going to the gallery...

another project co-inspired by YHL, our friends that love custom personal art and of course Pinterest that i've been meaning to finish lately is to turn the long wall in our living room into a gallery wall that holds more than just photos.  i love to take pictures of our friends and family and i love to be surrounded by photos old and new (which i mentioned a few posts back) but sometimes the best memories are held in mementos from the trip and those often get tossed in a box or drawer.  in an effort to declutter and not hold onto every bit of paper or postcard purchased i've been working on ways to display those things.  the gallery way is a great rotating display of these places and things.

i started by purchasing prints from some of the artists i've been lusting after on etsy.  from inkofme i bought their teal & white world map made from the name of each country, from StudioSRV  a colorful doberman print looked just like my silly girl, ParadaCreations was gracious enough to make a custom i-heart-chicago print even though that city hadn't been added to her collection yet.   

of course i've been getting some pinspiration for things i wanted to DIY for months too, like the number print containing our important dates, a photo-strip of sorts i created from our new year's photo outtakes and i had postcards and a few odds and ends i wanted to include with some photos taken at our church's fall festival (which i still hadn't put in the frame before snapping this pic.)  i had also purchased a vintage-looking travel poster while i was in A2, the poster from a band we went to see and then stumbled along this beautiful and bright windmill print from Laura Amiss to round out the collection.

as for hanging all of the frames i first layed them out on some brown kraft paper to make an arrangement i liked, started by hanging the large vertical frame and moved my way left and right from there and using the LAR (looks about right) method to figure out where each nail should go.  if you're nervous about that method you can definitely handle YHL's method.  

its funny to me how the wall still looks so empty in photos even though the majority of the prints are 8x10s & 5x7s.

i do have a few small frames to find things to fill that i found in the dollar bin at michaels, which will most likely get filled with the smaller momentos from our daily life like bottle caps and cigar bands.  

the jhubs has recently fallen back in like with smoking cigars on cool summer nights and the band artwork is a special bonus, i'm amazed at the work that goes into such a small detail.  i'll be back with a project showing  the main way we're displaying our growing collection of bands and other small reminders of big fun!

it's so cool... and hot...

i'm normally not a fan of really techie upgrades, i generally think they're totally unnecessary and a waste of  money because they can't be that much better than what we already have but, i tolerate them because jhubs is a geek and it makes him happy when i get excited about his kind of toys.  but this time, i'm totally sold... it started last year before christmas when i stumbled across the nest learning thermostat, i watched the videos on their website because it seemed like something he would love, that i would poke a bit of fun at, and then we'd laugh and move on.  only this time, i was quickly sucked in by how cool it is which means that this "little joke" quickly stole my heart...

i know what you're thinking: seriously? why would a thermostat need to learn (and how can it be that much better that i've fallen for it)? normally, you just adjust them as needed or, better yet, get a programmable thermostat and tell it what time you want it to adjust and what to adjust to right? except that most thermostats don't know about daylight savings time and that jhubs gets up way before i do generally, my work schedule changes every week, we're sometimes gone for 10-12 hours at a time and, since we live in the midwest, the weather outside changes from warm to cold to rain to hot sometimes all in the same day so we generally come home to a house that's totally the wrong temperature.  besides those fun facts, i'm pretty cheap when it comes to paying utility bills, so cheap in fact that i won't turn the heat up past 65 in the house during the winter unless we're having people over, and even then those people are wearing sweat shirts or fleece jackets because they know we don't crank the heat. (best.friends.ever).

for me to stumble upon a thermostat that i don't have to program because it 'learns' what we're comfortable with just by the way we adjust it, we can check on the temp and adjust it from our phones or any computer, there's an app for that, and it saves energy with several cool features? SOLD!  even better, from what i understand, it's from the creator of the iphone (the guy, not apple co.) so it's got very clean lines, it's user friendly, is super easy to install, came with everything we needed to install it, and it downloads its own software upgrades so that we don't have to buy a new one every two years which means that it's a techie toy that keeps on giving!

have i over-explained it enough? i'm stupidly in love with a thermostat!!  here's some install pics, it was super simple, you can check out the full how-to video on their website.

cut the power then remove the thermostat front (we did this step backwards):

label the wires with the provided stickers:

disconnect the wires and remove the back plate:

make sure the inspector is watching all steps:

screw the back plate to the wall to cover old holes (we had a bunch, yikes), feed the wires through the new backplate:

make sure everything is level (yep, built in level!) before securing to the wall and then hook up the wires:

turn the power back on and follow the on-screen instructions:

connect it to your home wifi and enter your zipcode, preferences, etc:

then log-in to their site and set up your account so you can control it from anywhere:

during the account set-up process it detected the thermostat on our network, which made me a little giddy. easy technology that will save me money and playing with it just got the jhubs a little geeked out, i love it!!  plus, when we patch and paint the walls in the living room that back plate can be painted to match or be removed for a super sleek, we just stuck it there, kind of look.

btw, of course they didn't pay me to write this and i'm not getting (or expecting) any extra love from the nest people for loving their product, i'm sharing just to share! and yes, it's kind of pricey for this fairly simple upgrade so we did our research on the energy savings and made sure to check that our existing wiring was compatible for the thermostat before shelling out the cash., what can i say, i'm cheapskate that likes to shop!

lisa's bathroom

over a year ago my seester decided that she wanted to re-do her bathroom, wanted to give it an updated spring-y color scheme and start the process for giving her whole house a good freshening up.  it started with these towels from target and a supercute penguin trashcan.  based on these towels i removed what was left of the wallpaper border, painted the bottom half of the walls that great turquoise color, got a couple of cute rugs, a lime green toothbrush holder and replaced the broken mini-blinds with light and airy white curtains, super easy makeover, right? 

easy it was, until she mentioned that she wanted some new, better storage.  dun dun duh.... (enter creepy graveyard music here).  there was plenty of room for a fun cabinet and the wheeled plastic drawer bins just weren't cutting it. there was a lot of searching, lots of custom plans designed and, it seemed, lots more cost than she planned.  any idea why someone would think it perfectly okay to charge $500 for a simple wood box that we have to put together ourselves and then change the color of  (yes, we could have left the super-expensive one white but that's just plain silly since it would almost immediately get dusty or yellowed from excess moisture and three girls all sharing a bathroom)? me neither.

thanks to our habitat re-store, lisa didn't have to fork over anywhere near that amount of cash, this beauty was available for only $65!!!! it's actual wood, was in great condition, and just ugly enough that it had been waiting several months to come to the right place so the original $90 asking price was marked down. the only downside was that we really wanted some baskets and the current door layout wasn't working... what's a girl to do?

duh! flip it over and remove a door leaving the shelves available for baskets! maybe that part was obvious to ya'll but it took me a few extra minutes to figure it out, i originally was planning on filling and re-drilling the holes so that the handles could be a single glass knob in the center of the door, guess which option was cheaper and easier!  after that it was time to sand, prime and paint the cabinet.

as you can see in the next photo the cabinet got some nice additions along with a good coat of primer.  first, a top made from spare mdf and some feet made from 4x4 blocks that we had in the scrap pile made it look a whole lot less like a kitchen cabinet and a whole lot more like an actual piece of furniture.

i primed the interior white and the outside grey, i had most of the primer and the sandpaper already so this part was pretty close to free... fyi, i thought painting bright pink over grey would be much easier than over white because i had issues with the white bleeding through the pink on the doors, turns out, it was equally as difficult but with 3 coats it turned out the same color and i'd just suggest using whatever primer u have around.

i put the shelves back in that came with the cabinet (i did pick up new shelf supports though because the previous ones were super gross) using the baskets we purchased at pier1 as a guide for spacing (they were a perfect fit by very happy coincidence) and it was looking good 

i replaced the doors and was amazed at how different it looked but then immediately started to worry that it was a little too pink (not that lisa would think it was, she could have an entirely pink room and still want more pink).

once we had it in the room with the antique trays lisa bought it was perfect.

now all we have left to do in there is get some art for the wall above the cabinet and maybe replace some light fixtures... (and maybe a better photo, that's what i get for forgetting a camera)  i hope you like it!

i'm one crafty bennett...

here's a quick update. i've decided not to use my blog to complain or comment on the misfortune of others or anything that wouldn't inspire others, which means that FAF has come to an end and you probably won't hear about my uninspiring part-time retail job anymore. i may, at some point comment on a difficulty i'm having with a project but i promise not to whine and complain too much :) i'm thinking that i'll mainly show you (brag about) projects and tell you about fun things with the family, share pics, etc.

so, back to the title... i made these two awesome projects out of the majority of three old books (paperback books from my childhood that i have no interest in reading or saving to let my children read), two floral forms i got for $1 each and a decent amount of hot glue. the tree will look much better when grouped with many more trees all made of different materials, (i hope) i love love love this wreath and can't believe how easy it was to make. i would guess that it took around 2 hours but i'm really not sure because i did it while sitting on the sofa watching tv this afternoon.

anywho, i'm feeling craft and i'm hopingi can find a few more books to try a different technique on another wreath and maybe even find a few new tree ideas :) i'm so excited about holiday decorating (even though i'm still waiting for after thanksgiving to put up my trees)!

busy busy busy...

it has been the week of projects around the bennett house! with a few less hours at work this week and projects for other people on my schedule i figured it was time to get some of our projects done too! josh had his own list, mainly getting our fascia fixed so we can get new gutters. josh, pat and bruce (josh's dad) worked very hard this weekend, ripped off the gutters and fascia, replaced a lot of boards, new fascia and now we're ready for gutters!!!my projects included cleaning out and organizing our bedroom and bathroom closets and cabinets... my nail polish drawer was a wreck, i took out about 2/3 of the bottles of polish and put everything i ususally hunt everywhere for in the drawer
for anyone that knows me, you know that i love my shoes, the high heels, the low heels the tennis shoes and the sandals, all my favs! my poor husband on the other hand, is not a shoe person and, unfortunately for him, doesn't have enough pairs to necessitate that my shoes stay on my side of the closet, until today that is. i got two new shoe racks (adjustable and sturdy, thank you walmart!) and organized and (shockingly enough) even got rid of a few pairs, donation style. here's josh's side:

and even though my side starts just left of the middle as you can tell, and goes onto the floor under the rack, everything except barely worn work boots are in the closet and out of a pile
paige is very happy to model my shoes as we cleaned them out of the closet
i'll post more projects once they're finished, i'm off to clean off some shelves while watching agt (america's got talent)

owls owls everywhere...

i'm not sure who started this trend but i noticed it during the beginning of the year and it just keeps getting better. retro owls have been popping up all over the place and i think they make a great statement in small doses!

a cute coffee cozie from BurryGirlDesigns

an owl bank from Target Brooke bedding from Pottery Barn Kids

Owl pendant from Happy HavenWall decal from Holly on Etsy

there are so many more ways you can add adorable owls to your decor. Just remember that design trends like these owls should punctuate your room, not tell the whole story!

two projects...

house numbers now adorn my favorite pumpkin and i assembled what is probably the world's easiest (and cheapest) DIY centerpiece:

i already had the hurricane (and the kitty), the mini pumpkins were 3/$1 at the pumpkin patch and the leaves were free from my yard, such a saver i am! i have some other ideas for easy/cheap fall projects but in the mean time, what are your ideas for recessionary decor?

pumpkin project...

i really hate carving pumpkins, way too messy and they take way too long for the few days that they're viable as decoration, here's my new plan:i'll be painting our nouse numbers on that white pumpkin and put it on the porch with our newly monogrammed pumpkin, first though, they need some clear coat!