I'm sure most people know what the addicting site Pinterest is. However, if you have never heard of it before, prepare to be amazed! It is a virtual bulletin board. You "pin" your favorite recipes, fashions, movies, books, crafts, home improvements, and so on to a board. You can go back and peruse them later. Every "pin" has a website address that will direct you to directions on how to make that delicious looking chicken dish or where you can find those super cute shoes. Be forewarned, Pinterest will make your to-do list infinitely longer than it currently is. However, there are so many great ideas floating around the blogosphere and this is the best place to see it all in one location. My husband has affectionately renamed Pinterest, "157 Different Ways to Cook Chicken." :) I'm all the time making new dishes, but chicken comes up more often than others. Don't let him fool you though, he loves all the delicious items that are products of Pinterest browsing. I have done A LOT of the ideas I've seen on Pinterest. I wanted to showcase them all with links on where I got the information along with a few added instructions of my own. Enjoy!
Project: Tarleton Wreath
For this project, I saw this Alabama Wreath on StarrParnell's Etsy and decided to make a TSU Wreath. Nick & I graduated from Tarleton State University in Stephenville, Texas. We both LOVE our school. I've got many TSU items in our kitchen already, but I figured I needed a wreath now too. I got the wreath and letters at Hobby Lobby. I painted the letters Tarleton purple, but they were a bit too bright. So I watered down black paint and did a wash over the letters. I made the flowers from felt. I got sheets of felt also at Hobby Lobby: dark purple, black, white, and houndstooth (aka squatty bats! If you look closely, you can see the ears and wings of bats on houndstooth. This is from my bestie, April Anne:) ). I did four colors, three sheets of each color, and could get three flowers out of every sheet. So doing the math here, I should have ended up with 48 flowers. However, if you count, there is only 47. I messed up on a black sheet of felt and only got two out of it. Whoops. Anyways, I traced a DVD onto the fabric with a silver sharpie. Check out Little Things Bring Smiles Blog to see the step-by-step instructions on how to make the flowers. I bought the yarn and ribbon at Wal-Mart. I wrapped the wreath with the yarn and hot glued the ribbon to hang the wreath. I also hot glued everything else as well. I LOVE how it turned out, however, I will not be making another one any time soon. It was a tedious process and my back hurt from two full evenings of bending over making flowers and wrapping the wreath. But, it looks great in our kitchen and goes with the rest of my TSU paraphernalia. :)
Project: Give me some light in our living room
I put these toile curtains in our living room immediately after we moved in. I love them and they were exactly what I was looking for. However, I hadn't figured out how I wanted them to be pulled back to allow light in the room. Fast forward 13 months, and I finally did something about it! I have a glass doorknob fetish. I LOVE decorating with them. I found some curtain tie backs on Urban Outfitters. However, I wanted different knobs than the ones they were selling. So, I went to trusty old Hobby Lobby and found these! They were only $5 plus I got them for 50% off! What a deal! Then I got the tassels and ropes from Hobby Lobby as well. I love the effect it has on the curtains. It looks PERFECT.
Project: We need more pictures of our family on our walls
We didn't have very many pictures of family members on our walls. I felt kinda bad, and kinda vain because there were a lot of Nick & I. :) So, I kept seeing all of the collage walls on Pinterest. I especially liked this one from the Johnny in a Dress...Finding Comfort in Chaos blog. I'm a HUGE fan of color, but I didn't want tons of different colored frames and pictures because the walls are already blue and the furniture cinnamon. So, I went with all black and white. they all look so amazing! I snatched up a deal from Wal-Mart and was able to get 4 16 x 20 prints absolutely FREE! I bought the 16 x 20 frames on Amazon for next to nothing. I had a coworker give me a lot of frames she was going to throw away. I spray painted them. Then I filled them all with our friends and family. I love, love, love how it turned out. :)
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Far Top Right - Wyatt (nephew)
Far Middle Right - Nick playing drums
Far Bottom Right - Owen (nephew)
2nd Row Top From Right - Robertsons and Brays at mine and Nick's graduation from TSU
2nd Row Bottom From Right - Nick & I in Colorado on horseback ride
3rd Row Top Left - Alan & Tovah at Alan's Law School Graduation
3rd Row Top Right - Robertson family at Alan's Law School Graduation
3rd Row Bottom - Nick & I in Washington D.C. at the Lincoln Memorial
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Far Left Top - Larry Sullivan & Jess "Soon to be Sullivan" Wilcox
Far Left Bottom - Scotty & Alessa O'Bryan
2nd Row Top - Nick & I in Washington D.C.
2nd Row Middle - Jimmy & April Hatcher
2nd Row Bottom - Brett & Hannah Davis
3rd Row Top - Tarleton Administration Office
3rd Row Bottom Left - Sister in Hawaii
3rd Row Bottom Right - Bray Family at Mom's 50th Birthday Party
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Quote from Hobby Lobby - "Laugh as much as you breathe, Love as long as you live"
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Project: I want a big picture on my mantle
When Nick and I moved in, he originally thought about hanging our TV over the mantle. I didn't really like that idea simply because I'd always grown up with a family picture above the mantle. He agreed that it was okay to put a picture up instead of the TV. We bought an entertainment center for that instead. I got the idea from this Milk and Honey Interior Design blog. I believe it was just a frame sold in a store, but I wanted to do something different with an actual old window. This was the result! It turned out beautifully. I did an entire blog on this project alone. Click here to see it.
Project: Keep the Maltese from playing with the spare toilet paper
I have a VERY cute 2 year old Maltese puppy named Satchel. He LOVES to rip toilet paper. So, up until now, all of the spare paper has been under a cabinet behind closed doors (and just out of reach of the toilet) so Satchel couldn't get to it. This was a pain when you ran out because you inevitably forgot to put a new roll on until you came to use the restroom again. So, I started searching for toilet paper holders that were sturdy enough to withstand the puppy, yet compact enough to fit in our not-so-large bathroom. Click here to see the solution! When you click on the actual picture on Pinterest, it leads to a non-existant Etsy shop. So, I had to wing this one. I took fabric and doubled it up right sides together, measured it to the width of my toilet paper roll, and sewed the fabric shut so ended up as a tube, then flipped it right-side out. I ironed the seam and where I had sewn to make it this shape. Then I hand-sewed the ribbons on and tied it to the toilet paper holder. How, we have a spare there! So far so good. :)
Project: Wedding present for Travis & Kristen
We have some dear friends here in Pittsburg that got married August 2011. I wanted to make them something special for their wedding present. I saw this idea on the Treasury of Memories blog. I didn't buy their kit because it was out of stock at the moment. So I went back to, you guessed it, Hobby Lobby. I bought four small canvases, ribbon and paint (turquoise and brown to match their wedding colors). I got a dating picture, engagement picture and wedding picture of the two of them and modge podged them to the canvases. Measured out the ribbon and attached the canvases with hot glue. Tied a bow at the top of the ribbon. And I painted a "J" for their last name and "ESTABLISHED 2011." I think it turned out great! They both loved it.
Project: Take care of that weird space in the bathroom
I saw a really cute owl and old window combination at All Things Thrifty blog. She used two pieces of felt for her owl, I used Uppercase Living. A site where you can design your own sticker decals. They have hundreds of items to choose from. To go along with my glass doorknob fetish, I also have an old key fetish. I found the key on the website, chose chocolate brown for the color, measured the window to see how large it needed to be, and chose for both sides to be brown since it was going to be on glass. I found the window on Craig's List. A lady was giving away 15 windows! All I needed was the one, however, she made me take all of them. But no biggie, I've found other ideas for the said windows since then. :)
Project: Make your own dress failed, so make it a maxi skirt instead
I tried to make a dress I found on Pinterest. It was an absolute FAIL! Nick said it looked as if I were wearing a toga, and I had to agree with him. I don't really understand if I did something wrong, but I don't think so. The girl who wrote the instructions for that dress was extremely petite. So I'm guessing that's why it didn't look all that good on me. So, now I'm stuck with a ton of knit fabric. I found A Small Snippet's blog through Pinterest. I LOVED how easy this looked. You take a tank, cut it, make a rectangle out of knit, sew them together, and voila, you have a maxi dress with tank top top. :) I LOVE it and it only took me about 45 minutes to make. I threw on a belt instead of making the sash because it looked a little more pulled together to me. I've had tons of friends want to make one now. Do it! It's so easy! However, if I make another one, I'll use an elastic band instead of the thread. The thread didn't want to cooperate with me.
Project: Save money by eating in and having a plan
In the month of March, I decided I needed to start having a for real menu plan for each week. I found a link on Pinterest to Bold Turquoise's blog. She has all of these great print outs for you to use. I followed her directions and printed off all of the recipes I don't know by heart and put them in the binder as well. You can see my full month of April in the second picture. So far, it's been great! I've spent less than $75 a week on food and that includes breakfast, lunches and dinner. I think it's really going to be good for our family. Plus, Nick doesn't have to ask what we're having for dinner. He can just look at the book.
In the month of March, I decided I needed to start having a for real menu plan for each week. I found a link on Pinterest to Bold Turquoise's blog. She has all of these great print outs for you to use. I followed her directions and printed off all of the recipes I don't know by heart and put them in the binder as well. You can see my full month of April in the second picture. So far, it's been great! I've spent less than $75 a week on food and that includes breakfast, lunches and dinner. I think it's really going to be good for our family. Plus, Nick doesn't have to ask what we're having for dinner. He can just look at the book.
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| I impressed myself. No two days of the same food. :) |
Project: Get all of my jewelry out of the bathroom drawer and up where I can see it
I am going to do a blog dedicated entirely to this project, but I wanted to put it in here all the same.
Old picture frame + paint + lace curtain + chicken wire + ribbon + jewelry = awesome jewelry holder!
I am going to do a blog dedicated entirely to this project, but I wanted to put it in here all the same.
Old picture frame + paint + lace curtain + chicken wire + ribbon + jewelry = awesome jewelry holder!
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| This is hanging in our closet. I'm going to have to paint the wall so you can see that it has lace backing! :) |
Project: We all need to eat
As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, Nick calls Pinterest "157 Ways to Cook Chicken." I cook A LOT and this site has helped keep us from eating the exact same dish every night. Here are the biggest winners I've had from Pinterest.
