AudreyMORE
My walls are in need of some color, however I’m very non-commital thus buying art is extremely difficult for me. We have been in our current home for about seven years and the only rooms with anything on the walls are my daughters bedroom and the livingroom. I have one wall with pictures in the livingroom, that is it.
Since, I am so non-commital, I look for inexpensive options. As you saw in an earlier post, I painted my dining room and so now I think I need to work on accessorizing and that includes the walls. So, what I did was something super easy that I’ve watched them do on HGTV shows several times, cover canvas with fabric and voila instant art, if you want to call it that.
It took all of thirty minutes to do them all. It took a little less than half a yard of fabric for each one. I didn’t have a staple gun handy so I just used hot glue, which I have done before when covering a canvas with fabric and it works just fine. I think maybe sometime in the next few years I’ll actually get to hanging them. 
I think I may go buy some of those removable hooks, I have an issue committing to nail holes. Shocker, right?
- Instant Art
This project was super inexpensive. Fabric was about $12, canvas was also about $12. Total cost for all three, $24….and best of all they match my color palette perfect. Pretty great deal if you ask me.
Have a great day!
Tonya
Hi, I just had to share my flower pot spruce up. In case you haven’t figured it out yet, I’m pretty thrifty. Thus, if possible I will try to salvage items when I can. I was quite pleased how this one turned out. I spray painted a cheap faded flower pot from our flower graveyard. The flower graveyard is the spot we put all the plants that have fallen victim to my black thumb, in case you were wondering. Here are a couple pictures. Neither picture do this spruce up justice. The before pot was a thin previously terra cotta colored faded pot. It was not as evenly toned as it looks in the picture below, it was obviously faded. The spruced up pot is cuter than what is pictured too.It has a slight shine too it and just looks so fresh. Let me know what you think! Sorry the picture quality isn’t great, these were taken from my phone.
Have a great day!
Tonya
Hip-hip horray Avery turns 3 today! So what are we going to do? Celebrate! What are we going to do? Celebrate! Yea, you got it!
Ok, so obviously, I watch a little too much toddler TV. I think I channeled Dora for my intro there. Despite my toddlers love of Dora, she actually chose to have Minnie Mouse Birthday. And for this lovely birthday, I had a lot of fun doing party projects. a thrifty, but fun event, which required lots of projects!
For the party we made ears for all the guests, here is a picture of my little one in her ears, which were made from a sparkle foam sheet and glued onto a headband. I used regular gross grain ribbon fro the bow. It was a very simple and inexpensive approach and they worked out great.
Another project that I found to be a lot of fun, super cute and super easy was the loot bags which you can see here.
For the loot bags, I actually made the bows out of card stock. I thought they turned out really well and they were super easy. I used the paper bows on my centerpieces as well. My daughter of course helped make all these items, some more than others.
My Mother-in-law made the cake. Not only did it look fantastic, but it tasted great as well. Her cakes always taste fantastic! 
For the food we served sliders or as we called them minnie- burgers, and we also grilled hot diggity dogs. Ha!
I’m quite positive my little one had a great time, she loved having all the people over just for her. She asked me a couple days later if when she could have another birthday with people. I told her it would be awhile for another birthday, but maybe we could come up with another reason to have people over.
Most of these ideas came from things I found when googling Minnie Mouse, zebra, pink, and birthday.
Hope you enjoy!
Have a great day!
Tonya
Last year I posted about my curtain sewing project and I mentioned how I wanted to paint my dining room. Well, in a couple weeks my daughter is having her 3rd birthday party at our house, so I’ve decided what better time to paint the dining room.
My daughter was very helpful in the paint color picking process. When we were in the store she actually picked a lovely eggplant purple, which she proceeded to asked the store employee to mix for her along with some other lovely shades of bright reds and oranges. However, I decided to go with a light tan. I told her we could use her colors as accent colors for her play room or bedroom, which is on our project list. I also told her a story that it takes a really long time to mix purple paint, thus we would have to come back another day to pick it up. I know, that is a bad mommy. However, that got us out of the store without purple wall paint.
The color I chose was Canvas Tan, by Behr Ultra. The paint and primer combo actually worked out really well. Considering how dark my dining room was, it only took two full coats to cover it. I was pretty impressed by that.
When I first started to paint the room I was petrified that it was going to look too white. Now that it has dried and the room is done, it actually looks great. It has just enough color. I’m not sure if the picture does it justice.
AK, my daughter, was really happy when she would come home from school in the afternoons and see the painting progress. She would say everyday “Is this for my party?” Actually, everything we
have been doing she asks if we are doing it for her party. It’s pretty funny. Considering I work full time, I had a very small window to paint, but I was able to get it done in about three days, which is about 4-5 actual hours.
I can’t wait to get the space decorated. It really looks so much bigger and makes the whole house feel brighter.
As always, let me know what you think!
Thanks,
Taking pictures is another activity I love to do. I’m a complete novice, but it is fun. We still pay to have professionals take good pics from time to time. However, it has been a while and the natives are getting restless, or should I say the grandparents.
Thus I set a goal to get enough good pictures of my daughter to make photo books for the grandparents. This may not seem like much of a goal, however, if you have ever tried to take pictures of my daughter you would understand. Camera comes out, AK gets nutty and very uncooperative or super shy. Either way, photo shoots are hard work with her. Photographers earn their money!
The other day I got really lucky, AK was looking cute, so I pulled out the camera and she actually cooperated! I don’t know what got into her, it was great! She was being a total cheese ball for the camera. She was posing and just being silly. She even left the bow in her hair! She was trying to act like a little model. A couple pictures cracked me up because they looked very staged and reminded me of old senior picture poses. Remember the pose where you were forced to look wistfully over your shoulder as though you were visualizing your bright future? I think I actually caught one of those of my 3 year old! I included it in my pictures below, can you pick out which one it is???
I use PSE (photo shop elements) for my photo editing, however I decided to do a trial of Lightroom and I think I am hooked. It is so user friendly! It is super easy to save a combination of edits so that you can use it over and over. In addition, it is just so wonderful to be able to edit a whole group at once. It is fantastic! I am thinking I may be hooked, I highly recommend it.
Here are a few of the pictures I took. The only editing that was done was a little cropping, brightening, and a light vignette. It took no time at all and I think they look ok. I am open to feedback though and don’t hold back, I can take the truth. 
Well, until next time,
Tonya
Til’ next time,
Tonya
A couple weeks ago a couple friends and I had the honor of hosting a baby shower for our friend Jill. It was a lot of fun. It was also a lot of work, but well worth it. We had a few crafty projects. My favorite was the party favor. We did this cute little blue, Tiffany inspired, blue box with white ribbon. Inside the box top it said ready top pop. The best part…the favor was a ring pop! How great is that! They were cute and fun. I love the idea of guests leaving with a little giggle on the way out.
I’ll try to upload a picture of the favors closed, which are totally adorable ( media upload is not cooperating with me today).
Have a great day!
Tootles,
Tonya
I’m talking about David Bromstad!!!
Now that the holidays are over and my busy time at work, it’s time to getting back to having some fun. I have to tell you, I have been stressed for the past few months. As many of you know, I work full time, in addition to being a wife and mother. It’s of course quite hectic at times, especially since both my hubby and I have demanding careers. Oh how I dream of a time when my passion could be my career, hmmm. Well, for now, I’m very fortunate and grateful for what I have, however sometimes it pushes me to my limits. When I get pushed to my limits, I have to take a step back and regroup to find my sanity.
David Bromstad brings me that sanity, instantaneously, he is my happy pill. David has this energy and positive attitude that is just infectious. It is wonderful. I love the fact no matter what the situation, he can find something encouraging and inspiring to say or do. Another fantastic thing about David Bromstad is that he does not try to fit anyone else’s mold. He is strictly David Bromstad. He is unique, lovable, talented, and just purely inspiring. If you have not watched Color Splash or are not familiar with David Bromstad you are missing out. He is just glorious and a pure joy!
I love HGTV. I love me some Candice, Genevieve, Sabrina, Property Brothers, Kitchen Cousins, and all the crashers too (yes I DVR lots of HGTV) but there is something extra special about David Bromstad, and it’s more than just his design. He is just spectacular.
Here is a link to his site: http://bromstad.com/index.php
You really need to watch Color Splash to experience David and his team. I haven’t mentioned his team, but they are pretty great too.
Hope you enjoy!
Tootles,
Tonya
Ok, it has been awhile since I have posted any current projects. I’ve been a tad busy in Work Land, Mommy Land, and Pinterest Land. I am a total Pinterest addict! I have found great ideas for just about everything, now I just need to start doing the projects I’m seeing. So, I’m going to,and I promise I’ll have a post of some new projects with pictures very soon.
Tootles,
Tonya
Today I made my daughter a new T-shirt. It’s suppose to fray around the edges as it gets washed. The name has already started. I think it turned out really cute! I can’t wait to see what it looks like after a few more washes.
Recently I decided my luggage wasn’t personal enough. It’s not enough that no one I know has bags like mine, nor is it enough that I’ve never seen anyone in the airport or anywhere else with bags like mine. I had to make it more mine…so I monogrammed. I am happy with the roller and wallet, but I think I should have used the yellow on the duffel and makeup bag.
