Life Lately

Sorry for the radio silence for almost 2 weeks. Whoops. 

I have an excuse this time! {i think...}

I am moving. Again! Or i did move, I suppose. Last Saturday.

After 11 months in our apartment, our lease is now up. It went by so fast! It's bittersweet, but we've loved #322. Well, mostly loved it. Minus a feeeew annoyances. Hah

Lindsey is off to live down the street...with a boy! And I am off to live down the street the opposite way...with some very fun friends. In a house! With a front porch swing. And twinkle lights.

Before Thanksgiving I took a random day off work to paint my new room. I enlisted the help of mom, dad and new roomie, Maria.

Before:

 While the blue and green walls are a nice touch, I thought it needed a bit of a face-lift before I got there.  Don't mind dad and his shoulder sling. He just wanted to help out too.

After:

More pics to come soon, after my life is unpacked and organized. Obviously. 

Luke's Mobile {a baby nursery project}

Oh just another project I forgot to blog. Whoops. I suppose I'm playing catch up. Also I was sick all weekend, so I had some time on my hands. Hah.

Over the summer, my sister was finishing up Baby Luke's nursery. She was in search of a mobile to hang above his crib made of branches to go with her owl theme. She found a super cute custom-made mobile, but couldn't find anywhere to buy it or anything like it. I couldn't either. Trust me, I looked.

After much consideration and much prompting from Les and mom, I decided to at least attempt to create something along the lines of the mobile she wanted. No promises that it would look anything like her inspiration, but I'd sure try!

So. I present the inspiration for this project:

Y'all. This was a hard project. Really. Maybe the hardest I've ever tackled. And this was the photo I had as a guide. So hard.

I present the mess of items we purchased {I won't even talk about how many different Garden Ridge locations we had to visit to get the right branches}.

I also won't tell you how long it took to piece the branches together in any kind of semi-curved shape. Held together with tape for reinforcement and wrapped in multi-colored yarn for cuteness.

And then we started adding things. Lots of draping and wrapping and threading. Ribbons and beads and buttons. And birds too. What's a branch without some birds?

After many hours and lots of patience and maybe at least one broken branch, here's some close ups of the finished product. I love the details. Everything came together really well. The only thing I wasn't happy with was the shape of the branches. But I suppose that's a small thing.

And here's the finished mobile in Baby Luke's nursery! Finished just in time for his arrival last August. I hope he likes it.

painting project {the staining one}

umm...remember when i said i had one more painting project to show you? in april? 

whoops! just found this draft hiding among so many posts and couldn't delete it. 

this is a good one! so...better late than never?

this is my shutter shelf.

my grandad made it for me when I was in college. 

it was a project he tackled after we saw something similar while browsing first monday in canton. 

in college, i didn't bother painting it. i just used it for a few months in our dining room before packing up my life and moving to new york. so for the past 5.5ish years, my shutter shelf was held hostage at mom and dad's house. 

but when i moved in to my dallas apartment with lindsey last january, i decided it was time for a little shutter shelf finishing project. 

the solution: staining.

i am new to staining. it was trickery. especially with all those slats. 

but i think you'll agree that these shutters had such potential with a natural look. painting a color would have been easier, but i couldn't picture it. and i knew grandad would have stained it. 

so stain i did. with a lotta help from mom. the pro-stainer herself.

it turned out so much prettier than i'd imagined. love the way the different wood soaked up the same color stain.

the finished product is pretty great. i am super happy with the way it looks in our living room.

staining project, check check!

painting project {the navy one}

Next up on my list-o-projects - a bookshelf refresh!

I stole this lil bookshelf from my parent's garage when I moved. I think it came from my Grandad's house, I'm not sure. But I do know it's just been hanging out in their garage for years and I could certainly put it to much better use!

I love that this shelf has really great shape. And maybe just a bit neglected. But tons of potential. Nothing a lil sanding and a fresh coat of paint couldn't fix!

I had a painting weekend with mom on the first nice weekend in February. We had all the windows and doors open to a sunshiney day and got to work right there in my apartment. Who needs a garage when you have a few pieces of wood for keeping paint off the floors and lots of newspapers? 

I decided on a dark navy blue for this piece. Semi-gloss this time around. 

However, after this first coat, it was not looking very dark navy at all. It was more robins egg blue. And I was quite skeptical.

So I decided to let it dry. Give it another coat. And cross my fingers that it got darker. 

If not? Well then I was prepared for another trip to home depot to get the color just right. I wanted navy!

Lucky for me, two coats of paint and a little time was all it needed to dry and darken.

I ended up being really happy with the color. And with the glossy finish.

I did have to let it dry for a few days before I could put anything on it though. Something about that semi-gloss finish made it pretty sticky. 

But once I moved it back into my room, I was totally in love with the way it turned out. The perfect shade of navy and the perfect size between these two doors.

Painting project #2, check! 

What do you think?! I think I'm starting to get really good at this game. 

Can't wait to share my next project! It has lots of character. And a good story. You know, my favorite kind of project!  :)

painting project {the yellow one}

This is my antique dresser.

The very dresser that my Grandad helped fix up for my room in college. I painted it guacamole green when I took it to my apartment in austin. Yeah, that's right. I had a light pink and green room. I'm so cute.

It has been living in my room at my parents house for the past 5.5 years. And I decided for my first big girl apartment in Dallas, it was definitely coming with me. 

But first, it needed a lil makeover.

A bright yellow makeover in fact!

The week before I was set to move out, I came home from work and announced that I decided on yellow for my dresser. And I would be making a trip to Home Depot in search of the perfect yellow.

"Yellow?" Mom asked. 

"Yes. bright yellow. It's going to be great."

"I see..." She was skeptical.

After living with Miss Hannah Kate at 9A, I had learned a thing or two about committing to the color. And let's be honest, this dresser was guacamole green before. Safe to say I have no fear of color.

Hannah also taught me about Behr Premium Plus paint and primer in one. She swears by it. Therefore, it didn't take me long to settle on this perfect shade of golden yellow. 

And the best part? No primer necessary. I just sanded down the edges a bit. And then got to work!

It did end up taking 2 coats to fully cover up that guacamole green. But between me and mom, we were done in a quick day.

I tested a dozen different versions of hardware. Because while I was quite decisive on the yellow I wanted, I was less decisive on the type of hardware that would give it the perfect finishing touch. 

There was also the fact that this dresser is very old. And all hardware would have to be custom cut to fit the width of the drawers. 

Small things though. Mom knows people at the hardware store. Clutch.

Just a quick trip to the local ACE for some sawing of screws and then I was good to go.

 What do you think? I totally love it.
And I think Hannah Kate would be very proud.