Mastering the Decor.....continued

Well, as I mentioned in my previous post, the process of "Mastering the Decor" has taken 9 years.  I knew that this process wouldn't be complete in the blink of an eye. 

I had updated a nightstand for my husband's side of the bed and after a week, we decided that it wasn't the right piece.  It just wasn't a fit.  The color was off.  Once we added the tall headboard the piece looked dwarfed. 

We had a single drawer filing cabinet and several choices of spray paint from the garage.  We decided on the leaf green color.

 

The filing cabinet/nightstand also hides our computer cables, etc. for our wireless system.  I still need to devise a way to hide the cables.  In time.

I wanted to upgrade the bedside lamps that we have and was able to do wonders for very little money.  In fact, I only spent $5 on these.  I found a remnant of coordinating fabric that covered both shades and left me enough to make a throw pillow. 

 

Now on to some art work.  A few pieces of leftover fence posts, cut and glued together and a little paint.

 

 

A few new throw pillows and we are on the way to a completed bedroom. 

 

 

 

Since we were updating the Master, we decided to update the en suite as well. 

 

And the mastering of the decor continues.  It will still take a little more time.

 

 

Mastering the Decor

We have lived in our home for nearly 9 years and although we have attempted to decorate our Master Bedroom, we have run aground time and time again. Shortly after we moved in, I painted the walls in a faux finish, and a few months later, I found a coverlet for the bed and so on. We don't have a bedroom furniture suite and never have. We have the dresser that my husband has had since his childhood, two nightstands I picked up for a little bit of nothing years ago and that is about it.

I have ALWAYS wanted a nice, quite, comforting room to call our Master Bedroom. Main issue - besides money - is trying to determine our style. I would find something that I liked, but my husband wouldn't like or I wanted it to have a bit more character than just a manufactured piece. Yes, I am well aware that I am crazy picky!

So, I decided that I would need to create items for this nice, quite, comforting room. Looking over our budget, we decided that we could spend about $20. Keep in mind, I have a slew of items on hand that can either be re-fashioned or re-purposed.

First, a headboard. We just replaced a fence panel in our backyard fence and decided to use the panels to make a headboard. This solved two issues; 1) a cheap - FREE - headboard, 2) kept the fence out of the landfill. We even re-used the nails to keep with the re-purposed look. We sanded the panels slightly just to knock off some of the roughness of the aged and wheathered wood. 

Built and ready to be sanded

Sanded and ready to be installed

Installed and being enjoyed!

 

As I mentioned before, this process has taken nearly 9 years, so I'm really not in a hurry to make this happen.  But, I will work on it every chance I get.  Up next, nightstands....

 

My side was easy.  We had a side table that was given to us by Craig's Great Aunt.  With a few pieces of wall art, made by both my sister and my Great Grandmother, my side is complete.

 

 

My husband's nightstand took a little more work.  I used one of the nightstands we had prior to this process and a little steel blue and brown paint from the garage.  With a bit of creativity and patience, we have something he likes and again, NO MONEY WAS SPENT!

 

 

This is still a work in progress and as we add more, I will update.  Loving the process of working with my husband on what we want and how we can do it with what we have. 

 

 

 

Red Plum Chicken

A great crockpot dinner.

While serving the web last night, I found a recipe similar to the one below.  It called for a jar of Apricot jelly, honey and a few other spices.  All of which I didn't have in the pantry.  BUT, I did have Red Plum Jelly!!  So I used the recipe I found as a guide and created the one below. 

The Red Plum Preserves and Soy Sauce gives it an Asian Bar-b-que flavor.  Very YUMMY!  I only made 4 chicken breasts and my family was not happy that we didn't have enough for seconds or leftovers! 

11 oz jar Red Plum Preserves
2 tablespoons Deli Style Mustard
1 tablespoon Soy Sauce
1 teaspoon Ground Ginger
1 teaspoon Crushed Red Pepper Flakes
4 Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts

Combine the preserves, mustard and spices in a bowl.  Place the chicken in the Crockpot and pour the mixture over the top.  Cook on low for 6 - 8 hours.  Serve over rice and enjoy!

Inspiration from a Towel

I found this towel on a recent trip to Ross. 

I fell in love with the colors and the pattern.  I only found one at the store I was at, but thought that I would be able to locate more at another store.  NOT the case!  I have been to 5 stores in our area trying to find them and have only found 2 wash clothes.  No towels.  And to top it off, the original towel is only a hand towel.  I even did a search online and haven't had any luck.

Really wanting this towel to be a part of the guest bath update, but needing more than one hand towel, I had an idea.

I took the towel to the my local copy store and made a color copy of the towel.  I would then turn the color copies into wall art, incorporating the colors and pattern into the bathroom!

As always, I have a ton of  'junk' in my garage just waiting to be repurposed.  This time it was a block of wood that was just big enough for me to get 4 pieces out of it, one 11x14 and three 8x10.  Primed, painted and splashed a little color on the edges.

Once dry, I adhered the color copies to the wood blocks with Mod Podge. 

They will look great on the light grey walls I just painted in the guest bath.  Just enough color and pattern to bring a smile to your face.

Total Cost: $5.34 for 4 pieces

Color Copies - $4.05 (three 8 1/2 x 11 sheets and one 11 x 17)

Blue paint for the edges - $1.29

Wood - had

Primer - had

Mod Podge - had

How to make custom dessert plates

I 'mustache' u

A new trend among teenagers. The mustache. On shirts, on necklaces, temporary tattoos, coffee cups, earrings, shoes...why is it so popular?

Our daughter turned 13 this July and when I asked that question, the one that I dread but secretly love, the one that most likely result in an answer that requires major craftiness, major creativity.  I get this....

Me - "Stacy, what theme would you like for your birthday?"

DUN....DUN....DUN

Stacy - "OH! OH!! MUSTACHES!!!!"

Me - "Oookkaayy?! What exactly does that mean?"

Stacy - "You know mustaches."

Me - "Oookkaayy?! We have time."

So, there's the challenge, a mustache party. Wow. Yet another birthday party that can't just be outfitted from the local big box store.

An evening of looking around online. Pinterest. Nice ideas, but mainly for little boys first birthdays or parties with an adult tone. Not too many ideas for 13 year old girls.

After much nagging, I was finally able to get Stacy to tell me what she was envisioning when it came to her party decorations. Neon colors, black & white houndstooth and mustaches. Ok....we've got this!

I had quickly come to the realization that I would need to do a lot of crafting to make this party.  Then we found them. Mustache stickers.

We started with the invitations.  Of course we have to make our own. 

Now we just needed to find disposables. Target had neon cups, plastic ware and straws. And CHEAP!

We stumbled onto these napkins at Party City and were beyond thrilled! I think we actually screamed. Right there in Party City. People may have looked at us. But they were houndstooth napkins! I mean come on, it deserved a little excitement.

We looked and looked, but couldn't find any plates that were neon enough for Stacy and they didn't have houndstooth plates.  She and I had both come to the conclusion that we would just have to settle for black plates. Then...it...hit...me. We can make plates! Yes, I know, we are only going to eat cake off of them and then throw them away. But you have to understand my crazy party mind.

A quick trip to my party supply closet and my craft closet here at the house scored us everything we needed. Clear plastic cake plates, neon colored scrapbook paper, double-sided tape, and those mustache stickers.

Ta-da!

Still working on the decor and the take-aways for the girls, but this will be a great party and she will have great memories.

More to come.

Birthday Invitations

Our daugthers never pick "easy" birthdays.  They always seem to pick parties that are not readily available in the party stores.  I honestly have a love/hate relationship with this.  I love that they want to be unique and that I get to be crafty, but hate that I wait until the last minute to work through all of it (and have ideas that are sometimes grander than I have time for). 

This year our youngest decided on a baseball theme at the local laser tag facility.  My reply?  "Woo-hoo!  Party City has a great selection of baseball stuff!"  Her reply?  "No Momma, I want a GLITZY baseball party!  You know, with shiney, shimmery stones and glitter all over everything!"  Well, guess that means I get to be crafty again.

Scheduling her party was the easy part.  Then came the invitations.  I could easily find baseball scrapbook paper, but it all seemed a bit boy-ish.  Then the glitz fairy hit me, right there in the middle of Hobby Lobby.  What could be more glitz than zebra print, stars and rhinestones.  Eureka!!