Saturday Morning Love

My ideal Saturday morning consists of a workout,

some camera time,
and some photoshop fun.

Some pictures in preparation for a post this week.

Some just for fun.


Boy do I love Saturdays like today. What's your ideal Saturday morning like?

Antiqued Books to Satisfy my Nerdy Obsession

Remember my love affair with books?

No matter how much I L.O.V.E. books, I still can't bring myself to buy books for decoration. I'm sorry. I just can't do it. Unless of course you're talking 50 cent books at the thrift store. That, my friends, I can handle.

So when I saw how you can make your own antique books. Me oh my, how excited I was. I dropped everything, ran to the thrift store, picked up some books and started right away!

Off came the book covers.



I heated some water in my favorite red teapot. Made some tea.



Squeezed the excess water from the tea bag so the books wouldn't get soggy. Rubbed the book pages. Rubbed to hard, broke the tea bag. Whoops. It's all good, just keep going. Then I waited impatiently for them to dry. Then repeat, x3, or more if you want them darker. I did, but didn't have the patience to wait. I know Mom, I know...

Then I realized I didn't have any jute twine to tie them in. No worries. Next to my craft chest was a Whole Foods bag that has been sitting there for 6 weeks now with things I need to donate. Lightbulb! I tore off the handles and used that to tie the books. Perfect!



And how lovely they look on the mantle with that sunburst mirror and Live sign.



What do you think? Is there anything you love but refuse to buy just for decor?



PS - You wouldn't even believe it if I told you. But Roeshel featured my sunburst mirror over at The DIY Showoff! How awesome is that?!? Need I say I spent another day squealing like my 6 year old cousin. Thank you so much Roeshel, you're awesome!

Link Parties -

The Tale of the Basket

It started with this and this. I thought oh, what a cool idea.

But I couldn't think of any place I could stash a basket like it.

Then, only a few days later, I saw this.

And it was one of those lightbulb i-should-be-in-a-movie-because-of-how-surreal-this-lightbulb-moment-is moments, ya know?

I mean come on, look at how awesome that grey basket is. Have I ever mentioned how much I am over the top obsessed with love grey?

It happens to be the color of my new sunburst mirror, hanging proudly above the mantel. And the color of my someday couch (the one that I haven't picked out yet but I just know it has to be grey).

So I went to work.

I picked up some sisal rope at Walmart, for 5$ per 100 yards. I already had hot glue, wood glue and grey spray paint, then began the fun part.

I wanted a large basket. And I wanted it to be square.


Like this one. Only, not $79.





















Or this one, only not so hard.
















Or this one, in grey.



So I came up with the genius idea of making my basket square. And I was going to use a box [that sits in my closet taking up space and collecting dust] to do it. I wasn't sure how I would do it, but I figured I'd wing it.

So I started swirling, gluing, swirling and gluing some more. Until it was the size of the box.

Then I realized I had no genius idea for how to make a circle become square. So it sat like this for a few days in my living room.

Then I caved and decided a circular basket wouldn't be so bad after all. As long as it was grey. And then, I realized I had no circular object the size of said basket bottom to act as my mold.

See, this was clearly one of my smarter days. So it sat in the living room for a few more days.

Eventually, I realized I was going to have to make my own molding.

I thought about going to the store, buying a big circle basket to use as a mold, then returning it. But that involved driving to the store.

Enter, contraption uno. I resorted to a pillow, stuffed in a trash bag. Also another one of my finer moments. And let's just say, don't try this at home folks.

After admitting that was an epic fail, I saw my bright red Williams Sonoma bowl and realized it was the exact size of said basket bottom. Score!

So I did some more quality thinking, and realized my dish currently holding apples on the kitchen table, happened to be the same circumference. Hello, contraption two.. Double score!

So with a little painters tape..

And a little more...

I had another contraption a molding. Woo hoo! Step 1 complete.

Step 2, wrap sisal around. Then wrap some more. And yep, keep going. I used a lot of hot glue for the bottom, but for this part I didn't use hot glue at all. I just pulled tightly and kept wrapping.

Then douse in wood glue. Sorry, I was so excited to finally have a successful contraption that I forgot to take pictures.

Let dry over night.

Spend an entire morning trying to get said contraption outside of new basket. Rip apart a layer in the bottom to cut the painters tape holding the two dishes together (the two dished refusing to come out). Cringe. Cringe again. Remove the glass dish and then push out the red bowl.

Re-glue unglued layer.

Let dry.

Take pictures. :)

Add a wine bottle for size. And just because.

Spray paint grey. Add magazines. Do a little jig.

Slide under coffee table. Sigh a sigh of relief that you now have a place on your coffee table to put your coffee, because it's no longer overflowing with magazines.

Wait a few days. Write a post.

Enjoy :)



Linking to these Linky Parties - Thrify Decor Chick's Organize it Party

Flowers & Jack

Because come on, who doesn't love flowers in a bottle of jack?

Thank you, Thank you!

The hubs and I were both lucky enough to be home sick with the flu all last week. And if there's anything that I hate more than being sick, it's the first day back at work after a week out of the office. Need I say I was dreading Monday.

That was until I saw one new comment from Rachel over at Lovely Crafty Home letting me know that she featured my sunburst mirror! I'm a newbie in blog world and this is my very first feature! Need I say, there was an entire commute full a bit of awkward high pitched squealing going on yesterday in the car on the way to work!

Thanks Rachel!

PS - This means I get to create a featured page! Maybe I'm going a bit overboard?!?

My printer loves burlap too

Remember the beginning of my burlap obsession? I saw this laundry sign in the midst of that burlap frenzy and just loved it. A burlap sign has been on my to do list ever since. Only after my first attempt with stenciling did I realize that to stencil a sign with that many words would be misery. And I never have freezer paper and always forget to pick it up. But only last week when I was oogling Stephanie Lynn's sunburst mirror did I learn that you can print directly on fabric with your inkjet printer with just glue, fabric and a piece of paper. And me oh my, how excited I was that I didn't have to make a trip to the store.

Off the wall came one of the three lonely frames that I hung without pictures in my living room. I used spray adhesive to glue muslin fabric to a piece of paper. I sprayed a bit too much adhesive, but it was ok because I would be cutting out the middle to fit a 4x6 frame.

I downloaded a free stamp-look-a-like font, and printed out "Live". It turned out perfectly.

So perfectly that it just had to go on my mantle with my new sunburst mirror instead of back on the wall of frames.

Next up, printing on burlap for that sign I've been wanting in the bathroom ;)
Cheers!!!

Link Parties! -

Gandhi's Words

I stumbled on this Gandhi Printout the other day and I just love it!

Francesca put it together and is wonderful enough to let anyone download it for free.  So that's just what I did. First I put it in a wooden frame and hung it in the hallway.

But it just didn't do it for me. So after much internal debate, I've changed the frame and now it's hanging in my bathroom. It may just become the inspiration for my much needed bathroom makeover. Lovin' it!

I love Sunburst Mirrors

I've been seeing sunburst mirrors all over blog world. And have never stopped drooling over them. I finally decided it was time to stop dreaming and to just make one already!

With a great tutorial all I needed was supplies. I already had a set of circle mirrors I had picked up on a thrift store trip a while back, and hot glue. So all I needed was the sticks. I picked a set up from HomeGoods / Marshalls (are they one store now?) for $9.99 and got busy.

The sticks were originally a few feet long. So, first I cut the sticks to be about 18 inches give or take. I ended up getting 3 sets of 18" sticks and one set of 15" sticks. Then I cut one of the 18" set to be about 16/17 inches to add some variety. I hot glued them all on and tried to make sure the different length sticks were in as random of an order as possible (random is hard for my pattern-needing self) to add some variety.

I covered the mirror and sprayed the sticks white. Only to decide I wanted grey, so I headed to Wally World to pick up grey spray paint ($4). Have I ever told you how much I love love love grey? I do. So a grey sunburst mirror.. it's just heaven!

After it was grey I thought the mirror was a little too small, and realized I hadn't been careful enough when hot gluing-- so there were a handful of clumps that were very visible. So I picked up a 10" candle plate mirror from A.C. Moore ($6) to glue on top of the existing mirror and sticks. And that was the final touch!

I am so happy with how it turned out. Now this beauty is hanging about our no-longer-just-a-wanna-be mantle.

I've seen these online for anywhere from 170$ to 450$, not including shipping. In total I spent a whopping, $19.99. Go savings!

PS - The Mr.'s response?

"I like it, you did good. However, it's not really functional. I mean, I can't even see my face in the mirror."

Note to self - Never hang mirror higher than husband's face.



Link parties! -

My Romantic Home's Show & Tell Friday ( I couldn't find her button!)