DIY pom-pom snow window hanging

This DIY has been on my to-do list for seven years. I'm not even exaggerating, I got the idea when I was on a trip to Disney World in 2011. I finally bought the supplies to make this *three* years ago. And after shuffling the materials between drawers, I finally did it this week! Phew!

So, in 2011 when I was at Disney I saw a window display with fake snowballs made out of pom-poms and started brainstorming a way to make it myself as a holiday decoration. I'm so happy with how this came out and (like a lot of my holiday decorations) I've been staring at it wondering if it'll work all year long because I don't know if I can bring myself to ever take it down!



Materials needed:

- white pom-poms (the larger size was easier to thread)
- white yarn
- 2 wooden dowels
- a large plastic needle



Before you start, measure the height of the window where you want to hang the garland.  Then cut strips of yarn to fit the window. I varied the length of my pieces so that they aren't all the same. I think it looks more like snow and less like a curtain that way.

Tie a piece of yarn to the dowel with a double-knot and then thread your needle. Start threading pom poms until you reach the end of the yarn, and double-knot again. Then slide your last pom-pom down to the knot. I kept a lot of space between my pom-poms and mixed up the spacing so that it looked like snow. You can move the balls on the yarn, so once you hang up the display you can still adjust them and fiddle around with the spacing until it looks exactly the way you like :)

I did six strands of yarn on one dowel and five on the other (to make room for my hanging plants) To hang up the pom-poms just place the dowel over your curtain rod until it's weight is counter-balanced with the pom-poms in the front. Alternately, you could always do one strand at a time and tape them up or hang them with command strips instead of using the dowels.



This came out exactly how I envisioned it, and now I have a little Disney-style magic in my office! :)

DIY Cracker Barrel inspired centerpiece

After I set up my dining room table I spent way more time than I'd like to admit mulling over possible centerpieces. I didn't want to do anything conventional like candles or flowers, but I couldn't really think of anything else. Then I went out for dinner at Cracker Barrel with my family and as we passed around that little peg game while we were waiting for our food this idea came to me!

I got a vintage tray on etsy (scalloped border!!) and filled it with fun games (a Rubik's cube, a deck of cards and a magic 8 ball) as well as restaurant table condiments like sugar packets and salt and pepper shakers. I also added a little bowl of candy and, well, I went with some flowers after all. It just needed some height and they look so pretty! ;)

I got the pea pod shakers and sugar packet container from amazon, and all the games were from K-Mart. I love that whenever I have guests they can fiddle around with the toys while I'm finishing up in the kitchen, or munch on some candy if we're just hanging out around the table. Since it's on a tray it's easy to move it when I want to bring out food... and in addition to being functional, it does make for a pretty (and fun!) centerpiece!

home sweet home

Well, I am home with my kitties again.

Not for good though, I didn't give up on the road trip! We just need to regroup and plan better before we head back out again. My original plan was that we just drive wherever we want to, sleep in the car some nights, and then find cheap local hotels other nights. But the first attempt at sleeping in the car was a nightmare (I forgot that it's summer and you can't leave the a/c on all night while you're sleeping. SOOOO hot!!) And finding a "cheap hotel" isn't so easy. In Burlington, VT we couldn't even find a vacancy, let alone a cheap one.

Rather than drive around for hours looking for hotels in the rain after midnight on Thursday we realized it would only be about seven hours to drive home... so we did. Once we have everything planned better we'll definitely go back out again. I still want to see all the states and get to use the traveling office that I was so excited about, lol! I'm tempted to drive down to the beach this weekend just so I can work out of my car ;)

You live and learn though, right? We had SO much fun seeing Niagara Falls and getting to meet Sarah... I don't want to just give up on all of the other fun experiences I could have if I continued. But we definitely need to be more organized before we continue. Honestly I wish that "winging it" was a viable option because it seemed so fun and spontaneous! But I'd rather feel safe and know that I definitely have a (reasonably affordable) bed to sleep in each night.

I have some more pictures from the trip to post though! We went to Utica, NY on Thursday and I had one of the best veggie burgers of my entire life. Details later.

easy peasy folding tray makeover

Since I'm going to be working out of my car trunk during the road trip, I decided to get a folding tray to expand my workspace a little. I figured this would be perfect since it folds up flat and will store easily in the car! I got mine on amazon here. They come in sets of 2, so I gave the second one to my mom to use as a tv tray. (sidenote -- can we talk about the awesome Mod Podge label design?!)



It's not terrible looking to begin with, but definitely not my style at all. So I took it outside and gave the whole thing a couple coats of peach spray paint (I used Valspar brushed rose) and then let it dry. Then I cut a piece of fabric to fit the top (a fat quarter was more than enough) and adhered it with Mod Podge hard coat and a foam brush.

Despite trying really hard to make sure there weren't any air pockets when I attached the fabric, they still started showing up when the first coat of Mod Podge dried. I poked the bubbles with a push pin, and then rubbed on the area to release the air, then did a couple more coats of Mod Podge and you can't even see the bubbles anymore!

I can't wait to take this on the road with me now! :)

everything in its place

dress - c/o romwe

belt - forever21? not sure..

tights - we love colors

shoes - c/o blowfish

As much as I LOVE my bedroom/studio/office setup, there is one major drawback... no closet space. And for someone who collects dresses like they're going out of style, that's posed a bit of a problem for the last 3 years. For a while I stored my clothes in my bathtub, then in the upstairs hallway, and then in plastic buckets in our den. But finally (finally!!!) I'm getting a real walk-in closet :D

Years ago my dad converted our living room into his office since he works from home, and on Saturday he cleared out 5' of space for me to use as my closet! We partitioned the space using cedar planks, and then on Sunday we went to IKEA for clothes racks, dressers and other closet do-dads. I painted the walls pink and mint green and I'm decorating it with 60's beauty parlor accessories. It's coming together so well, I can't wait to take pictures to share!!

ps. Since I've been working on the closet all weekend I've been a little neglectful of my inbox/tweets again.. promise I'll get back to you asap if you're waiting on a reply! :)

pss. Is this the best dress ever or what? I want to marry the collar! You can get $20 off this one or the navy version with code -20USD!

home sweet home

With my teeny tiny itty bitty almost invisible budget, I'm probably going to end up with an apartment that's smaller than my current bedroom. But, that hasn't stopped me from dreaming anyway, pouring over design blogs and pinning everything I love on pinterest. Honestly, I've managed to do a lot with my little 11' square room, turning it from my childhood bedroom into a bedroom/studio/office/living room, with walking space to boot! I'm used to living in cramped quarters, so I think I'll manage, even if my whole apartment could practically fit in my palm ;)

Here are some of my favorites that have made it onto my "apartment ideas" board. Most of them are from sweet home style on tumblr, but you can get all of the source links here. (ps. how amazing is the giant pink cat poster a couple photos down? ahh!)




Do you want to comment, but have no idea what to say? Trust me, I've been there! So to make things a little easier, here is a question you can answer if you can't think of anything else to say! :)

Would you rather live in a giant mansion or a cozy cottage?

ye olde juicebox

dress - modcloth

coat - black rabbit vintage

tights - we love colors

shoes - target

I roped my brother into taking photos for me again today. It's actually not fun at all having him do this because he makes me feel so guilty for even asking, and rushes me like crazy! I think I want to stick to taking my own photos on my webcam in my bedroom, but every now and then it's nice to have a different backdrop, even if I have to deal with a super annoying brother! ;-D

The house behind me is The John Abbott II House .. it was built in 1730 and used to store (ie: hide from the British) the state treasury during the Revolutionary War. It's funny, I went on the town website to get some information about the house for this post, and saw that apparently our town slogan is "America's Favorite Hometown." If I had liquid in my mouth it would have come shooting out my nose when I read that. What a laugh! (.. I obviously hate where I live. Moving on...) Anyway, the house is pretty cool! We went there on a school trip in elementary school and the people who work there act like it's still 1730, which is awesome until you ask them for a straw to go in your juice box and they act like straws haven't been invented yet.

you'll need no castles in Spain

It's autumn in New York.. and New Jersey. I opened my front door this morning and WHAM! our tree seemed to have magically turned bright orange overnight! I still need my castles in Spain, because New Jersey isn't exactly paradise, but autumn does make the garbage/sewage scent a little bit sweeter ;-p

cuteness!

Aren't these the most adorable salt & pepper shakers EVER? I don't even put salt or pepper on any of my foods, and yet I have a feeling that my future kitchen will have about 30 sets, just because I'm constantly finding so many that I like :-)

itchin' for a kitchen

Somehow I stumbled upon a boat-load of pink kitchen appliances on Amazon, and now I'm itchin' for a kitchen of my own.

Actually, I've been itching for a kitchen (I can only drop a 'g' so many times in one post before my inner grammarian gets angry) for eons now. I already picked out my table set, and I'm debating whether or not to buy it now and keep it in storage, or just keep my fingers crossed that IKEA is still selling it in a couple of years. Wanna see?!?!

Now I'm picturing it in a little kitchenette with lovely pink appliances and.. hmm... baby blue/teal walls? Ooh! With classic film posters on the walls for movies like Breakfast for Two (1937), Dinner at Eight(1933), The Man Who Came to Dinner(1942) and Our Daily Bread (1934)!

my dressing room.

Since I use my closet as a workspace, I had to find a place for my clothes and stuff.... so I converted our extra powder room into a dressing room by covering up the bath tub with a sheet of plywood and making it into a raised closet. I use my mannequin for hats, glasses and scarves and hung up some curtains on the walls in the tub to conceal the tile.... I probably took a big chunk of money off our selling price by messing around with the sink counter top. It was an ugly builder's fake marble laminate (blech) and I wanted it to look modern but worn (well, it made sense to me..) so I painted the whole thing a bright orange color with oil paint, then painted over it with light blue latex after it had dried. Then I peeled away some of the latex so it would look distressed. I think it's totally awesome, but I doubt an average suburban family will feel the same :-\

Anyway... it's been pretty awesome having a separate room for getting dressed, and it's one of the things I'll probably miss the most when we move...

please excuse the messy slept-on bun...

my room

It's been one year since I redecorated my room (before/after picture here) and I still love it just as much as I did last July. Ever since I was like six, I've always been changing things around on an annual basis -- moving furniture or repainting the walls or getting new bedding -- but this year I really didn't need to change anything because I love it the way it is. I did add a couch for a few months, but then I realized it was blocking my A/C vent. It's now camping out in the basement until autumn rolls around.

Our new goal is to be out of the house by Christmas, but with the way the housing market looks I have my doubts that we can unload our house by then :-\ Anyway, I have my paint chips saved, because when we do move I'm going to paint it exactly the same colors. We're going to be getting rid of most of our furniture (including my beloved bed) but I'm hoping I can re-create the look accurately if I refer to the million pictures I've been taking :)

ps. expect me to be posting a lot of pictures of my house, and things from when I was little soon. I want to be able to come to this blog after I've moved and look at the rooms I'm sure I'll miss, and the toys from my childhood that we couldn't bring with us...

my new imac desktop!

SUPER excited today!! My new imac desktop came in the mail!! Although my show this weekend was a complete bust, it did give me enough money to top off the amount I had been saving for a new computer.

My dad owns a small mail order business, so UPS is at our house delivering something almost every single day. They usually come around 5-6pm, maybe 7pm on days when we're really eager for something to arrive. Well, today they came at 1pm! I was ecstatic! :D Of course, this meant that I spent all day goofing off playing with my new toy instead of getting caught up on the weekend's orders. But it was just this once :)

The monitor is massive! I'm used to working on a 12" screen, and this is 21"!!! It's bigger than my television screen. It'll take a little getting used to, but I'm in love already. Here's some backwards-chronological pictures of my imac being set up.