Inspiration to Inspire

In my last post I hinted about my current color crush - a soft palette of gold, white, blush pink, and mint green.  It has been popping up as inspiration for me everywhere - in my makeup, accessories, clothing choices, and recently in my home decor.  Now, don't take me too seriously on that last part...I mean there is only so much soft pink and mint green you can toss into your home decor without raising your husband's eyebrows.  It takes place in understated accessories - a candle holder, a picture, or a flower arrangement.  But that's all about to change!

If you're a friend on facebook (yeah, that's right, This Domesticated Diva is on facebook!) you may have noticed my plea for inspiration lately.  Simply put, my craft/office space is devoid of any creativity right now.  It's shoved in the corner of my blah dining room.  It's functioning from the furniture pieces deemed not good enough for the rest of the house.

Proof:

(Did you think I was kidding about that last part?)

While I by no means vacuumed or dusted before taking this photo, I did tidy up just the slightest.  It was for your benefit, I promise!  I'm positive you don't want to see empty coffee cups, piles of receipts and notepads covered in my doodles, notes, and inspirations.  But if I'm mistaken, my apologies.  =)

This is my craft/office corner.  An old sewing desk inherited from my grandma with chipping stain and spray painted handles.  An uneven metal chair from my grandpa's ice cream shop that scratches my beautiful floors.  The shelves are my husband's handiwork, inspired from the great House of Smith's, but lacking in any sense of decor.  Yes, that is our tired old gingerbread house still adorning the top shelf...and will you please forget how filthy that dining room chair is....we're in the process of recovering them, as we have been for the last three months.

It's no wonder I am lacking inspiration in a space like this!  How am I supposed to create when my "creative space" lacks all creativity and any sense of design?  Hence the title of my post - "Inspiration to Inspire".  To BE creative, you need a space that inspires you, that speaks to your soul.

Once I realized what was lacking, my mind instantly flashed back to that soft color palette that has been taking over my dreams (yes, I dream about color, design, and all that glitter goodness...don't you?).  My desk may be in the corner of our dining room, but that doesn't mean it can't be a space of its own.  So with a little help from Pinterest, I've got an inspiration and a plan (that most likely won't be able to take place until spring when the sun warms the air just enough for a successful spray paint job...have I mentioned it's gloomy here?  Possibly once or twice).

Start with a white desk and soft pink chair 
(neutral walls already exist):

1) Source 2) Source 3) Source 4) Source

Add a physical pin board under my shelves:

Source

Some simple organization:

1) Source 2) Source 3) Source

And a portable "Craft Cart" could go a loooong way:

Source

Yes, a few simple changes could go a long way over here.  Someday, hopefully, I'll have a craft room of my own.  But in the meantime I want to make work what I do have.  Stay tuned.  I'm determined to see this one through.

P.S. Do you have any ideas in addition to mine that would make this space pop?  Speak up!  I'd LOVE to hear from you!!!

Pinterest Project Gone Wrong

Organization is not my strong suit.  My closets are piled from top to bottom.  I have junk drawers in probably every room, not to mention junk corners for the larger items that don't fit into the drawers.  The small size of our house doesn't help.  Nor does the fact that it was built in 1926, when rooms were small and closets were smaller.  Despite the remodeling and add-ons, we simply could not find the room to store all our stuff.  When baby number two came into our lives, two things immediately had to happen:

1.) Project Simplify
2.) Project Build-A-Shed

The first is a work in progress, as it kinda commits to a lifestyle change, and not just a large seasonal donation to Goodwill.  The second was thankfully completed this past spring, aiding to a huge step towards my goal of organization.

However, since there is always room for improvement, I have been scouring the depths of Pinterest for some much needed help in this area.  Easily distracted as I am, I got lost looking at colorful home decor, baking goodies that will add inches to my muffin top, and diy projects for every piece of piled up junk in my home.  Feeling a lack of creative outlets with too many ideas swirling around this brain, I decided on a project and decided to get started (I mean, the weather is only conducive to painting for a very short period of time).

You've all seen Monkey's adorable rock star room, right?!?  Well that adorable painted bedframe?  It was my husband and brother-in-law's bunk beds from back in the day.  It happened to have an attached dresser.  Which we detatched due to lack of space in his 1926 bedroom.  Aaaaand....I didn't really like the look to begin with.  But his once organized little closet is now piled with bins of clothes that fit him as an infant, blankets stacked so high one falls over every time you open the doors, and bulky Halloween costumes.  It needs help.  And here's where the dresser comes into play!

Combining my love of organization and diy projects, I am painting his dresser (to match his bed) but with chevron stenciled drawers!  I had leftover paint and the dresser....so this looked like a time consuming, but FREE project!  SCORE!  I recruited begged my husband for help, since the first step of turning our junk into treasure was quite a deal of hard work.

Here is the before picture:

And I should add this is after a little work...

As you can see, my husband and his older brother spent quite the time covering every square inch of this dresser with stickers.  Stickers from the doctor, from the grocery store, from car repair shops, and even clothing inspection labels.  You name it...they stuck it.  It was ridiculous and tacky and I question my in-law's parenting skills.  Serious.  No, I'm kidding.  But yet serious.  (Mom...I love you!)

Since my husband's despicable behavior was mostly to blame, I let him do the grunt of the work.  But I did ruin my nails by peeling and scraping.  Some came off surprisingly well while others disintegrated as you attempted to pry them off.  Then came the tools as we tried to get an edge on them.  The most stubborn faced the fate of the sander, and then more scraping, and the more sanding, before finally revealing the original wood.

Since my husband invested in this awesome sprayer last year (you know, that you dump in your own bucket of paint, water it down a little, and shoot the stars??) that was my plan of action for this next step.  But he insisted that hand painting would work better.  Since I am an utter failure at hand painting, I let him at it without my assistance (which we all know would have created more work and frustration for him anyway).

And here comes spousal argument #1 -- (summarized)
Him: You always have these big projects and I end up doing the whole thing!
Me: I am perfectly happy doing the painting - SPRAY painting.  YOU are the one who insists on hand painting the darn thing and you KNOW you don't want my help with that.
Him: Eer Ugh Eeh (or something else unintelligible).
{**Okay, admittedly it might be slightly exaggerated too, but you get the gist.**}

I guess we primed THEN painted =)

We had decided on orange for the body of the dresser, and then white drawers with the orange chevron.  So we pulled out our old Behr paint in satin (I hate the finish, but oh well) and he went to work.  I kept the kids out of his hair until he was finished and then we called it a day.  When we had painted the bed frame we learned it really needed a couple days to cure, so we figured we would pick up where we left off next weekend.

I guess Monkey learned his posing skills from mama ;)

Next weekend:

Okay drawer fronts painted white - that was easy!  And since this was leftover Benjamin Moore paint (my FAAAAAVE) we knew we could get back to it the next day.

Two weekends later:

Okay.  You could technically insert spousal argument #2 here, but in all honesty we were BUSY the last couple weeks.  Though this bulky dresser sitting right outside my sliding glass door was driving me a bit bonkers, so I attempted to take matters into my own hands.  I got out the painters tape and the tutorial on Pinterest for the chevron and realized -- this looks like math.  This likes like over-Megan's-head-type-of-math.  Then I proceeded to put the tape away and give my husband some grace.  To add to that a bunch of our unessential to do list items got pushed on the back burner when great-grandma's health started to decline.  Family trumps all - end of story.  Well, except this isn't the end of our dresser's story, so I'll continue...

Out comes the painters tape, ruler, orange paint, paint brush...you get the picture.  Babe asks how big I want the chevrons, how many rows, ect.

Insert spousal argument #3:
I honestly don't even remember how the argument went exactly, but what it boils down to is that I know exactly what I want but sometimes, I have NO IDEA how to explain it.  I am a visual person so lets just say that he would spend the time and effort to tape it all out only for me to tell him it wasn't right.  Not good.

On our third try to communicate, my husband nailed it!  Then came the tedious process of peel and snip (go check out the tutorial HERE if you have no idea what I am talking about).  Again, I wasn't much help with this so I ran wild with the kids playing squirt guns while he labored over my project.  I was going to offer to paint but he was halfway finished before I noticed.  But I could see frustration on his face so I came over to check it out -- the paint was not going on smooth, was not covering evenly.  He added a second coat to try to make it look better (which it did, mostly) before peeling off the painters tape.  But when he started removing the painters tape, the paint literally started PEELING!  Now, we have ALWAYS had issues with Behr's satin paint, but this was ridiculous!!!!

Needless to say, we did not do the rest of the drawers.  And I am totally BUMMED!  Every now and then I will peek at it from a distance and smile because it is exactly what I had pictured....until you get close that is.  And you see the hideousness of it.  =(  So I'm not sure what the next step is.  The rest of his dresser is in his closet, with bare white drawers.  The chevron drawer is sitting outside awaiting its fate.  I would love to see chevrons, but we're not going to repaint all the bedroom furniture.

Anyway.  In hindsight, I'm not exactly sure why I thought this was such a great solution for closet organization anyway.  All his clothes fit in his dresser great, are easier for Monkey to reach, and stay organized longer.  But the dresser is so bulky, I can no longer fit anything on the bottom of his closet (which used to contain tubs of his baby clothes).  On the bright side, it has forced me to go through the closet, get rid of stuff we don't need, and make it easier for him.  But I can fit much less in the closet now.  My husband and I both agreed that overall it was for the best, but just didn't fit my original goal.  That's okay though, I'm still happy we did it.

So tell me....what are your tips and tricks for organizing closets and what lengths have you gone to to get it that way?  OR...what are your Pinterest fails?!?  Please tell me I'm not alone here.

Who Wants To ROCK 'N ROLL All Night?!?!

Well I can tell you that Monkey sure enjoys it!!! =)

As soon as we started talking about a "Big Boy Room", before the adoption process even started...we talked about a rocker theme for our Lil Man.  As crazy as it sounds, this boy was kicking to the beat way back in my belly.  On the way home from the hospital, the only thing that soothed his whimpers was some R&B with a strong, steady beat.  I knew that an electric guitar and a drum set would be perfectly fitting for our little Monkey!  Check out the FUN!!!

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Once we submitted our adoption application I went on the lookout for the perfect bedding set for the room I had been envisioning for months.  Unfortunately, all that was turning up were black and white graphics with skulls and accents of red while I was picturing colorful hues of blue and orange with deep chocolate accents.  I did google searches every week hoping to stumble upon something that echoed my dreams...and one day it happened!  With Land of Nod clearance thank-you-very-much!!!  And I bought the LAST COMFORTER in all of the country!  SCORE!  {They turned the store upside down looking for it on my behalf - bless those sweet gals!!!}

I knew the rest of my vision had to be based off the hues in the bedding so this was when the fun really started!  Hub's parents gifted us the bunk beds my husband and his brother shared as children - we sanded, primed and painted them the perfect accent color!  Only problem was that there were a few pieces missing.  For now its just a twin bed...but hopefully someday we can rebuild the rest so that Monkey can have bunk beds in his room for sleepovers!

This was the point that we moved Lil Man into his new room - and he proved to be the ROCKSTAR we always knew he was!  He only woke up once during the night, and that was only because he had a cold and he was extremely stuffed up.  The next night he slept straight through the night as usual.  Best of all is that he has YET to get out of bed without permission!  As you can see by the pictures, we have a small board up to prevent him from falling out during the night {And promise not to judge me in those pictures!!!  Yes...that's me with no makeup and paint stains on the bottom of my feet - so what!}.  Although he can easily climb over to get both in and out...he has listened very well to us that he needs to stay in bed until we get him up.  {When he's upset about us putting him to bed he normally kicks the wall....which we are working on before his baby sister comes home.}

I still wasn't okay with sharing pictures of the room yet at this point because I knew how much work was yet to be done.  The basics were finished, but I hadn't had the opportunity to get creative yet - and we all know how much I love me some creative-ness!!!

My mom brought over a children's rocking chair that was mine as a kid - that got repainted as well and then staged with a baby blanket and colorful pillow!  It adds a GREAT pop of color in the corner of the room.

My print-out which was my inspiration!

I then planned an art piece inspired by this dinosaur design I saw in the Pottery Barn Kids catalog.  We used five pieces of "reclaimed wood" {Sidenote: I've always wanted to say that I'm all GREEN like that....they were old pieces of fencing that we recently replaced and were just sitting behind our house and I thought they would work perfectly for my vision!} for my "canvas" and painted them that awesome orange.  Instead of painting two thick coats like we had on both the bed frame and the rocking chair...I only painted a thin layer and then distressed it a bit with some sandpaper {but just a tiny bit because my husband isn't a big fan of the distressed look...and yet he still let's me do it...so I try not to get carried away}.  Then I found a graphic online of a drum set I liked and printed it out on like 10 pieces of paper to get it the size I wanted.  I taped it together, cut it out, and layed it on my art piece to figure out placement and penciled in a few markers to keep me on track with my design.  Then it was hand painted from there.  This is my FAVORITE thing about his room - partly because I'm proud of myself for the DAYS of work I put into just to save the $40 bucks it would have cost me to buy a drum set graphic off etsy!!! =)  My hand was sore, my arm was sore, my shoulders were sore, and I had a headache - but it was all worth it to be able to say that I created it just for him! =)

From that point on it was just deciding where to place things in his room and finish details like the closet doors and trim around his closet.  What a DIFFERENCE that made!!!  Moved his cute little shelf to a different wall at a better height - and the room is complete {for now}!

So I'm curious to get your feedback on Monkey's ROCK 'N ROLLER room!!!  True to Mimi-Style - nothing's ever finished!  I would love to display his name in the room somewhere, get some new and improved toy storage for under his art piece, and a bookshelf above his bed.  And of course a rug would just be UHMAZING....but seriously....I am LOVING it right now!  And so is HE and that's what counts =)

Anthropologie-Inspired Guest Tutorial!!!!!

I am PLEASED to introduce you to my friend Ashlee!!!

Ashlee has been a friend of mine since high school when we cheered together.  Since graduation she has moved from state to state while I moved hours from our hometown.  Although we haven't SEEN each other since, its been fun playing catch-up through facebook and emails. 

Ashlee always has been one of the most naturally creative people I know.  It was no surprise to me that the girl who used to make the best football posters and hair accessories was now using her gifts to create baby gifts and wedding veils and shower curtains and much, much more!  So with great pleasure, I will hand it over to...

ASHLEE!!!!!

Meet me: Ashlee Vega, an Etsy fanatic, 3-month newlywed, cat lover, continuous craft dreamer and retail feen. My sewing machine is named Big Bertha, I consider her a member of my family.


I love Megan’s blog. I’m thinking of creating a blog of my own, we’ll see how this guest tutorial goes. I’m not sure if I’ll have the time and love (leftover from Big Bertha) to put into a well-oiled blog though.

I met Megan in high school; we actually both used to cheer together. Ode to the good ol’ days. I don’t actually remember the first time we met, but I’m sure it was love at first sight :) We quickly became friends. I wish we would have been avid crafters back then!

I created an Etsy page simply to share my love! I’ve gotten into making baby clothes because I’m about to be an auntie to a little girl, who I’m sure will be adorable. All of my crafts are a testament to my life: wedding (7-29-10), cooking (I went through one of those phases), baby (not mine, a niece), home (or apt)! I admit, I’m a little all over the place, but I like it that way.

I am a firm believer that gifts from the heart are 100 times better than store-bought gifts, and that’s my ultimate goal—gifts from the heart. It’s exciting for me to know that my creations are being shared all around the country!

{p.s. I love custom orders.}

The ruffle curtain totorial came from my love for Anthropologie. This shower curtain is just ah-dor-ah-ble!  BUT I'm not a huge fan of the colors or the pricetag. So I figured I could make one of my own. I contemplated whether or not to post on my Etsy page, I mean--it's cute, but how cute? Much to my surprise, it got a ton of pageviews and I sold it quickly. (Perhaps I've created a bit of a niche market on Etsy.)

I think people who buy my product probably don't want to make it. So, why not create a tutorial for the crazy DIY-ers out there? Onto making another curtain I go, this time plum colors for me.

Good luck, it comes with a lot of patience and probably a full afternoon. But bask in the beauty of your creation and saving some money. Let me know how it turns out.

Supplies necessary:

Scissors

Marking chalk

3 colors of thread to match your variations

14 total yards of fabric

Ruler

Patience (not shown in image)

Step #1:

Draw out your blueprint. My blueprint is for 10 ruffled panels. At this step, you will decide how many yards you need of each color. You will need four yards for your liner and one yard for the top ruffle. One ruffle = 1 yard. 2 ruffles = 2 yards.

Step #2:

Go to your local fabric store, aka crafter’s heaven. You will pick 6 different colors making sure to create a great variation. It helps to have a designer as a husband who specializes in color  =)

Step #3:

Make sure to wash and dry all of your fabric. It will shrink just from the steam in the bathroom from the shower. Your fabric will most likely come out wrinkly, but it doesn’t matter because it will fall out with the next shower steam.

Step #4: 

Create your liner. This liner should measure 72” x 72”. Straight stitch together in middle with machine. Turn 3 edges in toward the wrong side, the fourth edge will be the top where you will attach step #4. I use a zigzag stitch for the finished turns, I’m not really sure why but I like it.

Step #5:

Make your tab for your curtain rod, measures 4.25”.  You’re basically creating a large casing here. Turn the short ends for a clean look. Attach like a basic casing: iron long ends in and sew to top of unfinished edge. If you don’t have a rod you can easily slide into, you’ll want to make button holes for your shower rings.

Step #6:

Ruffle time! Cut your ruffles into 10.5” height x 108” length (the length is one yard past the length of the regular curtain, this will allow you to create the ruffles). You don’t need to be perfect in your cutting or turning of edges because it’s all going to ruffle.

Step #7:

Turn all edges of your ruffles. I use a straight stitch here. This is where you will spend most of your time. I don’t iron my edges like I should nor do I use pins, I just don’t have the patience. But, like I said, it’s not going to matter much at all.

Step #8:

Phew! Now that that’s over, you will stitch a long stitch here. I change my stitch to be as long as possible (at 9). Leave your beginning and end open. You will pull one of the strings in order to make a ruffle. It may help to have a cat in the background at this point to aid in your patience.

Step #9:

Now you can add your ruffles to your liner. Mark your liner on the wrong side(the side with all of the seams) every 7 inches. This will let the ruffles overlap about 3 inches.

Step #10:

Sew your ruffles on to the liner with a straight stitch. I don’t like the raw edge to show. So I flip the ruffle up facing with the finished up closest to the top of the curtain. Don’t worry about them being 100% straight, they’re ruffles—they’re supposed to be ruffly =) I may use five or so straight pins here for my sanity.

Step #11:

Take a hot shower and the wrinkles will fall out. Ask your cat to pose so you can share your masterpiece.

THANK YOU Ashlee!!!  I think that would look PERFECT in my bathroom =)

If YOU TOO think this shower curtain would be an amazing addition to your house, but you don't have the time/energy/skills to make it happen, then hop on over to Ashlee's Boutique on Etsy and purchase one for yourself!  And while you're there, check out her lovely collection of goodies...from wreaths, to pajamas, to baby clothes, to hair accessories...this girl has got it all!!!  And HURRY, because RIGHT NOW all her Halloween goodies are 25% off!!! 

AND!!!!  As an extra bonus for my lovely readers (that's YOU) she is offering any of you 20% a purchase when you mention you're from "Domesticated Diva" in your purchase!  Don't miss this amazing opportunity!

Thanks again Ash!  It was a PLEASURE to share your talent with others (and learn from you while I was at it ;)!!!

SNEAK PEEK!!!

Have any guesses???

Are you EXCITED for tomorrow like I am????

You should be... =)

I Really Need To Come Up With A Better Name Than "Twine Balls"

Twine Balls.
Balls of Twine.
Balls with...twine on them...?

I have no idea what to call my latest creation, but I really love them....so regardless of the stupid name, I just had to share this cost-efficient design idea!

This isn't unique to me...I know I got the idea somewhere (or a variety of somewheres) but I just can't remember where.  A couple people I have showed them too have told me they have had this on their "to do" list too.  Mine stayed there for over a year before I finally decided to put my plan into action.

So you want you some purty little Twine Balls (seriously....someone got a better name for this?)???  Here's how you can get some for yourself...

1) Styrofoam balls

2) Twine

3) Hot Glue

4) Patience

Get all those goodies together and get to work!  It's time consuming, it's tedious, and I would consider you frickin' amazing if you finished with out a couple several hundred burns (I think I lost all feeling in my fingers for a couple days, and I'm still recoving from a major burn that resulted from resting my hand on the metal part of the hot glue gun....yeah, I know).  But it was well worth it to save me a $4-7 PER in the stores!

Soo...yeah, up close you may see some hot glue....but back up a little and they look PERFECT!

See??  Gorgeous!  Go have yourself some fun (or suffer through it) and display proudly!