pinterest – Page 4 – emerald city diaries

my weekend in pictures.

{enjoyed a perrier andy warhol edition at dinner on friday night with aaron & my grandmother.}

{our goal for saturday was to clean up the front garden beds & fill up this yard waste bin. we were successful plus some & filled up another smaller bin as well!}

{sadie isn’t very good at yard work.}

{sadie & me waiting for aaron to get our CSA this week.}

{got my birch box for september!}

{picked up a few goodies for the fall from the u village.}

{sadie & i enjoyed catching up on some magazines saturday night while aaron was out seeing Tosh.}

{inspired by the feels-like-fall-weather this weekend & my love for anything pumpkin, i whipped up some pumpkin cream cheese using this recipe from pinterest.}

{watched manning vs. manning on sunday afternoon. #gobroncos #sorryeli}

{while running errands on sunday afternoon i swung by target to check out the phillip lim collaboration. picked up a few goodies & surprised by how much stock was in the store.}

{aaron joined me in my pumpkin obsession this weekend with some pumpkin hard cider.}

{aaron & sadie enjoying the seahawks vs. 49ers game. lots of cuddling helped the seahawks win despite the hour game delay for lightning.}

we had an awesome weekend with not much planned. we got a lot of much needed yardwork done in the front yard {though we haven’t touched the backyard – anyone free in the next few weekends?}. it definitely is starting to feel like fall here in seattle as we got rain and thunderstorms (unusual for the area) despite reaching the 80s earlier in the week. as much as i love summer, i love this time of year! how was your weekend?

diy baby shower gift: t-shirt hats.

when i found out my good friend kaleigh was pregnant – yay baby boone! – i knew i would make at least part of the baby shower gift like i did for amanda {swaddler} & kendra {appliqued onesies}. as much fun as the swaddler & onesies were, i also wanted to try something different.

i found a tutorial for these sweet baby hats on none other than pinterest & i knew i had found the perfect diy gift!

{original pinterest link: a trio of baby hats}

supplies:

fabric – i used three toddler tank tops from the Gap that i found on sale
thread
pattern
sewing machine

i don’t have step-by-step pictures, but it is really unnecessary because this is a simple project.

1. print out pattern and double-check the one-inch box is really one-inch. cut out patterns.

2. trace pattern onto fabric & cut.

3. pin pattern together.

4. sew.*

5. flip right-side out & tie a knot, if needed.

{adorable! they are so tiny though, it is hard to believe our heads were ever that small!}

*i had the worst time with my new sewing machine with this fabric – it wasn’t jersey, but t-shirt with a hint of stretch. i was trying to use my “serger” foot that would wrap the seam around the edge of the fabric, but i ended up using a simple, standard seam with my mom’s sewing machine.

i decided not to make the ear hat because i just adored the knotted hat so much that i needed to make two! we celebrated baby boone this weekend – aaron at the “dadachelor party” & me at the baby shower – in coeur d’ alene & had a wonderful time. congrats to kaleigh & nick!

do you make baby shower gifts or just buy off the registry?

diy his & hers maps.

one of the gifts i made for aaron’s birthday was a framed his & hers map set. i had vintage maps of indiana & idaho that i picked up when i was antique shopping with amanda a few months ago. i had seen a lot of things pinterest, like here, here, & here, but i came up with a little something different.

supplies:

cardstock to make heart & banners
scissors
colored cardstock for background
maps – vintage optional
ruler
gluestick
letter stamps or pen
pencil

first i cut out two 5 x 7 inch pieces to fit into my frames. then i cut out a heart that was just a 1/2 inch or so smaller on each side than the 5 inch width. {sidenote: i find that when cutting out hearts, it is easier to fold the paper in half & draw & cut one side of the heart out. this way you have a perfectly symmetrical heart. think elementary school.} i opened up my maps & found the towns that aaron & i are from on each – alexandria for aaron & meridian/eagle for me. then i centered the heart on the town, traced around it, & cut out the heart.

to make the little banners, i cut out two strips of white cardstock that were 3 inches by 3/4 inches. i stamped “him” & “her” on each strip {being the stamping novice that i am, i got some ink on the edge of the stamp that showed up. i thought it looked sort of vintage-y so i left it}. then i cut out little triangles on each end of the strip. i glued one heart on one background & the other heart on the other background, & then glued on the banners to each piece.

have you made anything with {vintage} maps?

a year in review {house diys}.

it is hard to believe but we have been in our house for a year – can you believe it? while it doesn’t seem like yesterday that we were moving & packing & unpacking, it definitely doesn’t feel like its been an entire year. {where does the time go?}

i thought since so much of this blog is devoted to the work we have put into the house, it would be fun to do a review of all of our house projects over the last year. {also, this is making up for the fact that i have been horrible about keeping the house tour tab up-to-date.}

here we go! {are you ready for lots of pictures?}

{entryway} – chalkboard paint

{living room & dining room} – paint color, curtains, west elm light

{bathroom} – paint color, Ikea light, vanity

{kitchen} – paint color (walls), painted cabinets, painted countertops, painted tile, kitchen island, roman curtain

{office}

{bedroom} – paint color, roman curtains, closet doors

phew! it is hard to believe we did all of that in just one year. we still have lots of things on the to do list, including some bigger projects that we are saving up for! reviewing all of these projects makes me thankful that we have such a fun house to work on & enjoy. it was scary to make the decision to buy a house last year {it felt so grown-up!} but we have loved every minute of it & learned so much.

what sorts of projects have you completed in your living space? do you ever go back & review all of your hard work?

old turned new {an update to our bathroom vanity}.

to start out, i want to give a HUGE shout-out to aaron, my dad, & our friend rhett for making this project work. it wouldn’t have come together so well without all of them, so thank you, thank you, thank you!

as most of you know, we have been itching to get a vanity of some kind into our bathroom since day one. the sink hanging from the wall was just not cutting it as it gave us approximately 2 inches of “counter space” on either side of the sink. given the age of our house, it felt wrong to just buy a brand-new vanity so we i decided we should find an antique piece to convert.

{my favorite bathroom pin via pinterest}

it took a few weeks to scour craigslist in search of the perfect antique piece. at first i searched for dressers, but then switched to sideboards when i decided i would rather have doors than drawers for storage. we were obviously limited in the space we had which was a bit of a challenge when searching for a sideboard, but i also wanted a good wood color as i planned on leaving the wood {& not painting}.

this isn’t really a diy post {even though it was diy’d} as the project was done based specifically on this antique piece & there wasn’t step-by-step photography taken. however, i can give you the general idea of what was done.

supplies:

antique hutch/sideboard/dresser – we found ours on craigslist
countertop with undermount sink {or sink to mount on top} – we found ours at lowe’s* {i can’t find it online, but the brand was allen+roth}
faucet – we found ours on overstock.com {it looks identical to this one from pottery barn}
wood glue, drill, scrap wood pieces, plumbing {p-trap, etc.}

*when we went shopping for countertops to fit over our 19 w x 47 l x 36 h sideboard we immediately assumed that in order to get a top that would have a one inch overhang on all three sides, we would have to custom order something. so we spent a lot of time with the good folks at both home depot & lowe’s pricing out different options for a countertop in everything from marble to granite to hi-mac {which is LG’s new composite product}. we were ready to pull the trigger & spend $700 on a custom white quartz countertop from lowe’s. we went over to price out/buy an undermount sink when we discovered a pre-made quartz countertop with an undermount sink that was one inch bigger than what we were looking for. it wasn’t pure white, but it was only $230! one guess on which one we chose…

before i get into pictures of the process, let’s take a look at the bathroom when we first bought the house.

a few months later, we added a few updates as seen here. the light fixture update here. and then we did the paint update on the bead board & walls.

we also did a fixture update, so here are the original fixtures in the bathroom. none of them were really awful but we didn’t really like any of them & took the opportunity to give them an update as well.

{double towel bar & tp holder // hand towel hooks & glass holder}

aaron started by un-attaching the plumbing & taking the sink off the wall {it was mounted by two all brackets}. then aaron & my dad moved the sideboard up into the space. originally we all thought there would need to be a hole cut to accommodate the undermount sink, but they found out that the top piece was easily removed.

next they placed the countertop onto to sideboard to determine how best to anchor the countertop to the sideboard & the sideboard to the wall, as well as how to stabilize the sideboard in the back.

once the sideboard & countertop were completed {which took an entire weekend!} it was time to re-work the front drawers to accommodate the undermount sink. aaron & my dad took apart one-half of the drawer & rebuilt the inside edge to basically go around the sink. we ended up losing only one-third of the drawer space! {sidenote: we don’t have pictures of the drawers & will update soon!}

& the reveal of our new bathroom vanity! the other bathroom fixtures {tp holder, towel hooks, hand towel ring} are all from the pottery barn mercer collection.

isn’t it lovely? i am still amazed that they were able to take the basic idea of converting an antique piece & coming up with this!

it is big, well huge considering what we started with, & for some may seem too big. it is also tall standing at 37 inches. {we could have done shorter by chopping off the legs, but we wanted to be able to clean under the piece, & perhaps add storage baskets. also, my mom & dad’s house has tall counters in all of the bathrooms so that is what i grew up with.} despite the large contrast in size from before to after, we are really happy with the piece, the counterspace, & the storage. it is exactly what we wanted.

we are loving the color of the piece & are so glad we didn’t/don’t have to paint it. the richness of the wood is great in contrast to the bright white of the counter & bead board as well as the dark wall color – don’t you think? it just needs a little oil, some storage organizers underneath & we are good to go. {sidenote: we plan on also updating the toilet & bath to be white, but are still saving up! also we plan on taking out the old medicine cabinet & replacing it with a big mirror. we are undecided on the glass shelves.}

what do you think about converting antiques into bathroom vanities {or kitchen islands or entertainment centers}?

diy framed key.

i mentioned in my weekend update that amanda & i had a crafternoon on sunday. we decided to make a simple project, but it was fun & i am super happy with the result. this is a project you could do with just one key {like i did with our first house key – yep, just the one house} or with multiple keys {like amanda did with keys from both her first & current house}.

{original pinterest link here}

supplies:

frame – i got mine at michaels & painted it a champagne gold
house key – i painted mine with acrylic paint
map of where you live, text page, scrapbook page, or some kind of background
glue or adhesive

the how-to is pretty self-explanatory, but here you go:

1. paint frame & key.

2. cut out map – i off-centered where we live so that the key was in the middle of the frame & our house is to the right of it a bit. i also got lucky & captured our neighborhood name – ravenna – in the bottom right corner.

3. glue map to cardboard backing {the one that comes with the frame}.

4. glue key to map.

5. close up the frame.

do you keep all of your old house keys? {i sorta wish i had so i could do something a la YHL} have you ever thought of painting them & framing them?

diy painted antler.

i have been seeing a few painted antlers on pinterest & i thought they were cool looking. it just so happens that my brother has a massive collection of antlers & acted as my source while we were home at christmastime. armed with two antlers {spoiler alert: i have only painted one so far} i have spent the past few months figuring out how to paint an antler. this project didn’t take me that long in total, but i spread it out over the course of almost three months due to life, i guess. also, it turns out it isn’t too hard to paint an antler.

{original pinterest link – source unknown}

supplies:

antler – i am sure you could find some on etsy or perhaps a craft fair
primer – i used bonding primer
small paintbrush
frog tape or painter’s tape
acrylic craft paint – if you want to do gold or silver, make sure the label says “metallic” so it’s super shiny
glossy protective finish – i used Minwax {pictured below} which i also used here

i started out by taping off the end of the antler and each tine as i knew i wanted these pieces to remain unpainted. in order to get a straight line, you will have to create the line with tape {if you just put a single piece of tape around any part of the antler, there will be a small v where the ends meet}. also, you will need to firmly press the tape edges to the antler to ensure you get a clean line.

you wouldn’t need to tape at first if you want the entire antler painted, or you could add more tape {like stripes}. then i primed the antler with one coat of bonding primer. {side note: as this was my first painted antler attempt, i am not sure whether regular primer would work. i typically use bonding primer on all of my projects that aren’t drywall because it generally sticks to everything.}

after the primer was dry, i started painting. you won’t need to tape off again with the first color. also, i painted from the outside of ends of the antler in {if this doesn’t make sense, you can see it from the rest of the pictures}. i started with gold & painted four coats to ensure it was a nice solid color. four coats sounds like a lot, but the areas are small so you don’t use much paint and the in-between dry time is about an hour.

i let the fourth coat of gold dry for 24 hours before i started with the next color as it required me to tape over the gold to make a clean edge. then i painted four coats of my next color – light blue.

i left the fourth coat of light blue dry before taping over it to add the last color –navy blue {not pictured}.

after my final color was on & the antler was fully painted the way i wanted it, i painted on three thin coats of minwax polycrylic which gave the antler a high gloss finish.

i am thrilled with the finished result! this is a really fun piece that is really unique – definitely a conversation piece. {though i am a bit sad that i can’t showcase my new painted antler on the coffee table as it is still an antler & sadie thinks the ends are a tasty treat.}

what do you think of painted antlers? have you been taping & painting anything interesting lately?

valentine’s day diy: sparks card & date night jar.

to wrap up my valentine’s day diy {just two days away, eek!}, i have two small projects to share.

first up is a card which is loosely based off of a card i have seen before in stores.

supplies:

short matchstick
cardstock or blank card
thin wire
marker or pen – i love the thin sharpies
construction paper/paper/envelope
washi tape – optional

i cut out a folding card from plain white cardstock. i put the fold on the top edge, but you could put it on the side edge too. then i laid down the matchstick where i wanted it on the card – a bit off-centered – & punched two tiny holes on both sides of the matchstick. then i thread a short piece of wire thru the holes, looping around the matchstick, & putting the ends thru the back of the card. i twisted the wire to secure the matchstick.

then i wrote out “sparks fly” on the outside of the card, & “when we’re together” in the inside. simple as that.

the last project i have to share is a fun valentine’s gift for aaron – a date night jar. we have been talking about the fact that two-and-a-half years into marriage that we don’t go on dates really anymore. at least not like we used to. so, i thought it would be fun to compile some ideas so that when we find ourselves looking for something fun to do, we could skip past the brainstorming & move right to the date!

there are lots of “date night jars” on pinterest so definitely search there if you want some more versions of this idea.

supplies:

short glass jar – i used a mason jar
fat popsicle sticks
acrylic paint – i used festive red & pink
sharpie or marker
felt
twine or string

i started out by brainstorming & writing out all of my date ideas. i tried to make half of them free dates & half of them pay dates. i was with some girlfriends during this process which helped the idea-flowing tremendously, but i tried to think of all of those things that we always say we want to do or only do when out-of-town guests are visiting. then i painted the ends of the sticks {both sides} – red signifying the pay dates & pink the free ones.

then i put all of the sticks in the jar, painted side up. i traced a heart out of felt & tied it onto the jar with some string.

it’s not too late to whip up a fun something for your valentine! do you craft or buy for valentine’s day?

valentine’s day diy: xo wreath.

less than a week until the big day! this second project {see my diy heart elbow patches here} is super festive & even if i don’t get to see it inside the house, it is fun to be greeted with when we get home from work.

{original pinterest link – valentine’s day decor}

there wasn’t a tutorial for this pinterest project as the original link leads back to an etsy shop. at first i considered just buying this wreath {like i ended up doing with this year’s christmas wreath} but for a $90 price tag, i figured i could give it a try myself.

supplies:

round wreath – i used a grapevine wreath
two straight bundles– i used a grapevine wreath {these are in the same section as wreaths at michael’s}
wide ribbon – i used white wired ribbon
faux berries – i found 6 foot garlands of pink & white {if you wanted red berries, you may want to get some right after christmas on sale}
hot glue gun & glue sticks
garden hand clippers & hedge lopper {for the bigger branches}
scissors

i didn’t need to do anything with the “o” wreath to prep it, so i just set it aside to work on the “x” wreath. the two long bundles were already bound together in the middle, so i just placed them in an x & secured it with very thin wire. once the x was made, i set it on top of the o to determine how much i would have to cut the ends down.

i started trimming the thin pieces with hand garden clippers, but had to break out the hedge loppers to get the big pieces cut. i tried to make the ends pretty even, but didn’t want them to be perfectly straight.

to attach the x & o together {so the x would hang above the o}, i used invisible cord that we have to hang pictures from the picture rail. we strung cord on the backside of the x thru the wire used to hold the x together & looped it to thru a small metal ring on the o wreath that was used to attach the price tag {sorry the picture below is so bad, the camera had trouble focusing on the cord}. we left just enough space between the wreaths for them to hang without hitting each other.

adding the berries was a bit more messy & different that i had anticipated, but in the end it worked out. because i couldn’t find branches that already had berries attached, i had to buy the branches & add the berries myself. i was able to find 6 foot garlands of berries with ivy at michael’s on sale for 60% off {honestly, if these were full price, i wouldn’t have likely used them}. though both of these garlands had a main color – pink & white – they also had green berries sprinkled in which added a bit of spring-y-ness to them. {also, these are foam berries which probably aren’t supposed to be used outside, but our front door is pretty protected from moisture.}

i basically dismantled these garlands, ripping off the floral tape that was holding the berry bunches & ivy leaves together. once i had just the berry bunch i wanted, i trimmed the wire end down & stuck it into the wreath. once i had arranged the bunches on the wreath {all facing the same way even around the o wreath}, i hot glued them down. i did the x in pink & then the o in white.

to add the hanging ribbon, i looped the ribbon thru the wire holding the x together {you can see the invisible cord attaching the wreaths together there} & then tied the ends in a bow at the top.

do you have any outdoor valentine’s day decorations like a front-door wreath?

valentine’s day diy: heart elbow patches.

valentine’s day holds a special place in my heart for obvious reasons {pun intended & it is my birthday}. i thought it would be fun & festive to share a few valentine’s day diy projects over the next two weeks, well 11 days.

this first project is something that i have been wanting to do for a few years. i had an old j.crew hoodie {my fav} that i literally wore the elbows thru {sad story, i know}. i wanted to put patches on the elbows but it has taken me a while to figure out what i wanted. in thinking about valentine’s day, i figured it would be fun to put heart patches on the elbows. worst case, i could take them off & try something different!

supplies:

sweater/sweatshirt/shirt with worn-out elbows {or not, the patches could be decorative}
red felt
red thread
scissors
paper or cardstock {for stencil}

i started by cutting out a heart-shaped stencil from cardstock. to keep the shape consistent on both sides, i folded the cardstock in half & drew out just one side. also, it is important for an elbow patch to bigger than the hole; this sounds obvious but the first heart stencil i cut wasn’t quite big enough. fail. after i made a stencil that was the right shape & size, i cut two hearts out of felt.

then, i pinned & sewed the hearts over the holes. the holes were a bit off center on the sleeve, so in order to avoid putting huge heart patches on the elbows {i thought that may be a bit much}, my patches are off-center.

happy elbows!

have you patched anything with hearts?