The Full Effect

Welcome Aboard! Here is our mantel in all of it's nautical glory! Now you can appreciate the sign! For more mantel inspiration see my last post

Got a fireplace? Send me your pics, and I will choose some faves to feature on the blog!

Also I know there is room for improvement, let me know what you think of mine. Is there anything you would change? What is your favorite part? 

Fireplace Inspirations

Occasionally Phil and I do a little online house search and one thing he always checks in the search column is "fireplace", it was even critical for us when we chose a place to rent. And while or fireplace is gas and there is so much I would do with it is we weren't renting, it is what we have for now.

There is a certain charm that a fireplace brings to the home like nothing else can. Not just for use in the winter, a fireplace with the right decor can be cozy any time of the year,even if no fire is burning in it. I have been drooling over a few this week.

Here is a shot of our fireplace. We both love the nautical theme, for me the affinity for things nautical was passed down from my mother, plus I grew up on a peninsula and my father was a ship builder, and for Phil because he loves to sail...his big dream is to have his own life size boat...for now the ones on our mantel will have to do!

I cannot believe I didn't get it in the shot, but the sign over the top says "Welcome Aboard"...as I continue to post you will find that many of the things in my home are stolen from my mother; the helm (which my father added the port hole and mirror to) and the "Welcome Aboard" sign were both taken from home, both of which were also hanging above the toilet in our hall bathroom growing up....I love it, that's just our humor!

Here's a run down of some of my favorite fireplaces from around the web:

Charles and Hudson

This is actually a faux fireplace. The shelving, the mantel, everything. There is no chimney. This is such a great idea...no more excuses for not have the fireplace you always dreamed of...this one wont need a chimney or cleaning. You could use candles to create a warm glow, or fill the space where the fire would normally go with a basket or birch branches. Get creative, put whatever you like in that space. My favorite feature: the built in shelves!

Some people cringe at the idea of painting brick, I however, am a fan. The next two photos are the afters of the diy and home transformation guru's at Young House Love. I want to buy a house with a brick fireplace now just so that I can paint it. Take a  look!

Young House Love

Young House Love

My favorite feature: other than the painted brick my fave feature is the use of soft, bright color.

HGTV

Okay, so this one has painted brick and built in shelving! What more could a girl want? This photo was taken from HGTV's idea for off season fireplace decor. See the candles burning rather than logs that will throw out a lot of heat.  My favorite feature:You still get the warmth without the added heat.

Nibs

This shot is from Martha B. at NibsBlog. Last year she did a series where she redesigned her mantel each week. That sounds like a lot of work, but also a lot of fun. I would have been tempted to keep this one.Martha really thought outside the box on this one. I am always impressed when people come up with alternative ways to use familiar item. In this case a fireplace is now used as the backdrop for a tiny home office. I love the maps, empty frames and the vintage books. My favorite feature: The crooked photo in the center of the mantel...it totally works!

Simplified Bee

Simple elegance is all I can say on this one. The fireplace is in perfect symmetry with the mirror in the middle and balanced by two vases. the fireplace itself is then also balanced by matching tables and lamps. The variety in the chairs keep things interesting while not becoming overwhelming. This room was designed by Texas based designer Shannon Bowers.  My favorite feature: The subtle burst of pink and green that the flowers bring to this fresh monochromatic room.

What do you think? Which of the above fireplaces could you picture yourself curled up in front of? Use the comments section to get the conversation started!

Thanks for dropping in!

-Kate

PS. I will get a better shot of my mantel arrangement up tonight so  you don't just have to rely on my description! See you then!

Yarn Balls

So glad you stopped by. This week I was busy... making a mess in our kitchen. It was all worth it though to get these beautiful baubles! I have seen little balls like this in all the catalogs lately, I have seen them in all the stores, and while I have always thought they were cute I just could never justify paying retail for them. THEN...I found a couple great tutorials at the Wednesday blog and at Frugal Home Ideas (here and here) for "Yarn Balls"  (I know I feel it's awkward to say...let me know if you have a better idea for what to call these lovely little creations in the comments section!)

I am excited about this project for two reasons. 1) I have been wanting something like this for a long time and I finally get it 2) I made use of my over yarn that I had just enough of to save but not enough to actually knit anything out of. Now it has a purpose higher than taking up scrap drawer!

NOTE: I will be doing this project again because I improved a couple of things that gave me a less than desirable finished product. I will discuss as I walk you through my process. I am here to make the mistakes so you don't have to!

What you will need:

Petroleum Jelly (i didn't have any so I used Pam cooking spray...don't make my mistake, use the jelly!)

1/4 Cup Warm Water

1/2 Cup Carn Starch

1 5oz tube White glue (I used Tacky Glue)

If you have a friend that will help (I did it solo, I will tell you how)

Balloons

Yarn (100% cotton yarn works best I learned)

Something to mix 

Wax Paper (or a plastic shower curtain or tarp if your project is lager scale)

Scissors

Before you start, prepare your work space. Wednesday put a tarp down and hung the balls to dry. I used wax paper on my kitchen counter since I had a smaller project and it worked great for a work service and also for drying the glue covered balls. 

1. First blow up your balloons to the size you want. I liked varying the sizes for using them as bowl filler. Then without glue or jelly wrap you string around the balloon, this is to help you get the right length for the string. Cut the string and unwrap it.

2. Here is the step I messed up on. Wednesday instructs to cover your balloons in petroleum jelly. This is the keep the glue from sticking to the balloon and from leaving little "crusties" as I am calling them hanging on the thread when you pop the balloons. I did't have jelly and I attempted to substitute with Pam Cooking Spray...BIG MISTAKE! Should have used the jelly, I ended up with stuck balloons, crushed balls and the one that did survive had "crusties" (Look at the big brown ball in the upper right of the photo below...now you see what I am talking about...just not a clean finish)

3. Mix your glue, cornstarch and water together. Frugal Home Ideas suggests that you use a plastic bag and place your pre-cut yarn and a squirt or two. This would be a much cleaner method than I used, unfortunately I couldn't get the bag thing to work without tangling my yarn beyond unraveling! If you have done this and have a tip, please leave it for me in the comments section!

4. Wednesday suggests having a friend to help you with this step to help feed the yarn through the glue...one feeds, ones wraps. My  husband was out washing the car, so I was on my own (although I know I have friends that would have helped...thanks for reading you guys!) I did come up with a solo technique. I coated my finger in glue and ran the yarn through them as I was wrapping. No pictures of this one kids, my hands we too messy :)

Note: Tuck the ends under the yarn as you wrap.

5. Place on wax paper to dry.

6. While messes can be fun, popping balloons is more fun. In this step, after your glue has dried, pop the balloons and pull them out, a tweezers can help grab the balloons out. This is where the importance of the petroleum jelly comes in. You already saw the "crusties" but here is my sad grey ball..all crushed, stuck and defeated... (this was left over yarn from my Gap-tastic Cowl Scarf)

In the end I ended up with some good yarn balls, "crusties" and all. I am willing to live with it for now but not forever. I will be making new ones and probably chucking the crusty ones!

I plan to make some more at some point to get it perfect and because as imperfect as they may be I still love the look and I have more bowls to fill. Before I do though...

... I would love to hear from you. Have you taken on a project like this before? Whether you have or you haven't...Do you have any tips, tricks, or suggestions that I should use for next time? I will take all of them into consideration and when I post on my redo I will mention any that I used!

Re-Sale Pay Day

Remember that post about my love of a good RE-sale... so I took my clothes to the re-sale shop this weekend, yes I know, it was like two weeks later than I actually planned and from what I told you, I apologize for that.

The retail value of my items was $106.00, and 30% payout made my take home grand total about $33.00.

Remember I could have gotten 60% in trades, but I usually always take the cash.

Anyway kids, this is one of the times where you get to learn from my mistakes. I didn't realize when the buying period was for Winter items. It's February, the end of winter, and the shop I go to is seasonal, meaning that all those sweaters you saw they are not buying again until the end of August. The good news is that the buyer made a bag of all the stuff she would have taken had the timing been right and told me to come back in August.  The buyer I talked to said they buy Winter items from late August to early December. 

So my new rule will be:  Bring your clothes to be sold the season before they would be wearable...for instance, bring Winter items in the Fall, and Spring items in the Winter. 

That $33.00 was all from spring items. 

In my last post that I told you how I go to two shops. I did the same thing this time, except I kept aside the bag of items that the buyer at the first store said she would take in the Fall...Why? Because I will get more for them at the first store and I know they will take them later int he year, and secondly if the next place you go is seasonal they wont take them either, so you might as well hang onto them for a bit.

So I brought the rejected items to the second store, and made just over a dollar more...(they only took one item)

Some item both stores passed on because of general wear and tear. Stores will also pass on items that have been altered.  The pants pictures above were featured in my last post. I put a new button on but they still did not sell. It may have been this button, I don't really now, but more likely it was the fact that they had been altered (most of my husbands pants have to be tailored at the cuffs. 

All that said I will be headed back in the Fall with my Winter items, and if I find some Summer items I want to cash in on I will bring them this Spring...I will be sure to keep you posted. For now I am 33 buck richer with more space in my closet!

I would love to hear about your re-sale and thrifting experiences, please use the comment section to share your thoughts!

GAP-tastic Cowl Scarf Pattern

Hello again friends. I love my latest knitting project. I found the pattern for free on Ravelry.com (free ones are my favorite!) Thanks to Jen Geigley for writing and sharing this pattern. You can find it here!

Jen mentions that she actually saw this scarf at The Gap and went in the dressing room to count the stitches so she could create this herself! I think that is awesome. Anywho, it took me about three nights to make this, most of it done while on my exercise bike! Ahhh, multitasking!

This is a quick knit that when even quicker for me since mine is only about 2/3 as thick as the pattern, but I only had about 240 yards and the pattern called for about 300. That's the nice thing about this pattern though is that is is pretty fool-proof and you can make it whatever thickness you want. I am still pleased with the result.

I was thinking this would be a great project for the car/traveling. It's a simple moss stitch knit in the round, and with no color changes it would be easy to transport.

Mom...you will have to let me know if you like this, if so it is all yours! (I can say that because I liked the pattern so much that I already bought yarn to make another one!) I bought 300 yards for the next one, so I am excited to see the results, and of course I will share it with you when I am finished.

Also special thanks to my husband Phil who is making his photography debut. He helped me get these shots today!

How To Make A Cork Board

One of my most satisfying projects last year was creating this cork board. I ...well I should say we (my husband actually began this project as a gift to me) have learned about what to do and what not to do. 

I never really drank wine all that much until I met my husband. His interest in it peaked mine, and I have to say it is so interesting to me how no two are the same,the ageing process, the way you can taste flavors like saw dust and dirt (and that is a good thing) amazes me. (all of this in moderation of course people!) 

Let me tell you a little story...It goes like this:

Shortly after we began dating Phil started to save all of the corks from bottles we shared...he would get them from the waiter if we were out, we would take corks from family gatherings, etc. We have corks from our engagement, our rehearsal dinner, our wedding and our honeymoon on this board...I think that's pretty cool.  

Step 1: Save your corks.

So like I sad Phil gave me a partially completed cork board that he had started last year...it was a sweet gift but it also provided us with a learning opportunity later of what not to do! He had bought a picture frame and glued the corks to the glass. He wanted there to be a nice border around the corks. Months later as we were getting things moved into our apartment I heard a crash in the kitchen...the cork board had fallen off the counter, onto the tile floor and the glass had shattered.

Lesson: Don't mount on glass

Step 2: Buy a hollow frame and a cork bulletin board that fits your frame. This frame is an 11x14" that I picked up from Michaels. you can buy whatever size you like. If you are thinking ahead and know you may want to pick up two or three of the same frame so you can have a couple boards to hang in an arrangement. I am working on my second one currently but bought three of this frame. Glue the board to the frame. 

You may want to add some weight to hold the board down while the glue is drying...

...I was sitting right next to our home bar...I just grabbed the closest heavy things, which happened to be liquor. Don't judge me, it got the job done!

(I used gorilla glue, but I am taking suggestions on a better glue to use since the Gorilla stuff expands when it drys and puffs out over my edges...use the comment section if you know of a better glue!) Maybe hot glue?

Now Back to the story...After many efforts and failed attempts to rectify this broken glass situation we took the frame carefully apart, boiled some water and put the corks, and class in the pot. This softened the glue and allowed us to remove the corks from the shards of glass! Ha....we were up until 3am soaking corks (which makes me think of that SNL bit about soaking corks...) This was a happy accidents, hours and a few band-aids later we had all the corks loose. What we also noticed was that boiling the corks made them grow a bit larger and this will help them to fit more snug on your board! 

Lesson and Step 3: Soak your corks.  Just bring a pot of water to a boil and drop your corks in. Let them boil for a few minutes, then lay them out on a towel to dry.

Step 4: Now you can decide on how to lay your corks out. I recommend doing this before gluing, this way you can move them around if you need to adjust something. I start in a corner and work my way along two edges...if that works I know the rest of the board will work. I used a woven pattern, but had to do a straight row across the bottom (See first photo above)

There are tons of ways you can lay out your corks. If you are into cutting and measuring you can cut your corks to fit a more elaborate pattern. I decided on a no cut, no measure method. 

One way to get more use out of the cork you have is to cut them in half the long way and glue them flat side down. I didn't cut ours because I am too sentimental and didn't want to risk ruining any of them. But perhaps you will be more confident in your cutting skills than I am. (you could use a cutting board and a chef's knife I bet)

Step 5: Start Gluing. I pay attention to what side I am putting the glue on and what part of the cork will be showing. For instance I prefer not to have website addresses showing on my board, so if there is an address on the cork I try to put my glue there. I want the logo to show, so I turn the cork and put my glue directly in back of that.

So there you have it! A personalized cork board! If you don't want to save corks you can also purchase them. Here is one store I found.

Here are some other great boards I found with links below:

208

Factory Direct

Etsy

I would love, love, love, to get some reader submissions on this one, so if you create your own board, I want to see it and share it. Leave your comments and tips and if you have photos shoot me an e-mail!

Happy corking!

The Better Part of a Year

This blog is about home and diy projects, however non of those things really make a home...What does is the people who live there. So every now and then you will see posts that are just about us. Today is a special day for our little family of two and I wanted to take a moment to reflect and share with you.

Most people would mark the 6 month wedding anniversary as the biggest milestone marker in the first year of marriage. I think month number 7 is just as important, everyday is important. 7 months ago Phil and I were in the "fairy tail town" (you'll get that reference if you have seen the movie In Bruges.) of Bruges, Belgium on our honeymoon. Bruges is known as the Venice of the north, and in my opinion it is the most romantic city in all of Europe! In honor of the last 7 months and of my husband I wanted to share some photos and some things learned along the way! Get a little video tour of the city here.

We trekked a long way to find this tucked away lace shop with REAL, handmade lace. So beautiful, you would not believe how intricate this stuff is...a true art!

Phil got this great shot of the Church of Our Lady while we were on the canal tour...he even ordered up a bird to be soaring through the photo!

Like I said, it's a fairy tale town...

It rains a lot in Brugge, the hotel supplies complimentary umbrellas, three of which we ended leaving at various locations around the city....woops!

We got to stay in a palace that was the residence of Duke Philip The Good...I married Philip The Good, not the Duke though.

This is where we had our first taste of Bearnaise sauce...now we look for it everywhere. I will have to share our recipe with you all sometime soon. 

You guys...They even named streets after us...how awesome is that???

Our last day in Brugge we took another long walk form our hotel to get a look at the windmills on the north side of town...I took a lot of test shots that day. We enlisted the aid of our second tripod of the trip...the first one broke the first day we were there. 

I am celebrating 7 months because they say the first year is the hardest...and since I am still in it, I have no way to know if that will be true...I think the first year is beautiful because it's like taking these two people and throwing them into a rock tumbler together...things get rough, but at the end you end up with a perfectly smooth stone. As long as both partners are growing there should be no shame in the conflict. Conflict really can be an opportunity to grow in intimacy. There have been so many things that have forced both of us to grow...I have had to look at things and grow in ways that I would not have  as a single person. I have my marriage to thank for that! I have learned that the purpose of marriage is to make each of us the best versions of ourselves. (that's the wisdom I have gleaned in the last 7 months...can you imagine what kind of profound proclamations I will be making in 50 years! :)

I love being married, For better or for worse, I count it all a blessing. 

Phil, thank you for the better part of a year, thank you for picking me and thank you most of all for loving me the way you do. I love you!


For those of you in it or having completed it...what are your thoughts on the first year? Use the comment section to share. Looking forward to hearing from you!

For My Valentine

This Valentine's Day I took my first stab at crafting a handmade Valentine. Here is what I came up with. I was kind of winging it as I went a long and in the process figured some things I would have done differently. Still the artist in me likes the idea of starting a project without really knowing where I am going to end up. I took photos throughout the process with the intent to give you a tutorial, however since I really had no method and did things in no structured way I thought I would just share it with you and perhaps you could learn along with me. You might be able to tell where I pulled some inspirations in my Handmade Valentine's post.

I was going for a masculine romance type of thing, I don't know that it came out that way...it didn't come out as refined as I wanted it to, But again this was a learning process for me and hopefully by my sharing I can help some other crafters out there.  We don't always get it on the first shot. Anyway here is where I started and how I ended up where I did.

 I pasted patterned paper onto the inside of the card and then cut out half of a heart with an exacto knife.

Things were looking a little stark. I added a strip of deep red to the bottom...If I had it to do over I would have had the red wrap around the card, instead it is just on the front. It just could have been cleaner. This was lesson 1.

A simple message. And dark brown ribbon.

Ah the button, this is where is started to look very "arts and crafts"...not what I was going for, but I had to press on, because Phil was going to be home and I had to get it done before he got back. Lesson 2...Don't put it off till the last minute...start early and plan well.

This may have been a little much, but at least it has some meaning. The burlap is taken from some left over table runners for our wedding and the pearls were left over from the guestbook I made for the reception. 

Lesson 3. Use a smaller paint brush. Just not clean. I used it for the "XOXO's" and to cover up the ragged edge of the heart after I cut it...I don't know that it helped to make it look cleaner, but it did help anchor the heart.

In the end though I think It came together to have what could be an intentionally rustic, crafty and "thrown together look. Some of the features I like are:

The texture of the burlap, the masculine color palette, The peek-a-boo to my note inside, and the simple message. The good news is a have another whole year to figure out what to do next year. Also I knew Phil was going to love it no matter what and that is all that counted. The same goes for you. If you out the effort into something, even if it didn't turn out the way you expected of envisioned in your head, it is still something that was made with love and that will put your valentines message out there better than anything else.

I hope this was helpful! And Happy Valentine's Day Phil! I love you very much!