A while ago I saw a bird rack from West Elm that I fell in love with, sadly I was not in love with the price (even if I wanted to buy it now, I coudn't, since it is no longer available). Then the ol' diy mentallity kicked in and I decided to make my own version of the rack.
Let me just start by saying, I absolutely love how these curtains came out! I used burlap for my fabric, which ended up working out tremendously, seeing as I needed 11 YARDS and it's a cheap fabric, especially if you have a coupon. I had never used burlap before so it was a little bit of a learning curve on how to work with it.
VERY important: you do not want to cut burlap on what you think is square! To get a straigth line with burlap you actually pull a string out from the weaving. When you cut burlap on a square you may think you are cutting straight, but you aren't.
I got the inspiration for this idea when I saw a picture of another large wood sign browsing Houzz.com. My inspiration photo can be found here. When we framed our basement, we ripped out some old storage shelving, and the green planks used to make this sign were part of the shelving we removed. I really liked the color and the naturally distressed look.
I have never had a family picture wall and thought it was high time to do one. We have two adorable kids and I figured they needed a spot to shine. There are about a million different ways to display your photos and about a trillion different frame styles to choose from. I happen to like things clean (and cheap!) so Ikea was my new best friend when it came to getting frames. Every single frame on the wall is from Ikea. As much as I like clean, I don't like everything to be matchy matchy, so I bought three different styles of frames all in white.
At any given time I'd say I have about 10-15 projects running and another 30 or so waiting in the wings. So, I thought I'd give an update on what is in "Progress". I could really take a picture of my whole house and leave it at that, haha, but I'll break a few things down instead, and I'll start with the kitchen. We recently went through quite the overhall in this area. I'll grace you with these "before" we moved in and "before" we ripped it out photos. As you can see we did a little updating before the big overhaul but it was still a very un-functional kitchen.
So let me just begin with the fact that I already typed out this post once and it disappeared when I tried to publish! I'm sure you can imagine the death stare I was giving my computer. It was lucky it didn't get thrown against the wall! RRRRR! So hopefully I won't forget anything in my frustrated typing. So as easy as this felt board is, it is also time consuming. One thing you'll need to understand is that you will be cutting each piece out 3 times.
No, I'm not talking about a high school pep rally. It's a Fiesta Party!
For my daughter's first birthday, which was on May 5th (Cinco de Mayo for those who might be running slow today, lol) we opted for a Fiesta theme for her birthday. I'm afraid she may be stuck for life on that aspect. I'm sure we'll mix it up over the years but I'll bet we'll always have an homage to the Fiesta theme to celebrate the day. Life could be worse!
Mason jars are big right now! There are so many things you can do with these little beauties, the list is endless. Wedding and home decor, picnic mugs, and light fixtures are just a few of the things you can do. Thanks to the addictive nature of Pinterest (blast you wonderful website!) I decided to paint some mason jars. It was my daughters first birthday, which also happens to coincide with Cinco de Mayo, so we went with...yep you guessed it, a fiesta theme. Too predictable? Well it was worth it. Who doesn't want to hit a pinata, dress up like little muchachos, and eat tacos?
This weekend our family took the first of our annual trips up to our local farms. It's peach season and we are already a week behind! If you grew up in a family like mine then you had a home canned fruit or vegetable at your table a minimum of once a week. We enjoyed the "fruits" of my mothers labor. Although I do remember my sister saying a time or two how much she HATES snapping beans. Ah, lovely memories. We began our canning season this year with green beans grown from our garden. Passed down from my mother, we only grow Royal Burgandy Beans.
Our first house being the size that it was didn't take us too terribly long to remodel. Only about 2.5 years of doing almost everything ourselves and we were the proud owners of a renovated home. Here is a photo rundown and each space before and afters. I'll throw in some exterior for your viewing pleasure too. We'll start with the entryway. Haha..yeah right, entryway, more like a spot stolen from the living space to be a mock entry.
BEFORE
