LPB - Curtains (pun intended)

After living in our house for almost two years, we finally got around to putting curtains in our living room. I found a pattern from Target that I liked and since we were getting married, put it up on the registry (free stuff is the best stuff).We luckily got one set from my friend Grace and I purchased the other set with a Target gift card also from the wedding.

We put the first attached the brackets higher than the window to make the ceiling feel taller as spoken about at Apartment Therapy. Everything was going swimmingly until...

Right before we finished hanging the curtain rod, Max, who was standing on the couch instead of a chair, twisted his ankle, fell onto the coffee table and almost fell on a screwdriver. Thank the Lord he didn't. Turk knew he was in pain and began to lick him to make him feel better. Sometimes it's crazy how intuitive animals really are.

The rest of the day we spent in urgent care making sure he didn't re-break his ankle again. Sad news was he did trigger his hairline fracture but it wasn't severe. Here he is rollin' like a badass at Target while we waited for his pain medication.

After all that, we have lovely curtains in our living room. I'm loving the Moroccan print!

Do you like the mix of brights, neutrals and patterns?

LBP - The Bedroom Lamps

So this "Lost Blog Post" was pretty much a year in the making. Seriously. Lost for a year. Wedding planning pushed this bad boy back so far I almost forgot about it! I redid these lamps in June or July of 2012.

Here we go!

I found these brand new, matching Target overstock lamp bases at Goodwill for $12.99, retailing at Target for around $24.99 (sorry its been a year later and now they are no longer online, this is similar).

Although the lamps were black, I knew a quick coat of spray paint would make them match wherever I finally decided to place them. Final place decided would be our master bedroom.

The Goodwill stickers were on the ceramic base quite well so I used the paint and adhesive remover Goof Off to remove them. You can find it in the paint section of any major home improvement store. Goof Off uses citrus extracts to break down the gunk and it sort of just wrinkles and falls off. A quick wipe with soap and water made it a clean surface to start.

Before painting, I covered the electrical base with a plastic bag and sealed it with painter's tape.

I wrapped the cord as well with painters tape.

I hit the lamps with my Rust-Oleum Ultra Cover 2X Coverage Primer that I've used in various other projects. I love it. It does a great job. I put on two coats just to make sure my coverage was even and there were no operator issues.

With all DIY projects, sometimes you have a little fail. I didn't anticipate how large the over spray would have been with the spray cans and my cords got covered in primer. Oops! From now on, I will always put the cords in a bag as well!

After I added two coats of Rust-Oleum's Painter's Touch Ultra Cover 2X Coverage spray paint in Gloss Warm Yellow. 

Overall, I love the results! I added two lamp shades I already had and they are just perfect accent for reading in bed with the hubs.

I love the warm ambiance they give the room now!

What paint mishaps have you had while DIYing? See another LBP in this photo?

LBP - The Yellow Mirror

Last year, our wedded bliss had put a little damper on our projects. Not so much from the stand-point that we didn't do projects and update our house, but more so we completed projects much faster than we could document them. If you are an avid follower (which come on now, you really should be), you noticed a lot of sporadic postings.

I'd like to introduce a series of blog posts to you called the "Lost Blog Posts" or the LBPs for short. Some of these posts are semi-broken up. Some of these posts overlap with other posts. Some have a start and are missing steps in getting to the final product. The long story short, these are Maureen's little orphans. So let's get reacquainted and give these orphans some light.

Lost Blog Post - The Yellow Mirror

The mirror doesn't have a huge fancy story but it does have a big impact on our living room wall. We found this little shining star at the Appleton Goodwill store while in town visiting our future officiant for our wedding. I made Max stop in and then after perusing their inventory found this little beaut for $5.99.

The golden rod color really gives a pop of color to our wall and it works really well with some of the pillows we already have. As you can tell, I'm really trying to blend the bright colors with neutrals to keep them grounded and not overpowering the room. No one likes to come into a room and BAM! Color just puked all over them.

So that is orphan #1.

In other news, I just had my 31st birthday. It was quietly spent this year with Max and it was quite nice. The biggest surprise of the evening was after cooking me a whole meal of delicious stuffed peppers with wine, he went straight for a sorority girl's heart and started a fund to help me pay my lifetime alumna dues along with my sorority's flowers (our wedding flowers). Such a winner! Truly, I am a lucky woman!

The Ripple Effect

When we brought the new sectional sofa on a whim, who knew what effect it would have on the rest of our house. I mean, that furniture needed to go somewhere. Max and I wanted to put the sectional in our blue room making our old living space more of a sitting/entrance room.

I have mentioned before, I am a bit of a second hand furniture hoarder. I first released the patio furniture outside so it can actually be used for its intentional purpose. We also wanted to finally use the futon for something other than a couch (hey we aren't in college anymore), a little more on that later... But there is now definitely a gap. Next thing to look for, comfy chair with an over-sized ottoman.

I first brought up two chairs I have been storing for the last 3-4 months in the basement. They are two sturdy "70s-ish" arm chairs. I found them at the Salvation Army down the street one $25 for the set. I know they are still an eyesore with their fading vinyl but after sitting on them, they have very sturdy seats and (hopefully) will be relatively easy to recover. Don't you just love the nail head edging?! I'll definitely have to add that back when I get new fabric.

To get them covered sooner than later, I found this muted zebra print I found at a online fabric store called Texas Sussanie's. I just love that name! Only in Texas would you have a name like Sussanie. Getting back to the fabric, the background is tan and the actual strip is brown.

Amazingly enough, I found this brand-new, in the box Target end table at Goodwill for $24.99. I know, right! I tried to find it online but it might be sold out or no longer in stock. No matter, it. is. awesome.

Here is a better look at the wood top. With the current decor and carpeting, I think it works great. Once we refinish the hardwood floors, I might give it a paint job so that the table doesn't fade into the wood overhaul. We shall see...

I (again) moved this rotating end table to the odd corner behind the TV as more of a featured area. This has now been in the bedroom, guest bedroom and the living room. Maybe it will find a permanent home someday.

Since I moved the arm lamp in by the new sectional, I needed some lighting in this side of the room now. Remember that my mom got me some Goodwill lamps and new shades for Christmas? I could never find a good place for them until now. They look great along the sofa giving an eclectic, modern look.

My desk mini bar that I've had since college, I added as a console table by the front door. This has been another floating piece of furniture. I have a feeling it will get retired in the near future. For now, shine on little buddy.

If you remember, we used to have estate sale cabinet that now houses my grandmother's vintage dish collection in the former sitting room. It was sort of an odd place for it but it was out of the way and no one really went in there much. We ended up moving it probably the most obvious of places, the dining room. This means we moved the beer fridge into the closet/future laundry area. Do we move stuff a lot? Yes. Everything always is in constant flux. Lord knows what will happen when we start to finish the basement...

I love that I can have fresh flower clippings now as well. Like the vase? I got it on clearance from Z. Gallarie for $4.

Another thing I have been hiding, this handmade wine rack I picked up for $5 from Salvation Army. I promise you there was many more bottles at one point in time. They don't tend to stick around too long at this house.

Last, but certainly not least, our futon! We got rid of of the twin beds and moved the "fu" in here to make it look more like an office. It is Turk's second favorite place currently. He even stopped sleeping with us and sleeps in here. Part of me is grateful, the other is sad I'm missing my snuggle puppy. Either way, I think it looks great in here!

Have any major furniture moving fiascoes lately? Are you a constant migratory furniture mover like us? Tell your story!

Fun With Fabric

May has already been kicking my butt. I haven't been this busy since my sorority days in college. Four Weddings and A Funeral? Well I have two weddings, two Brewers baseball games, one Incubus concert, one charity walk, one family reunion, possible tooth removal and our engagement photos...all while we are still trying to fix up the house, oh and did I mention we are still planning our wedding?!

I have been squirreling away frames I see from Goodwill, Salvation Army and the Dollar Tree to finally start getting things on the walls. They did not need to match though. Little paint can fix just about anything.

I first used my trusty Rust-Oleum Ultra Cover Primer and primed each surface of the frames.

I made sure to get into every crevice of the surfaces to ensure proper paint adhesion.

I then went back with Rust-Oleum white paint in a satin finish. Using a couple of coats for proper coverage.

Ten newly ready frames for my artistic creativity and photos to be added!

So back to the title of this post "Fun With Fabric". Many of the frames I bought were new and many came with white matching pre-cut mats.

Using one of the pre-matted frames, I used a bold printed piece of fabric I picked up at JoAnn Fabrics for about $3 and (after ironing the fabric first) cut the fabric to size. I used those awkward  family print that comes with the frame as my guide. 

Since it came with the mat, I just framed the printed fabric.

And since you all know by now I have a dirty love affair with striped prints, I did the same with a navy and cream using a little Dollar Tree pre-matted frame. Total cost of these projects with frames was about $11.

After working so crazily hard on making our walls smooth and hole free, I had a hard time putting nails back in them. I headed over to Lowe's and picked up a bunch of 3M Command hangers to prevent my possible indecisiveness from later having to re-repair the walls, again.

I hung them with my homemade fabric artwork from here above our couch in the living room. I apologize for the photo, I best lighting doesn't always give the greatest non-reflective glare of our front lawn.

So what do you think!? Not to shabby huh? I might add a few more things when I finally get some nice end tables in here. All in do time though.