DIY- Living Room Pouf

I have several art teacher-type friends and we do our best to get together every month and create or experience creativity. This month, we spent a Saturday working on whatever project we had going and sharing some projects with each other. For example, my friend one friend taught us how to do photo transfers onto tile to make some super cool coasters. (I did a Star Wars themed set for my husband!)

My teacher friends and one husband who tagged along :)

The project I brought to teach everyone was a little sewing, following this pattern HERE for a DIY floor pouf. I was very apprehensive to teach people how to make one, since I hadn't made my own yet, but the directions provided on the tutorial were easy and simple and it went great. I would say the only hang up for me was installing the zipper. I wasn't clear on the directions, so I ended up doing it how I thought it made sense and it worked out okay! I'm so excited with the way ti turned out, I plan on making another one for the office as soon as I can find the right material. Check out the pictures below and follow the link to make your own!

All the separate pieces I cut out!

The zipper that gave me a run for my money.

Finished floor pouf, so cute!

DIY- Above the Kitchen Cabinets

We've been in this house for several months now, and the kitchen will never be my favorite room. I like how big it is and the sunshine it gets, but the floor, counters and cabinets are not my favorite and since it's a rental, I can't change those things.

But what I can change, is how it's styled. One nice thing is that the cabinets have a bunch of space above them and I really wanted to use that to bring some decor into the kitchen. 

You can see I was already beginning to place items, but I wasn't pumped about the way it looked, so I decided to add some baskets, which are inexpensive but versatile. So I 'borrowed' a bunch from my mom and spray painted them white. I also snagged an old metal bird cage and painted that as well. Lastly, I wanted to make a sign that I seen while surfing Pinterest. I used some thin wood pieces that I had from backing other paintings, I measure out and traced the letters and images that I wanted. Then I painted the letters white and mixed up a nice light blue to paint the background. 

So here is the final cabinet decor... I still wish the cabinets themselves where different, but at least they have something going on now!

DIY- New Home Makeover!

So we moved into a house! Woohoo! And the unpacking/decorating has gone slowly. However, I think a couple of rooms are ready for before and after pictures. Not to say they're completely done, but they are looking more or less how I'd like them. First of all, I apologize for the before pictures, my husband took them with a phone when we were signing the final papers, so they might be a touch blurry.

Here's the front of our cute little red-doored house!

This is the main floor living room with me!

And after....

Now for the main bedroom before...

And after...

This dresser has it's own before picture as well!

Last room to share, pardon the picture-heavy post! The downstairs family room before...

And after...

Thank you for taking a look see! Hopefully the bathroom, kitchen and office will be ready for viewing soon!

DIY- Around the House and Classroom

In an effort to decorate my new house and new classroom, I have been scouring Pinterest and the inter-webs for ideas. The two places in my house I wanted to hang things and decorate were the open wall in our living room (chocolate brown and blues for the living room color scheme) and the wall along our stairway to the upstairs (which I decided to use black and silver with green accents).

My husband and I are huge Dr. Who fans so we have a lot of The Doctor paraphernalia that we wanted to hang up, (including a huge painting of the Tardis on canvas DIY by me!) which went perfectly with the blues in the living room! We also hung a couple pieces of artwork that we had received at our wedding. After I had hung all this up, there was a small area that I wasn't happy was empty. So I quick painted up a bluish, grey image with a plane landing. My husband is a pilot and all so I knew he's be on board with the plane motif. Here's what our finished living room wall display looks like:

The stairway was another story. I had quite the struggle deciding what to hang and I really wanted to go in a lot of different directions. Finally I had to sit myself down and edit. The main piece in this collage of frames was the guest book from our wedding. I loved the black and silver and so decided to carry on that scheme. I came up with some DIY Rorschach prints in green frames that I had lying around. I also used foam core and metallic spray paint to create DIY monogram letters. Then we had a canvas print of us on our wedding day that our photographer gave us. Luckily, there was a very strong green vibe to the print in the form of a healthy vine. Lastly, I added our personalized doorknocker (also a gift) that we can not currently put on our door, but that looks great on the wall! Here is our finished stairway wall decor:

And not to neglect my classroom! I have a ton of windows, but unfortunately I cannot enjoy the natural light and sunshine that we are now starting to see a little of! Why is this you ask? Because my windows all face the playground. There are always classes outside for recess or whatnot and students that I have in class are completely distracted. So the other day I unearthed some psychedelic fabric that I convinced my mom to buy me in high school and I thought, this will make great curtains!

All I did was hem and top stitch around the side and then bring the top edge down 5 inches and sewed and the very end of the sheet to create a tube to slide the rod through.

Thankfully, my PTO is covering the costs of the rods! I used inexpensive white tension rods which can be found at Target for under $5.00. Now the curtains cover the students view of the outside, but I can pull the blinds all the way up to the top and let in the light nearer to the ceiling and no one is distracted! Check them out!