ROOAAAAARRRRR.......

I almost gave up on a project this week!? Crazy work week...cranky puppy...crappy weather...0 workouts...husband out of town...you get the point!

Since I had no time to research, shop for materials or find a mini-project that did not take much time, I found myself staring at my side-table, as I woke up this morning. Amit and I have reached a happy medium where the bed frame, bedding and curtains have shades of gray and brown, and I get to throw in an accent of purple/lavender for the wall art, side-table and rug. I looked at this piece of furniture and just knew that it needed some spicing up!

I pulled out a drawer and set it on its side...ignore Mojo doing his investigation...as always

I got hold of my most faithful friend...a black Sharpie :) It came to me that all this needs is some animal print. I just started doodling some leopard print. I broke it down into large and medium spots and then fillers.

Once I got through the whole side, I picked a shade of Purple to fill in. This is going by the color theme in the room.

This whole side took around 20 minutes to finish. It was ready to go back in...here is a preview.

I repeated the process with the top-drawer and this is what the finished side looks like...

I just have another side on this table and another side-table to go. I'll get to it when I need some therapy time...it's weird, but coloring works as therapy for me and I can get through a lot of crap in my head!

This is all from me today...If you have other 'spicing up' ideas for your side table or accent table, do share!

Conveying with Collages

This post is not about a particular project, but more about a design aesthetic that I absolutely swear by! As the empty rooms in our new house continue to come together as living spaces, I cannot help but walk around and notice things that really stand out for me. By the way I have filled up my wall spaces, it is pretty obvious that I naturally incline towards collages. I could actually find 9 different arrangements of art/photos/wall decor that form a collage. Some of them were bought that way and some of them come together as I wouldn't like it any other way!

With this post, I want to show you guys how 2, 3, 4 and sometimes 6 different items came together to tell a story. Hang in there as I walk you through my 9 examples :)

1. This beautiful LIVE - LOVE- LAUGH collage has travelled with us through 3 different residences. We were lucky to have a great photographer at our wedding (JKoe Photography) and it was really hard to chose our favorites. We just had to display these pictures and we found the right spot above the couch in the living room. This not only brings back great memories for us, but also is a great conversation-starter with family and friends. We found this one as-is at Bed Bath and Beyond.

2. Mojo has his own special corner in the house, where he sleeps. We brought him home when he was two months old, but the breeders gave us his baby pictures. I bought this frame from Target and put all his baby pictures in it. Meeting this frame in the corner are cardboard letters that spell out MOJO...I stuck bright green paper on the front and hung them with shoe laces on a push pin.

3. The arrangement below is part of the Media room set-up. We bought these frames on sale and came in a set of three at Dania. It has a very sleek and modern vibe to it and we needed these colors on the dark walls of the room. We chose red as the accent color in the room and added some pillows, a wall clock and other red knick knacks to keep the color going.

4. You guys have seen how this project came together in the post Shoes and Decoupage can fix everything. This is definitely one of my favorite collages and even though it is 6 different pieces, they really come together as one big piece of art. Also, don't be shy to experiment with the layouts; cut out small pieces of scrap paper/newspaper of the same size of your canvas and play around with tape, before drilling holes.

5. Our master bathroom has a lot of off-white surfaces- tiles on the floor and shower, all the walls, even the tiles surrounding the sinks. We added a dark shade of gray to add depth. We found some frames at Home Goods that mimic the tile work around the sinks. These were actually 2 different sets and we decided to put them together as one long arrangement. Since the frames are across from the mirror, the reflection gives the illusion of 8 frames in a row!

6. Who says that the laundry room has to be dull and boring? We ladies spend a lot of time in there and there better be something pretty to look at. I bought these frames and posters at Ikea and colored the corners orange with a Sharpie. I added more orange in the ribbons that I tied to the back and used round push-pins to hang them in a slanting arrangement.

7. We were 'inspired' by a model house guest bath painting technique and shamelessly copied it in our house. Light gray on the top, a wide strip of white and dark gray on the bottom...looks amazing! When I found these mirror pieces at Ikea, it was as if they were made for the Ikat shower curtains from Urban Outfitters. So I had no option but bring them together in this interesting mish-mash of pattern, strips and squares.

8. My husband and I went to the University of Washington and definitely bleed purple and gold! I thought getting a Master's Degree was a huge accomplishment for me, but my science-loving, lab rat of a husband got himself a PhD! Graduation was a big deal for our families and they actually convinced us to pay for these photos and make copies and send it to them. This collage has our pictures and diplomas in a grid; where different colors and frame-styles come together to tell a story. 

9. This collage covers an entire wall and holds 28 pictures. It has pictures of our favorite people and moments since we were kids. The biggest challenge was to include all our favorite pictures but work with the orientation of the slots. But it definitely came together beautifully and on many occasions were find ourselves standing across from it and reminiscing in the good ol' days!

I hope you guys enjoyed this tour and I urge you to break free from the store-packaging of wall art...You have to decide what looks good to you and if you cannot find it, you have to make it. But remember, the word is Collection...not Clutter :)

Front Door # 2

Thanks to daylight savings and change of seasons, the weather in Seattle is getting much nicer. The days are longer and believe it or not...sunnier :) In continuation to last week's post, this week's project also focuses on the outside...I am calling this front door # 2. This door leads to a L-shaped patio and I had few empty corners to work with. Also, this door faces the road via which other residents walk/drive by...this time I definitely had to UP the curb appeal! As always, I used a bunch of items I already had but found a different purpose for them.

Two out of the three rules from the post Front Door # 1 applied here as well:

1. I wanted to skip the seasonal decor and find something that would work throughout the year.

2. We have some restrictions on what we can put up; we cannot drill holes or put up any nails/hooks on the structure.

Since I had more space to work with, I broke this project down into 3 different sub-projects: 1 planter + garden stool, 3 small planters with a decorative stand and a wreath. Keep reading as I break each one down for you!

Sub-project 1: Planter + Garden Stool

I had an orange planter from Pier 1 imports from many years ago and it matched the exterior paint colors perfectly. Pier 1 has a large selection of outdoor decor and you can find your favorite here. I stopped by Micheals to pick up a bunch of things:

• a medium sized terra cotta planter
• green styrofoam to hold my flowers in place
• three stems of hydrangeas with berries
• a garden stool

Step 1: Insert the terra cotta planter within the orange ceramic planter. I did this so that I don't have to commit this arrangement to the orange planter; I wanted to have the option to switch the arrangement to another base, and use the orange planter for something else, without having to re-do the whole arrangement. Also, I am sure you noticed that the terra cotta planter is 2 inches higher than the base, but ignore it for now, as I will use the flowers to cover it up.

Step 2. Fit the green styrofoam in the terra cotta planter; I secured it with some stones. You can trim the styrofoam with a kitchen knife, the idea is that it should fit tight in the planter.

Step 3: Take the 3 stems and fold the branch to give them different heights.

Step 4: Insert the branches in the styrofoam and tweak your stems to get the desired height and width for the arrangement.

I plopped it on a garden stool and it fit right into the corner of the patio. The weight of both planters, styrofoam and rocks keeps this arrangement sturdy. I can see this from the roadside and also as soon as I step out of the door.

Sub-project 2: Three small planters with a decorative stand

My sister-in-law gifted me this beautiful stand that can hold 3 arrangements and I had the perfect corner for it on the patio. On the same shopping trip at Michaels for sub-project 1, I also picked up:

• 3 small terra cotta planters
• 3 fake greens
• 3 fake flower stems, with purple and yellow flowers

Step 1: Make 3 sets of the planter, fake green and flower stem

Step 2: Insert the green and flower stems in the planter; the stem will go through the drainage hole. You can trim it if you want a cleaner look. 

Step 3: Place the planters on the stand and pat your back on finishing the arrangement in under 60 seconds!

 If you know me you know very well how much I love the purple + yellow combination. The flowers look 'real enough' to have this arrangement during spring and summer. I'll probably just leave it there during fall and winter and shamelessly accept the fact that I CANNOT take care of a real plant...believe me, I have tried, it died in a week!

Sub-project 3: Paper Cone Wreath

For this project I did not have to buy anything, I used materials I already had at home. While browsing through Pinterest (Oh! c'mon...it was outside of work hours :P) I found paper-cone wreaths and I really wanted to try one. As far as materials were concerned, I needed:

1. Multi-color paper. I reused an old 1-page-a-day origami calendar that had a printed side. I picked the orange, blue and green colors.

2. A round foam base. I reused a piece of decor that I had bought for a 'nautical' themed bathroom in my older apartment. It had the shape and material that I needed for the wreath base. I left the colors and thread on as it was going to get covered by the cones, anyway.

3. Foam board cut to size of the foam base.

4. Paper Glue

 Step 1: Make a lot of paper cones! Depending on the size of your foam base and the number of colors/layers you want to have, you will need that many cones. Recruit a friend or a spouse :)

Step 2: Arrange the cones (don't use glue yet) in a circular arrangement to see how you want the colors to play out. I decided to have blue on the outside, green in the middle and orange in the center. Based on that I needed more blue cones than green cones and I had to half the orange cones to get the height right. I just prefer playing around a bit, before I start glueing!

Step 3: I started by glueing the blue cones on the outermost periphery. I aligned them tightly together and also ensured that no 2 same prints were next to each other.

Step 4: Then I added the green cones; their tips actually met at the center of the foam board.

Step 5: I added the smaller sized orange cones at the center of the arrangement.

Step 6: I gave it a brown center piece that hid all imperfections of glueing and mismatched tips. As the glue dried, I added some weight on the cones and made them slightly flatter. You can skip this step if you want a rounder look. 

It uplifts my white door with all the brightness!

Giving you some more angles below...You can see the foam base and thread from the side, but not from the front. The size works great for our door, but you can always downsize if you want to make one for a window or fireplace.

That's all for this project, but before you leave, let me know which one was your favorite!

Front Door # 1

My project for this week focused on the space outside the house. We have 2 main entrances to the house; one is a simple walk-in while the other goes through the patio. This post will focus on the 'walk-in' area and I will call it, front door # 1.

I had 3 basic requirements:

1. I wanted to skip the seasonal decor and find something that would work throughout the year.

2. We have some restrictions on what we can put up; we cannot drill holes or put up any nails/hooks on the structure.

3. That is the same door through which we take Mojo out, so nothing that could tip over or break easily.

After weeks of pinteresting, I was about to give up, when I saw a square- shaped wreath at Pier 1. Not only was it a unique shape, but it was covered in cute, fake greens, which would make it perfect for all seasons. The only thing that worked against me was the price :(

I decided to hit Michaels and find something that I could 'DIY' and make it my own, inspired from what I already liked. This is what I bought:

1. A beautifully carved piece of plywood from the crafts section. 

2. Outdoor paint to give it a coat that protects it from the sun and rain.

3. Sheet of fake greens 

4. Sturdy Thread

5. Wreath hanger

I started by painting the plywood a slightly darker color of the original. I needed something that stood out on a white door.

Then I turned the sheet of fake greens on its back and ran a thread through the carved sections of the plywood and the base of the sheet.

Once the paint was dry, it was ready to go up! 

I also found a heavy-duty glass vase that was on mark-down at Pier 1. I liked how the color would compliment the wreath and pull the look together. I filled it with some flower branches and found the perfect spot for it by the door. 

The whole project (wreath + vase) came under $80 and I was able to meet all three of my requirements. Do you guys dig?

Shoes and Decoupage can fix everything!

Every girl wants and deserves some shoe therapy! Growing up as a tomboy, I only discovered my love for shoes after college, once I had to 'dress up' for work. Even though I stick with the cute, comfy styles, I am an admirer of the sleek, bad-ass ones. I ogle at other women's feet and stop and compliment them every once in awhile.

This week's project was to reuse some pages from my 2013 one-page-a-day calendar of shoes. Every morning I walked into my office, turned over a page and felt a deep *sigh* at the beautiful sight. Even though I cannot own 365 shoes, I allow myself to dream that I have a designer pair for the day. My goal was to pick a select few, took me 2 hours to pick these 6, and add a naughty pick-up line to each one of them:) This is a very small preview of what one can do with shoes, canvas and mod-podge....the possibilities are endless.

1. I picked one of my favorite shoes from the calendar.

2. I cut-out just the shoe part, eliminating all the extra paper.

3. I used craft decoupage (most commonly used: Mod-podge) as glue on the back of the shoe cut-out. Then positioned it on the canvas and then added one think coat on top of the cut-out, to ensure that it was sealed to the canvas. This amazing crafter's favorite comes in different finishes, for different surfaces. This one has a matte finish.

4. I repeated the same process with 5 other shoe cut-outs. I allowed them to dry for an hour. Then I looked up fun 'shoe quotes' on the Internet and found some really good ones. I went back to my stash of Sharpies and added some sarcasm and attitude to my shoes (not that they needed it).

5. I put them up on a wall that I walk past everyday. It makes me smile and walk with my head held high!

I have a few more ideas for my one-page-a-day calendar, as I have one for Shoes and one for Bags from 2012 and 2013!

• Continue making these frames for friends and co-workers as gifts. I can mix it up with different canvas sizes and quotes.
• Throw a 'bag and shoe' themed party and use these for invites, gifts, party decor,  etc. I may save this one for my 30th birthday, giving me enough time to make everything ;)
• Make custom stationary (cards, notebook dividers, book marks) with this background, and a 'R' logo.

Do you gals have any other ideas?