Love is in the air

I love Valentines Day!  I love pink and hearts, so all the decor is right up my ally.  On a recent trip to Target, I had to stop by all their adorable Valentine's Day stuff and check it out.

Remember when I blogged about adding privacy film to our bathroom window?  

Well, now I've added these three cute little vases with bamboo plants!  The vases were in the dollar section (that's what I call the area right up front with toys, books, teacher supplies, and other random junk) and they were only $2.50 for the set!  Yay for cheap cuteness!

Here's a close up.  I & <3 & U.  So cute!

 Here's the bathroom with the new vases.  My hubby is going to have a hard time putting them away after February 14th.  I'm going to want to keep them there all year!

Do you decorate for Valentine's Day?  Should I add some heart printed hand towels?  Let me know!

Coffee Table

Last summer I decided I wanted to build a new padded coffee table for Audrey as she started to learn to walk.  I was inspired by a post from Kara Paslay Designs over at Young House Love.  The table was stylish, inexpensive, and didn't look too hard to make.

Instead of building the base, like Kara did, I decided to search Craigslist for an inexpensive table. And I paid $25 dollars for it!  Score!  I promptly cleaned it, took it apart with an alan wrench, and started sanding the pieces.  My wonderful hubby took over for  me, finished sanding, and painted all the pieces white, using paint we already had to re-paint closet doors and trim throughout our house.

Here is the table, taken apart

I went to Ikea to get fabric (black with white leaves), then ventured over to the as-is section and found a HUGE piece of foam for $10.  What a steal!  I then swung by Michael's on my way home and grabbed a bag of quilt batting and a can of Scotch brand spray glue with some 40% off coupons.

To make the table, I borrowed an electric turkey knife from my mother in law to cut the foam, Design on a Dime style.  (If you watch HGTV, you'll know they always use those things to cut foam!  And it works!) I sprayed the top of the table with the glue and placed the cut foam on top.  I then stretched the batting over the foam and using a staple gun, stapled it to the bottom.  I trimmed any excess batting from the bottom.  I then stretched the fabric over the top and stapled that as well.  I stapled them separate in case something were to spill on the table, I could replace the fabric without having to replace the batting, too. 

I thought about adding the tufted buttons, like Kara's table, but in the end, it was too much work.  I wanted to be done!  I added a wooden tray to the top that I had gotten years ago from Target, and a blanket to the bottom shelf for cozying up with on the couch, and called it good!

Here's the breakdown of price:
Coffee table from craigslist: $25
Foam from Ikea As-is: $10
Batting from Michales (on sale): $5.99
Scotch spray glue from Michaels (40% off): $8.40
Staple gun & staples: already owned
Sand paper and white paint: already owned
Mid-weight fabric from Ikea: $16 for 2 yards

Grand total: $65.39
Pretty good, since similar upholstered ottomans cost hundreds of dollars!  If I would have just used a coffee table we already had for the base, it would have been even less!

What do you think?  Have you tried to upholster anything?  What about modifying or updating some furniture? Do tell!

Christmas Decorating

I LOVE Christmas time!  My birthday is in December and so is Audrey's.  With Christmas and New Years thrown in there, too, it makes for a very busy, but super fun month.  I dragged about half of the Christmas rubbermaid containers down from the attic today to start decorating.  With Audrey's first birthday party on the 18th, I didn't want the house full of Christmas stuff and I also wouldn't have room for a tree.  We are going to Sunriver for Christmas this year, so we're planning on bringing lights and ornaments with us and just getting a tree then.
I found this cute and FREE holiday banner today on Second Street's blog.  She had lots of really cute projects and ideas that I just loved!

Don't you think this banner would look so cute on my mantle?  I was thinking I can just trade it out for Audrey's birthday with one to match her party theme - owls!
Have you ever decorated only a little for Christmas?  Or do you always go all out?  I'd love to hear about some of your decorating ideas and traditions!

Living room is coming along

Remember that I'm in the process of re-arranging my living room?  Here's the low-down on what I've accomplished so far:
1. Painted 3 of the walls a lighter color
2. Moved the baker's rack tv stand to the garage
3. Moved the ladder bookcases to each side of the fireplace
4. Traded the blue chair for the brown chair that was in our bedroom.  Since I'm not nursing as much and Audrey sleeps in Nate's room now, there's no need to have the rocker in our room and it will get more use in the living room.
5. Went to Ikea yesterday and bought the white 5x5 Expedit shelf that I wanted.  So excited to put it together!

6. Hung curtains
7. Removed the large rug (part of it will be added later)
8. Took apart and sanded the new coffee table.  Just need to paint it and upholster the top.

That's about it!  I'm excited to be done!  I hope it turns out like the vision in my head.  Probably not, that never happens! :)

Living Room Update

I've decided to re-do our living room ala Young House Love. They love everything to be "light and airy" and my living room was everything but. With black furniture, a dark brown sofa, dark brown walls, and black picture frames, it was starting to get a little cave-like. So I headed down to Sherwin-Williams and grabbed a gallon of paint the next shade lighter from the current color. I painted three walls the light color and left the dark on the fireplace wall as an accent. I also removed Ben's media center and relegated it to the garage. Remember when our living room was featured in DIY Magazine's "He Said, She Said" column?

Well, I am trying to follow John and Sherry's advice, but on a budget.  Instead of investing the time and money into built-in's,  I moved our two black ladder bookcases that used to be on the wall behind the couch to the wall flanking the fireplace. I had previously painted the fireplace brick white and the brass insert black. I added some Ikea baskets to the shelves and am in the process of getting rid of the DVD racks. We NEVER watch the DVD's anyway. It's only DVR and Netflix for us these days!  I moved the Pottery Barn cork board to the laundry room and found a new home for the blue chair.  I also am going to down-size the Flor tile rug, since a certain little puppy likes to make messes when we are gone.

Here are a couple "before" shots.   The one on the top shows the previous orientation of the ladder shelves, along with the new couch and Flor tile rug.  The bottom one shows the old brick fireplace, DVD racks, and baker's rack tv cabinet.

I'm dying to show you all the after photos, but I am not done yet.  I need a couple more weeks to finish up the final touches.  You'll just have to wait in anticipation until then! :)

Ikea Hacker

I'm obsessed with a new blog called Ikea Hacker. It's where readers post projects they've done that use Ikea products in a different way. I'm in love with the computer/ cookbook stand made from shelving brackets and kitchen cabinet pulls. I also really liked the garbage bag holder to hang on the cabinet door under the sink. These seemed like simple projects I could do. Of course I would love to create built-ins with Billy bookcases, but that seems so involved and time consuming. I'm all about instant gratification!

I went to Ikea tonight with my mom. It was her very first time being there, so of course we spent 4 hours perusing all the little vignettes and oohhing and awwing over the beautiful kitchens and scoffing at the cheap feeling dressers. I knew I wanted to try one of the hacks, so I picked up a Kvarta clock to the tune of $5.99. Here is the project I plan to do. I'll let you know how it turns out!

Window Fix-up

Last year we remodeled our bathroom. When this was done, I got rid of a set of green curtains for a waffle-weave brown roman shade. Straight on, it looks fabulous. However, when you are in the shower, you could see outside (meaning people outside can see you in the shower!) And the window is too low to have the shade open when using the toilet. My solution was to put a window frosting film on the bottom half of the window. I got this idea from Young House Love, one of my favorite blogs.

I first cut the film one inch larger on each side than the size of the window. I then cleaned the window, and sprayed it with water. I peeled the film from it's backing, and placed it on the window. I used a small squeegee to smooth out the bubbles and used an exacto knife to trim the excess film. I love how I can open the shade to let light in the bathroom without having to worry about my backdoor neighbors being able to see in. And this was such an easy project!