway.  Our color printer is packed away somewhere so they will remain missing until I find it in the mass of boxes that have yet to be unpacked.

I love walking down the hallway now.  It feels so cozy and colorful which was exactly what I was going for.  Big thanks to all of the Etsy sellers who were so prompt in sending these adorable prints. (PaperfulPress, Urban Design Ink, The Print Design Studio, Sweet Lenora Designs, Ladybug Graphics, PaperRamma, Finny and Zook, Grass Green Design, Oip's Store, Nella Designs)

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

The Girls' Room Continues...

The girls' room is so close to being done I can taste it.  The curtains are just about done, I've got the bedding, but there are just a few touches that are not quite right.  I jumped on the pom wagon and my husband and I attempted to put them up.  A fight almost ensued as we tried to wrangle those things into a shape that was esthetically pleasing.  We failed and then realized that a) I need to buy more since it was looking a little wimpy, and b)  we have to step up our game on the execution.  Seriously, we're talking about tissue paper, right?  It shouldn't be this difficult.  I know it's just us, but I'm going to pretend like we're not the only two people that are pom challenged.  

 So here is a sneak peek of part of the room.  It should be done in a few weeks.  I have to get a few pieces of art and more poms.  The poms take a couple weeks to ship out.  Again, we're talking about tissue paper here, right?