Giving Your Daytime Digs Some Style

Hi friends!

Sorry for the month-long hiatus. I've been spending quite a bit of time in the office over the past few weeks and just haven't been terribly motivated to do much else when I get home. I've also been drinking immature amounts of hot chocolate from my over sized mug with an identity crisis (are you sure I'm a mug? I might be a bowl) and trying to brave the arctic weather in DC.

Speaking of offices, it's nice to add a few personal touches to your office. After all, you spend 8+ hours there, so you should enjoy the setting. The girls next door to me have a lovely display of paper snowflakes and a white board on which they can display their lovely handwriting, even if it's just a to-do list. Another girl in the office has a Paris in a bag block set on her desk.

Last week I was looking at Martha Stewart paint chips at Home Depot and thinking about ways to use them for things other than deciding on a paint color. I grabbed a bunch of the green/blue/turquoise chips and a few grey ones, put them in my purse, and forgot that they were there until I got to work on Monday. After a particularly long day, I decided to put the paint samples up on my bulletin board to brighten my room and give myself something to do that involved prettiness and immediate gratification.

This is what I ended up with:

I actually had three Benjamin Moore paint samples on my bulletin board before while I was trying to decide what color to paint my room, so I cut each color out and mixed them with the rectangular Martha Stewart paint samples to a little more geometric interest. Fun and free, and a nice complement to my graphic West Elm monthly calendar.

This project made me temporarily obsessed with the all the other things I could do with paint samples. Make a cool notebook cover? DIY art? Think of the possibilities.

I'll be back soon with details on some recent changes to my room that I'm pretty excited about.

Welcome Back

I realize it’s been a while since I posted anything here. I actually wrote something about plans for the New Year and the like, but I still don’t have the pictures for it so instead I’m updating with this measly post. Even though I told myself I wanted to post things here consistently, I haven’t so much been motivated to do so this week. Instead, I’ve spent a week reading blogs that take me on an exhausting and somewhat inspirational path through the internet, and listening to Mumford and Sons and Broken Bells and the new Decemberists Album on repeat. I do this combo reading/obsessively listening to certain music from time to time, but especially during the winter when I’m feeling especially existentialist and introspective. Oh yes, I’ve also been doing my grownup job, which is soon to involve travel to Atlanta and possibly Seattle (big smile!).

I have some projects planned for this weekend involving my room and the ugly color it is and paint that I ordered online. So hopefully I’ll have something to tell you about by Monday. Stay posted.

Merry Christmas!

Hope Santa was good to you this year!

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Easy Christmas Decorating Ideas: Ornament-Covered Tree

I bought a cardboard cone from Michael’s in November with plans to make some kind of tree out of it. I determined late in the game that I wanted to make an ornament tree, and am slightly ashamed to say that I didn’t finish this process until Saturday. At least it’s done and sitting beautifully on my coffee table in time for Christmas.

After waiting too long to determine that I wanted to cover the cone in glass ball ornaments, I ended up going to multiple places looking for mini glass ball ornaments to make the tree. I ended up snagging some small ornaments from Michael’s, some from Target, and some from Merrifield Garden Center, a local nursery that has a beautiful Christmas shop in season. At first, I was just going to do red, silver, green, and white. After purchasing ornaments in these colors, I called an audible and decided to add some color to my tree. This process resulted in an ornament assortment of different colors and sizes.

First, I prepped the cone by painting it with silver acrylic paint, which was only about $1 from Michael’s. I applied the paint with a foam paint brush and let the paint dry overnight.

First, I removed the “crowns” of the ornaments, which are the little metal pieces at the top that hold the metal loop on the ornament. You can usually just pull these right off. Be a little careful because the ends of the metal loop are compressed into the ornament and will expand when you pull it out of the ornament. I only removed the crowns two or three ornaments at a time because I didn’t know how many ornaments I would be using for this project.

I used a glue gun to attach the ornaments to the cone. For the first row, I picked two different sizes and alternated them around the bottom of the cone. To attach the ornaments, I put glue around the surface that the crown was attached to and held it to the cardboard cone until the glue solidified enough to hold the ornament on.

On the second row, I tried to alternate sizes, but wasn’t quite able to stick to that pattern. I made an effort to place ornaments so that I created as few gaps in ornaments as possible, but that wasn’t always doable, so the tree did have some gaps. I kept going around the tree, attempting to vary size, color, and texture of ornaments close together. To make some ornaments closer together or fit better, I glue the side or the ornament directly to the cone, rather than using the end of the ornament. I also glued some smaller ornaments to each other rather than to the cardboard cone.

This process proved to be a lengthy one, and took the better part of an entire evening. I have to admit, I was a little discouraged when I was only part way through this process.

I kept plugging along, being mindful of which colors I was using most frequently and which ornaments I needed to conserve.  As I neared the top, I paid close attention to the way ornaments were fitting. Once I got to the top, I clustered ornaments to eliminate as many gaps as possible.

After covering the tree with ornaments, I used the same silver beads that I used in my tree-topper to cover large gaps between ornaments on the tree. This actually added another dimension to the tree.

To make this project, I used a ton of mini ornaments, which included about 34  larger ornaments and many more small ones. If you wanted the tree to have a more uniform look, you should choose two different sized ornaments and stick to them. I ended up using four different sizes altogether.

I’m quite happy with the festive finished product!

Last Minute Christmas Decorating Ideas: Cheap and Easy Wreaths

Looking for a few last minute decorating ideas of before Christmas? I’ve seen a number of really cute wreaths this year made of all sorts of different materials.



Via Apartment Therapy



Via Design*Sponge

Via Design*Sponge

Via Apartment Therapy

While I would’ve loved to attempt some of these more complex wreaths, based on my limited time and budget, I had to go for two cheap and easy options. Below are two very easy examples of wreaths you can make to add some quick Christmas cheer to your humble abode.

Tinsel Wreath

I chose to make a tinsel wreath because I love the vintage look of tinsel garland, and I already had a bunch of tinsel garland on hand. If you don't have any, it's available super cheap at the dollar store.


Our large pile of tinsel garland that came from Roomie 1's dad's house

Making a tinsel wreath is incredibly simple. You can use pretty much any kind of smooth wreath form. I choose a wire one since it was only about $3.50 at Michael’s and I knew it would be easy to hang (even though I didn’t end up hanging it).

I wrapped the garland around the wreath form twice and then used floral wire to secure the end of the garland. Tinsel garland is pretty fragile, so it’s nearly impossible to secure the end by tying it. After the end was secure, I wrapped the garland tightly around the wreath, making sure not to leave any gaps. I used two pretty long pieces to cover the entire large wreath.

The beginning of my metallic creation.

I put the wreath on a washstand in our living room and leaned it against the wall. I like the way it adds a metallic element the room, and it helps vary the heights on the little Christmas toy vignette I created.

I made my washstand (that I picked up from a craigslist curb alert!) into my toy table.
I actually started collecting German smokers while working at the Christmas Attic.

Personally, I like the tinsel garland simple without any adornments. But if you wanted to jazz it up a bit, you could add things to it like ribbon, glass ball ornaments, or even lights.

Yarn Wreath

I’ve seen yarn wreaths everywhere this year, and really liked the texture and and winter sweater-like feeling of them. We needed something Christmassy for our kitchen, so I decided to pick up a straw wreath form and some yarn from Michael’s and try my hand at making one.

The yarn was on sale at Michael’s and only cost me about $2.50 per roll, and the wreath form was about $4. I used 1.5 rolls of red yarn for this project.

To make the wreath, I tied the yarn around the wreath, securing the knot on the back.

Straw wreath form with a couple rounds of yarn on it

 I then wrapped the yarn tightly around the wreath. Because the straw made the wreath an uneven texture, I didn’t worry about covering the entire wreath solidly on the first time around. The most difficult part of the process was looping the roll of yarn around the wreath so often, which was taking FOREVER. To expedite this process, I unrolled a portion of the yarn roll, and then wound it tightly around the rest of the yarn roll. Because the yarn was wound tightly in a circle on the roll, I was able to quickly roll the yarn tightly around the wreath and prevent the yarn from getting tangled.


After one layer of yarn, the wreath was almost covered. It had a few gaps because of the uneven surface of the straw wreath form. I went over it a second time to fill in the gaps.

 I went around the whole wreath twice with the yarn. The second time, I made sure every surface of the wreath form was covered. While I loved the examples of yarn wreaths that had felt flowers on them, I didn’t have any felt on hand, so instead I tied some leftover ball ornaments to the wreath with yarn. Once the ornaments were on, I took a piece of tinsel garland and wrapped it around the area where the ornaments were. I used a piece of yarn to secure the ends of the tinsel garland to the wreath.

To hang the wreath, I took a wide ribbon, cut it about a yard and ½ long, and used small nails to secure the ribbon above the bay window in our kitchen.

I hung the wreath in our kitchen window with ribbon leftover from the bow on my frontdoor wreath.

The ornaments I used were leftover from my outdoor garland.

Even though I would have loved to attempt some of the really cool wreaths that I’ve seen this year, the ones that I made were cheap and easy ways to make our house look a little more festive, which is exactly the kind of decorations I’m looking for when Christmas is less than a week away.

Cheese on Wheels

I pretty much love all foods that involve melted cheese, so when I found out through my Urban Daddy email that there is now a food truck that sells gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches in DC and Arlington.

And you can track their location on twitter @bigcheesetruck! Is this real life? I wish this rolling piece of heaven would show up around 2 or 3 am on the weekend.

Let it Snow!

It's been over 5 years since I've attend a Fairfax County Public School, but I still get giddy when I see or hear messages like this one...

Yes, it's snowing in NoVA! Naturally, the entire metro area has overreacted to the Nth degree. **Fingers crossed that I can still make my haircut at 5:30.**

But seriously, the snow is beautiful, and it's actually the first one of the season. I haven't done a song of the day in a while, I think this is the perfect occasion for one. Happy snow!