nye 2014 photobooth

For New Year's Eve this year we had some friends coming in to town, but were not 100% sure of our plans before they arrived, so we were unable to get a dinner reservation. No problem, we decided to make a fancy dinner at home and drink some champagne before heading downtown instead. Since I wanted to make sure that we had a decent amount of NYE festiveness for dinner, I created a photobooth out of some materials we had laying around the house.

Lucky for me the curtains that we hung in our living room lent themselves very well as a backdrop. To spruce things up a bit I grabbed an extra strand of Christmas lights, repurposed an old sparkly party banner (removing the words "Keep Calm And" because I am SUPER sick of that whole thing) so that it just read "Party On", hung some unused sparkly gold ornaments on the strings, and threw up some gold tinsel. Viola! I think it turned out pretty damn good considering I "built" it on the fly by myself while the others were out running some errands.

(I thought the flash washed the pretty background out too much, so the colors are a little off, but I think these still turned out pretty good/silly).

[[ makeshift nye photobooth. ]]

kitchen nook :: before & after

I am excited to finally share one of our before and after looks at the house. We have been really busy over here with projects, and I will definitely be sharing more as we complete them, but first, our kitchen nook transformation with chalk board paint. 

Ever since we got in to the house I have been excited to transform this space with some chalkboard paint. Lime green wanes coating and yellowish floral wallpaper was just not for me. 

The process itself was definitely not as easy as I expected... 

Although the wallpaper itself came off in nice little strips, the adhesive backing behind it was another story and took hours of spraying, scraping, and scrubbing before I finally had clean enough walls to work with. But of course I wasn't done there... I had to patch a bunch of holes and repaint everything with primer. By day three the walls were dry enough for me to actually go over with the chalkboard paint, which went on beautifully with two coats. Since there was a little bit of splash over from the painters tape, I ended up going around the rim with a tiny paint brush and some white to get a clean line and viola, all done. 

Now if me and Pat can just agree on a light fixture to replace what is currently hanging in there...

[[ the kitchen nook before (old owners furnishings). beginning the process. after! ]]

turning in to bonnie

As I mentioned in my Weekend Adventures post, getting my hair to look somewhat accurate was quite the extensive process... This of course came as no surprise seeing as I have a ton of extremely unruly hair. I used this very basic tutorial from The Beauty Department which showed a few pictures with a brief write up as to how to get the look at home, so this was my basis.

(I apologize for my super awkward facial expressions in all of these pictures...)


1) I started by splitting up the bottom and top halves of my hair to eliminate some of the bulk. I then took the bottom half, split it into two, and made two little pigtail braids, which Tiffany helped me bobbi pin flat against the back of my head.

[[ before starting. braided hair. ]]

2) Next came the curling process, which definitely took the longest because you have to use a tiny curling iron no larger than a quarter inch. Keep in mind that I was only working with the top half of my hair here... but just the left side took me about an hour. I was lucky enough to already own a tiny curling iron, but I think for future endeavors I will invest in an upgraded version considering mine came from Claires about twelve years ago. Anyway, for this step I took tiny sections of my hair, wrapped them around the curling iron, holding them in place, and then used bobbi pins to pin the little curls up against my head. The instructions of my tutorial specified to angle the iron towards your face the entire time, which I found a little confusing, but I did my best to figure out. Eventually with Tiffany's help I was able to get all of my hair pinned up.

[[ all of my hair curled and pinned up. ]]

3) Ordinarily you will want to leave your hair in this state for as long as possible for the best results, but since we were on a bit of a time crunch I attempted to expedite the process by holding a hair dryer over my head for as long as I could stand it, which was somewhere in the area of fifteen minutes. At this point we started taking all of the curls down.

4) After all of the curls were let loose I had to brush them out towards my face. (Tread lightly on this part, because you only get one chance at it). The instructions said to be rough, but I took a more gentle approach, which seemed to work out fine for me. If you have thinner hair you may need to rat it a bit, but at this point I looked like a lion/clown, so I was good to go.

[[ after taking out the curls. after combing them out. ]]

5) Now for the tricky part... In order to create the bob look we had to tame my hair and sort of shape the curls in to place so that they looked more like finger waves. Next Megan and Tiffany helped me fold the bottom of my hair under and pin it to the rest of my hair to finalize the illusion. You will want to use a ton of bobbi pins to keep everything in place.

6) Finally take a bottle of hairspray and throw as much of that chemically loaded hair product as you can handle all over your hair. The nastier it feels when you are done, the better your chances of keeping the hair style in tact for a night. Needless to say, I was thrilled when I could shampoo my hair in the morning.

[[ the final product. ]]

And that was that, I pinned my beret to my head, put on my dress, threw on some eye makeup and a red lip, slipped on my vintage looking kitty heels, grabbed my handgun, and was ready for action. Surprisingly my hair turned out really awesome and even held up for the night! Thanks largely of course to the help of my laaaaadies, Tiff and Megan. Thank you ladies!

glitter banner diy

(Sorry for the lack of original content so far this week, hopefully this post will make up for it).

While Pat was away on a business trip I decided to make a little banner to hang above our bed with some left over glitter from Halloween. I used a "phrase" that is very special to me and Pat for a nice surprise. I was pretty impressed with how it turned out and I didn't have to spend any money at all since I had most of the materials laying around! If you would like to make one, follow the instructions below. Sorry that I do not have better in process pictures, I sort of spaced it at the time.

[[ my completed glitter banner hanging above our bed. ]]

items needed

- card stock paper
- access to a printer
- scissors
- Elmers glue
- a hot glue gun
- glitter (any color of your choosing)
- string/ribbon
- setting spray (optional)
- a vacuum (glitter is messy!)

how i made my custom glitter banner

- Pick a simple font, type out your phrase in all caps, and print. (I wanted my banner to be fairly large, so I made the sizing as big as I could keeping one letter to a page).

- Carefully cut out each of the letters.

- Next take your Elmers glue and a sponge brush, and adhere a generous amount of the glue to your first letter, followed by a heavy dusting of glitter. (Make sure you lay down a newspaper or magazine or something for the mess the excess glitter will make).

- Shake the excess glitter free from the letter and touch up any sparse areas.

- Follow these steps with each letter form and then allow them to dry on a flat surface for at least half an hour. (I let mine sit for about an hour to make sure the card stock had time to harden since the glue has softened it).  At this point you may also wish to spray each letter with setting spray to keep the glitter on even better. I did not think about this step until I had already started hanging mine, so it is definitely not necessary.

- Next move to a large flat area like a floor and spread out each of your letters face down in a mirrored order. Make sure to space them out properly before you begin. (Remember, when you turn the banner over they will display correctly).

- Take your hot glue gun and use a dab or two on each letter to attach your string or ribbon.

- Turn your banner over, hang it up, and admire its sparkly beauty!

[[ a few glimpses into my creation process. ]]

new year, new hair my first attempt at ombre

Like I mentioned in this Midweek Inspiration post, I have many hair crushes, and my current love affair is with various types of ombre. Not the super dark on top and then super light with no blending, but I love love love it when the color fade is more towards the bottom. I finally decided to bite the bullet, and set up a hair appointment to get my very own.

We were initially running off of this example where it is more of highlights blended underneath. So, after a few hours at the salon I walked out with blonde highlights towards the bottom of my hair which just were not what I was going for. Feeling sorry for myself, I started researching various DIY techniques and came across this tutorial by LLYMLRS, which I found to be the most helpful. Armed with confidence I ran off to the store to pick up a high lighting kit to play with when I got home, but, I totally chickened out and opted not. I woke up the next morning with a "whats the worst that can happen?" attitude and figured why not?! So, into the bathroom I went kit in hand, tutorial on phone, ready for action.

[[ hair trials at the salon. ]]

Because I was so nervous of the end result I snipped a small chunk of my hair to test out in the mixture first which turned out a nice color, but did not really give me a proper indication of time, so I decided to start small with only 10 minutes on the undermost layers of my hair. It soon became pretty apparent to me that I needed to leave the bleach mixture on for a lot longer, more like twenty minutes. I am sure foil, or using more of the mixture at once would have increased the result in less time but I was too nervous to try. After I finally got the undermost layers done, I let more of my hair down and repeated the technique before finally placing a smaller amount of bleach on just the very ends of my hair for some added lightness.

[[ experimenting with the highlighting kit. ]]

It turned out better then I thought it would considering I had never dyed my hair before, and it helped blend in my "highlights" so that they look much less random! The only thing I don't like about it is that since my natural hair contains so many different colors, the transition is not always as noticeable as I would have liked it to be, but for a $12 box of highlighter I can certainly add in some more. I would definitely recommend doing this yourself rather then through a salon unless they specialize in an ombre. I will most likely give it another run sometime in the near future for added effect.

[[ an example of my diyd ombre hair. ]]

It is seriously as easy as the tutorial makes it seem, but if you are nervous then just start on the under layers like I did and work your up to more time and the rest of your hair. I wasted a lot of the solution rinsing it off every ten minutes, but trial and error is key. Just make sure you buy a highlighting kit (not a dye), and follow the kits instructions. 

Ultimately I am really happy with the way it turned out (for now) and proud of myself for finally doing it! Like I said I will most likely give it another try in the future, that is how easy it is.

.

glitter shoes :: diy

I started seeing some DIYs popping up on Pinterest for homemade sparkle shoes, so I figured my Princess Peach Halloween costume would be the perfect opportunity to give it a try. 

As far as I am concerned, there is really no right or wrong way to do it. I used Modgepodge, thick gold glitter, a sponge brush, and some setting spray for when I was finished. I did not find mixing the glitter in to the glue to be helpful, instead I believe that using the glue and then sprinkling the glitter on top might have been an easier route. (I sort of combined the two). But, no matter, they turned out exactly how I would have wanted them to! (It would have also been smart to spray paint the shoes gold and then sprinkle on the glitter while they dried). Oh, and do not fret if you get started and they look clumpy and terrible... it takes several coats, but I promise, every time one dries they will look better and better. 

The shoes I used had been purchased a long time ago at a Ross and never worn, so they were the perfect trial candidates. I think this project cost around $15 total since I had to buy the spray, glitter (on sale), and a new tub of modgepodge, but I have plenty of left overs. 

[[ diy glitter shoes! ]]

sneak peak

I am starting to get super pumped for this weekend as everything is finally coming together! Tonight I am driving to Portland to meet up with almost all of my design friends at The Crystal Ballroom for 80s night, Halloween style. However, this time none of us are actually dressing up 80s, I am getting my nerd on. I have all of the elements together, though I have no idea what this costume will turn out looking like since I compiled it on the cheap out of items I already had (minus the rainbow suspenders, those I had to purchase, but for only $12, who can complain). To get in the mood I am wearing a Batman shirt today, OH YEA.

Now, Saturday I am really excited about! I am heading over to my friend Brads in the morning sometime to help set up for the party. I have quite the collection of Halloween decor at this point after years of collecting, so I only bought a few more things from the Dollar Tree, (my favorite place for party decorations on the cheap). 

On to our outfits...

Pat and Tony's costumes finally came in the mail on Wed, and mine is pretty much completed, though I am not necessarily your traditional Princess Peach. I bought a dress from F21 as my base, and then embellished it by adding pink sparkly tool (not my normal palette), and a few other little extras. You will see. I really need to learn how to sew though... my glue gun can only get me so far. What I am most excited about are my home made glitter shoes and crown! (I am saving the shoes and diy for another post). 

[[ special super mario cozy for pat. nerd. sneak peak of my dress in progress. making my glitter crown. ]]

And with that, I am off. Have an awesome weekend of Halloween festivities!!!!!

costume preview...

Special Saturday preview post

I don't want to give too much away..... but, here is a little bitty preview of some of our costume stuff for Colleen's Robot party tomorrow night! Excited.

We have had so many awesome costume parties over the past few years with this group, I think I may need to recap on some of them next week. Special feature?! I think so. 

[[ messy dinning area. bolt jewelry. pat in a box. goggles. plastic gun in the works. plate holder. boots w paint from super hero party. boots after. metal bracelet. cardboard strips. easter eggs. testing eye shadow. misc parts. clothes. leftover markings. spray paint. ]]

Our Robot Making Supplies:

- 3 rolls of duct tape (home depot)

- 3 cans of spray paint - silver, textured silver, candy apple red (home depot)

- flexible aluminum duct tubing (home depot)

- red rubber coated work gloves (home depot)

- black rubber cleaning gloves (dollar tree)

- 2 large cardboard boxes & 1 medium cardboard box (Pat's work)

- 1 pair of boots (misc. pair I have had for a long time)

- black ribbon (creative crafts)

- 1 package of easter eggs (dollar tree)

- 1 package of disco ball party favors (dollar tree)

- hex bolts & nuts (home depot)

- sequin tank top (target)

- geometric pattern leggings (modcloth)

- 4 paper plate holders (dollar tree)

- plastic toy gun (dollar tree)

- glow stick stars (dollar tree)

- safety goggles (dollar tree)

- glue gun/glue sticks (craft store - old)

- pen (random - old)

- misc glittery eyeshadow (fred meyer)

- dark purple lipstick (fred meyer)

- 4 pack of plastic headbands (dollar tree)

- fake glitter dipped eyelashes (fred meyer - purchased a few years ago)

- chunky metal bracelet (gift)

j & t

Sorry I did not post anything thursday or friday, my week got a little out of control busy. I meant to post some pictures of the painting that I did for Tiffany earlier in the week, so here we go now. Unfortunately I have pretty terrible pictures of it from my phone because I could not get to my camera at the time. Sad day. Hopefully you get the idea, and even more hopefully she likes it. I had to include my wrapping job at the bottom because I was pretty pleased with myself. P.S. It felt great to be painting again.

Have a great weekend! Hopefully I can get caught up on sleep/cleaning/relaxing, things I have been seriously neglecting lately.

time crunccch

Sorry, this is going to be a short post... Tomorrow is the bridal shower for Ms. Tiffany Williams and I have a lot to do finishing up her present. *wink* I wish that I could post my progress on here, but she absolutely reads this and I do not want to spoil anything.

My Friday night goes as follows:

- listen to loud rock music.  - paint.  - design.  - print.  - package.  - wrap.  - take care of super sick boyfriend.  - clean.   - pack.  - sleep.

Not very exciting, I know, but I have to get up early and get my ass up to Portland. Tomorrow will make up for it though, I get to see my two best girlfriends at once and I have a free night... who knows what kind of trouble I will get myself into. Lots hopefully.

(check out the sweet wrapping supplies I found at the dollar tree!)

[[ hint. sparkles. paper. bow. ]]

Alright, back to work.

homemade paper ornaments

I love the way text looks, even pages from a book all jumbled together. After experimenting with making a wreath out of a novel for my mom's birthday last summer, and then coming across an image of an interior display with 'floating' paper orbs, I knew I just had to recreate the concept in ornament form. This could work out really nicely with some mixed paper as well. hopefully people like them.

My materials were:

1) A hot glue gun/glue. 2) A circle shape paper puncher. 3) Foam balls 1 for each ornament. 4) A recycled book. 5) Ornament hooks. I already had the hot glue gun and bought the paper puncher from the local craft store. Everything else came from the dollar tree.

I punched a bunch of circles from pages of the book, and began to layer them around the balls in a circular motion. this project was fairly time consuming, and pretty messy, so I watched two christmas movies while I worked and before I knew it I was almost done.

home made wreath project

Ok, as promised... as part of my Christmas decoration attempts I made a pretty sweet tinsel wreath. Ideally, I really want one of those AMAZING silver tinsel trees that were popular in the 60s, but remakes are expensive, and I have not been able to find one I like. So for now, this will have to do I suppose.

My materials were:
1) A hot glue gun/glue. 2) Two strands of tinsel (silver and gold). 3) A medium sized whicker ring. 4) Some black ribbon. I already had the hot glue gun and the ribbon, and bought everything else at the dollar tree.

I seriously just wrapped the strands of tinsel around the loop, and used the glue gun to make them stay. I added a little bit of ribbon in order to hang it, and tied a little bow. Viola! Super simple.

is it saturday night yet ?!

I am so ridiculously excited for this weekend... well, more specifically Saturday night and our Halloween party! Me and Megan have been collecting decorations to add to my already existing stash for well over a month now and have a ton of awesome stuff to work with. Tonight we started working on setting everything up, and it is starting to look pretty good, but we have a loooong way to go. Poor Megan will be home all alone for most of the day while me, Pat, and Tony are working at the football game. Hopefully I get home early so we can get it all done!


I also made some sweet double sided mustaches for me and Pat (one side is hairy, and the other side is being used for part of pats costume).

___________________________________________________________

[[ ribs. decorations. living room shelves in progress. candle i made. streamers. sweet illustrations. sparkly skull. masks (from monster mash last year. ]] 

That was a sneak peak of some decorations in progress. 

Alright, now I need to seriously go to bed, I have to be at Reeser Stadium at 8am (ewww). Sorry the post was so late tonight! I almost didn't make it in time. I guess I was excited to play Halloween. 

gift wrap

Rainy. Blah. Busy work day = me running around all over the place. It was one of the guys last days so I had to wrap his 'present', which means, as usual, I had to get resourceful with whatever was around. In this case, some bubble wrap and tape. I pretty much never buy actual wrapping paper anymore, whats the point when I can recycle old catalogs or grocery bags? I think I will be a pro by xmas.

[[ bubble wrap & tape. victorias secret catalogs. safeway bags. tissue paper & twine. ]]