pinterest inspired [DIY] paint chip mobile

sneak peek into london's nursery!

i FINALLY got around to hanging up the paint chip mobile i made for her nursery today.
i wanted to do this for her so it's something interesting to look at other than the bland ceiling. the colored circles just twist about so gently, it's almost mesmerizing.
here's hoping little miss loves it as much as i do!

i used a mixture of tutorials from pinterest. this tutorial, & this tutorial were the ones i used as a guideline. didn't follow either one to a Tee, i found my own little things that worked for me better as i went along.

it was SO easy and SO cheap! the most expensive part was buying the circle punch, but that's because i didn't already have one. but, it was on sale for $8 at Michael's Craft Store.

here's the breakdown:
-40 paint chips from local hardware store: free
-circle punch: $8
-white string: $0.50
-glue: i can't remember, probably around $3. (again, i didn't have any lying around)
-12" embroidery hoop: got it on sale for around $2
TOTAL: $13.50
but would have been way cheaper if i already had the glue, string, and circle punch on hand as most diy-ers do. :) but, still! under 14 bucks? i'm a happy girl!

oh, how pinteresting!

a good friend of mine, teleatha [aka T. who is also an avid reader of mine. hi teleatha!!!!] had this cute wooden framed mirror next to her trash can.
i pointed to it and said "don't tell me you're throwing that away."
and she said "eh, yeah. i've had it forever and i'm sick of looking at it."
uhh..."GIMME!"
so without much more effort, that poor abandoned mirror was MINE! score!

and i quickly remembered this pin that i repinned not too long ago..

imagine via

cute and easy idea for perfectly straight stripes, yes? i thought so, too. :)

so after standing in the acrylic paint isle of hobby lobby for a while, completely dumb founded at all the hundreds of color options, i finally settled on two shades of burnt orange. [the "pop" of color in our home. sorry for the poorly lit pictures!]

i painted two coats with the lighter paint, waited for it to dry, then taped & measured off the stripes. then went to town with the darker color. 

waited for the dark color to dry and...

here's the finished result! 

[this won't be it's permanent home, i'm not hanging it up until we move to our new home in a couple months. just propped it up for picture's sake. :)]

not too shabby for some lazy saturday night crafting. if i do say so myself!

highlights of the week.

not too much went on these past 7 days. which is a good thing. no one likes a hectic week, anyways. :)


scored this bruised and beat up beauty at the good will tuesday while looking for a [cheap] office desk. didn't luck out on the office desk but we DO need an end table. we always put our drinks on the floor...it's only a matter of time till we spill something that will stain [eek!] but not anymore! i transformed the table this week...after picture soon to come!

FINALLY got around to hanging up our USMC flag. right next to our American flag. long may they wave.. :)

i guess i was in a "diy" kind of mood this week. [and i STILL am. wish i had more supplies to craft right now...] anyways! a couple months ago i went to a house warming party at my adorable friend, katrina's house. during her tour, i pointed out that i LOVE how she put the first letters of her and her husband's name on each of their bedside tables. soo i copied her. hehe. [thanks for the idea, katrina! xo]

buuut since we don't have any black in our home, i had to whip out some spray paint.
here are the results. :)
can't wait until we're in our own home again and have our bedside tables back. until then, they'll still be on display- just not in their right places.

this past thursday was mine and my mom's first ever cake decorating class!
it's about time that we've signed up for one since it's only been ohhh....NINE years since i first told my mom i wanted to learn how. figured since we're hightailin' it outta here soon might as well start! [better late than ever, right?] three more classes until we graduate our first level.

it's not the prettiest cake, but it's a start!

after i learn the tricks of the trade, in a few years i'll be that mom that makes adorable cakes for her kids for every occasion. :)

and never again will there be another repeat of my poor husband's birthday cake last year...good thing it tasted yummy since i can bake. it just looked ugly. 

yesterday was flower delivery day #12. [that's when it hit me that charlie has been away for 24 weeks now. :( ]
but aren't they perdy?! not too many flower delivery days left! yaaaaay!

here's hoping this week flies by! my patience is wearing thin.
is it march yet?!

looky what i did!

so we all know i loveloveLOVE pinterest. [ya, me and every other person on this earth because pinterest is AWESOME!]

and i saw this ca-ute valentine's wreath a few weeks ago and i just couldn't stop thinking of it. soo i made one so i can whip it out and put it on our front door every year to celebrate love day. :)

even though the inspiration is much better than mine, i'm still proud of my wreath! 

especially since the wreath off of pinterest was originally a picture from a product being sold on etsy for $35. and i made mine for roughly...ohhh....$7 bucks. I WIN! 

shellac.

my adorable turquoise-loving friend, ali has this way cool shellac nail curing kit complete with the uv light and everything!
her nails ALWAYS look amazing and never have any chips. so i finally asked her "ali. what's your secret? do you do your nails all the time so they're manicure perfect?" she of course said "heck no!" [she's wayyy too busy for that. i mean, who isn't, right?] then she continued to tell me about her shellac kit.
i've heard of these since i'm pretty involved in the beauty world being a cosmetologist, but i usually don't chime in on anything nail related too often.
so the other night we finally had time for ali to do my nails! yay!
these lovely ladies won't chip and will last 2 to 3 WEEKS! and it only takes about 20 minutes!

[notice my all different shape finger nails? yuck. thank you mom! i dream of having perfectly long nail beds. *sigh*]

i went with the light pink for more of a natural look. :) she did a fantastic job!

here are the steps! [and dumb-dumb me didn't write down the steps as ali was explaining them. sooo here's a rough explanation..]

step 1: gather all your products. [i forgot to take a picture with the rubbing alcohol and the cotton pads, but you'll need those, too!]

[sorry 'bout the lighting. i'm no professional with my little iphone by any means. ]

-gel curing uv lamp

-rubbing alcohol

-3 cotton pads

-nail file

-shellac base coat

-shellac color coat of your choice

-shellac clear top coat

-a timer

-start by taking of any excess old nail polish with nail polish remover and dry out the nail beds with rubbing alcohol and 1 cotton pad. be sure to get all the cotton fuzzies off!

-then on one hand, do one coat of the base polish and put under uv lamp for 10 seconds.

DO NOT TOUCH SHELLAC POLISH AT ANY TIME UNTIL FINISHED! ali warned me. :)

-then immediately put on one coat of the color shellac and put under the uv lamp to cure for 2 minutes.

-repeat another coat for more pink color. [optional]

-apply one coat of the top polish and cure under uv lamp for 2 minutes.

-immediately rub off the stickiness with a little rubbing alcohol on a fresh cotton pad.

-repeat all steps with the other hand 

and you now have beautifully manicured nails!

thank you ali! i love love looove my nails! they're so shiny. and no streaks at all! 

i'm hooked.

first post of the year!

HAPPY 2012!
let's kick off the new year with my very first DIY post, yes?
yes, let's!

homemade organic coconut sugar scrub

i've been wanting to make a body scrub for quite some time now, just never got around to it. 

the past few weeks, i've been searching and searching for a good 'recipe'. even though there's not much to making a sugar scrub, i still wanted a few guidelines to follow. 

thank you, pinterest, for inspiring me! i took a few different recipes, combined them and made different ratios to make the one i made. 

since this was my first homemade sugar scrub, i found out that i will NOT use lavender in it again. for one, i'm not a huge fan of lavender scent [the color on the other hand, i love] and for two i don't know if it's my super strong sense of smell or what but it's just too overpowering! i should have just listened to my gut instinct and not used it, but hey- i'm a rookie here. :)

so with that said- here's my homemade organic coconut sugar scrub recipe!

*all ingredients [except the olive oil] were purchased at Sprout's*

1 cup organic cane sugar [i used a brown sugar since all the white cane sugar was too fine]

1/3 celtic sea salt

1/4 cup coconut oil*

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil [some recipes call for almond oil but i'm allergic to tree nuts, sooo that's a no-go for me!]

1 tablespoon vitamin E oil

3 or 4 drops of lavender oil <---[OPTIONAL! me no likey lavender. but hey- to each it's own!]

*note: i couldn't find coconut oil. ?? so i figured coconut "flavor" would work just fine. and i was right!

i just combined the sugar and salt first..

then put in the coconut "flavor" and mixed it up to make sure i put in enough..

then added the olive oil, vitamin E oil and lavender. mixing in between each.

then i HAD to test it out before i bottled it up. :)

after i made my hands baby skin soft, i went back to work.

a little homemade touch with some scrapbook material, glue dots, sharpie and a ribbon and VOILÅ! an adorable little gift for anyone that loves soft yummy smelling skin. which is...everyone, right?

enjoy. :)