Practical and Pretty.

A blustery January day over here! I've been taking advantage of this indoors day to update a few things in the small space I call home. 

1. A practical and pretty way to store hair bands:

Embroidery hoop

Safety pin 

Fabric

2. A practical and pretty way to store sewing supplies:

Mason Jar

Fabric

Stuffing

Minimal sewing supplies

3. A practical and pretty way to store sunglasses:

A wooden pants hanger

Ribbon or String

Your assortment of sunnies.

How do you store things in a practical and pretty way?

Enjoy!

Have a seat.

Hello there! It's your friend, Kristen, the college student/blogger. Which means I'm so busy all the time. I started classes today, which are fantastic. I love school. And now, I finally have a chance to post one of my favourite re-do's! I found this chair for $5 at a garage sale, and with a little leftover fabric from garden aprons my mom was making, and some leftover blue-grey paint, It turned out very cute!

The out-dated chair before:

And, after!

I love it. It fits in nicely with my dorm decor, which I will share soon! What are your crafting projects as of late?

Enjoy!

And I'm off!

It's off to college for me...which happens to be down the street! I will post my decor of my new room very soon! Wish me luck!

Bringing Summer Back

The strangest summer occurred. There was wind, there was rain, there was blizzards every week...well not quite, but they would have fit in just fine too. It was a cold and rainy summer though, and now, in October, summer finally decides to pay a visit! Thankfully, I live on the sunny side of the street/dorm, so I get to enjoy all the benefits of my good friend Mr. Sun. I even considered singing the song for him to come shine down on me a little more.

So, with this sun, the flowers outside that haven't frozen already still flourish! And i wanted to bring the joy of those beautiful flowers inside. And so i I did just that. I am quite happy with the result. So beautiful! The buds even bloom just sitting there in the vase.

And the vase you ask? It was a burst of creativity I had probably two years ago, but never had the spray paint to follow through with it. I just taped off some sections in a mosaic pattern on a blue glass bottle and took my can of spray paint to it, and it turned out well! Very simple, and very pretty I think.

I enjoy a second, more adequate, summer!

Enjoy!

Dorm Decorating-Phases finished!

The dorm is in the process of being decorated! It will probably be re-decorated as the year goes on, and these aren't really great pictures, but it's coming along! I feel quite at home in it!

The shelf: (notice mugs, frames, books, quite home-like)

My bed! My poster, chandelier and lamp complete it I would have to say!

College is fantastic!

Enjoy!

Dorm Decorating-Phase 4

Tomorrow! Tomorrow is the day I've been waiting for! I finally get to decorate my dorm room! Before and After pictures will be posted! Today, on my day of packing and attempting getting ready, I re-upholstered a stool. I'm not sure if it's considered re-upholstering if the stool was originally plastic, and i used hot glue, but I gave it a new look anyway!

Before:

After!

I also gave my Toms a cute little patch because it was wearing through at the toe.

Before:

After!

And earlier this week, I had mentioned my strawberry tin. Here it is! My sister made a matching one. I think it's extremely cute. These are wild strawberries found on my front lawn. Throw on some vintage French labels, and Ta-da! A cute strawberry tin (whose life may be shorter than I hope. I have no idea how to tame a wild strawberry to the confined space of a small tin)

My dorm will be finely furnished with beautiful red and muted teal decor if my plans go as well as I hope! I'm excited beyond reason!

Enjoy!

Ambition Gained! (Dorm Decorating-Phase 3)

So! Do i have things to share! I have just one week until I move into my dorm room, and am I ever prepared!

I went to MCC the other day and was quite inspired! My sister found this little number:

I snatched it up the second she decided not to get it. I love it! My favourite colour too!

I was inspired after my trip to MCC, and so armed with my favourite crafty tool, (I decided every crafter should have this in their home! It's fantastic for sprucing up some very sad 70's items. I did two projects with half a can in just one day!)

I love this little can!

Remember these old, gold outlet and lightswitch covers found on my garage sale adventure?

Well, my trusty little friend helped me out with them and now they look fabulous!

And now, for my favourite project of the week! At MCC, i found this lovely little lamp. Now, it may not seem lovely. In fact, with the old shade, it was downright disgusting. The old shade, that I tore off the second I brought it home was cream, but filled with stains, and had a not-so-pretty ribbon lining the top and bottom that was orange and gold. Oh, if you would have seen it, you would understand my obligation to spruce up this lamp. And, what better time, because I needed a lamp for my dorm!

So here it is! Before: (a brass and orange mess)

Jordon helped me learn the art of spray paint:

And Ta-Da! Isn't it fantastic?! The shade is some really neat teal fabric I found in the clearance bin at Wal-Mart. (They're discontinuing their fabric section. It is a sad day for me.)

I absolutely love this new lamp! It is sitting beside me at this moment, lit up in all it's beautiful, crafty glory. It really is my favourite project to this day!

Enjoy!

Dorm Decorating-Phase 1 (reposted)

I had a little mishap with my blog, and had to delete this post. But here it is for an encore, Dorm Decorating -Phase 1! In case you haven't gotten to enjoy it yet!

I have been coming up with many ideas to decorate my dorm room in the fall, and I think I've come up with a colour scheme. I'm thinking red and teal, muted teal (I'm not letting this teal get a word in). Now, at first I didn't think these two colours went together, and was trying to decide if I should go red, or teal. I've come to realize that I can make my two absolute favorite colours live together for 8 months happily and in harmony. They may not always want to get along, but I think with hard work and a little encouragement here and there, they can work out their differences.

I found these frames on my garage sale trip so I suppose this could be considered a part three of the Garage Sale Adventure. They're so fun and vintage looking, I thought they needed some fun and vintage decor in them. My sister (see link above) and I found some old Hollywood silhouette faces, (Audrey Hepburn, Ginger Rogers..the whole lot) and I traced them onto some homemade paper that I found and then attached those to some gorgeous paper I found at Michael's a while ago, and Voila! I came up with some pretty wall art for my future dorm!

Here's some really elaborate, vintage dorm room ideas! Gorgeous!

Blair Waldorf's Dorm Room -check out the chandelier wall decal at the 'other things to include' section. My sister just gave me one of these that I will also use in my dorm!

Vintage Inspired Wall Art for Dorms -On a whole site for dorm decorating! Who knew such thing existed?

Enjoy!

P.S. Watch for a before and after dorm room transformation to come soon!

Dorm Decorating-Phase 2

Everyone has chosen a favourite colour of choice at one point in their life.

Frank Sinatra's favourite colour was orange.

Jennifer Garner's favourite colour is purple (or violet, rather, or so the name of her daughter proclaims).

My favourite colour has been: blue, orange, red, yellow, purple..

but never green.

I'm not sure why, but I've always had an aversion to green. I'm not sure if it's because it's not easy being green (props to Kermit the Frog for being brave enough to address this problem we've all encountered at one point in life or another). Maybe it's because I enjoy it simply in the form of plants and since I live in a place where green isn't the most prominent colour outside for most of the year, it simply makes me long for those two months of summer per year.

Whatever the reason, I have never liked green. But! Lately, I have found myself to enjoy a shade of green, a colour I like to call - Muted Teal! As explained in my last post, I have been planning out my dorm room decor for the coming year and have a few more pieces that will contribute to my beautiful room! And of course, they're in my favourite shade!

And look! I will be eating my cereal out of a German made bowl!

Can you find me in this picture?

Enjoy!