NYC project reveal...

 I've been thinking about putting a "label" in each room (city/country) of our house.  Some obvious, some not so much, and none the same as the others.  Anyways, I wanted to start with NYC in the dining room since we are doing some work in there right now.  I originally wanted these to go on the shelf, but they aren't big enough - their size doesn't fit with the shelf.  I looked at the big letters in joAnn, but they looked SO big...too big, but I guess they weren't!  Anyways, I started these and thought I can jazz up a wall with them, and just leave the pic that's on the shelf there for now.  So here is what I started with...

The letters ($1.99 each at joAnn), Modge Podge ($3.99), the Downtown Loft scrapbook paper (on sale from $19.99 to $9.99) and a pack of paintbrushes - I can always use paint brushes ($7.99/pk) plus I had a 40% off coupon so I spend less than $30 on all of it.  Not bad, not bad!  So I cut out pieces of the scrapbook paper I liked the most and modge podged them haphazardly on the letters for a fun but modern look.  I love how it turned out!

 So swanky, right?  I love all the colors together, and there are pops of red and brown/black and camel colors that compliment our walls and furniture, as well as lots of other bright colors introduced into our room for some pop.  I love them!!  I love the subway numbers, and the road signs...some of my faves like Broadway and 5th and Canal...so fun!  Up they go...

 I decided on this part of the wall above the windows for now - its empty space and I've always wanted to put something there!  Here's a whole room view...

 Doesn't it look nice?!?

Ok so I've got some more picture/art/plate hanging to do in here, and then this room is down for now - except for curtains down the road...

I used the command sticky picture hangars on the letters, $4.99/pk at Target.  So if we do decide to move the NYC, its easy to do with minimal damage to our wall.  I love being crafty!

Welcome home, shelf!

Happy Hump Day!

FINALLY!!!  We got the shelf from IKEA that I wanted so badly.  It wasn't too $$, got it for $129.  I love it!!  It = more storage space, and I like that!  Our dining room is "NYC" as you may know from the house tour , so we keep thinking up ways to "NYC" it more.  I liked the idea of the shelf (over a huge pic, because do have a huge pic right across the room in "London" - it'd be too much BIG art!) because in NYC its all about using the space you have - in those tiny apartments where everything has to flow AND work...this shelf helps us use the space more.  Especially because all our mail and cookbooks were piling up here:

We are moving this white shelf down in the craft room (and Frodo's ugly kitty condo) and replacing it with a much sleeker, nicer "launching" pad set of furniture.  I love what Young House Love has going on in their hallway with their entry table, we want to copy it, you can see a pic of that here.  We like the clean look of this entry ensemble, as well as the little cubes that can be used as extra seating if need be.  I know I know, we have that huge red couch (Clifford) but sometimes we do need the extra seating if we have enough people over (Ravens games, Christmas parties, etc).  Anyways, we want to do something like this for that space.  But on to the shelf...gotta love that IKEA...

 Here is Dave, putting it together - don't worry, I helped too.

 This is a pic of it all put together and me starting to fill it up!!  We can tuck away all our mail in those little cubes, and also art/homework supplies in another, and my coupon stuff and flyers in yet another, we lots of space still for pictures and other decor.

 See my Home Management Binder and my Recipe Binder, tucked into their new home? 

 And I love that I have lots of space for cookbooks too, I have a lot and now I can get even more!

 We are still playing around with what-goes-where and somethings here won't live here permanently, I need to find more NYC-ish things, maybe some art, etc to go on here.  I don't want it to look too cluttered, but I want the use of the space to make sense for us too.  Its going to be all about finding the balance:)

It tones down that red wall too.  The pic sitting on top may not stay there.  I have a project brewing for the top of this shelf, something to add more "oomph" to the space and put more color into the room - its so black and red right now and I want some accent colors going on in here!  Hint: the project involves Modge Podge - good times!!

So that's my shelf that I've been dreaming of for months now, finally sitting in my NYC dining room.  Life is good:)

Subway Art!!!

I have been looking at all these awesome blogs and so many people do this cute thing called, "Subway Art".  It can be anything that looks subway-ish, that I can tell.  A lot of people do this with a machine called Silhouette, which I reeeeeeeally want but it costs $300.  I'd settle for a Cricut....siiiiiigggggghhhh....but those are almost just as expensive.  Anyways, I figured I could do this art, on the computer, and just frame it instead of putting it on a pretty piece of wood or something.  I can do this!!!  And I did - its so cute!  I did this for our NYC dining room.  I did this on Power Point because you can stretch the text box past the borders of the page which make it look cool.  I used the Gothic type font, and put each word in a different font size.  What do you think???

I tried to put all my favorite places in NYC, plus the main spots.  Then I mounted some really cute fabric onto the back of the board that came with this frame, and then I stuck the Subway Art to that! So tell me what you think?!?  Not bad for not having the right equipment, right??  With this I can only do a 8x11 - unless I print on separate paper and use Modge Podge - that's a good idea.  I'm going to do this in a few places in the house.  Oh man, I love doing new things, that work out nice!!  YAY!!

Onto literary things, I am halfway through my Julia Child book, and I've started putting together the pattern for my project out of the Martha Stewart book!  I'm doing an apron, since I'm addicting to cooking!  So I'll post pictures of that hopefully tomorrow, plus give my review of the book AND post my craft room pictures - its done!!  Well, not DONE done, but the things I worked on this weekend are done.  ITS SO CUTE!  Come back soon:)

Linking up with a bunch of places with this one, including one of my faves: Tatertots and Jello she does a link party every week!