Ginny's Art

Got Contact Paper?

2012-01-19T23:04:00.000-06:00

Look what I did with a scrap of black contact paper.

My toilet suddenly looks so dapper :)

He proposed!

2011-12-31T01:44:00.000-06:00

I have a fiancé now. Even typing that word makes my heart flutter :)

Christmas solar system

2011-12-18T22:20:00.000-06:00

I made my own little Christmas solar system mobile :)

I rigged this mobile with two wooden sticks, wire thread, clear string and glittered ornaments. I hung it where my birdcage lived. It brings festive thoughts into my little place. Every time I see it hanging there, I smile.

I like it so much, I might keep it up until the new year :)

Faux apartment doors

2011-12-01T20:13:00.000-06:00

I’m back and totally ready for action! You know why? Because I just bought this baby!

Oh yeah, I bought a new camera and I’m LOVING IT! I never really liked how my old point & shoot took photos. It always looked so….yellow. But I’m sure this one will take cleaner & crisper pictures (hopefully, but bare with me while I learn how to use it.)

Anywho.. I have some things to share.

1. I made some apartment doors.

I was reading this awesome DIY magazine, and this lady made her basement bathroom door look like an apartment door. It was such a great idea...I just had to do it. I went to Lowes, picked a cute sunny shade of yellow and picked up some great modern silver address numbers. I chose 16, it’s my favorite number.

I went home, painted and installed the numbers. It looked SO COOL.

But in my mind, I felt like I wasn’t really finished, because now the corner of the room was bare white. So, I painted my bedroom and closet door the same color.

I took a few steps back…and was like “CRAP…this is way to much yellow!” I had to think of a way to balance that out. So I sat there and stared at the corner of the room.

Stripes.

Stripes popped into my head. And what color goes best with yellow? If you guessed gray, you’re obviously a color expert ;)

(See that white stripe going down the yellow door? I'm trying to tone down the brightness. I also added a 14 to my bedroom door.)

So this is how it turned out, and I LOVE IT. I decided to take down the shelves that used to be above the chair. I replaced it with a canvas, but wasn't really sure what to put on it. So of course...I drew a heart. Don't judge me. I used the gold color I used for my dining room wall stencil. See how I'm trying to tie everything together? I also wanted to throw some pink in the mix, so I framed some of my black & white photography and hung them up.

All in all, I have to say I'm GLAD my patterns aren't clashing. They actually look pretty cool together.

I love my artsy apartment :)

Homemade Halloween 2011

2011-10-30T21:54:00.000-05:00

Pretty much everyone at my Halloween "get together" made their own costumes.

Thrift stores...are...awesome!

Just look at the awesome 80's prom/bridesmaid dress I transformed into my Toddler's pageant dress :)

and look at my hot momma! haha

Toddler Queen & #1 Stage Mom

Edward Scissor Hands

Everyone (but the bumble bee, slacker) made their costume.

Snooki Monster

Party Fixer (would pass out mini bottles)

Group Pic :)

My dream doll house

2011-10-19T11:39:00.000-05:00

Are you ready for the little girl inside of you to scream?

Check out this Tiny Victorian Cottage...seriously? How gorgeous is this??

This is a real life doll house that you can only get to by walking across the rocks in the stream..*sigh* I love it.

“Sandra Foster turned a Catskills hunting cabin into the romantic Victorian cottage she had always wanted, using vintage columns, flooring and wavy glass windows, and doing the carpentry herself.”

To read all about it click here.

More Halloween Decor!

2011-10-12T10:49:00.000-05:00

I thought I would share this little project I did with some ugly pumpkins.

My boyfriends father had these pumpkins he drew on that he was going to throw out, so of course I took them :)

I wanted them to look chic, so I gave them a glamorous makeover. Voila!

I swear, you can never go wrong with a little black and white paint...and glitter spray! :)

I'm loving them now and am proudly displaying them.

Here's another quick $2 halloween decor tip.

Black construction paper = invasion of the flying bats!

All I did was google "bat stencil" and printed out the first bat I saw and cut the heck out of them. My hand was a little sore but look how cute it looks. Very worth it for $2 :)

Please help me by voting for my t-shirt! :) Please!

2011-09-30T11:05:00.002-05:00

Coaster Redo

2011-09-22T14:32:00.000-05:00

Who doesn’t love key silhouettes? Am I right or am I right, can I get a

“what, what!”?

Assuming you guys just totally gave me a “what, what!”, I’m going to show you what I put key silhouettes on.

I had some boring cork coasters that needed to be freshened up. Silhouettes are all the rage now, so I thought it would be a cute girly touch. One fat black sharpie and 10 minutes later, they turned into this.

Who knows? Maybe my friends & boyfriend might actually use them! (Just kidding guys, well… not really.)

DIY Halloween Décor

2011-09-21T11:28:00.000-05:00

Do you have a million wine bottles that you have sitting on your countertop just waiting to be recycled? I do, but since I’m lazy and have yet to make a recycling bin I just have them there…staring at me.

Then a crazy idea popped into my head. Why don’t I spray paint them black to make a cool table centerpiece? I had this awesome vision in my head that 100% didn’t translate into real life. Upset that I just wasted a whole can of black spray paint I opted to do something a little different to them. I made them into Halloween décor!

This is a really inexpensive way to dress up your home for Halloween. I drew on some spooky stuff using some white out. I really like them now. And of course, they were FREE à my favorite word. Lol.

For scarier results, just add a floating head.

Taylor Swift T!

2011-09-18T23:36:00.002-05:00

Everyone knows I'm a hugeeeeee Taylor Swift fan. My boyfriend bought me tickets to go to her concert and I wanted to wear something awesome, so obviously I wanted to design a t-shirt :) I've always loved the Jesus is my homeboy shirts, so I made a play off that shirt. And so the "Taylor Swift is my homegirl" t-shirt was born.

I wore it to her concert, and got a lot of stares and pointing from teen girls. I don't know if they were making fun of me or actually liked my shirt. I'm going to stick with the latter lol ;)

I posted my tshirt on my facebook page with the tagline "Some might say this is blasphemy, but I call it being a Super Fan." Turns out two of my grammar school friends wanted to buy the shirt! I made them but thought I should present it to them in a cute way. This is how I gave it to them.

I hope they are enjoying their Taylor T's!

alley art

2011-08-24T22:15:00.001-05:00

A couple weeks ago I found this painting in my boyfriends alley. Sure, it's not the most attractive painting ever, but I was loving the frame. It looks and feels rich to me. So I grabbed it and put it in my work dungeon. Well I finally had time to re-do it and this is what I came up with.

I painting it all white and kept it simple with peace & heart graphics. It was strictly black and white, but it was Mike's idea to fill in the heart with spray paint to give that cool effect.

He also contributed the perfect name: "My heart bleeds for peace".

*Post Update*
I was just informed this is the Mercedes logo....whoops!
I'll fix it and repost soon ;)

kitchen decor

2011-08-24T21:56:00.000-05:00

I thought I would post some of the pictures I took of the whole desk process seen here.

Since I don't own saw horses (yet) I cut the desktop on some stools. I really don't recommend this, don't do it kids! It was hard, and I really had to hold down the wood to make sure it didn't fly and kill Mike.

Us posing happily with the new bare countertop :)

And now for the after pictures!!!

I added a Bygel rail to hang my cooking utensils, switched out my light bookshelf for a darker one to match the counter top and hung my adorable oven mitt.

Now it will be easier to cook, if I ever decide to ;)

I found this shopping list, and it matches the kitchen perfectly.

Mike bought me this oven mitt. I think he's trying to tell me something :D

Thanks for taking a tour of my kitchen!

breast cancer t-shirt design

2011-08-24T11:57:00.001-05:00

This is another quick little graphic design update. I was hired by one of my good friends to design a t-shirt for her breast cancer fundraiser bar crawl. I happily accepted and came up with this little design.

(Erica & I)

I design stuff all the time, but this is the 1st time (well 2nd time if you count the t-shirt art contest in high school) that something has been made into an actual shirt. It felt awesome seeing everyone in their pink shirts. I'll never forget that feeling :)

butcher block counter top love

2011-08-24T11:24:00.000-05:00

Back on June 22^nd when I was feeling all sorts of optimistic I made a to-do list…to do. Unfortunately, I didn’t really finish it. My boyfriend’s bedroom is still in limbo. He still has paper work everywhere and that hideous thing of a desk in there. I won’t touch it until he fixes that problem lol. My 2^nd bedroom turned closet/office is pretty much done. I painted the wall black, cleaned it up and fixed my art corner. I should probably take some pictures of it, huh?

I didn’t turn my coffee table into a bench, I tried to sell it in a garage sale but to my surprise no one took it. It doesn’t have 1 scratch on it; I really thought it was going to be one of the first things I sold. I also didn’t paint my paint can planters. *sigh*

BUT I did get to do something else that wasn’t even on my list.

1. I painted the concrete exterior blocks in the front. Nice and white, looks nice and brighter. I still have some parts to finish…I think I’ll do it on the weekend.

2. I added another cabinet to my kitchen. I had a gap there before and had a wire bookcase holding my plates (pics seen here). I never really liked how it looked, but I stayed with that for so long because 1. I didn’t want to buy another cabinet 2. I didn’t know how to install another cabinet.

But guess what? My bestie for life, Jennifer gave me a $50 gift card to my favorite store Lowes, so I used it towards the purchase. It actually looks and feels like a complete kitchen now.

Everything was fine and dandy until I realized that the cabinets didn’t match up. My kitchen floor is 100% uneven so that’s how my cabinets were going to be. Yes, my heart ached for a minute or so, but then I thought, “who cares?” Who cares if my cabinets aren’t completely straight?? I don’t, just as long as I have something there right?

I painted my unfinished cabinet to match its counterpart and it looks lovely. But once again, I ran into a bump on the road. The base cabinet is only 30 inches wide, and the countertop I needed doesn’t sell that size. They don’t even sell anything close to it! But as usual Ikea saved the day. Instead of having the same countertop, why not add some butcher block?

I know what you’re thinking, “why is she mixing tops?” but I know it will work! Last Sunday I helped out at an Open House for a million dollar home. The homeowner had a butcher-block countertop next to her oven where she said it was easier to prepare meals. That way, she didn’t have to ruin her granite countertops. It’s genius if you think about it.

I found LAGAN at Ikea, it’s the very cheap version of their butcher block, and at $39 it’s the perfect price for me :). The best part is, it can be cut and sanded down. It’s like music to my ears.

Well I went to lowes to buy the butcher block and guess what? They were SOLD OUT of it! I was heartbroken until my shopping angel boyfriend spotted out a pine wooden desktop. It was $40 and beautiful. I took it in a heart beat!

I went home, cut it down with my boo (which was quite the experience). Side note: NEVER saw anything indoors, the dust literally took over my entire apartment and it took a couple hours to get the woodshop class smell out of it. Blah! But I learned better and decided to stain the block outside. Yes, I stained it a beautiful dark walnut brown. It’s gorgeoussss! !

I brought it inside, set it up and you know what? I like it. It looks funky at first but then you warm up to it. Plus I’ve never been one to be cookie cutter so what would you expect from me? ;)

Full beautiful pics will be up soon. Until then, look at my awesome cell phone pictures :P

It's fits! Well, kinda :P

I had a whoopsie while sawing, but this wood filler is AWESOME!

I thought I would add in a little detail.

Hey, it's better than what I had before! ;)

rosette pillow tutorial

2011-06-25T02:02:00.000-05:00

I’ve never been able to spend more than $10 on a throw pillow. Call me crazy, but spending anything over $10 for something that is going to get squished and tossed around all the time just doesn’t seem right to me. Plus, throw pillows have always been ugly to me, same old boring colors and patterns

until I saw this.

This rosette pillow is absolutely GORGEOUS! The color, style and texture of this pillow was lovely, but the price was ridiculous! I was/am not paying $25 for 1 pillow! I technically would have to spend $50 in total because, who only buys 1 pillow?

Needless to say, I was just not feeling that price. =/

Months went by and every time I would go to Target, I would find myself wandering into the furniture department looking for that beautiful pillow. It was always there, waiting for me like mans best friend…but I still didn’t want to spend the mula. So I left Target every single time with a little less of my soul. (Yes, I’m dramatic lol)

So I thought and I thought and said WHY DON’T I JUST MAKE ONE?!? And so I did. :)

When I first bought my couch it came with 2 standard pillows. The design was not my style so I made pillowcases out of that yellow material I seem to use in every project lol. The pillows stayed plain for 10 months until I got the idea to add little rosettes to them.

The first thing I did was cut strips of yellow material. I did 6” long by 2” wide and added a drop of hot glue on some felt. I attached the yellow material and twirled it into a flower shape. I kept adding hot glue as I went to hold it down and kept twirling until I ran out of material. I let it set for a few minutes, then cut the flower from the felt. I did this 7 or 8 times and added them to the pillows.

I felt like there was way too much yellow, so I took an old white t-shirt and did the same thing. Now my pillows have yellow and white flowers.

Now I love them.... and the best part is it was FREE :)

i never finish anyth

2011-06-22T15:26:00.000-05:00

Do you ever feel like your brain is going at 100 mph? That’s how I feel all the freakin’ time, seriously. I just have so many ideas and not enough hours in the day (and money in the bank, haha) to do them all. Looking back at my blog, I’ve noticed that I leave a lot of my projects un-finished. For instance, my refrigerator...I was supposed to have a chalkboard surface refrigerator but ended up dumping that idea to cover it in black contact paper. That tiny change made the biggest difference ever! People think we bought a new fridge! I never finished re-shooting the kitchen, I gotta get on that to show you just how amazing it looks now.

My boyfriend’s bedroom, but this one is not my fault. He has yet to clean out his million shoe boxes full of junk paper. I refuse to do anything in that bedroom until that situation is taken care of. But really all we have to do is hang picture frames back up and throw out that hideous desk. I asked him if he wanted me to paint his dressers with some cool design but I didn’t get a definite yes or no on that one. Sooo stay tuned for that project to be finished.

I recently started to mess around with my 2nd bedroom turned closet/office. I realized after I graduated that I never used my “office”. So, to get more out of my closet I took out the desk and moved in this purple kitchen cabinet-turned bookcase that you can see here holding up my tv and use it as my craft station instead. I re-used the whole black and white scheme that I did in my kitchen and painted one wall black. I’m trying to go for a glamorous/forever21 vibe with this closet and so far so good. But I still want to add a faux roman shade, get a sheepskin rug and somehow fit this chair into the mix. Pictures will be up soon (I hope haha)

But now that’s its summer, I want to leave these projects in limbo and throw myself into updating the front porch, backyard deck, and my back entryway. Once again I have 801,164,126 ideas that I hope to get done before summer is over.

Here’s my list.

1. Turn my lack coffee table into an outdoor bench.

When I moved this table out of the way to lay down tiles, I really loved the open feel it gave my living room. So I said “so long” to my table and kept it in my closet for months. I didn’t want to throw it out though, it’s still brand new looking thanks to me being extremely anal and making people use coasters and placemats lol, but no one wanted it either. I moved it into my kitchen when I started re-doing my closet and happened to sit down on it. It’s extremely sturdy, and so a light bulb went off giving me the idea to make it into a bench. But it wasn’t until I started thinking about the front porch when I got the idea to make an outdoor seating area and put it there. I do have to buy some sealer and paint it to make sure I don’t get water damage. But there’s idea #1.

2. Paint my back door black.

Yes, I wanted it red before, like my front door but I didn’t think it would match my awesome security door. I’ll pick up some black exterior paint soon.

3. Paint can planters.

I saw this on another blog and it looks AWESOME, plus with all the paint jobs I do I have plentyyyyyyyyyyy of empty paint cans.

That’s all I can think of for now, until then I’m thinking this should be my slogan.

P.S. DON'T FORGET TO FOLLOW ME!

Please? :)

ribbon wedding bouquet

2011-06-14T21:28:00.001-05:00

I just loveeee weddings!

Sorry I haven’t been blogging but I’ve been super busy in my friends wedding. She’s actually getting married this Saturday so I thought I would fit one little post in my crazy schedule.

Last month she had a Surprise Bridal Shower where she received a zillion gifts. The room was drowning in gift-wrap and purple ribbons…I mean, it was everywhere! So the bridesmaids grabbed all the ribbons and kept them on the side. I took them home and made a ribbon bouquet for her to hold on her Wedding Rehearsal day, which was today.

[All the ribbons]

I went to Michaels (of course) and bought a foam ball and flower tape. I made the ribbons in the shape of flowers and glued them to the ball.

You can see that I not only used the purple ribbons but also the big gift bows too. I then took the stem part off another fake bouquet, bent it in half and stuck that into the foam ball and taped it with the flower tape to stay secure. For the “leaf” parts I used the curly ribbons to finish it off.

She finally got to hold it today, and she looked great with it ;)

my graduation!

2011-05-22T16:56:00.004-05:00

I did it! I graduated last Sunday and it was GREAT!

I feel like such a grown up now ;) But I wanted to show you a couple pics of my day.

My and my beautiful mommy <3

Me & my grandparent's in our newly decorated black & white kitchen.

Look what I did to my cap! :) I did this so she could spot me our quicker in the crowd of enormously tall people that go to Columbia. (I'm only 5'0, and everyone else if 5'6" and above lol)

My brother and I.

Right after I got my diploma :) (See what I mean about the tall people?? haha)

My besties came of course ;)

My & my honey boo.

I love this photo! I might turn it into a canvas..

And I got some pretty awesome presents from my peeps!

I got a bunch of sweet cards that totally made me tear up. I love everyone that got me one!!!

Flowers from : Mike, Andrea, Jennifer, Melanie & Diana

Me & my bestest friend Jennifer

Me and Miss Diana

Balloons from Gaby & Mari and Jennifer

This card came all the way from California from one of my famous friends. If you watch Glee, I'm sure you've seen her ;)

This one also came from a far away land known as Guatemala.

This 2011 Grad frame & jewelry box came from my cousin-in-law Melanie. She knows I'm all about custom things so I absolutely lovedddddd this gift! She even surprised me by sneaking it into my apartment when I wasn't home lol. I might make the whole 2011 frame with pix of me & her ;) She is the Serena to my Blair. <3

Me & Melanie

Here's another totally amazing gift that my friend Andrea & her husband Tonio got me. Tonio's cousin made this custom art on a wooden paint pallet. Isn't this awesome? And what makes it even cooler is they used the quote I had on my graduation invitation.

Me with Andrea & Tonio

And last but not least look what my boo got me. Another custom gift from Things Remembered. It's a charm bracelet that he designed. It was really difficult to get a good picture so I'll describe the charms. One is a graduation cap, another is a G for Ginny, another is a frame-so I gotta start looking for a good pic of us, and the last one is a heart with a beautiful inscription. It says "So Proud of You Boo!" on the other side "Love Always, Mike". *Sigh* he makes my heart melt.

antelope video update

2011-05-22T15:48:00.001-05:00

Hey guys! I thought instead of writing a huge post I would be lazy and make a video :)

nice antelope head

2011-05-10T14:28:00.001-05:00

When I read blogs I go into a trance. Seriously, if I’m looking for ideas or just glancing at pages I’m completely disconnected from the world. I love looking at what other bloggers/designers/interior decorators are doing and what I can learn from them. I’ve noticed a lot of people are decorating their homes with animal trophy heads. I actually really like the look of them, but not the old school ones that your grandfather killed on his hunting trip. I’m talking a new sleek modern take on the trophy head. Z Gallery has the one I want. How cute is this?

But, since I’m living on pennies I couldn’t splurge on this cute sculpture *insert sad face*. So I let my dream go. I kept on looking at pages and found this amazing post on designsponge.

Yes my friends…that’s a hand made animal head you’re looking at.

When I saw this all I could think was

“how.freakin’.cute”.

I think it’s way cooler than my Z Gallery one and it’s one of a kind!

Well, you guys know how I am …I can never pass up a handmade one of a kind ;)

I looked at her tutorial but I didn’t want to buy new stuff. I wanted this to be a free project so I opted for different materials. I went through my closet and grabbed 5 wire hangers, went in my garage and took a small cardboard box and went into the kitchen and took a couple jewel bags and old newspapers.

Then I just eyeballed it. I googled a picture of an antelope and made the neck with the cardboard, took the plastic bags and filled them up with crunched up newspapers for the head and bent some wire hangers for the ears and antlers.

I’m pretty happy with the structure so far. It really looks like an antelope head! Today I’m going to paper mache it, and see how it goes. Hopefully it won’t be too hard to put some details in.

Wish me luck!

thanks urban outfitters!

2011-05-05T17:47:00.002-05:00

My friend Griselda bought me some stuff from Urban Outfitters for my birthday. I adored her gifts but I also loved the bag it came in lol. Random, I know. The material of the bag was so cool, and it was designed so well that I couldn't just throw it away....so I kept it.

Its home was my bed railing for a while but after months of looking at it I decided it needed a better home. Somewhere it could be appreciated more..

This bag moved over to couch, and it got some plastic surgery too.

My new pillow rocks!

btw-I didn't use a flash and that's why the pics are soooooo yellowish. =/ oh well.

baby onesies

2011-05-02T14:20:00.002-05:00

Baby Showers are so much fun. Delicious food, hilarious games and great people…who can ask for more? I went to two baby showers for my friends Ryan & Jodi who are having a baby boy very soon. Mike and I bought them a diaper genie and something else, I forget :/ but I kinda wanted our gift to stand out at the second shower. I was certain they were going to get hundreds of presents like the first one (I’m not even exaggerating) so I decided on a custom gift.

I love customizing stuff. Maybe because I have a complex since I have one of the weirdest names in the world and I can never find stuff with my name on it. I’ve always had to put my name on things myself :(. Well, they’re picking a great name for the baby so I’m sure he won’t have any problems with tourist knickknacks, but I still wanted to do something special. And then I thought of his parents.

Adorable! :)
These 2 particular people are a part of two very different (friend) crews. One is called the H.H.C (Hi Hater Crew) and the other is the Embute Crew. I researched the parents to see if either crew had logos already made, but I wasn’t finding anything so I made my own logos for them lol. I did take inspiration from some of the things they posted on their facebook pages like a hand print and a softball team t-shirt and kinda made it my own. I did some Photoshop roughs of them and sent them to Mike for feedback, after he ok’ed everything that’s when the fun began.

Mike bought some baby onesies and I used iron on sheets to transfer them onto the material. I made 5 in total with some different designs on each.

Mike and I both loved how they turned out and I was sooooooo excited to give it to them, but it fell on the day of my friends surprise Bridal Shower, so I sent Mike to represent for the both of us with the gift .But I heard they loved it ;) I also designed the candy wrappers, which I thought would make a cute onesie :)

And as for the Bridal Shower, I had a blast…look at my picture.

Yes, I really did make my present match my dress lol.

It made the bride & groom to be laugh …mission accomplished :)

graduating soon!

2011-04-29T15:12:00.004-05:00

So what did you guys think of the Royal Wedding? I loved it; but then again I’m a self proclaimed Princess :)

So as some of you may have read on my profile, I’m a recent college grad. I finished school back in December but I have to wait until May 15th to walk the stage with the rest of the 2010/2011 graduates…and I’m really excited! I finally get to enjoy my B.F.A degree soon, that is unless my mother steals my diploma and puts it in her room (which I’m sure she will.)

The school sent us order forms for grad announcements, and I have to say they were so.....boring. Don’t get me wrong, they weren’t ugly but they were just too traditional for my taste. So instead of ordering announcements I wasn’t fond of, I decided to design the announcements myself. For those of you who don’t know, I’m also a graphic designer ---> check out my online portfolio (This is just some of the work I’ve done, I also have a printed version.)

Since I went to an art school, I felt I should honor someone I looked up to.
Look who I picked.

Yes, I picked THE MAN! I am the biggest Disney fan ever and felt it only appropriate to choose him.

I love one of his quotes and based my entire design on it. I made it in Photoshop and InDesign (look at the little cap on Walt lol). I’m glad I designed it myself…it’s so “me”.

Sorry, I had to block out some of the info…there’s a lot of crazies out there! lol

dining room reveal!

2011-04-24T22:18:00.004-05:00

Remember when I wanted to create a dining room in my living room mentioned in this post. Well, although I bought my table, finally got the chairs I wanted, and tried to dress it up for my Valentines Day dinner, it still didn't feel like a dining room to me.

It was just this table in the corner of the room.

So I added some mirrors...

And still...it did nothing for me.

I was going CRAZY trying to tie it into the rest of the room. Then one day after looking at decor pictures I noticed that most man made dining areas in living rooms have pendant lighting to make it it's own "area".

I do have two pod lights directly over the table but I didn't want to hire an electrician to switch out the lighting, so I decided to go with a faux pendant. I literally was dreaming one night and woke up with this cool idea. Bird cages are all the rage now... I swear everywhere I go I always see a million of them. I wanted to hang a bird cage over my table to define the space a little more.

While shopping at Michaels, I found this gorgeous medium sized shabby chic bird cage. It fit all my criteria, but when I looked at the price it was $15. I know that's cheap...but did I really, really want to spend $15 on a bird cage? I thought about my student loans (not that $15 would put a dent into them) and I put the bird cage down. That's when my love saw the 50% off sale sign right next to cage. I immediately snatched it back and ran into the check out line. This isn't the first time he spots a great deal for me. He must be my shopping angel :)

I was loving the bird cage when I got home, but I didn't have the chain link I wanted to hang it up with. I went into my craft stuff and brought out some tulle. I thought I could measure how long the "chandelier" would hang and then get my chain link another day.

Since the tulle is so thin, I braided a piece and hung it up. Mike said the braid looked cool and thought I should keep it that way, but I hated it. I was totally buying the chain link.

But even when I hung my faux chandelier, I was still not digging my space. And then it hit me like a ton of bricks. I was missing COLOR. The only reason I kept my entire room white was to match the carpet I never ended up with.

I wanted the color to match my living room so I brought it some green to match the carpet.

Now I was starting to like it! But that candle was not cutting it so I opted for another one.

LOVE! It went perfectly with the birdcage, and now I was starting to like the braid I made earlier. Doesn't it look cute with it now?

But....I still wasn't 100% head over heels in love with the dining room!!!

Sooo one day the angels pointed me into the right direction.

I was on this blog and saw this particular post that inspired me. So I went to her website to see what she did in full detail and she actually got the idea from this website. This is why I love bloggers....ideas go from page to page to page :) Soooooo...look what I did...

I cut out the template from this website, traced it on the wall...which took 4.5 hours. Yes, my hands were hurting the next day. But then I also had to paint the lines, which took even longer :(

Yeah, that's me painting my friday away :)

And now....drum roll please....

AND AFTER!!!

Now I'm absolutely positively head over heels in love with my dining room.

What do you guys think? ;)

xoxo - ginny

***POST UDATE***
Thanks to YHL for featuring my dining room stencil project in their Reader Redesign!!!
For those asking about the paint color, it's Valspar "Garden of Paradise" Signature Interior Satin Base 4.

caulk gunnin'

2011-04-24T21:10:00.002-05:00

Have you ever caulked? I had no idea what caulk even was until a few weeks ago lol.

Funny story, one time I bought some wood glue in one of those caulk-like tubes...and when I got home I had no idea how people were supposed to squeeze that stuff out. That's when my boyfriend said I needed a caulk gun. LOL! I had no idea! He made fun of me for weeks...

But now I'm just a caulking machine! Since I was fixing up the kitchen, I noticed that out caulk was so worn out and dirty from all the cooking. I went to Lowes, stood in front of all the caulk choices for about 15 minutes, got frustrated and just picked one.

Here's the breakdown of what I did.

1. Take out the old caulk using a blade
2. Clean out the area
3. Tape off the top and bottom
4. Caulk
5. Use my finger to smooth out the bead
6. Stand back and look at what an awesome job I did on my first caulk experience

My mom has never been so proud of me. It's true...she said it.

Before...yukkies.

Me, cutting away at the grease infested caulk strips.

Grossssssss....

This is the caulk that I settled on. It worked great!

black & white kitchen

2011-04-24T20:52:00.002-05:00

Don’t you hate when bloggers don’t write for weeks at a time and just leave everyone in suspense? Yeah me too…sorry :/

But guess what? I semi-finished the Kitchen project! Remember the list?

I crossed off what I did.

~~1. Paint the kitchen~~

~~2. Paint the Island/Stools~~

~~3. Cabinets~~

4. Kitchen Skirt

5. Paint the refrigerator

6. Window treatments

7. Cork board Update

Painting the kitchen was hard for everyone. I did the black walls on a day no one was there. I nearly almost killed myself when I slipped from trying to stand on my tippy toes and paint the trim. That’s when I said “I don’t think so!” and made my brother paint the trim :) lol. Then my brother and mom painted the ceiling and big wall white.

I didn’t get a chance to make the kitchen skirt, but I did clean the heck out of the sink area, and it actually looks nice. I might keep it like that. I also didn’t get a chance to paint the refrigerator only because I keep forgetting to buy the paint! I always put reminders of my phone, but then I press snooze a million times and it slips my mind once again. I’ll eventually get to it. We also didn’t get window treatments because my mother and I have different views on curtains…but we did manage to settle on transparent contact paper. So a trip to Lowes seems to be in my future (which I always love) We also put a halt to the corkboard idea. My mom wants to put the TV where I envisioned the enormous corkboard soooooo that’s that.

But here’s a look of before and (almost) afters...

AFTER...So far :)

We still have to add some art to the bare walls, paint the fridge, trim around the fridge, move the tv....etc.

To be continued ....

attic treasures

2011-04-12T17:45:00.000-05:00

My attic is very creepy. I think in the 10+ years that I've lived here, I've never once gone all the way inside. Call me a wimp, but I swear it's haunted. Then again, I've seen a million scary movies so I'm sure that has psychologically scarred me for life.

Yesterday my brother went in the attic and look what he found....

Music sheets!!!

Dun dun dunnnnnnn! To bad I can't read music, I totally would've tried to play this :)

island lovin'

2011-04-12T15:14:00.002-05:00

When I got home from work yesterday, my brother and mom had already started on the kitchen update. I’m a little nervous about showing the photos because it was right in the middle of unloading cabinets and moving stuff around…so it kinda looks like a cross between a tornado hitting the kitchen and an episode of hoarders. I swear everyone, it usually doesn’t look that bad! Lol. But since I said I was going to take “before” pics, I had to settle for “in progress” shots. As much as I hate to show you them, I keep it real…below are photos of my messy kitchen. :)

The first thing I did was move some stuff out so I wouldn’t feel so closter phobic in the disorganized kitchen. Then I focused on the island, which meant cleaning it, sanding the wood and painting it. And just so everyone knows, the Method cleaner that I used was amazing! I loveeeeee it and I think everyone should have a bottle of it at home. Anyways, check out the transformation of the island. I used the same paint I used for the doormat. I’m loving that black backing now, and I think it’s going to look fantastic with the stools I’m painting too. I only painted 2, just to see how long it would take to cure. This morning they were dry, but I’ll still wait until tomorrow to let anyone sit on them. Last thing I need is someone getting black oil-based paint on their clothes and blaming me for it.

I also took off two cabinet doors. I have to admit it was a little jarring at first, seeing the big empty spot above the oven, but once we put those glass containers in there it felt perfect. My mom had 2 of those jars already but it didn’t fill the space up enough, so I donated mine. I guess it was for a good cause lol. We still have to fill the top shelf with something, so I put a basket in there to see what it looked like, but we’re not totally sold on that look. We’ll see. Now I just have to buy black contact paper and line that cabinet. I think it’s going to look really cool and look like it’s outlined in white. I’m buying the paper today so I’ll post that project soon. I’ll stop blabbing now and let the photos speak for themselves.

What it looked like at first...

And now dry...Gorgeous :)

That's it for now..

Until next time ;)

~ginny

kitchen beauty makeover

2011-04-11T14:57:00.002-05:00

Well lookie, lookie who jumped on the decorating bandwagon.

( My brother and mom at his graduation)

My mother and brother have watched me the last couple of months fix up my little apartment and fix things around the house…and now they want a piece of the action! I knew they would be a fan of my DIY attitude sooner or later.

The family kitchen is a mess. Pumpkin colored walls, falling apart cabinets and clutter is just the tip of the iceberg. We have a lot of work to do, and only 2 weeks to do it. Why the time limit? Well, my grandparents live with us (the joy of Hispanic traditions lol) and they go on vacation every year for 2 weeks. They are totally against change and updating, so instead of ~~fighting~~ passionately arguing with them and convincing them that a little paint here and there is good, we always just wait until we drop them off at O’Hare to do anything. I think they’ve already gotten used to it though…I’m sure they’re just wondering what crazy shenanigans we’re up to this time.

But going back in time, a couple of weeks ago I was telling my mom we should give the kitchen a beauty makeover. Nothing drastic. No need to gut the kitchen because with this economy, who has the money?! But a little paint here, a little sanding there would make the kitchen look brand new.

So here’s our game plan…

1. Paint the kitchen

We’re saying “so long suckaaaaaa” to those pumpkin walls and painting the kitchen the ever classic, Black & White. 3 Walls black 1 Wall white. Our reason for picking such a dark color is my grandma. She is primarily the reason for the kitchen update to begin with. She’s a “hardcore cooker” meaning….she makes a mess whenever she cooks! And with all the grease build up we think it would just make more sense to mask it.

2. Paint the Island/Stools

The Island has a pecan color wood backing on it right now, so I’ll be sanding that down and painting it black. And the stools are going to be black too. I’m thinking I might do a design on them though…I don’t want too much black in there.

3. Cabinets

In my family, storage cabinets=junkyard. There are some cabinets in the kitchen we don’t really use because none of us can really reach them, except my brother..he's actually tall. Curse the short gene! So they’ll just put junk in there. To avoid that I’m taking 2 cabinet doors off and putting decorative vases in that spot. When you walk in it will be a focal point.

4. Kitchen skirt

The sink area is gross. More than a couple of times the sink has overflowed with water by people not paying attention (I have to admit I’ve done it more than 3 times lol) and the water has damaged the cabinets. More particularly, the faux drawer right under the sink. What is the point of that anyway?? Well instead of just replacing the 2 cabinets & the faux drawer I’m thinking of just making a skirt for it. The cabinets aren’t real wood, they’re white laminate and I can’t find them anywhere, and I think if I try and put wood cabinets they’re going to stick out like a sore thumb. So, I’ll find some nice black/white fabric and a skirt tutorial and make it. I’m hoping it looks as cool as it does in my head lol.

5. Paint the refrigerator

Yes, you read right. I’m going to paint the fridge….and I’m painting it with black chalkboard paint!!! All of our appliances are stainless steel except the refrigerator, so it doesn’t quite fit in with the appliance family. Since we’re not buying a new fridge anytime soon I asked my mom if we could just paint it with the chalk board paint. She has been dying to use that paint, so she jumped at the chance. It will be put to good use when my little cousins come over. I’m also going to paint the door with the chalkboard paint….maybe. I’m not sure yet. I think I may need to keep them white to break the black up.

6. Window treatments

Not sure about this one yet. I gotta go shopping and see if anything speaks to me. :)

7. Cork board Update

We have a tiny corkboard swarming with menus, flyers, phone numbers, etc. that just doesn’t do the job. We needed a HUGE one….but with the prices being $50+ we decided we didn’t need one that badly lol. Well as you know it, a couple months ago my job was going to throw out this enormous corkboard….and as usual I asked “can I have it?” :) It’s going to look perfectly on the bright white wall. I think I’ll paint/design it though. Maybe paint in some cutlery silhouettes so it doesn’t look so boring when it’s not filled.

I’m starting the little things today and I'll buy the paint sometime this week…so “before” pics of my kitchen will be coming soon. (I’m at work and I’m trying to be slick, so uploading kitchen photos might be frowned upon.)

For now, look at my inspiration…

{via}

Check back for updates!
~ginny

go ahead, step all over me :)

2011-03-23T21:55:00.004-05:00

I bought this doormat last year. I’ve never ever liked it, but it was one of those “I’m going to get the first one I see” type of things. It looks really grandma-ish to me so I thought I would finally change that. I read a couple of blogs that talked about people painting their doormats and thought I would give it shot.

I had black stain left over from a previous project and used that to paint my doormat. I painted it using a foam brush and let it dry overnight. I’m not totally in love with it, but it looks wayyyyy better than it did before. What do you think?

bright red

2011-03-23T21:19:00.012-05:00

I've always wanted a red front door.

I’m pretty sure when I buy my first home that’s one of the first things I’ll paint. But since I don’t have my own house or own front door (one of the downfalls of a garden apartment) I decided to paint the upstairs exterior door. Now before I get into the story let me start off by saying that our front door was crying for a new coat of paint. When we first moved in....12 or so years ago, we had a beautiful (painted) brown wooden door. Over the years the paint job started to chip and wear off and guess what color was shining through? GREEN!!! And not just any green, it’s like a mint green. Who has a mint green front door??? Anyways, I showed my mom the paint, just to see what her reaction would be and thankfully it was good :). Now that I had the a-ok, I grabbed my stuff and went to work.

The first thing I did was sand the door down. I wanted to get as much of the paint off as possible to make the painting process easier. After about 20 minutes of my hand sander shaking my entire body (it’s really strong) I decided it was done and wiped it down with a wet cloth. Then came the grueling paint job.

I thought it would take 1 coat for the door, to which I was sadly mistaken. I painted Thursday night from 6-9 (just in time to watch Jersey Shore) and the brown was still showing through. On Saturday I painted another 2 coats and finally on Sunday the last coat. I had to scratch off all the red I got on the glass, lock and knob but I think it looks stunning. I’m pretty sure Elizabeth Arden would approve.

Check out the pics :D

This is just the beginning of the front porch update. I plan on re-painting the outer edges of the door white, grabbing some flower pots and getting new address numbers. I’ll keep you guys posted with the updates.

*Post Update*
This is the red paint I used for the door.

painting...finally!

2011-03-21T19:16:00.005-05:00

We finally painted Mike's room!!!

Me, being the loving girlfriend that I am went straight to his house after work on Friday and started painting. My goal was to paint everything before he got home, but alas I only got 2 walls done...womp womp. But it was a good start because after our dinner break it only took us until 10 p.m. to finish painting and cleaning up. The next day he hung up his curtains and I went through his dressers and closet and threw away soooo much crap. I swear the boy is cute but he is a huge pack rat! Ugh!

So after I went through everything and threw it all out we built a storage system my mom bought for him and put his jeans in it. I don't know if that's going to be in there forever, but it's better than all his jeans sitting on a computer chair like it was previously lol.

More pics will be up soon! :)

mirror mirror on the table :)

2011-03-21T18:53:00.003-05:00

Hello everyone! Sorry I haven’t blogged in a while but I got some new projects to share with you. The first being my plain white ikea night tables.

I’ve always loved the look of mirrored bedroom furniture. Pier 1 carries this gorgeous Hayworth collection that is to die for, but the prices also make me want to die lol.

Maybe if I buy 1 piece every couple months I could get the whole set but then again, I’m an instant gratification kinda person and I just can’t wait.

Well one day I was in my garage and found this shiny silver contact paper and a light bulb went off. I brought it inside and measured out strips to put on my nightstand. After 1 hour of cutting everything to size and xacto-knifing everything perfectly I have to say, I’m extremely pleased with the results. Doesn’t it look better?? I didn’t want to put any of the contact paper on the top because I didn’t want the “tape lines” running across the top and because I still wanted them to match the rest of the furniture. I think I'll do the dresser handles next....

You like?

entertain me system

2011-02-23T14:53:00.018-06:00

Hello!

I had to update my profile today because I am no longer 23 *sad face* lol.

I hit the big 2-4 on the 16^th and I got a bunch of presents from my besties. Wanna see?

I'm not just showing you my hand lol.

My best friend took me for a mani/pedi. I'll spare you the photo of my toes ;)

Mike sent me flowers at work *sigh* he's so cute!

The presents were great, they were great and my birthday was so much fun :D

I also bought myself a little sumptin’ sumptin’… Remember my post about my birthday mood board? Well, I bought the bookcase/legs that I wanted…and I’m loving it! Seriously? What a difference right? (sorry for the pic quality)

The before pictures look so empty and sad. The tv was just begging me for a new home, and how could I deny that shiny black beauty? He (I think my tv is a boy) looks much more at home on this huge Expedit bookcase with all this storage. I have yet to really “decorate” it though, for now I just had to put my dvds away because leaving my movies on my new table was just not working for me.

If you’re wondering why I left it on the right side of the bookcase….I don’t really have an answer. I asked my boyfriend to hook everything up for me and that’s how he did it. I’m going to leave it like that for a few days and see how I like it. Another thing that may look funny is the open space in the left side. I’m thinking of putting a tall (fake) plant or maybe those long decorative bamboo sticks. I’ll figure something out, but for now it’s going to stay empty. I also have to do some major cord control! Sheesh, I have like a million things back there.

Well that's all for now (I'm on my lunch break :P but I have some other projects coming up!)

decisions…decisions

2011-02-21T12:03:00.007-06:00

Out of a zillion paint samples these are the final three.

We stared at the colors for an hour or so...

I'm not sure which one Mike will chose but I've got

my eye on the light yellow greenish color.

Which one do you like?

fabulous finds

2011-02-21T11:38:00.008-06:00

Every once in a while I am one of those lucky people who find great things at amazing prices. This past Thursday I was shopping with my boyfriend when I spotted a Pier 1. It was 9:15 p.m. and all the stores started closing, but I asked him if we could go inside really quick just to look around. The first thing we saw as we entered the store was a beautiful damask print chair with a price tag of $168.00. I kept walking but Mike stopped and said “look, its $20”. I stood there is disbelief; I couldn’t believe it was so cheap! I immediately started checking the chair for damages. I looked at the legs and they were perfect, I sat on the chair and it was strong and extremely sturdy. I looked at the pattern for color stains, or scratches on the legs and print. I couldn’t find ANYTHING!

The employee must have seen my puzzled face and made his way to us. He said the only thing wrong with the chair was that it had a tiny rip in the seam. I was already sold; I was going to take it…but remembering I only had 15 minutes to browse I left Mike talking with the employee. When I was done looking Mike told me he talked the guy down to $15! Lol…so I bought the chair for $16.32 with tax!!! How incredible is that?

As soon as we walked out of the store with my new purchase I remembered that my mom has a duvet the same exact color/style. Being the loving daughter that I am I decided to give it to her. When I got home I showed her the chair (which of course she loved) and told her it was hers. It looks great in her room, and it even looks great with the desk I made her.

Take a look at the beauty and the tiny rip that made my day :)

my tiffany's bedroom

2011-02-19T15:23:00.069-06:00

I've always liked the look of a romantic bedroom.

Who wouldn't love waking up in plush bed sheets and

pulling gauzy curtains to the side to let the sun shine in?

I know I would :)

Look at the pics....*sigh*

{via}

Love Love LOVEEEE!

I have a Tiffany's Blue bedroom with all white furniture.

I would say it's my versionof semi-romantic :)

Here is a panoramic view I put together of my bedroom.

(sorry it's terrible this is my first one)

Click here for a larger view

Here's some of my faves in my bedroom

1. My jewelry case. My mom gave it to me and it's where I keep my bangles.

2. My Dudero lamp

3. These flower centerpieces. My friend Andrea made them for her daughters birthday party, aren't they gorgeous?? I loved them so much I took 2!

Shhh, don't tell ;) They're hanging from my bed posts.

4. My Edward Cullen pillow. *sigh* I love my pillow....

but my boyfriend prefers Edward covered with this one.

5. & 6. A pic of me and mommy and my piggy bank.

7. My babies. My Helzberg teddy bear that my boo gave me Christmas 09

(along with a stunning necklace) and my Minnie Mouse doll my brothers

girlfriend gave me. (I'm a huge disney freak in case you don't know).

8. My window sill. It's filled with treasures :)

(My painting...it's a Ginny Original)

see all my Disney stuff? :)

9. My shoe rack. It's only in here because it didn't fit in my closet.

10. My jewelry pole.

It's hung up by those ceiling poles, and it's such a space saver.

Plus, it just looks pretty.

And here's the lady who inspired my bedroom.

Thanks for taking a tour of my room :D

valentines day 2011

2011-02-15T12:54:00.028-06:00

So if you’re wondering if I reached my dining room in a weekend goal…the answer is kinda. On Friday I went to Walmart to grab the chairs I wanted. I spent 45 minutes going up and down the aisles, frantically looking through all the chairs and dining sets but they didn’t have them! After my pouting dance I went home and looked at the paper I printed out on the chairs. Apparently you have to click “Site to Store”….whoops. I’ve never been good at reading the fine print ;)

Though I didn’t get the chairs, I did get my table! When I saw this table I knew it was meant to be. I ran to the table but it felt like I was in slow motion with that love song theme on. It was the perfect size and height. I sat down and started day dreaming about all the wonderful meals I was going to ~~cook~~ eat, all the card games I would play, all the bills I would write on this table. I loved it…I loved it so much I took a picture with it. Yes, people did look at me like I was a weirdo for taking a picture with a table but whatever :) I wrote down the aisle and bin number and left Ikea with a very very heavy round box and a huge smile on my face.

Now, if you’re questioning why I needed a dining room in a weekend it was because I needed it for Valentines Day! Since I’m on this DIY kick I told Mike we should make our Valentines Day gifts. I decided to cook dinner…if you know me you know I DON’T COOK! Nope, never. After millions of years of women cooking I think men should cook. But that’s a whole other post that I don’t want to get into lol. Anyways, I wanted to cook a nice homemade meal and that’s when I realized we wouldn’t have anywhere to eat it, thus the dining room in a weekend.
Like I mentioned before, just putting chairs and a table in an area doesn’t make it a dining room. I set up the table and it just looks so lonely in this empty corner :( But I am decorating in stages…I don’t have a thousand dollars to splurge, so for now it’s just a table and 2 chairs I stole from my moms dining room table. She won’t mind ;) lol But I didn’t want it to look completely bare so I made a table runner with left over material I had.

I used iron hemming tape and just measured out a piece of cloth long enough to make a runner with. It was my first time using hemming tape and it’s so simple! Just iron it on and you’re done! Take a look at the pics of the “decorated dining room table”. I think it looks semi cute so far.

I have a million ideas for those 2 walls that I got from Ikea (of course) to make it homier. Maybe I’ll buy the stuff this weekend? Hopefully *fingers crossed* But besides the walls I also need place settings (I stole those 2 from mom), a vase/candle stick/or something decorative for the table. (This pic looks funny, but I swear everything looked better once the chairs and food were there lol)

As for the dinner I make 2 pork filets one garlic lemon and the other parmesan, garlic mashed potatoes, and steamed veggies. I was really proud of myself! It turned out great and I didn’t burn a thing ;) And my honey bunches made me a cartoon video of me and him where he’s singing the Plain White T’s Rhythm of Love song to me. I loved it so much I cried. He’s adorbs :). All in all this was a great Valentines Day!

boyfriend bedroom part 2

2011-02-15T10:18:00.024-06:00

This past weekend was a killer! I think my arms are still sore :( As you all know I’m helping my boyfriend re-do his bedroom. Last week we cleaned and spackled everything and on Friday we started sanding down and priming. After a few hours of goofing around, dancing and moving things out of the room, we finally started priming at 10pm and didn’t finish until 1:50 a.m. You guys have no idea how extremely happy I am that those ~~horrendous~~ planetarium blue walls are gone. It seriously looks so much bigger now, and for a split second I thought he should leave his walls like that….but then I remembered I love color :)

Speaking of that, he has yet to choose his color. He’s thinking of either an olive green or brown bedroom (which I totally approve of.) We woke up the next day ~~bright and early~~ in the afternoon and went to Ikea because I had to buy my table. We passed the bedding and browsed around for a comforter set for him. I made a mood board for him a few weeks ago and I saw the blanket I wanted for him, I showed him but he was just “eh” about it. Then I pointed out this one and he did like it but he remembered that it wouldn’t match the curtains he already bought that are brown and striped. Boo. But then he passed this one and jumped for joy. After running around Ikea to find a full/queen size he put it in the cart….but then left it when we were checking out! He said he wanted to make sure he painted his bedroom first before he bought a bed set that would end up not matching it. It was very wise choice :) So he left Ikea empty handed but with a bunch of ideas.

Check out our painting party of two pics….it was a good time lol

a dining room in a weekend

2011-02-09T21:25:00.010-06:00

I’m finally diving into my dining room project! For the past few months my “dining room” has been either my tv tray table or my coffee table. Welp, I’ve had it! I’m going to make a formal dining area….this weekend!

I have this empty 4.5” x 4.5” corner (ignore that couch-it will be gone soon) just screaming for a dining set.

Now, since I’m working with such a small space I only have sooo many options. I’ve seen a million interior design shows and they all say that if you’re spaciously challenged the best option to go with is a glass round table.

I couldn’t agree more with that, so I’ve been on the search for it. You would think it would be simple but all the tables I’ve found have been either way too big or way tooooo expensive. After going to about a million furniture store sites and giving up all hope I remembered one more store.

The ultimate beautiful/cheap furniture store – IKEA! I don’t know why that wasn’t the first place I checked but whatever….

I found the SALMI table at Ikea and it comes with the beautiful price of $99.99. That is sooooooo in my budget! I think it’s a sign :) Then I started thinking about chairs. I want something “skinny” and something lighter than my coffee/side tables that are dark wood. I didn’t find anything at Ikea that was in my budget so I world wide webbed it over to Walmart. And wouldn’t you know it, I found exactly what I was looking for. Look at these Shell Bentwood Dinette Chairs. It’s only $55.00 for a set of 2 Espresso finished chairs! I was jumping for joy when I saw that price lol.

After I was done picking out my furniture I started looking around Ikea’s website….who doesn’t, right? And I found this other table that has some potential. The MELLTORP table is a white rectangular table that might work in the space also (plus it’s only $59.99!). What do you think? I’m going to Ikea on Saturday so I’ll mull it over until then. I guess I’m going to have to wait to see which one “speaks to me” on Sat.

Will it be this one?

Or this one?

Obviously a table and chairs don’t equal a dining room but I’m decorating in stages. One day this tiny corner will be as gorgeous as these photos….*sigh*

masquerade party

2011-02-07T22:10:00.012-06:00

This really isn't about interior design, but it is a craft :)

Mike and I recently went to a masquerade party and I made my own mask.

For about $10 and a trip to Michaels Craft Store this is what I came up with.

I have no idea why his mask wasn't on. What a lamer lol. But we had a blast that night ;)

boyfriend bedroom part 1

2011-02-07T16:34:00.020-06:00

Like most guys in the world, my boyfriend doesn't care about decorating. He could care less if his bedskirt matches his pillows or if his ceiling has a slight hole in it. I've been with him for almost 6 years and he has never changed his bedroom....ever! Meanwhile I've had 3 different paint jobs, 2 different beds, new desks, dressers, etc. I'm just never satisfied! But he is fine with his bedroom just the way it was decorated in 1999.

Well he has finally decided to update his bedroom. *Excited shrieking*

We have a lot of work to do, and I mean A LOT!

I'll just give you a glimpse of his blue bedroom.

As you can see, that color has got to go! But that's not all...

This is our To Do List
~~1. Declutter~~
~~2. Dust~~
~~3. Spackle ceiling~~
4. Prime
5. Paint ceiling
6. Paint walls
7. Hang window treatments
8. Buy bedding
9. Paint dresser
10. Rearrange furniture
11. Throw desk away
12. Organize closet

That's all I can think of right now, but I know there's more lol. But check out the spackle job we did with his ceiling. (His roof was leaking a while ago and it leaked right on top of his bedroom *sad face*) Sure, the spackle got in our eyes a million times but in my Larry David voice,

I think it's "Pretty pretty prettttyyyyyy good." :P

chair reveal

2011-02-06T23:58:00.016-06:00

I'm so excited to finally share the newest addition to my living room! Last week I showed you guys the office chair that I wanted to update. It's very plain jane and didn't go with the rest of my decor so I wanted to make it gorgeous. I wanted it bright pink but instead of painting it, I wanted to see if spray paint would work. I sprayed a little on the legs of the chair and it set pretty well so I sprayed the remainder of it. Boy oh boy, I shouldn't have done that.

Remember when I talked about shiny/veneer wood? The chair had a gloss coat on it, so when I tried to spray a second coat of the pink I got a million air bubbles.

Talk about heart break. I can't even explain how upset I was. Not only because the air bubbles ruined my chair, but because I wasted an entire can of spray paint :(

Sooooo, I had to redo everything. I went back a couple steps and sanded everything down.

Sorry for the terrible photo, I don't know why it came out so blurry =/. Anyways after 30 minutes of sanding I rummaged through my paints and grabbed the color I painted my bathroom with.

It's a medium toned gray that I felt would go perfectly with the pink/brown leopard (or is it cheetah?) print.

Ok ok I'll stop blabbing. Alas, the long awaited reveal is here! Check out the before and after!

What do you think? I'm totally in loveeeee...but that's just me ;)

what not to do

2011-02-04T10:41:00.006-06:00

I'm giving out my first award today. It's called the

Ghetto Award

and I'm giving it to my grandfather.

Maybe this is where I get my creative thinking from. I can see what he was trying to do but he just didn't go all the way.

This is not a lock.

Do not do this.

Ever.

You gotta love family. Ha!

(The door isn't dirty, I think they're going for that distressed look lol)

birthday mood board

2011-02-02T22:13:00.006-06:00

I was looking at the calendar today and I noticed my birthday is coming up :)

So I thought it would be a good time to throw a mood board together for my living room. Ya know, in case anyone wants to get me anything

*flutters eyelashes*

All from Ikea

1. Basisk Pendant Lamp $16.99

2. Rens Sheepskin $24.99

3. Expedit Book Case $69.99

4. Capita Legs $14.00/4 pack

5. Jondal Mirror in Silver(Or any similar mirror) $49.99

6. Knipsa Basket $16.99

This is more for my entertainment system wall. My amazing boyfriend bought me a beautiful flat screen tv and now my small purple bookcase just aint cuttin' it. I would really love this Expedit bookcase to put on its side like a sideboard table. I really love all the storage that I would be able to get out of it. I'll put my dvds/cds/books and some decorative pieces in it, along with the Knispa baskets. I also wanted to add these Capita legs to the bookcase to give it a little omph. Since these pendant lamps are plug ins I would suspend them from the ceiling, one on each side of the tv to balance it. The sheepskin throw would go on my bubble chair...wouldn't that look cute? And finally the mirror is for...well just because I want it :)

Lets see if I get any of these on Feb 16th ;) lol.

snow white

2011-02-02T16:02:00.003-06:00

Hi Everyone!

This is for all you readers who don't live in Chicago

Here are some pics of

* B l i z z a r d 2 0 1 1 *

chair updating

2011-01-31T12:49:00.007-06:00

Whenever there is extra furniture at my office I'm always the first one to ask "can I have it?". We had an extra office chair that was just literally floating around from corner to corner and I finally asked if I could take it home. My boss said yes and now I feel a project coming on.

This is the chair. It's your standard boring office chair that lacks personality.

(Ignore the mess...I'm still moving stuff around :P )

After being super inspired by these photos......

.....I decided to use this left over cloth to reupholster it. Isn't it gorgeous? :)

I'm planning on painting the chair a bright pink or dark brown to match the cloth. I watched a couple of tutorials on youtube about reupholstering chairs and it doesn't look that hard.

Wish me luck peeps...I'll post pics when I do it.

my dance floor

2011-01-30T19:34:00.016-06:00

I have to go back to the beginning of the story for this post.

When I first moved in my apartment it had maroon carpeted floors. I absolutely hated the color of it but my boyfriend hated the smell of it. He said the carpets were bad and that the carpet pad underneath was probably moldy. I hated the thought of ripping up the carpet but I also didn't want to die from breathing in mold soooooo we took the carpet out of the entire place.

I wanted to die when we did that because the cement floor had huge cracks in it and it was totally uneven and just one big mess. My mom got a friend to redo the cement floors and evened it out. Around that time I was into reading blogs and read one about painting cement floors. I thought it was a great idea and fit into my budget. I picked out a chocolate brown paint and went to work. When it dried....it looked MAROON! Ugh I was sooooo upset lol.

It started to look nice once I brought in my furniture and rolled out my carpet. I was actually starting to like it, but then I made a choice that changed everything.

I decided to have a halloween party.

The party was soooo much fun and I loved it but that's also when everything went downhill. The paint started to chip it started to look horrible.

I had to do something fast and cheap.

That's when I took a trip to Lowes and saw this cute/cheap wood wannabe dance floor tile. I bought a few boxes and went back home to start tiling.

It's almost finished, I think I need one more box to do the edges but it looks GREAT. Lovesssss it and it looks sooo much better than before.

basket update

2011-01-30T19:10:00.009-06:00

My basket is finished and it looks magnifique!

Even though I said my bathroom has a French thing going on, I think the basket looks more

haha...oh well. ;)

I still don't like the negative space above it so I'm thinking of painting this in. I photoshopped it to see what it might look like....and I don't think it looks half bad. Should I go for it?

painting baskets

2011-01-27T18:49:00.009-06:00

The best thing about having your own tiny apartment is having your own bathroom. My bathroom is beautiful, not literally, but I love it so much. No sharing shampoo, no gross hair clogging up the drain…none of that crap. I don’t think I can ever go back to sharing a bathroom lol.

I was cleaning my bathroom yesterday and decided to tidy up my shelves. A long, long time ago there were bi-fold doors covering that nook, but they stupidly took them off. Now I’m left with showing all my guests my hair stuff, perfumes, q-tips…everything your supposed to hide. I also didn’t know what to do with the awkward space on the bottom. Nothing really fits in there so I just had my cleaning products there.

It’s very subtle but can you tell the difference? I put some stuff in the medicine cabinet and threw some stuff out that I didn’t need anymore. Do you like what I did with the nook? I put one of my random baskets there to hold some towels. I really liked it….but……I hated the color. It didn’t match with my white and gray Paris thing I had going, so I spray-painted it.

I took it to my work dungeon and sprayed it down with my white spray. (Yes that is a teletubby in the background) Here’s what it looks like so far. It’s grabbing pretty well but I’m going to do 1 or 2 more coats. I’ll let you know how it turns out.

genius idea

2011-01-27T16:24:00.005-06:00

Look how this person cleverly hid their wire. Yeah, I'll definitely be doing this soon. :)

wall art

2011-01-26T22:57:00.008-06:00

It pains me to say this, but I designed my living room all wrong. I moved in here with a "club house" mentality. I thought it was going to be the place where everyone hung out...and I was totally wrong. I've lived here now for about 6 months now and no one really comes over lol. It's more of a hangout for me and my boyfriend, which got me rethinking the layout.

Right now I have a couch, love seat and bubble chair which is WAY TOO MUCH seating for just 2 people. I'm thinking of taking out the love seat and replacing it with a high dining table that seats 2. I would love to find a glass table, but no luck yet :( Anyways, since my living room is bright white I'm trying to think of unique wall art to hang above the future dining table. I want something really colorful and inviting...something like these.

Although, wouldn't it be awesome to have a giant scrabble art piece??

LOVEEEEE!

book browsing

2011-01-26T22:35:00.004-06:00

We've been studying...

Bedroom makeover coming soon.....

xoxo

2011-01-24T21:07:00.011-06:00

I've been waiting for this day for a few weeks now because......a new episode of Gossip Girl finally aired! Yes, I am a hugeeee fan of the show, not only because of Ed Westwick aka Chuck Bass or the gorgeous fashions shown, but because of the amazing interior decorating.

Christina Tonkin is the set decorator for Gossip Girl and she has been doing a fabulous job for years. I wish she would decorate my apartment. Check out the pics...*drool*

xoxo

-gossip girl

valentines day craft

2011-01-24T14:25:00.007-06:00

I guess it's a good day to blog because I'm sick in bed :(

I wanted to share this Valentine's Day craft that could be given to anyone...boyfriend, girlfriend, kids, cousins...blah blah. It's just a little something that you can make in a few minutes that someone can keep forever :)

All you need is a wood block, vday related wrapping paper, scissors, a bow (not shown lol) tape and computer paper.

If you decide to make one, send me a pic and I'll post it ;)

bedroom makeover

2011-01-21T16:05:00.006-06:00

I will be helping my boyfriend redesign his bedroom.

Here are some perfect examples of what his bedroom should look like.

These bedrooms are gorgeous and I'm totally stealing that ladder idea in the last pic...now I just have to get him to agree to it ;)

(But I probably should finish the desk before I jump into another project :P )

valentines day

2011-01-21T12:55:00.008-06:00

Valentines Day is approaching! It’s my favorite holiday so I thought I would write about it :)

Do you decorate for it? I’ll be honest, I don’t…but how lovely would it be to walk in and see this? Talk about a creative romantic gesture!

It’s crazy how some blank paper and a little imagination can make someone feel so special. My boyfriend did it last Valentines Day. I was led into his room with my eyes closed. When I opened them there was a picnic table setup with my faves: sushi, veggies and coke. He also had “Kiss Me” by Sixpence None the Richer playing …which made me feel like I was in this movie

And then the water works started lol.

It was seriously 10,000x better than any 5 star restaurant. And he says he’s not romantic ;)

After the delightful picnic we went on a Ghost Tour. Not a traditional way to spend Valentines Day but we had fun :)

I have to think of something creative to do this year, besides this banana thing which I’m totally going to give Mike lol.

Any ideas? Let me know! xoxo

handy dandy books

2011-01-21T11:32:00.006-06:00

Woohooooooooo!

Look what my friend is going to let me borrow! Looks like I'll be doing some major handy work soon!

i'm international, yo!

2011-01-20T09:46:00.005-06:00

This is awesome! Look at the people checking out my blog :)

cute shelves

2011-01-19T23:06:00.009-06:00

The desk is starting to come together :)

I finally measured the inside to get the shelves up. Since I suck at measuring I cut out a piece of matt board that fit perfectly inside and went to Lowes. I found the plywood that I wanted and asked a Lowes employee if they would be able to cut it down for me. He said they charge .25-$1.00 per cut, which I honestly thought sucked but did it anyway.

This other guy came and took the plywood and cut it down for me. He asked me what this was for and I told him about the desk. He must have thought it was cool because he didn’t charge me for the cuts! Sweet!

Btw, like my camera pics? ;)

my failed attempt with a nail gun

2011-01-19T12:22:00.008-06:00

When I have no idea what someone is talking about, I smile politely and giggle. And that’s exactly what I did when my friend Ben asked me if I knew what an air compressor was.

The other day I wanted to buy a nail gun, ya know like a little small girly one, but sadly Kmart didn’t have the one I wanted. Yes, I said Kmart.. So my friend Ben asked me if I wanted to borrow his, which I gladly accepted. The next day he brought this ginormous vacuum looking thing with a bright reddish pink hose and gray tool bag. He proceeded to tell me about the 3 nail guns in the bag, which was extremely heavy…at least for me. A staple gun, finishing gun and brad nail gun and each came with their own manual. He explained a little what each one did, but I just had no idea what he was talking about!

I felt like this kid

everyone kept telling me not to shoot my eye out. Or lose my fingers….

Which in the words of Mike & Snooki was

So I didn’t use it. :(

I tried Plan B…GORILLA GLUE!

I thought I would try to glue it first to see if it would hold, which it totally did! I glued the decorative pieces of wood and clamped them in place over night. I checked them this morning and there’s no way those things are going to come off. Gorilla glue saved the day! I will paint and measure today so I can get those storage shelves in there.

STAY TUNED (this is aimed at my boyfriend…he knows why)

creative desks

2011-01-18T12:24:00.002-06:00

Now these are some creative desks!!!

dresser turned desk

2011-01-18T11:35:00.007-06:00

Before I start this post I want to apologize for the picture quality. I’ve been taking these pictures from my Blackberry because I’ve been too lazy to charge my camera :P

I started a project last night…I’m turning my brothers old dresser into my moms new desk. I’ve wanted to buy my mom a desk foreverrrrr but I haven’t found “the right one”. You see, my mom is what I like to call a packrat. She saves everything. Every pen, highlighter and piece of paper she can get her hands on.,.so she needs a lot of storage. Right now she has a small wooden desk that annoys me because the keyboard part protrudes out. Usually desks have that sliding keyboard part but not this one, which in my opinion takes up valuable space in her room. And a little desk means no storage, which means a lot of plastic drawer containers….yuck.

My brother had this super falling apart hand-me-down dresser from my aunt, and has been crying for years that he wants a new dresser. He finally bought one and I asked him what he was going to do with the old one. He said “toss it”.

This must have been a gift from God because I’ve been dying to do a before/after project. I’m constantly looking at designsponge.com and figured this would finally be my chance to do something like that. After studying the dresser I concluded that it had good “bones” (I’m not sure what the technical term is but I’m sticking to that). On top of that, the shape was PERFECT. It’s really long and skinny, and there was so much storage potential.

I don’t really have tools, just my grandpa’s old stuff and a generic tool box I bought from Target. I searched high and low in my garage and found an old hand saw. I took out all the drawers and sawed off all the pieces inside that I didn’t need. I also cut out the middle part to make a space for legs. When that was done, I nailed everything just to make it more stable. It’s not wobbly anymore ;) I cut the bottom base too, just the middle of it so the chair can slide all the way in. I was a little nervous about this because I didn’t know if this would weaken the bones but thankfully it didn’t.

Then came the fun part….sanding! I sanded down the dresser until it started looking white and dusty. I had to sand it because the (fake) wood was shiny which meant that the paint wouldn’t be able to hold. 35 minutes later, I wiped everything down with a wet cloth and let it dry.

I swear if you paint anything white it looks smaller. Their white is peoples black ;) lol. Doesn’t it look less clunky?? I loveeeeee it. Today I will be measuring the inside to see how big the plywood shelves should be. This concludes the end of Phase 1.

Tune in for more updates ;)

cleaning out my closet

2011-01-16T19:59:00.002-06:00

So today I want to talk about my “closet”. I’m putting the word in quotes because this is technically a bedroom that I turned into my closet/office. The main bedroom had no closet and since it’s already crowded in there with my bed, side tables and dresses I said…Why not? If everyone else can have a walk-in closet, why can’t I?

A custom closet was insanely expensive so I just got the most basic wire closet organizer I could find at Lowes. My mom’s friend came in and measured it and put them up for me. I wanted this to be a multifunctional room, so I just made one side my closet. The other side is my dedicated to my office.

When the closet organizer was installed I started to move all my clothes in there. I didn’t really organize anything or try to even make it look pretty. Call it lazy, but I was in school when this was put up so I didn’t have time to do anything. But…now that I have all the time in the world I thought I would finally try and fix this MESS.

The other day I was shopping at Carson’s with my boyfriend and while he was in the fitting room I saw this.

I thought it would be cool to arrange my clothes according to this chart, since it looked like this.

After a few hours it ended up looking like this. …which I loveeeeeeee! Now I can see everything I have and if I have a certain color in mind that I want to wear I’ll just go to that section ;) It even made the room look a little bigger.

ferris bueller's day off

2011-01-13T15:48:00.002-06:00

We've all seen it and we all love that movie. Remember that house? Well it's still for sale! I am extremely jealous of the person who purchases this home and gets to enjoy all those floor to ceiling windows.

The house was designed by A. James Speyer & David Haid and judging by the interior photos, they knew what they were doing!

Can someone buy this house for me?

Or if you're interested let me know....I know some good Realtors ;)

black & white photography

2011-01-13T13:49:00.002-06:00

I took black & white photography freshman year of college and made a ton of prints. Though it didn't get me straight A's in class, I still liked how some of them came out. Since I don't have tons of money I went to ikea and bought some cheap wood frames. I took some some left over mattboard I had in my closet and matted these myself, then I spray painted the wooden frames bright pink. It was a nice contrast ;) I'll post the framed pics soon!

glass chandelier

2011-01-13T13:45:00.002-06:00

I was looking at my glass block windows the other day and realized that I was missing an opportunity to decorate it. I don’t have any window treatments up because I didn’t want to block the little bit of light I get, so I thought of ways to spruce it up a little.

I have a basement full of junk that I have saved from school projects and random things I’ve kept throughout the years. While looking through all my crap I found some glass sheets that I kept from a poster frame. I knew I wanted to do something with them someday and today was that day. I grabbed those glass sheets and went to work.

I jumped on google and researched chandeliers and picked a picture I was happy with. I printed it out and cut it out with scissors and an exacto knife for the hard parts. When I was done I grabbed my Spray Mount and glued it to the glass sheet. Then I spray painted the entire sheet and let it dry for 20 minutes. Presto! I have a fancy shmancy chandelier sitting on my window sill that lets the sun shine through.

These pics were taken at night, but you get the idea!