{Friday Favorites}

Ooops. Last week I typed up my Friday Favorites and completely forgot to publish it! This week's will have to be double-stuffed. I'm back to the cubicle and between midterms and two sick days, I feel like I can't catch up! Super excited though, I'm planning two big events for the sorority and one amazing birthday for myself, so there's been plenty of creative time.

{Inspiration}

SMP E-Glossy at Style Me Pretty

Permanent Party Decor at Re-Nest

{Home}

Wooden Espresso Machine at Re-Nest

Bubble Chandelier Tutorial at Frou Frou Fashionista

Inspiring Home Offices at Unplggd

Reclaimed Wood Wallpaper at Kris's Color Stripes

Inspiring Kid's Rooms at A Thoughtful Place

Stenciled Floors at Design*Sponge

Laundry Branch at Ohdeedoh

{Food}

Vertical Layer Cake Tutorial at I Am Baker

Bunting Dessert Table at Sweet Designs

{Crafts}

DIY Paper Pinwheels at The Sweetest Occasion

Ruffled Garland at The Sweetest Occasion

Fabric Gift Pouch at A Spoonful of Sugar

Color Ruffle Pillows at Sew Homegrown

Quiet Book at Kojo Designs

Vacation Shadow Box at Design Aglow

{Parties}

Camping Themed Baby Shower at The Sweetest Occasion

Ruffled and Romantic Deserts at Sweet Designs

Baking Birthday at Sweet Designs

Faux Surf Wedding at Snippet & Ink

Space Party at Hostess With The Mostess

Barn Wedding at Style Me Pretty

Beautiful Botanical Birthday at The Tomkat Studio

Wilmington Wedding at Style Me Pretty

{St. Patrick's Day}

A St. Patrick's Day Printable at A Little Lovely

Lucky Day Printables at It Is What It Is

{Mardi Gras}

Mask Cookies at The Tomkat Studio

{Hilariousity}

Naked Password

Too Pretty To Wear

I just got an apron that I've had my eye on for a while. I love it! Problem is, now I'm so afraid to get it dirty that I won't wear it! Kind of defeats the point!

Anthropologie Tea & Crumpets Apron in Blue

Chevron Canvas

Our new quote canvas (check it out) was looking mighty lonely (and short) on the wall, so I decided to do a second canvas to compliment it and stack them to add some height.

Chevron patterns are all the rage right now and I've been dying to get some in our place. I wanted some chevron pillow covers for the couch, but after looking on Etsy, I realized I would either have to break the bank or break out my sewing machine. I'm not ready to do either, but doing a chevron canvas is super easy and cheap. Here's how it's done if you'd like to make one for yourself:

1. Gather your supplies. You'll need a plain canvas (I used an 18" x 24" canvas), paint (mine is Apple Barrel acrylic paint in Laguna), a pencil with an eraser (white erasers are better), a ruler and a sponge brush.

2. Make some marks. Before you ever start painting, you'll need to measure and lay out your zigs and zags. I made a couple of diagrams to show you where to mark on an 18" x 24" canvas to get the same angles that I did. The teal marks show where you will need to mark lightly with a pencil.

For the measurements around the outside, try to mark on the side of the canvas since you will finish by painting over the sides.

First, mark the top and bottom of your canvas every 4 1/2 inches.

Next, mark down both sides of your canvas every 3 inches.

Next, lay your ruler from top to bottom (on the parallel marks) and mark your canvas VERY LIGHTLY at every 3 inch interval. You can do the same thing from side to side with the 4 1/2 inch intervals if your ruler isn't long enough. The point is, you'll have a little dot at every point where your invisible parallel lines intersect. Woah, geometry talk...

Now that you've got all of your markers, connect the dots with your ruler and pencil like this.

3. Get your paint on! Using your dry sponge brush, start by edging along your traced lines. Once the edges are done, you can fill in the middle quickly. I did about 3 coats to get the tone I wanted. Make sure you wait for the paint to dry completely between coats. When you're finished, you can get a nice depth effect and cover your markings by painting the sides of the canvas. If you can still see any of your markings, lightly erase them with a white eraser.

4. Hang and enjoy! Use the trick I showed you here to get your canvas on the wall. Do you love it?

Weekend in Santa Barbara

Sometimes you have to step away from the computer screen and just live life for a little while. And sometimes you live life so hard that you just completely crash and forget you even own a computer. That pretty much sums up this weekend. Here's what was included:

-Starting off early on Thursday night with half-off appetizers and drinks Downtown at Flames.

-Getting up early on Saturday to drive down to Santa Barbara with the other bridesmaids for my sister-in-law's bachelorette weekend.

-Arriving in Santa Barbara to discover my new favorite Mexican food, Freebirds.

-Getting pedis while it poured rain outside.

-Getting ready for a night out.

-Getting picked up by a driver!

-Dinner at Blush. Mmm, filet mignon.

-Bottle service and a private booth at Eos.

-Dancing.

-Getting driven home by the driver.

-Sleeping on the couch.

-Waking up Sunday morning to discover my new favorite breakfast Mexican food, Super Cuca's and a beautiful sunny day.

-Getting driven around Santa Barbara to go wine tasting at three wineries; Sunstone, Kalyra, and Bridlewood.

-Lunch on the patio at Bridlewood.

-Getting driven back to the house to plant ourselves on the couch for several hours of "My Strange Addiction" and the two greatest episodes of "What Not to Wear" ever filmed.

-Waking up Monday morning to drive home.

-Being so excited to see hubby, who did about three things in that same weekend; pizza and beer with the guys, part of his to do list and about 75 episode of "Psych".

Needless to say, I got no homework done last weekend, so the 24 hours after my return were about as hectic as they could possibly be. I have three exams this week, but all I've been able to think about is getting a little bit of sleep. With the exception of honeymoons, life usually doesn't grant a recovery period. Oh well, it was totally worth it.

{Friday Favorites}

Wow, I really needed a little break after all the Valentine's Day crafting, baking and cooking. I'm off to Santa Barbara this weekend for my sister-in-law's Bachelorette Party. It's going to be a blast! Before I go, here are some amazing things from this week:

{Inspiration}

Sliding Barn Door at Ohdeedoh

Pink & Teal at The Sweetest Occasion

Yellow at EAD Living

Swatch Home Office at Made By Girl

{Technology}

Cardboard Thumb Drives at Unplggd

{Parties}

Dinosaur Party at Create My Event

Glam Camping Party at The Tomkat Studio

{Sustainability}

Resource Furniture at Re-Nest

500 Square Foot House Tour at Apartment Therapy

{Crafts}

Paper Pomander at Pizzazzerie

{The Last of Valentine's Day}

Milk & Cookie Cookies at Sweetapolita

Rue Magazine Valentine's at My Sweet and Saucy

Stuck On You Valentines at C.R.A.F.T.

Valentine's Table

Jake and I will be staying in for a home cooked meal on Valentine's Day, so I whipped up a little table decoration for our romantic night. I only used stuff we already had, so this table scape was free. Just wanted to show you some pictures!

Felt Heart Placemats - HomeGoods (Gift from Mom!)

Teal Salad Plates - Crate & Barrel

Emma Dessert Plates - Crate & Barrel

Delish Cake Platters - Crate & Barrel

Silver Tea Light Holders - Michael's

Teal Tea Light Holders - Ikea

Silver Coated Candles - HomeGoods

Heart Shaped Sprinkles - Wilton

Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day! It's gloomy weather outside here, but gloomy weather is just fine on a holiday dedicated to snuggling! Tonight we're planning to stay in. We'll be making black and bleu steak for dinner and molten lava cake for dessert. Then, maybe a movie, cuddling... you know... the works.

Anyways, I spent a good chunk of the weekend whipping up some Valentine's treats so I wanted to share the finished product!

{Cupid's Arrow Brownies}

Idea from The Sweetest Occasion

{Lingerie Sugar Cookies}

Idea from How Does She?

{Friday Favorites}

{Inspiration}

Peach at Nikki Rappaport

Painted Striped Floor at Ohdeedoh

Gorgeous Cakes at My Sweet and Saucy

{Sustainability}

Visible Water Faucet at Re-Nest

Porcelain Tile at Re-Nest

Small Space Gardening at Re-Nest

{Parties}

Shop Sweet Lulu at Hostess with the Mostess

Bow Tie Baby Shower at Hostess with the Mostess

Barrel of Monkeys Party at Hostess with the Mostess

Jewelry Party at Pizzazzerie

{Crafts}

Butterfly Collage at Bright Eyes + Blue Eyes

Stenciled Scarf at How About Orange

{Valentine's Day}

Rose Cake at The Tomkat Studio

Hot Lips Pillows at Ohdeedoh

Eye Chart Printable at She Wears Flowers

Sliding Valentine at Positively Splendid

Our New Favorite Thing

This is why I love buying things from Etsy:

Today when I came home, there were two packages on the door step. One was a book from Amazon that I ordered on January 7th... yeah... a month ago. It was supposed to be delivered between Jan. 14th and Feb. 1st... I believe today is Feb. 10th.

The second was something way better. Something that made me forget about my frustration with Amazon. Three days ago, I ordered the piece for the seasonal frame beside the door. I immediately got a sweet and personal message back from the seller, Marnie at Crafterall. Three days later, here it is on my door step, well-wrapped and in perfect condition. It even came with sweet little goodies and a hand written note from Marnie.

Not just that, but it's pretty much the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. It's a cut topography of the San Francisco Bay and I'm pretty much thrilled that I get to see it every time I walk out the door. Take a look!

Your One Wild and Precious Life

I really really hate to admit this to the world wide web, but... every once in a while, I have a "craft fail". I'm not gonna lie... it shakes my confidence a little. (Check out an awesomely bad site full of craft fails at regretsy.com)

Anyways, let me tell this story from the beginning. We have this awkward wall spot in our living room area. It's near a corner and sort of high and skinny.

I try to find stuff for that area whenever we go out, but nothing has fit quite right yet. Then I saw this in a house tour at Made by Girl:

I loved the canvas and stencil look. I didn't think the silver and gold would work at our place, but I thought that silver and teal might look good. I decided on this great quote by Mary Oliver that I picked up over at Enjoying the Small Things. This is where I started to mess things up...

I was really eager to get started with the project so I started skipping stuff I shouldn't. I bought a canvas and just assumed I had the right paint (cause I have a ton of paint). I got home to discover that I had the right colors but not the right types. I had silver spray paint and teal acrylic paint. So even though I knew it was a bad idea, I just went for it. Here's what I got:

The edges of the spray painted half were too fuzzy and I wasn't crazy about the contrast between the two colors. The silver looked too gray and cold. I basically just didn't like it at all. So, now that I've admitted it... let's start all over again.

1. Pick a quote, font and color(s). I feel really inspired by this one:

"Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?"

-Mary Oliver

It helps me remember to take risks and see every day as an adventure. I took a slight creative liberty for this project. The original quote is in the form of a question, but since the font I wanted to use (Boston Traffic) doesn't have commas or question marks, it didn't read quite right on the canvas. So, I turned it into a statement: "Tell me what it is you want to do with your one wild and precious life." I loved the teal color on the first canvas; it's so saturated and dynamic. I decided to do the whole thing in teal the second time around.

2. Make a stencil. You could use a plastic stencil from Michaels, but you'd probably have to let every letter dry individually and I don't like to guess about the spacing or trace and then paint more carefully. So, I used Adobe Illustrator to set up a paper stencil in the right size for the canvas. Then I taped the pieces together and cut out the letters with an exact-o knife. After all the letters are cut out, line your stencil up with your canvas and tape it down so it's secure.

3. Paint! I used a sponge brush and Apple Barrel acrylic paint in "Laguna". Make sure your sponge is clean and dry. Dab straight up and down and try not to brush side to side, so that your letters don't bleed. When you're done, pull your stencil straight up while the paint is still wet and put your canvas somewhere clean to dry. Afterwards, you can paint the sides of your canvas to give it more dimension if you want to.

4. Hang your canvas. Once you decide where on the wall you want to put your canvas, you can get to hanging. Here's a little trick Jake taught me for simple, light jobs like this. Put one small nail in the wall at the level you want to hang your canvas, then grab a second nail, a ruler and a small level. Put the nail under the ruler and the level on top and move your nail up and down until it is level with the other one. Then use it to make an indentation so you can know where to hammer in the second one. Easy, right? Throw your canvas on the wall and voila!

After doing this project, I've come up with one more idea I want to do with this space. I'm really excited about putting it up, but I've learned my lesson about rushing, so I'll show you as soon as I get it done!