Filling Empty Walls...

Literally, the morning before our Going Away Shin Dig I whipped up some wall art to fill the empty space that was left when we took down our Christmas Card Display. We had six of these Record Album Wall Mount Frames in our attic from Talon's college years...I've never thrown them out..which is extremely un like me. I throw EVERYTHING away...I guess I could see their potential. I took the old album covers out of the attic and gave all of them a good scrubbing (they have been in the attic for almost 3 years!). Once they were scrubbed I tossed them with a couple of good coats of Gold Paint....I thought we might have a problem with coverage since the frames are metal but nope....

Since the frames are kind of an awkward size I had to go to Michel's and purchase frame matting and cut custom mats for the frames...with coupons I was only out about 9 bucks. They are extremely easy to cut...we did the same thing in our hallway here. 

Once the mattes were cut I centered all of the photos with the help of Talon's math skills...

Then I begged Talon to hang them for me so they wouldn't end up a crooked mess....

I am in love with the gold frames...

My favorite part are the photos. They are all photos Talon and I took while visiting Yellowstone two summers ago...

Nothing special was done to the pictures...just simply had them printed...gotta love 2 dollar art.

I'm pretty happy with the final product...even though I'm already considering purchasing additional frames to fill up the wall a little bit more....

Thanks gosh we got rid of some of that empty wall space...we have lots more to go!

Burlap Art?

Not sure that you can call slapping burlap in to a frame art....but we will go with it. During dinner last night...I got slightly creative and decided to add something to those empty frames in our living room. I utilized the leftover burlap I had in my fabric drawer....I simply measured the burlap to be slightly larger than the mat insert....I made sure that you could not see any edges once it was flipped over....I first tried taping the burlap to the mat itself. This proved to be a bad idea. Once it was in the frame it was lumpy and didn't give the smooth surface I was looking for. Therefore, I taped it to the frame back. I eye balled it to make sure it would still fit correctly in my mat. There you have it....burlap art!The frames are RIBBA frames from IKEA. The burlap provides some texture and is slightly darker than the wall color.
I love a project that takes 20 minutes:)

Table Runner

Remember all those fun pillows I made a few weeks back (here)? I had extra fabric and I was itchin' to use my sewing machine again......and so a table runner was born. I did the most basic job ever. I know there are fancier ways but I'm a beginner and I will learn those fancy ways later. I simply sprawled out the extra fabric that I had across the table and started pinning....I did zero cutting. Luckily the fabric just happened to be a good length and didn't have much extra on each side.....There were no precise measurements or any of that good stuff. Just eye balled it. It sat pinned on the table for a couple of days. The sewing machine still intimidates me A LOT. So, I have to work up the courage to break it out. But once I did...it was on. Don't get me wrong....I didn't do the most awesome job ever. It is definitely a little wobbly in places. Remember, I'm a beginner. I sewed right on the edges of my table runner, removing pins as I went. I'm pretty sure Mr. Owl loves perching on the new table runner. Just sayin'.I justified my non fancy ways by using a fun stitch. It's in a zig zag pattern. Adds a little fun to it.
There you have it....a very basic table runner.

Oh Lenda....

How I love thee. Lenda is the latest addition to our living room. She was the results of our recent birthday Ikea trip. See Lenda on-line here. To be completely honest...I am not 100% sure Lenda is the actual curtain we bought. But I'm like 98. I was way to excited to hang these babies up to take a photo of the package. But here she stand today in all of her 98" of glory.Yep, 98" long. Ikea is seriously the greatest. We were able to hang them so high and wide, as suggested by John and Sherry over on YHL, because of how awesomely tall Ikea makes curtains. They also sell them in a length of 119" as well.
The best part....20 dollars. 20 Dollars for two curtain panels that are 98" of length. I mean really...they do not have that good of deals at Wal-Mart...and that says a lot. They've been hanging up for about two weeks now. We've loved them everyday since. We were able to take down the blinds we had hanging there before and now if we would like we can just simply pull the curtains closed for privacy.
The curtain rods are from Wal-Mart in case any one is interested. Now that I think about it...I should have probably picked those up at Ikea too. So, am I like the only person in the world that was living under a rock when it came to the greatness that is Ikea curtains?

Pouf Be Gone.

Or at least ugly pouf be gone....You may remember this guy from when I mentioned it here or here .....I found it at my favorite junk store and almost DIED. Why? Because it was only 8 dollas. Luckiest day eva. I then almost died a second time when I tried to re-cover it myself. Turns out sewing a circle isn't quite as easy as sewing a pillow. I had to call in my Mom for backup. Sewing a circle wasn't hard at all for her. And to give myself some credit I did cut out the fabric correctly. Go me!My Mom made me take this photo to pretend I knew what I was doing...nobodies buying it I'm sure. She did all the work.And when she was finished with all that work (really it only took about 30 minutes) it looked like this....Notice that purdy shag carpet in the background. It was a birthday present and it makes anything look good. Not that the pouf needs any help. {Side Note - Tils walks up to that antler and sniffs it like 100 times a day - supa funny}It's not only pretty but very functional. It's less bulky than a big ol' coffee table and makes for a great place to prop your feet up. And because everyone loves a good before and after....

So there you have it....the ugly pouf is gone. Here's a question for you....Is it really called a pouf? Do you spell it p-o-u-f? If not that's embarrassing because I've spelled and called it that a lot in this post :)

Sewing Take One

A couple of weeks ago Talon and I invested in a sewing machine. The Singer 4423 Heavy Duty to be exact. So far it's been great and so easy to use. We picked this one for a couple of reasons 1. It was heavy duty {we wanted something that would allow us to sew thicker material in the future} 2. Good Price 3. It's pretty simple {we got some advice not to go with the fancy machines that had the digital screens}. I managed to sew together new pillows for our living room with very little practice beforehand....Sewing is kind of addictive...once I made one I was ready to do 100. I'm sure this is just the horrible beginning of me changing out the pillows in our living room every other month. Sure Talon is pumped about that:) I picked up some inexpensive fabric to play with...but I kind of love them on our couch....I got a little too confident and started on my pouf. Dear Jesus, this isn't working out like I thought it would. So, the pouf will probably stay looking like this until my Mom can come over and help me....

Maybe I'll stick with pillows for now. Anybody have any good sewing tutorials? I would love to read them!

Down the Dusty Trail...

Yep, Dusty Trail was the choice of color for our living room. I mentioned all the color choices here. And thanks to this (The Premium XL Tight Spot Paint Brush) it was so easy. So easy I have plans to paint our hallway asap. It completely eliminated the need for taping -- it makes painting SOOO much easier!! Go buy one. It's G-REAT! And it's only like 5 bucks. Back to the Dusty Trail....We love it. Such a great neutral without being to boring. It also doesn't have any pinkish undertones that you sometimes see when choosing to paint tan on the walls.Our paint before was Davenport Tan by Benjamin Moore. It was a great color BUT it was dark. We have inquired (I say inquired because I'm pretty sure we haven't bought one piece of furniture in our living room - thrifty mcthriftersons is what you can call us) a lot of darker older furniture. We have re-done most of it and usually keep it the darker stained color. We love that look BUT we didn't love how it blended in with our dark walls. So we are especially loving how the new color makes all of our dark furniture pop....I wish I had better photog skills because obviously mine are terrible. This picture best depicts the color....
We're on the neutral band wagon at our house. After much trail and error I've found it's much easier for me to decorate, buy furniture, etc with a neutral background to work with. Anybody else learned this the hard way too? By the hard way, I mean having to paint every room in your house 65498732 times. Sorry about that Tal....

Dwell Studio Fabrics

I mentioned last week that one of the items on our Living Room To Do List was to find fabric for curtains, pillows, etc. For curtains I'm thinking white. But for accent pillows, etc I want to do something fun. Introducing, Dwell Studio Fabrics. I saw them at Jo Ann's for a fortune. I googled and found them on Amazon for way less. Has anybody else discovered the awesomeness that is Dwell Studio Fabrics??My personal favorite, Mum Floral Hydrangea...A close runner up that is also offered in blue, Botany Flora Leaf.... Not my favorite but still fun....Square Lattice Hydrangea.....
So, am I late on the Dwell Studio band wagon? If so, how'd I miss it?

Living Room Dreaming...

Since our living room is the only thing on my mind {Talon told me to focus on one room - I took it to heart and now I am obsessed} I thought I would let you in on my sweet little dreams. First up, paint, I think we've decided on Olympics Dusty Trail. I googled it and found that Katie Bower from Bower Power used it all over her house. I was SOLD. I'm going to tackle the paint this weekend. It's a huge room. So that should be NO-fun. It's actually so big it serves as a living room/dining room. Which will make the later part of this post make more sense.A big ol' rug is also on the to-get list. I want a big soft and comfy wool one. I'm to scared to go with any crazy pattern since rugs are darnet expensive. What's up with that by the way??? I'm thinking about going with something like this....Then there is fabric for curtains, pillows, etc. Kill me now. So many to choose from. We've found a few we love.... And you know how I mentioned earlier that our living room also serves as a dining room. That means more space to fill up:) So, we need a table. I've been pinning big farm tableesque photos like crazy...
So, there you have it a little glimpse in to my craziness. If only I could make it all work with our budget we would be good to go.