Thrifty Finds // 6

I got a little thrifty last weekend. I found a couple of items that definitely belonged in my bedroom.

This little leggy book stand was only $10.00 at Relics. Max refused to get out of the picture and he also refused to sit still.

Here it is with my books in the bedroom. IGNORE THOSE FLOORS.

I think the universe must hate my husband. He doesn't like paint by numbers, and yet I just keep coming across them for cheap! These weird kitchen ones were $2.00 each at S.T.D. (that's a flea market). I think they should start the collection on the opposite wall.

My bedroom is finally looking more colorful and more ME.

I still haven't started sanding or painting the floors yet, though. I'm not quite ready to take every single thing out of the room and make everything dusty. Hopefully I will get there soon.

I'm linking up with Linda from Calling it Home for the One Room Challenge. Check out the party here.

Thrifty Finds for Someone Else

It kills me to have to pass up things like this. But it's just not the right time.

Bummer.

How to Make a Double Rectangular Plant Hanger

This summer was the first time I've ever had success growing impatiens. I found the sweet spot for them with sun and water and they got huge. I had originally just bought one hanging basket and split it, but they quickly filled two rectangular containers.

So when it started to cool down I wondered what people normally do with their annuals. Do they just let them die or do they bring them in? 

I decided to bring mine in, and then I quickly learned that my cats enjoy eating their leaves, then puking them back up. BAD CATS!!

Since I needed a little color in my bedroom, and hanging my plants is the only way to keep them safe from my cats, I decided to take an idea from Skinny LaMinx and adjust it for my rectangular planters. I decided to use jute, since it is so wonderfully cheap, and the rings can be purchased in a pack of six at Hobby Lobby. 

Here's what I did:

1. Measure out 4-12' sections of jute, cut them, put them together, and find the middle. Loop the middle around the ring and find a place to hang the ring so you can work.

2. I put 4 square knots in mine, alternating sides so I got an even shape. This is completely optional, but if you decide to do more, remember that it uses up rope length fast.

3. Measure down, oh I don't know, maybe 12 inches? Ish? It's whatever you like. Tie neighboring ropes together into four knots.

4. Measure down another number of inches that is pretty close to 8 or so (you'll have to judge based on how big your planters are and how long you want this thing to be, but I did 8 inches, for some reason) and tie neighboring ropes together, but not the same ropes that were tied together before. Does this make sense? Here'a a picture that might help:

(Skinny LaMinx does a great job of explaining this, so you should really check out her tutorial here if mine makes no sense.)

I hung the whole thing from a ceiling hook at this point to try and get a better picture of this for you.

5. Next, do some kind of magical balancing act, holding the planter in place while wrapping all the ropes around it. Making this face might help:

(Like my scarf? Thanks Danavee!)

OR you could have someone hold it in place for you, but my helper was in charge of taking photos. Anyway, get it all wrapped around and level, and tie a knot underneath so you have something like this:

6. Next I tied four more alternating square knots and repeated steps 3, 4, and 5 to make this a double hanger.

After I tied the a knot under the second planter, I tied 4 more alternating square knots. Then I cut off the remaining strands of rope, leaving about 6 inches, and I frayed the ends a little bit. I hung it in my bedroom in front of a south facing window.

I love it! It's a little strange to have this giant hanger there, but it's not in the way, and the flowers love it. They are very happy in their new home, safe from the cats.

Thrifty Finds // 5

Here are a few thrifty finds I picked up this weekend. I had wanted some scarves that were the right size to wrap around my head and hide bad hair days. After looking around Target I found it's a little harder than I had thought to find the right size, so I was excited to come across these scarves at Relics and Urban Market. The prints are fun (yes, those are brown briefcases) and they're the perfect size! 

Here are some inspiration photos showing what I'm going to try to do with them:

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Pretty! I tried to take a picture of myself wearing one for you, but for some reason, even though I thought I looked great in the mirror, my forehead instantly became 42 times bigger in the photo. I'll work on that and get back to you.

Adding Some Color to This Bedroom

Time to check in on the One Room Challenge, hosted by Linda at Calling it Home. In case you missed it, this is an event where lots of bloggers commit to reimagining one room in six weeks and sharing their progress along the way. I'm working on my master bedroom. If you would like to see where I started, you can see all my posts related to this project here. If you want to see more awesome room makeovers in progress, check out the linking party here. If you are here from the link-up, welcome!

Let's be friends.

I missed last week due to to little blogger breakdown. Last week was parent/teacher conference week, grades were due, Rand was out of town for the week, and I accidentally published a post that was obviously not ready to be published. When I discovered that, I shut down the computer and gave up on all my hopes and dreams.

But now I've had time to rest, and I feel better. Want to see what I've been doing to my bedroom and my poor husband?

Basically, I stripped all the color out of this room, and now I'm finally adding a little color back in.

First of all, the color of the walls and trim has changed. I went over all the dull, off white trim in Benjamin Moore's Simply White, and it only took one coat to make me happy. Huge difference. If you were perhaps wondering if it really made a difference, since the trim was already white, here's proof:

Wow. 2008 me didn't know anything about selecting white paint.

Much better! Although, I will be touching up that black paint for a long time. EVERY TIME I walk past it I see a spot I missed. 

Next, we primed and painted the walls Benjamin Moore's Moonlight White. This is the same white in my living room and kitchen, and it is amah-zing. I tried several times to get the right gray in here, and it turns out this white does the trick. Next to the Simply White trim, it looks like the most subtle, soft gray possible. I'm smitten.

So that left me with a black and white room. I needed some color, so I hung my paint-by-numbers collection back up on the wall.

Also I also finally got some new bedding! The floral sheet set is from Ross and the duvet cover and shams are from Ikea. The sheets are a little calmer than what I originally envisioned, but I'm liking the floral/stripe combination.

The wahoo board is up, and we have nightstands! My poor husband was so patient with me, but he couldn't hold on much longer without somewhere to set his cell phone. Fortunately, I remembered these little ottomans I found at a garage sale this summer ($5 for the pair!) and I think they make great nightstands. I wanted something small, I like the color/texture, and they have storage inside. CHECK.

So we have some color in here now! And here's that to-do list I started with:

+ Paint the trim BM Simply White in semi-gloss.

+ Paint the walls BM Moonlight White in a flat finish.

+ Repaint the bedroom furniture set.

+ Hang curtains to make the window look bigger. (Maybe more drop-cloth curtains, maybe stamped? Maybe a different fabric? Not sure.)

+ Find and buy new bedding I like.

+ Replace the lights on either side of the bed.

+ Add some plants. PROGRESS!

+ Bring some color to this room with art and pillows on the bed. PROGRESS!

+ Hang lamps from the ceiling.

+ Find a way to rearrange the furniture in a way I like.

Added:

+ Paint the closet and bedroom doors BM Onyx.

+ Sand, prime, and paint the floors either BM Simply White or BM Rockport Gray.

We're moving right along, yes? To keep me sane, let's look back at where I started:

It's time to make a decision about those floors. 

How is your room coming? 

Have you ever had a blogger breakdown?

Do you have a go-to paint color you swear by?

Hanging the Wahoo Board

Several years ago Rand's brother made us this giant Wahoo board. It's a game with two versions sort of like the game Sorry! with marbles. It's awesome, but we never really play it. I was hunting for something interesting to hang above our bed, and I suddenly remembered that this thing has been hiding in our closet all this time.

I originally pictured this side hanging on the wall, but I was excited to turn it over and realized that this was on the other side:

I'm not really sentimental, but the Red Cross is kind of Rand's thing. He's a career lifeguard and pool boy, and this looks like a giant Red Cross symbol. I think that's nice, so I chose this side to show.

I just stapled some wire to the back to hang it and...

here it is.

I like it, and I like that my brother-in-law's gift isn't hiding in the closet anymore. 

Music Monday: The Mixtapes

I belong in the nineties. Seriously, here's my Pinterest board to prove it. I'm just in the wrong time, man.

So I recently got to see a local band called The Mixtapes. They were playing at Lindberg's, which is only a short walk from my house, so my best bud Nat and I went down to check them out.

I've followed Katie Shelton's blog for a while and I discovered The Mixtapes from her Instagram feed. They were totally worth the walk to Lindberg's. They played a couple songs I didn't know (I thought I knew my 90's better than that) and they sounded so good! I had a blast singing along and dancing right up front by the speakers. Nat and I even got ridiculed for our dancing by some girl in line for the restroom. Success!

So I'm thinking this fits #25 on the 101 in 1001 list. Yes?

25. Find five new (to me) musicians/bands I really like. 

I definitely want to see them again. Anyone want to go?

For videos I took from the show, check out my Instagram here.

For more on The Mixtapes, click here.

Thrifty Finds // 4

It's time again to share my recent thrifty finds! Today I'm also linking up with A Living Space, where lots of thrifty bloggers are sharing all the great stuff they've found.  You can check out all the thrifty fun here.

So here's my thrifty haul. First up:

I'm pretty excited about this chair and ottoman.

My sister actually scooped up this chair and ottoman for me from a garage sale on her street. I really wanted to find a replacement for my leather love seat in my living room, and as soon as I saw this chair, I pictured it next to this chair, and then I have a vision of this living room, and I realized where this chair belonged. Et voila:

It is very comfy. I really want to recover that ottoman in something. Maybe macrame? I would cover it in sheepskin like this ottoman if Max didn't immediately pee on every sheepskin I've brought into this house. Bad cat!

I didn't mean that, Max. I love you.

Next up, my paint by numbers collection is growing!  With two cats and a floral:

I paid a little too much for those cats, but I couldn't resist them. Rand insists it's actually the same cat.

This wall kind of feels complete. Maybe it's time to start a PBN collection on the wall across the room.

Last up, this isn't a new thrifty find, but it's a thrifty find from a while back, it's never made the blog, and it only recently found a place in my home.

My very own moon globe! It didn't have a stand, but luckily it's metal and it has a big dent in the bottom, so it stands on its own. Perfect.

So there you go. More old crap to fill my home.

If thrifting is your thing too, be sure to check out the Nifty Thrifty over at The Living Space. 

Canon Rebel

I haven't mentioned my 101 in 1001 list in a while, so let's check in on that. I actually accomplished a list item here recently, but it wasn't until I glanced at my list again that I remembered it was on there.

59. Buy a nice DSLR camera.

Done! I had been planning on saving up for one at some point, because the one I wanted with the lens and everything it needed was going to run me well over 1000 bones. But I hadn't started saving, and Rand gave me a strange look when I said that on top of selling our house and everything else we want to do, I wanted to drop that much money on a camera.

Sometimes he doesn't understand the needs of an artist.

Then I walked into work the other day and saw an ad from a coworker in the teacher workroom. A Canon Rebel DSLR, a few years old, $100. He even let me take it home and try it out first, and whoa. It was amazing. And when I told Rand that it was $100, his exact words were, "$100? Sold." 

Sold.

So this brings me to another 101 in 1001 list item.

49. Take a photography class.

I really want to do this. I've noticed lots of e-courses and online tutorials that I would like to check out, since that would help me figure out all the millions of buttons on this camera, but I'm also hoping to find an actual, in person class to take somewhere.  I plan to look into non-degree seeking classes at Missouri State, since Rand's job means I get some free classes. If anyone reading this knows anything about auditing university classes, please let me know!

In the meantime, don't laugh, but here are a few photos I've taken with it so far. Keep in mind, I KNOW NOTHING. Seriously, I know nothing about the settings on this camera or composition or photography in general. But I want to learn, and I really think I learn best by doing, then failing, then redoing a little better each time. These are all just straight from the camera and were taken around my house, walking around my neighborhood and in the car running errands. Practice, practice, practice.

So there's my first session of playing around with my new camera. I like it a lot.

I already own two vintage film cameras, a Minolta and a Kodak Retina Reflex, both from the late 60's. I love using film (I don't love how much it costs) but I'm really excited to learn what all the fancy buttons on my new camera do.

And if I end up getting frustrated and losing interest, I didn't invest too much money in it! I always have to keep that possibility in mind, too.