Spring 2013 DIY: Vegetable garden

It's that time of the year again!  This year, BK added more fertilizer to the existing soil in our garden bed and we started planting!

On the menu: swiss chard and spinach (for smoothies), tomatoes, cucumbers, basil, parsley and mint

Link inspects our final work

Holiday gifting: Mini calendars

Giving out these mini desk calendars has become a holiday tradition at work.  My co-workers love them--they're useful and don't take up much desk space, and they're relatively easy to make.  I buy the PDF from this wonderful etsy seller each year, then we head on to Kinkos to print them out on cardstock, cut them out (BK's a paper cutter master), and put them into these little clear plastic business card holders.  If you don't feel like going through all those steps, you can also just buy sets from the etsy seller.

What are some holiday gifts you love to give?

Working hard or hardly working

As per my new year's resolution, some items I've been working on lately...

Our project this weekend

We've decided to redo our master bedroom!  Some paint, new linens, an electronic buy and tons of decluttering on the list.  Hopefully we should have everything done soon and will share more pictures then.  In the meantime, check out the sneak peek of our new curtains and B hard at work taping and painting!

DIY: A new (to us) mirror!

We found this mirror dated from the 50's at an auction and repainted it a yellow gold.  It's a pretty hefty weight so B reinforced the back with screws and bolts and wires using calculations of dimensions and weight (it's mysterious to me all what that involves) and then put it up in the living room.  I'm a bit undecided on the placement, it feels too high, but our ceilings are high as well and it's such a large space to fill.  We'll leave it there for now but won't have much trouble finding another place for it in the house if we do change our minds.  It's a great piece and I especially adore the curved details!

Wishlist Wednesday: A garden that grows

Our raised bed garden adventure began a year ago.  You can check out its evolution and how we made the raised bed here, our giddiness at the first signs of prosperity,  and enjoying the fruits of our labor here and here. 

We've learned a lot of lessons last season, namely to water more frequently and in the mornings, build trellises sooner,  and plant more realistic vegetables that we can and will actually consume (remember my sole green bean harvest?)

So this year, B cleaned out the garden bed, added a few bags of organic cotton compost and we were ready to plant!

The garden bed always looks so neat and tidy in the beginning... 

This year, we've chosen cherry tomatoes 

(we figured this might give us a slight advantage 

over beating the squirrels to harvest first)

Seedless Japanese cucumbers and Persian cucumbers

(same seeds from last year)

And just to break it up a bit, I chose a Thai hot pepper 

(perfect to spice up Vietnamese spring rolls this summer)

 

And B chose a Habanero Pepper (on the far right)  

to spite the squirrels I think

Heart picture frame art, this time in blue

Similar to the heart picture frame we made for our bedroom,  B and I put together one for baby A to celebrate his arrival.  His initials and birth date are recorded on the lower corner hearts.

DIY Before and After: vintage metal lamp

We spotted this little lamp at the Room Service block party (along with the metal flower wall hanging I posted about earlier in the week) and decided to bring it home and give it a little love, aka spray paint.  A sunny yellow glossy spray paint was chosen and it took quite a few coats and all afternoon to finally cover the surface adequately. 

Before

After

In its new home in the bedroom, perfect as a reading light!

DIY Before and After: metal flower wall hanging

Another post on our adventures with spray painting!  We went to a fun block party a few weeks back at North Loop and scored some amazing items at Room Service.  Almost everything I picked up, I'd say to B "...and we can spray paint this!"  Incredibly he agreed and we took home this little metal flower wall hanging--I have a soft spot for cherry blossoms.

A before picture: we placed it on some cardboard in the middle of the yard (last time I spray painted, there was a curious outline of cardboard on the patio--whoops!)

After quite a few coats of paint, the completed work:

A closeup:

We found a home for the hanging in the hallway between the bedrooms upstairs

There are more spray painting adventures and sore index fingers to share so stay tuned!

DIY: Modern Paper Ornaments

Using a fantastic tutorial from Designsponge found here, I made these paper ornaments to hang in our floor to ceiling fireplace that divides the living room from the dining room. 

DIY: Hearts picture frame art and bedroom nook

Inspired by this etsy seller, we made a little picture art frame filled with fluttering hearts for our bedroom.  It was simple enough to get the frame (from Ikea), choose the colors and paper, and cut out the hearts using a handy punch tool from Michaels. The difficulty with this project lay in actually arranging the hearts in even lines and gluing them in.  So, as we've come to find out, I am the visionary when it comes to these projects, and B is actually the person that does the work and gets it done.  What can I say, he just has more follow through than I do! (or is just tired of my half forgotten craft projects lying around the house)

Here is the completed work of art (I did krylon the frame with a nice glossy gray paint)

And up on our bedroom wall with one of my favorite prints from EnormousChampion (one of my favorite Sinatra songs!), a picture of us at a wedding last year, and this great decal from Shana Murray purchased through Enid at the Dallas Flea.  It's super simple to put on (uh thanks to B again) and I love how it looks--I can't wait to get more!

DIY Before and After: Half Bathroom

A few weeks ago, B and I spent a weekend redoing our guest half bathroom.  It is probably the only room in the house that hadn't been previously remodeled so we were happy to put our stamp on it.

Here it is in all its glory, complete with 70s fixtures.  We couldn't change out the sink because space-wise the door is just able to clear it when open:

We removed all the hardware, including the medicine cabinet, towel rack, toilet paper holder, etc.

Then the taping and painting began.  Note to self: always choose the lightest shade on the paint color chip.  The first blue we chose was blinding so we went back and got a lighter color which turned out a bit more soothing and beach-like.

The finished product which consisted of:

• new paint
• mother of pearl mirror which replaced the medicine cabinet
• new glass shelf above the sink
• new faucet
• spray painted toilet paper holder 
• new toilet seat
• new octopus towel hook
• new light switch
• little decorations sourced from around the house

 The new lightswitch that B put in--yay that he could put that EE degree to use:

And this octopus hook is probably one of my favorite details:

DIY Before and After: Dining room chairs

We completed our first upholstery attempt last week by recovering our dining room chairs.  Here's a before picture with the original cream fabric:

And following these easy steps here, we used some fabric from Ikea to give the chairs a different look:

It was relatively simple, especially with the step by step guide, but we definitely needed 2 sets of hands to be able to pull the material taut and then staple the fabric.  I'm excited because I've signed up for an upholstery class this fall so hopefully there will be many more completed projects in the future!

Wishlist Wednesday: Terrariums

I love these mini little eco systems!  Adding this to my project to-do list! (which is suuuper long right now...I need a nap)

From Monkeysalwayslook

From Doodlebirdie

And Woodlandbelle actually made these into jewelry!

Wishlist Wednesday: Striped walls

I really like the look of horizontal stripes and how it provides visual interest and opens the space of a room.  I've also realized after our stunt yesterday with tape, levels, and paint, that two people who usually just "eyeball" how to hang pictures should not be trying to paint stripes on their bathroom wall!  So for now, striped walls will remain firmly on my wishlist.