the day i told landon i'd love a simple, clutter-free home.

...but alas, I'm a piler. 

Maybe someday?

xoxo.

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a diy i never shared [easy reupholstered chairs].

 I just realized last night that I never posted this DIY project I did back in August. We bought these two chairs at a garage sale for $5, and they were a rusty, dusty mess!

 With some steel wool, spray paint and new chair pads and covers, they went from this ^

to this...

These photos were taken before we had very much furniture in our living room, which seems like so long ago! I used fabric from IKEA for the chair covers. The pillow on the chair is from my DIY Napkin Pillow Cover post.

So there you have it! A fun and easy DIY that cost less than $25. Now go find yourself some garage sale chairs!

xoxo.

P.S. I also have to give my mom the credit for sewing the chair covers for me. Thanks, Mom!

new bedroom layout + diy artwork

Hey hey, happy Wednesday! Over the weekend, Landon and I rearranged our room, and I love how it turned out.  Our bed has been at an angle across one of the corners of the room, but it was taking up a lot of space, and since we don't have a headboard, not having a wall to lean against when we're reading wasn't really the best. We moved it to be centered under a window, and I like it much better. I bought some cardboard letters for half-off at Hobby Lobby a few months ago to make the "BRIGHT" sign, and covered them with some striped fabric (using Mod Podge) that I had from IKEA. Easy peasy!

I also took two of our dining room chairs and turned them into nightstands, since we don't have any. Add our new $12 Target lamps (on sale this week, score!) and a stack of books, and voila! 

(I have a great little stack of books that I'm reading right now...The Lost Art of Real Cooking, The Help and Start With Why)

Now to the really fun part: my mom gave me the most thoughtful gift for Christmas. Using newspaper, she cut out little symbols of our beloved Portland and framed them...

I cried when I opened them, she knows me so well!

Aren't they cool?

So, with the new layout and new look for our bedroom, I'm thinking I'll hang the pictures to the right of the window. What do you think?

xoxo.

P.S. A very happy birthday to my wonderful sister Jen! Love you Junie!

Jen and I at our brother's wedding, 2009

hit the sack [literally].

 Is this not the most perfect bedding you've ever seen? If I owned a twin bed, it would be mine. Who wouldn't want to sleep in a a beautiful, white flour sack? 

xoxo.

diy monday: o christmas tree.

 So, remember all those great Christmas tree alternatives I posted a few weeks ago? Well, I ended up not doing any of them. My plan was to make the newspaper tree last weekend, but I ended up not having time. This weekend rolled around, and when I realized that we leave for Portland in 10 days, it just didn't seem worth the time, money and effort for a week and a half. So, I improvised. I took down the holiday garland that was gracing our chalkboard and made a tree out of it...

 It's neither green or shiny, but it will do for us. You'll notice there are just a few presents under the tree at this point. Translation: Landon has done all of his Christmas shopping for me and I've just barely started on his! We're planning to have our own little Christmas morning next weekend and have breakfast and open presents, since we don't want to cart our presents for each other to Portland.

 I found these gorgeous, glittery snowflake ornaments at my favorite antique/home decor store here in Abilene for less than $3 each. I used one as the star on our tree.

 The other two snowflake ornaments found their way to the chalkboard...

So, while I nixed the newspaper tree, I still get to cross of #11 on my 12x2012 list: Come up with an inexpensive, but festive Christmas tree alternative.

Have you found any thrifty and creative ways to celebrate the season? If so, I'd love to hear.

xoxo.

diy monday: holiday garland.

I didn't waste any time adding some Christmas spirit to our house this weekend. We weren't able to bring any Christmas decorations with us to Texas, so I'm improvising. I remembered yesterday that I had this fun two-sided Christmas cardstock that my grandparents gave me a few years ago, perfect for making a festive garland. I've included a tutorial in today's post in case you want to make your own!

1. Gather your materials: cardstock or paper, twine or yarn, scissors and tape (any kind will work, I used packing tape because it's all I had).

2. Find a small circular object and trace circles onto your cardstock (I used a mini juice glass from IKEA for mine). You could also use a round punch to cut the circles.

3. Place your circles on a flat surface in a line, wrong side up. Place your twin or yarn in the center of your line of circles.

4. Tape the twine or yarn to each circle, spacing them evenly as you go.

5. After all your circles are taped, flip over your garland and voila! I hung mine over our chalkboard in the living room with a festive holiday message...

 This would also be fun to hang in a dorm room or around your desk at work. I'm thinking of making another one for my office (I made this garland for my desk last year).

Have you started decorating for the holidays? 

xoxo.

P.S. I'm linking up here...

inspired: decorating the office.

I mentioned a few weeks ago in my 12x2012 list that I've got a new office to decorate. I've added a few things, like my DIY pencil vase, but for the most part it's still a blank slate. Here's some ideas I'd like to incorporate...

DIY decorations

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fun accessories...

via

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quirky art...

via

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and LOTS of organization...

via

via

What would you add to a new office?

xoxo.

[top photo via]

P.S. Did you enter our TylerBright giveaway on do i even like this? If not, hop on over there and get to it!

the anthology: double letter, triple word {scrabble love}

Hi friends, and happy Thursday. Today I'm bringing you some scrabble love (I know, the scrabble thing is starting to get overdone, but I still love it). I'm inspired by words, letters and typography, so these projects have landed on a double letter, triple word (so to speak) in my book...

DIY Scrabble letter coasters by Intimate Weddings

Drink-themed Scrabble letter coasters by MadebyMarcy on Etsy.

Adorable Scrabble letter ornaments from My Sweet Savannah (these would be cute on a mantel too).

I love the red ribbon on these Scrabble letter ornaments from Christmas Your Way

Scrabble letter pillows (and a couch that looks like the tray!), via Freshome (designed by Stephen Reed)

I especially love these pillows by Counter Couture Design on Etsy.

How cute is this idea for the back of the bride and groom chairs? (via Green Wedding Shoes)

We even used them in our wedding... (photo by Yasmin Khajavi)

(our save the dates)

(our thank you cards)

Which Scrabbly idea is your favorite?

[first image via]

xoxo.

P.S. Need further inspiration? Check out this keyboard.