Bedroom Progress

In the last couple weeks, we've made some pretty good progress in the bedroom...!!! Wait....that doesn't sound right, I mean... I've made some progress in DECORATING the bedroom, yeah... So, here's what we started out with...
After some major indecisiveness with the paint color (read more here)...I started to make some progress. I had posted this picture on my favorite blogs (younghouselove)'s facebook page for suggestions...in which I got "stain the bed dark", "find a taller night stand", "keep the yellow color on the walls" (which was actually a tan color) & "get rid of the shrimpy bookcase on the other side of the bed" (which I agree was a TOTAL eyesore!).
So... I got rid of the bookcase, created a taller nightstand (read more here) painted the walls, raised the curtain rod and replaced the curtains.
There is still some more work to do, I would like to get a new bed, contemplating a dark cherry like color, or an upholstered bed (not just a headboard, because we have a spoiled dog that won't sleep at the end of the bed without a foot-board! ha!) But that will take some time!

Picking Gray

"It's not hard to pick a paint color! Just pick one you like and paint!" That's a quote that would come from my no-decorating sense husband! However, picking a paint color for our bedroom seemed daunting and impossible to me.... First I wanted blue, then green, then gray... Well, then I wanted a gray with no purple undertones... so the search began...

Overwhelming you say? Nahhhh!!! I told Kevin to pick out the ones he didn't just HATE, and that narrowed the pot from 200+ grays to about 15!

Then after seeing the colors in every light for a few days, we narrowed it to 10... See how these all look blue? Yeah.... So, I re-evaluated and ended up with guess what? NONE of these! And of course, I didn't take a picture of the one we actually ended up with, but it's called Bay Sands by Valspar...it's suppose to have tan undertones, but in our room it definitely looks like it's got blue undertones, either way, I love it!

$5 bedside table

After being inspired by Katie Bower over at Bower Power, I decided to make the trek to the local Goodwill to see what I could come up with.... Well, that was an interesting task! The furniture at our Goodwill was OUTRAGEOUSLY priced for second-hand stuff! Therefore, I got discouraged and didn't search anymore for a few weeks. Until I had a bright idea to just peek in the Salvation Army down the street from my office... I found a doozie! The table said $10, when I got to the register she said "Okay, that will be $5!" 50% off at Salvation Army? Scccchhhhweeeetttt!!!! So...

Here is what I ended up with (it only had a FEW mouse droppings and only about 2 inches of dust caked on!)Then, after a good thick layer of Lysol (really good for the wood I am sure!!!) a REALLY GOOD cleaning, 2 coats of this awesome primer, and a coat of Valspar white paint... Here's what I got:

It was originally for Kevin's side of the bed, until I realized how tall it was (and how SHORT my current nightstand had been)...Needless to say it is peacefully and happily resting on the right side of the bed.... MY side of the bed! Yes, I know... I MUST do something with those stray cords!

Madelyn

Just wanted to share a few pictures I took of my soon-to-be Sister-in-Law's niece that I took on our trip to Michigan... She is the cutest thing!
And here... Look at those beautiful blues!!!
She has the cutest, chubbiest cheeks... such a sweet profile

Glass Etching

A few weeks before Christmas I saw a blog post on Kevin & Amanda about Glass Etching with her Silhouette machine. Well, I don't have one of those, however I DO have a Cricut... so I thought surely there was a way to do it with that too. I looked up a video on YouTube, and found a great tutorial for glass etching with your Cricut here.
So, I thought for Christmas gifts for my Church friends I would try this out. We are ALWAYS having to take a dish to SOMETHING, and you'll never have to guess at who's is who's when you make customized dishes! Also, when you go to a function where your not sure who made what, you can look at the name on the side and decide if you want to eat from their dish or not! ;)
Here's the process:
1) First, you have to make sure you measure how big the space is your going to put the etching on, then cut your vinyl just like you would any other vinyl project on your Cricut:
2) The youtube Tutorial tells you to use transfer adhesive... However, I just use masking tape (a trick I learned when I worked at a sign-shop in College) and it works just as well and is MUCH cheaper! Make sure to get as many of the air bubbles out at possible. (Also, cut off the excess tape that is not covering the vinyl: something I did NOT due on this one)3) Next, slowly peal the masking tape away from the vinyl, the vinyl should be left sticking on the dish. IMPORTANT TIP: Get EVERY air bubble out that you can... especially between the letters... if you don't, your etching creme will seep underneath the vinyl while it's drying and you will get a not-so-desired look! I would also suggest leaving a little more vinyl on the ends than I did on this one.

4) I used the Glass Etching creme found in the Craft isle of Hobby Lobby... and one of those cheap foam brushes you get 3 for like $1



5) Cover the vinyl carefully with the creme (just slather it on there real thick... at this stage it does NOT have to look nice!) Leave it sit at least anywhere from 10-15 minutes (you may have to hold it to get it to sit upright so the creme doesn't run down)


6) CAREFULLY wipe off the creme, make sure you don't let the etching creme move outside of the vinyl or you will be etching where you don't want to be!


That's it! How easy is that??? You'll never have to eat a strangers food again!