simplefrills: 2014

Duck...Duck...Brass Duck

The title of this post refers to a favorite children's game, but the topic of it is much more adult. I promise. Well, maybe. Actually, I can't make any guarantees about the adult-ness of this BLOG, let alone this post. So read at your own risk. *wink wink*

Can we have a quick conversation about said children's game though? I remember days of fun in kindergarten where we would sit in circles on the floor for what seemed like hours. It would be a constant circle- walk in circles, tapping heads, saying "Duck," until you reached your friend (or maybe kindergarten crush) and smiled widely as you tapped and said "Grey Duck!" and took off at a sprint to make it around the circle and back into that spot. Inevitably someone would slip and fall while sprinting or tap someone's head a little too hard, and the game would have to come to an end. But we always played again!

Now here in the great state of Minnesota, we call this game "Duck, Duck, Grey Duck." A few years ago, I learned that pretty much everyone else in the US calls it "Duck, Duck, Goose." Why the difference? I have no idea. But I like to think it's because us Minnesotans like to stand out a little. Or maybe we're just weird. Either one is fine with me. I accepted my weirdness quite some time ago :)

So what exactly does this game have to do with ANYTHING I might possibly talk about? Enter a thrift store and a pair of brass duck bookends.

These duck bookends, to be exact.

Amazeballs, right?

When I saw them sitting on the shelf, I did a little mental happy dance. That's a lie. I think I actually did a little dance in the aisle. But I'm about 60% sure no one saw me, so it's all good!

I grabbed the pair of them (a steal at 6 bucks for both!) and hightailed it out of there with my precious finds in hand.

My first task was to figure out if they were actually brass or just brass-plated. That would determine how I cleaned them. It's easy enough to figure out...if you put a magnet near pure brass, it won't stick. If you put it near plated brass, it would stick to the metal behind the brass.

In my case...magnet didn't stick, so I'm pretty sure they're pure brass! Whoop Whoop!

I looked up how to clean brass, and settled on following Bob Vila's tips on cleaning brass. As an avid public television watcher in my early years, I grew up with Mr. Vila so I trust his tips to not lead me astray.

I started with just hot, soapy water and a toothbrush like the website recommends. You don't want to move on to the more heavy-duty cleaners until you know the simple ones don't work.

It didn't really change anything.

They were still kind of dirty looking and not very shiny. So on to the next idea I went! This one required making a paste out of vinegar, flour and salt.

This was the point where Mr. B looked at me and was like "So, what EXACTLY are you doing with those ducks?"

Yeah, it looked a little crazy. And unfortunately it didn't really get me the result I wanted either. The ducks are still looking dirty and tarnished. Boo. Because how amazing would they look on my bookcases!?!?! Pretty darn amazing, I think.

Any suggestions on other ways to clean them? I'm kinda stumped. Comment below and let me know! In the mean time, I'll be googling "tarnished brass ~~ducks~~" and likely concocting other mysterious pastes to clean these guys up!

Linking up @:

- A Stroll Thru Life

- The Makers

This Craft Room's so Bright...

You're gonna want shades (what up, 80's music fans!)

The pictures in this post may hurt your eyes if they are sensitive, so I'll wait if you want to grab a pair of sunglasses or preemptively turn down the brightness on your screen.

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Got them? Awesome :) Now you are set to continue!

Last weekend Mr. B took off on a football-viewing mini vacation with some friends. Naturally, I decided to use my alone time to work on some projects...so I decided to get down and dirty and get my craft room transformation under way. First step - Paint!!

I had shared in an earlier post that I was thinking green...and boy, did I ever go with green!

The craft room itself is in the basement. It has low ceilings and poor lighting, so I knew that I needed a color that would help brighten the space and not make it feel even more cave-like. Solution? Hit up the Home Depot on Friday and spend some quality time with the paint chips! (isn't that what everyone does on a Friday night?!?)

Side note - I think the guys at the paint counter may think I'm insane for how long I spent there. I kinda feel like I should ask them their names the next time I go since we will likely be spending more time together down the road as well. Maybe I'll bring them a loaf of thanks-for-putting-up-with-me banana bread. IDK, just a thought.

I got home with 3 different samples that were quite different from one another:

After slapping some squares up on the wall with each sample, I quickly decided that Fern Leaf and Intoxication were just too dark. Though Intoxication is pretty much my favorite color of green ever, it would have made the room feel much smaller than it really is. And I probably would have had to have a halogen worklamp on at all times in that place to be able to see what I was doing.

The more I looked at Honeydew, the more I liked it! So back to Home Depot it was for a gallon of the selected color.

So this is the part where those sunglasses I mentioned come in.

Like, seriously.

When I say bright, I actually mean "WHOA, THAT IS BRIGHT!!"

Brace yourself - here it comes.

WAH-BAM!!! Told you it was in your face.

At first I was a little unsure when I got it on the walls. There were some texts to my BFF Jaime to talk me off the oh-shit-I-think-I-just-spent-3-hours-painting-this-room-a-horrible-mistake-of-a-color, ledge. And some pacing around the room, contemplating each wall.

And then I was exhausted, so I went to bed with 2 walls to complete.

When I woke up the next morning, I tiptoed down to the room to take a peek again (apparently I thought that the silence of my steps would help in the acceptance of the color? IDK, I don't make sense sometimes).

The sleep had helped, because walking through those doors I was totally digging the color! After a few deep breaths, I grabbed all of my paint supplies and finished up those bright green walls!

Here are a few more pics:

Hey look, another Fitz sighting!

As you can see, I've already got my desk and some other furniture downstairs! The table in the middle will be the stand-in until I've got a bit more moolah in the craft bank and I can get to building my ideal table. So until then, our old hand-me-down dining table will do just fine! White paint may grace it soon so that I can accept it's presence in the room for a longer while.

Other plans I've got for the room? Why, I'm so happy you asked! There will definitely be a pegboard built for that giant empty wall - ever since my days in the glamorous retail world, the beauty and pure organizational perfection of pegboard has been in my dreams. It's time to make it reality. I've also got plans for a new light fixture, a fabric filing cabinet and (a looooongggg ways down the line) a sliding door to the bathroom that you can't see in these pictures. Right now there is just a shower curtain there....not my favorite way to close a bathroom.

Oh, and there will be new pompoms as well!

So what do you think? Is the green workable in your mind? Let me know! I'm totally up for any ideas to make this an awesome craft room...on a budget, of course :)

Linking up @:

- Snap Creativity

- Ginger Snap Crafts

- Whimsy Wednesdays

Makin plans, Living Room Style

Yep, more plans.

I just can't quit.

Y'all know I got a few to-dos checked off my looooooonnnnngggg list last weekend (what up, curb appeal and yet-to-be-posted-coffee table!)

Now that my to-do list is shortened by a few items, my natural instinct is to load it back up again.

Seriously, I need to be stopped.

Did you see the first to-do under the living room list? That's what I'm chatting about today. For a while now, I've been eyeing up my options at RugsUSA looking for the perfect BIG area rug for our living room. It's actually a relatively large space considering the size of our house, so a small rug just wasn't cutting it anymore. Style-wise, at least.

So I surfed. I surfed and I surfed and I surfed until I found the rug I was looking for. And the winner (hopefully) is....

This delicious chevron/ikat combination was just what I was looking for! I love the blue color and the fact that it is a large-print pattern so as not to be too distracting. Bonus, it has a tight, low pile so it will be easy to vacuum!! My Fitz fur-hating, vacuum-loving self is so VERY appreciative.

Once it gets to the house, I'll just have to lay it out to make sure that it is as good in person as it is in my dreams. I have high hopes that it will be just right.

Now, being the home decor blog-stalker that I am, I have always wanted to create a design board (virtually) to help figure out what colors, patterns and specific pieces would go best in a room design. This was the perfect opportunity! I'm going to give a brief walk-through of how my board came to be...so here it is!

My living room design board was actually created during the rug-choosing process to help me figure out which patterns and colors looked best with our existing couches and the coffee table I love. It was a huge help to be able to slap the picture of a rug I was considering onto the board and instantly know if it was a contender or not. I got really into it. Like War-of-the-Rugs style.

I made mine in Photoshop, but you can easily do the same thing in Word, Powerpoint or another processing application.

My board started by opening a blank document and pasting in a picture of our current couch, bookshelves and 3-shade lamp. I knew that these were all pieces that I wanted to reuse in the room as they are fully functional and I could style them to fit whatever "statement" pieces I decided on. I removed the background of the images using the "background eraser" tool. (The same effect can be done in Word by choosing the "picture" tab and then using "remove background")

Next is the fun part - searching for the new items to add to the board!

The pillows were the first things that I looked for - I knew I wanted to add some bright, fun colors in a way that would be easily and relatively cheaply changeable in the future. Pillows are a great way to do that! Since I don't want to spend a ton of money on new pillows, the ones I found were actually pillow covers that I can put right over our existing pillows. More cha-ching to spend on other things! Whoop Whoop!

Then I perused the interwebs based on those beautiful pillows that I found to add some more color, texture, and overall awesomeness to the board.

And that's it! It's easy and SO much fun to make these boards. I already have one started for my craft room...and a few others as well :)

Linking up @:

- Creativity Unleashed

- The Party Bunch

- Inspiration Monday

- Monday Funday
- Busy Monday
- The Makers
- Sugar Bee Crafts
- Do Tell Tuesday
- Out of the Box

Curb Appeal - Round 1

The weather in Minnesota these past few days has been just GORGEOUS! You can feel the distinct "crisp" of almost-fall in the air and I'm totally diggin it. Fall is my favorite season - boots! jeans! sweaters! crunching through leaves on walks! What's not to like!?!?

Having some beautiful days over the weekend inspired me to finally give our front entrance the first parts of a multi-step facelift. And boy was it needed.

Sunday morning found me sitting on the front steps in grungy clothes, happily painting away while watching old episodes of Grey's Anatomy on my iPad. Quite the picture, huh? I'm nothing if not a classy DIY girl.

By adding a few plants, some new house numbers and those fresh coats of paint, I made a couple solid steps toward a much more "Welcome to our house that we're working on fixing up bit-by-bit!" feeling for the front entry (instead of the "whatever, come in if you want" feeling it gave before...)

Here's a before....

(and, per the usual, Fitzgerald didn't want to be forgotten about)

Whoof! It was a MESS. The paint on the steps was chipping like a week-old manicure and that railing just wasn't helping the situation either. I decided to paint the railing black to tie in with the new dark house numbers and the hardware on the door. The stairs just got a fresh coat of grey paint that we found in the basement from the old owners.

And now....an after!

I smile when I drive up to the house now! The railing pops in front of the house and it ties together the house numbers and hardware too. Fresh grey steps make it look like people actually care about the house you're driving up to. And a few plants don't hurt either!

Next up in the process is replacing or redoing the light fixture and painting the front door a different color (teal? navy? orange? I can't decide!) I'd also like to build a plant holder to take the job of that tall metal one in the picture...I happened to hide the fact that it's actually a stand that is supposed to be pushed into the ground. Thinking maybe I can use some scrap wood to build a frame around the stand? We'll see :)

Now on to a tiny little DIY project...

Over Labor Day weekend I made the wood board with the new house numbers on it. You may have seen the little glimpse on instagram! Here's the process of how I did it:

The first step in the process was to choose a stain color for the backer board for the numbers.

My go-to stain for a lot of projects is Varathane Kona. It's rich without being too red or orange toned, so it usually matches my style. In this case, I wanted the boards to be a little lighter so the house numbers would stand out. That brought me to one of my other favorite new stain colors, Varathane Sunbleached. It's great for when you want a weathered look that isn't dark.

Neither Sunbleached or Kona were quite right for the project, so I decided to do a little mixing and create a color of my own. I used about a 1/4 cup of Sunbleached and just a teaspoon of the Kona to get the color I was looking for.

After measuring and cutting down my scrap wood, I was ready to stain! After 3 coats of my special mixture, the wood pieces were looking exactly how I had imagined them.

And holding one up to the house confirmed the color was right!

Once the boards were dry, I glued them together with some liquid nails. Since they weren't going to be holding up too much weight or moved constantly, screws or nails weren't necessary. Plus, it kept me from having to run to the store to get some kind of really thin board to screw them too :)

I gave the completed, glued together boards a quick coat of Thompson's Water Seal to protect them from the elements, and then let the whole thing dry for a few hours.

Next was the numbers!

The new house numbers came from my number-one BFF, Home Depot. I swear I spend WAY too much time there. I could browse all day.

Anywho, the numbers had caught my eye a while back and I thought they would be the perfect modern-meets-homey touch to the front entrance. They come with templates for installation and screws to put them in either floating or flush. I chose to use neither of those tools because I am a rebel. So there. (and also, it wouldn't have worked with the way I wanted it to.)

Since the screws were too long for the boards and I didn't want to screw all the way into the house, I decided to just glue the numbers to the board. The spacing was just eyeballed because I didn't feel like cutting out the stencils.

After adding 2 picture hooks to the back of the board and popping a couple nails in the house, the new numbers were up! And I am totally in love with them.

I'll do an update post a few months down the road to let you know how the numbers are holding up and if I would do anything differently. In the meantime, I'm going to enjoy looking at a spruced-up entry when I pull in the drive!

Linking up @:

- The Makers

A Blank Slate

We said goodbye to my little bro this week - he moved out of our house and into a house with my other 2 brothers and a friend. I'm sad that he won't be around anymore - he's a great help with projects and reaching things in our tall kitchen cabinets :) But he's happy to have his own space again, and I'm happy for him too!

That being said, my permanent craft room is now empty and ready to be designed! First thing I want to decide is whether or not I'm going to paint it. Right now it's a pale grey color. Not bad, but maybe not the most inspiring color either. Green is my favorite color but I've always been too nervous to paint a room green...maybe this is my chance! This one is at the top of my green paint list right now...

Since I have a lot more space to work with, I've been spending FAR too much time on Pinterest looking for ideas! I've known from the beginning that I want to put a large desk in the middle of the room...so that will be my starting point!

Below are some of my favorite picks for getting my new craft space up and running - I'll keep the words to a minimum and let the pictures speak for themselves this time!

Via

(I know this is a kitchen, but I love the white shelves with gold brackets!)

Via

Ahhh! All these organization and decor ideas make me just giddy!!

What do you think? Have an idea that you've used in a craft/highly organized space that you want to share? Please do! Comment below - I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Project Update: Stencil Madness

How's about a stencil update? Yeah? Ok, let's go!

Prepare yourself - if you think you're going to see a completed room with furniture rearranged and all mess put away, this is not the post for you. You'll want to wait for the post I eventually title "FINALLY DONE WITH STENCILING - WOOHOOOO!" Or something to that effect.

If you're still interested in the progress, then you can keep on reading :)

Since I have yet to track down my good camera, you'll have to put up with my grainy cell phone pictures...but it will give the same effect!

The little wall is done!! Yay yay yay!!!!!! (Pause for mini victory dance)

The little wall is what you see when you walk right into the room. I love seeing it when I turn the corner into the hallway.

And now, for the larger wall.....

*Pow*Pow*Pow* *WHA-BAM!* (that's for you, Mr. B!)

Not done. But the main large section is! I just have to do the top and bottom and the far left side, and I'll be like 2/3 of the way done!

I told you that it would take a while.

But it's ok! Life got in the way - and that's the way it should be!! Weddings and friends and enjoying the sunshine is far more important than a wall being done. No rush!

Ok, quick segue. Ya'll need to keep me honest though. It's ok that it's not done now, but if you happen to mention it to me in another month and I haven't made any progress, sit me down for an intervention and whip me into shape. I give you permission. Segue done.

So, that's where painting is at. Once I'm all done with the actual stenciling, I'll have some touch ups to do. Those are good to save for rainy days though :)

At least, that's what I tell myself.

Thanks for reading!

A Few of my Favorite Things...

I owe everyone an apology for disappearing last week. Between a crazy work schedule and being lucky enough to be in my amazing friend Kelly's wedding yesterday, time for blogging was hard to come by. So my apologies for the radio silence! I'll do my best to make this week's posts extra-special to make up for it!!

Speaking of weddings, here is a picture of Mr. B and I after the wedding. As I told my friends, I always have to get a picture when the two of us get all fancied up to prove that we clean up ok! lol

I'm a pretty lucky girl to have such a good guy. He even carried my purse so I could attend to my bridesmaid duties! Oh, and I got to wear a dress with ruffles AND a bow!! Awesome day.

Back to business...As I was writing the blog post a few weeks back about updating our bedroom (for zero dollars!), I shared a few little tools that I use frequently for organizing. That got me thinking...there are A LOT of other things that I love too (And maybe some people would be interested in hearing about them!)

Today, I'm going to share a few of my must-have basic craft supplies. These are the backbone of my craft room - the tools that allow me to do the basics and do them well! In later posts, I'll expand tell you about my favorite decor items/brands, fancy craft supplies, tools, and maybe even more!

My first favorite? Tacky glue.

I always have at least one bottle open. It is extremely versatile, but I find myself using it most for gluing paper and small pieces of wood for craft projects. Tacky glue is great to have around for crafts as well as household uses. Be careful, though. Once you figure out how awesome it is, you might start to hoard it like I do...I usually have at least 2 extra bottles on hand (just in case!)

Next is a paper trimmer.

Many years ago, I was an avid scrapbooker. Though I haven't been in to it over the last few years of my life, my paper trimmer has moved right along with me wherever I went! From college to working life to home, I find myself using it extremely frequently. You never know when I may need to trim a picture or cut a piece of paper for a home decor project!

My trimmer is older so it isn't sold anymore, but you can always find good ones at Joann or Michaels and get a good deal with a coupon. My favorite brand is Fiskars - they're reliable, last a long time and the replacement blades are easy to find!

Speaking of Fiskars...

The next item up in my list of craft favorites is a super sharp pair of scissors!

Actually, let me restate that. Make it 2-3 super sharp pairs of scissors. Now now now, don't get worked up about having too much of a good thing. Because you can't really have too many scissors. My theory is that there are SO many different things that you use scissors for, you should really have a pair for each category of crafting. Here's how my scissor arsenal lays out:

Fabric Scissors

To me, this pair of scissors is holy. Fabric scissors need to be super-de-duper sharp, and cutting paper or *gasp* cardboard *gasp* will kill them in just a few cuts. Therefore, Mr. B knows to leave this pair alone (He's a smart guy). I myself only use them for cutting fabric and ONLY fabric. That way they stay sharp as long as possible and I don't find myself trying to cut fabric with scissors that work as well as those plastic ones we used in kindergarten!

I have my eye on this pair for the future when I can upgrade. So drool-worthy. Yep, I drool over scissors.

Next is a pair of small, fine-tipped scissors.

Right now I'm using the pair you see above. They are compact and allow for small, sharp cuts for those little, bitty project details. Generally they get used most for crocheting (and specifically pom pom-making!)

Last is a pair of paper scissors. Again, Fiskars is my go-to brand, so no picture needed. These are for trimming - wait for it - PAPER. I know, you never would have guessed, right? But these ones get a workout for other miscellaneous craft items too. I tend to use these more freely, so they dull faster. \

Once they don't work great anymore, they get downgraded to household do-whatever scissors and I grab a new pair. I just keep an eye out for those times at a craft place when I can double up coupons or find a "fashion" pair on clearance. Then I can snap them up and keep them at home for when the old pair bites the dust.

Whoo, that was a lot about scissors. Probably more than you ever wanted to know. Feel free to leave a comment if you would like me to add scissors to my "off limits blog topics" list!

Back to the topic at hand...my last favorite basic craft supply is a dressmaker's measuring tape.

Now you won't likely find me using these to make a dress. In fact, if I mention sewing clothes, direct me to possibly leave that idea and go to one of my other hobbies. Clothes-making and I do NOT have a good track record...that's a story for another day!

The reason I like a dressmaker's measuring tape is because it is flexible. The giant ones I use for home improvement are great, but they're bulky and hard to maneuver. A dressmaker's tape is flexible, so it can be wrapped around a vase or put against the curve of a lampshade. I use mine all the time!

I'm afraid that I may have lost your interest, so I stop there for now. However, there are SO many more things that I use all the time I could share with you!! Here's a list form of some of those things:

- Self-Healing Cutting Mat

- Rotary Cutter

- Fabric Glue

- Quilter's Ruler

- Paint Brushes

Hope you have a great week!

The Weekly Frills - 8.8.14

On Fridays I share a few things that have caught my attention, inspired me or made me swoon during the week. Here are the frills for this Friday!

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I love to scour Etsy for new artists to love. Here's one I found with a print I NEED.

Oh, and I need this print too.

Digging this pillow for our bed

Trying to figure out what duvet cover to get for our bed for the winter. Maybe this one.

Or this one. Too many options!

This lady knows how to work a drill. And a table saw. And how to not die when working with electricity. Love it.

Hope y'all have a fantastic weekend!

$0 to Refresh & Reorganize!

Late last week, something happened.

I got the bug. (If you ask Mr. B, he'd probably tell you this happens about once a week, but I digress!)

For a while, I've been meaning to do something about the side table situation in our bedroom. More specifically, the mess that was the area next to my side of the bed. It's one of those things that bothered me every time I went to get in bed but by the time I saw it, it was time to actually sleep and not redecorate!

Last Thursday I had some time when I got home from work, so I took advantage and finally did something about the mess! Mr. B and I are also trying to watch our spending right now, so I knew I would need to do it without spending any money.

Here's what I was working with:

Yep, it was quite something. I won't feel bad if you cringe a little.

The first step was to get rid of the mess. Which, of course, just means moving the stacks of random items to a different location. Temporarily. I mean, I totally, definitely picked up every single thing I moved out of the way when I was working on this. Hey look, a cute picture of a puppy in the room!

(Ok, good...dodged that bullet!)

Back to the work at hand.

So, once the space was cleared, I decided that I needed to house-source a different side table. I ended up going with one that I had used for a night table in our condo, but had in the living room at our house.

The size of the table was perfect, and it definitely had more storage capability that I was looking for! But oh, that lamp.

So, I decided to house-source that too! A few weeks back I found an awesome gold lamp on one of my Goodwill visits. It's geometric, nice and big, and, did I mention....gold?!? I had to try it out.

And though it is beautiful and pretty much my soulmate-in-a-lamp, it wasn't quite right. It was actually a little too big for the table, and it didn't go with the lamp on Mr. B's side table.

Back to the lamp drawing board. My other thought was a lamp that was in our living room. It has a white base and a white and yellow patterned shade.

I tried it out on my newly chosen side table, and it was a winner!

So then I decided to try adding a lamp with the same shade to Mr. B's side of the bed.

And it was perfect! Even though the bases on the lamps don't match, the shades add the right color to the room and the bases are different enough that they don't clash. I'm keeping my eye out on my thrifting trips for another brass lamp base for my side of the bed, but for now it is definitely an upgrade from the old, mismatched lamps that we had before!

The last thing I needed to do was ORGANIZE! All of that stuff piled up on the bed needed to be gone through, purged, and placed in their new side table home.

And after a little work, here's what the top drawer of my side table looks like now:

I'm a fan of divided drawer organization...can you tell? LOL. I've got 5 areas in this drawer:

1. Diabetes corner - all those things I might need in case my blood sugar goes low in the middle of the night
2. Miscellaneous stuff I find myself needing before bed - chapstick, glasses cleaner, etc
3. Health stuff - I like to keep things like tums and bacitracin next to my bed. Don't ask me why, I just do.
4. Things I use every night - my vitamins, face wipes and moisturizer
5. Sleep Number bed remote - because otherwise it would get lost :)

One trick that I use to keep the little baskets in place in my drawers is using little velcro squares on the bottom of the basket and in the drawer

That way, the baskets stay in place and I can keep things organized without even trying! When things come out and go back in, they automatically keep separated. The velcro squares are easy to remove if I ever want to reorganize the drawer or use the basket for something else.

One of my other favorite organizational tools - Cord Clips!!

They are little half-round things with a slit down the middle that hold a cable in place when you're not using it. I put two of them on the back of my nightstand to hold my phone and glucose monitor charging cables. The picture only shows one, but I added another later that night! I grab mine at the Container Store, but I have seen them other places too. (I just like a reason to go to the Container Store)

Now everything had a home in my nightstand and there was zero clutter on the floor! So I did a little happy dance!

And here is a picture of what the room looks like with a bed that isn't covered on randomness and is actually made, along with the new lamps, table, and my favorite DIY project to date, my wooden display hanging!