Pinteresting: A Wreath For All Seasons

From Webster's Dictionary--

frus·tra·tion

noun \(ˌ)frəs-ˈtrā-shən\

: a deep chronic sense or state of insecurity and dissatisfaction arising from unresolved problems or unfulfilled needs

Example:

You see that white space? That's styrofoam. You know why it's there? Because, even after buying out that particular style of ribbon at Michael's, there wasn't enough to cover it. The wreath stayed like that for about two weeks, during which time I stalked Michael's like an unstable spurned lover. Finally, Thomas suggested we drive over to the next town and check their store. Luckily, they had the same style, so the wreath is now finished (pics to come). Today, though, I thought I'd walk you through how I put this baby together. I call it, "A Wreath For All Seasons".

See, a few months ago, I went surfing around Pinterest. This generally proves dangerous, because I love the idea of DIY-ing something cool, but tend to pick things that turn out to be a heck of a lot more difficult than I'd imagined. (I'm klutzy...things break...I get hurt...you get the picture. My next project is a fire pit, by the way. God help us all...) Anyhoo, I ran across this:

Pin originally came from here.

I absolutely loved the idea of hanging our initial (which also happens to be an S) from a ribbon, as seen in the middle picture. "I can do that!" I thought. So, off to Michael's I went, armed with a sale paper and a 40% off coupon.

I wanted a year-round wreath, so I decided to go with very simple, basic colors, and no flowers or leaves or anything seasonal. Black and white go with pretty much everything, so I settled on a damask ribbon to cover a styrofoam ring. For the initial, I found a white wooden S, and painted it with some metallic silver spray paint I had lying around the house.

Owl pajama pants. Very glam.

The ribbon's just wrapped tightly around the ring. Easy peasy.

Anytime a roll of ribbon ended, I hot glued the edge down (preferably in the back) and started up a new roll exactly where the last one left off. Seriously, absolutely zero skill was needed for this project. The S is looped through a length of black ribbon with white edging, and the ribbon is hot glued to the back of the S for stability. I did tie the ribbon around the ring before hanging the S, and left plenty of ribbon hanging down so I could use that to attach the wreath to the front door.

The reason it's a "Wreath For All Seasons"? The decorations that I later added to it can be swapped out at will, meaning I can use this for Easter, Fourth of July, Halloween, Christmas--you name it! How'd I do that? Stick around and find out...

Pin-Up Posters and Diva Decor

You know how I said yesterday that I hoped to take some pictures of the bathroom last night? Well, I decided to wait on that until there was something decent to photograph. Right now, the towels aren't out, the decor is only halfway installed, and a great big container of spackle is right smack dab in the middle of my countertop. Trust me, you want me to wait on this.

Andy's Room. Photo Credit: DisneyWallpaper

In the meantime, let me tell you about my nowhere-near-finished guest room! (I can tell you're just chompin' at the bit.) The room had been what Thomas referred to as "Andy's Room Blue", but we painted over that with slate gray and trimmed the window, doors, and baseboards in white. Most of the accents are lime green, which really pops against the gray.

The inspiration for the room came, in part, from a rather odd source: Victoria's Secret. I kid thee not.

See, back around the time of the last fashion show, the company held a sweepstakes, and I--for once--won a prize! I received a design-inspired sketch of one of the runway looks. Now, to be perfectly frank, I wasn't thrilled. I was thrilled to get anything, of course, but I'd hoped for a gift card, discount, or maybe a t-shirt. Design-inspired sketch never even entered my mind. What on Earth was I going to do with a picture of some random chick in lingerie?


Photo Credit: CBS News.
Change the yellow to pink, and this is my sketch.

A few weeks later, my "major award" arrived. Inside a little "Congratulations! You're a Winner!" card was the sweetest little cartoon-like sketch of a redheaded superheroine--all in hot pink with white go-go boots! The background was a lemon-lime green, and the entire piece was beyond adorable. I squealed a little, and decided right then and there that I would decorate the guestroom in a sophisticatedly (is that a word? It is now) girly fashion. The sketch went into a chrome frame with a white mat, and the search for equally precious pinup art commenced. 

A quick search on Amazon brought up some winners. Here are my favorites:

Photo Credit: Poster Shop Live (This and next two)

Link

Link

Photo Credit: Pop Culture Graphics

Since the room's going uber-girly, I thought I'd toss in a frilly mirror...

Photo Credit: Kirkland's

...then tone things down a bit with a mod lamp.

Photo Credit: Target

It's a work-in-progress, but I think we may be getting there. Any thought? I'd love to read them in the comments.

If I Can't Go To the Spa, I'll Bring the Spa To Me!

I confess. I did not watch the Golden Globes last night. I saw a few of the red carpet entrances, and thought that Julie Bowen and Sofia Vergara both looked stunning, and wanted to push Zooey Deschanel's hair behind her ears, but other than that...I got nothing. Instead, I fought a horrible 24-hour stomach bug and watched Guillermo del Toro's Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, an episode of Sherlock, and the newest My Fair Wedding with David Tutera. I was sick. Don't judge me.

In addition to dealing with a stupid virus, I also spent much of this weekend moving house. We're nowhere near done, but things are starting to look a little less like piles of junk, and a little more like nice people live there. My living room curtains totally and completely suck, but other than that, I'm really happy with how things are turning out. I'll try to remember to take some pictures tonight when I go over with the next load o'stuff, but the guest bathroom and bedroom are quickly becoming my favorite rooms in the house.

The guest bathroom was this very strange shade of moss green, and there wasn't time to paint over it (we were already painting two other rooms), so I decided to go with it and try to create a very Zen atmosphere. I'm not done, yet--I still need to switch out the toilet seat cover and some light bulbs, and bring in a few little knick-knacks and pictures--but the current state is very promising.

As I said, I hope to take some pictures this evening, but here's how things are starting out:

Photo Credit: Bed Bath & Beyond

First off, I kept the shower curtain I bought for the apartment. It's the same moss green with chocolate sections and itty-bitty coppery sequins. Bed Bath & Beyond, $44.99. (Dear God, I didn't pay anything near that much!) There is also a matching bathmat, but I can't find it online anywhere...yet. Working on it.

Photo Credit: Target

Next, my sweet Thomas hung some pretty little white shelves for me. One is about 11 inches long, and the one centered beneath it is 18. Here's the shorter of the two. Target's website hates me, so I can't locate the long one. They're only available in stores, anyway, and the two together ran about $15.

Photo Credit: Target

Across the top of the top, smaller shelf, runs this little row of white tealights. Target, $9.99 plus tealights.

Photo Credit: Target

The white sink with chrome fixtures is set in a beige countertop over dark wood cabinetry, I tried to combine as much of that as possible into a simple, elegant floral arrangement. Here's the best I could do, and I just love it. Target, $21.39.

Photo Credit: JC Penney (I got the one with the moss green stripes)

Of course, you have to have towels in a bathroom, and I decided to go with simple, basic white. These, from JC Penney, are the best towels I have ever used. They dry quickly, hold their color, and don't shed all over the place. $4.00 each, JC Penney.

Finally, I decided to fill the entire room with a soothing scent. Bath and Body Works has a wonderful line of Stress Relief aromatherapy products (prices vary). I have the hand soap, candle, and wallflower in Eucalyptis Spearmint, and it's heavenly. Toss in some new chrome drawer pulls, a few massage stones, and some black and white photos, and I think we'll have us one gorgeous bathroom.

Any home renovations going on in your life? Tell us about them in the comments.

I'm So Moved! I'd Like To Thank...

Thomas and I are finally moving this weekend.  Stressed doesn't even begin to describe how I feel right now, but we're getting through this.  Luckily, we've had a lot of help, and I'd like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude.

First of all, to the nice German family that moved into my parents' neighborhood:  thank you for letting us have your wonderfully-constructed, heavyweight boxes and packing material.  Without your need to ship things internationally, my china and crystal would not be nearly as safe as it is now.  Also, your son left his Spiderman crocs in one of the boxes. 

Next, to my amazing step-dad:  thank you for stopping the truck in the middle of the road and stealing the nice German family's packing boxes. 

To Bed Bath & Beyond:  thank you for putting the quilt I've literally been dreaming about on Clearance and marking it down $100.  You have truly outdone yourself. 

To Foosackly's, Pizza Hut, and Lenny's:  thank you for feeding us.  I know we paid for it, and all, but still.  Thank you for allowing me to not have to cook.  It would have been difficult, what with all the dishes and pots and pans being packed.  (If you have no idea what Foosackly's is, it's a local chicken finger chain, and the best chicken I've ever eaten.  It's addictive.  I left home for several months and practically went through withdrawal.)

To Pepsi:  thanks for bringing back the Throwback.  That one's just in general.

To Genna:  thank you for listening to me.

To Curt:  thank you for missing a football game to help your big sister pack, and for giving up a weekend hanging out with your girlfriend to help us move.  I would tell you that I love you very much, but I know that would embarrass you, so forget I mentioned it.

To Friends:  thank you for putting up with my incessant Facebook status updates about packing, my blogs about decorating, and my rants about everything else.

To my awesome mom:  thank you for biscuits, coffee, and packing up 90% of my house.  Seriously, were it not for you, we'd have packed DVDs and some photo albums, and that would have been about it.  Heck, we'd have run out of boxes before we got that far.  Most of all, thank you for being my Lorelai. 

To Thomas:  thank you for being the best husband a girl could ask for, and for continually amazing me. 

True story:  The apartment (townhouse, really) that we're moving into has two bathrooms.  The one we're currently in only has one and a half, so we needed all new bathroom accessories, towels, the works.  This is also the guest bathroom, so it's the one that most people will see.  Money's tight right now (for everyone, I think), so any and all purchases were researched, discussed, and treated like they were major expenditures, and not the soap dispensers or trash cans they actually were.  Well, after two or three weeks of comparing shower curtain rings at every store in town, we finally decided on the perfect set.  They matched the curtain, were a little art deco-y, and I loved them.  I went to the store, picked up the rings and some cedar blocks, brought them in and set them in the kitchen, near the bag with the shower curtain.  I wanted to keep them together. 

So, fast forward a couple of weeks.  Thomas and I had a few other things for the apartment, and we wanted to put all the new stuff together in one box.  I went into the kitchen to get the curtain, rings, and cedar blocks...and found the curtain.  Nothing else.  This was not good.  At this point, one of three things had happened.  1) The bag was thrown away, contents and all.  Not likely, considering they were very heavy and would have had to have been separated from the shower curtain.  2) The maintenance man who came by to check the air-conditioner took them.  I hate to think that way, and can't see any reason why he'd do that(well, other than spite--he doesn't like us).  3) They were already packed.  Possible.  Very possible.  We unpacked everything we'd already boxed up, frantically turning the house upside-down.  Nothing. 

I was really upset.  I couldn't imagine either of us just blanking out and throwing them away, and I hated the thought that someone might have taken something out of our house, but they obviously weren't on the premises.  And yeah, I know they were just shower curtain rings, and not even terribly expensive ones at that, but I was stressed.  We'd been through the lay-off, then the job search, then not knowing exactly what the new job would entail.  We'd been through mold and floods and crooked walls and floors, and were thrilled that we were definitely out of the current apartment, but weren't certain that we were going to get to keep the new apartment, and the alternative solution, while viable, would only be temporary, and then what?  We had this movie and my album hanging over our heads.  I kept finding little things that reminded me of Grandma and Daddy, and had just gotten through the anniversaries of when we lost them, and...I freaked.  I sat down on the stairs and cried my eyes out over shower curtain rings.  Well, that and so much more. 

Eventually, I calmed down.  Thomas told me to just hold off on getting new ones until we got moved and knew for certain that they hadn't hidden themselves in a box, and that seemed reasonable.  Besides, we needed to spend that money on other things, like dishes and renting a U-Haul, not rebuying lost shower curtain rings. 

The next week, I came home from work to find a box from Bed Bath & Beyond.  Thomas asked me what I had ordered, but, truth was, I hadn't ordered anything.  I opened the box, and there were my shower curtain rings and cedar blocks, along with a note saying, "Sorry we ran off like that".  I looked up, and Thomas was grinning from ear to ear.  He'd ordered them while I was crying on the staircase. 

I love my husband.

Well, now that I've embarrassed Thomas to no end, I think I'll sign off for today.  I know this wasn't a traditional AN post, and really wasn't the post I set out to write today, but I promise that the reviews, samples, and challenges will all be right back as soon as the dust settles.  Thank you, again, for bearing with me.  Now, can someone tell me which way to exit?  This statue is a lot heavier than it looks!