Nate Berkus Knows Best

With all the Holiday hubbub (bub) I have failed to post the progress on my master bath.  Yes, yes, yes....extremely SLOW progress....but progress none the less.  Remember, we are a budget fearing family here, and I gots to do it at a certain pace!

SO here was our window before.  We've had a paper shade on it since we moved in, and after removing said shade we realized that we are basically flashing the world with a now naked window.  I took the initiative to frost that sucker and it worked out beyond swimmingly!! Of course in true Lani fashion I took no pics of the process. You know, it's really hard to get pics of you doing something when you are doing it on the fly, and all by your lonesome.  Lucky ladies out there that have husbands that enjoy DIY.....

Anyway, so window treatments were definitely in order.  I ordered this fabric which I thought would tie in all the colors I eventually want for this bathroom (I plan for the cabinets to go gray at some point...maybe new countertop too).  Unfortunately, I am REALLY not good at math and ordered too little, so the curtain came up short.  Oh, and BTW, all I did was cut to fit the window, and hem the 4 sides.  I could have no sewed hem taped them as I've done before with other curtains...but the sewing machine was out and I may as well and yada yada Lani likes to do things the hard way.

Because I wanted to use what I had already purchased, I (and Heather after many text pictures) decided that doing some sort of faux roman shade look would be best.  After debating how to go about this....we both thought that going the route of the all mighty design god, Nate Berkus, would be our best bet and add some grosgrain ribbon. 

Ok wait let's get serious here. Why did they cancel his show??  I mean, he seriously had the best set on TV, he totally recognized us everyday designers and the blogging community, and yeah he was kinda annoying and his smile is cheesy, and he says "I love that, don't you love that, I love that!" a whole lot....but he was GOOOOOD. I mean...to replace him with Steve Harvey? Really?  Even if I was a stay at home mom still....I don't think I would watch that show.  I'm just not interested in what Steve has to say.....I'm far more interested in grosgrain.

SO I DIGRESS...and in doing so I say that NB was spot on.  All I did was loop the ribbon up and around the curtain to create a faux swaggish look.  Yes I said swaggish.  It's a word.  Then I just tucked the knot on the other side of the fabric so it looks like its all cohesive.  No one will be the wiser!  Shhhhh....

Heather and I also decided that the 3 ribbon approach looked better than the 2.  As you can see....I really can't make solid decisions without a second opinion from my girl.  That's just the way the faux roman swags....

So there's my little quicky fixy for a cute shade for your bathroom!  It's so cute I cant stand it.  I get all verklempt.  Next up is a fun little storage idea for over the toilette (it sounds fancier like that....toilette) which I have all the supplies for, it's just a matter of DOING. 


Peace on earth and good will towards men,

2012 In Review

Well kids, here we are at the beginning of 2013. It is utterly mind bottling how fast time flies, but even more so when you're chasing crazy lunatics around your house. Let's kick off 2013 with a quick look at the awesomeness we created in 2012. It's always a good motivator to see that you did more than just sit on the couch, watching Friends re-runs, eating Cheetos. 

Here we go:

In JANUARY, we both started Etsy shops. 

Lani has LEMON SQUEEZIES:

              

Super cute, right?! From bow ties to capes, she's got you covered! I don't know about you, but I need a turban headband for the days when my bangs need some taming.


An then there's PAPER MONKEY:


  
Need a cute paper banner or book page apple to spruce up your decor? Check it out! The paper flower clips are great for a little girl's hair, or your blazer's lapel.

FEBRUARY it was time to get our butts in gear:

Lani started her Master Bedroom makeover with a coat of paint on the walls.

And I did a little refreshing of our Living Room throw pillows by making a few new pillow covers:

MARCH

A pretty little organizer happened:

APRIL

Lani threw Jagger a very colorful birthday party:

And we made Will an Iron Man trike for his birthday:

MAY

I tackled a friend's living room wall with a picture frame collage. I think it's my favorite one I've done.

JUNE

We got painty with a new wall color in the living room:

And Lani got crafty with some adorable teacher's gifts for the end of the school year:

JULY

Lani got down to the nitty gritty and tiled her Master Bathroom floor:

You can check out the process here, here, here, and here.



AUGUST was a big month for us. Lani and I both went back to work full time. Talk about a big adjustment for us and our families and our DIY schedules. HA! But the day before I started my new job, I decided to paint my Master Bathroom:

And Lani's Master Bedroom revamp kept on truckin' with this fab rug upgrade:

SEPTEMBER was a time for more Master Bedroom and Bathroom upgrades. Check out Lani's progress:
A little Martha Stewart Garbadine goes a long way:

And some painted drapes in the Master Bedroom:

OCTOBER was a busy month, and maybe a little too busy because we didn't have much going on over here on the blog-front. We did have our first trip to the ER for a broken finger:

You can definitely count on us to keep it real around here. First trip to the ER, first cavity fillings (yes, PLURAL fillingS), and 1st day at preschool. Talk about a traumatic parenting month...



NOVEMBER
We got a lesson in accessorizing:

I tackled another subway art:

And painted my kitchen...again:

DECEMBER was very merry for us from a Pottery Barn NOEL sign knock-off:

To a super adorable Hot Chocolate Bar:

And we finished up the year with a yarn pom wreath:

You can definitely expect more awesome projects from us! Happy New Year!

XOXO,   

&

Yarn Pom Wreath

I got a wild hair up me bum (Yes, I just became English. What?) to make a bunch of yarn poms while watching Michonne kick some may-jah zombie bum on The Walking Dead. I had a bunch of yarn that I’ve accumulated since, Oh, I don’t know… middle school?! Ridiculous. So I grabbed some colors I thought would work well together and just started wrapping and cutting. And then I wrapped and cut some more. And then some more.

Should I make a garland or a wreath or stick them in a few mason jars…? I wasn’t quite sure. My decision was made when I was putting some random junk away and found a naked wreath form. Ding-Ding-Ding! Winner Winner Chicken Dinner, folks. This is what we call a work-what-you-got craft for a whopping $0 cost.

I grabbed some supplies:

Yarn poms, wreath form, hot glue gun, extra glue sticks. Booya Grandma.

After debating on whether to group the colors together or do it haphazard, I decided I needed to just start it and see what happens…
 
 
It seemed like the best course of action was to just layer in each color. I started with the red and dark red since it is supposed to be Christmas-y, so I figured those colors should be the most dominant. I had ended up using the rest of the skein of dark red yarn to help fill out the red some more. I didn’t start off with whole skeins, but I ended up using up what I had left of every color on my wreath. Talk about using up what I’ve got!

65 poms later, it was done!
Pretty cute, right? I’m a sucker for mindless crafts that you can do while you catch up on your dvr. This is totally one of those projects and came out so stinkin’ cute! I opted for red, dark red, teal, navy, yellow, and white, mostly because it’s what I had on hand and it was Christmas-y enough. The nice thing is that it will lend itself to everyday use or I can add some fun embellishments to transform it for different occasions, too.

I toyed with the idea of adding a bow, but it was competing with the poms too much, and Hubby said no. So… decision made! Sometimes husbands are right… sometimes.

Hot chocolate bar

Being that we don’t have a mantle in our house I always like to dress up our little areas with something a little different and fun. Last year I did a drink station in our dining room (you can read more on that here)

 

This year I decided to do the same-ish concept but make it a little more kid friendly. We are still having our annual Santa Party and this little Hot Chocolate Bar will be awesome for kids and grownups alike!

Notice I still have yet to paint that little dresser of goodness.  Next year.  I swear it.

I want the theme of my house to be a bit modern and a bit rustic.  I paired my burlap trees that I made last year (here) with some shiny red ornaments and one of my felt poinsettias…also crafted last year (here). The bar got filled with all kinds of good fixin’s for hot chocolate like candy canes, peppermint marshmallows, and cookies for dippin’ and stirrin’.

 

I just used whatever I had on hand, and ball jars truly do work for freaking everything don’t they? 

 

And you really can’t have a hot chocolate bar without hot chocolate right?  This is homemade and AWESOME…easy peasy recipe to come soon!

There we have my little bar!  If you’re cold and need a lift, come on over and I’ll have a cup of cocoa all ready for you!  If you’re good…you might get a little Schnapps in there too !