Cork Board Redo with Map

 I got this cork board from my mom and it has been hanging boringly on our wall by our dining room.  I was waiting for some inspiration to hit me, and finally, yesterday I was struck.  I frequently visit the paint and wall paper section of Menards and I saw these dry erase maps.  The downside was they were 20 dollars, but I think it was worth it.  I had to trim down the sides a bit to fit in the frame and used a credit card to smooth it out.  If I don't like it I can always peel it up and stick it to a wall somewhere.  Pretty fun and we can write messages to each other on it.  

DIY Rugs

Well, I've been accumulating a ton of old clothes that aren't even up to Goodwill's standards so my stash has been building downstairs of t-shirts, dress shirts, and jeans.  One prime spot for a rug would be for in Colby's room since the dog can't go in there the room stays much cleaner.  My favorite rug is this one from xoelle.com.  She cut all of her t-shirts into strips and then dyed them a dark gray.  I think I'd like to dye the shirts all different shades of blue, green, and gray so it gives the rug a watery appearance. Here's a few of the best ones I've seen.

Picture found here at xoelle.com

Lovely braids.  Found here at craftpassion.com

 

 

Loving the different colors, found here at creativejewishmom.com

I love these braided rugs-the colors are great.  Found here at moddish.blog.com

I'm not so into the pink but this website has good directions. 

Accessories for the Nursery

Well, this should be the last official post about baby room decor, until I actually get my tush in gear and make something.  I'm thinking making a baby lounger would be awesome, although it will probably just end up being a golden retriever bed.  Once I pick a color scheme and just go for it I think the room will come together. 

Good Old Martha, can you ever let us down?  Oh that's right you've been to prison.  Link here.

Cute little lounger with directions here.

What a cute little rug.  Link here. 

So cute, but Colby will pull these off once he can reach.  Link here.

To measure...here

Wall Murals

Well, I'm still on this decorating kick for Colby's room and pretty soon I'm just going to have to start into it and let it work itself out, but for now I'm trying to accumulate all of my options before I decide.  So far he's got all different wood tone furniture and light green walls-other than that it is a blank slate.  So here's some murals I'm debating about:

This is one of my favorites-a bit retro it came from here.

Perfect for Minnesota, eh?  Came from here.

I love this book, but monsters may be a bit too scary for Colby...it came from here

Or possibly I should go for something more simple.  From here

DIY Card Wreath

Well, I realize it's a bit late, but I made another card wreath to hold all of our lovely Christmas cards from our friends.  This time I decided to make it a bit heftier with some burlap and ribbon.  I used two embroiderly hoops of different sizes and simply tied on strips of burlap and ribbon.  The clothespins just wiggle in between the pieces so they aren't glued on or fastened in anyway which makes it more versatile to fit whatever size of cards you receive.  Now that I have them all done I imagine the clothespins could be placed on the back of the wreath so they would be hidden even more-oh the possibilities.  Happy Crafting!

DIY Christmas Wreaths

Well, I have been in such a creative funk lately.  I think with the snow storms I have this urge to just wrap myself in a blanket and throw in a movie, but alas, with a ten month old that only happens after eight o'clock, so I have been spending my time chasing him around and preventing him from eating cords, dog food, and leaves.  What fun!   I have so many project ideas to do and I just need to start the sewing machine up.  For now though, I'll just add to my long list of projects to do.

Tutorial Here

Tutorial Here

Tutorial Here

Tutorial Here

Tutorial Here

Painted Rugs

Shannonberrey.com

Along with my desire to paint my curtains, I've been considering painting a rug for Colby's room or the laundry room.  I've seen some pretty awesome ones, but it seems that they aren't very durable with dog claws.  Most I have seen are painted just using latex paint either free form or stenciling and then they sand down the paint so it softens up more.  Hopefully I can find a plain rug on sale at IKEA or Target soon.    Here are some of my inspirations:

The Chevron Stripes

http://www.thehouseofsmiths.com

  Gradients

Burkelodge.blogspot.com

Numbers

designsponge.com

Stamped Rug

http://myhandsmadeit.com

Painted Curtain Ideas

I've been thinking about painting our bedroom curtains for quite a while.  Curtains have always bored me and usually they don't thrill me.  Our room is slate blue so I think I may go for a orange or burnt orange on the tan curtains.  Basically you could go as crazy as you wanted from just chevron stripes to hand painted animals.  Soon I will get around to this since it looks like a pretty simple project. Click on the pictures to go to the origin of the photos and tutorials if there are some.

 

Graceful gray and white stripes

Beautiful gray and white stenciled curtain

Painted Hummingbird

Free hand orange on white curtains

These may be my favorite-and most intense-white stencil on gray curtain

Colors for the House I Love

I'm loving warm yellow and oranges right now complimented with deep blues with lots of patterns.  As I'm getting older I'm realizing that I'm starting to turn into my mother-well, I never call her 'mother' and I could never turn into her-but my house is becoming more like my home growing up.  My mom always goes thrifting and to auctions so she has accumulated a massive amount of treasures. Every nook and cranny is filled with something that draws the eye in.  For the past few years I think I've been trying to be far too minimalist which translates into boring-so my goal is to fill my home with objects I love and interest me.
 

How to Hide Your TV

Now that we have a gigantic entertainment center and humongous TV, I would like to try to make it not such a prominent feature of the room.  If I had lots of money-feel free to send donations-I would get a framed mirror that fits over the TV that looks like a mirror until you turn it on and then you can see the TV.  Here's a picture of a model when Oprah had them on her show.  Candice Olson has also utilized them on Divine Design. 

Images came from Hiddentelevision.com

Images came from Hiddentelevision.com

Since I can't afford $300+ dollars on a TV mirror I'll have to settle with other design tactics.  The best idea that I can come up with is to use some really big framed art behind the TV so your eye isn't automatically drawn to the big black box. 

From Coastal Living 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not entirely art, but very distracting from TV

apartmentinteriordesign.org

Another way to hide my television could be to build the shelves up and around the television.  I somehow don't think my husband would like to give up another weekend assembling IKEA furniture though, bummer.

Divine Design

Spring Colors

Spring has been a little late to Minnesota.  Last week, about the third week in April, we got snow.  Yuck.  Then we had a bunch of rainy drizzly cold days.  Needless to say I am ready for warmer sunnier weather.  I caught part of The Nate Berkus Show yesterday while I was nursing Colby-and for the most part the show I find is very trivial with average designer tips-but yesterday I was inspired by a segment about using bright, bold paint colors.  Here's some colors I would love to incorporate-including pink-which is strange because I generally dislike the color but maybe it's a mom thing. Enjoy.