Inspired by...

Because of all this blogging I'm doing, I'm getting NO sleep, but tons of ideas. Soon I'm going to have to catch up on the sleep thing, but for now...I blog!! I have decided to post on various projects I've found online that I decide to do myself. I'll link you to the orginals and we'll see how my versions turn out. :)

But my first ideas came from the recent Home-A-Rama. I'm going to attempt these on my own, on the cheap, with my own spin.

We do this quite often with client's window treatments, and I've actually seen it done better, but I've never tried it myself. I think it's time -- just have to figure out where?:

This is a Pottery Barn Kids piece, but I know I can do it cheaper on my own. ;) Love this idea!:

Umm, is this not caaauuuute?? It's a lamp, used as a ribbon holder. Darling. I will not do this with a lamp, but it has the wheels turning:

Seriously, how easy and fun is this? This one I think I will do soon...couple ideas floating around as to how I'll do it exactly:

I've seen this before but it was a good reminder of something I've been wanting to do:

I'd love to see if you've done anything similar to these, or if you decide to tackle these one your own! Have fun!

Pouring rain. Too many people. Gorgeous homes. Heaven.

So tonight my decorating-loving pal and I went to the local Home-A-Rama. I can't get enough of the Ramas....and I am a sucker for model homes too. There's not a model home within a ten mile radius of our home that I haven't been through at least once.

This Home-A-Rama did not disappoint...for the most part. Love the houses, love the decorating, the ideas, the landscaping AND the bad decorating. Some are just. plain. bad. But there's more of that to come...first, a sampling of my 142 pictures. Yes. 142. Did I mention it was pouring rain? And that we didn't bring an umbrella? We didn't care -- beautiful homes don't judge.

Sorry the quality is bad... the battery was dying, wonder why??

I LOVE these windows:

This is the most unique window I've ever seen in a home. The picture doesn't do it justice:

Reminds me so much of Candice Olson!:

Choco-lucious:

Creamy cabinets were the rage:

Wow, none of these do the homes justice. I'll share more soon...and the home with the worst decorating I've ever seen. I feel awful saying that, but really, it was bad. You'll die. Just die. Die! Die! Die! (Jack McFarland anyone?).

Sweets!

Who doesn't love cupcakes? Especially, precious, cute, custom cupcakes? A friend of mine makes the most beautiful cupcakes I've ever seen. They are little works of art. And they are goooo-ooooood. I know, I've tried one (nine).

I know 99 percent of you don't live close enough to order from her, but you can still drool. Check out her out here:

http://www.happinessinabite.com/

Lampshade tutorial.

I have a lampshade that has been bugging me for months -- I wanted to recover it but couldn't find the perfect fabric. Tonight, at ten minutes to closing, my Bub and I ran into Hobby Lobby (my second trip today, yikes!) and I found the PERFECT fabric! And trim! In less than ten minutes! Yayeeeee!


So I took pictures as I recovered this time just to prove how easy it is! Before:

You really don't need much fabric, just depends on the size of the shade. I lay mine out and trace it (using chalk) -- giving extra room so the fabric wraps around:

Use a hot glue gun to secure the fabric. You can cut little slits every couple inches so the fabric wraps easily:

Taadaa!! But it still needed something...

Trim! I found the perfect match:

If you've seen my family room, you'll understand how perfect the swirlys (swirlies?) are! I loved it so much, I did the little shade in the kitchen:

I'm so excited! My cat, however, is thoroughly unimpressed:

That looks says, "You add this crap to my food bowl and I will pee on your drapes, lady."

Fall is here? It's 84 degrees outside!

Ohhhh I love, adore, can't get enough of fall. Love it love it LOVE. IT. Usually, I get so excited about this season that I have pulled the bins of decorations out by August 31...or the 15th? Who's keeping track?

This year, fall alludes us here in the Midwest. We've just had approximately TEN STRAIGHT DAYS of 82+ degree weather. Fall, notsomuch. I know, 82 is nothing for those of you down south, but 82 is torture to me...fall is the most glorious time of the year around here and there is nothing better than a 68 degree day, fireplace roaring, my (new Lampchop) slippers and a mug of apple cider, in my opinion. Eighty outside does not lend itself to anything but sweat and bugs. Ugh.

So the weather is breaking and I finally started working on the fall decor over the past couple days and have had a blast. And spent money. Dang it, why can't I just be happy with what I already have?? Why must I finance Hobby Lobby's existence?

So, here you go, I'll take more tomorrow with better light. Enjoy the candlelight and sip some cider. (Yippee, I'm practically giddy!)

I'm going to have dead head all these blooms, aren't I? And that's only one of two. The pumpkins are sad, give me time. Yes, those are fake flowers on the door, looking goooo--oood!! (Clark!):

These need some water, I know. But I have to remember to feed cats and a child everyday. Pumpkins for cheap at Hobby Lobby!:

I love that our home already has so many of the fall colors in it -- hence my love for this time of year. I love green, rust and brown:

I needed a stand for these candles -- spend literally three hours this morning searching for something in three different stores. (Not that I didn't find anything else!) It hit me on the way home -- scrap wood and paint. Exactly what I wanted:

These little frames will have FALL spelled out in them, just need to find the right letters:

I've realized lately that this new obsession of blogging is keeping me from my very reason for blogging -- decorating! :) I love the new inspirations and the ideas are flowing...I hope I inspire you too!

Confessions of a self-made decorator.

OK, I need to come out of the closet with a few of my confessions when it comes to decorating. Flame me all you want -- BRING IT ON!! Nah, just kidding, it's late, I've had some wine, and I'm just talking smack.

Here we go:

1. Silk flowers/plants: Yessssssssss I have silk flowers and plants in my house. Actually, I think the only silk flowers are out on the front door, but really. I'm OK with them.******* (Notice the asterisks...) That is, as long as they look somewhat, close to, kinda REAL. You all know what I'm talking about -- there is surely a difference. (Imagine Dollar Store florals and Pottery Barn florals-- I'm too tired to dig up pictures.) I really am more on board with the faux greenery, but I have cut down on that quite a bit lately. I only buy what I think looks real and use it sparingly.

2. I'm going to lose some friends here...but...I don't think Candice Olson is the Decorator God: Lord knows she does fantabulous work, and she is FAR superior of a decorator than I could EVER been in my WILDEST dreams and is amazing, no question, no doubt...but. I think if each time she decorated a room and stood back at that final minute and removed 20 percent of the stuff in the room, then I'd bow down to her. Hands down. I love what she does!! I just think it could be simplified a bit. (Like Candice Olson gives a .... anyway!) :)

3. I don't think More is More: I work with some amazing women who can pull a gorgeous display together and it looks SO incredible. They have fabrics draping, layers of items, cascading pieces...you just stand there in awe. I envy their talent and try it on my own...and then it just looks wrong in my home. I have realized I am definitely a less is more kind of gal. I tried to force that on myself and finally understood I'm just not that kind of decorator. Heck, maybe it's just that I'm not good at that kind of decorating...very well could be. And that's OK with me!

If I spend $10 I get $10 free?! YESSSS! Wait..huh??

I hate you, Bath and Body Works, with your thrifty coupons. Not so thrifty, really. I went in to B&BW yesterday, 21-month-old in tow, to use two coupons -- one for something free and one where I got a free $10 Halloween soap pump if I spent $10. So after 15 minutes of trying to keep the boy's hands out of the displays, I am desperately trying to find something for JUST $10 because I am DETERMINED to not fall prey to the coupon trap. I worked in marketing for ten years -- I know the deal!

Until I realized I was spending money to get a $10 soap pump I would NEVER spend $10 on at say, Target, if I saw the same thing. AND I couldn't find the coupon for the free item when I got into the store! Blasted Bath and Body Works!! They got me anyway...

I went in to get this:

They didn't have any left, so I got this:

And spent my $10 to get my free $10 on these:

Yes, I took a picture of my feet while laying on our bed. Thank God for laptops. But really, aren't these the cutest things you've ever seen?? My husband just laughed at me, but I love them! They are soooo comfy and soft with little treads on the bottom so I don't wipe out on the hard floors. Brilliant!

Who do they remind you of? :)

Look Ma, no cords!

I hate electrical cords -- hate em!! In my humble opinion, there is nothing worse than seeing a gorgeous room on HGTV, and then seeing nasty, black cords hanging down behind a table or down a wall. It ruins the whole room for me! Harumph!

To prove my hatred, try to find the cords in these pictures:

Yes, I know, you see them plugged into the wall, and believe me, if I could figure out a way to remove the whole stinking plug I would!

One of my favorite handy dandy trinkets is the cord cover, which I've found at home improvement and electronic stores:

These little pieces of bliss are about $5 for four feet and they are so worth it! I put them down chair legs, along baseboards, even down walls (and then paint them the wall color). Looooove them!!

I hate cords so much, I made my own "charging station" in our dresser drawer. It was SO easy -- just drilled a large whole into the back of the dresser and the drawer. Now the cords are hidden behind the dresser but are easily accessible:

And the sky opens up, the angels sing.........

P.S. I guarantee you that I would never notice this in other people's houses -- I swear to you. It's my own little obsession in my own home and I just expect a professionally decorated home on television to take care of that little detail. :)

Seriously, come ON.

So I'm leafing through the latest Pottery Barn catalog the other day when I see this...

These are $79 for the set. What a fantastic deal (dripping with sarcasm). You have GOT to be kidding me. Really? For pictures of forks and spoons? Do you KNOW how easy this would be to do? And it would be even prettier if you did it yourself. I know, I know, it would take a little more time. (All of about ten minutes more than ordering them online.)

Pile some stinkin' flatware together and take a picture, no flash. Print it out on glossy paper, frame it. I could do it in 15 minutes and guarantee it would look better. (I'm waiting for a dare here...)

When my good friend Krista buys something new, half the time I say, "Do you know how easy that would be to make yourself?" Hehe...snicker. Krista, this one's for you!

The master bedroom is done!! Pretty much. Almost. Close.

I have been working on our master bedroom for a few months and finished it a couple weeks ago. I redecorated the entire room with less than $350! We are thrilled with how it turned out. There are only a few tweaks left -- soon I hope to splurge on a big comfy chaise near the fireplace. I plan to add molding to the large wall above the fireplace and would love to have the ceiling painted (a couple shades lighter than the wall color) at some point. More pictures and details follow:

The art on each side of the bed are $3.50 prints from Hobby Lobby I cropped to the size I wanted. Instead of having mats made, I used foam board and painted it the color of the walls, then just placed the prints on top. I painted the wall behind the bed a couple years ago and did the stripes by painting the whole wall, taping off the stripes and then just painting a layer of shimmer paint. It gives it a beautiful tone on tone effect. I finished up the rest of the walls with the paint I had purchased for this room more than two years ago!

The bedding was from Ebay and I only paid $36 for the set, which included the duvet cover, small pillows and king shams. The throw pillows are from Home Goods. I was looking for a storage bench for the end of the bed and couldn't find anything other than leather benches. These storage bins are from Target and were $55 each on clearance! I may add to these in the future...we'll see.

Here's another picture of the new fireplace tile! I LOVE it! The "artwork" above the fireplace was made with canvases, paintable wallpaper and paint. Total cost was $21! Even the candlesticks were a deal -- $10 for both at a consignment shop and I cut one down so they were different heights.

I made the drapes a while back to match our old bedding and was going to make new ones in a chocolate brown, but now the purple has really grown on me. It looks so pretty with the green on the walls! We'll see if they'll stay once I find a chaise. The chair was a garage sale find for only $15.

I printed pictures from the computer in black and white, painted foam board and placed the pics on top for this photo display. I had the frames so this project cost $1.50 for the foam.

Most of this I already had, I just rearranged everything to this spot. The mirror was $10 a garage sale find and I repainted it.

Here's the armoire I repainted, with the added stencils to the front. I'm not usually a fan of mirrors in high spaces but I like the way this reflects the candles. Not sure if it will stay this way or not. :)

I hope you get some inspiration from this room. I practice what I preach -- it doesn't take a lot of money to make your space brand new again!