Seeing Stripes

After seeing THIS tutorial floating around Pinterest and THESE curtains on the Nester (a blog I read regularly) I was sold on the idea of striped curtains for the guest room. I was initially concerned about the curtains being "crunchy" where the paint was. After reading the comments on the first tutorial I knew there was something you could add to regular paint to make it safe for fabric, but no one knew what it was. After many failed google searches later, I almost gave up on the idea.

Then one day, as if it was a sign, another one of the blogs I read posted a tutorial on "paining striped curtains". And believe it or not, she had been inspired by the same Pinterest tutorial, but she revealed the additive AND where to get it! I was in luck!!

Both tutorials are very good and I read (and re-read) both before starting mine! I was a little worried when doing mine because I couldn't find the sailcloth curtains at either of our local Target's. So I decided on some that were a little more of a linen feel. I was VERY afraid that the paint would seep under the tape since the fabric moved so easily and wasn't as stiff as the 2 examples.

Since my curtains were longer than the examples, I had to do my own math (yuck!) and decided on 6 inch stripes with a wider band (about 9 inches) on the bottom. I did iron mine before starting and it helped a lot! Also, like the tutorials say PLEASE don't forget to add the tape into the measurements or your stripes will be off. I'm not speaking from experience, I'm just saying. hehe. (I luckily noticed before I had gotten too far along!) I only did one coat of paint, but would suggest doing two. I ran out of time and Hercules had ran out of patience (he had to be in his crate or we would have had a mess!) so I only did one. They still look great, but another coat would have been better!

Since the other 2 tutorials are so good, I will spare you with all the details and just show you my pictures :)



After I got my tape on, I decided to add little pieces in the white stripes, just to make sure I didn't mess up and paint the wrong ones :)



The paint was finally on, but I was afraid to peel off the tape! I was afraid to see that the paint had bled threw and I had just wasted my time and money!



It hadn't! They turned out great! Here they are laying over the guest bed (with a drop cloth over the bed) drying over night before heat setting them!



See, crisp and clean lines! Yahoo!



All finished and hanging up. I love them so much! So glad I did this project!!

Over all this project was pretty easy and didn't really take as long as I expected. I know you might be wondering about the color scheme I have going on with the 2 different greens and navy from the first two projects and now the coral color, but I promise it looks great! I will show you the finished room soon!

I Love Lamp!

When it came to the lamp in the guest room I knew I wanted to try something I saw on the Nate Berkus show a few weeks ago (the original tutorial is HERE). I wanted the base to be pretty plain, preferably glass. I found just what I was looking for at Homegoods.


Here's how I made my lampshade:

Supplies -
3 different colors of yarn
hot glue gun
alligator clips (like the ones you use to make hair clips)

Step 1:
Unlike the original tutorial, I wasn't sure I wanted the lampshade to be like this forever. Because of this I used very little hot glue. Plus I didn't want to burn all of my finger tips off :) So, I started with NO glue! I know, it sounds crazy, but I just clipped the first row to the lamp shade with the alligator clips to hold it tight.

As you will see the first row kept popping off, but it will be OK once you get a few rows wrapped tight. Just don't worry about it until the end and keep wrapping!

Step 2:
Kind of like the vase tutorial yesterday, just keep wrapping tightly. When it came time to switch colors, I clipped the end of the first color so that it would stay tight. Cut the first color and knot the second color to it. You can do whatever pattern you wish. Every time I switched colors, I did it exactly the same, making sure to keep the knots all of the same side where I started the yarn at the very beginning.


Step 3:
Once you have the yarn wrapped all the way to the top, clip it so it stays tight. Just like the bottom, the top didn't want to stay on the shade and kept popping off. (That's why there is a strip of white on the top and bottom. It will be covered with yarn at the end!)


Step 4:
Once your glue gun it hot, starting with the top un-clip the yarn and give it once last pull tight. It should be on the same side of the shade as the knots. Put on a tiny little bit of glue and place the end of the yarn in the glue (trying not to get your fingers! Ha!) Do the same thing for the bottom of the shade.


Step 5:
Put the shade back on the lamp and enjoy! :)

Repurposed Vases

I am almost done with the guest room! Just 2 more projects to go! I have 5 total that I am going to show you starting with the first one today!

Before Matt and I moved into our apartment, one the trainers had been living in it. After he moved out he was kind enough to leave our refrigerator stocked with beer. The only problem is Matt and I don't drink beer. But, I decided to keep them because I thought it was wasteful to just throw them away and thought maybe some of our friends would drink them.

Well, they are are still in there. So I decided to put some of the bottles to good use and I made some flower vases!

Supplies you will need:
Empty bottles
Yarn
Glue

Step 1:
Place a small amount of glue on bottom of bottle and secure your yarn

Step 2:
Start wrapping your yarn. The tighter you wrap the better.

Step 3:
Keep wrapping until you have the whole vase wrapped.



Step 4:
Secure the end with glue.

That's it! It's so very easy almost anyone can do it! Enjoy your new vases!

Thoughtful Thursday

A workout is a personal triumph over laziness and procrastination.

Excuse Me, Please

Please excuse me from blogging today(and maybe the next few days) as I have a visitor coming to see me soon (My Sister!) and the guest room looks like this:

I have several projects I'm going to try in this room that I saw on Pinterest. I'm working on them this week and will blog about them when finished! I also have a few other projects I'm planning on working on this week too!

I can't wait to show you the room when it's finished!!

730 Running

I hope you didn't think I was talking about 7:30 am running. (or 7:30pm for the matter!) Because I don't particularly like to run. But I do love these "running" shoes... the 730 New Balance.

I first found these shoes at Finish Line when I asked the salesman for a "lightweight training shoe that has as close to a 'zero drop' sole as possible". Side note: I asked for that type of shoe because that is what is considered to be the ideal crossfit shoe. Many crossfitters wear a shoe called "inov8", but I wanted to try something similar before investing in Inov8's (they can be quite expensive).

Back to Finish line :) So, the salesman brought me the New balance 730. He said it was between a regular training/running shoe and the 'zero drop'/barefoot shoe. I tried it on and was unsure at first if I would like it or not because it did feel sooooo different the what I was used to in a training shoe.


After having these shoes for about a month now, I'm happy to report that I LOVE THEM!
I wore them all day the first day I got them (no breaking them in) and my feet didn't hurt one time and haven't since. And, in the past my back has hurt after standing/walking all day, but hasn't one time since getting these shoes!

I was skeptical of the "barefoot shoes are good for you / regular training or tennis shoes are surprisingly bad for your body" movement at first, but I'm thinking they might be right. Don't believe me? Try out these shoes. Or do some research. Or do both! :)

I loved them so much I just ordered another pair from shopnewbalance.com. I wanted to get them in pink AND they are on sale on the website with FREE shipping. If you don't want to wait for yours, both Finish line and Dick's Sporting Goods have them in different colors.

Another shoe I am planning on trying soon is UnderArmour's GO Running Shoe. It just came out and is also a lightweight shoe. I'll let you know what I think when I try it on! Until then, I'll just enjoy my 730 running! :)

Happy Birthday!

A great big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my mom!

While this may be a sore subject for Matt, I forgot to mention in my recap post a few weeks ago that my mom won our family football league. She beat out Matt's team in the Superbowl. We will be present her with the trophy at our family vacation in June.