Holiday Decor Cont...

November 20, 2016

I have been chipping away at our holiday decorating moving towards Thanksgiving - I am early! This weekend the magnolia garland, ornaments and wreath arrived. They look beautiful! I ordered everything shown here from One Kings Lane (www.onekingslane.com) and purchased their shipping pass for $19.95 to get free shipping through 12/31.

First project - dip-dyed silver magnolia garland

I loved the idea of creating a dip-dyed silver garland to lay across the cabinet that my dad made for me. I store china in this cabinet and since we do not have a proper mantle it was a good place for some holiday dressing!

First, I draped the garland and marked off the tail for spray paint. This garland is 10' long and was $79 from One Kings Lane.

I used silver spray-paint, but you could use any color in the metallic family.

With the paper barrier in place, bring the garland to a well-ventilated area and give it a few good coats of metallic spray-paint!

I love how this garland turned out, but I also love how everything in these last pictures were made by me or my family! My mom made the sweater I am wearing, my dad made the cabinet, James and I made the woven leather chair (previous post) and I painted the monkey (previous post). Everyone including James has gotten into the crafting spirit! :)

Holiday Decor!

November 19, 2016

The holidays are coming and I couldn't be more excited about my holiday decor this year. I have ordered my materials for the projects I have planned and am sharing my list below for anyone who would like to get a head start.

10' strand of magnolia garland from the Magnolia Company

89" Eucalyptus Garland from Knud Neilson Company

I am planning to decorate our dining room table and living room with these greens and ornaments. The magnolia garland can be used to decorate a mantel. Since we do not have a mantel, I plan to put this beautiful garland on top of a cabinet, but you can effectively put it anywhere that you have a flat space - tabletop, bar, be creative!
My last item for this project is silver spray paint and some checkered ornaments. Looking forward to putting it all together!

Patio Lane cushions, Molteni coffee table, Sapien bookcase, my dining chairs and monkey painting - find in previous posts.

Upholstery 2.0

November 13, 2016

I am so impressed with Patio Lane and the work they did on these cushions! Outsourced completely to their website (www.patiolane.com), including the Ralph Lauren fabric that was my ultimate choice, these cushions were delivered in what felt like only a handful of weeks.
You may remember what these chairs used to look like - nothing special in drab gray, and not that comfortable either!

The waterfall upholstery style maintains the continuous look of the fabric over the front of the chair and the piping along the edges makes them look more refined.
In the background, I added a towering bookcase to save space and consolidate our growing book collection.
Here is the finished look!

Ralph Lauren Westcliff Tattersal Camel LCF65792F

Broken Dishes

October 9, 2016

I love the Lynn Chase Jungle Jubilee hand painted plates. I ordered a set of four off of Ebay for $30. Unfortunately, two arrived broken in half, so I am left with two for this post. :/ (USPS claim is in the works!). Today I am going to show you how to fix a plate with a chip. Note: this method should only be used to fix chips along the edge of a plate and not where food is served.

Love these plates. If you look closely, you can see some chips along the edges.

To fix the chips, you need: 1) 2-Part Epoxy: I used Devcon from Amazon, 2) Oil pastels, 3) Toothpicks

To fix the chips, color the oil pastel directly into the chip, mix the 2-part epoxy with a toothpick (equal parts) and spread the epoxy over your pastel work. I've seen an alternative method where the oil pastel is mixed directly into the epoxy and then applied. Coloring directly onto the chip worked best for me.

Complete! Three chips basically disappeared..

My color matching was not perfect because I was short on pastels.

Animals for the Kids! 2.0

September 25, 2016

I'm back with more animal watercolors since they have been so much fun. This little monkey was inspired by a photograph and is for Meghan's son Tommy.

These lambs are for Kristy and her baby girl!

I added a little extra pink to these lambs! :)

My friends have been using Framebridge for framing. You order a kit on Framebridge to mail in your art, and they mail it back in your fame of choice! Pretty easy!

Lauren chose gold for Pierce's giraffe. I love how they both turned out!

Upholstery

September 18, 2016

I am in the process of having new cushions made for our living room chairs. Selecting upholstery has been the most challenging part of this project because I ordered all of my swatches online from www.patiolane.com and viewed nothing in person first!
Lots of trial, error and money spent for convenience!
I have narrowed down to three checks and plaid patterns; 1) Kravat Boyeson Dune, 2) Ralph Lauren Westcliff Tattersal Camel and 3) Kravat Couture Forever Young Wheat.
What is your favorite?

Moving from top left, clockwise: 1) Kravat Boyseon Dune ($104 / yd), 2) Ralph Lauren Westcliff Tattersal Camel ($107 / yd) and 3) Kravat Couture Forever Young Wheat ($132 / yd) - all from www.patiolane.com.

Coffee table from Molteni & Co. (45 degree, oak, yellow lacquer), rug from Crate & Barrel, Stools from Eric Trine

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