New Fan DIY Update

We obviously have BIG plans for our little home. With me doing my student teaching this fall that means that we have a limited budget for projects and home decor since we are paying for childcare and I’m not working. I knew that we would want to replace the fans in the house but I was planning on that being one of the last projects. Well when we moved in we discovered that our living room fan did not work, well it worked but only in reverse which is terrible for Texas summers. We were planning on replacing the fan with something to match our hardwood floors…another project that will be doing sometime in the distant future. Obviously we needed a functional fan so the hunt began for something beautiful, functional and budget friendly, this was obviously an impossible find. So we decided to look for a white fan that we could eventually move into our room or into little man’s room. We were still only finding fans that were decent and included a light kit for $100 or more. I decided to do some more searching and researching reviews and ended up finding a simple white fan with a light kit for $50, I was sold. Joel surprised me with it and I immediately opened up and started trying to think of ways to make it a little more beautiful. While I was brainstorming I saw our tv stand and lighting struck! I knew that a little lacy vinyl would really add a wow factor and tie in the gray tile in our fire place. I was sold!

Materials Needed

·         Vinyl

·         Cricut or Silhouette

·         Fan Blades

·         Squeegee or Credit Card

I started thumbing through my Paper Lace booklet I was not disappointed. I narrowed it down to 3 patterns and Joel and me decided on the same pattern and the crafting began. First, I cut a couple sample pieces on paper to figure out the sizing that I wanted, once I settled on a size I started cutting my vinyl. 

You will want to make sure that your blades are nice and clean :)

After all of the vinyl was cut I placed the vinyl on transfer paper so that it would transfer smoothly. This is extremely important with delicate or intricate vinyl. Then I measured where I would want to center the vinyl and marked where each piece would begin and end. This was to ensure that all of the blades would have the same placement and a very uniform look. Then I stuck the transfer paper to the blade and smoothed it out with a squeegee, if you don’t have one you can use a credit card. After this was done I removed the transfer paper and smoothed the vinyl over one more time with the squeegee. After repeating this process 5 times I was done and Joel assembled the fan! 

Measure and mark so that each blade has the same vinyl placement.

I truly cannot believe how much this simple inexpensive project has made such a beautiful HUGE impact in our living room. For under $5 it has made our fan go from drab to fab! So for $55 we have a functional and beautiful fan that really ties our living room together. 

I'm in LOVE this maybe my favorite project ever!

New paint for my new end tables!!

As most of you know we were supposed to make a cross country move to Houston this May. I say supposed to because our plans have changed and Joel's conflicting school schedule is keeping us here until December. Awhile ago we had picked out colors for what will be our new bedroom. I had begun putting together this room in my mind with colors and furniture, and since we recently found some of the key pieces to what I have in mind I decided to keep putting the room together like we were moving. The main colors that we have picked out for our new room are gray with a white accent, we also picked teal and purple as our pop colors. Our new found end tables are going to be our nightstands in our new bedroom. I really love the shape of them, and they have so much room for storage that it's ridiculous! So last night after Joel got out of class at 10 we made a walmart run for spray paint. We wound up getting some Kylan duel spraypaint, it has primer and paint, we went with white, boring I know but I love how it turned out. We knew that the end tables needed a little bit of sanding,so that the paint would stick, but that they wouldn't need to be completely sanded. Since we had some sanding blocks at home we didn't buy any. I started this project by taking the hardware off of the tables, and removing the door from the tables, when I say I did this I actually mean that Matt did this :] I started by lightly sanding the doors, then I gave them a gentle coat of Krylon Dual spraypaint. I also lightly sanded the tables and gave them a few gentle coats as well. Amidst my coating I ran out of spraypaint so I ventured to the store to get some more, and I might have gotten a Diet Cherry Coke from Sonic during Happy Hour. When I got back I finished spraying and went to a meeting. After my meeting I painted the pops of color on the tables. This took forever to dry and I feel like was the most time consuming process in the entire project. Once the pops of color finally dried, it was time to glaze. I was most excited to glaze and to finally have my side tables done! Below are pictures of each step! Now to figure out what to do with the hardware. My tables, prior to transformation.

Prepping to paint.

Paint!!!

Pop goes the color!

Glaze and Amaze!

I think it's fair to say that I'm just a tad excited to finally have them, and for them to be painted. I had the best time painting my day away!The darker color is purple in real life, the same color as our cross candle holders, I'm not sure why it's turning out so dark in the pictures. I really love how they turned out! I feel like our new room is starting to fall into place, now if I can only find gray paisley Hillcrest king sized bedding my life will be complete! Ok...maybe not my life, maybe just my dreams... I think for now I'll stick to trying to figure out what I want to do as far as hardware goes.

And So It Begins

 As I have mentioned before Joel and I are preparing to move to Houston after graduation in May. The closer that we get the more anxious I become...I can only imagine how crazy it's going to be the closer it gets! Anyway, I decided to go ahead and start putting pieces together for our new home. I have come to the conclusion that the sooner we set up shop in Texas, the sooner it will feel like home to me. I decided that I would start with our new master bedroom. We picked out our bedding :] and have planned our accent colors around it! Here are just a few of the items that will help make our new space a home.
  It all started with a coupon I received in my email for a free poster sized print. I decided to use the coupon for a wedding picture. I had a hard time picking one, but that's just because they were all so good! haha ok moving along! Once I picked up the poster print I was anxious to get a frame. So when my mother called me reminding me that I needed to renew my Sam's club membership, I got Joel and we went and renewed. We were also ridiculously close to Michael's, so we stopped in and took a look at all they had to offer. After much deliberation we decided on some frames. We got two because they were bogo. One is ours and the other will be given to a very special lady in our life ;] Anyways, I got so excited that I didn't take a before picture so a stock image will have to do!

A few days later, we stopped by Home Depot to finalize the shades of our accent colors, so that the pops of color could begin! We decided on purple and teal, below are the beginning  of our transformations.

This is the finished product, I am in love!! I am debating about glazing it to make the details pop. But am a little hesitant since I've never used glaze before. I am thrilled with the difference that a couple coats of paint did! I am adoring this pop of teal.

Here is a close up of the details on the frame!

I also scored some awesome candle-holders thrifting a few weeks ago. At first I was thinking of putting them in the living room, because they would pull the navy tones in our rug out. I decided to change and prep them for our move.

This is what the state that I found them in. Someone had spray-painted them. Once I decided that they would have a special place in our new home I knew that they would need a fresh coat of paint! Since they were so dark I decided to spray-paint them white, so it would even out.

After waiting for the spray-paint to dry, the real fun could begin!!

    Here they are with their fresh coat of awesomeness!  I am still going to give them a second coat, but I wanted to share! Yes, teal and purple are our accent colors!  And now that the colors have been decided the popping will commence!!
   Since I got the poster print and the frame for free, the cost of my first transformation was $2.49 for paint. My second transformation was a little more, I paid $3.00 for the smaller candle-holder, and $5.00 for the larger one, I also paid $2.49 for the purple paint. The beginning pieces of our new home....maybe moving won't be so bad! Is there anything drab that you want to turn into a pop of color? Feel free to share!

DIY Lampshade Love

 I've spent these past few weeks crafting working away between school, and helping my Mom out at her office until she finds some new people to hire. So my crafting & creating time has been limited non existent.  On Friday after I got home from work Mr. Carman went out on a guys night and left me the entire apartment to myself! I love having time to craft and he knew I really needed the break. He even got me a new glue gun since mine has mysteriously disappeared, I might have left it at the beach house? Anyway, I used this night free of responsibilities to show my lampshades in the living room some love.

 Now we've had these lamps for a little over a year, the brown went with our original bedroom decor. When I redid the bedroom I snagged the shades from the living room and swapped them out. Yes...I have the same lamps in two different rooms of our apartment. You see our apartment is quirky, we only have lights in the bathroom, dinning area, and kitchen. So we registered for lamps that emitted tons of light. Anyway, I have never been happy with the brown lampshades in the living room, but they worked and sorta kinda matched. This is what we started out with.

Not bad, definitely lacking the wow factor. 

Supplies

• Hot Glue Gun
• Fabric {I used 4 yards of burlap}
• Scissors
• Lampshade

 This entire project was  just at $12.00, for both lampshades... that's $6 a shade, so much cheaper than buying new ones.  I began by cutting my fabric into strips. I cut two inch strips, but you can change it to get the results that you want.

  After cutting them into strips go ahead and plug in your glue gun. Now you want to fold the fabric almost like an accordion.

  Then you want to put glue on the lampshade, I started at the top of the lampshade and worked piece by piece.

   Then you place your accorded  fabric on the lampshade. Continue repeating the process until you have completely covered your lampshade.

Tada rustic, and cute.

  Now it may not seem that wonderful to you, but to me it is beyond lovely. Here is a before and after shot, so that you can fully appreciate the difference.

  Amazing right? It's a little shabby a little modern. I just love the crackle base. I'm thinking about taking it apart and painting it. What do you guys think, I would love some input on this idea.

   Ahh so much cuter. I'm hoping to take a new full shot of the living room and update the our apartment tab. I am also hard at work brainstorming dinning area swag. Once again suggestions, or ideas welcome.

 

State Art

  My amazing husband and me have been together since we were 17 years young. We met in St.Louis while attending a worldwide youth conference for our denomination. He was from Houston, Texas, and I was from Virginia Beach, Virginia, out of the thousands of teens there we met. Looking back I can't help but laugh, I didn't even want to go, but my Mom jokingly told me that I should go because I could meet my future husband. God really does have a sense of humor, my mother is careful with her jokes now :]
  Anyways I said all of that to get to state art. State art is popping up EVERYWHERE you look in blogland and on pintrest. I have this photo collage in our bedroom, and have been having a difficult time picking the pictures to fill them, I always have the hardest time picking pictures...I just have so many good ones!

I know this is a bad picture, but it's the only one of the college that I have.

  Now at the very top of the collage, is a frame with 3 pictures, two horizontal spots and a vertical one in the middle. I decided that frame was perfect for my state art. For this project I used scrapbook paper, cardstock, a picture {for the middle}, a glue stick, glitter, my cricut and the cartridge 50 states.  The hardest part of this project was finding the right scrapbook paper print, luckily my awesome Mom had just got some paper that matched my bedding for my home scrapbook, I love you Mom! I began by cutting my scrapbook paper into two 4x6 pieces, I cut them that size because that was the size my frame called for, you can cut to your desired size. Next, I took my cardstock and placed it on my mat.If you don't have a cricut, you can print out a map of your desired state, cut it and trace it onto your cardstock. I needed the states to fit on the 4x6 piece of paper so I began cutting at 3 3/4, which was perfect for Texas.  I had to enlarge Virginia to make it look decently proportional, I think it was 7 3/4 inches, and it's still vastly smaller than Texas! Then I took my glue and centered my state on my scrapbook paper. I let it dry for a few minutes and then got ready to use my glitter. I drew a small heart with my glue pen where Houston, and Virginia Beach were. Then I added some of my awesome glitter.

My state art.

I still need to add some pictures, but here's a full shot.

   I LOVE how it turned out, it looks so wonderful in our room. I'm thinking about changing the picture out for a B&W one, but I'm not sure. Let me know what you think! I love helpful opinions!

Fresh

    There's something about the sweetness that lingers in the summer air that leaves me with the desire for freshness. I decided to take advantage of the break in between summer classes that Joel has. The past week has been filled with sweet moments of enjoying each other, and enjoying being on the same schedule. I also decided that since he was home it was the perfect time to finish some old projects, respray my vases, and embark on a few new projects for our home. Joel thought that respraying the vases, would give me the opportunity to further explain my vase project.
   The vase project began when I needed a way to pull out the deep navy blue tones in our living room rug. I needed something that would add to the room, and not be overwhelming. I decided to look into purchasing some different blue vases, upon seeing the enormous price tag attached to them I knew that purchasing them was simply not an option. So I slept on it, and decided to go thrift storing for vases, and see what I could do with some spray paint and some vases. I decided that my investment would be low, so if I didn't like it, it wasn't a big deal. Now I did my vases long before I ever started my blog, or started reading them so I have no before pictures, sorry!

My collection with a fresh coat of paint.

I like the different textures, it really makes a difference when you put it all together .

Some of my favorite textured vases.

Non textured vases add interest with their shapes.

A textured and non textured vase, so you can get a good comparison.

You want to get vases with varying heights and depth as well.   

  When you go looking for vases, keep the color you want them to be in mind. It is easier to go darker for a vase, than to go lighter. However, if you find a dark green vases you adore but want it lighter don't worry. You should just apply a white base coat before you desired  color. Good luck, and happy hunting!
  I'm hoping to have a new post with some updates that we've done today and will be doing over this wonderful long weekend!