Life Through a Lens

Today I've been feeling ultra introspective. I would pretend this was some random spurring of creative inspiration, but I'm going to be honest. It was a homework assignment for my photojournalism class. Granted, I took the assignment a little far and ended up feeling rather inspired. This isn't my typical post, but I really love photography.... So, here's my life through a lens.

 

A little life behind the photos: 

-ORANGE CHAIR: My dad has a vintage seat from Thompson Bowling Arena before they re-did it. It sits on the dock at my favorite place in the world- my lake house.

-DOG: That's my family's sweet little pup Maggie. We treat her like a family member (yes, as if she were a human).

-ROCKING CHAIR: This picture has a dear place in my heart. The empty rocking chair is for my Pawie, whom we lost in May. I picture him as an angel, sitting right there in that rocking chair beside my sweet Mawie.

-VEGETABLES: The basket of vegetables is from my family's garden. Pawie had a huge garden. He passed it down, and we took it over as a family this summer. The vivid color of the vegetables reminds me of his vivid personality and zest for life. And yes, those are sunflower seeds- straight from a homegrown sunflower!

-REFLECTION: My favorite lake: Tellico

-BACKYARD: Sunshine

-SMILE: A simple smile can change someone's day. This rock was a gift from my Nanny.

-BIBLE: This is my favorite verse of all time and also what I try to live by. Romans 12:12

-A

DIY Headboard

So I know I’ve been MIA for a while, but don’t you worry; I’ve left time for a little crafting here and there. My most recent project was building a headboard for my bed. I was surprised at how easy this project turned out to be.  I found an old attic door at a local “vintique” store in Knoxville. This DIY would easily work with any old door, depending on your bed size. I’ll admit, my attic door is a bit small for my queen-sized bed, but I just couldn’t pass up this wonderful old white door.

Supplies:

-an old wooden door

-a tape measure

-two 2x4's to serve as posts for your headboard **You’ll need to measure the height of your bed and door (height of door when laying horizontally, that is) to figure out what size pieces of wood to buy.

-a drill

-12 wood screws, long enough to drill through your wood slats and half of your door

First off, make sure your 2x4's are flat on the bottom, so that they will stand up level on the ground. Now lay your door face down on the ground (so that the back is facing up), and line up where you will connect your 2x4's. You are essentially just attaching the wooden posts to the back of your door to act as legs. It’s a good idea to have the wood run almost to the top of your door for added support. Most importantly, align your wood so that the legs match the height of your bed (so your wooden legs won’t be visible!). I used a tape measure to do this, and I drew a line where the wood should align with the edge of the door.

Once you’ve lined the wood up how you want it, secure your legs by drilling 6 screws into each post. Place two screws at the top of your slat, two in the middle, and two at the bottom.

Flip your door over, stand it up, and you’ve got yourself a new headboard!

 It may be a good idea to paint the top of your wooden legs the same color as your door, just in case an inch or two shows when you forget to make your bed! My door was a vintage white color, and I happened to have extra spray paint leftover from my window frame shelf. So, I just spray painted the top half of my legs, and now I never have to fret about raw wood peeking out. Here’s my finished product! I simply stood it up against the wall and scooted my bed up against it.

Here’s a little sneak peak of my room…I’ll be posting more apartment projects soon, so stay tuned! P.S….recognize those lamps on a string?! They finally found their home above my bed!

-A

This week I linked up at these WONDERFUL linky parties!! --> Tutus & Tea Parties' Pinteresting Party, Classy Clutter's Saturday Spotlight, Polkadot Pretties' Craft, Create, and Inspire, Cheerios & Lattes' Saturday Show & Tell, Sincerely Paula's Blog Party, Natasha in Oz's Say G'day Saturday, Homespun Happenings' Rustic Restorations Weekend, and The Crafty Side of Sarcasm's Share Something Saturday

DIY Vintage Sign

First off, I’ll apologize for my sudden week-long hiatus.  I’ve been on vacation- loving life at the beach! But now I’m back to the real world, moving half of my belongings to my new apartment today! I made this little vintage sign before I left for the beach, and –let me tell you- it’s been one of my easiest DIY’s to date.  I’d been holding onto a lovely piece of driftwood since I went driftwood hunting for my DIY Jewelry Holder. I finally got around to making something of my piece of wood, and it turned out to be such a simple project. As easy as it was, I was very pleased with my finished product! This vintage sign will be perfect for a small wall in my apartment.

Supplies needed

a piece of driftwood

your choice color of acrylic paint (mine is a peachy/coral color)

a pencil

a paintbrush

an old strand of fake pearls

a thicker strand of raffia

a staple gun

a glue gun

I stuck with the simple and slightly cliché ‘Love’ for my sign, because I needed a short word, and hey- we all need a little love, right!? I traced out the word with a pencil before I painted it with a paintbrush.

I initially planned on leaving my sign as it was and just setting it somewhere (isn’t it lovely on my DIY Window Frame Shelf?!), buuut I decided I wanted to hang it.

I cut my strand of pearls and raffia the length I wanted the hanging part to be. Then, I tied my raffia to my strand of pearls with a tight knot on each side.

At first, I was planning on just twisting the pearls and raffia together, but the strands weren’t staying lined up how I wanted them. So, I twisted one section of raffia around the pearls and glued it with hot glue, and so on and so on down my strand of pearls.

 Next, I got out my staple gun and stapled the very end of the raffia to the back of the driftwood, on each side. I tried to measure the distance from each side of the wood to make sure my sign would hang evenly. And okay… I got a little paranoid and may have exploded hot glue everywhere on the back to make sure my raffia-pearls hanger would hold- hah!

And here is my finished product! 

-A

I linked up @ Ninth Street Notions, Sew Chatty , Serendipity and Spice, Debbiedoo's, Kampen Lane, and Etcetorize!! Thanks to all these wonderful linky parties!

DIY Mason Jar Luminaries

My two best friends have come to visit yet again: burlap and lace!

A couple weeks ago, I bought two small shelves at an antique store and I’ve been looking for something to set on them. I’ve got an abundance of mason jars laying around and of course some leftover burlap and lace from my Lamps on a String. So, I put the three together and made these babies! These would be cute for an outdoor event like a wedding reception; they’re romantic yet rustic. Or, you could use them as decoration on a table or shelf- like me! And, let me add, they are so easy. They probably took me 30 minutes total.

Supplies Needed:

mason jar/jars- mine were $1 each from the Dollar Store

lace fabric

burlap

twine or any sort of ribbon

glue (I used Elmer’s Craft Bond Multi-Purpose Spray Adhesive)

scissors

tea light/lights

Cut out lace to wrap around the base of your mason jar.

Spray one side of your jar and attach your lace. Keep spraying and attaching piece by piece until your ends of lace meet. Press down the edges to ensure they will lay down flat.

Now cut a strip of burlap the size of your rim. Spray your rim with glue and attach the burlap. I cut my burlap a little big and cut the extra off the top after I glued.

Tie your twine around the rim, and stick a tea light in! And viola! Your own mason jar luminaries.

 -A




I've linked up at Natasha at Oz, Bowdabra Blog, Be Different, Act Normal, Family Ever After, Polkadot Pretties, It's Just Called Spicy, Classy Clutter, Nifty Thrifty Things

Give-away Winner!

Well friends, it is officially August 2nd! Yesterday was the final day to join my blog for the $50 giveaway! Aaaaand.. (drumroll....) a winner has been randomly selected from the list of my lovely followers! Winning $50 to her favorite craft store is Katie from Girl on a Mission to Lose the Cushion! After randomly selecting Katie, I discovered her blog, and you should give it a read! She has a tidbit of everything, and she's such an inspiration. Congrats Katie! You'll have to share your crafty buy with all of us jealous craft-lovers over here!

Stay tuned for my next giveaway, and Happy Thursday everyone!

-A

Mint Madness

I’m obsessed with the color mint green. Like it. Love it. Gotta have it. (Cold Stone Creamery reference, anyone?) So, I have a whole can of mint green paint left from my DIY vintage nightstand, and I’ve been painting everything in sight. I thought I’d share a few of my most recent projects!

First off, I recently found this small wooden ladder from a garage sale for $2! ( If you wanted to imitate this DIY, I did a little searching and found a similar ladder on Ebay for $11.24.)

 I painted the ladder with my lovely mint paint and distressed it with sandpaper. My paint is Walmart interior flat Norwegian Vintage Green. I plan to lean this against the wall in my bathroom and hang washcloths & hand towels on it!

Secondly, I distressed an old wooden frame and added some mint accents. I simply sanded the edges and crevices of the frame, dusted it off, and painted accents of mint (I used the same paint used above but acrylic paint would work for this too). To achieve the distressed look, make sure there is NOT much paint on your paintbrush. I used a paper towel to dab up excess paint or rub areas where paint went on too thick!

Lastly, I painted a cheap vase from the Dollar Store using a method I saw on pinterest. All you do is drip some paint inside your vase, and tilt your vase around to cover the inside. To fill in all the holes, just set your vase upside down and leave it to drip and dry! I touched up a few places on the top of mine after it had dried. I imagine acrylic paint would work just as well or better than the paint I used. I love the subtle mint with some bright flowers!

And that sums up my dose of mint for the day! Hope you love my new apartment accents as much as I do! :)

-A