Gold

I'm loving the gold accents and detail everywhere.  Here are a couple of my favorite gold inspiration photos:

Gold detail

Gold mirror

Painted bias armchair

Cultural significance

"In Ghana, the display of gold at the Ashanti king’s jubilee in 1995 was unsurpassed in splendor. This Adioukrou Queen Mother, attending the jubilee, indicates her status by wearing gold turtle & crocodile talismans in her hair."

Wedding invites

Folding Chair

Here is another one of my recent finds I got from Ben's house.  It is kind of rusty and scratched up so it needs a little makeover. 

Last week, my apartment complex gave me a written warning to remove the "rusted metal folding chair" from the the balcony in 1 day or else they will take action (I hope I can move that chair within 24 hours... I might be cutting it a little close).  I'm sure my metal folding chair is keeping tons of potential upscale renters from moving into this high-class complex.

My original intent was to paint the chair (...eventually), but I wanted to make sure I get it finished quickly so I can keep it out on the porch.  Ever since I saw the photo below, I've been keeping my eyes open for folding chairs to paint different bold colors.  Here is my inspiration photo:

Bold painted folding chairs

Primed & Painted.  I used Rust-oleum Satin Lagoon (the perfect match to what I was looking for) then sprayed a clear coat on top.  Also, I probably should have done a tiny bit of sanding on the drips in between coats, but I'm kind of lazy and don't care if there are drips. 

taking the ombre look to a whole new level

The in-person color is a little more turquoise than the blue shown in the photos.  Here is the final piece:

I love the color.  I will definitely be looking for more chairs to start a bold collection of folding chairs... when I have a house.

p.s. I start my 'new job' today.  Wish me luck!

Life Update

This has nothing to do with the post, but no picture posts are boring!

I have been temping at UC for the last 7 months.  The job was only supposed to be 4-6 weeks, but they kept extending my time.   I guess they've finally decided they couldn't live without me and they have offered me a permanent position!  I officially start this coming Monday.  I'm excited to have a little bit of security, flexibility, benefits, and (of course) a nice raise!

Have a great weekend!

Black & White Stripes

Black and white stripes is another one of my new favorites.  This is a classic yet bold look that can be put on nearly anything.  Here are a couple of my favorite looks:

Chair

Funky couch (great before and after)

Chair back

DIY bench

DIY curtains

Striped hallway

I could see myself having all of these looks in my own place (not at the same time).  I'm already planning on having a striped hallway as soon as I get a house. 

Lazy Weekend

This weekend, I had a much needed lazy weekend (thank you rain).  The past couple weeks, I have been running around non-stop so it is really nice having some real time off and just chillin.  Friday night, we went out to Cancun for Jazz's birthday.  It was fun celebrating and catching up with everyone there.

photo credit to Jazz

BC brought Clove over to my house to hang out.  She visited her first dog park, made some doggy friends, and spent a lot of time wrestling in the mud.  After that, all she wanted to do was sleep.  Here she is modeling my T-shirt blanket:

And refusing to wake up:

We were trying to keep her awake so she could sleep on her long ride home.  Every time we sat her up, she would just flop over and pass out. 

Also, I tried to get a picture of the three of us for my cubicle... BC had other plans:

Anyways, it was a fun and relaxing weekend.  Stay tuned this week for some projects and possibly big life updates. 

Egg-Free Peanut Butter Chocoloate ChipCookies

I was craving cookies bad and was out of eggs.  These are probably the best peanut butter cookies that I've ever made... and the dough is really good.  Recipe adapted from here: Egg-Free Peanut Butter Cookies.

My food pictures never look good, but I swear they were delicious!

1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter (creamy)
1/2 cup butter or margerine
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/4 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
I added 1/2 bag of chocolate chips

1. preheat oven to 375 degrees
2. mix peanut butter, brown and granulated sugar, vanilla, and butter until well blended
3. add rest of ingredients and mix
4. form dough balls, place on cookie sheet, and do that criss-cross thing on the top with a fork
5. Enjoy!

T-shirt Blanket

In last month's to-do list, number 5 was to finish my T-shirt blanket I started it in August 2008.  At the time, I had a month left of summer break and was geared up that month to get it finished... Of course, it never happened.  I finished about a twin size amount of the blanket and then gave up.  When I did get the motivation to pull out the materials, I would have problems with the sewing machine and would only get little bits of it done at a time.

Almost four years later,  I sat down and finally finished!!!

Unlike most t-shirt blankets I've seen, I wanted my t-shirt cutouts to be varying sizes.  I had a lot of tees (40-50) that I wanted to include.  I put the warm colored shirts (red, orange, yellow) on one side and the cool colors (green, blue, purple) on the other side so it would add some kind of organization to the chaos.

I cut out the shirts and made sure they were mostly the same width.  I sewed a column by itself and then added each column to the rest of the blanket.  I put the padding in and sewed it all up.  This is the first thing I've ever sewn on a sewing machine so I'm sure there is a better way to do this, but it made the most sense to me... especially with the uneven design of the blanket.

Here are some of the final pictures:

warm side

 

cool side

I still have a couple more stitches to add to keep the padding in place, but it is pretty much complete. 

I can't believe I finally finished it!!!


PS.  Happy birthday Jazz!  Here is my favorite picture of us:

Honeycomb

Honeycomb is my new pattern obsession!  I love how it looks on everything!

This is my absolute favorite look!

Flooring:

Painted flooring

Kismet Tile

Shelving:

DIY Honeycomb Shelves

Dishes: 

(a little more organic)

One Kings Lane

Bloomingdales

Miscellaneous house decorations:

Ikea

West Elm

Don't you just love it!?  I will definitely have some honeycomb patterned things in my future.  There has to be a way to DIY the dishes and West Elm vases.  I will add that to the to-do list.  Anyways... 

Have a good Thursday!!!

Weekend Finds

Since BC is moving, I got to raid his house and take whatever I wanted.  Here are a couple of my new great finds:

This huge painting (approx 2.5'x4').  I mostly wanted it for the frame, but I'm planning on trying to find a way to temporarily cover up the painting.

Blue and white plates (4), cups (4), and tea pot.  My grandma used to collect bowls and stuff like this so it really reminded me of her.  Not really sure what I'm going to do with it yet.

Wooden chair that I'm planning on painting.

Metal folding chair that I'm also planning on painting.

And I saved the best for last...  Framed Jesus picture.  I like the frame so I'm planning on taking the picture out, but I'm not sure if I can throw away a picture of Jesus so I might have to find somewhere to put it (maybe a closet or something).

I left this out for my roommate to see and she told me it scared the sh!t out of her and she screamed out loud when she turned the lights on.

Candle Recycle

I always end up having leftover wax from all of my candles and I feel bad throwing away the containers and candle wax.  This is a great way to re-use old candles.

you can also get excess wax off of the top of candles using a razor blade

 Needed:
used candles
container for the new candle
wick (I used 7" wick)
pot 'o' boiling water
oven mitts

I found you can melt down the wax by placing the container in boiling water.  Make sure the water level will be above the wax, but not too high that it will boil over. 

Place the used candle containers in the boiling pot of water.  Turn it down to a simmer once you put the containers in.  Wait about 5-10 minutes while the wax is melting.

Pour the melted wax into the desired container.  Make sure you keep the wick standing up straight up.

The wax dried in a cute little heart

Wait about 30-60 minutes between different colors so they don't mix together.  Drying time will vary depending on the thickness of the wax.  Pour gently so the wax doesn't splash up on the sides.

I used the excess wick from the other candle to make these smaller candle wicks.  In the future, I would put an anchor on these types of wicks because it is possible to just pull the wick out.

Wait about 30 minutes to an hour to let it cool and harden.  Cut off the excess wick.  

Here are the final products: