Magnetic Memo Board

I have a confession to make....I LOVE Pinterest! Love, love, love it! This magnetic memo board is my first completed project inspired by a pinterest post. So easy....so cute...so functional...and so many options to fit in your own home decor. Check it out:

Here is the pinterest post inspiration...a blog post from TaterTots & Jello: 

Here is what you need for this project:

• frame
• sheet metal
• fabric
• tin snips
• tape
• spraypaint (optional depending on the frame you use)

Supplies before getting started

I bought a frame at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore for $2...1/2 yard of houndstooth fabric was $3.50 and the sheet metal was about $10. I already had some spraypaint, so this project cost a total of $15.50. 

Remove glass from frame and cut the sheet metal to the size of the glass.
(Wear gloves! The cut metal can be sharp.) 

Wrap your fabric around the sheet metal. I affixed it with painters tape.

Place your fabric covered metal into the frame.

Ta Da! Magnetic message board for my kitchen desk.
Perfect place for a magnetic grocery list pad
and a place to put invitations and cards.

Finished product on my kitchen desk!

Hallway Photo Gallery

I love taking pictures! And I like to show them off in my house too. My favorite photos to frame are travel photos of scenery and things from places that I have visited. When I first hung 4 frames in my hallway I used photos from my trip to China...a photo of a doorway & large vase, the inside roof of a pergola, a bridge over a pond and large paper lanterns hung over a pond. Loved it and enjoyed them in my hallway for a few years. 

But it was time for a change! 

I had room in the hall for another matching frame and I wanted to switch out the pictures for new ones from my recent trip to several Central American countries. A quick trip to Michael's (with my 40% off coupon in hand!) for another frame and Sam's Club for the photo enlargements and I was almost done with the project! (The hardest part was hanging the new frame level with the old one!)

BEFORE:

AFTER: 

The hallway feels complete now...three horizontal frames on one side and the two vertical frames on the other side on each side of the bathroom doorway. My own little gallery! 

Try this in your house...so easy...inexpensive...and fun to switch out the photos when you want a change! If you aren't into taking pictures you can do this same thing with pictures from calendars or images you print off from online. You can also search around on Flickr and look at other people's photos...many of whom will sell you an image if you want it!

Anything Can Be Art: Old Bicycle Parts

This was a fun & easy project! When I first put up the floating shelves above my TV credenza I only had a concept for one shelf and not the other. One shelf displays 3 turquoise vases from Crate and Barrel. I bought them this past summer when the credenza and shelves were only a vision in my head! I was coming up empty for the second shelf until I found a very cool and inexpensive picture frame at Target. It is gray, yellow and white and has vintage looking bicycles all over it. Thought it was a good way to bring some yellow over to that side of the room. The frame wasn't enough to fill up the shelf, though....so this is when the idea of bicycle parts on the shelf came to me! But not just regular bicycle parts...high gloss yellow and white bicycle parts! Are you still with me!?!?

I picked up these 3 old bike parts at The Bike Project in Urbana. They are a non-profit organization that operates a small shop and is the only place in town I could find that sells individual parts! I think all 3 pieces cost me about $8. It was fun to root around in the boxes and boxes of parts, but I did end up quite greasy!

All three pieces had some grease and dirt on them, but the smaller gear was a mess! First step was to clean and degrease them. I bought a bottle of Purple Power degreaser and it worked great!
After cleaning and drying, I sprayed them with some white primer and then a couple of coats of high-gloss spray paint...two pieces in yellow and one in white.

Final product up on the shelves with the picture frame...

By the way...the image in the picture frame was something I printed off the internet from a Google search of "vintage bicycle"...makes it look more like art instead of sticking a family photo in there...

I like...I like! One of the fun things about shelves like this is that you can change them up from time to time to freshen up your room or use them for seasonal decoration displays...swapping out items on the shelves can give you small little fun projects as well as allow you to rotate your display pieces so that they all get a little time out for others to see...so, I guess we'll see how long the shelves stay looking like this...but for now, I am really happy with the way they look!

"What Will It Bee?" Baby Shower

I recently had the pleasure of co-hosting a baby shower for a good friend of mine. We chose a bumble bee theme that incorporated the fact that they didn't know if the baby was a boy or girl...the theme was "What Will It Bee?". It should be no surprise that when we split up duties for the shower among the co-hosts that I chose invitations and decorations! It was so much fun putting it all together!

I purchased an invitation template from an Etsy shop called Sweetbeets to get it all started. (It also included templates for a banner, notecard, favorboxes and a punch sheet) These printable templates are awesome! I was emailed a link to the files (very quickly might I add!), customized them and printed them myself. What a great way to get the look of custom invitations cheaper and quicker!! I chose to spice up the invitation by mouting it on black cardstock and attaching a black and white gingham ribbon at the top. The only other template file I used was the punch sheet...I used different sized circle punches and sprinkled the circles down the middle of the tables and adhered a punched out circle to the top of each placemat.

Here are some photos of the party:




The favors for each guest were a small bottle of Burt's Bees hand lotion and a few Bit O' Honey candies wrapped up in a little tulle and tied with a ribbon.

The cake was made to match the invitation by the Lovin Oven Cakery in Libertyville...they did a fabulous job and it was delicious too!

A mod and fresh baby shower for a mod and fresh momma-to-bee! This is the guest of honor...doesn't she look fantastic!

Fun & Cheap Art!

This is one of my favorite art projects! I purchased a duvet cover from IKEA for $15 and used it to create these four art pieces. All we did was cut up the duvet cover into four different pieces and then stapled them to canvases...super easy and fun! The living room had all white walls when I bought the house...after I made these art pieces I knew that they needed to be on a colored wall in order to "pop"...gray was the perfect choice with all the elements in the room...I absolutely love how this turned out! Modern planters can also be hard to find...I found this one at cb2. They come in 3 different sizes and I have one of each size...the one in this picture is the middle sized one.