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

Mantle me that!

I've never liked our mantle. Maybe that's because we don't actually have a mantle. We have a shelf, awkwardly placed a foot above the fireplace. It's awkward. Unfortunately, we rent and the landlords put the shelf their. So we have to deal. Dealing has been much in the form of placing anything and everything that is within reach. And then topping it off with Tomas' ship, because he's in love with that thing.

Well, after almost 7 months of being here.. I've finally conquered the mantle (and replaced that ship). Here he is in all his beauty:

I am so happy with how this turned out (maybe I'm a little biased?). I could just sit here and oogle at my own mantle (awkward..). I made the sunburst mirror, the "Live" sign, and those antique books. Tutorials on all those coming soon..

I took the red glass balls out of the vase that used to be on the mantle and tossed them in a mason jar. I had picked up a bunch of mason jars at A.C.Moore a few months back when they were on sale for 99 cents. The old books on the left and the candle sticks were thrift store finds.

Note to self: Don't take pictures before sunrise.

And that's it. I'm so happy to finally like love my mantle!

Link parties! -

Frames Galore

 

The wall above the cabinet in my woman cave / living room (above) was inspired from this shot in a Pottery Barn catalog:

 

 I was originally thinking I would do something like this in our bedroom, so I've been on the search for mirrors and frames for some time now. It wasn't until I reorganized the cabinet so that I could stow all my crafts, that I realized I needed something on the wall above. And I then I thought the frames would look perfect there instead of the bedroom.

 

I'm still waiting for the perfect idea to put into these frames, for now they're empty.. yet I still love them!

I love love books. I made sure I carefully picked out a few of my favorite books and a few books that I feel describe me at the moment. Dreams, Lithuanian, Tuscany, Running, Marriage, the World...

And some knick knacks I picked up at the thrift store a while back.

 

I'm loving it all so much right now, it makes the living room so much more homey!

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.