(My) Home for the Holidays

Okay...I realize that I have not posted in a very long time...as in, not one post in the entire month of January, long time.  And for that I apologize.  I really have no excuse.  Especially because most of the upcoming posts (including this one) have been partially drafted for quite some time.  *sigh* Life happened...plain and simple, but I'm back and I promise not to stay gone so long the next time. ;-)

As you all know, this past Christmas was my first Christmas in my beloved home.  And in my usual, true OOT (over the top) fashion, I had elaborate plans for decorating the house.  At the cornerstone of my holiday decorating plans...purchase a live Christmas tree.  Something I know absolutely nothing about because by the time I came along, my mother was over live trees.

I purchased the tree on the 2nd Saturday of December with every intention of letting it fall until the following Wednesday at the latest, then decorating it.  Well my crazy work/social calendar threw a slight wrench in my decorating plans.  And Wednesday turned into Saturday.  But then it happened.  I got sick.  Bronchitis/Sinus Infection sick.  I was totally out of commission.  Sick or not, that was the last weekend before Christmas and the last chance for me to decorate.


Mommy was nice enough to volunteer to come over to help me decorate.  She's the best.  We did both outdoor and indoor.  I got a few pics, but I apparently didn't get all of the outside decorations.  But I did get the piece de resistance of the outdoor decorations.


Enjoy!

Ms. K

My Tree (yes I realize it's rather large)

My DIY Wreath! Of course I had to be different!

View of the wreath from afar (and of my new door and welcome sign)

I had to add this pic to complete the experience.  A pic of SOME (yes there were more) of the needles that fell from the tree when we removed it.

 

 

 

DIY To-Do List Revisited

Hello All!  I know I've been slacking on the blog posts lately and for that I apologize.  Life just keeps happening as it often does, but I promise to make an earnest effort to do better.  Now on to the good stuff...the post...

So back in May I did a DIY To-Do-List for the house.  At that time I just moved in to my house and mommy and I were ambitious to say the least when coming up with a to-do list.  Considering I've been here for 7 months now, I decided to revisit the to-do list and see how much progress I've made.  Here we go:

#1 Re-upholstering Chair  - We actually decided not to cover the chair because it matches perfectly with the colors we chose for the lower level.

#2 Sanding and Staining Desk - We did manage to do this and a darn good job at that.  People ALWAYS ask where we got the desk and they are completely stunned to find out the truth!

#3 Painting Bookshelf - This is another item we can check off of the list.  One of my better ideas I must admit. :-)

#4 Upholstered Headboard (for guest room) - We all know how much of a success this project was.  In case you missed it, see it here.  As a result, i have received multiple requests for mommy and I to create one for family and friends alike (I hope HGTV is reading this, that would be a great idea for a new show...a mother/daughter tag team, lol).

#5 Making decor/throw pillows (for the couch) - I really should be ashamed of myself that I have yet to complete this project.  Admittedly, I have all but abandoned this project.  I am going to get back into it though, because I really think the pillows will turn out fab, plus it will really give my beloved couch a little extra umph!

I'm actually pretty impressed.  We managed to complete all but 1 project.  Another project we have yet to complete is the stenciling of the wall in my bedroom.  I really need to do that soon because I am delaying the mountin of my television until I stencil the wall.  Looks like we have another to-do list.

#1 - Finsish decor/throw pillows (for couch)

#2 - Stencil bedroom wall.

I am counting on you all to hold me to a completion date of April 9, 2012.  That is the one year anniversary of my moving into the house. That's totally reasonable.  Right????  :-)

Ms. K

Hot off the presses: HGTV MAGAZINE

The other day while roaming my twitter time line (aka twit hustling, lol) I made a startling...yet exciting, discovery. HGTV is launching a magazine!! Now you all know that ever since I purchased my home I have become obsessed with home decor, especially DIY projects. Hence my fascination with HGTV and it's sister station DIY network. So you can imagine my elation when I found out that I can get a print version of one my fav television station.

Some of you may be wondering why all the excitement for the magazine when I can turn on the channel anytime. Well my excitement stems from a few things.

1- I can't carry my TV everywhere I go...but a magazine I can.
2- One of my ultimate methods of relaxation is flipping through a mag while laying on the couch...and why shouldn't my mag of choice (well one of them) be HGTV
3- With the magazine I can basically access all of HGTV programming all at once

I could go on, but I think I made my point.

Tips on real estate, renovations,home entertainment, and more all at your fingertips. If you ask me...it's a genius idea.

The Magazine is set to hit newsstands October 4th. If you are as excited as i am, head over to the HGTV magazine page and sign up for a free Trial offer and receive the inaugural issue absolutely free!! Of course I already signed up and I can't wait to get my hands on it.


 Ms. K

DIY Project: Upholstered Headboard

One of the projects on my DIY To-Do-List was an upholstered headboard. Yes, I said was. 

The initial plan was for me to get a platform bed from West Elm for my master bedroom and make an upholstered headbord for it.  Well, if you've been following the blog you know that I went to Ashley Furniture and fell in love with another bed and that was all she wrote.

So, I then decided instead of waisting that idea, to just transfer it to another room...the guest room to be exact. :-)

So, my trusty decorating partner in crime (my mommy) and I decided to take on this challenge despite all the naysayers (namely my daddy, lol).

Off we went to Home Depot and picked out some plywood.  We had the nice young chap at Home Depot straight cut the board to the dimensions we needed, strapped the board to the top of MiMi (my mini SUV) and off we went.  Once we got home, mommy free handed some curves on the board with a marker to indicate the shape we wanted the board cut in.  Then we roped daddy in by having him cut the shape of the board using mommy's outline as a guide.

Next we used density foam (purchased from Walmart) to cover the board.  We then secured the density foam to the board using batting (purchased from Michaels).  We used a heavy duty staple gun to staple the batting tightly to the plywood.

Once the batting was secured, we cut the excess batting and covered the entire board with the fabric we purchased from DeBois Textiles.  Once the fabric was secured, we then cut the excess fabric off (mommy is currently deciding what we are going to do with the excess fabric...an accent of some sort).

To finish this off, daddy used D-ring hooks to hang the headboard on the wall.

All of this took a few hours and really was not as labor intensive as I thought it would be.  Mommy and I were very pleased with the results and even daddy was pleasantly surprised.

The finished product and the higlight of my guest room:

I used the instructions found here as a guide.

DIY To-Do List

Mommy and I have an ever growing DIY To-Do List for the house.  So far we have the following on our list:

#1 Re-upholstering Chair

#2 Sanding and Staining Desk

#3 Painting Bookshelf

#4 Upholstered Headboard (for guest room)

#5 Making decor/throw pillows (for the couch)

We are adding things to the list, but not marking anything off.  So we took a vow to mark at least 1 of these items off the list this week.  It will likely be the Bookshelf or the Desk. 

So, I drafted this post over a week ago and sat on it for so long that we actually managed to mark a few things off the list.  The desk is done and so is the bookshelf.  I also started making the decor/throw pillows.  I will do a separate post for each project.


Stay tuned for pics...

Ms. K