making it after all

Rug in the House!

I'm just going to cut to the chase...we bought a rug for the living room!

Since the living room is actually both living room and dining room, we wanted an area rug under the living portion of the room to help delineate the space.

Although I'm drawn to some of the graphic and bold rugs that are available now, I realized something patterned--even just a bit--would be way too much with the suzani curtains. As much as I love those curtains, they definitely dictate what we do around here.

So, I turned my attention to natural fibers and settled on jute. It's relatively inexpensive, it's durable, and it has great texture. I've been eyeing a couple West Elm jute rugs for awhile waiting for a sale, and it finally happened.

The day we pulled the trigger, I was about 80 percent sure I was going to order the Jute Chenille Herringbone Rug in Natural/Ivory. While it does have a chevron pattern, I thought it would be subtle enough to not compete with the curtains, but different enough to be interesting. After remembering it used here though and taking a hard look at everything in our room, I changed my mind and went with the Jute Bouclé Rug in Ivory. 

I' glad I did. (John liked this one better too.) It's simple and classic. The ivory goes well with the ivory in the curtains. Word of warning: The rug is actually lighter in real life than in the photo above or the ones I snapped below.) We were also a little surprised how much more textured it is in person compared to the photos online though. I have read reviews that say it gets softer the longer you have it, so I'm hoping for that because the weave feels a little bumpy right now. Besides those minor issues, we do like it.

I'll admit though: The thick weave does have me a little worried about Cosmo getting bored and treaing the rug as a chew toy during the day. I had a long chat with him about how unraveling this rug (like he did to my mom's and grandma's carpet) is not something he wants to do if he wants to live a long happy life. I think he got the message. There were no incidents on Day 1, but I'll be sure keep ou posted And truthfully, it's been a year since he was into unraveling carpet, so I'd like to think he's older and wiser now.

Speaking of the dog, don't mind the toys and the disheveled slipcover...

...and speaking of the husband (oh what, we weren't?), don't mind the massive TV on the icky TV stand.

When I see this picture, I think I may need to move the rug over a bit toward the TV. The rug is actually centerd on the wall, but it looks a little odd from this angle. I've also thought about moving the couch back to the middle of the room facing the window like we had it before. Oor at least pulling it away from the wall a bit, perhaps to put a console behind it? That might also help with the rug positioning.

My knees are still sore though from Saturday's long run, so I won't be doing any more furniture moving for a bit. Doing it once was enough for me this week...I can hardly bend over today!

 

Gallery Wall in Progress

A couple Sundays ago, I decided to tackle another project that has taken far too long...a gallery wall! I've been pinning inspiration photos and collecting frames for several months, but they've been collecting dust in the guest room. Why? Because I couldn't decide where in our home to hang them.

After thinking about it for far too long, I finally realized a large amount of frames would serve us well on a large expanse of blank wall. It was rocket science, really. I have a large expanse of wall in the "dining room." (That would be the area of the living room were we keep a dining table.) Problem solved! Hang them already, right? Wrong.

Now, here's the thing. I have a rectangular table here now, but I plan to replace it with a round table with a leaf. The rectangular table (which happens to be a $0 curbside find from my college days) has a broken leg. The wood is stripped where the screws connect the leg to the table and while there are probably ways to fix this, I've decided that after five years and two moves, it's probably OK to retire the dumpster-dive table (at least to the basement) and replace it with something that better fits the space. 

So I've been searching Craigslist and thrift stores for a round pedestable table with a leaf. But now that I've decided there will be a narrower round table, I've also decided that this wall needs to have some sort of narrow buffet/bar cart/console/entryway table. Something I can put stuff on and possibly store stuff in. I've been searching the aforementioned places and elsewhere for that too. Maybe something like this maybe only a heck of a lot cheaper?

Since I don't know what either of these pieces will be exactly and these pieces may determine how high I hang my frames, I've been waiting. And waiting.

Now that you know the complete back story of my indecision, it makes total sense that one Sunday I just decided to throw all caution to the wind and hang the frames with neither furniture piece found or purchased. (This would be sarcasm.) Whether it makes sense or not, that's what happened. I got tired of waiting.

Using newspaper templates and painter's tape as described here, I started playing around with the arrangement until I had something I liked. I decided to leave an adequate amount of space below the frames for some sort of furniture piece. Here's what I ended up with. Sorry for the crappy photo quality.

I've mentioned it before, but I'm afraid to put holes in my new retextured walls. However, I've discovered there's something about the plaster and the humidity that doesn't agree with 3M Adhesive Strips and I have a broken mirror to prove it...more on that later. Knowing what I know now, I realized I had to get over my aversion to nails. I simply measured the distance from the top and side edge of each hook, measured that distance on the newspaper template, and nailed directly through the template. It was actually pretty slick.

After I removed all the templates, I ended up with this. (I have three small frames for the three remaining templates, but I need to add some picture hooks of some sort to the backs. Again, adhesive strip fail.)

I also need to fill approximately 20 or so frames with fairly inexpensive art. I'm working on it. I'm on Etsy a lot. I'm making things. I'll keep you updated.

Excuse the Mess

Did you notice the blog has a new look?

I'm doing some other tweaking around this space, so I apologize if things begin to look a little odd here over the next couple weeks. I signed up several weeks ago for an online blog class offered by Elise Cripe, and it ends at the end of March! So, it's time I finally start putting the lessons I've learned into action and make some design updates.

I've been quiet here, but we've been working on some projects to share soon:

1) Putting the finishing touches on our bathroom. (The remodel that will never end may actually be ending soon.) Look for a reveal in the near future.

2) Organizing a mound of paperwork in order to get our taxes done. My organization system crashed and burned sometime after we got married, and it has never recovered. How do you organize and store your important papers? I'm so open to suggestions. If I figure out a system that's better than a pile of papers in the corner of my guest room closet I'll share it here.

3) Doing yard work. John chopped down the broken branches the willow suffered over the winter and gave it its springtime haircut. I enjoyed the 80-degree weather we had this weekend by raking all the trimmings and stray leaves and bagging them up.

4) Collecting frames, hanging what we have, and looking for art for the walls. The house--especially the living room--has been pretty devoid of artwork since we moved in almost two years ago. Does anyone else get anxiety about hanging things? I don't know why I'm so paralyzed--maybe because we spent a small fortune to have the obscene texture removed from our walls, and I can't bear to put holes in them now? I'm actually using those nifty little 3M Command Picture strips, so it's not even that big of a deal, but still! It gives me anxiety. I did hang a few things a couple months ago, and I won't even tell you how long it took me to get these just right. Our Campanile and Memorial Union prints by Pam McGinnis went on the far east wall in our living room along with some of our engagement photos.

The big frames probably weigh about 8 pounds each and they've been up seen January...can you believe those strips hold them?

And an original watercolor painting by my dad went on the wall by my entryway. Don't you think he does great stuff? He spends his evenings painting up a storm. He matted and framed this one too.

He was experimenting with sillhouettes with this one, but he also does animal portraits and other types of landscapes. I've been trying to convince him to open an Etsy shop!

In a nuthsell, that's what I've been up to (besides watching basketball and working out a lot). Talk soon!

 

A Shower for Baby Cael

Remember how I told you we have a new nephew named Cael? I don't know how you could possibly forget because he's adorable. Maybe the cutest baby ever. I helped host a shower over the weekend with a couple of John's aunts and a couple of Jan's friends for the little guy. 

Lisa and Justin—Cael's parents and my sister- and brother-in-law—decorated his room in an animal theme, so we decided to have an animal baby shower!

My friend and former co-worker Elizabeth is a talented art director/graphic designer, and she tweaked one of her invite designs for Baby Cael's shower. Isn't it cute? (Excuse the weird white spaces where I blocked out the address, etc. with my limited Photoshop capabilities.)

We used a blue, orange, green, gray, and yellow color palette for the decorations and food. I was also responsible for decorations, so I turned to my other friend, Pinterest.

Using this tutorial, I made some yarn balloons to hang over the table. This is a kids' craft. It seems easy. What the tutorial didn't tell me: It seems easy. It's incredibly messy and a little tricky dealing with wet/sticky yarn and slippery balloons. You may feel slightly inadequate when your first attempt fails because you made the balloon too big and mixed too much water in your glue. They also don't transport well (see: dilapidated yellow yarn balloon).

I also made yarn letters that spelled out Cael's name. We hung them on a rope strung across the window in the living room. I made these once before using three-dimensional cardboard letters from Hobby Lobby. I planned to use the same ones, but I could only find chipboard letters in all the letters I needed. The thinner letters worked out well for hanging them with clothespins though. It was hard to photograph them in front of a window with sun streaming in...

...but this one is better. There are a million tutorials for these, but I first found the idea here and later in Scrapbooks etc. I painted them with matching paint before wrapping them in yarn. I just tucked the ends into the already-wrapped yarn when I was done.

While I was at Hobby Lobby looking for yarn and paint, I found some other things that got my wheels spinning, and then I couldn't help myself. I found a set of iron-on animal patches that I adhered to baby onesies. These hung in the window in the kitchen.

Again, it was impossible to get a good pic of these in the backlit window. Here they are up close.
Then, I found these painted wooden animals in the wood crafts aisle at Hobby Lobby for about 70 cents each. (!!!) I decided to turn them into a centerpiece by hot-gluing the animals to painted dowels and sticking them in a vase filled with marbles. I hadn't planned to add the paper, but I didn't have enough marbles and the whole thing was looking kind of dumb. I shredded some cardstock in the paper shredder at the last minute to fill the vase.

The shower was in the early afternoon, so we decided to keep the menu light. Jan's friends, Ren and Beth, made arrangements for the food. Aren't these cookies super cute? Ren's daughter made them, and they were a big hit at the shower! I just had a couple brief conversations on the phone with Ren discussing what we were working on, and I couldn't believe how well they coordinated with the decorations.

We also had a tower of cupcakes made by Beth's daugther. The cupcakes were equally delicious.

Jan made fun popcorn favors. She stamped a pacifier on the back of orange polka dot paper. This is very fitting because Cael LOVES his paci. It's his favorite.

Speaking of the guest of honor, he spent the entire shower being passed around and sleeping like a baby.

While helping to plan for this shower, I realized I really love planning parties. It's my favoroite!

Wardrobe Additions

Normally, I'm a girl who likes to get dressed in the mornings. I like to coordinate outfits and accessories. I like to look put together. The last few months though? Not so much. Due to weight gain, work limbo, and cold weather, I've been stuck in a style rut.

Enough is enough--I'm done with feeling blah all the time. To celebrate all the good things that have been happening around here (especially completing Week 4 of bootcamp!), I decided to take advantage of some sales and find some colorful tops to supplement the black and gray I've been rocking. Here's what I brought home ... I can safely say I'm ready for spring!

1 / 2 / 3 / 4

Baby Burp Cloth Tutorial

Awhile back, I made some flannel burp cloths for my sister-in-law's baby shower. She seemed to really like them, so that makes me a little embarrassed to say how easy they were to make. If you need a quick gift or you if you're learning how to sew, burp cloths are the perfect project. I have a stash of flannel, and I plan to make these again the next time I'm headed to a shower.

Materials

1/3 yard flannel in 3 prints (I chose a light gray polka dot, dark gray polka dot, and dark gray dot.)

1 yard flannel backing (I chose white.)

Matching thread

1. Because I had 1/3 yard of each print, I decided my burp cloth pieces would measure about 12x20" (so I could get two burp cloths from each 1/3 piece). Cut the backing to the same size.Before cutting, it's not a bad idea to wash all the flannel, as the pieces may not shrink at the same rate. As you can tell from these wrinkles, I clearly skipped those steps.

2. Pin the print to the solid backing, right sides together.

3. Trace something round at each corner. I used a beer mug from our college days as a template for mine. I also used a FriXion pen--this thing is nifty because you can get super-accurate markings as you would if you writing with a gel pen on paper, but the markings disappear when heat is applied (by iron or by dryer).

4. Once I had marked the corners...

...it was time to cut them.

...and create a pile of burp cloths to be sewn.

 5. I used a 1/2-inch seam allowance to sew the two pieces together. Tip: Start sewing on a straight edge to make it easier to finish the seam after turning.

The trick to corners is taking it slow and slightly turning your project as you gently feed it through the machine, following around the curve.

6. Leave a few inches unsewn so you can turn the burp cloth.

7. Press the burp cloth.

8. Fold the edges at the opening in and press them flat too. 

9. Top stitch about 1/4" around the perimeter to close the opening and finish the edges nicely.

10. Repeat.

11. Fold 'em, stack 'em, and wrap 'em. Done!

Curtain Call

Guess what, guys. I made curtains! Or shall we call them drapes? Or should we be proper and say draperies? These things are not lined but they don't really filter light, so I guess that makes them a hybrid? Whatever they are, they are done and I am pleased.

First step's first. I knew I wanted to place my curtain rod several inches higher than the top of the window to create the illusion of height. (Keep in mind we're adding crown molding, so I had to make sure I didn't hang them too high.) That point to the floor measured 88 inches and I added 12 inches for double 4-inch hems at the bottom and and double 2-inch hems at the top. This meant I needed 100 inches of fabric for each of my panels. 

Next, I ordered about 11-1/2 yards of this fabric (you've seen it here before when I chose paint) from Jo-Ann's when it was 50 percent off. I did scope it out in the store first to make sure I liked it in real life. I really didn't want to mess with matching repeats while joining pieces together to create a panel, so I requested 8-1/2 continuous yards that I could use to cut three of my 100-inch panels and then another 3 yards for the remaining 100-inch panel.

Of course it sat for a few weeks until I finally got around to doing something about it.

To start, I spread the fabric out on my (clean) kitchen floor to cut my panels to size. To get straight cuts, I used the printed grid of our vinyl floors as a cutting guide--totally unscientific, but it seemed to work.

After cutting my panels, I trimmed off all the selvages.

And then I stopped taking pictures because I had to do some intense concentrating (i.e., use math). The first panel came together relatively easily. I simply folded up the botton edge 8 inches, pressed, unfolded, folded the edge up to the crease, pressed, folded again at the crease, and pressed one last time to create a 4-inch double hem ready to be stitched. I repeated the process at the top, making a double 2-inch hem instead. For the side seams, I used double 1-1/2" hems. Got that? I know, I know...a good blogger would have documented this step-by-step with how-to photos, maybe even a video tutorial? But, since it's taken me two weeks to write this lackluster post, this is what you get. I actually referred to the instructions in a borrowed book by Donna Babylon of More Splash Than Cash called Decorating Sewlutions: Learn to Sew As You Decorate Your Home. I recommend it if you're ready to tackle some home sewing projects.

So after folding/pressing each seam, I secured the hem with a blind-hem stitch, a first for me! I had to get my sewing machine manual to make sure I had all the settings correct, but it turned out to be pretty easy and completely worth my time to figure out. The stitches are visible from the back ...

... but they're a lot more discreet in the front. In fact, they'd pretty much be invisible if this fabric didn't have a dark print.

Here's where the bottom and side hems meet.

I was feeling pretty bad-ass at this point--one curtain down, only three to go--when I realized something important....

... my fabric has a distinct repeat that I didn't take into account when I cut the panels. This was dumb--I knew I needed to pay attention to this if my fabric had a repeat, I just didn't make the connection that my fabric actually had a repeat. I was very glad I had built in so much extra length for hems so I could attempt to fix the problem. Instead of using the same measurements to hem the second panel, I had to compensate by adjusting my hems to make it appear as if the repeat matched across both panels. I was probably about three or four inches off for the second panel of the first window, but it worked out OK.

You can really see in this photo of the bay window panels just how "off" my hems had to be to make the print repeat across the entire window...giant hem at the top of the left panel and tiny hem at the bottom, which is the opposite of how it needs to be. Hmm...maybe I could flip the left one over though?

Annoying, yet a good lesson for next time. Luckily, I never plan to close these curtains so it will remain a deep dark secret between us. Just you, me, and the Internet. And of course, if I had lined them you wouldn't be able to see through them like this. That's what I get for taking shortcuts.

The weight of the folded fabric was enough on three of the four panels that I didn't need to add weights. However, because of my little screw-up, the fourth curtain panel was in need of some serious help. I added curtain weights to the inside hem so that they'd drape nicely. (So maybe I shouldn't flip the left one over? We shall see.)

WHATEVER, I'm over it. Here's how they will look 99.5% of the time.

You're probably wondering where those chairs came from too. That is another blog post I've been wanting to write. Basically, we inherited them from John's mom, who was redoing her living/family room. We are undecided on whether to leave them as is or reupholster them. The current upholstery (in the ever-trendy chevron) actually kind of jives with the other colors in the room, but I think the pattern might be too much with my crazy curtains, so I'm thinking of going with a solid or a textured solid fabric instead. For now, we're enjoying them as is.

It's also worth noting that yes, I used clip rings again. I was going to attempt pleated panels, but I feared they would turn out disastrous. I'm OK with this look. I think the pleats would have been a little too frou-frou for this fabric anyway.

Overall, I like them a lot, and I think they really helped the room to feel a little more finished and a little less in progress. I'll probaby never actually be "finished" in here--I'm guessing things will always evolve and rotate as our tastes change, but I'm liking how it's coming together. I'm excited to see how they look with the trim painted white and with the crown molding added. Sometime soon I hope!

Big Things Happening

The last couple weeks have been a whirlwind, so you'll have to excuse my erratic posting schedule for awhile.

Big Thing No. 1

We have a new nephew! His name is Cael Michael Charbonneaux, and he is super adorable. We met him yesterday, and he's just perfect. He even has great taste in hats already. 

Big Thing No. 2

I have a new job! I'm still with the same company, but I've been promoted and will now be an editor in a different department. Let's just say I'll be living and breathing the topic of home remodeling everyday.

Big Thing No. 3

I started my 90-day fitness challenge two weeks ago, and it's been kicking my butt (in a good way). It does mean 5 a.m. wake-up calls though, and I need to go to bed by 10 a.m. if I hope to be a normal, functioning person the next day.

So, while I adjust to these new changes (mostly Nos. 2 and 3; No. 1 I can hand back over to his parents), things might be a little sketchy. I do have some finished home projects to share and some projects I'm excited to finish, so hopefully I'll have time to finish and share them soon friends.

In the meantime, I'm off to move to my new office! Ciao.

Ace of Baseboards

Adult truth said by a friend of mine on Facebook: It's important to have friends over and host parties from time to time so that you have a deadline for cleaning your house...

...and finishing up remodeling projects, I would add.

Last week, I hosted a Stella and Dot jewelry party at home, so we spent the weekend installing baseboards in the living room. We decided to replace the old baseboads with new because 1) the old ones were made of some sort of plastic material and many of them cracked when I removed them before the big wall project and 2) the old baseboards were made of some sort of plasic material and were ugly. We got something a bit chunkier (3" wide; pre-primed) to match what we put in our bathroom.

To make buying and transporting the baseboards and quarter round easier, I measured each wall, adding a few inches to each measurement, and listed them out on a piece of paper. At Home Depot, we had someone there cut down the boards to size, and I labeled each one so we would know which wall it belonged to. It's important to include a couple extra inches to each measurement, so you can fine-tune the cuts at home. I wouldn't count on the cuts done at Home Depot to be too straight or accurate! My dad lent us his miter saw, which made the cutting relatively easy.

We started in the entryway, thinking we'd feel more accomplished if we could knock this area out right away. We used squares blocks in the inside corners so that we wouldn't have to worry about making miter cuts. We had enough of those for the outside corners.

We did the baseboards on Saturday and Sunday, and John did the quarter round on MLK Day while I was at work. Ta-da!

We had to break up these long walls into two boards. We made 45 degrees miter cuts so they would "nestle" into each other. Maybe the boards were slightly warped, maybe the wall wasn't completely straight, but we had a hard time getting those angles to meet up just right. We did the best we could and sanded down and caulked the joints to make them as seamless as possible.

Here's the same wall after John added quarter round.

Here's the corner by the kitchen. Those small pieces in the doorway were tricky with two mitered cuts!

Here's the bay window--definitely the hardest part, mostly because it involved some geometry. Our original plan was to keep the old 2-1/2" baseboards (which happened to be wood and similar to our new ones, unlike the ones used in the rest of the room before), remove them, and move them up half an inch to line up with the new baseboards. We figured the quarter-round would cover up the gap at the bottom.

It would have worked except for that uneven floor! The quarter round was tall enough to cover the gap at the front half of the bay window, but it was too short to cover the gap in the back. We ended up scrapping the old ones and using new. As you can see, I still need to sand, prime, and paint the bay window and the window molding when I paint the baseboards. (The chairs were given to just by John's mom--more on those later!)

The color is really bad in this photo, but here's the area near the hallway.

How about a leggy photo? I'm happy that the room is finally coming together! John also installed the transitions to the kitchen...

and to the entryway, so people wouldn't trip and fall.

John also got reaquainted with his Sawzall and made the vents fit again. Is it weird that I really ike this how vintagey and cool this vent is?

Now, I need to do some painting---haven't managed to find the time to do that just yet--and we need to start scraping the tar paper that's hiding under the carpet in the hallway. File that one under dirty jobs.

Not Quite Ryan Gosling...

... but it's better than a boob light.

John installed our new entryway light today, and it's a decent compromise. (Excuse the wall/ceiling gap--we still need to install our crown molding.) I took his advice of being "a normal person" and found this light at lowes.com for about $90 bones. The finish was described as "brushed nickel" but it looked a little sketchy online, so we checked it out in person today. The box calls it a "specialty pewter" finish, and I'd say that's probably a more accurate description if "specialty" means "tarnished." The metal is not shiny like brushed nickel. I think it actually looks a little like mercury glass. The drum shade is made from a creamy white fabric material.

Ryan Gosling it most certainly is not, but it's not bad for a flushmount fixture. I've realized basically anything that's not a boob light is good as far as flushmounts go--there are so many ugly ones out there! It is somewhat similar to this light from Shades of Light that I was also considering, but this Lowe's Allen+Roth version is $200 less, so that made it easy to make up my mind. I do feel like I settled a bit on this one, but I also feel like I've run a decorating marathon so I guess I'm still true to form. The Ryan Gosling light is going in my dream house file, so maybe someday! And mark my words, I'm going to find a way to use that Moravian star light in this house. Right now, I think it's going to go above the table in the living room once we have an electrician come to help us with the wiring. (There are currently no overhead lights in our living room.) If it's over a table, it won't matter if it hangs a little low--in fact it will be better that way.

That's what she said. Ha. Ha.