Little red dresser

We found a mid-century modern dresser that we just had to buy for the booth. We didn't want to paint it, but the top was really scratched up and there were some spots on the sides. So we decided to paint it red.

Here is what it looked before:

Like I said, we didn't want to paint it, but you can't really see the wear in this picture.


We loved the hardware, so we kept that the same. We finished painting it this week and put it in the booth. Here is the after picture:

Even though we didn't initially want to paint it, we love the way this piece turned out! And we love giving the booth some pops of color.


And here is what the booth likes now:

Check back in later this week for a post about a holiday event I went to at Crate and Barrel over the weekend!

Turkey time

This past weekend my mom and I went to an event at Crate and Barrel. It was all about prepping for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday. As a 20 something I have never hosted a Thanksgiving. So I thought this would be a fun way to start learning. Especially since I could shop afterwards!

We learned about carving a turkey. She used a chicken, but they are both birds, so it was very similar. One great tip I learned was to find the breast bone and gently cut on each side of it to efficiently cut the breast meat. Also, the skin is one of the best parts (it has so much flavor). She said you have to cut gently enough to keep the skin on. Here is a picture of her carving the breast bone.

The other tips she gave us were about serving the turkey. I never would have thought about this. One great tip she gave us was to put the different parts of the turkey together. That way, people can easily pick out the pieces of meat they like. So many people only like one type of meat.  Setting up the tray this way makes for a speedy turkey line! She set up her tray with some green and some lemon. The colors looked so pretty and I wanted to use the lemon so bad! Here's a picture of her tray:

I also saw some place settings that I really loved! I think it's a great idea to put an ornament on everyone's plate. Not only does it make the plate look beautiful, but it's a great gift for them to take home. It really starts of the holiday season! You could pick pinecones and spray paint them metallic and use some fishing line to make an ornament. That would be a DIY way to make the following ornament:

Lastly, I have decided that metallic is the trend this year. And I love metallic, so it's awesome to me! Here is a picture of their display. Metallic city.

Yay for the holidays, especially metallic ones! I hope you have a fabulous Thanks day celebrating with your family!

Here's the Mail

Here's the mail it never fails. Have you ever had a large amount of mail or bill records that you don't know what to do with? Well we have a stack or records in our junk drawer in the kitchen and I was tired of it. So I found this vintage box at Midland, one of my favorite places obviously, that I thought would be perfect.

However, I thought it needed just a little something more to make it pop. I decided to paint it all teal besides the door, especially since it had some rough patches.

It definitely need two coats (which is why I put the paintbrush in the fridge).

Here is what it ended up looking like. I am very pleased with the results!

Random tip

So as I was working on a project today I thought of a random tip I thought I would share with you. This is a tip I learned from my wonderful fiance, whose dad is a contractor. These things are like second nature to him, but I thought it was a clever tip I should share.

Many times when I am painting something, one coat just won't do. Often times I need to put a second, or even third coat on it. As a someone who wants to conserve paintbrushes (especially when I use oil-based paint that doesn't come out easily) I thought this was a great tip. So here it is. Between coats, you can put the paintbrush in saran wrap or a plastic bag and put it in the fridge. This will doubly keep it from drying out. Then you can use it for a second coat!

Stay tuned for the project I am working on that sparked this post!

Weekend update

Yesterday, Kyle and I put some new pieces in the booth and rearranged a little bit. We wanted it to be ready for the busiest time of the week at Midland: the weekend.

The first piece is a floor lamp that we decided to paint white. This is what it looked like before:

We had it in the booth like this, but we decided it looked a little too old fashioned. So we decided to pain it white. Here is what it looks like in the booth:

I think it looks a lot fresher and old fashioned in a good way now.


The next item we put in the booth is a mid-century modern buffet or dresser. I really like how geometric it is and the way the handles come together in a pattern.

And lastly, we added a headboard and footboard. We thought about painting this, but we really liked the gold accents.

Here is an overall picture of the booth:

Happy weekend shopping!

Hop on the Halloween Bus

This year for Halloween I was Miss Frizzle and Kyle was the Magic School Bus. My costume only cost me $5 and I wanted to show you how I made it!

DIY Miss Frizzle Costume

What You'll Need:
1. A blue dress
2. Felt squares (I used 6 (3 yellow, 1 blue, 1 white, and 1 orange)
3. Safety pins
4. Hot glue gun
5. Red flats
6. Stud earrings

Directions:
1. I had a star cookie cutter that I used for the star. I traced it on the yellow felt squares and cut it out. You could also free-hand draw a star and then trace that.

2. Then, you will need to find a circle shape to trace for the middle of the suns and for the planets. Cut out the circles.

3. Take the circles you cut out and place them on the orange felt. Then, draw sunbursts around them. Cut those out and hot glue the circles to the sunburst.

4. Take the other circles you have and place them on the white felt. Trace half of the circle and then move it over slightly and trace half of it again to make the moon.

5. Trace the circle and draw swirls in it. Put an x in half of the centers (to make the planets). Cut out the moons and the x parts of the planets. Hot glue those to the circles.

6. Draw rings on the white felt and cut those out. Hot glue those to the remaining circles.

7. Using safety pins, pin all of the felt items onto the dress.

8. Pin two stars onto your flats. Take stud earrings and push them through the felt stars.

9. Put on your outfit, put your hair up all crazy and enjoy!

Here is what my costume looked like:

Have a happy Halloween! Stay safe and check back at the end of this week for a booth update!

Polka face

I have been noticing polka dot jeans popping up everywhere. I have seen them on some of my favorite shopping sites. However, they aren't really affordable or in my price range. So I decided to make my own! Here are some inspiration pictures:

These are from Anthropologie. They aren't available anymore, but Anthro definitely isn't the cheapest.

These are from Shopbop and they cost $190, which is way out of my price range.

So I set out to Forever 21 to buy some $10 plain jeans. I looked around my house for the right size circle and my white oil-based paint. Here's the tutorial:

What You'll Need:

1. Jeans

2. Something round - I used the top of a glue stick (with the cap on)

3. White paint - you can use fabric paint or I used oil-based paint

4. Tape

5. Scissors

Directions:

1. Tape off the jeans in a diagonal pattern. Here's an example of my tape pattern:

2. Dip the glue stick in the paint and put a dot in all of the corners of the tape pattern and one in the middle.
3. Repeat this step (because it will need two coats). Here is what it will look like with tape and paint:

4. Take off the tape and see if there are any holes. Fill in the holes with more dots.
5. Let dry and then do the back side the same way.

Here is what the back looked like:

And finally, here is what the finished product looks like:

I am very pleased with how they turned out! These will definitely be a favorite for me this fall. And they only cost me about $15 overall. That sure beats $190. Stay tuned for my Halloween costume.