The Longest DIY Project Ever, and Why It Was Worth It.

Hello Dearies,

These past few weeks have really been flying by, especially the past three days. There is a good chance that time seems to go faster for me when I'm up to my neck in projects. Which is why there has been less blogging as of late.

More DIY= Less BLOG

But I'll let you have a little peek at what I've been up to...

I'm sure you guys have seen all the wonderful striped curtains on Pinterest and the painting tutorials that go along with them. So, of course to go along with my living room re-do (which I will share later) I had to paint me some striped curtains. 

I'm not a fan of how expensive curtains are. The ones I had before were from Ikea and they were about $10 a piece which is cheap for curtains and they were GREAT curtains, but alas I live no-where near IKEA so I did not have the option to retrieve white curtains there. 

Also I can never find curtains long enough, but I did find table cloths. two of them.

Two extremely large white table cloths on sale at TAR-JAY for about $9 each which is a steal. 

So I bought them, taped them up and painted on my desired color. And then cut them in half lengthwise and sewed the raw edge. 

I won't take you through the entire process. Here is a great tutorial .

But here are/were my thoughts, concerns and lessons learned...

I was scared, no TERRIFIED that my edges would bleed. This I was most nervous about but amazingly enough They didn't and the stripes look super crisp :)

It also probably helped that I made sure that I painted from the tape towards the middle. 

So, here was a little shocker for me, after I hung the curtains up I realized that the paint didn't take in some small places and there were a million tiny pin holes in the paint letting light through the stripe so it looked blotchy and ugly in those places. I was SUPER careful and painted those spots again while the curtains were hanging up and they look normal now.

Lastly I love the way my curtains turned out and I would recommend the project to anyone who has the time. This was extremely time consuming. So much so that I haven't even started on the second set of curtains because I haven't had that much time to commit to one project in the past few days. It honestly took 2 full days to complete one set of curtain panels.

All that being said I'm extremely pleased with how my curtains turned out and I hope to get a start on my other set soon-ish.

As a parting gift here is a little DIY inspiration for you....

Happy Valentine's Day!!

We had a fun time taking some Valentines pictures this morning. Grayson wasn't exactly feeling it but he put up with me for a little while..

The Unsung Heros of Goodwill.

          Actually my title should read more like " The Forgotten Sections of Goodwill..."

With the Pinterest and Diy blog craze that brought on the ideology that Goodwill might be more that grandma-couches and 80's prom dresses. Although this brought some attention to our forgotten store for things "too good to throw away- but just need to get the heck out of my closet", it also paved the way for Goodwill being the equivalent to an unfinished furniture store for the majority of us and we have sadly forgotten about the other departments, or at least I did. If I'm alone in this please, let me know. 

On a recent trip to Goodwill I scored BIG-TIME in  the accessories department. So, I wanted to highlight a few areas that don't get too much attention.

1. Linens N Things

I know what you're thinking, Goodwill sheets...No thank you! But just track with me for a second. I needed a throw or pillow cover or something fabric-y that I could use to dress up my comfy brown chair and to my surprise I found this wonderful throw and it seriously looks brand-new. I brought it home washed it up and it looks fabulous on my chair, no? (also the ruched pillow cover is a dress found at another thrift store, that I sewed to fit an existing throw pillow). So I'm totally going to be hitting up the linnens section more often, you never know what hidden gems will be there or what you can repurpose. 

2. Dapper Decor

 I knew my husband would like these, I love them; so when I set eyes on these racquets there was no question. Our hallway has a slightly vintage feel and at $2.99 these little babies were a perfect addition to the bottom shelf of my console table. I found them in the odds and end section. At my Goodwill that happens to be a line of yellow carts in the middle of the store. It definitely requires some digging but it's so worth it.

3. One Kings Lane

Just before I went on my shopping trip i had come across cute picnic baskets on One Kings Lane. I found this little beauty in the basket section. There seems to be a large basket section at every Goodwill, probably things left over from the big basket epidemic in the early 90's. However, used tastefully these wicker containers are permissible. 

4. Pottery Barn

I've seen blue and white pottery used(in moderation) in so much tasteful design. I found these two pieces with the dishes and kitchen supplies and snatched them up for my bedroom. 

Funny how I later found the same piece on Pinterest multiple times, so I think I'm in good company with this one.

5. Holly Mathis Interiors

One of my favorite designers, uses tons of galvanized buckets and tubs in her decorating. I do too, maybe that's why I like her so much.......needless to say I couldn't pass this up. I'll be honest, I have no idea what I'm going to do with it yet so it's taking up some space on my console table.

Have you found anything really great or unexpected at Goodwill or any thrift store lately??

Happy Super Bowl Sunday!

It's Super Bowl Sunday, where the food is just as big as the game...

Like most of you we will be watching the game with friends and stuffing our faces with the delicious food.

And since my team will not be playing........*Sniffles*, I will be supporting the Hubb's team and my fantasy team QB, cheering for the Ravens.

And to celebrate that Maryland team I will be adding crab dip to the menu for tonight, thanks to Paula Deen.

Doesn't it look scrumptious???? 

Here's the recipe if anyone is interested,

Thanks Paula!