Monday, January 30, 2012

Mojo

Darling daughters bedroom is nearly done. Closet wall is installed and awaiting some finishing touches.  I'll take pictures and be back later this week to post them.

In the meantime, I realize that I have not been taking as many photos as I would like. I really need to start packing my camera around more. Anyhoo....

Here's a layout I created recently. Thank you for looking!

Friday, January 13, 2012

Randomness

I LOVE this girl.


I don't usually dress her. But in the winter she is always cold. I picked this up a few months before Christmas and she loves it because its fleece. Wilma Sue is our baby.

Speaking of cold, I also love these as of late.

I bought a pair this fall and they keep my toosties toasty!

Posted this layout today that I made with Val and Jenn's new kit Toothless Grin.


And...yesterday I finished reading The Hunger Games and I'm downloading Mockingjay to the kindle for the weekend. Good easy read. Have a fabulous Friday and wonderful weekend!

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Room redo - part 1

Yes. McKena is soon to be sixteen. With that she really wanted to have an updated room, one in a more mature style, one that fit her interests and growing collection of clothing & make-up. McKena is really into clothing and make-up. Her room was decorated in the shabby chic look that was ever so popular several years ago. She is ready to let the lace, froo-froo, and flowers go. Here's a pic of McKena with her make-up as you would see her everyday though she's started wearing the mod eyelashes now too.


So a couple of months ago, we bagan this process with her searching Pinterest for ideas. To find her likes and dislikes, to define her style. She made a mood board with all the elements she would like to see in her room.

May I remind you, we recently relocated 2,000 miles and are currently living in a lovely rental house here in Oklahoma, so there are limits to some extent of what we can do. The paint and carpet in her room are a tan color with and ecru color paint on the doors and trim. Nice and neutral. The closet however is awful. It is in sad shape. Here's what it looked like when we moved in.


You can see here that there are holes all over in the walls and the closet organizer is hung poor rendering some of it useless.


After viewing all her ideas for the room redo, we decided to make this closet a dedicated make-up area. It's one of her hobbies and she spends quite a bit of time with it each day.

We also decided to give her a "closet" that runs along one of her walls out in her room. But we will come back to that in another post.

She wished for more of a french feel to her room. So we set off to sand and repaint her worn, weathered, and wonderfully shabby chic furniture (it was white) all black. We thought it would be a nice contrast to the tan and ecru in the room.

The closet breakdown- We removed the closet organizer and all its hardware from the closet leaving us even more holes to deal with. Without being able to paint, we had to get a little creative here. So off to the fabric store we went.

There we found a satin fabric we liked and it was only $2.99 a yard. We bought 9 yards and took it home to hang. The tools required were a drill and molly based hook, staple gun, hammer, 1" trim and some finishing nails. The entire closet turn make-up area cost under $40.00. The fabric was just under $30, the trim was $6, and the hook (came 2 in a package) was $3. We already owned all the furniture, tools, and had nearly a gallon of black paint left from another project.

Here's what we did-

We emptied the space.


We hung the hook for the lighting first so that the dust from drilling a small hole in the ceiling wouldn't make a mess and settle on the hung fabric.


Using a staple gun, we attached the fabric and chose to create pleats by simply overlapping the fabric from time to time. This is the look we got.


This fabric was three panels of 3 yards.Then we used finishing nails and the 1" trim to give it a polished look at the ceiling. Super easy! Using that much fabric also created enough extra at the floor to "pool" rather nicely.


Next I hung the light and mirror that we already had. The mirror was in her shabby chic room. The light was stored away. We had used it in our old apartment but had yet to find a use for it here. I'm happy she did. Then we placed the freshly painted desk into the closet and she loaded it up with all her schtuff. It is now home to all her make-up, lotions, perfume, polishes, ect.


It may need a few more touches to personalize it, but for the most part, its done and oh so pretty. We'll be back to document more of the room redo in the weeks to come. Thanks for stopping by!

Monday, January 9, 2012

I've started my 2012 scrapbooking

In this layout I used the January 2012 BYOC kits over at The Lily Pad.

And in some other exciting news, I was published in this months Digishoptalk Insider. If you are interested in getting a copy, you can download it here for free.

I began reading a new book recently. It's a different read for me but so far I am really glad I am reading  The Hunger Games. What are you reading now? I would love to try more new reads!

Thursday, January 5, 2012

Happy New Year!

I spent New Years looking back through the pictures I took over the last year. What a fun walk down memory lane. :)

Last year, we lived in a small apartment. I had no room for a scrappy space. There was a closet in the kitchen/dining area that we didn't use well so we decided to convert it. When I found those pictures last week, I thought it might be a cool thing to share here.

Here's how we created the space. First we cleared out the closet. The two top shelves were already there. We added the wood striping at desk level to support a  desktop area.


We added one more shelf up here also to utilize the space best. Then we painted everything a crisp white.


We hung lights in the closet so that I could see what it is I was working on. A word of advise.... be careful of which lights you hang in such a small space as some lights like these get hot while in use.


Last I gathered up my scrap crap and filled the closet. Othere than the purchase of wood for the desktop and shelf, this project cost us nothing. We utilized things we already owned.


And it was some simple renovations that easily could be removed if the landlord wished for it to be when we moved. It was a perfect solution to small space or apartment living.


A chair fit in here too. I just moved it to take pictures. This was a great scrappy space. :)


I hope this gives you some inspiration if you are an apartment dweller looking for a dedicated craft area.