bathroom paintover

our bathroom was super beige and super boring. the walls were beige, our towels were beige, the tiles were beige, even the door was beige (and not very well painted). so it was time to rid the beige and make the bathroom more welcoming for when we get up to brush our teeth in the morning! we painted the entire bathroom navy (a bold move for a small space..with no natural light) and painted all of the accents white to keep it bright. we replaced the black plastic soap dish and toothbrush holder with mason jars (we even made a mason jar soap dispenser!...a post on that will come later). i also plopped some matches, a candle, some small tissues and make up in other mason jars. lastly, we painted the trim of the mirror, the door, and all of the frames white. here are the photos from before and after...it's amazing what paint can do!

cork board head board

i must admit i impressed myself on this craft. it's one of those things where you're really not sure if it's going to work out and then somehow it works out perfectly. our second bedroom used to have a monster of a desk in it. since jesse and i never intend on needing an office at home we thought it would be much more valuable as a guest room. so the monster went to the dump and we adopted a bed from jesse's family. the only thing we kept was the huge cork/bulletin board that matched the desk. miraculously, the board was the same width as the bed...so it turned into a lovely headboard. here's the story:

 the cork board

 

 the border painted white

 

i cut the fabric to fit the board with an extra inch trim which i folded over and tacked down with double sided tape. no sewing involved! (the fabric needs to be slightly larger than the board so that there is room for padding)

 

using silver push pins, i loosely tacked down the fabric in all corners

 

i slowly added quilting stuffing from one end to the other adding more push pins as i went to secure the fabric

 

presto! the whole board is packed with stuffing. some pins needed a little extra support so i also used a glue gun to keep the fabric pressed to the board...you don't want push pins falling out onto the bed!

 
this was the original fabric on the base of the bed

 

i simply covered it with strips of fabric...i glued and pinned on the fabric

 

using old hinges from a retro kitchen cupboard door, jesse mounted the headboard on the wall

 

tada!!!!! a new headboard for a new to us bed :)

 

 

mmm cookies

i love cookies. i also love making them...and jesse loves eating them. so for this valentines day i made cookies for jesse because to me, valentines day is the ultimate craft holiday and all home made gifts are perfectly acceptable. i made a really simple sugar cookie recipe from allrecipes.com. i also bought heart shaped cookie cutters from the grocery store. all you have to do is mix the dough, chill the dough, roll it out, cut the shapes out and then bake for only 6-8 mins! to give them color, i turned them into strawberry jam sandwich cookies. to see the color you have to cut out shapes within the shapes...if that makes sense...so that the jam is exposed when you sandwich the cookie together. (but remember the other side has to remain solid). line a pie platter or any other dish with parchment paper and fill it up with cookies! happy (early) valentine's day!

3/4 cup soft butter
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2.5 cups of white flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
jam of your choice to spread between cookies

cream the sugar and butter together in a large bowl. mix in the eggs and vanilla. then add the dry ingredients. cover the dough and chill for an hour. roll out the door on a floured surface. cut out shapes. bake at 400 degrees for 6-8 minutes. look cookies cool then add jam. enjoy!

miami vice to paradise

jesse has this lamp...and it's awful. the only good thing about it is that it provides light. i really struggled with this lamp because i really didn't know how to make it better. it just reminds me of some kind of miami vice lamp that belongs in the movie 'the bird cage'. eek. and then how do you mess with a lamp and not create a fire? well..finally it hit me...i'll just wrap in up in yarn of course! i used a bit of hot glue in a few areas and wrapped the yarn around the metal base (seems to be the non flammable area of the lamp). now this takes time, but no brain power so i watched a movie while i wrapped the entire base. then i found a lamp shade...yes from the thrift store...which had this red ribbon trim on it. i ripped off the trim, covered the same area with the yarn and plopped the shade on top of the lamp. it was just the right size. so now the metal frame of the lamp shade is the only thing resting on the top of the lamp. no fires yet!

before...

 after!

charlie brown curtains

we had these very bland white curtains in the corner of our bedroom. that side of the room definitely needed a pop of color. the colors in our room are white, steal blue, navy blue, grey and an orange that's somewhere between burnt orange and coral...it's hard to explain. the only bit of orange is in a small pillow on our bed and a dresser. so more orange please. i pulled down the curtains and made a herringbone inspired pattern using green painters tape (don't forget a measuring tape and pencil). i then painted between the lines using a sample of orange house paint that jesse picked out and a mini paint roller. for next time i think a sponge brush or regular brush would have worked better because i wasn't entirely satisfied with the texture of the paint. anyway, peel back the tape and ta da! charlie brown curtains.