619 miles

master bath inspiration

I had big dreams for this one, but they were somewhat quickly brought back to reality. Moving plumbing isn't cheap. So I decided I would keep everything in it's place and embrace the challenge of working around it. I will save the vintage clawfoot tub dreams for my next house. FYI: If you get a good deal on the tub it is surprisingly not that expensive to have it resurfaced.

On to the inspiration. Once I reined in the big ideas I settled into something light, bright and sophisticated with a touch of rustic.

Here's my inspiration board. You can find more images on my Pinterest board too.

1. I love the idea of having a shallow cabinet in the middle of my mirror (via houzz)

2. vanity light. Home Depot

3. awesome built-in (via houzz)

4. planked ceiling (via The Lettered Cottage)

5. granite counters. This ended up being the exact granite I found in a remnant piece (via City Rock)

Benjamin Moore Colors: vanity in Wrought Iron, walls in Bunny gray, accent color of Winter Lake and Mannington flooring

Tomorrow I'll be back with photos of the progress and how it is starting to come together!

style board elements by Alma Loveland for Nicole's Classes

pinterest project | FOOD

I first got in to Pinterest because of my love on interior design. I loved the pinboard concept where I could pin a lot of images and see the whole board at once. It's great for seeing how the many images are similar or tie into each other. I never thought about Pinterest in regards to food... until now. Things, my friends, sure have changed. Back in my pre-Pinterest days I kept a binder where I saved recipes that I ripped out of magazines, printed from websites, or that my friends and family wrote down for me. Today, however, I simply pin the recipe onto my "feed me" board and often cook with my laptop next to me on the kitchen counter.

Pinterst has certainly expanded my cooking horizons! I don't even seek out recipes on Pinterest, I just follow people who happen to pin a lot of food, and I love that! 

Last week I was feeling particularly Martha-Stewarty and I whipped up a bunch of recipes I found on pinterest and online. Here are my opinions/experiences of those dishes.

Frozen Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie from A Beautiful Mess. I follow this fun blog and within 2 days of seeing this recipe I was making it for myself. Peanut Butter & Chocolate is one of the greatest food combinations... EVER. 

The photo on their blog makes it look so much more tasty, but I will tell you that mine was very rich and very yummy. I think it tasted better each time I ate it. I forgot to get nuts at the grocery store so I left those off and chocolate syrup at the store was made with high fructose syrup, so I left that out as well.

Chipotle Chicken Taco Salad from Nutmeg Notebook. Again my photo doesn't do justice on how delicious this salad is. It is spicy and yummy and I just loved it. The recipe makes a pretty large batch so I ate on it for a couple days, but it wouldn't last much past a couple days in my opinion.

Last, but not least, this peanut butter, strawbery & banana wrap.

Now... I didn't realize this until I was writing this post, but I actually didn't follow the recipe. I repinned the wrap originally from my friend Emily. I simply spread some peanut butter on a multigrain wrap, sprinkled on some granola, and then layered on some sliced strawberries and bananas. If you'd like the full recipe head over to the Flatout Flatbread website for the details.

What have you been cooking lately? Has Pinterest changed the way you save recipes or the way you cook? It has certainly helped me expand my cooking horizons.

 

pinterest project | crafting with Corinne

My 12 year old niece, Corinne is visiting for the summer and I am so excited to get to spend time with her. She is a totally awesome young lady. Super sweet and funny and adorable. I saw this friendship bracelet project on the blog Noodlehead and pinned it with her in mind. She mentioned that she had been wanting to do some sewing, so I thought this would be something easy and fun to do together. So when she stayed the night a couple weeks ago we got to work!

Corinne made a list of everyone that we needed to make a bracelet for and we guessed on measurements based on our own wrists. She picked out all the fabrics and thread colors and we sewed them together. I LOVE how they turned out and we have been wearing ours everyday since we made them.

She thought Pinterest was a pretty neat site so we scrolled through the DIY and Crafts board and she found several more projects the she really wanted to do. We picked one that didn't require too many new supplies and made glow in the dark "lanterns" after we finished the bracelets. I can't find the link to the lanterns because it was at the bottom of a post of something else I pinned. We purchased jars at the thrift store and some glow in the dark paint. We mixed a little bit of Martha Stewart craft paint with the glow in the dark paint and painted in on the inside of the jars. We covered the lids with fabric too. FYI: the fabric did make the lids difficult to screw back on. In fact, two of them wouldn't really screw back on at all :(

It was LOADS of fun and I just love having her over. 

twelve pin Thursday | 14 June

here are our most recent twelve pins (6 from Kerry & 6 from me).

Kerry's pins: 1.Goody Goody Tutus 2.Ombre cake 3.Jewelry Wall 4.Make a tank from a t-shirt 5.Coral and gold stripe nail. I could not find an original link to this one (bummer) 6. Painted floor, another without an original link. Closest I could get was here.

Jenn's pins: 1.Kate Arend's living room 2.Beach Hair video tutorial 3.blue & orange bedroom 4.faux nail head trimmed cork board 5.Cupcake liner stoarge 6. make your own labels

Do any of you get annoyed with links that don't go to the original photo?? I try my best to check out the links before I re-pin, but every now and then I miss one. My personal philosophy for pinterest is that I will not re-pin if I can't find the original link.

I'm ready to try out some pinterest projects this summer. I have also been pinning a lot of interior design photos because I am jonesing for my own place to design and decorate.

What have you been pinning lately? Any trends with your pins?

twelve pins Tuesday

here are our most recent twelve pins (6 from me & 6 from Kerry).

Kerry's pins: 1.Wildfox Summer 2011 lookbook 2.Shoes 3.Wax seal from Design Sponge book 4.Audio light bulb 5.Maxi skirt 6.t-shirt quilt 

Jenn's pins: 1.Bright Ideas 2.pasta with sweet potatoes & leeks 3.chrispy chicken fingers & honey mustard 4.standard kitchen dimensions 5.window seat from Ikea cabinets 6. bowtie pasta 

What have you been pinning lately?

pinterest project - cute containers

Sometimes I pin something that I want to make or eat and I feel compelled to do it immediately. This was NOT one of those projects. I pinned these cute containers 31 WEEKS ago and finally got around to making it this weekend. I purchased a couple of jars and two little toys from the trusty Bargain Center and they sat around for a few weeks on my countertop. I finally grabbed the paint, paint brush and glue and got to work. Here are my supplies:

I used Martha Stewart Crafts paint (beach glass & pond), and some of her labels from Staples. The black ones are chalkboard lables and the white ones say they are dishwasher safe!

Here is what I started with:

After I attaked with paint and glue (I did wash them all first) this is what I ended up with:

and I made these too:

These are planned to be reusable water bottles. When I was a kid, my best friend Emily's mom kept plain glass bottles in the fridge filled with water for us to come and grab when we were thirsty. I always thought this was the coolest thing. Emily's mom also kept a large packet of gum in the "gum drawer" right next to the fridge and I remember sneaking pieces of gum from that drawer. Oh the things we remember from childhood.

A couple notes about this project:

• It did take several coats to paint the toys and the lids. 
• I painted them separately and then glued the animals to the lids after it was all dry. 
• I used regualr 'ol super glue, but I'm not sure it's holding all that strongly. I may have to get something stronger.

Check this one off the list of the 477 pins I have on my DIY pin board! This one was super easy and fun I don't know why I waited so long.

 

Michael Ann says:

 This month long blog series is meant to help us ALL, no matter your perceived level of skill, become a little more confident in our crafting capabilities!

 

handmade holidays: pintrest project revisited

A while back I made these coasters that were inspired by a project I saw on pinterest.

my first tile coaster project

At work we do a secret Santa gift exchange and I decided to re-use this project to make somehting fun. I originally planned to make this for myself, but I needed a gift fast, and in the spirit of using what I had on hand, I whipped up these tile coasters using some left over instagram photos from my week in the life project.

I wrapped the coasters up in some scaprbooking paper and added a really cute printable reindeer tag from Eat Drink Chic.

The original tile coaster tutorial came from The Cottage Home.

pinterest project - washi tape magnets

Tonight (and by tonight I really mean last night, since I'm not posting this till morning) I was planning on working on a refashion project I've been meaning to do. However, I forgot that my desk was currently covered in paper and stamps and stickers and washi tape. lots of washi tape. I've built quite the collection. I'm kinda addicted to it, I must admit.

So instead of sewing I sat down to straighten things up. I'm leaving it all out to finish up the week in the life album once it gets here. As I started straightening I went back to the original plan I wanted to use to make the album and decided that I would use the concept that I talked about previously, and make a fun art journal. After I put together the main part of the journal I decided to switch gears and whip up some washi tape magnets.

I saw this blog post earlier this week and thought it looked super cute. I did what I always do when I see a nifty DIY that I want to accomplish, I pinned it!

I made a trip to JoAnn's today and picked up two widths of magnet tape specifically for this project. It was really easy and fun to do. I can see myself making A LOT more of these. I love how they look on my fridge!!

totes revisited

When I blogged about finishing my niece & cousin's totes I wasn't really finished. With all the embroidery on the outside the inside did get a little messy looking. I confess, I am not the most skilled or neatest embroiderer! I had planned from the get-go to line the totes in a fun fabric for the girls. As you may have noticed in this post, I kinda have a lot of fabric. I knew I wanted to use something I had on hand, so I dug through the drawers (before it was so neatly folded and organized) and decided on a piece of oilcloth I had purchased at Hancock fabrics last fall. I had no idea what I was going to use if for when I bought it, I just was excited to see a fun geometric print in oilcloth, and bonus to me... it was on SALE.

I had to do some serious math and planning before attempting to cut and it turned out I had barely enough to line both bags and include a little interior pocket.

It turned out better than I thought (yeah for some good luck) and I think the girls are going to love them. They are quite roomy and I know will hold tons of whatever they decide to stash in them. 

I used this nifty trick I found on Pinterest to help the oilcloth glide through the machine better. I didn't follow any specific instructions. I have made several lined bags before using patterns so I just kinda went from memory for these. Because the tote already had a finished top edge when I sewed them right sides together it created a lip of fabric that came over the top edge. I really like how it turned out, especially after a little topstitching. I have decided to hold on to them and give them as Christmas gifts this year. Note to self: start Christmas presents a year out to have them finished in time!

pinterest project - learn something new

The bedroom in living room situation was a tad annoying, but to look at the silver lining it pushed me to do a little purging and reorganizing. With everything piled into the living room and kitchen/craft studio I decided that nothing would go back into the bedroom without careful consideration. I also took the opportunity to reorganize, post on craigslist, and donate items I don't really use much.

The bedroom and living room came together fairly quickly and for the most part are looking pretty good. The kitchen and craft studio is another story. It was starting to get a little out of hand with fabrics piling up and papers stacked everywhere. I was running out of room fast and didn't know how best to contain everything in my small little space. Enter pinterest to the rescue! 

A while back I pinned this fabric folding tutorial and figured this was as good a time as any to test it out. Susan from Living with Punks showed me how to appease the bit of Type-A I have lurking within. Check out her easy to follow tutorial on the proper way to fold fabric. Seriously.... it works and makes my fabric stash look so neat and pretty. I kinda felt like I worked at the Gap and was folding t-shirts, which made me think of this cute love story over on the blog Cakies. yes... my mind hops from one thing to the next.

Here is my fabric stash piled on the desk 

 

My first thought on seeing all the neatly folded and stacked fabrics was: "Holy Cow I have a lot of fabric... I need to get sewing!" The good thing is I have a lot of ideas for projects. The room needs a little more work putting things away and I think I'll be ready to start sewing again. First project on the list is a baby quilt for a friend having his first baby!