Happy New Year!

I'm not big on making New Year's resolutions.  As a matter of fact, I think I've made one maybe three times in my life.  Why?  Well, why start tomorrow what you can start today?  I get that it's a new year and so maybe that chunk of time can be well spent on improving some area of your life and I think that's great!  Maybe I just don't have my stuff together enough after the holidays to come up with a resolution.  Or maybe it has everything to do with the fact that, in my childhood, I used to make birthday resolutions.  Haha!  I was so weird.  They were basically the same thing as a New Year's resolution except I'd start them on my birthday.  The thing about them though is that I'd think of these things that I wanted to change in my life and I'd think of them in July or November or months before my February birthday but I'd tell myself the change wouldn't take effect until next February 18th.  Procrastinating my better person.  Yep, that was me.

I know.  Cue the well deserved "ha"s followed by the eye roll.

But, I've learned from those silly days and tell myself now that if I want or need something to change in my life, I'm going to start tomorrow.  "Tomorrow, tomorrow, I'll love ya, tomorrow, is only a day away!"

We just finished watching "Annie" and the girls loved it so you can't blame me.

Aaaanyway, what I stopped in for today was to one, wish you all a Happy New Year!  I'm not going to do a whole recap of 2015 because, even though it sounds fun to rehash what I got done (and the hundreds of projects I didn't get done), I'd rather a fresh start with a little re-introducion.  )If you want a recap, scroll down the side bar just a tad and you'll see the archive.  Lots of fun to be had there, I tell ya.)  ;)

I write mostly about projects and tutorials but I don't write about myself or hash out thoughts very often mostly because I don't have the time to do both and on the fun meter, projects always win.  However, the funny thing is that most of the posts in my drafts folder are heart-to-hearts - posts written after a thought-provoking moment that I just never finished hashing out.  Maybe I should make a resolution to finish those...  

Not today though because I grabbed a random little questionnaire that I found somewhere in the depths of the internet to unload on you.  My hope is for you to get to know who I am a little more (you can read this post too) and for me to get to know you a little more too!  I'd love if you introduced yourself to me in the comments!  Answer all the following questions for yourself or just give me a quick paragraph.  Or, if you're a blogger yourself, do the same!  Either way, I'd love to see who exactly is out there because as much as I can tell myself "I blog like no one's reading", I do that but I also know I have some pretty sweet people reading.  :)  

Let's begin shall we (throat clear)?

This, is me:

 

Sheena Tobin - oldest of five, love to Anthony, and devoted servant to Seraphia, Cecilia, and Sebastian.

A-train and I are currently expecting our fourth little bundle of crazy...

...and I'm a thinker.  Like my brain never stops.  I'm always seeing things and getting ideas and scheming how to do something with not a lot of money.  This is probably what I look like most of the time:

I decided to start blogging to have something to do while Anthony had his head in his books while studying for his masters'.

Since then though, it's become so much more than just a tool to beat boredom.  Like I said above, I like doing and making things with just a little bit of change.  We're on a really tight budget but I have a desire for a really pretty house and wardrobe and the two don't really mix...unless I can make myself there.  I know there are other people in the same boat and I also know that as a country, we could afford to spend a lot less on things and a lot more on people, so here I am, showing a few ways we can do that.  The more you read my blog, the more you'll realize what my idea of "affordable" is.  Affordable has zero to do with West Elm or Pottery Barn or even full-priced Target to me even though I love all of those places.  Affordable is concocting a kid's room for under $100 or making over a kitchen for $1100...or maybe that's just plain cheap but to me, the two go hand-in-hand.  Affordable has lots do with being patient.  It's finding something you really want and then gathering the patience to wait until you can save up for it or it goes on sale or you find it secondhand or until an idea pops up in which you can make it for a big fraction of the price.  I could write a whole post about what else I think affordable is and why everyone could embrace it but before I jump down that rabbit hole, it's onto that questionnaire...    

If you could throw any kind of party, what would it be like and what would it be for?  Ugh, parties.  I love them but I am definitely not a planner of them which is why you'll never see a party post on this here blog (I recommend Kathryn for that!)  I like simple.  I'd rather plan my next household revamp than plan any sort of party.  However, I'll admit it has been sort of fun in the past to plan low-key birthday parties for the kids - trying to see how much I can get for not a lot of money...no surprise there.

If you could paint a picture of any scenery you've seen before, what would you paint?  Really, I shouldn't be painting anything but abstract because no Picasso am I.

If you could choose to stay at a certain age forever, what age would that be?  Hmm...maybe if I was 120 I could better answer that one but right now there's a possibility that I have more than half of my life left so who knows what age will be the best, right?

If you had to work on only one project for the next year, what would it be?  Gosh, that question makes my mind go bonkers.  I guess if I had to choose, it'd be our master bedroom, specifically, whipping up that upholstered headboard that's been on the assembly line for too, too long.  

If you were immortal for a day, what would you do?  I'd take a huge flashlight (like huge) and go trolling around the bottom of the ocean for all sorts of treasure.

If you had to change your first name, what would you change it to?  Had to?  I've actually come to love my name (I wasn't a fan of it growing up) so that would be hard for me.  If you would've asked me this question when I was 10 I would've told you either Nicole or Valerie.  Now though?  Probably Fiona.  It's my favorite girl name that probably won't ever make it down to one of our kids because it screams "Shrek" to Anthony; not cute, sweet baby girl.  :(

If you could meet anyone, living or dead, who would you  meet?  Jesus.  Duh.

If you won the lottery, what is the first thing you would do?  Obliterate our mortgage...right before I bombed our student loans.

When you have 30 minutes of free-time, how do you pass the time?  Free-time?  What's that?

What's the hardest thing you've ever done?  Raised newborn twins.  Phew!

What was the last experience that made you a stronger person?  Raising newborn twins.

What is the best party you've ever been to?  Raising newborn...kidding.  That's a party of a whole different sort.

What did you do growing up that got you into trouble?  Anything I wasn't supposed to be doing that involved my youngest sister or that she found out about.  I love her now but back then?  Well, we won't rehash the past but let's just say she was that little bird always leaked info to my mom.  Info about driving home from school with my knees, doing cookies in a cornfield with my then-boyfriend in his truck, stuffing all of my clothes under my dressers when my mom told me I had to clean my room before I went to a friend's house, etc, etc, etc.......................... 

What do you miss most about being a kid?  Definitely not anything involved the above question.  It has to be living on the farm.  The (usually) carefree life and great outdoors.

The best part of waking up is?  That first, warm, sip of creamer with a side of coffee.

Old house or new house?  Old.

Heels or flats?  Flats or semi-low heels.  I know maybe this sounds ridiculous to some but I've got really long legs that look way too long with high heels.  We're talking like stilts.  Three inches is about as high as I'll go and even that height makes me self-conscious.

Favorite food?  Ice cream...and don't even tell me it's not a food, it's a dessert because it goes down the trap just like everything else.  So, it's a food.

Favorite color?  Green.

Best gift I've ever received?  Anthony.  He's the gift that just keeps on giving.  

There.  You can now claim to know me.  I have a real fear of coming off as fake and so I try to be as real and true-to-myself on here as possible.  I won't ever share something I don't like or don't know enough about just for the sake of a sponsored post or to get paid.  I feel like the blogosphere has become increasingly infiltrated with advertising and I don't ever want to become that here.  I want to share things I really love with you, things I pay good money for, things you might like too because they have a really good track record over here.  I want you to be able to trust every opinion I state and not wonder if I'd really buy that if it wasn't given to me or if I am not just saying I like it under the pressure of a good product review.  Maybe, and probably, this all means that I won't ever make big bucks off my blog but that's okay with me.  I write for the sake of sharing and teaching and that's it.  No ulterior motives here.

Thank you for reading.  Truly.  I'm so thankful to have this outlet and it's been a great source of therapy for me as I go through this stage in my life when all I hear most my days are toddler talk.  I love this stage but it does feel great to be able to contribute to the world in a 'more adult' way sometimes.  :)

I hope you all have a great upcoming weekend and I look forward to finding out more about you!

  

Merry Christmas!

So I guess my last post should've had a side note in it where I mention that I'd probably drop off the face of the Earth for the next two weeks since we're on Christmas vacation...not that should've had the stocking tutorials I said I would since Christmas was literally days ahead of us all and everyone already had their stockings up.  Rookie mistake or bad diy blogger?  I'm not sure.  Either way, I'll make sure to post that tutorial when it makes more sense; say next October or November.  :)

Really though, I'm just popping in today to tell you all I won't be back on the blog until next week.  We are taking it really easy with family and my phone has been dead for three days with no chance of me charging it because, honestly, it's been really nice to not have it around catching my attention with a beep or ring here and there.  I really should try this more often...we all should try this more often.

So with that...

and soon, Happy New Year!

Easiest {Any}Holiday Bunting Ever

I’ve always loved the idea of hanging bunting.  With that said though, I’ve never made or hung any because making and hanging bunting just doesn’t climb as far up the to-do list ladder as some of the other projects we want done ‘round here.  It’s life is lived on the back burner…

until now…

Yay!  Can you see it, can you see it?  (As I typed that, I heard Olaf’s voice in my mind…weird.)

I had this bright idea one afternoon and, literally, five minutes later, we had bunting hanging from the tippity-top of our tree.  It’s so easy!  No sewing, gluing, measuring, or fuss of any sort.  The Grinch would hate it!

Wanna know how to make some of your very own?  Well, if you don’t, click out because if you know me, you know what’s next.

All you’ll need are a pair of scissors, some sort of string (I used twine I had laying around but fishing string or a strong thread would work too), and some wire edge ribbon.  I grabbed this wire edge ribbon after Christmas last year on clearance at Michael’s but, even without the clearance price, it’s pretty cheap.  If you’re only using it for this project, even the Dollar Store will satisfy the need.

First, cut several pieces of ribbon.  The number you’ll cut depends on how many far apart you want each piece to sit once it’s on the string.  For an eight foot long strand like mine, I cut 13 pieces, each about six inches long (I didn’t measure but just cut the first one and cut the others based on that one).  I spaced them about six or so inches apart on my twine.  You can space them closer or farther; have more or less.  Imperfection is the name of the game and, in this case, anything will look cute!

Then, fold each piece in half.  

 Next, cut a shallow triangle out of the bottom of each folded piece of ribbon.

  And last, slip each piece right over your hanging string.  (It’s easier to add the ribbon after you figure out where you want the bunting hung).  Giving the wire edges a little pinch along the top of the string will ensure they don’t slide around.

      
So easy, right?!  Think of all the holidays and notholidays you can whip up a five-minute strand of bunting!  Pastel ribbon for easter, pink and red for Valentine’s Day, patriotic colors for the Fourth, blue and green to match the theme of your kid’s birthday…the options are really endless.

.           .           .

We moved some small pieces of furniture around this year so that we could put our tree in the back corner of our living room and we’re really loving the placement.  It’s out of the way but it makes this corner really special (except for the red/cranberry club chairs…I can’t wait to get my hands on reupholstering or doing something with those).  As far as decorating goes, we’re done.  I didn’t add more lights to the tree or put on all the ornaments like I usually do because we’ll be traveling to see family for Christmas and so simple did the trick. 

But, I did go a little crazy, adding a little bit of festive to our thrifted glass lamps:

One has been finicky about turning on recently so I had to take it apart anyway to see what the deal was so I thought, “why not paint them?”  That’s a normal thought process, right?  ;)

Of course, we also set the sensory mood by plugging in our Wallflower; laden with the scent of Fresh Balsam.  I’ve had my wallflower forever but I bought this particular scent five Christmas’ ago and it’s still going strong.  We don’t keep it plugged in all the time, maybe a few hours a day, so that helps slow the depletion.

The hutch is decked with a thrifted wreath that I got last year and we recently acquired the brass elephant atop it.  You might remember the diy mercury glass vase that once was there…well, somebody (coughAnthonycough) caused it to come tumbling and crashing when he was sliding the hutch around one day so we could clean underneath.  It’s really my fault for not having it as secure as I should’ve up there but thankfully, no one or nothing was hurt except the vase and my feelings.

Anyway, I’ll be back with the other side of the room before Christmas.  Really it’s just the stockings and mantel over thataway but those are a whole tutorial post in themselves. 

I guess you’ll just have to HO, HO, HO…ld on.  ;)

  

.           .           .


Because you know you want to pin it…

Light & Letters

Before I throw a couple of Christmas projects (I know, just in time forrrr…next Christmas) to the blog post mix, I thought I’d sprinkle in a few projects I quickly did in the girls’ room a couple of months ago.  You can see the full reveal and stencil tutorial in my last post, if you missed it.

Let’s talk about the fan shade first.

You might remember back when I whipped up an eerily similar one for the fan in our master bedroom a few years ago?

Well, you might also remember I kinda hated it.  It looked really homemade and I try to sway from that look when I’m creating decor in most cases.  So, down it came.  Using the same idea and steps, I grabbed the fabric from JoAnn Fabrics (can’t find it online!) and used some of the extra plastic I had on hand from making this shade to create the same thing, only much less wonky.

To install it, my plan was to have Anthony cut off all of the inside, metal rods except for a couple of inches on the small shade and only the middle ring part of the large shade.  The ring on the large shade was too thick for this fan – it would sit on top of the bulb and screw into the light bulb base just fine but not far enough to get electricity going to turn the light on.  Major problem.  So, I had him cut off the old ring and my plan was to put a large washer in its place, a similar idea to what Young House Love did here.  Except while he was cutting, he accidently broke off the rods from where they were attached to the ring.  Turns out they were really poorly attached to the ring and just broke off without much tinkering.  :( 

I cried inside but forged ahead in making the light fixture.  After the shade was made and recovered, I hot glued the rods back onto the large top ring.  Then I glued the ends of the rods to the rod pieces still on the small shade.  So far, it’s stayed.  To hang the entire thing, I grabbed some outdoor chain I had laying around and slipped one end over the rods on the small shade and the other ends I slipped through the holes on the actual fan that are reserved for the screws that hold on the original light kit.  I should take more pictures to explain that a little better but for hopefully for now it makes sense somewhat.

Here’s what it looks like from underneath:

It’s still needs some tweaking because its a little crooked still, but one of these days I’ll figure out a new solution.  I love it though.

And I love the fabric so much that I made a couple of matching pillow shams out of it to adorn the girls’ beds.  They were a trial run so I don’t have a tutorial on those yet but they turned out pretty good so I will definitely let you in on the know-how to those in the future!

And quick let’s just pop over to the stenciled wall and talk about those big monograms.

I’ll be honest.  The idea of them looked better in my head.  I’m not sure if that wall just needs a little more color or if I need to re-paint a fancier ampersand onto the mirror but something needs something.

The letters themselves are these paper mache letters from JoAnn Fabrics.  The quality is great and if you can grab them either on sale or with a coupon, you can get them down to almost $5 a piece.  The only thing that bothers me a little is that the ‘S’ is a little thicker than the ‘C’ so it almost looks like they’re two different fonts.  Maybe that’s what bothering me about this wall…don’t know.

They come in a tan color so I just primed and spray painted them my favorite gold (Rust-Oleum's Metallic Gold*).

I used velcro Command strips to hang them on the wall just like I hung these paper mache letters in our entry.

Like I mentioned above, I just painted the ampersand on the mirror with some gold and mint acrylic paint.  I love painting on glass and mirrors because, if you make a mistake or you don’t like it, you can just windex it off and start over!  I redid this one about fifteen times I think.  :)

.           .           .

I finally finished our stockings and hung them on the mantel with care!  I’m really excited to show them to you and show you how you can make your very own!  Check out Instagram for a sneak peek!

Have a great weekend…we’re almost there!

*affiliate link

Just Beadiful

I’ve been wanting to up the ante in the girls’ room since they moved in way back when Sebastian took over their old room.  During a few weeks in October, I finally got my chance.

Shortly after we moved in, we took a can of creamy beige to the walls in here and it worked as a guestroom/office for several years (paint color was Drifting Dune by Valspar).  The cream walls were a perfect canvas for adding whatever color of decor I felt like and they still are.  Except this summer a friend gave us a beige rug she wasn’t using anymore and I thought the girls’ room would be the perfect new home for it except……really it just created one big, beige box.

I loved the rug too much to part with it so something had to be done.  One of those things came in the form of an idea of creating a colorful accent wall behind the cribs. 

Initially, I had schemed to knock-off this Anthropologie wallpaper by stenciling something similar using some sort of watercolor technique I still had to come up with.  But then over time the room started collecting lots of colorful artwork above the girls’ dresser and I thought maybe the colorful wallpaper knock-off idea would just create too much pastel-ish color.  Is it possible to have too much color?  I don’t know but the thought of walking into a soft-palette, watercolor room read “overstimulation” to me.  Plus, the watercolor stencil would’ve probably been a lot of work and it’s not one of those designs that could easily be melded into a new decor plan in the future…the future being when the girls’ turn into real little girls and I want to turn their room into a funky modern yet girly space.

So then…I know, “get to the point already!”, I thought maybe I’d just stencil a simple pattern onto the wall that wasn’t in-your-face but wouldn't totally blend into the wall either; accentuating with subtlety.

Enter Cutting Edge Stencils and the girls’ new-and-improved, but still ever-tweaked, room: 

I’ve made my own stencils before but, for what I wanted on this wall, I didn’t have the skill to just whip up a diy stencil much less create something big enough to stencil it.  Good thing Cutting Edge does have that skill.  When I was set on the subtle stencil idea for this accent wall, I started perusing their site.  I had heard of them lots of times via other blogs and I knew they had some really awesome designs.  So, together with Chelsea at Checking in with Chelsea, we contacted Cutting Edge to ask if they’d sponsor a post and they said “YES”!  Honestly, I was planning on grabbing a stencil during their next sale anyway but I thought maybe we could try to collaborate with them first and so I was floored (walled?) and excited when they sent us each a Beads Allover stencil plus a Stencil Essentials kit.

But anyway, enough with the small talk.  Let’s talk about how this went up.

First, I moved everything away from the accent wall, took down the mirror, and gave the wall a quick wash with some mild soap and water.
I started the stenciling process by stenciling along the ceiling first.  Cutting Edge includes a top edge stencil with their allover wall stencils to make stenciling along the ceiling a breeze.  I found that using the end of the foam roller that came in the Stencil Essentials kit to stipple the paint onto the stencil worked the best for me.  The walls in the girls’ room have a fair amount of orange-peel texture to them but the foam cut the bleeding because of the texture to a minimum and allowed me to get super close to the ceiling.

I did have to wipe off the back of the stencil after every couple of rounds but having a pack of wet wipes close made it easy to do.

This might not have been as necessary with non-textured walls but since mine are, paint did tend to seep behind the stencil a tad.  Spraying the back of the stencil with spray adhesive would probably have cut down on the bleed too but I didn’t want to spray that stuff in the girls’ room and the thought of running to and fro outside and their room wasn’t appealing time-wise. 

That black strip attached to the stencil is a clip-on stencil level.  This little thing was awesome and I highly recommend grabbing one for your next stenciling project!  It’s a miniature level that attaches to the top or bottom of the stencil.  It cut out all the measuring to make sure the stencil was painted on straight.  One quick glance at the level is all you need get things nice and straight so that you can spend more time focusing on important things like painting and watching how much paint you’re getting on your roller.

Here’s what the wall looked like after I was finished stenciling along the ceiling: [Sorry for the poor picture!  I worked at night and you know how well poor-lighting plays with cameras…]
I don’t know if borders are out these days but I thought the Beads stencil looked cute just along the top of the wall.

Next up was…the rest of the wall.  I didn’t realize how large this stencil actually was before I took it out of the packaging.  It’s big.  Great too because a big stencil meant less work for me.

I started stenciling several inches from the corner of the wall, thinking that I’d tackle the corners last.  I wasn’t sure how the stencil would hold up with me bending it into the corners so I was a little concerned that if I did the corners first and the stencil didn’t hold up, I’d be in deep trouble.  (Spoiler alert:  not only did it hold up to the corners but there were no bends, breaks, or warping to be seen after!)

At first I just taped the sides of the stencil to the wall after making sure it was level using some painters’ tape I had on hand.  The problem was that the painters’ tape I had wasn’t really holding the stencil up.  It was painters’ tape I’ve had forever and was probably cheap.  Doh!

I didn’t have time to go out and grab more tape since I had a limited time schedule (bedtime for a couple of nights only) so I remedied the sad sticking situation with sticky tack!

I just stuck a little ball of it to the four corners of the stencil and it worked like a charm!  The stencil was going nowhere but onto the wall!  I think I’ll go for the tack over tape for any future stencil too.  It’s easy to remove and just stick to the next area; no grabbing another strip of tape or worrying about where the heck you laid the tape you need rightthisminute.

To paint the stencil, I used the foam roller on it’s handle.  Since my walls are textured, barely covering the roller with paint was KEY!  Using the paint tray below (Home Depot, I think?) made it easy for me to load up the foam roller with paint and then roll the excess off onto the platform.

I also figured out that if I went over the stencil twice, each time with very thin coat of paint, it cut out on the bleeding even more.  I did the coats one-after-the-other.  And, just like with the edge stencil, I made sure to wipe off the back of the stencil after every couple of uses.  In the end, I still didn’t have super-clean edges like I would’ve with a non-textured wall, but the edges weren’t awful either.  Perfectly imperfect.  :)

After I was done stenciling the entire middle of the wall, it was time for the corners.  Like I said above, I was a little nervous about these because I wasn’t sure if bending the stencil into the corners was going to  permanently bend the stencil or if all would be unscathed.  I was pleasantly surprised and super impressed with how the stencil handled corners though!  It came out looking as great as when it came out of its packaging!   

So, in conclusion…

The stencil itself?  So awesome.  The quality is so great and it was (and still is) seemingly indestructible.  It rounded the corners well without cracking/breaking and showed no signs of injury when I accidentally dropped it…oops.  Five stars/two thumbs up/hearty applaud to Cutting Edge for creating a high quality product and gaining a loyal customer in me.  (Master bathroom walls, I’m looking at you…)

Sticky tack worked so much better than tape for me and was a lot more efficient, especially since I was on a major time crunch to get the girls’ room back to normal.

If you are stenciling textured walls, wipe off the back of the stencil every few rounds.  Don’t be afraid to give a little stencil-love to textured walls!  It can be done!

Stippling with the end of the roller was a great way to get really close to the ceiling vs. rolling the paint on along the narrow edge stencil.

The paint tray I used with the small platform on it was great at helping get the right amount of paint onto the roller (this one* is similar to mine but I’m sure you’d probably be able to find one at a home improvement store too).

I used a white Glidden paint in satin to paint on this stencil.  It dried fairly quickly which is key in stenciling.  The faster the paint dries, the less chance it has to bleed or get smudged. 

Cutting Edge has a great list of FAQ’s on the actual stenciling process that you should definitely check out when buying a stencil.

Overall, I really don’t have anything bad to say about the whole experience.  I’m 100% sold on stencils (again) as a much, much, much cheaper wallpaper alternative and to liven up any room.

                                              [refurbished mirror, over-sized letters are from JoAnn Fabrics]
 
I’ll have lots more details about all of the other projects I finished in this room in the coming weeks but for now, let’s take a little tour of the girls’ sweet space, shall we?
                                                        [diy play kitchen from an entertainment center]
 These pictures of the dresser wall came out awful for some reason (shoulda turned the lamp off?) but at least you can kinda get a glimpse of all the pastels going on there.                                                                                    [mirror refurb]

My favorite tours though, are those that bring up what used to be.  Like how the room looked like this right after we moved in and scrambled to put it together before guests arrived with stuff we had on hand: 
But then we made big progress into turning it into a guestroom guests would feel much more cozy in.

And then the twins got moved, mom got busy and moved up in the photo-taking world to bring us where we are today:

And in case you’re wondering how in the heck I keep their room so clean, I don’t.  I just lock them out when I need to take blog pictures when the bright sun is shining in during the late-afternoon…and I call on a certain Explorer to babysit.  Once that lock is unlocked though and the cubs are let in, it’s all scatter and dump. 

And that’s real life.

.           .           .

Make sure you check in with Chelsea to see what she did with the Beads stencil!

*affiliate link

 

And PS, thank you for all the love after our bitty baby announcement Friday!  I’m so blessed to have such friends in my readers!  XO!