Thanksgiving Preparation

Along with crossing off my new [wo]man cave and Radiate Love sign off my list in preparation for Thanksgiving. There were a handful of other little changes our casa saw.

I tried to spice up the Dining Room table, which was previously empty. I picked up a wooden tray from T.J. Maxx some time ago, then some balls from Pier 1. 

I finally redecorated the mantle. More on that later, but here's a sneak peak. 

We hung the mirror that used to be on the mantle in our bedroom.

I tried to find ways to decorate the guest room man cave that I'm not allowed to decorate (that's not decorated). A yellow plant in a Jack Daniel's bottle did the trick (and the Mr. actually liked it!).

With the rest of those flowers I threw them in an old wine glass and put it in the bathroom. I covered it with burlap because I can't figure out how to get the label off.

How to Make your own Burlap Monogram

Just as promised, here's how I created our Burlap Monogram above our bed. I started with a little inspiration and how-to. I picked up a few yards of burlap at the fabric store. I ended up only using less than a yard.

I had an unused painting canvas at the house, but only one. So I headed out to the closest place,Walmart to pick up some more. Only they didn't have any in the size I wanted. Then I checked out their artwork for sale, to see if I could pick up any cheap artwork. Nothing for less than 15$ a piece. So I headed to Target only to find they didn't have any either. But then I stumbled on this pack of 4 cork tiles for about 5$ total and thought, hmm.. that could be perfect. I picked up a few decorative nails from Target as well.

I picked up some black and white acrylic paint at 2$ a bottle and a 3" sponge paint roller from A.C. Moore. When I was at World Market I found these hooks and fell in love.  I couldn't decide which color would be better being that the bedroom's main color is green, but the grey hooks were just so darn pretty. So I brought home 3 of both colors. (To be returned later..)  These were the most expensive, at $5.99 a pop. But soo worth it! And that's all the materials I had to buy.

 I had some ribbon at home, leftover from the wedding. When it came to stencils, I printed out letters in "Edwardian Script ITC" font. Then I pseudo - traced them onto a whole foods bag. I say pseudo because the letters I printed weren't actually large enough and I couldn't get them to print out any larger on one page. So I kind of 'winged in' and drew the letters on the bag larger than the prints. So I really didn't trace them.  Surprisingly, they turned out great.

After having all my materials, I got started. First, I cut the burlap about 1.5" larger on every side than the cork tile. Then just stapled the burlap to the cork. Initially, I had a hard time getting the staples to stick. Then I started stapling 'harder'. Then I got cocky and started going really fast. Then I slammed my finger under the stapler. Twice. Then I continued to staple hard, just less cocky, and slower.

After that was the real fun. I mixed the black and white paint to be a dark grey. Placed the 'stencil' on the burlap which was now stapled to the cork board, and rolled the paint over. Then I stuck decorative nails in the corners. Two on the left corners of the 'M', above and below the 'K' and two on the right corners of the 'T' to bring all three pieces together.

After quite a while attempting to tie a bow out of the wedding ribbon, I eventually gave up and went with a knot. I'm still not sure if I like this, but I don't have any better ideas at the moment. Then I stapled the other end of the ribbon to the back of the cork as well. Then I hung them up. Only to realize that cork weighs nothing and the hooks are pretty big, so the monograms kind of dangled and danced around in the air, not even touching the wall. Not pretty.

I happened to have some mounting strips in the house. So after putting a few strips on the back of each letter, we were in business!

And here's what it looks like now. Like I said, I'm still not crazy about the ribbon. I also can't decide if the 'K' being so skinny looks good or awkward. That was a stenciling mishap, but I think it separates itself more from the 'm' and 't', which I kind of like.

And a shot with a little bit of the bed (not made). I hope you enjoyed it!

Burlap Monogram

So I promised myself I would do nothing but rest and relax this weekend. That's exactly what I did. And I did it by shopping for all things craft! Now I have supplies for about 4 or 5 different projects I've got down the pipeline. The best thing I found this weekend was a DESK!! Finally! I've been on the hunt for a desk to create "my space", since the MR. has acquired the entire guest bedroom / office as his man cave. And a vintage, white, distressed desk is the perfect way start to that. Only, the cheap desk I picked up at the thrift store is just old. But, some may call those dents and stickers that only a 5 year old would make distressing, right? Either way, that's in the works now. More coming later.

Besides creating my own non-man cave, I'm still focused on the bedroom re initial-do. I happened on the perfect rug this weekend at World Market. (I couldn't find it online for here..) If only it was 30$ instead of 400$ it would be in laying so happily in my bedroom now. However, it did give me a better idea of what I'm looking for (something that looks exactly like the WM rug, just cheaper). The hunt for a nice and cheap duvet cover is also still on. Besides those 2 main missing pieces, I've found on peoples blogs come up with quite a few ideas for decor. I'm still loving this sign. I'm also thinking a distressed wooden ladder would look delightful. (If only I knew how to find one three). On another note, my search for a linen duvet, led me to fall in love with burlap, everything burlap. Then my newest burlap obsession led me here, and I thought how PERFECT! I actually stumbled on this post first, then found the latter.  That brings me to today. I have just successfully hung my own burlap monograms above our bed, and it looks so lovely, I am so in LOVE! The MR. even thought it was impressive, which is saying something! Here's the after, I'll post a how-to in the next coming days! [Update: Here's the How-To Post]

Cheers!