Paper Lantern Obssession

So I have always thought decorating with paper lanterns looked so cool! They add such a neat dynamic to a room or party.

When I was young my mother taught me how to make this type of lantern and I made hundreds of them. I just thought they were so stinkin' neat!

Now I am day dreaming of designing my baby's nursery. Although we are crammed in tight living conditions right now, I still day dream about how I would decorate the nursery and I keep imagining these paper lanterns hung in the nursery. I just think it would look so awesome!

I found a tutorial online to make these paper lanterns. The demonstration shows Christmas paper and I think they would make adorable Christmas decorations too!

I figure I will try my hand at making some of these and see how I like them!

If you want to try to make your own, check out this blog link: http://thecreativeplace.blogspot.com/2009/10/tuesday-tutorial-paper-lantern.html

Images pulled from Google.com

Missing Ralph Lauren Paint

This is a sob post about Ralph Lauren Paint.

The Home Depot use to stock it, but discontinued carrying sometime last year because they were making space for their new Martha Stewart Paint (which really isn't that impressive of a line I might add)

So the first place my hubby and I owned after getting married was a little town house (that I love and miss so much even to this day) and we were allowed to paint the walls when we lived there.

I loved that I could paint the walls, I felt like since it was my first place I could try something new and different.

Ralph Lauren has a line of faux paint that I fell in LOVE WITH. It was called Suede and it looked just like the name. It was awesome.

Now this faux line could not be painted in bathroom or kitchens, but I did paint it on my dining room side wall. It looked wonderful. The color was Clay Red

The accent wall was pretty easy to do, and once complete looked really good.
For the first coat you just roll on the paint with a roller.

I started to panic when I finished the first coat, because it looked terrible, but I told myself that I had to finish it!

For the second and final coat you apply it with a 3" brush and do varied crosshatches. This was a lot of fun, and took next to nothing to complete this one wall.

Here is the finished wall! I still drool a little when I see this picture, and this wall isn't even complete with out my wrought iron clock from Hobby Lobby.

So if anyone ever discovers where to find Ralph Lauren paint. Please let me know. Die hard fan here.

DIY Baby Bird Mobile

I have been following the number of hits each blog post recieves and I noticed that my nursery ideas post gets way more views then any other post.

So I thought it would be fun to occasionally post a baby craft project. Since I have no need to make baby crafts right now, I am simply going to share my fun findings!

I thought the birdie mobile was very cute idea! The URL below gives directions and even has a link on the sidebar so you can download the pdf pattern for the birds.

http://www.spoolsewing.com/blog/2008/05/16/bird-mobile/

Happy Crafting!

In honor of Easter...

Easter Ideas!


There is a fine line between cheesy and cute when it comes to Easter decor.
I think Martha had some great Easter ideas on her website. Here are just a few that I really liked...

Marbleized eggs. These look awesome!

For Directions to make your own Marbleized eggs, click HERE



How do you like these simple daffodils? I think that would be fun to have as name cards if you are having a big family Easter dinner! This is fun paper to cut out flower petals and a paper cupcake cups for the center of the flower and of course jellybeans!

I thought these spring chicks looked cute and delicious! For directions click HERE






If you have little ones at home and you don't want to dye eggs, but you still would like to do something fun for Easter, why not find some cute glitter stickers and use those instead?


These are just a few ideas I pulled from http://www.marthastewart.com/

Out with the Old and in with the... Old?

Repurpose and ReuseThere is a new and growing trend of re-purposing, part of the on going trend of "going green" I honor of this growing style I have a few pictures to share with y'all. I would have NEVER thought to use my old doll house as extra storage in my laundry room

This is very similar to picture I posted previously, but I completely love the idea.

Ok, is this not cool? Garden Gutters! Reusing your old gutters and creating a little herb garden. How fun is that, and yummy too!

This idea I have seen done before in my Aunt's home. She actually used an old door as a head board, they wanted to be a little bit more discreet about it so they took the hardware off.

I recognize that this style is not for everyone, but you have to admit it is inspiring! I always admire the creativity of those that are able to reuse old items.

Images retrieved from Google

The Inspiring Vessel Sink

Vessel sinks are very popular right now, so I thought I would do a quick post on them.



Although most of the styles you see are contemporary, vessel sinks can also be very organic... just check out this Ginkgo leaf vessel:

Vessel sinks work great in any bathroom, whether be master or half bath.

It is important to purchase the appropriate faucet. Most vessel faucets I have seen are single post and a great deal taller then your standard faucet.

Sink material can vary greatly from Carrara Marble, Glass or Copper

There are so many fun shapes and styles to choose from, so if you think you want to put in a vessel sink make sure you take a good look around and see what is available!

All images retrieved from Google search.

Inexpensive DIY Cabinet Refinishing

If you have been wanting to refinish your cabinets, but don't want to spend a fortune and don't mind DIY then this is for you!




Cabinet Transformation by Rustoleum! No sanding, stripping or priming, so it saves you tons of time! It can be used on wood, laminate or melamine cabinets and it costs $80 per kit. They have several colors you can choose from and when you buy the kit it comes with instructional dvd to give you step by step instructions. I also found the website very helpful. They have instructional videos on there.

If you are curious take a look: http://cabinets.rustoleumtransformations.com/videos.php

If you are to scared to dive right into the kitchen then maybe you have a bathroom or laundry room cabinets that you would feel more comfortable tackling first. It can never hurt to practice on a small space first.

Ok, so the only thing is the website says one box does 80 lnft of cabinets, but I am almost positive when I was looking at a box at The Home Depot it said that one box does 40lnft. I personally haven't had a customer try it yet, but I am dying to get feed back. The price is just so hard to beat and it is less labor intensive then most cabinet refinishing.

If you are interested in getting cabinets refinished, but don't want to do it yourself I know that Home Depot offers a free in home consultation on cabinet refacing and I would be really shocked if Lowes didn't do the same. I personally can give you no feed back on pricing because I am not sure how much they charge for labor, but I know it will be less expensive then refacing cabinets(refacing is when you replace your old doors with brand new doors)

Hope this is helpful, like I said, no feed back yet from customers, but the price is definitely right!

Here is the link to Rustoleum's home page... lots of great tools on there for you!

http://cabinets.rustoleumtransformations.com/