Damask wallpaper in my closet
It rained and hailed all weekend in San Diego. When the weather is like that I stay home. Why? Because San Diegans are the worst drivers when it rains {not me of course} and it is best to stay off the roads. So I pulled out a rainy day project. Wallpapering my closet. Yeah, that’s on everyone’s list right?
I bought the wallpaper back in November from One Kings Lane
It is by Kenneth James, and of course damask. The pattern is called Mallory, and the color is mist. One Kings Lane doesn’t have it any longer, but I see that it is still available on line at other retailers. I usually call in the pros when ever I need wallpaper installed. I am not a good at wallpapering, I can’t cut a straight line and getting the seams not to pull apart is always a difficult task. But since I only had two small walls to do, and the walls are smooth, I figured I could do it myself.
This is one of the two walls that I put the wallpaper on. I know this isn’t your average closet, believe me, I feel very lucky to have a closet like this.
There are two doors in my closet, so the other wall is identical to this one.
{These pictures don’t show the whole closet…spring cleaning is badly needed in there, so once I get that done I can show you the whole area}
Goodbye 40′s…
Well, today is the last day of my forties…why does that sound so much more younger than 50′s? I have a spectacular birthday of festivities planned thanks to my wonderful family. I am sure I will get used to being 50, but it sure doesn’t sound so great right now. My sister told me this weekend that I looked 43. Years ago I would of gasped at that comment, took it as an insult, but now, it sounded pretty darn good when she said that. Thanks Cin.
I ended my 40′s doing something I always wanted to do. It is really nothing huge, like going sky diving or something, but I felt more empowered after doing it. What is the big accomplishment? You are going to laugh, but I hard wired a light fixture all by myself! {well my sister held the light fixture for me while I wired it, so I did have a little help} But I wasn’t electrocuted and the light even works! {I did tell my sister who was very, very against me doing this task on my own, that if I was electrocuted, I would probably be remembered as dying young cause I was still in my 40′s, LOL luckily that didn’t happen}
I fell in love with these two empire style chandeliers at a vintage store in Ocean Beach
I couldn’t believe there were two of them, and they had the vintage glam look to them that I was looking for at the river house in the “FUN” room
What I got for Christmas
Merry belated Christmas! Have you recovered yet from all the festivities? I know I was beat today. We had a fun, family filled Christmas weekend with lots of wrapping, cooking and entertaining and of course lots of last minute decorating.
Santa was good to me this year, and I couldn’t be more happier with the thoughtful and generous gifts I received. Wanna know what I got?
My early Christmas present was my new Nikon d5100 camera
My favorite perfume Carolina Herrera Parfum Spray
Which I immediately put them to use for my this inspiration pin for our Christmas dinner {I even already had those cute polka dot cups to use}
Christmas tablescape
I finally got my new camera! I feel whole again! It was weird for me not to have a camera, and my iPhone camera just wasn’t cutting it. Now I get to show you some fun stuff I have done in the last couple of weeks while my camera was away! So get ready for lots of pictures in this post…
The thing I am most excited about is how I was able to re-create this inspiration picture form BHG that I pinned on Pinterest
Oh how I fell hard for this centerpiece. I just knew I wanted it on my table. I saw the boxwood wreaths on sale at Joss & Main online right after Christmas and got giddy over finding them so soon. So I anxiously waited for them to come in the mail. When they finally did, I was just a tad surprised. They were smaller than what I had expected, and I hoped that my glass cake plates I already had would work. Well, two out of the three did, and so I went on a hunt for the third, the smallest one. Luckily, it only took me 4 stores to find the perfect small glass cake plate, Pier One had just the right size
I was shocked when I found the silver bird at HomeGoods, I wasn’t even looking for it and there it was! It was if this centerpiece was meant to be
Christmas Subway Style Sign
I am getting to know my Silhouette machine a little better. It really is a fun machine to play with, especially to make signs. Which I recently did this last weekend, and I must say, it is addicting once you get the hang of it.
Subway style Christmas signs and printables are all over blogland and Pinterest, and I was itching to make one myself. I am also loving the use of turquoise and red everyone is using for decorating this year.
I had some leftover oak cabinet fronts that were perfect to use for this project. My original plan was to stencil the letters in white, but I really liked the look of the white contact paper that I used, so I just went that route. If you have a Silhouette machine, I highly recommend buying a roll of white contact paper to use for your vinyl. It is way cheaper, easy to use and goes a long way.
This is the sign I made for myself
I bought the actual words from the Silhouette on line store when they were having their .50 sale after Thanksgiving. It took the guess work out of trying to find the right font for a saying. Plus I can use them again next year for another sign or project.
Chandelier artwork
If you know me, you know I have a love for chandeliers. Old, new, large, small, it doesn’t matter I love them all. I am a sucked into any room that has a chandelier. So when I saw this cool chandelier artwork on 4men1lady blog I was in love. It is from a store in Vegas called Ninush
At first glance I thought this was made out of metal. Doesn’t it look like the chandelier is cut out from a metal box? I really can’t say for sure, and there wasn’t anywhere on their website where it was for sale, so I guess I will never know.
But I got to thinking, it would be an easy look to achieve as a DIY project. The supplies would be simple, a large white canvas, white glue {for the raised scrolls on the outer edges}, a chandelier stencil or wall vinyl decal and black spray paint.
I like this chandelier decal from etsy and it is only $25.99
I would trace the scrolls with a pencil first, then outline them in white glue and let that dry. Then I would center my stencil or vinyl decal on the canvas and spray paint the whole thing black. Or maybe use a different color to change it up.
Another pretty inexpensive and an easy DIY project that I thought would be awesome as well, starts with this shower curtain
Martha does it again!
I have a love/hate relationship with Martha Stewart. Her Martha Stewart Living magazine and web site are FULL of inspiration and great ideas for decorating cooking and parties, which I love. But then sometimes I look at it all and think I am such a failure, so then I hate Martha {not really hate, but strongly dislike is a better word}. I have heard, that her daughter has said, that she loves her mom but… she gets on her nerves as well, with her tips, tricks and decorating. SO that makes me feel better.
This year I started digitally subscribing to a couple of magazines. Another love/hate relationship I have. What is nice, is that I always have the magazines at my finger tips via my iPhone or my iPad. But, unlike a paper magazine that you can see sitting on your table, the magazines are kept in a neat app on your device. So I don’t see them until I click on the app. Which means I forget to read them…
I just got the latest digital issue of Martha Stewart Living. It would say it was a pretty good issue, nice recipes, an article about sugar, exercising, you know the usual. But then it got swoon worthy when I clicked to turn to page 99.
Camera + App
Thanksgiving is over, Christmas shopping and decorating begins…didn’t we JUST do this? A year goes by way too fast doesn’t it?
I had a glitch last week during my wonderful Thanksgiving weekend, my camera up and broke! My right hand man is now stuck on the shutter release mode…boo hoo. Good thing is there are a lot of deals on new cameras right now to be had, so I am shopping for a newer one. I haven’t even looked into fixing my camera. Even though my Nikon is only 4 years old, it just seemed so ancient once I started looking at the newer models. I am asking my husband for a new one for Christmas. But an EARLY Christmas present, like next week early Christmas present, I can’t go a whole month without a camera!
So now all I have is my iPhone camera to use. That isn’t saying much since I have the oldest version of an iPhone and the camera isn’t half as good as the newer ones. My daughter Tiffany told me to downloaded the Camera + app. Let me tell you, it has a lot of bells and whistles that can make any picture look good!
I am so glad I have a daughter who is tech savoy. I have been lost without my camera, and she saved the day. Tiffany takes a lot of pictures with her iPhone {she has the newer version, yeah, what’s up with that? } and she edits them right on her phone and puts them on Instagram. She is a very good photographer and very cre8tive with her composition. If you do Instagram, you can follower her, Pandatiff, she loves followers!
