My dream living room

The past 6 weeks of motherhood have flown by, and not only has our sweet baby girl changed my daily routine (or lack thereof!), she's also inadvertently caused me to rearrange my living room. Visiting friends have joked about how our Snug-a-Monkey baby swing has become part of the permanent living room furniture arrangement.

Arhaus recently contacted me to imagine my dream living room. They have a location in  North Carolina and I enjoyed browsing through their living room options. The key words that come to mind for my style are: modern, neutral, and classic, with a touch of gold.  

Standing lamp // Side table //  Futon // Ottoman //Fiddle Leaf Plant // Armchair // TV stand // Rug

My current living room has a similar ottoman that I reupholstered and added tufting to (tutorial coming soon!), a similar futon, and the exact rug from RugsUSA. In real life my futon has many more than 3 pillows...if you ask my husband he will tell you that I have a real pillow problem!  

Armchair: I've been on the hunt for an armchair since we moved into this townhouse a few years ago. I love the clean lines of this chair, and the wood easel back adds such great character! It doesn't hurt that this chair was made by North Carolinians. The fabric looks easy to clean which is a major plus now that we have a little one in the house.

Accent pieces: With such neutral colored furniture, the side table and standing lamp add a little bit of drama with their bronze and gold accents. I especially love how the side table creates visual interest with its round shape and geometric sides. 

Greenery: I'm working on developing a green thumb, such as the succulent above that I've been propagating. In the meantime this artificial fiddle leaf fig plant adds a bit of color and breathes oxygen into the living area without requiring any watering or maintenance.

TV stand: Who knew that Walmart has affordable furniture finds like this TV stand? I liked the modern legs and the functionality of the cabinets and shelves for storing our favorite board games and DVDs, providing easy access when we had guests over to play Settlers of Catan.

This project helped me realize that I prefer classic furniture pieces that provide a neutral palette backdrop for the DIY wall decor that I currently have, like the bicycle pallet sign that I made for our mantel or the framed calligraphy hanging on the wall. When I get the itch to redecorate, it will be easy to switch up the throw pillows or the wall art.

Check out Arhaus' other dream living room inspirations on Instagram and Pinterest!

Marble breakfast tray tutorial

I've always loved the look of marble and recently discovered that there is such a thing as marble contact paper. Who knew?! You can get the look of polished marble for an affordable price of $7, and it's not as heavy as a real marble slab. I'm not saying I would stick this paper all over my kitchen or bathroom counters but for smaller decor items like this breakfast tray, this contact paper was perfect.

Read on for the tutorial!

Quilled nursery decor and watercolor greeting cards

I co-hosted a baby shower this weekend and it was so delightful to celebrate a dear friend Bekah from my church! She is naming her daughter Elsa after her grandmother (and also happens to be a Disney princess now ;)  ). I've been loving the combination of watercolor and calligraphy and also made a birthday card for my bff. Read on to see the framed quilled nursery decor that I made for Bekah!

DIY Pottery and Tea tasting, paper flower garlands

A few months ago I was standing in line at a craft supply store when I met Krista, of Krista Moll Photography. She was holding a stack of blank brown paper bags, and since the line was about 40 people long, I asked her what she was using them for. Her answer: a tea tasting event! I was intrigued. Turns out that Krista recently started conducting tea tasting events paired with yoga, and was planning a tea + pottery event! I started following her on Instagram and the rest is history. 

Click to read on about the pottery we made from clay!

Under the Sea baby shower banner

About 5 years ago, I met the Macaron Whisperer, also known as Amrita, after eagerly perusing all of her wonderful dessert and food recipes at her blog, The Sweet Art and generally being a fangirl. I loved being her neighbor and how it meant long walks at Forest Park with her dog Mila, eating the leftover macarons from her dessert business, taste-testing desserts like Shrikhand, Oreo ice cream (I love ALL her ice creams), Earl Grey Cardamom Pound Cake, and Clementine Cake with Chocolate Ganache, and doing Wii Just Dance in her apartment (to work off calories from eating all her desserts). 

Fast-forward to the present: we sadly no longer live across the street from Amrita & Joe, but they happen to be visiting NC this weekend to throw a baby shower for a friend! She needed a banner to fit her Under the Sea theme so I put my new Cricut machine to use. 

Amrita purchased the sea creature graphics from Etsy, and I bought the Kraft paper and cardstock at Michaels. I used my Cricut machine to cut scalloped 6-inch circles and 5-inch patterned/color cardstock, which has little fishies in the background. I then cut letters out of navy cardstock and adhered everything together with double-sided tape. To hang the banner up, I strung twine through the holepunched circles and taped it all into place in the back of each circle, so that the space between each circle is uniform.

Farewell music-themed card

Tomorrow our church is having a farewell party for our worship pastor and his family, who is transitioning to a new position and moving away from NC. I used my Cricut machine to cut out the music note for this farewell card. His family and worship ministry will be greatly missed! 

Materials used: Kraft cardstock, scrapbook paper, Daiso brush pen, and Tombow dual brush pen

Next up on the blog will be the 2 orders that I'm currently working on--a baby shower banner, and a quilled Golden Gate bridge! 

Calligraphy with Quilling and a weekend St. Louis visit

We visited old friends in Saint Louis this weekend and visited all our favorite places of nostalgia--Forest Park, St. Louis Zoo, our old church, Tortillaria. We also stopped by a couple of new additions to St. Louis that arrived after we left: IKEA, Jeni's Ice Cream, and Lonas Lil Eats. It was the best way to spend 3 short days in St. Louis!

B & T were our amazing hosts and fed us/cooked for us/drove us and let us play with their adorable kids! B ordered a custom quote of Joshua 24:15 embellished with quilling, inspired by a previous project. I hand-carried the framed print onto the plane and was quite relieved when I was able to deliver it safely to St. Louis. This was another collaboration between Karmomo (the brushlettering) and me (quilling).

Since I'd made gifts for B&T's 2 boys in the past, I decided to be fair to their 3rd child and make her a personalized gift---another log branch slice ornament! B&T plan to use it as a door sign for her room.

Thank you card for B&T's generous hospitality during our lovely St. Louis weekend visit!

Easy patterned pencil cup organizer

Recently I've been feeling motivated to organize my office and craft supplies, partly because Andrew returned from his out-of-town rotation. This meant clearing out all the paper and pens and markers and half-finished craft projects invading his side of our shared table area.

In the process of organizing and labeling everything, I decided to jazz up my pen/pencil cup organizers with gold and white chevron leftover wrapping paper. This was literally the easiest less-than-5-minute DIY project ever and I would do it again a heartbeat!

Supplies needed:

• Spray adhesive (or glue)
• Wrapping paper or wallpaper of your choice
• Tin cans--washed/cleaned and dried. I used cans from my clam chowder soup obssession

Step 1: Cut the paper in a rectangular shape to wrap around the can

Step 2: spray adhesive all over the exterior of the can

Step 3: Carefully press the paper down onto the can and smooth out any wrinkles

 

And...that's it! 

This can is the perfect size for my Tombow dual brush pen markers!

DIY Christmas gifts: dip-dye, marbled paper, and stenciled stationery

Now that Thanksgiving has ended...let the Christmas festivities begin! Christmas is my favorite holiday and I am grateful that we have the freedom to openly celebrate Christ's birth.

A few weekends ago my friend Liz and I made stationery as Christmas gifts. We tried out 3 methods: paper marbling, dip-dye, and watercolored stenciled hearts.

Read on for the how-to's!

DIY Log slice Christmas ornament

It's not even Thanksgiving yet but I'm already looking forward to the Advent season and Christmas. A month ago I made these wood log slice personalized coasters for my brother-in-law's wedding. I had a few wood slices left over so I decided to make a Christmas ornament for my friend Kristin since these logs came from her backyard. I personalized it with Kristin's dog Rooney's name. Rooney is gentle and loving and eats curtains in his spare time. He actually tried to eat these wood slices after we cut the log.

This was a super simple project. Sand the log, apply varnish, write out Rooney's name with a brush marker, applied Modpodge to seal, drill a small hole for the ribbon to go through, and...all DONE! 

DIY Pallet Bench

After 11 months of storing a pallet in our garage hoping to make it into a DIY project, we finally bit the bullet and made it into a bench for our front porch!

Click below for the tutorial!

Brushlettering wedding signs and Jordan almond wedding favors

Andrew and I made these wedding favors a few weeks ago for his brother's wedding, silver organza bags filled with Jordan almonds. We filled the bag with Duke blue (groom's alma mater) and UNC blue (bride's alma mater) Jordan almonds. I designed and printed the favor tags and then we watched Tarzan, which Andrew had never seen before (!) while cutting, punching out small paper hearts, and assembling the 180 favors. 

 I also did more brushlettering practice to make the guestbook and gift table signs for the reception!

DIY Tutorial: Wood Branch Slice Monogrammed Coasters

My brother-in-law is getting married this weekend and I decided to gift the newlyweds with monogrammed wood slice coasters!

My friend Alex helped me slice the logs. He was quite the trooper because it took us several tries to a) find the right size log that didn't have cracks and b) he did all the slicing while his wife Kristin held the log steady and closed her eyes because she didn't have extra safety goggles. Do as I say not as I do...wear safety goggles to protect your eyes from flying pieces of wood!!

 If you don't have wood logs/branches laying around and/or a saw, you can buy wood slices here.

Read on for the tutorial below.

Bride and baby gifts

We're attending 5 weddings in the next 10 weeks, which means lots of wedding cards and bridal showers! And being in our upper 20s means lots of BABIES and baby gifts. 

Here's a couple of things I've made and gifted in the last few weeks! Including some brushlettering practice on the greeting cards. 

                               

Tutorial here for the personalized wedding dress hanger

1 Samuel 1:27 

I can't resist buying mint clothing for my friends' babies! 

DIY Letter Decor

I've longed to make letter decor for awhile now, and the perfect opportunity arose when I threw my coworker and friend B a baby shower! I love it when my friends announce their baby name ahead of time because it enables me to go all-out in personalizing their baby gifts and baby shower decor. B chose the name Luke for her baby boy. 

It took Andrew a long while to guess what I made these letters from....cereal boxes! We kind of have a problem in our household, AKA consuming mass quantities of cereal--Honey Nut Cheerios, Frosted Mini Wheats, and our favorite, Honey Bunches of Oats. In college I used to eat cereal for breakfast, afternoon snacks, and midnight snacks. Basically, we have tons of cereal boxes, and I finally found a way to upcycle them!

Read on for the full tutorial!

Gardening tool organizer from upcycled door

One year ago my husband and I moved into our townhouse in North Carolina after driving all the way from Saint Louis, MO. We miss Saint Louis and our friends there dearly but have been adjusting well to life in beautiful NC. One of the perks of living in a townhome community where the builders just recently finished constructing the last row of houses is that they have extra unwanted leftover pieces of wood, like this pantry door which has a crack through the side (not pictured below). 

My poor husband had to endure this old door sitting around in our garage for several months before I finally came up with a way to upcycle it: organizer for our gardening and grilling tools! We now store this garden organizer in the patio for easy access to all the tools we need.

DIY Tutorial: Personalized wedding dress hanger

It's June, which means wedding season has begun! I love making bridal shower gifts and one of my favorites is this personalized wedding dress wire hanger. Pictured below is the first one that I made a few years ago.

        

Read on for the tutorial!

DIY Personalized Baby Hat

When I found out that one of my best friends was having a baby boy, I was elated both for her expanding family and for the chance to finally use my Pinterest board that I'd been adding to for the past few years! I decided to create a simple personalized baby cap with their last name, "Baker". Here's the tutorial below!