Double the Pumpkins, Double the Fun!

In the last post you may have noticed my oh-so-classy black nails spattered with chipped white paint. Lets see if you can guess why that was...

a) Katelyn has no sense of personal style
b) That's not paint, it's dried milk- I punched a cow in the udder. Yep, right in the udder
c) I was picking my nose and my boogers are white
d) None of the above

And the answer is... D! Actually, I was working on my latest Halloween decor DIY! (Although I won't deny that answers A-C are entirely possible)

My DIY project was whitewashing some false gourds! And I still had the time to carve a pumpkin too, so I go the best of both worlds! (More on that next post...)

Anyways, here's how it all went down:

Apparently orange is the most popular pumpkin color. Bah. I've been scanning the stores for white pumpkins and they are SCARCE. Those that I have found are on the pricey side (like $9-$19 for a medium sized one). The only cheap ones I found were at World Market, but they only had one size and girl's gotta have a little variety.

So I thought about nabbing some cheap-o orangies and painting them white to stick it to the man(ufacturer), but I didn't know if I'd have time. Then our group of friends decided we were having TWO pumpkin carving get togethers (because we are awesome)! So I was able to devote one of those evenings to carving and the other to painting. Whoopwhoop!

Oh yeah, and I chose fakies to paint because unfortunately real pumpkins don't last forever :( Which I was reminded of all too well with my carved pumpkin, which was already kaput after just a few days. Anyways, here are my fakies pre-white paint:

Not bad if you're going for that brown-orange-green-yellow look, but not for me. After a few coats of 99¢ paint they were done! Here's the breakdown:

•  3 fake gourdies- $3.25 in total (they were half off!)
• white craft paint- 99¢
• black craft paint- 99¢
• foam brushes- on hand (but you can get a big pack for a buck or two)
  
  Total: $5.25

Woot! And I still have extra paint for future projects! (On a side note, I considered getting spray paint instead of cheap craft paint but I didn't wanna have to go outside and be anti-social during pumpkin time with the friends!)

How are pumpkins going for everyone else? Where do you stand on the real vs fake, carved vs painted debate?

Much love,
Katelyn

How To Easily Install a Hanging Light, Renter Style

So I've got my new light up! I ended up deciding on just one from World Market. Partially because three cost a lot more, and partially because one of those three was the wrong shape (different than what the label showed, how fwustwating).

This little project was so easy it doesn't really need a "How-To," but I wanted to put it out there for anyone else living in an apartment who might be a little intimidated by light installation. It required no permanent installation at all so it's perfect for renters!

Here it is!

Mochi's got her lasers on

What You Need:

• Hanging paper lantern
• Light cord (some lanterns come with it, but if they don't you need to buy it separately. It's got a normal 2-prong plug on one end and a lightbulb socket on the other)
• Two 3M hooks

What You Do:

• Plug one end of your wiring into the wall (this is just to make sure you have enough slack to reach the place you want your light hanging from)
  
• I ran my cord to the corner of the room, up the corner (sort of hidden by my curtains)

• Place a 3M hook on the ceiling right at the corner and loop your cord through it

• Run cord along ceiling to desired spot (wherever you want it to hang down from)
• Place your other 3M on the ceiling in that spot and loop your cord through it, letting the extra length hang down vertically
  

• Adjust the slack of the cord until you get it hanging down the desired length (this depends on how low/high you want your lamp)
• Now that you've got it the perfect length, unplug it!
• Screw in your lightbulb
• Attach the lamp (it'll come with instructions, takes about 2 seconds)
• Plug back in and ta-da! Lamp-tastic!

So to refresh your memory, here is the transformation:

See, that wasn't hard at all! And since we used 3M hooks, there's no permanent damage like holes in the ceiling. Super simple. And it cost a total $17 ($10 for the light cord, $7 for the lantern. I already owned the 3M hooks).

Now comes the following question: do I leave this as is or add more hanging lights? I'm still considering getting two more different sized, slightly smaller ones and having a little light threesome in my corner (hehe) or maybe replacing this one with a slightly bigger one? What say you?

Much love,
Katelyn

Living Room Projects: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

You guys got a quick and dirty overview of my living room in the last post, but I wanted to get into the details of some of the little decorating projects I've done here. They're all things that cost me very little money (of course) and were pretty easy to do (also of course).
The thing is, I'm not a power mom with the ability to do a bathroom renovation in a weekend and I don't have a whole craft room full of supplies, so when it comes to projects, if I can do it- YOU can do it. Yay I'm so motivational! :)

So, here are my projects:
 


The Good: Custom Coasters

This was the easiest little DIY and I get compliments on these all the time! I love my black $40 IKEA coffee table and wanted to protect it, but all the cute coasters I spotted at places like Anthropologie were at least $5 a pop and I was NOT about to spend $20+ on a few measly coasters. So if I couldn't find a set I liked, I'd find a cheap set and make them into what I like!

I found this batch on clearance at Pier 1 for about $8, and they are meant for sliding photos into (of your kids, pets, trophy husband, latest victim.. etc). But being an artsy fartsy, I cut up an old screenprint painting I'd made a few years ago and used pieces of that instead! The hint of yellow goes perfectly with my rug, art above the mantle, Target pillow, and oddball yellow square on the wall. Speaking of the squares...



The Bad: Square Frame Flop

There they are above the couch *points with a stick*

This was actually the first project I attempted: squares. Wooden, frame squares that I could stretch fabric over. I got the idea from the wonderful IKEA catalogue and DIY projects like this. But I wanted my fabric-y frames to have a little more lift away from the walls so I decided the best way was to actually build wooden frames! With a few cheap boards, Hami's dad's table saw, and handful of nails we whipped up 6 of these babies in an afternoon.

Mochi wanted them for her fort

So far so good! But then came the time to cut fabric and staple on the fabric. Here was my thought process (travelers beware, you're about to step into the indecisive mind of Katelyn!):

"I wanna add color to the room so I'll pick fabrics with color! Lots and lots of color! Ok maybe having yellow and blue and pink and red and purple all with busy patterns looks like Rainbow Bright threw up on my wall... You know what, scratch the color! I want black! Classy black! *changes all but 1 frames to black* Well crap, all black is boring and shows all the inconsistencies and wrinkles I couldn't stretch out. This sucks... I'm gonna watch some South Park online. *opens laptop and never returns to fix the "square problem*"

That's pretty much how it went. I haven't touched them since. Fear not though! They won't be like that forever! Just until I decide what I want to do with them... Now, onto the last project:



The Ugly: (but functional) Curtain Holdback Helpers

I'm not sure if the picture above shows it, but my windows are so close to the corners of the room that there was no space on the sides of them to put holdbacks! But where's the fun in window treatments if you can never open them up? I had to find a cheap and effective solution.

My first though was using tassels. But those little guys are $7-$15 a pop on the cheap side and I needed 4 of them! That means $28-$60! No way Jose.

My next thought was ribbon, but wanting my little bows to always look perfect meant I actually had to spend valuable time whenever I wanted to let a little light in. No deal Shaquille.

I started thinking to myself that something incorporating a little hook or loop would be a lot easier than tying a bow. That's when the idea was born. I had these tiny hooks laying around with a clip on end. I bought a $2 pack of black simple headbands, clipped my hooks onto them, wrapped them around my curtains, and used the hooks to secure them. Voilà!



Well there you have it! The good, the bad, and the ugly of my little living room DIYs thus far.

Which projects have been your "good, bad, and ugly"? Please link to them, I'd love to see!

Much love,
Katelyn