Vacation Time!

Hey Everyone!

Just a quick pop on to let you know that this week, I am...

The Little Man and I are off on a much-needed vacation! See you Monday with some big project reveals in the Master Bedroom (finally!!).

Have a great week everyone!

Toddler Floor Pouf

If you're looking for a quick, easy, fun, and super adorable project to make this weekend, I have just the thing for you!

I have had this toddler pouf pillow on my To Do List for ages. From the first time I saw the idea here, I knew I had to make one for Henry's new playroom. When I found some 60" wide grey corduroy on clearance at Hancock for $3/yard a while back, I snagged some and set it aside for this exact project!

Homemade Bath Salts (With free printable labels!)

Making homemade bath salts is not a new project (do a quick Google or Pinterest search and you'll see what I mean!), but when I made some sweet-smelling salts for some girlfriends recently, they turned out too cute not share! 

These little jars full of stress-releif or sleep-inducing goodness make great birthday, holiday, "welcome to the neighborhood," hostess, or "just because" gifts! Plus, you can get so creative with the packaging that they are super inexpensive and fun to put together!

Some Blog Updates - A Tour

Hey Everyone! I hope you all had a fantastic weekend (and if you're a Mother, I hope you got some relaxation time and much deserved special attention!) Today, I am taking a small break from projects and home decor ideas to show you some new features here on the blog! There are some tiny, subtle changes you may or may not have noticed, but are fun and helpful nonetheless! And since I've been working super hard to make my blog a little more fun and user-friendly, I thought I'd give you a quick tour!

The first change is I've added some new social media buttons - yes, I finally got my act together and signed up for Twitter and Instagram - for some reason, these things take me FOR.EVER to get on board with. Anyway, I've added those buttons alongside by Pinterest, Facebook, Google+, RSS, and Email buttons...and I've added an Etsy button so you can find my shop easier too!

So click on the buttons on the side (or below!!) to follow along and make sure you are getting all my blog updates and sneak peaks! (Psst - I am posting photos of project updates and progress on Instagram... Follow along to see what I'm working on right now!)

    

The other big change around here is I've done a major re-organization of my pages!! It was a ton of work, but so much more user-friendly. Let me show you what I mean.

Loving with Her Hands - A Tribute to My Mom

As far back as I can remember, I have memories of my Mom making something. Always with knitting needles in her hands making a blanket or sweater or a hat or booties...or hunched over her sewing machine finishing my Halloween costume, Christmas dress, or her next beautiful quilt...or down in her glass workshop making stunning stained-glass tiffany style lamps. And that's just what I can remember. Our house is filled with amazing paintings and other works of art made even before I was born. There is no doubt that my craftiness and desire to create stem directly from my mom...the most gifted and talented "crafter" I know. She shows her love for her family through the amazing things she makes with her hands...and we are so lucky to be the recipients of such love.

Lately, my Mom's hands have been giving her a lot of trouble, keeping her from the hobbies she loves. I can't fix her hands, and I am too far away to cut her quilt blocks out for her...but I thought this was the perfect weekend to celebrate her and her beautiful work. To show and chronicle everything she's made over the years would be an impossible task. But here is just a small collection of the things my mom has made for me (and my family) that I hold and treasure so dear!

This afghan is a staple in our house, I remember a white one always on the back of the couch, perfect for watching movies!  I think everyone in our family has one, all in different colors. Mom made me this rose one when I went off to college.

Ideas for Lighting a Rental

Over the last week or so, I've been getting you all up-to-speed on our living room. I showed you our styled media stand, our new pillows, and even some easy coasters. One of the biggest challenges for this room, and one of the last things left to chat about (for now)...is lighting! We've had to do some pretty creative things to light this room, and had to do it all without investing too much time, money or hardware, as this home is (for all intents-and-purposes) a rental unit!

Let me remind you a bit about this room. It's a huge room, and we're very lucky in that. However, in this gigantic room that functions as our entryway, our playroom, and our living room, there is NOT ONE overhead light.

Grrr...no pot lights, no overhead ugly light fixtures (which I am and am not thankful for at the same time!), nada, nothing. In our teeny-tiny hallway, we have three overhead lights, and in this room - none.   And besides this tiny window (below), we have a big front window that does let it some natural light during the day, but doesn't help us out much at night!

For many, many months, this room always felt dark and cave-like. It felt like no matter what we did, there were dark corners everywhere. After a lot of discussions and brainstorming, we've finally gotten this room lit how I like it. Let me show you what we did!

Easy Swap Ribbon Runner

Mother's Day is next weekend (are you ready?), and as it is the time for thoughtful gifts and festive brunches, I thought this was the perfect opportunity to show you how to make this simple ribbon-embellished table runner!

This is a really quick project with endless possibilities. Simply by adding a few button holes (okay, maybe a lot of button holes ;) down the sides of a stretch of fabric, you can quickly and easily switch out the ribbon for any holiday or tablescape!

Let me show you how it's done!

Simple Tile Coasters

Today I am sharing one more quick little project from our on-going living room update! A while back, when we finished our new side tables, we were hesitant (obviously) just to put our drinks right onto our newly-finished solid wood tabletops. As I was adding "coasters" to our never-ending To Find List, a lightbulb went off, and I ran out to the garage.

Although I am a purger, I am always very, very slow to get rid of craft and decor items. Here's why! I bought these tiles 5 years ago (yes, you read that right), while we were living in Okinawa. I think they were $0.50 or $0.75 per tile. I scooped up a bunch and have been lugging them around the country ever since. You know, because someday, I'll be able to use them!

Well, here was my someday!

Chic Tiled Herb Garden Tutorial at PS Today!

Just a quick pop on to let you know that I'm over at Positively Splendid today with a really neat Spring project:

This project was so much fun to do, and the result is just stunning! Head on over to Amy's blog for the full tutorial!

Tomorrow, I'll  be back with another living room project for you!

Lots (and lots) of Patterned Pillows!

About an hour south of where I live, there is a very, very dangerous store. It's a fabric store where they have rows and rows and rows of decorator-weight fabric...all for $8/yard. Oh wait, not all of it is that cheap, excuse me...they have one corner in the store that has higher-end fabrics (and I mean HIGHER end), and those are $10/yard. Oh, and they have a flat fold table that has cuts for $5/yard. I don't know how they do it, but this store has prints I've seen sell for $35-$50/yard all for less than $10/yard. Yikes!! I go to this store more than I should, and almost every time, I walk away with at least 1 yard of fabric...because come on, for $8, what's another fabulous print in your fabric stash?

Over the past months, as I worked on other areas of the house, not quite sure of the direction I wanted to go in the Living Room, I slowly but surely accumulated a very nice collection of blue/white/grey/black patterned fabrics. Each one made my heart skip a beat when I saw it, and that was enough to tell me that I needed just a dose of each one somewhere in my house. When I was simply exhausted of this bland and lacking room not moving forward...

...I decided to dive into my stash of prints and do what any girl would do...make pillows! Lots and lots of pillows!