Updated Necklace Holder

It's been awhile since I shared any home decor type posts, so today I thought I would share a project I did a while back.

I posted in January 2011 this post about my necklace holder. It worked for a while in the beginning but when Boston started being a "boy" it didn't function the way I wanted it too.

For starters, it needed to be higher, way higher. He would pull on the necklaces and then pop off the pins. Scary enough... in the mouth went the pins (luckily no pins were swallowed).

The next issue didn't have anything to do with Boston, but I found as I purchased more necklaces, I didn't have anymore room and the board started to look crowded.

Back to the drawing board I went. When my dad was here for Thanksgiving, I got him to help me fix up my frame. I added one double wire across the top and another one towards the bottom. Creating two different levels for my necklaces.

I am loving this way better! Now the issue with Boston isn't full fixed. He still loved my necklaces and and broken too many while I am wearing them. Maybe this year Boston will get me a few new ones for Mother's Day (hint hint).

If you are wondering what I do with my other jewellery, I found these cute bowls from West Elm about a year ago (and my lovely mother-in-law brought them back from Arizona for me). I don't own a lot of bracelets and earrings, and with that said, these bowls are perfect for me. One for bracelets and one for earrings. Boston loves to take down the bowl with the bracelets and try them all on. I really hope he never breaks the bowl, I would probably cry!

How do you organize your jewellery? A few ladies at work were asking me for ideas. There are tons on Pinterest, but which ones do you use and find susccessful?

New Pillows

While in Arizona, I picked up some home decor fabric that was on sale at Jo-Ann Fabric's. My colors in my living room are red and medium green. Most reds don't look good on my dark couch (I won't go this dark next couch purchase) but I came across a pattern that I knew it would be perfect.


The green pattern is kind of a risky choice. But I saw it and then saw the price and thought, maybe one pillow in it for summer might be nice fun and different?! Bad choice?

I just sewed simple covers with a slit opening in the back.


A little hint that i have found. Use NICE pillow inserts when you are sewing your own pillow covers. Out of all the pillow covers I have attempted to sew over the years, they always turn out best if I use a Pottery Barn pillow insert! I am sure there are other really good inserts but I have yet to personally come across them. The Pottery Barn ones are very thick and are made with feathers... maybe that makes all the difference?


I bought at the end of the season sale last year outdoor pillows from Restoration Hardware. The pillows are blue with grey stripes, but due to the small outdoor living space in our rental, the only thing I have outside if a small bistro table and chairs set. These pretty pillows are too big for the chairs. 
But the two matching pillows that have been on my couch (see below) over the last 8 months happen to also be outdoor pillows purchased at Superstore at the end of the season. 

They are about half the thickness and a few inches shorter. Since the cover isn't removable, they have gotten pretty nasty on my couch due to baby spit up and food. I decided these would be the best cushions for outside. I went to our local one and only fabric store and started the hunt for blue and grey outdoor fabric. Mostly everything I could find was blue and brown. As I was about to leave I spotted the perfect fabric in the clearance section and the best part was it was only $7 a meter. Sold!

Any day now I am going to be attempting to plant some flowers in two pots I recently purchased at JYSK. Never planted flowers before (my mom did them for me but now I live 8 hours from here). Wish me luck! 

West Elm Pillow

Happy Friday! It's pouring rain in Regina, but we are hoping it goes away so we can go out and play! I just pulled out the paint and going to start painting a few projects. If we can't go outside and have fun on a Friday, I might as well have fun inside!


While in Arizona I found a perfect pillow from West Elm that matched a throw I have from my days working at Pottery Barn.

It wasn't even on my couch for more than 24 hours when Boston found his first pen, figured out the click mechanism and drew on my brand new pretty pillow!
I quickly went online to find out how to remove pen from fabric. I tried it all... only to have it NOT come out and in the end the pillow looks even worse than if I had just left the ink. The color faded where I scrubbed and applied all the "guaranteed" household products.

My mother in law is headed back to Arizona in July and she said she would pick me up another one, but i'm still sad.


Next post, MORE pillows! But pillows that make me Happy!

Shopping

As many of you know, I love shopping. I was very limited on space to bring anything back. I was allowed only one check bag and that bag was to be shared between Boston and I. But I sure did some damage to our bank account even with the limited space (scott also purchased things). We did do a big shop in Great Falls at Target, Bath and Body and even Victoria Secret when we landed before we headed to the hotel to spend the night and that allowed for a whole truck full of shopping plus no tax (here we picked up everything from Honey Bunches of Oats, Cherry Diet Coke, Face Wash, Baby Food, ect)!


Oh and that was a horrible night in Great Falls. Boston just wouldn't go into the play pin, but really I couldn't blame him. It was the hotels and it looked horrible. He cried when I tried to put him in and then when I would take him out he would just hold on to me for dear life and fall asleep. Finally we padded the play pin down with pillows and I got him in asleep. BUT i didn't sleep a wink thinking he is going to suffocate because he was sleeping on pillows. 


Anyways, I love shopping! Here are a few random purchases that I was able to find quick pictures of online (the shirts and ties aren't exact pictures, but we did buy a whole bunch of that stuff at Nordstrom Rack). I knew my mom would appreciate this post.

Happy Easter

Easter Decor at my mom's!

Clock for Baby Boston's Room

I took this cheap clock from IKEA.

And these three products (plus a few other items).

And created this!

What I did.

1. I primed the clock.

2. Painted it blue.

3. Added a layer of Mod Podge to add shine.

4. Took a piece of scrapbook paper and lined the back of the clock. It was the same paper I used here. 

5. Used my cricut and vinyl to cut out brown numbers. 

6. Painted the hands of the clock brown.

7. Put it all back together.

Still trying to work at this random wall... the rectangles are bulletin boards. Anyone have any suggestions to make this random wall look better? Maybe more pictures and only one board?

______

A little side note from what I learned from the clock makeover...

I tired using fabric at first to line the back of the clock. The same fabric that is his bedding. 

But because I had to wrap the fabric around a piece of cardboard to give it stability (see picture below), it made the insert too thick that the clock hands would not rotate properly. I even tried cutting out the majority of the cardboard but that didn't make a difference.

But it the end, it was a good choice to go with the paper. The clock will last a lot longer in the room past when this bedding is no longer in use.

Baby Room Bookcase

I lined the back of Boston's bookcase with coordinating fabric that matches his bedding and accent pillow here. I love how it turned out. I didn't want to do anything to bold considering we will be moving in a year and who knows where the bookcase will end up. The fabric is a very small print and hard to capture on a camera especially when I don't know how to take good pictures yet... so sorry for the bad after picture.

Before

After (still need to do a little more accessorizing)

Close up on the fabric

To line the back of the bookcase, I took the back off the IKEA Billy bookcase (see below for another idea). With the help of my husband, I would use spray adhesive and spray a section of the board and then smoothed the fabric along the board. Once completed, I flipped the board around and using duct tape, stretched and taped the fabric to the back of the board. Since it was midnight when all of this was happening, I waited for morning before I nailed the board back into place.

On The Nate Show one day, Nate cut out a piece of cardboard for each section of the bookcase. He then covered the cardboard with fabric and just inserted the cardboard into the bookcase fitting tightly in the back. This method would be perfect for any built-in bookcases.

Instead of fabric, you could also use wrapping paper or wallpaper. My our old place, this bookcase was in our spare room before we had a baby. I lined it with wrapping paper. This was the only picture I could find of my hard work. The room was a mess... I can tell from the picture that we were getting ready for the baby because that big box in the right of the picture is the crib.

More of Boston's room coming later this week.

3 Keys to Happiness

Did anyone see this post from Apartment Therapy?


It made me laugh because I always tell my husband Scott those are things that mean the most to me and sometimes I have to really enforce this into my husband so he can understand me better.
I LOVE a clean house, I get grumpy when it isn't clean. I can't even enjoy an evening all alone when Scott is at school and Boston is asleep, unless I first pick up the living room.
I also love to be social. My husband laughs at me because I have these HUGE desires to be social, I crave interaction, BUT I am a very shy person. It is a huge struggle for me to go up and talk to someone. If they talk to me first, I am instantly engaged into the conversation... but so hard for me to make that first step.
As long as I can remember I was always trying to do furniture arrangements in my bedroom as a child. Now a days I still do it. Scott laughs at me because I can spend hours trying to rearrange everything and in the end it ends up right back where it started. I guess that is the problem with living in small spaces, there really is only one place for everything. But it still makes me happy to try! In fact I spend a few hours just on Sunday afternoon while Scott was at school, playing around with everything trying to see if I could find a better fit especially with a 11 month old climbing into everything. Scott called me and I told him what I was up too and he says, I like the way everything was... haha, still doesn't get that I need to at least try!
I thought I would post some pictures of my trying over the course of 4 years to change up my surroundings but like I said, couldn't do much in a small space (and a one income family since Scott was in school).

First week of moving into my new place (April 2006)

After a few months

Almost one year and now married (Feb 2007)

In the selling process (June 2010)

A lot happened between the last two pictures. I was working at Pottery Barn for a fun extra job and added some nice furniture into the mix (lamp, rug, coffee table, side table, accessories). I would show my current place, but it has gone in the wrong direction since we moved here. It went from super nice and accessorized to looking very bare. Well more like the bottom half of everything is bare... Boston is a bad kid ;)

Boston's Frames

Finally hung pictures in Boston's room

See more about it in this post.

Easter and Spring Inspirations

I am back from a long holiday to visit my family! I was amazed at the amount of snow in Sherwood Park. It's been years since I remember that much snow in the backyard. My sister and I bundled up Boston and took him outside to try and grab a few cute photos. He wasn't interested in sitting, just crawling into the endless snow.

My email inbox is full of emails... sent from myself! As I go through the blogs I follow and see something I love, I just email myself the link from my iPhone to my iMac. Then when baby is sleeping and I am sitting down at my computer, I have all the inspiration on my computer waiting for me.
Here are a few wonderful spring and easter finds that are getting my creative side all excited for the snow to go away! 

House of Smiths

Today's Fabulous Finds

Becky Higgins

My Garden of Eden

A Diamond in the Stuff

Tip Junkie

A Pretty Life in the Suburbs

Tip Junkie

All Things Heart and Home

My friend told me it was too early for Easter decorations... what do you think?

Curtains

I am no sewer, as I have previously blogged about here. But every once and awhile I do something that I am happy with... like my living room curtains!

I looked forever for curtains to purchase, but I couldn't find ones with enough color and pattern that I desired. I finally decided to buy fabric online and try to sew myself some lovely curtains. After I pressed and hemmed all the edges, I put up the curtains thinking I was done, only to see how bad they hung on the rod. 

After going into our bedroom and seeing how my purchased curtains are sewed I realized I needed to add tabs onto the back of the curtain so they will hanging 100% better. 

Way better!