MB Updates

With the exception of the fillings for the glass vase & apothecary jar, my birdie themed MB is done!! I have actually been to Michaels several times trying to find stuff to put in the vases, but I think I am going to end up ordering the stuff online. I am envisioning cream rose heads & black satin ribbon in the tall birdie vase & moss + a bird's nest with faux bird eggs in the apothecary jar.

Here are pics of the finishing touches (click on any photo to enlarge):

*View from the door*

*Close Ups*

The drapes & hardware are from Burlington, birdcage candle holder from Pier One, silver & black zebra trays from Home Goods, cream pillar holders, aqua candles & birdie knick knack holder (on TV stand/book shelf), baskets from Michaels, birdie wall art - DIY :o)

What do you think?! I am so happy with how this room turned out! Now, on to the next D&R project...the Master Bath!! Inspiration Photos coming soon! :o)

Thanks for Visiting!

My DIY Fall Wreath!

A few posts ago I blogged about a fall foliage wreath I wanted to do for my front door. It was super easy to do - I just went to Michaels & bought the plain wreath form, 2 strands of fall leaf garland, and some of the fall embellishments that had berries, pine cones, mini pumpkins, etc. Then I took gold floral wire & wrapped the leaf garland around the form securing it with the wire. Finally, I stuck the little embellishment picks in where I thought they'd fit. What do you think?

I love how it turned out! We had a fight party this past weekend & everyone gave me such nice comments on it...they thought it was store bought! It makes the outside of the house so much more fall ready! I also changed out the centerpieces (Michaels) & place mats (World Market) on my DR table for the fall:

Now my home is officially ready for fall & just in time - fall officially starts tomorrow! Happy Fall everyone!

DIY Birdie Wall Art

I DIY'ed these cute birdie canvas prints to go on my MB wall & to add to the birdie theme I have been obsessing talking about.

I wanted the birdie touches to be pretty subtle, so I was going for wall art that was something cute, but adult; something that stands out, but not too over the top. So, I decided to try my hand at something like this. Overall I am pretty happy with how everything turned out & they look awesome in my room - pics of the updates to my MB coming soon, like tomorrow (or maybe Sunday :o)!

Here is a quick tutorial on how I made these cute prints - you can change out the birds to PMB (prettymuchbasically) anything you wanna change it to. They were super easy to make, it was just a bit annoying cutting out the birdies b/c their legs are sooo skinny & I had to be super careful not to chop them off!

• I bought the desired size canvases, black (or whatever color you choose) acrylic paint & the patterned scrapbook paper I wanted to use from Michaels. You will also need Modge Podge (I used the "lustre" kind), a paint brush & a sponge brush, all of which I already had.

• Then I painted the canvases with the acrylic paint (2 coats) & let them dry. It probably only needs to dry a few hours, but I let it dry overnight just to be safe (&& b/c I was in no real rush). While they were drying I cut out the birdie prints - if you google image "bird silhouette" then the template I used will come up. I had my little sister blow up the birdies I wanted in photoshop & printed them out on spare heavy cardstock I had. I used the cut out as a stencil & traced the design onto the scrapbook paper with pencil, then cut that out (&& erased any left over pencil marks on the paper).

• Once the paint on the canvases dried I applied Modge Podge very lightly to the back of the scrap book paper birdie cut outs & placed them where I wanted them on the painted canvases. Then I applied several layers of the Modge Podge over the birdie cut out & covering the entire front of the canvas.
  

• Let dry & Wha-lah - pretty DIY wall art for my MB wall!

Hope you like them...I will *hopefully* be posting about my final MB updates sometime this weekend, so check back soon to see how these little lovelies look on my walls. I also finished my DIY fall foliage wreath & it looks awesome, so I will post that soon too - I should have it up in time for the DIY Show Off's Monday Fall Festival post! Thanks for stopping by!

Baby Raina has arrived!!

This is gonna be short because I am SUPER busy at work, but I just wanted to provide a quick update about my pregnant BFF - who I talked about in this post. Well, she had the baby!! Yay yay, I'm so excited & I get to go see them this weekend when she gets back from the hospital.

Here is a quick pic of my new little niece who I LOVE to pieces!!

Raina Nicole
Born September 17, 2009 @ 12:44am
8 lbs., 5 oz
20.8 inches

(sorry the picture is a bit blurry, it was taken with her H's cell)

Faux Mercury Glass Pumpkins Re-make!!

In my last post I talked about a few of the fall D&R DIY projects I would be doing & I finished the first major one - Roeshel's faux mercury glass pumpkins. I removed the faux summery white orchid plant I had on the LR/DR entryway table (we don't have enough space for one at our main entry so I put it between those two rooms) and put my pumpkins there. I embellished mine with a pretty jeweled fall garland & faux fall leaves, then added some silver taper candle stick bases & ivory candles. All of which I think added the little extra punch my pumpkins needed. What do you think?! (Click on any photo to make it larger)

I basically followed her instructions to the "T" except for the brown splatter part - that was a doozy! I didn't have a nearly empty bottle of brown metallic spray paint, so I picked up some very pretty brown metallic acrylic paint at Michales & gave it a whirl attempting to spatter with a normal paint brush. Well that didn't work out so well, it created big globs of brown metallic paint, which looked...well, weird! Next I tried it with a toothbrush & it didn't really splatter at all - just globs again. So, the last thing I tried was wetting the tooth brush a bit (not soaking wet, but enough so that the paint is a little less thick when I scooped it onto the toothbrush) & that worked, but it was messy....still not the same effect as the spray paint canister that Roeshel used with hers, but looked good enough for me. After I got the spattering effect I wanted (or at least as good as I could get it), I sprayed another light coat of the silver/metallic spray paint to give it a more authentic look. I am pretty happy with the results; although, I wish I had a nearly empty (sputtering) bottle of the brown spray paint & I could have made the brown spotting look a little better. Let me know if you end up trying this - I'd like to see how other's turned out!

In other decor news, I added some fall colored flowers to the large decorative Pier One pitcher over top of my kitchen cabinets & a candy dish to the LR table with yummy chocolates!

*fall flowers in decorative pitcher*

*candy dish*

My house is nearly ready for fall, but I have a few more things I want to do outside & in to make it completely ready! Oh...and coming soon (maybe tomorrow!) the decorative touches I added to my MB including some DIY birdie wall art! It looks fab!! Thanks for stopping in. :o)

When BAD dogs strike...

This is what happens:

:o(

I definitely spent over an hour & a half @ Michaels & Walmart picking out the perfect tools, bases, embellishments, paint, etc. to re-create these 2 wonderful fall decor projects from two of my very talented Nestie friends:

1. Faux Mercury Pumpkins from Roeshel @ The DIY Show Off:

2. Fall Foliage Door Wreath from fellow Nestie friend xoxoll:

Unfortunately for Dizz the hubbs came home first & saw what he had done & this is what I came home to:

Hahahaha, poor dog. But in this case I think his banishment was warranted! So you know where I'll be today - at Michaels replacing the items he destroyed. Hopefully I'll make these look as good as the two talented ladies who were my inspiration for these projects! I can't wait to finish them & put them out - I heart the Fall! It's my favorite season. Oh, I also finished my DIY wall art for my MB...if I can pull my husband away from his 'effing PS 3 (NCAA Football 2010 - he's playing as I type this!) long enough to hang up the new drapes I bought for our bedroom & my DIY wall art, then I will be posting those pics & a tutorial for the art. Until then...Happy Fall Everyone!!

What I've been up to!

I really haven't been doing much DIY or D&R for the house because we are trying to save money/get some other stuff done so that we can reach the financial goals I talked about few blog posts back. But this weekend, we had a little extra money so I decided to get the last few big things I need for the finishing touches to our MB. If you recall from my previous post about our MB, I am going for a birdie themed room...nothing too over the top, still reserved, but definitely birdie touches. So, this weekend I went out and bought few things to finalize the room! I spent about $250 total on drapes, curtain rods, a CUTE birdcage candle holder from Pier One & a vase with little glass birdies on the top edge - here are the last 2 items, WDYT?:

*birdcage candle holder*

*birdie vase*

Last weekend I also bought some cute pillar holders & a birdie bowl from target. I didn't take a pic, but hopefully the hubbs will get the drapes up tonight & I will be sure to take a pic of that stuff with the rest of the room. I'm also working on my very first set of DIY wall art with silhouettes of birdies on canvas that I painted...hopefully it turns out good ::crosses fingers::! I hope to finish that up tonight or tomorrow & then I will post photos of that. Lastly, I need to figure out what fillers I want to put in the apothecary jar & birdie vase - probably a birds nest in one & dried flowers in the other.

I also bought some rugs & coordinating towels for our powder room from Burlington CF this weekend. I forgot to put the before pics of this room up, but I basically only added the wall art (from our honeymoon) & the rugs/towel. Although they are only small touches, I think it really warms up the room. Eventually we want to replace the mirror & vanity and of course replace all of the outdated brass fixtures...but we need to do that throughout the house, so we are trying to finish the small stuff first.

Stay tuned for the updated MB pics & my new DIY fall decor project - I haven't quite decided on it yet, but I know it'll involve pumpkins in some manner! I also am looking into buying a new laptop soon & we are starting to browse for my new car soon...so many exciting things coming up! And in closing, I just wanna say that I 'effing love the fall & I'm soo happy it's now right around the corner, woot!