what i've been up to..

So on Sunday, we were all sitting around the table having a nice brunch after church. My dad asked me what i was planning on doing with my day and i said i didn't know. He's the type who will come up with some horror for me to do just because i said i have no plans... so i quickly asked, "hey can i paint my room today?" completely out of the blue. We hadn't even talked about it before that moment. :D and to my surprise he replied, "yeah sure. you can paint it whatever color you like as long as you have it fully prepared before we go get the paint."

 now looking back on his reply i see that his goal was to get me to clean my room -.- i think he thought that's as far as I'd get that day, but boy was he wrong :)

yes that is a black cat lovingly decorating my white bedspread with her fur. -.-

 *please ignore the mess. i beg of thee. yeah i know it's pretty bad!*

 These are all my before pictures :)

so then i came up with a floor plan and set out on my adventure...

if you want to know how i make my floor plan planners i'll do a tutorial on it soon :)

 So i hauled all of my furniture to the middle of the room completely by myself. i cleaned my trim and removed all the nails from the walls. and i filled the holes and did lots of prep work :)

 Then i cut it all in. twice. :/  haha and yes i did paint i love you on my wall. why? to show all of you dear readers just how much i love you :p

oh yeah and i had to show you my super awesome bun haha it was quite ridiculous ;)

So i'm slowly getting everything back to normal. Starting to decorate and stuff. :D it's been fun... now i have to paint my closet and bathroom O.o

what do you think? Going from bright green to pale cream... haha
Alyssa

//DIY whimsical bubble mobile//

So this was supposed to be a tutorial, but somehow my tutorial pictures disappeared on me :( i'm just going to try to do a word tutorial anyways, so if you'd like to make one you know how :)

And by the way i couldn't even get any full length pictures of it because it's in my closet and i can't get far enough back to get the whole thing in the camera haha!



you will need:

• a cubby hole in your wall or even just a corner in a room will work
• varying sizes of clear glass ornaments {amount depends but i used 14}
• fishing string
• flat thumbtacks
• {optional} clear nail polish

random picture of my hair... haha oh and i made this back in december. please forgive me for not posting it sooner!

this picture gives you a better look at how the ornaments are hung.

first you tie one side of the fishing string to the ornament. hold the ornament where you want it to hang and measure and cut the string 2 inches longer than you want. next tie a loose knot and stick the point of the thumbtack in the knot. pull the knot tight and push the thumbtack into the ceiling.

random weird collage of me discovering you can do more than just black and white mode on the 'monotone' setting on my camera

 

Sorry about the quality of the pictures... it's hard taking pictures of clear things especially with them being very strongly back-lit. and i couldn't even get a full shot of it! :(


hope you enjoyed it!
Alyssa

//guest post// Retro Table Makeover from ReMadeSimple!

{Welcoming the lovely Kristina of ReMadeSimple! She gave a plain little table a gorgeous makeover! I'm in love. without further adieu --- here she is!}

Since the New Year, I've been having fun changing up a few painted furniture pieces in my house, turning a few things lighter from rusty reds and blacks to yellows, whites and pastels.

And, this little side table of mine was bugging me. It looked too dark and boring sitting in the corner of my living room next to a dark brown leather chair. 

So, I decided to give it a lighter, brighter revamp...

I painted the legs a pale gray, and the top the same yellow as my pie safe called "Magnolia"

by Martha Stewart. (Looks a lot like hard boiled egg, but I like it!)

I used eggshell latex paint for this (not on the chalk paint bandwagon...yet).

After the paint was dry, I decided to stencil the tops and sides for a nice pop of "Tangerine Cream" colored paint.

 I used my Nagoya Craft Stencil from Cutting Edge Stencils. 

(I had done stenciling for the first time with this stencil on a market tote bag 

and decided stenciling was fun and not scary!)

After the stencil was dry, I thought the design looked a little too bright how it was, 

so I decided sand down the top and sides with an electric sander using fine sandpaper.

Sanding the table did the trick of toning down the orange accents and added that aged look that I love to the table. I love my new brighter table-

I think it adds a fun retro feel to my previously dark corner. 

And I love the combination of stenciling and distressing-will definitely be doing this again sometime!
(And maybe I'll be trying out that chalk paint everyone's raving about too...)

I hope you enjoyed this table revamp and I'd love to see you at ReMadeSimple sometime!

Advice Needed!

So I've been wanting to dye my hair for a long time. And I've always wanted auburn hair. So over the past months I've been looking into semi-permanent auburn hair dye. It's supposedly really easy to do, it washes out in 28 washes, and auburn shouldn't be that big of a jump for me. I don't want like mad RED! I just want slightly red/orange tinted brown hair. Keep reading because i need your help!!

Craigslist Finds

So... is it weird for a teenager to be looking around on craigslist daily? Haha probably but when you're the thrifty/crafty type i don't think it's that strange :) Because I like looking around at the different furniture and stuff that could use a nice makeover. Though since the stuff i like is usually too expensive for me... i'm just dreaming lol :P but here are a bunch of wonderful things i've found that i thought could be really pretty with a coat of paint or two!

ummm... i'm like dying over this. it was like $50 which, yeah i can't afford :(

only $10 a piece. but it's like an hour away...

haha i love how kids just stick stickers on anything and everything...

uhm, this corner table is just awesome.

$12 - it seems sturdy and i think it'd be awesome for holding my artsy/crafty crap. like picture frames and such.

Ok... i think it'd trade all of them for this one. look at the details!!! {though i know all of these are horrible quality pics, don't blame me for that it's these darn craigslisters :p}

anyone else picturing this in a bright, crisp color?

i think this could be awesome w/ maybe yellow chairs?

need i say anything? i don't think so. if it were coral i'd buy it in a heart beat :)

i'm totally seeing an awesome table like this one that Alison made!

new upholstery and paint the bottom of the table?

$110. darnit. it's perfect. *sniffles* haha oh well

ugh. you all probably hate this, but i'm totally digging it. the chairs are awesome too. it just needs some paint :)

haha this one was already made-over by someone

super wonky. but whatever i think it could be awesome! haha but that'd take SO MUCH work to upholster that!

no comment. it doesn't need one. {bottom right is the only "scar" on it. on the bottom. No big deal!!!}

i freaking love this one. AHHHhh

mmhmmm sure i'll take those for $20. i wish. haha more like $200...

again, good for crafty stuff :)

so yeah... those are what i've been looking at! the problem is that when my parents bought our house they bought all matching nice wood furniture and {maroon/burgundy} leather couches. And we take really good care of our furniture so it's all like perfect 12 years later :) which is also a :( for me because i don't like our couches. i try to love them for who they are {hahahahah} but i just can't do it ;) and i just have NO CLUE what to do with our house! If you have any tips or wanna help i'd love it :D