All together now

We're less than 6 weeks from our move, and the "man cave" and "lady's retreat" are starting to come together! We found a great little entertainment center at Bed Bath & Beyond for the man cave, but we're still looking for seating. We're torn between a futon and individual seats!

Our recent trip to Ikea with my dad produced a new worktable/desk for me (we had to throw out my old one), a rug, and a magazine rack:

 I also scored these cute little vases that I'm debating on.... I can't decide if I want them in my room because they'll catch the sun nicely, or in the kitchen because they're fun!

On a different note, how do you spend your "me" time? This is how I spend mine twice a week:

(I turn the radio up super loud and belt out the lyrics!)

Do It Yourself! (It's so much cheaper...)

I completed the first (of many) projects that I have in mind for our new place last night. I'm so proud of it! It was very easy, and it only cost me about $18, which includes the fact that I didn't already have brushes or a paint dish and paint. Here's what I started out with:


(Board, paint, and ribbon from Michael's; knobs from Home Depot)

I painted the top of the board first, then the sides. All parts got at least 2 coats to make sure that the paint didn't get soaked into the wood too much and distort the tone. Once it dried, I sprayed it with a clear coat, which only took about 30 minutes to dry to the touch. I used Gorilla Glue to attached the knobs and ribbons, which completed the look:



(I'll hang it by the ribbon with a dark nail)

I plan on hanging it in the bathroom at our new place, and I'll use it to organize all my necklaces. My necklaces currently hang on a coat/belt/scarf thing, and it drives my husband nuts. He's much happier with this solution :-) I'd like to carry the color theme all throughout the bathroom. I'm thinking that I'll use the same paint to do some diamond boards to hang above the toilet. Maybe in a polka dot or stripe pattern!

My next project will probably be a place to hang our keys. We've got a shelving unit from Ikea that I absolutely LOVE, and I'd like to use our initials above it. I'll probably paint the letters below, and either hang them above or arrange them on a shelf with hooks for the keys.

Craftaholic!

I am SO excited for our move to our new place because I'll get my craft/scrapbook/everything room. I can't wait to create something like this:

so that I can make a project board like this:

to keep track of ideas like this:

(Thank you to Pinterest and all of it's contributors for the ideas!)

A little bit of this, a little bit of that...

Hey, and welcome to my blog! In this blog I plan on sharing all the crafts I do, vacations, and random life events. It's really going to be a little bit of everything... I've tried blogging before, but I didn't follow through, and I think it was because I narrowed my postings down to too small of a range so I didn't have much to write about!

The first thing I want to share is something I'm incredibly excited about - the sunroom in the hubby and I's new apartment. We don't move in for another month and a half, but we've already starting planning for it. We'll have a small den and a sunroom, so we've already decided that the den will be his "man cave" and the sunroom will be my "retreat" (I'll post more about the man cave when we get more ideas for it). I haven't quite decided on the true theme of my retreat, but here's a few things I'd love to incorporate (thank you to Pinterest!)

So original, time saving, space saving, and easy to do!

These are 12" by 12" blocks covered with coordinating pieces of scrapbooking paper. Creative, classy, and stylish!

I'm so excited for my retreat! I want it to a place that I can go to and relax, be creative, and learn. If you've got ideas for me, please share them!