O'verlay Love

Hi, I'm still alive! I usually blog more often than this, but between work being cuh-crazy right now, wedding season parties and trying to get ready for my sister baby shower (I'm crafting like a mo-fo, right now. Like. A. Mo-fo.), I just haven't found the time or energy. But there has been a little craft I've been working on this week that I'm dying to share.

There's a good chance you've probably heard about O'verlays. But if not, they are a company that produces decorative panels (or "overlays") that you can attach to furniture to give it a more modern look or "fancy it up," if you will. When I first heard about them, oh probably about 6 months ago, I knew I had to give them a whirl. They have a line that specifically fit with Ikea furniture and, lucky me, I have an Ikea that I drive by every single day.

So, in February, when the company had a special coupon code for 15% off, I ordered their overlay kit for an Ikea Lack table (with shipping, it came in around $40ish). By itself, the table is pretty lame. And at 9.99 a pop, why wouldn't it be? But once I received the Overlays, I knew it would be adorbs. So, I lightly sanded, primed and spray painted the overlays gold.

Then, I used a liquid nails-type glue and contraption to adhere them. Easier said than done, really, as this glue gun thing and I had a rough go of it for a while.

But all in all, I adore how this table turned out. I'm going to use it in our guest bedroom as a bedside table for now.

And I can't wait to use O'verlays again. Check out some of the cute ways they've been used...

(from here)

(from here)

Crafty Bitches: Tray Love

The only thing I love more than a good DIY project is crafting with friends. This past weekend, I spent the day with my pal Kendall (you may remember her from this fun crafting project) and we tackled a fun, easy and quick cute DIY tray. Kendall is a great friend who loves to craft and is the only other person I know who loves West Elm as much as me.

So, let's get to it.

The pinspiration came from this little diddy:

(source)

It's actually a cookie tray covered in fabric with Plexiglas on top. We both decided pretty quick we wanted something smaller. Kendall wanted a tray for her bathroom and I wanted matching trays for our bedside tables.

The supplies:
Silver mini-trays from the Dollar store ($1/each)
Fabric from Joann's Fabrics ($8/yard, but I only used maybe 1/4 of that)
Plexiglas cut to size from Lowe's ($3/each)
Pre-cut felt (.33/each)
Spray adhesive (already had)
TOTAL COST FOR THIS PROJECT: Maybe $6 per tray ($12 total)

I found this amazing orange fabric, which I thought would be a great pop of color for our nightstand in our navy and orange master bedroom.

Kendall found this bright ikat-ish fabric (on clearance, mind you!) that is going to work perfect in her bathroom and bedroom. She even bought enough to make a throw pillow down the road.

The steps were really quite easy:
1. Cut the fabric ensuring there's several inches of slack on each side
2. Spray adhesive on the tray and the back of the fabric
3. Carefully press the fabric and glue the fabric to the back (pull the corners tight so there's no bumps) - it doesn't matter how bad it looks on the back because it's going to be covered up!

4. Use spray adhesive on the back of the tray and felt and carefully press the felt (this isn't mandatory, but provides a no-scratch bottom)

Just like Martha would do!

5. Place the plexiglas down (which we had pre-cut for us at Lowe's) - they refuse to round the corners, so we simply took a sanding block I found in the hubby's toolbox and rounded them ourselves.

But why listen to me, when Martha provides this great video tutorial?!

Here's the final product:

My tray on my nightstand (and a sneak peak at our new bedding!):

Kendall's tray:

Love this craft. I think we spent spent more time in the fabric store than we did actually making the tray. And I now have a deep love for spray adhesive.

Cheers!

Much Ado about Holiday Cards

Does anyone else get mildly stressed (read: panicky) over Christmas cards. Well, usually I don't. In fact, last year we didn't even send any. [gasp!] Well, we had sent out "We're Moving, Here's our New Address" cards in August, so I decided to skip out on holiday cards, too. (But at least people had our address!)

But that was nearly a year and half ago and I don't want to go falling off people's Christmas card list, ya heard, so I've started researching (i.e. Pinterest-ing and Etsy-ing) holiday cards. Here's the deal, though: nearly all the holiday cards I receive are of our sweet friends with their families (read: dogs and babies). Well, as you know, we have neither at the moment, so I started thinking what we could do besides just sending a generic Christmas card photo of us.

Well, I think I've got it.

One, we're not sending out Christmas cards, we're sending out Happy New Year cards. (I think I might be ahead of the trend here, just wait - these are going to catch on for all those "oh shit, it's mid-December and I need to send out cards" people.) And two, I'm thinking the card will involve alcohol in some way...

Will share soon!

And while we're talking about Christmas cards, I tackled craft #1 of #4 last night. I've been wanting a Christmas card holder for years now (ask the hubby, I whine about this every year) and when I ran across this on Pinterest, I thought, well, yes, I just have to make it.

It only involves 3 items: an embroidery hoop (found at the local craft store), clothespins and hot glue. It took me longer to find the embroidery hoop at the HobLob than it did to make this craft.

I think it will look much cuter once it's filled with cards!

And I picked up this adorbs ribbon that I found for 1/2 off while I was there.

Now, I'm just waiting on the hubby to get home from his business trip to see where we should hang it permanently.

OK, people. I'm equipped and ready for the Christmas cards! Let's see 'em.

Holiday Prepping!

*Cue 'N Sync's "Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays" (or fast-forward 15 years and cue Justin Beiber's "Under the Mistletoe.")

It's the Holidays, y'all! Happy Cyber Monday! Who got a great deal? I'll tell you who, THIS girl! {points to self} Our fun actually started Sunday when we came across this sweet little number on Amazon.

It's going in our master bedroom. So, it wasn't originally on our "to buy" list for our master bedroom re-do, but our current TV is so heavy and we didn't want it to scratch our new dresser. Plus, with a great Cyber Monday deals, we just couldn't pass it up!

Today, I saw that West Elm put their popular Organic Pintuck duvet cover (oh yes, the one I've been wanting and talking about for months) for 20% off plus free shipping. So, I saved more than $50 on something I was fully planning on ordering for full price! Um, holler.

The hubby and I decorated for Christmas on Sunday, but I got to feeling like I don't have many decorations. Now that we have this house, the tree and the mantle is about all I can decorate with what I have.

So, with the hubby being out of town this week (boo.), I'm going to craft it up, holiday decor-style (yay!). I made a run to HobLob tonight and scored all of this for about $50 - but it should make 4 different items.

If you're on Pinterest, you probably already know what some of these are. More to come on those later...

Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Crafty Bitch: Daylight Savings Edition

Uh. Daylight Savings Time. The WORST time of the year. We gain an hour, YES, but suddenly it's the time of year that no matter how early I get off work, it's still dark when I get home. Boo.

Oh well, to make the best of this depressing time of year, I decided to craft a little bit. It's been months since I've done anything crafty and we're waiting to get the rest of our bedroom furniture (hopefully in the coming weeks) before I dive in to re-doing our master bedroom.

Since I never really got it together for Halloween, I thought I'd get going with Thanksgiving.

I saw this on Pinterest and thought it was a really cute way to decorate. I also hope to be able to host Thanksgiving in my own home one day so want to start building up my decorations. Plus, my living room mantel needs all the help it can get...

So here's the final product:

So, basically I found some cute-shaped bottles at World Market. (Side note: I think World Market is the best store ever - I could walk around in there for hours).

I even came across this adorable vase that I could totally see living in my new master bedroom.

Back to the bottles - I found these cute bottles that are called Bundaberg Australian Root Beer.

It tastes terrible - the hubby and I both tried it and agreed it was the worst tasting drink ever.

So, then I went to Michael's and picked up 3 packaged of faux wheat ($5.99/each). The original blog that posted this talked about it being a little overpriced and she just borrowed some wheat from a neighbor. Ummm, I may live in the 'burbs but where the eff am I supposed to find wheat?

So I'm driving around Funkytown (or "Frisco" as the locals call it) on a beautiful Saturday singing Wicked's "Defying Gravity" very loudly (isn't that what everyone does on nice days when you're driving around?) and I realize OMG, there is wheat EVERYWHERE. OK, maybe not wheat, but lots of these little wheat-like plants near the entrance of neighborhoods that I think would have worked. But I have my faux wheat and am pretty pleased with it. But if you're looking do this on the cheap, it's a good way!

While tutorials really aren't my thing, (I'm more of a wing-it kind of gal) here's what I did: I dumped out all the nasty "root beer" and took the labels off. Funny how it only took me seconds to type that, yet a solid hour and twenty minutes to execute. Then, all I did was soak the bottles in water, peel off the label, then scrubbed them clean with a Brillo pad. This also took off the expiration date print on the bottle.

Then, I placed these adhesive letters on the bottles (got these at good ole HobLob in the scrapbooking aisle for about $4). Then, I cut the wheat to an even level and shoved as much wheat as I could into each bottle and voila!

While I probably could have done this cheaper, this craft came in a little under $30. Totally worth it for decor I can use again and again each Thanksgiving. I've got some other holiday decorating ideas on my mind so hope to be able to work on those soon, too! In the meantime, is anyone else as down about Daylight Savings as me? Hope you're making the best of that extra hour!

Trick or Treat: Smell My Feet

Wow, Halloween has come and gone! I'm feeling a little bit like I'm a day late and a dollar short on this holiday. I can't believe this is our second Halloween in our house. While I'm sad that I wasn't able to pass out candy to our little trick-or-treaters this year, I was able to pull together some VERY last minute decorations.

Side note: Halloween was easily one of my favorite nights in our home last year. I was so excited to see all the little ones dressed up; in particular, a set of three siblings, two little brother (Mario and Luigi) and an older sister (Princess Peach). After they had gathered the candy and said their thank-yous and were turning around to leave, the little girl looks me straight in the eye and says very sneakily "Trick or Treat, smell my feet!" and ran off. At first, I just didn't know what to think of it, but I have to admit - I kind of love her. I'm sad I'll be missing her this year.

So, since I wasn't able to pass out candy this year, I wanted to be able to set something out so the trick-or-treaters could still get candy. Neighborhood karma - believe in it.

With very little direction, my hubby (who is surprisingly resourceful) went and found a haystack and a mixture of fake and live pumpkins. So what if I pictured a faux haystack from a craft store and he came back with a full-size live one from the pumpkin patch? Go big or go home, folks. So, this is what we were able to throw together Sunday night.

We have the haystack, an assortment of pumpkins, our little ghost friend, a sign urging our trick-or-treaters to enjoy some candy and of course - the goodies.

I had been hoping to do some fun, crafty painting with the faux pumpkins, but there's always next year...

I also had this empty Ikea frame that I've had around as a future project to create a cute menu frame for our kitchen, so I thought this could work well for our little sign for trick-or-treaters. Throw in some old scrapbook paper and I used an erasable marker to write the message; I think it turned out cute... I mean, ignoring the terrible handwriting...

Also, over the weekend, I was able to enjoy a Halloween rite of passage by watching the 1993 cinematic classic "Hocus Pocus" on (where else?!) ABC Family. If you haven't seen this movie, you should probably cancel your plans and go rent it.

"A muck. A muck, a muck, a muck, a muck, a muck!" Probably one of SJP's greatest performance to date!

Hope you all had a great Halloween. I'm thinking I should go start preparing for Christmas, or I'll be hanging up lights in January. Happy November!

Crafting. With Wine.

I think I've hit my productivity and craftiness limit this month. I'm now going to go collapse in a pile until probably Halloween. But before I do... :-) I have just one more little crafty-craft project to share. No, it's not curtains again. I was thinking... I should probably never do another curtains post. I think you get it. I can make curtains. Get it over, Benson.

For this craft, I was once again inspired by my other lover, Pinterest. Here was what originally inspired me:

I was thinking I could make it as a centerpiece for... somewhere in my house.

So, what I needed was a pack of some kind of bottled drink. I chose wine, obviously. Stores are starting to sell little mini four-packs of wine, which is perfect for me because I generally only have 1-2 glasses and then the rest of the bottle goes bad. And you KNOW I don't waste that shiz (said while snapping my fingers in a Z-formation).

Craft project. Right.

So, I started out by drinking this little gal. Not all in one night and definitely not while trying to manhandle a spray paint can.

Then, I removed the labels from the mini wine bottles with this Goo Gone I found underneath the kitchen cabinet. Ummm, Greg? Goo Gone? Any idea where this little gem came from?

Then, I simply primed the bottles and and container with spray primer, then spray painted the bottles white and the case green.

A few thin coats, but the primer was really key. Add some cute flowers I picked up from the HobLob and that was really it. All is cost me was about $4 for the flowers (already had the spray paint/primer and I'm not counting the wine because that was for pleasure).

I even found the perfect place for it (on a side table in my living room where I post up watching terrible reality TV while I wait for my hubby to get home).

Happy Wednesday!

Crafty Bitch: Baby {Bow} Makin'

My crafting has really taken a back seat lately. Since busy season ended (well, kind of) for my hubby, I've been busier in the evenings and on weekends so haven't had the chance to do much. With all my Pinterest-ing, I've started quite the list of DIY-ing and seen tons of cute inspiration photos.

So when I started shopping for a baby gift for our dear friends who are having a baby girl, of course I had to DIY something! First, I googled how to make a baby flower headband and some crazy lady is trying to charge money for directions on how to make them. Seriously? I'll just figure it out myself, woman.

I took some inspiration from my DIY rosette pillow to make the headband. If you care how, read below. If not, scroll down for photos!

First, I made the rosettes (I made four). I included directions on how to make those here, but basically just cut a strip of fabric (1.5-2 inches wide), iron in half (hotdog, not hamburger - that's width, but length for all you smarties), then tie a knot at the very end. Start wrapping the material around the knot and glue down onto your interfacing (or if you're handy like me, a used dryer sheet). Use hot glue every little bit until the rosette is as big as you like. Cut interfacing off around the edges and there you have it.

Then, I decided how I wanted to arrange the rosettes and hot-glued them onto a piece of felt (to connect them all) and then took a smaller piece of felt to glue it on to the baby headband I found.

And because I've been SO inspired by such cute wrapping ideas lately, I thought I'd fancy up the wrapping! So fun!

Normally, I don't spend this much time or effort, but it's fun to do for such wonderful friends!

Crafty Bitch(es) - Round Three

So not too many of my friends are really all that interested in home décor and DIY… one exception to that rule is my pal, Kendall. Last week, she sent me an e-mail with two super-cute DIY throw pillows, so of course we planned a date to craft. (Aren’t we cool?) Before I start, let’s get one thing straight, I LOVE to craft but my skill set is somewhat… limited. So when we planned to do the throw pillows, we quickly realized that we needed to “fake it til we make it.”

So instead of actually making the pillows, we hopped on over to Ikea (which is conveniently about 10 minutes from my house) to buy the throw pillows and the throw pillow case. Before you start thinking that most of our work was done, I’d tell you to get off your high horse. It was quite a bit of work. :-)

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank a few people for which this pillow would not have been possible. (I’m watching the Oscars right now and I think I’m getting a little inspired. Or tipsy.) First, I’d like to thank my Mom. I called her about 4 times throughout the day. Thanks for answering your phone and/or calling me back each time even though you were at work trying to deliver babies. She is my crafting idol. Next, my pal Kendall. Her eternal optimism was greatly appreciated during the mini-meltdown I had during flower making. She’s also pretty resourceful; you’ll see what I mean below. Finally, my husband who acts super enthusiastic about my little DIY projects.

Now when I first spotted this Dwell throw pillow from Target, I really wanted it, but I just wasn’t feeling the $25 price tag, especially considering I have a bed full of pillows to buy. So, we decided to DIY it. I’ll warn you (in case you feel like taking this on) that this was a many-hour project.

First, you’ll want to take the throw pillow cover and divide it into 9 sections by folding and IRONING the edges down, sort of like this.

Then, you’ll take your fabric (choose whatever color you’d like your flowers to be) and cut into two inch strips. Cut as many strips as flowers you’d like to have. Fold in half lengthwise and iron, like so…

Next you’ll need some kind of backing for which to create and glue your flowers to. The tutorial said interfacing. It was at this point in time that we called my Mom to learn exactly what that was. After learning what interfacing is and realizing we didn’t have anything, we decided to get a little creative. (Kendall’s idea.) Insert dryer sheets because we’re klassy like that.

I will tell you that if you choose to go cheap-o like us, be sure to wash the dryer sheets to remove the scent/oil, then throw them in the dryer. Check out Kendall. Get it girl.

So, then you make your flowers. Sounds easy, right? Not quite. I had a bit of a meltdown doing this. I’m pretty sure Kendall thought I was going to lose it for a minute there. So, here’s a short tutorial (although there are tons of YouTube videos and blog posts in more detail).

Take a strip of fabric, tie a knot on one end then start some kind of variation between wrapping and twisting. Still not totally sure how I did it. Hot glue as you go on the backing you use. (For us, our trusty dryer sheets.) It’ll look something like this:

Then, once you create the first flower, you’ll look super-proud, like this:

Now do that eight more times. Sweet Jesus, it took a long time. Then, simply hot glue each flower onto your throw pillow. If you’re a laid-back, confident lady like Miss Kendall, you just eye it and it looks perfect. If you’re like me, you get our your trusty tape measure, measure it five times, then carefully glue each flower, then scrutinize, get up, walk around, come back and look at it for another five minutes. Then, decide it looks pretty darn good. Then, I repeated that eight more times.

Here’s the final product and I’m pretty darn proud of Kendall and myself!

Total cost? about 13 bucks. Ikea pillow: $3; Ikea throw pillow cover: $6.99; fabric from Hobby Lobby: $2.79. Not bad. It’s the first piece I’ve made for my “gray and yellow” themed guest room I’ll be working on this spring.

Hope everyone has a great week!