Fabulous Fabric

Do you remember this post? Where I asked for help on finding good - but inexpensive - fabric?

Well, I did. I found it about 2 months ago - and I'm just now getting around to telling you about it.

Clemson Girl told me about this fabric store that is about an hour from my house. It is a mecca of cheaply priced fabric. It is so awesome.

Here's what I came up with for making my own roman shade for the back door. I liked the geometrics of the fabric below, the colors were pretty neutral for the yellow-orange paint on the wall. The only problem with it is that it's not quite long enough to do the whole window. I need to find a solid color to go at the top and bottom of the shade - and then I'll be all set.


What do you think? What color should I get for the top/bottom of the shade to sew it all together?

While I was in this fabric mecca, I found some other fabric that I picked up and just couldn't put back down. I have no idea what I'm going to do with it (yet). But I am bound and determined to figure something out!
Suggestions??


Look at that - $7.50 for 1.5 yards of embroidered fabric? You can't beat that.

Read more...

Dining Room - in progress

Last week I showed you the morning room. This week, it's the dining room.

This room is most definitely still "in progress" because we plan on adding a chair rail around the room (hence the two different colors) and picture frame molding on the white section, below the chair rail.

This color is Benjamin Moore Revere Pewter on the top. The bottom is the builder's "custom" semi-gloss trim color. It's mixed by Sherwin Williams and they call it "Soft Shell" - but there are apparently about 20 different mixes of Soft Shell. You have to tell them your neighborhood and lot number and cross your fingers. Thankfully, we got the right color.

So what do you think? Ideas for other wall hangings or table centerpieces?

Read more...

The Morning Room

We've been doing some painting around the house lately. We knew we wanted a vivid color in the morning room (or technically we use it as a breakfast nook - but that's neither here nor there). We picked out this picture on the wall shortly after we moved into the house.

It has a terrible glare on it in the picture I took - so here's a better look at it:

(Image source: Jim Booth's gallery)

It's called Lowcountry Sunset by Jim Booth. When The Mr. lived in Charleston, sometimes he would take me to a bench overlooking the marsh and we'd either watch the sunrise or the sunset. This picture definitely captures one of the many things we loved about Charleston - and so we knew it was something we wanted to have in our home.

So when choosing a color for the morning room - which is where this lovely picture resides - we knew we wanted to use a color out of the sunset. We chose to go one shade darker than the kitchen - so we picked Sherwin Williams Torchlight. We had it color matched into Glidden paint - but after this painting experience, I'll never use Glidden again. I've never had such a difficult time getting good coverage on the walls.

So without further ado:





The room is still a little empty and lacking in the decor department - but I wanted to share the color with you because I'm pretty thrilled with how it turned out.

I know I need to replace that awesome Clemson floor mat with something that, well, "matches". And I would like to put a roman shade up on the patio door - I just need some help picking out the fabric.

So what do you suggest I do with this room? What else should I add in here to make it feel like like it's complete?

Read more...

Weekend Wrap Up

Where did the weekend go?? Gosh! I'm going to give you the highlights.

========================

I have put up the 2009 Christmas decorations (and I have a feeling the 2010 decorations will look oddly familiar...) :) I had to get some stocking hangers (Lowes) and some more ornaments to decorate the mantel this year. It turned out nicely and perhaps I'll share some pictures soon.

Speaking of Christmas decorations - I mentioned that I was going to try my hand making this hat. I realized that I didn't mention that it was going to be our tree topper as opposed to the traditional star or angel or something like that. Well, I tried. And I tried hard to make this hat. I told The Mr. at about 3pm Saturday afternoon that perhaps I should have just bought the hat. He kept saying no, it's fine. You can do it.

Fine. I can do it, but I needed break.

As of today, the hat has been purchased. :) The supplies ended up being more than the hat cost...plus the time and frustration.

I think he caved because he could tell that I wasn't happy with the quality of what I was producing. Could I do it? Yes. Would it be done by Christmas? No.

========================

Clemson. Oh, Clemson. You should have been the ACC Champions but who knows what happened. We lost the game to Georgia Tech but that's okay. CJ Spiller played a helluva game and hopefully he gets a good spot in the NFL. But first, CJ for Heisman.

That's all about that. My blood still runs orange.

========================

I turned 26 yesterday. Everyone keeps telling me that puts me into my "late" 20s. I suppose so, but really I don't feel any different than I did when I turned 24 or 25.

I had a great birthday. Very relaxing and got several things done. The things I didn't get done (like folding the laundry or cleaning the bathrooms) will happen at some point this week...just not today. I enjoyed a day just letting what feels like my responsibilities fly to the wind.

The highlight of the day? The Mr. made me stuffed shells. Stuffed shells are my favorite dinner food. My mom would always make me stuffed shells for my dinners when I was growing up. The Mr. had never had stuffed shells before (and obviously never made it either). He did a great job - two thumbs up!

Followed the stuffed shells up with some ice cream and I was a happy camper.

========================

And last, but not least, I promise I'll clean up this mess of a blog soon.

Anyone want to suggest some color inspirations? I need a jumping point. I was thinking grey and yellow - I love the color combo but I don't feel it being "pulled off" here.

Please leave your suggestions after the tone. :)

Read more...

Christmas DIY

Just add this to my list of things I want to make as Christmas decorations this year!

Read more...

...Beth...

For lack of a better statement, this post has been burning a hole in my pocket! I wanted the bride-to-be to see her Save the Dates in person before reading about them on my blog - so I postponed this post for her to receive it in the mail.

I got the phone call last night saying she got it in the mail and she just loves them. :) I am so excited that she loves them because I love them too! They turned out beautifully!

The card front has these adorable flowers cut out of plantable seed paper attached with a purple brad as the flower center.

Inside the card:

I love the saying - especially since you can plant the flower on the front of the card.
Get it? :)

The back of the card:

These are the instructions for planting the dye cut on the front of the card.

This was also my first project that got a logo printed on it.

But it's still slightly in the works, so I'm still not totally ready to "unveil" it yet.

Maybe that will be a post in the next couple of days because I am almost there.

What do you think? What did your Save the Dates look like?

Stay tuned for the invitations that go with these Save the Dates! But before those come around, I'll have some Christmas cards to show you!

Read more...

Baby Ducks!

I think little yellow ducks are so cute. Too cute.

I finished up some baby shower invitations for a client a few weeks ago. I really enjoyed working on this project and I got a lot of great feedback on them!

My favorite part is the addition of the bright ribbon to the top. It really added the *pop* that it needed!

What do you think? What do you like to see on baby shower invitations?

Read more...

Heidi's Cards

After my giveaway earlier this summer, Heidi asked me to make some monogrammed cards for her. I was tickled that she wanted me to make some cards!

Here is a sampling of the cards that I made for her. Let me know what you think!

Read more...

Just Like New...

When The Mr. moved into his first home, his parents had just found two very old desks. They gave one of them to him. Apparently it came from The Citadel - but we don't know what whole story. It sat in the back bedroom and we never really thought anything of it. When we moved across the state and into our new house the desk came with us of course.

When we moved into this new house, we had the task of figuring out where to put everything. I had ditched my old desk when we moved out of my apartment since it was so rough and beat up. We repurposed our living room as a "craft room" and put the old desk in there as my working space. Here it is before:



This is the top...it has seen better days.


I stripped and sanded down the old desk. I didn't take any in progress pictures because at times I just found myself to be frustrated with that whole process - but here's me beginning to stain the desk. Behind me is a new desk that we also purchased to put into the craft room - so of course it needs some stain too.


...rocking my circa 2002 Tiger Band t-shirt. The following year's t-shirts were not nearly as cool, comfortable, or "shakin' the southland" as this one. I love this shirt and will keep it until it falls to pieces. :)

Here are the afters:

Old Desk:
Top of the old desk: (remember the top of it before? Scroll back up - it looks awesome now!)

Both desks in the room:


The room isn't finished quite yet - I still want to get some floating shelves to put on the wall, some sort of stand to sit between the desks so I have an L-shaped working space...and then I can get the printer off that desk, some magnetic strips, and a new book case to deal with all that clutter. I'll show you more one it's finished!

Read more...

Business Names

I've spent a decent amount of time designing, creating, and painstackingly cutting, assembling, and printing wedding invitations for people. Each time I do, by word of mouth, I get another client. Which is a-maz-ing.

And each time I do, I think to myself "Man, if only I had a name and website that these people could visit to see the things I've made, costs of the items, and even place their orders."

What's stopping me? I.have.no.idea what to call this so called place of business.

I need something classy and stylish - so when I stick a few extra business cards in with the order, people can pass them out to their friends.

I need it to be memorable so when they say "Go to her website and blah blah blah.com" they remember it later.

I need something that says "Hey, this person does invites and cards and things that are super cute!"

I need to stand out. Not fade into the background with all the other millions of people who design & sell paper goods.

So this is where you, my 28 faithful followers, come in. Pleeeeease help me!

{I'm begging. Seriously. No one else has been able to help.}

Here's what I've come up with:

1. Mrs. B Designs
2. says it all paper
3. Paper Per You
4. Fancy Filigree

Editted to add:
5. Sunshine Press
6. Sunshine Paper Press
7. Southern Paper Press
8. Part Time Paper Press

What are your thoughts? Do you like these in any particular order? Do you have a better idea?

Read more...

Mishelle's Wedding Invitations

These invitations turned out amazing. I am so excited about this invitation suite I put together for Mishelle and Zach. This is the first glimpse everyone will see for their big day - and I know they are really excited about it!

My favorite part about the invitation is that it's a pocketfold - but the inserts didn't have the titles on the edges. Instead the scroll work is poking out the side and it makes for a very nice look.

I also love all the little touches of pink on the inserts. Mishelle's color scheme is of course black, white and just a touch of pink. So cute!

If you like what you see - let me know and we can whip up some designs for you too!

Read more...