{Finally! A project!}

I had a thought today - Remember when I used to blog about all the fun projects I did? You know, way back when I had time to do them? Ah, yes, the good ol' days! Well, I've been missing the feel of a power tool in my hand & the smell of wet paint, so I decided to make time for my creative side and tackle a few projects!

First on my list was this- it's one of the doors from the armoire in my bedroom that I decided didn't need doors anymore. I loved that it had three panels and knew I could do something with it, and then one day, it just clicked! The hubs is always asking me to write things down on a calendar so he knows what's going on and I'm always making lists (aka chores for him to do), so what better place to jot 'em all down than here!

As you can see, I painted the border white and used chalkboard paint in the center. I called my friend Karlie for the vinyl & she printed out exactly what I wanted! Then I used a few picture hanging hooks and hung it up in my kitchen. Pretty nifty eh? Just don't ask how often I erase it and write down the menu every week (let's be honest people- it looks cute the way it is- why mess it up? Maybe someday when I have kids and they ask what's for dinner, I'll jot it down weekly for now, it's Fajitas every Monday)

P.S. If you have a project you want me to feature on my blog, send me an email! I'm sure everyone would love to see what you've done, especially since my projects are far a few between!

{powder room}

It's just about done! It's come a long way from this...

....to this!

I took the cupboard doors off & painted all of the vanity wood white. Then I replaced the doors with a skirt- it's the same fabric I used in this project. I just sewed a little pocket at the top and slipped a tension rod through it! Simple and easy!

We also installed some new lighting! The old "Hollywood dressing room" lighting wasn't cutting it. I knew I wanted something different and I loved the industrial/nautical look of this light! Its actually an outdoor light, but it works just great in here! And for $27 it was a deal! Yay for Home Depot!

I'm hoping to find the finishing touches this weekend and then I can show you the final product! Here's a peek of what I had in mind!
Shells in a jar,
simple, glass soap dispenser,
& french wire baskets for storage!

{downstairs bathroom}

After living in our house for 18 month, I finally decided to spruce up our downstairs bathroom a bit! My parents bought me a roll of Martha Stewart paintable bead board wallpaper for Christmas and I put it up Monday afternoon. So far, the makeover is going really well!

I was a little worried about putting the wallpaper up because it didn't come pre-pasted (you know, the kind you dip in water and then stick to the wall), but after buying a quart of wallpaper paste from home depot and rolling it on the walls like paint, I realized it wasn't too hard! It was actually very easy! I just did a section at a time- roll the roller in paste, roll it on the wall, and then stick the wallpaper to it. Easy peasy!

I decided I only wanted to go about 2/3 up the wall with the bead board, so I bought some trim to finish it off at the top & bottom. I started the bead board up a little higher up too, to give the illusion of taller base boards! I'll add another skinny piece of trim to the bottom of the bead board to finish the look. For now, here is the progress!
Before:

Almost done:

{new year freebie}

I had no idea so many of you were interested in my New Years Eve template! I'm glad you like it!

So here is the link to the PDF! If you have trouble viewing it, let me know!

Also, I got the mini bottles of Martinelli's at Fresh Market (formerly Albertsons)- they were down the isle with all the juice drinks & they come in a pack of six.

Today I am off work (yay!) and am heading out the door to Home Depot to grab supplies for my downstairs bathroom makeover! Can't wait to show you!

Have a great day!

P.S. I almost forgot to list the fonts I used!
I can't remember exactly where I found most of them, but I'm sure you can google the names and find it!

{Libby's Chair}

Remember this tragic post?

The chair needed to be fixed, and I considered my options. I could hand sew the tear...but I felt like it would be an eye sore & I knew this chair would get a lot of use and felt that the stitching might not hold up. I also thought about placing a patch on it, but again, that would be an eye sore! I wanted it to look perfect, so my only option was to redo the back and the sides (the back of the chair is the last step, so I'd have to take that off to replace the outside arms).

Then tragedy struck again. I went to the fabric store to pick up more fabric and they were completely out, and they couldn't reorder. I went to 4 different stores and they all said the same thing. That's when I really started to panic! How would I fix this chair?!

As I waited for the lady at Joann's to call one last store, I spotted another fabric out of the corner of my eye. It wasn't the exact same fabric I needed, but it was the closest match I had seen! I asked if I could see it and the lady said, "Sorry, it's on hold." I plead with her,

"Please? Can I just see it or have a swatch? Can you see if another store has this fabric? Does the person holding it really need the whole bolt? I only need a couple of yards!"

The woman must have sensed my despair, because she sighed said, "Well....there's about 20 yards on here...I doubt the gal holding it needs the whole thing!" and then she cut me 2 yards!

I knew McCall wanted to give the chair to Libby for Christmas so I got to work and gave it to her just in time, on the 23rd!

I love how it turned out and to be honest, I'm almost glad I re-did it! This fabric is much more durable & I'm confident it will withstand the use it's 18 month old owner will give it!

Trying it out...

She loves it!

And it was the perfect spot to sit for opening presents on Christmas!

P.S. Don't you just love McCall's tree & wrapping paper? If you think that's cute, check out her aunts & her mom's house here...LOVE it!

{DIY roman shade}

For the longest time, laundry rooms around the world got the shaft. I mean, let's be honest- 9 times out of 10 it was the room that was shunned. It was the room that got passed when giving a home tour. Door shut, with clothes piled high, hiding in a dark abyss...

However, thanks to the blogging world, the laundry room is the new living room. And who can blame us? If you're like me, you're spending every other day (I'm sure once we have kids it'll be every day) in the laundry room, sorting, folding, and changing loads. Why not make it less of an eye sore, right?

Well, for me, my laundry room is more of a laundry closet. A pair of accordion doors are all that hide my washer and dryer and some left over door less cupboards. While I am thankful for the extra storage it wasn't the prettiest space in my house, so I decided to do something about it!

I realized that my little laundry closet wasn't deep enough to put doors on the cupboards, so I decided I'd make a roman shade to cover the mess. I found the fabric I wanted at Ikea & followed these directions to make the shade. I also found really helpful directions here.

I bought the skinny piece of wood at home depot for $0.75! Can't beat that! I also bought a roman shade kit from Joann's which included the roman shade tube tape, rings, L brackets, cording, eye screws, etc.

(hey, it kinda makes a cute rug too! don't you think?)

I decided not to line my shade because it was too much work and nobody was going to see it from the other side. Also, the fabric was thick enough that you couldn't see through it, so I skipped that step. After I hemmed the sides & bottom, I used fabric glue to adhere my tube tape (see, even if you can't sew, you can do this!) and let it sit until it was dry (about 30 minutes).

Then I inserted my 1/4" dowels into the tube tape (I had to use 2 dowels because my shade was so wide) & hand sewed the rings onto the tape.

Then I stapled the shade to the wood, screwed in the eye screws, & threaded it with the cording. When that was done, I attached my L brackets & hung it up!

And this is the finished product...cute, yet functional! I love how it looks now and I can still easily access my things.

{bathroom mirror frame}

I got an email today from a reader asking how I did the frame around my bathroom mirror & I told her I'd post about it today! So here it is, 11:00 at night, but I'm sticking to my promise! And can you believe it? Three posts in a week! I'm on a roll!

This is how our bathroom looked when we bought the house. Pretty typical for the year the house was built & not too bad, but not the greatest either. I didn't want to invest too much into the bathroom, so we made small, inexpensive, & easy changes.
It started with the cabinets, then the faucets, then the mirror, lighting, & finally the paint color. I've added a new shower curtain and some cute accessories, but it's always a work in progress!

Now, onto framing the mirror...

We bought the trim at Home Depot & used Liquid Nail to glue it to the mirror.

Sounds easy enough, right? It was!

I measured how long I wanted my trim (I over lapped the mirror about a 1/2" on all the sides), and cut 45 degree angles with my miter saw. If you don't have a miter saw, you can easily cut the trim with a miter box & hand saw.

After I cut each piece, I spread a thick bead of liquid nail on my molding, then stuck it to the mirror, pressed it on good and hard, and then used painters tape to hold it in place until it dried (about 24 hours). I used wood putty to fill in any gaps in the wood.
(Which there were a lot of gaps...I learned the hard way to measure twice and cut once. Be ye not so dumb and learn from my mistakes!)

Then I painted the trim with a nice glossy black paint, and that was that!

And you know what? I'll be damned if it hasn't held up like a champ! I'm pretty sure if the next home owners don't like it, they'll have to rip down the whole mirror to get it off. That's how good it holds!

An orchid & a few accessories later, here is the new bathroom!

{1st Birthday!}

First Birthdays are a big deal, and when my friend McCall asked me to help her throw a cupcake party for her baby girl, I was thrilled! After getting a little inspiration from here here, McCall asked me to design some fun invitations, cupcake toppers and labels for the cupcake party!

McCall also wanted to find a cute cupcake shirt for Libby to wear to her party, and after looking all over with no luck, we decided to just make one. While it might look a little hard and intimidating, it was so easy! Seriously, a little heat'n'bond goes a long way! Even if your sewing skills are lacking, you can make this shirt! (You can find the pattern we used here.)

Brandi, McCall, & Me...
(funny story- I knew Brandi in high school....well, I knew of her. She was a year older than me, but we were in the same FCCLA club and went to Florida together for Nationals. I thought her and her friends were the bomb-dot-com! I mean, she was always so nice and fun and actually talked to the younger, junior girls. So naturally, when I found out she was McCalls sister in law, I was thrilled! They're both such fun, cute gals!)

Giant cupcake before....

during....

and after!

Time to get cleaned up!

Thanks for including me in your special day, Libby! It turned out so cute!

{monogram pillow}

Last week, I had 4 days in a row off. I didn't have work on Friday because of Pioneer Day (thank you, Utah Pioneers), and then I had Monday off because Andrew told me to take Monday off because of something he had planned up his sleeve (I'll get to that in the next post).

So on Friday when I woke up, I didn't waste any time getting to work on projects that have been piling up since May.

And since we don't have enough pillows on our bed (I say that sarcastically, of course, because Andrew thinks a bed with more than 2 pillows is going overboard) I decided to make a cute monogram pillow for our bed, because heck, I love monograms.

I had some fabric left over from making my pelmet boxes, so I decided to make a box pleat trim with the extra. A lot of folding and a lot of pressing & steaming later, I had trim for my pillow.

I stitched the trim along the bottom and finished the ends by folding the raw side in.

Then, after printing a giant C, tracing it on onto my fabric & cutting it out, I used heat n' bond to adhere the monogram to my pillow.

Because heat n' bond doesn't always stick the strongest to burlap, I did a zig zag stitch around the edge to make sure it stayed! After a lot of stitching & stuffing, I ended up with my new pillow.

I love box pleats! So clean & crisp. And I love how my monogram pillow turned out!

{bathroom projects & a new job}

holy cow...has a week really passed since I last posted?!

Let me just say, I've been so, so busy. Good busy!

I lost my job on Monday, and by Thursday afternoon, I was offered a new job. I started last Tuesday and the rest is history!

I really do feel blessed. You were all right though. Things have worked out for the best!

I love my new job! I'm learning so much, and it's so fun being in an office again with so many different women! We laugh every day and while there can be a little drama at times (hey, we're with each other for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week) we do have fun! (Remember what it was like to have roommates in college? Yeah, it's kind of like that!)

I won't lie though, I do miss the flexibility of being a rep! The first day at my new job was a little bit hard. Going from one extreme (driving all over to different clients every day by myself as a rep) to another (staying in an office all day with a bunch of women) was pretty hard, but I've adjusted. :)

ANYWAY, while I was unemployed I decided to redecorate my bathroom. I had been wanting to paint my cabinets for some time, but with the white cultured marble sink & counter top I knew white would look kind of funny, so I decided on black.

Here is the before picture....

I knew I had to sand and prime the cabinets and my original weapon of choice was my handy dandy power sander, but after about 30 seconds of dust, I decided to use liquid sander.

I was a little worried that it wouldn't work as well as a real piece of sand paper, but let me tell you, this thing worked wonders!

After using the liquid sander, I primed my cabinets with Zinzer 1-2-3 no sand primer. Normally, I wouldn't have worried about the primer, but I knew these cabinets get used every day and I didn't want to worry about the paint chipping!

Oh! Before I forget, I wanted let you know that if you're going to paint your cabinets, use a GOOD quality brush! Purdey brand is the best! Seriously, invest in a GOOD brush and you'll be whistling dixie through out the rest of your project!

After a few coats of black paint & adding some pretty hardware, the look is complete!

I loved how my new black cabinets looked! The only thing that I didn't love were these...

Yeeaah...not such a fan of the crystal knob faucet.

After a trip to home depot, I picked out my new faucets.

I decided on a chrome, two handle faucet with ceramic handles.

I really didn't think it would be too hard to install them, especially after watching this video (p.s. do any of you think the guy in the video sounds kind of like Christopher Walken?), but I was wrong, so so wrong! It was a pain in my butt!

This project would have been easy as pie, if my sinks were normal, but of course, they weren't. After diving head first into the project, I realized that I needed to replace my water supply lines. Not a huge deal. Then I realized that the plastic nuts that came with the faucet were too big & there wasn't enough room between the sink & the bolt. So, finally, after about 4 trips to the hardware store & only hitting my head once (so hard in fact, I thought I split my head open) I got them installed. Ta-da!

All in all, I love the transformation that a little paint & new hardware has made. I still want to replace the lights above the mirror, find a new shower curtain, & paint, but all that will have to wait for the weekend!

Oh, and the total cost so far for this project has only been about $75! Can't beat that!

P.S. I'll post this weekend in detail about how to change a faucet. That way, all of you can learn from my mistakes! haha!

Hope you all have a fantastic week!

{decorating with plates!}

I LOVED doing this segment! Seriously, it was so easy, and the best part?! I found most of these cute dishes at thrift stores for $0.75 to $0.25! Can't wait to put these up on my wall at home!

{million dollar question}

It's the project that launched a thousand emails...

"Shan, where did you get the radiator grill that you used for your jewelry holder?! I've looked all over home depot and they have no idea what I'm talking about!"

In my hastiness as I was posting about the project, I accidentally told you Home Depot, but what I meant to say was Lowes- my bad! They're about $28 (a wee bit pricey) but so worth it!

The other question I get asked at least once a week is "What is the color of your craft room?"It's an Ace Hardware brand paint called "Uptown Girl"

So there you have it!

Have anymore questions? Email me! shans_design@yahoo.com

{succulent favors}

I loved making these little succulent favors and they were sooo easy! Seriously, kids could put these together! (Okay, a kid might need some help, but really, this is something anyone can do!)

Here's what you'll need...

-variety of succulents

-small container to replant the succulents (I used 3" terra cotta pots)

-pea gravel or small rocks

-well draining soil

First, I went to Ikea to get my succulents. They have a great variety and are sold in 4" pots for $2.99 or something, which is cheap, considering it cost the same for a 2" pot at Home Depot!

Before I started planting, I white washed my terra cotta pots. I mixed a little bit of white craft paint with some water and painted the pots! I brushed in different directions to get the look I wanted and waited for them to dry! Easy peasy!

Next I started repotting...

The great thing about succulents is that they can be divided easily.

I wanted a variety of plants in each container, so I divided up 3 different plants at a time.

It was as easy as pulling the plant out of the plastic container and pulling them apart (gently, of course, as the stems are very delicate!), and then repotting them in the small, terracotta containers!

Just put a little bit of peat gravel at the bottom of the pot (for good drainage), add a little bit of soil, and then pack your plants in!

Each 4" pot of Ikea succulents filled about 4-5 of the 3" terra cotta containers.

Oh, and I bought my potting soil at the dollar store!

No, I'm not kidding! It's amazing what you can find there!

I really didn't have to use much of that soil though, because I was able to use a lot of the extra soil from the Ikea pots!

After I planted, I spritzed a them with water, to help the roots take hold in the new soil.

After I finished potting all of them, I tied a little raffia around the top, and used Photoshop to create a little card with care instructions!