A lion and lucite...

Good morning.

The weekend was pretty good to me.

My store was crazy busy, which is always a great thing.

We made cookies, they were delish....may have eaten A LOT!

Now it is Monday.

And so our week begins.

Lets start it off with a tale of a pair of lions.

I found these two thrifting awhile back and knew I wanted to use them in something chic.

Not sure what their original purpose was, but I had plans!

And when I saw that my lucite rods fit perfectly into their mouths I knew they were a match made in heaven.

I bought my rods right from a sign making company in town...you know the ones that do graphics and signs for commercial biz.

I also found some on ebay.

To transform these beasts in to the new rod holders I picked up a few supplies.

I could only get the rod in 5ft lengths and my window required 10ft so a little piecing was required.

I drilled a small hole into the center of both rods and inserted a 1/4 inch acrylic rod with liquid nails to dry overnight.

I also picked up a wooden rod brace for the center and two wooded furniture legs to be my finial caps at the end of each side.

A little gold spray paint and the wooden pieces were good to go.

The hubster and I teamed up and got the lions into position.

After inserting the lucite into their mouths I glued the caps to each end.

Voila.

Pretty chic huh?

I still have plans to paint the inside of my bookcase probably one of Anne Sloans Chalk Paints.

Booo there is never enough time.

Some more art will be nice too???

Well there you have it.

Make sure to pin it.

A thousand thank yous and some ombre'....

I can't say thank you enough to all the sweet comments and support you all have shown me after yesturdays post. I am so thrilled to know how many of you loved the room design and how many of you let me know it!

Many kisses!

As promised here is the tutorial for those lovely ombre' drapes that flanked the windows of my National Paint Week reno!

DIY 

Ombre’ Drape Panels

Supplies:

2-3 bottles of Rit Dye 

Straight pins

A tension rod

2 Drape panels in white or cream

Step #1

Lay the drapes out and decide how high you want the ombre’ to be. I did about 3/4 of my drape.

Place a pin on both sides to that height.

Step #2

Fill a tub or a large container about a foot deep with HOT water and pour in your Rit dye.

It looks like a mess!

Fill slow to avoid splashing!

Step #3

Before placing drapes in the dye get them wet up to about 2 inches from your pins. Wring them out so they are only slightly damp. This helps the dye to cover evenly.

If you are using your tub put panels onto the tension rod and place over the tub. 

Place rod at the appropriate height for the panels to be submerged FULLY up to the pins. Keep them at equal heights.

Make sure all the panel below the pins are covered in the dye. 

Be careful not to splash or drip it will stain the top part of your panels.

Use a wooded spoon or a spatula to move the panels in the dye if you need to get other parts covered.

Leave in the dye for about 45min. The dry part of your panels will start to pull up some of the color making an ombre’ effect.

Step #4

This is the most time consuming and difficult part.

***RINSE***

Drain your tub and start filling it again with cool water, rinsing out your drapes.

Again try to avoid splashing, you can still dye the light part of your drapes.

Continue this process until the water runs clear.

Can take many many time!

In the end your drapes will look like this....

 images by Sara Ursula Photography

Happy Ombre’ Everyone!

Big news....very big news

I can't even begin to tell you how excited I am for this day!

It feels like it's been a long time coming but the fun has finally begun.

By now I am sure you've heard that it's National Paint Week hosted by the ever so colorful Sherwin Williams.

I am thrilled to tell you that yours truly is part of this stellar line up of bloggers.

The week is half over but the best is yet to come....

The color I was assigned was brown....at first I was a little bummed.

Living here in Cedar City Utah, brown, beige and travertine seem to be the most used colors in home building and are usually top of my avoid list.

But as a designer we are often being pushed and challenged. It's up to you to be creative and decide how to make "brown" unique and represent your style.

I must say I am pretty happy with how my project turned out.

I was lucky enough to have a client who was sweet enough to trust me and hand over the reins.

Our whole budget for the master bedroom was $700, pretty tight but it forces the creative juices.

The before:

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

My plan of attack was to construct a head board that went floor to ceiling to really maximize the ceiling height. Plus the room could use a focal point.

Good thing my Mr. is so handy I put him right to work building this bad boy out of two pieces of smooth 8ft MDF board. 

After the beast was hung I filled the seam with some wood fill and sanded off the excess.

The whole thing was given 2 coats of the Sherwin Williams Virtual Taupe.

I tried out the new Cashmere line....pretty impressive!

Butter smooth and covers like a champ.

After it dried for a couple days I taped out my design using a 2.5 inch blue tape.

And covered the whole thing again in Sherwin Williams  Well-Bred Brown.

I wasted no time peeling the tape after 2 coats....revealing a super rad greek keyish sorta design.

Adding a couple sconces from Ikea the whole thing came in at a whopping $150.

Styling the bed was easy with the Zgallery duvet that I scored on clearance...woot woot.

Like I said we were on a waist squeezing budget!

To make my head board pop I painted the whole room in SW Minted.

Which I am absolutely gaga for...so if you know anyone else who needs a room with this color email me we'll talk!

I can eDesign one for you too...just saying.

{I will fill you in on the ombre' drape DIY tomorrow, and the chromed stumps too}

all photography by Sara

Alright you lovely readers, what say you?

Don't you just adore how fresh and bright it is?

The perfect amount of clean lines and vintage finds.

I hope you're all crazy in love with this design and pin the crap out of it!

Next up tomorrow morning is the fabulous Jenny Komenda from The Little Green Notebook.

I am first time to disneyland excited to see what she has up her creative sleeve.

In case you missed any of the goodness from the days before here is a link to each one of the other bloggers:

Monday: Cassandra LaValle

Tuesday: Emily Henderson

Wednesday: Brick House

If you love it here be sure to follow I would love to see you again.
Oh and I did a video too.....you can't get enough of me huh?

Kisses.

PS....All the beautiful images are by my amazing friend Sara Ursua Photography

check her site here.

Thanks my dear xoxo

A Peek of Noir and an Original Piece....

Sorry my post is late this morning but by the time I got my art hung last night it was to dark to take good pictures.

I thought this morning would be better but it's overcast and not doing much more for the light situation.

Alas it's just to good not to share anyway...

My commissioned art piece from Jenny Andrews arrived yesterday.

And lets just say I was a crazy woman unwrapping her form the box!

Its been a long wait but I am over the moon about her.

I still have a little zushing to do...maybe paint the sconces gold???

Should I add paper or a different color inside the niche?

 She is just what I had hoped for, even more!

If you are looking to have a piece done, Jenny is a doll to work with.  Pop over here to talk to her about one.

Thanks Jenny!

xxx.

And moving onto my new glossy black doors.

I have been planning to paint these for weeks but never had a moment.

Yesterday was it so I busted out the Tricorn Black by Sherwin Williams...glossy of course.

And went to work.

I think I did a pretty good job.

Dinning room is next on the house update.

I have some awesome plans...think Kelly Wearstler.

A grown~up Easter.....

Morning Love~Cats...it's Friday!

One of my many side jobs is a contributor for a local online magazine named

AliveUtah.

It's a fun opportunity to share design related information with my local peeps.

This month they asked me to do a DIY...not my usual thing but I thought it would be fun and challenging. 

Then I found out it was an Easter Basket....even worse.

They are so outdated and boring right?

I decided that I would take everything I hated about your typical basket and do a fresh modern take.

Here is what I cam up with......  

Grown~Up Easter Basket

DIY

Photo by Karynn Jorgensen, Bloomshoot Photography

We all remember the Easter baskets with shiny pastel colored grasses, and cheap colored eggs.

Those days are far behind us.

Pinterest has given us some lovely current ideas for updating our Easter decor.

In true {re}cycled style I am about to show you some great ideas for bringing yours more current.

Step 1:

Pull out that dusty old basket

Fill it with blocks of floral foam.

Keep them tight so you don’t have any shifting.

Be creative with the heights to make it a more realistic feel in the end.

The foam is very moldable so just push it into the shape you want.

Step 2

Cover with a sheet of moss.

Available at any craft store.

Start working the ends in to the basket and attaching with hot glue.

Cut off the excess as you work around the basket.

Step 3

Use different colors and textures of moss to add depth and detail to the basket.

Photo by Karynn Jorgensen, Bloomshoot Photography

Add in grasses and natural elements.

Just start gluing.

I found these hand crafted Easter Eggs on Etsy.com

The shop is named Vintage AnteUps.

Dodi makes beautiful vintage embellished decor that added the perfect touch to the basket.

Photo by Karynn Jorgensen, Bloomshoot Photography

Using an all green palette helped to create a more current Easter design.

photo by Karynn Jorgensen, Bloomshoot Photography

Think more about textures and details when creating your own version.

But don’t forget to check out Dodi’s shop to add the beautiful eggs to use for your grown up basket.

Tell her we sent you.....

http://www.etsy.com/shop/VintageAnteUps

Happy Crafting,

Amanda

Another Birthday Weekend....done.

Monday...isn't so!

Gahhh but here we are again, I could use a day of pure rest.

It was a birthday party central{again} for us. A group of seven year olds crashed my house for a mission impossible spy day.

Loads of fun, but I could really use a private island and a pina colada.

Also someone to clean my house.....

Here's how the party went down.

 The package was delivered safely home with the help of devoted marksmen.

Way to go team!

The details.......

I am pretty sure these boys had a great time becoming secret agents and all of them passed with flying colors.

Happy 7th Birthday Grey!

We love you!