poll: what should I do with my living room?

Decisions are my enemy, and you're my best friend... so I'm glad we have developed this fantastic relationship where you can help me decide REALLY EXTRA LIFE CHANGING decisions.... like which dining room table/chairs I should get. 

Every night for at least two months, I lay in my bed [during my only "me time"] and try to find the perfect set and I don't think "perfect" is going to happen in my budget. So here's what we're looking at. 

You know my living room is purple and turquoise, but my kitchen is green, and the dining room is inbetween. I've decided I definitely want a black table of some sort and green chairs, but I can't decide which shade or which height. This is where you come in. [I put a vase that is similar to one I just got so you can see how the colors will hopefully flow, along with other artwork etc.]

This is your typical dining height table [this one expands to get longer] with a really light "celery green" leather chair or a lime green microfiber one.

This is "counter height" which is really only a couple inches higher, but to me it seems cooler. Again, a cloth true-green option, and leather lighter option. 

In my head, the lighter colors would be an easier, more fun transition with colors, but now that I put these together I'm not sure if that's entirely true. Also, it's impossible to find a green chair with black legs. The C option is the only one I wouldn't have to paint to match the table. 

I'm trying to class up my apartment so which option do you think best does that? 

I know the tables are plain, but a girl's gotta save SOME kind of money! I figure the chairs make more of an impact... right or wrong?

Have I told you lately that I love you?

love,
elizabethany

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i got a big girl living room

For the first time in literally a decade, I plan on hope to be living in the same place for more than a year. There's always the chance I could move to a new place, but that's not looking likely, so it's time to invest in some things to make my apartment a little more legit.

Step 1: The living room.

I've shown you some of my decorations, and now I've finally gotten my first ever big girl furniture pieces! Thanks to President's Day, I got a sleeper sofa and love seat combo at 50% off. [Let's be real... even if I wanna invest in things, I'm still gonna need a good deal.]

[I should probably straighten things out before taking pictures, huh?]

I also got that new rug. Because of Slutty Cat clawing at them, I felt like I needed to get a shag one. I wanted something with design but the comfort of this one makes it all worth it. My only issue is that I have no idea where the perfect placement is. After Pinteresting ideas, I realized I probably got the wrong size or may have to get creative. 

There are still a lot of little touches I want to do. What should I put on the coffee tables? I think I still want new curtains. My papasan chair needs to be painted. [I'm not grown enough to get rid of that, let's be real.] I probably need another source of light somewhere, too. 

I've had these colors since college, but most of the stuff is new at this point. I found this Pinspiration and I'm liking the idea of the peacock feathers... somehow. 

Your ideas always welcome! Slow and steady growth wins, right?! I think..

love,

elizabethany

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my inspirational gallery wall

I'm so excited about this!

Last Christmas, my aunt gave me a couple canvases after seeing this on my Pinterest. 

I'll be honest, I forgot what the original inspiration was, but I just wanted something for my huge, bare wall behind my TV. Once she finished making a couple more, I think my living room is complete. [Well, as soon as I get a real couch and not this futon....]

Fun, right?! I love the colors and the variety. And people either love or hate my vase of sticks on the side, but I dig 'em. 

That little gray one is the only one she didn't make.

These pictures are very frustrating because I used a level to hang them for once in my life, and some are clearly a bit crooked when you look that close. Sigh. They're gonna stay that way. 

If you're wondering how she made them, she has a Silhouette Cameo machine that cuts out the stickers to put on the canvas. Awesome, right?! I feel like I'm going to want to look out for more to expand the wall even more or con my mom into making some. 

It's a nice reminder on a lazy day when I'm watching TV to get my ass up because while I'm lounging, someone else is doing something great. We can't have that. 

love,

elizabethany

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poll!: help me decide how to paint this furniture!

After your help with my hair turned out to be extremely beneficial, I'll probably start leaning on you to help me make a lot of decisions. I'm pretty terrible at them most of the time. 

Today's bother: How to paint my chest. Toy chest. Seriously. It's filled with nothing but games and toys. 

Originally I wanted to do it all bright blue.. then I decided to only do the top blue, and the bottom gray. Now that I've gotten the colors [and they're probably way brighter than they should be], I don't know if that's the right decision!

Here's a look at my living room as a whole so you can get a feel for it. [Keep in mind it's still in the middle of the from college to real life transformation.]

The coffee tables and my tv stand/shelves are white, and I'll probably end up painting the futon frame gray.... or whatever color you suggest.

Here it is so far. I quickly threw on some of the gray just to show ya the contrast... and some blue to see how it would look down there.

Is there a way to add black paint to gray and make it a little darker?! It's gotta work, right?! That gray is just too close to white for me to love it right now... but still, I gotta make a decision. Help a girl out!



I feel like I'm trying to bring too much color into the room, but like... I LOVE COLOR. And this dark purple/bright blue-ish turquoise have been the colors of my living room since junior year. Why go back now?

If you have any other ideas/tips, comment or tweet me and I'll send you loves and kisses! Or mostly just loves.

love,
elizabethany

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my new home: the difference new curtains make

I keep promising that I'll post all the changes I've been trying to make around this new apartment, but... well... I have an online shopping problem.. and boxes are constantly everywhere and as soon as I "finish" one "project," another one pops up.

I gave this little peek on Instagram a while ago...



The TV stand still needs drawers or doors, but every time I go to IKEA, I get the wrong size- go figure. The second biggest change in that room were the curtains, though. This apartment came with gross-gold drapes, and I knew they were hideous, but I didn't realize how much they can change a room until I experimented in my bedroom.

[Before I go and show you these, you need to know that this room will be my biggest project. So much of my furniture is from my sophomore year of college. It's been through eight moves. I finally got my first big girl bed, though!]

How ICK, right?!

Loved this pattern when I put it up against my yellow striped comforter, but the shorter length was a bigger deal than I expected.

I put these college-curtains up just in the meantime, and figured I'd show another big difference. 

And here's my final decision [for now]. Look how much better the darker contrast and long lengths look!

Now I just need to rearrange everything so I like it even more. I've been using this website to experiment, but haven't figured out anything I like yet. The interesting part: It's the exact same dimensions as my room in Texas! 

Curtains have to be the best way to quickly makeover a room, though. If you're not too picky on color/pattern, you could do it for like $25 and a trip to TJ Maxx. I spent hours and hours looking online, but ended up with a pair of panels from Target for a total $50.

Also... that chair is freaking me out, man. I took those pics on completely different days, but it's always in the same position. IS THIS PLACE POSSESSED?!?!

Aw hell... I'm gonna have to move again.

love,
elizabethany

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crafted: painted fabric canvases

It's  been a month and a half since I moved into my new place, and I haven't put up a single piece of decoration. Normally that's the first thing I do, but I really wanna make this place look nice and not like some college student's first apartment. I've been looking all over Pinterest and magazines and EVERYWHERE looking for ideas, and I still don't know where I'm gonna go with it, but I decided to make something for the awfully bare walls.

I went to AC Moore on Sunday when they had an extra 25% off everything in the store, and got a bunch of 16x20 canvases for $2.50 each! HELLO BARGAIN! I've always wanted to have some to play with, but there's one project I've been wanting to do.

Some people cover shoe box tops with fabric as decoration... I wanted to take that one step forward and paint a quote or something on them... then I decided to cover the canvases [kinda defeating the purpose of them, but I can always take the fabric off] and paint simple silhouettes on them.

I suck and didn't take pictures during the process, but that's because it's so easy.

NEED: 

• Canvas or shoe box
• Hot glue/gun
• Fabric to cover your canvas or top [$1/each if you get swatches]
• Simple acrylic craft paint
• Paint brushes

DO:

1. Iron out the fabric if necessary and place it on top of the canvas.
2. Glue down the sides, doing about two inches at a time and alternating sides. Make sure you pull it a little so it's nice and flat.
3. If you need to, pencil an outline of what you want to paint on. 
4. Paint.. and then love!

After I hung them up, Nugget and I both decided I should have made bigger ones... but they'll do! And I'm hoping they'll look 100x better as soon as I get some new furniture in this piece.

Also, my walls are not nearly as pink as they appear there, but for some reason my pictures always have a different tint in each place I see them.

So they're not the most artistic things ever.. but they're personalized and fun! I might end up redoing them on different fabric, but these were the only options at the time, and they'll totally work for now, don't ya think?!

love,
elizabethany

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month on pinspiration: a collection of smaller projects

There are some things I did in May that aren't totally worthy of their own post/because I'm late, I might as well bunch them all up... so here we go!

This photography of shaped lights is freaking beautiful.

I've been playing around with it with a couple different things, but it seems to be hard to do in my environment unless Christmas lights are around. Luckily, my dad's drums have some lights all around them. I cut out a little heart on a Post-It Note [it's seriously smaller than my pinky nail], and held it up to the lens.

I'm still no photography pro, so I don't even really know how I was adjusting everything. It's a lot of trial and error. A lot of times the heart/paper was totally visible like the picture on the right. I do like the picture on the left quite a bit, but obviously only a couple of the lights are actually shaped. 

Real photographers are more than welcome to leave a comment and help a girl out... but for now, I'm going to say this is a pin that should be left to the professionals. 

There are a bajillion different drinks and foods that will help you "slim down" for the summer, so I decided to try the "Dr Oz Slimdown Drink" because I've heard a lot of good things about grapefruit juice... and he's a doctor, so duh.

Let me just tell you right now.... this s#!* is GROSS. I poured honey in it, plugged my nose, chugged, and still wanted some kind of a chaser.... and this is coming from a girl who can down some straight vodka like it's soda. The after taste of this is just not okay, and you gotta do it before every meal.

However, there may be some good coming from it. While I don't think it helped me lose any weight or anything, I do think it helped burn the fat of the meal I was about to eat quicker. There was a week that I ate out about half of my meals [had some visitors], and normally I never eat out. Typically I gain a solid five pounds on these weeks, but I felt pretty confident in a bathing suit at the end of it... so that's gotta mean something, right?!

Next up, I got my swim on and "partied" my bathing suit and towel. [In Texas, my friends say they "party" something whenever they switch it up... like upside down sunglasses.]

You've probably seen the many ways you can tie your triangle top to make it a little different... 

Well, most of them make your boobs look absolutely ridiculous. The one I did and totally love and will change my life forever was this one: 

And just to make it more fun, I decided to make one of those towel dresses that people are trying to sell. [Unless you find them for cheap, don't waste your money! All you need is a towel, ribbon, needle and thread.]

The towel that you use is key. I just grabbed an old bath towel that was relatively thin... but if you're looking to be "sexy," or something like it, you want a really thin, long, and skinny towel. You can always try them out before you sew on the ribbon.

Then I just cut two foot-long ribbons and sewed them onto the corners of the towel. BAM! No more wearing an outfit to the beach or pool, cuz this baby is totally restaurant or public appropriate.

While we're showing off our boobs, how 'bout remixing a bra?! It's a genius idea, really. Cut the back off the bra and sew on a couple pieces of elastic... suddenly it's acceptable to see it when wearing a backless shirt.

You're going to have to measure out how long the elastic bands should be for you, but I normally wear a 34B [*GASP!* I'm sharing my bra size with the Internet! Syke. I don't care.] and used 11" pieces of elastic. 

I really wanted to find multiple colors of the elastic and find some clasps to attach so I could switch the straps in and out, but I didn't find multiple colors in store. 

And finally, I did the "no sew pillow covers."

While it's easy to do, it's kinda hard to figure out how much fabric you'll need. I couldn't find a guide for that anywhere, so I practiced with a yard of stretch jersey fabric I ordered for another skirt. For my 15x15" pillows, it worked perfectly, so I went out and got two yards of a cotton fabric to use. It was definitely not enough. I had to use the two yards to barely cover my 15x20" pillow.

I was so frustrated with the lack of fabric that I didn't try too hard to make it a clean knot. Still not sure what I'll do about this sitch.

The one on the right is the stretchy yard of jersey fabric. It's a lot easier to work with and looks cleaner in the end, I think.

 And there we have it! My month of Pinspiration has come to an end. HIGH FIVE!

love,
elizabethany

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pinspired: shower curtains turned window curtains

Maybe one of my most favorite, genius ideas Pinterest has taught me is the *art* of turning one shower curtain into two window curtains.

Were you aware you could get a fantastic shower curtain from Ross or TJ Maxx for $8? I got a yellow damask one for that price, and it was originally $28!

BTW- this is how ugly the curtains in the bedroom were before.

That doesn't even show the horrid-ness of it. They were a black-out beige that blended in to the walls and just made the room feel dull and dark. 

Originally I planned on making yellow an accent color in the room with the thrift store lamps and other things, but when I found these yellow curtains, I loved them. I was excited to mix up patterns and bring some light to the room. 

Because my room came with built in curtain rods, and I didn't plan on having some huge drapes in there, cutting a shower curtain in half was the perfect width for both sides. 

It's the easiest thing you'll ever make for your house. You cut in half, sew or bond the cut end under as a hem, then either hang them with shower curtain rings or attach pieces of ribbon across the top. 

I went the ribbon route, but I think I'll be undo'ing that action and probably just getting some rings for it. Because my curtains are so light, you can see the ribbon through them when the sun is shining through.

Also when the shining through, it makes it a bit difficult to show you the design and how light, colorful, and fun they really are in the room. 

...so here they are with a little flash/nighttime help.

I'm not/wasn't worried about the pattern being centered, especially because the curtains are perfectly aligned on the outer sides of the bed. Plus, I don't think anyone is really ever going to notice unless they're looking at that picture. 

So to sum it all up, you can get two curtains for the price of one. You don't even have to spend $20-30 at Target. Two curtain panels for $8 total. That's a freakin' bargain, my friends.

Also, they look fabulous if you use two panels on one window. I really enjoy the one Little Pink Monster [Kane's wife] used for her daughter's bedroom.

Next up in my bedroom: fixing up that nightstand. It really brings everything down, huh? All I want is a "grown up room!"

love,
elizabethany

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pinspired: spray painted doormat

I've been wanting to make two doormats I've seen on Pinterest ever since I joined. Unfortunately, because I don't have a drill, I couldn't make my first choice... so I decided to try out this spray painted mat that looked more simple than anything in life.

It says "spray paint a rubber doormat any color you'd like. Brilliant."

Yeah.... not so much....

I could have done a little spray painting rubber research to realize this wasn't going to work, but of course- I'm just someone who reads the pin and gets what she needs... some spray paint and a $12 doormat from Target.

I spray painted it, and it looked pretty damn good. I was excited.

[Don't mind the dirty of my front porch. It was a rainy day and I didn't feel like cleaning up the leftover dirt from the gross mat we used to have.]

It didn't take long before the pretty wore off, though. Turns out- you need a specific spray paint that's made for plastic for it to mold onto the rubber. The problem is: People on several websites said even that wore off of their rubber boots and other items, or was too sticky. For me, it just stuck to the shoes as we walked on it, and quickly came off.

It's not totally terrible if you're looking from far away, and maybe it'll still look cool if the top is black but the inside of the rubber is green... but I still need to deem this...

Just don't do it. I don't feel like I lost too much by trying it, but it's not even worth it. I'll have to update you as more days go by. Should we take bets on how long it'll keep any kind of pretty green?

Wompface.

love,

elizabethany

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pinspired: diy striped curtains

If you're a renter [like I will be for the rest of my life], it's hard to figure out the best way to make your house "yours." For me, I feel like it's impossible sometimes because I don't have the money to buy all new decorations and furniture to make a place really nice.

The house I'm in right now left us some drapes that were the most boring of boring, but when I looked online to buy nice ones, they were too expensive for my brain to handle. I found this pin of DIY striped curtains that were temporary and knew I needed to give them a try!

Yes, the stripes come off and no harm is done to the curtains I'm renting!

So, I gave it a whirl. I bought cheap, light, black fabric for $3/yard [had to get 6 yards] and the temporary fusible bond, cut the fabric into even strips, measured it out on the curtains, and started bonding!

As you probably know by now, I tend to take the easiest route with crafts, so mine aren't perfect. I also decided not to put ribbon on the edges of the stripes to cover up the cutting imperfections. I'm hoping no one will inspect them, but knowing me I'll point it out whenever someone comes over and I show off my latest project. I also didn't iron them out before hanging. I'll let the sun do that.

They really make a huge difference. I figured I'd like the added touch, but I think they bring a new feel to my whole living area! Here's a picture from the week we moved in and then today:

[I'm not showing the whole room because a- it's a mess and b- I wanna do a lot of revamping this month! Hopefully the official after picture will be awesome.]

Now it's time for some honesty: Doing these myself were totally not worth it. Besides the pride of finishing a project that I really like, nothing adds up. 

• It was far more expensive than buying curtains that I won't have to take apart when I move. I ended up spending around $50 thanks to a mess-up in measuring.
• It took a lot of time for such tedious tasks. 
• They're not perfect, nor are they *really* unique. I coulda gotten similar ones from ebay for $40.

If I were you, and you didn't have to salvage the original curtains, I would opt for getting some cheapies in any color at Walmart or wherever, then using tape and fabric paint to get your stripe on. Who knows... I might even try that technique for the master bedroom.

But for now... I'm going to try and forget about how much money I spent, be proud of my creation, and devise a way to steal these whenever I have to move out. 

love,

elizabethany

PS: This is the beginning of my Month of Pinspiration! I'd say it's a good start.

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