diy projects Archives | Page 9 of 9

A Party: Inspired by GOLD

August 28, 2013

I love creating party themes and this time around I’m inspired by the color GOLD! What I love about a party theme based on color is there are so many items you can buy to create your look or if you’re the crafty type you can pull out a can of spray paint and the hot-glue gun and go the DIY route.

The ingredients:

Gold Paper Lanterns—Party City

DIY version: Spray paint white paper lanterns gold.

Gold Flatware—West Elm

DIY version: Buy some flatware at the thrift store and paint the handles gold. Here’s a how-to!

{tip: a coat of polyurethane will make the silverware suitable for hand washing}

Paramount Dinnerware—Z Gallerie

DIY version: Spray the underside of clear glass plates to get this look.

Gold Chevron Wrapping Paper— (used as a table runner)–Paper Source

DIY version: Cover dollar store white shipping paper with Gold Chevron Washi Tape.

Gold Stripe Stemware—Bed, Bath & Beyond

DIY version: Here’s an easy tutorial on painting stripes on glass. Dollar Store wine goblets of course!

Spike Napkin Ring—Z Gallerie

DIY version: Cut a small Styrofoam fall in half, insert toothpicks and spray the entire piece gold. Glue to elastic hair bands to create your napkin ring.

Gold Mirrored Tray—World Market

DIY version: Pick up a plastic tray from the thrift store and spray it gold!

Gold Leaf Gift Box—World Market

DIY version: Wrap a plain gift box from the Container Store in decorative gold and white wrapping paper. Paper Source has lots of paper options.

If you want a super glam look for your party, this project is a fabulous way to create a gold sequin backdrop for your event.

{hint: Gold Labels from Staples would also work}

Don’t wait for a special occasion, any day is a great day to celebrate with gold!

Entertaing Idea: Swizzle Sticks

August 14, 2013

Every great party includes fabulous cocktails (loaded or virgin) and every great cocktail deserves a fun swizzle sticks.

Did you know that swizzle sticks originated in Martinique when bartenders plucked twigs from native trees and used them to mix drinks to get them nice and cold.

Swizzle sticks are a throwback to the 60’s and 70’s cocktail culture when a gathering of friends and some libations resulted in a classic cocktail party.

After doing a little research I learned that there are three ways to mix a drink, one of which is to SWIZZLE IT!

Stirring a drink results in the liquid getting chilled and the booze being diluted without adding air.

Shaking a drink adds air to the cocktail while chilling it and diluting the booze.

And Swizzling a drink combines the juices and spirits and evenly chills the liquid without diluting the booze. Plus it looks cooler.

There are so many great swizzle sticks you can buy but I love the idea of making my own. Here’s a few of my favorite DIY Swizzle Sticks.

Gold Paper Hearts

Washi Tape Flags

Metallic Pom Poms

Toy Animals

Whatever’s in the craft drawer

Yarn Pom Poms

Ingredients to make swizzle sticks:

Wood skewers or flat wood pasty sticks

A decorative object

Glue, tape or some type of non-toxic adhesive

A cocktail to help with the creative process while you make your swizzle sticks!

Swizzle sticks are an easy way to introduce a little fun and whimsy into your party. They can also be use to help people keep track of their drinks and most importantly they will make you look like the hostess with the mostess at your next gathering!

Have I won your over yet? If not, head over to my Party Ideas pinterest board for a ton more swizzle stick ideas. All of the images above can be found there!

For more Entertaining Ideas check out this, this and this!

Inspiration + Weekend Reading

August 10, 2013

Happy Saturday! I hope your weekend is starting off great.

Now that the Nordstrom Anniversary sale is over I can’t help but feel like fall is just around the corner. During these last weeks of summer, it’s the perfect time to begin thinking about your fall wardrobe and maybe do a little organizing and styling in your closet. This image is a great example of how you can achieve both organization and style in a small closet space. It has definitely inspired me to do some purging, sorting and de-cluttering in my closet.

When you take a break from organizing, take a moment to enjoy these weekend reads….

No matter what age you are, this is sound advice for both your business and personal life. A must read!! Thanks to Mandy over at Waiting on Martha to bring it to my attention.

Want to be inspired? Check out these Top 100 Inspirational Quotes!

You’re going to love this home tour and you’ll get some great decorating tips from it too.

Beautiful inspiration if you want to decorate with black.

What a great way to inspire a table décor theme!

I love how creative Kristin used the leftover space in her laundry closet!

I found this blog post to be a great reminder that “surrounding yourself only with people who will lift you higher” is something we should all be striving for.

Easy DIY–Vintage Inspired Basket Tags

July 18, 2013

When it comes to organization one of my go-to items for keeping things neat is baskets. I have multiple baskets throughout my home with several basket towers (stacked baskets)to hold ‘stuff’. I have several baskets in my bedrooms and when I was giving our master bedroom a summer facelift, I found myself thinking about how I could add a vintage touch to the baskets.

I thought about adding fabric to the front like this basket…

or maybe metal numbers like Donna at Funky Junk did with these.

While these ideas are really simple to execute, I wanted my tags to have a layered feel to them so I opted for something different.

You’ll need just a few supplies to make your tags:

Wood pieces (available at your local craft store)

Acrylic paint & sponge brush

Metal corner protectors (available from Articuss Studio Designs)

Sticker Numbers or metal mailbox numbers

Twine (mine is from MayArts)

All you have to do to create your tags is the paint the wood, glue on the metal corner pieces and attached your numbers. I used E6000 glue for both my metal corners and the vintage metal mailbox numbers I used.

It’s that easy to create Vintage Inspired Basket Tags!

Several of the tags used on the baskets in my bedroom were attached with the twine. I simply drilled two holes on each end of the wood piece, inserted the twine and tied the tag on to the basket.

If you want a more aged look with your metal corners you can use Rub-n-Buff to change the color.

These tags were so easy and quick to make and would work on all types of boxes and bins you might have around your house. Just think of the possibilities!

Thanks for stopping by.

Inspiration + Weekend Reading

July 13, 2013

Today I celebrate my 22nd wedding anniversary and these are just a few of the things I’ve learned over the years! Happy Anniversary to my Love!

Enjoy these weekend reads….

Pure Loveliness!

Beautiful images captured on film.

I love everything about this office!

This is a pretty amazing jewelry station.

A pretty simply and fabulous diy projects.

Five inexpensive ways to update a room.

Some great furniture makeovers.

Yum!

Have a fab weekend!

Little Indulgences

June 24, 2013

Happy Monday!

I hope you all had a great weekend. Mine was jammed packed with DIY projects, blogging projects, more cleaning in the garage and spending time at non-profit event. I’m exhausted but can’t think about that now since the week ahead is going to be just as jam-packed.

With all the stuff going on in my life, I took a minute last night to sit and appreciate some of the little things that put a smile on my face. Those things that I often take for granted but make a big difference in how my day goes, how I feel and how much I simply enjoy life.

Here’s what’s got me grinning these days…

I drink a lot of water but during the summer I crave something with flavor so I was thrilled when one day I discovered Sparkling Ice in the grocery store. I had never seen this beverage before but decided to give it a try. And now I’M HOOKED! I can’t believe these little drinks have no calories, are naturally flavored, have no caffeine, are gluten-free, are packed with vitamins and have no sodium. There are 13 Sparkling Ice flavors and 4 Sparkling Lemonade flavors to choose from! The hubs and I have been buying these like they’re going out of style and it has the hot summer days here in Atlanta more enjoyable. I highly recommend you try them!

(now 10 for $10 at Kroger and Publix)

On one of my recent trips to Barnes and Noble, I picked up the newest BH & Garden special interest publication called Refresh. It is a fabulous magazine filled with easy DIY projects and budget friendly decorating ideas. If you’re a home décor magazine fiend like me, you’ll want to pick up a copy of this magazine which I promise will inspire you.

The next guilty pleasure that has me smiling is a treat I picked up at Costco. Even though I’m not a big chocolate lover the Brookside Dark Chocolate Acai with Blueberries has become my new dessert treat. The chocolate is super smooth, not bitter and the juice filled Acai berries and yummy! And these bad boys are great as a frozen treat too!

Darn that Costco! I always come home with something not on the list, but rarely is it as good as these! Hooked for life~

And finally, my last little indulgence is as girly as they come. The book sequel to The Devil wears Prada, Revenge Wears Prada, The Devil Returns is on my nightstand. The Devil Wears Prada is undoubtedly one of my favorite movies (I know just about every line) and The Revenge is turning out to be just as good. I can’t wait (fingers crossed) for the movie!

Life is good when you take time to appreciate the little things~

So, what’s little indulgences have you smiling this summer? I’d love to know!

Scenes from the Weekend

October 8, 2012

Happy Monday! As you can tell from the late posting of this blog post that my Monday has been a bit hectic and has thrown me off schedule. I’ve gotten things back on track now and wanted to share scenes from my weekend…a weekend that included a trip to ADAC, some shopping and a fun new adventures as well.

Friday started off with a trip to ADAC (Atlanta Decorative Arts Center) to hear designer and blogger Brian Patrick Flynn. Brian shared photos of his work and talked about his learnings as a self-taught interior designer. Brian is super talented and I think everyone in attendance learned something from his words of wisdom.

After the presentation at ADAC, my friend Tina and I stopped for lunch and then did a little shopping. We popped into Marshalls and then headed to HomeGoods. If you haven’t been to HomeGoods in a few weeks, now is the time to go. They are really stocking their stores for the holidays and the shelves were loaded. I was really impressed with the lighting they currently have and was wowed by the selection of upholstered parson chairs. Just look at all the beautiful options.

On Saturday the hubby and I ventured out to IKEA. (I’m always telling people not to go to Ikea on the weekend because it is a mad house so why I did is a mystery)!

Anytime I go to IKEA I walk away with lots of design inspiration for quick and easy DIY projects. The store is filled with inexpensive pieces that can easily take on a new life.

I love the idea of using a simple vase as a cloche. I’m gonna up-style mine and add a cute little glass knob on top to give it the real look of a cloche.

This round metal tray was on $4.99 and I imagined all the beautiful colors it could be painted in and used as a magnet board in an office. Or, how about a fun tray for your bar area? They also carry a smaller size that could easily be used as fun coasters. I walked around the store and jotted down lots of ideas and snapped lots of photos and then my heart skipped a bead……

Christmas at Ikea is in full swing, and if you don’t already know, I love gift wrap and packaging!!!! I spent a good 20 minutes walking around looking at all the paper and boxes and bags. Ikea is really playing up a red, white and silver theme this year and have some fab gift wrap at super fab prices (most rolls under $4.00)!

I loved the silver and white gift bags!

And, these mini bags with numbers are such a cute way to create advent/countdown to the day gifts.

These ribbed metal containers were adorable. They can in several sizes and in red and white. I love the look with these mini Christmas trees (also for sale).

On Sunday we decided to head out for a new adventure. Being from Washington State I grew up around apple orchards but never really took the opportunity to pick them myself. Since the weather on Sunday was so nice, we decided to drive to Ellijay, Georgia, about 1 1/2 hours from Atlanta and go apple picking.

We enjoyed some beautiful scenery on the way and finally arrived at the Red Apple Barn. How cute is this little barn?