Best way to hang a plate

Over the past few months I've been collecting plates to display in my kitchen nook.  It started when I found this adorable gold antique plate at a shop up north.  I loved it's design and imperfections!  I began venturing out to the Goodwill's around me collecting pieces that I thought would fit.  I finally finished my collection today with a few plates from West Elm - the only two that cost more than 99 cents! 

I got lucky finding some great plates, and I just added a few small touches to 3 of them.  One had pink flowers that I changed to a lighter grey color with porcelain paint.  The two with text on them, I hand drew with a industrial strength sharpie. 

I'm not sure (now, of course) why I thought this was the best idea, but I use 3M strips for everything.  I actually hung quite a few (heavy even) items above my fireplace that stayed up for over a year.  I also recently hung some mirrors with 3M strips.  They are really a wonderful tool to have around the house!  Well, come to find out, not so good for plates.  The biggest challenge was the lips on the back of the dishes.  I had quite a few placed on there and, I thought it was a rather secure way to hang them up. 

Here is round one.  They looked amazing, I was loving the spacing of the plates and the coloring.  However, after about an hour, I went outside to finish spray painting, and I hear one hit the ground.  I knew it was bound to happen, but not so soon.  Although I liked the plate on top, I wasn't super worried about replacing it. 

The heart breaking one was my favorite plate, which broke in half after I tried to put it up a second time.   I push just a little too hard and it just cracked.  This was the very first one I found, ugh.  So of course, I had to find a new way to hang them.  After doing some research online, I read that hot glue was actually one of the best and easiest ways to go.  I was little weary, but my mom agreed that it should be pretty secure. 

I thought I might as well test my luck and used a ton of hot glue and a paper clip on each of the plates.  Just make sure your glue is really hot, so the hold will be strong enough.  It looks horrible, but feels really secure, so I placed them up with nails using these hooks.

Now you can see the new arrangement is a little different than the first.  I really liked the first better, of course, but this one is growing on me.  I was able to find a plate to replace the top, but I don't think I'm going to stumble upon the other plate any time soon.  I still feel that I need 2 more to fill in the bottom center gap and one more on the top left.  We'll see what I can find!

Here are two shots of the ones I wrote on with sharpie:

So, if you are ever looking to hang some pretty little plates from your wall, I'd suggest using hot glue.  Or you'll get to hang them all over again! 

Love B

DIY Alphabet Blocks

 This past Sunday, my mom and I hosted a small little baby shower down in San Antonio.  I decided to get a little crafty and make some alphabet blocks for their little bundle, Liam.  Here is how I made some pretty stinking cute blocks for him!

DIY LOVE frames

This was probably the quickest DIY project I've done yet and only $12.  I was inspired by a picture I saw and posted about it a few weeks ago.  I found these adorable frames at Michaels yesterday and knew they would work perfectly, plus you can't beat $3 a frame!  The frames came in 4 different sizes and colors of black, brown, and what I went with - white.  The hardest part was picking out the font to use.

I am still hoping to make the table, but for now they get to reside on our buffet!

Love B

Project Love - Cedar door mat

Well, I finally did it.  I made the pretty wooden door mat that I posted about last month.  I love the way it turned out and was a pretty easy project to do.  Even those that aren't super crafty could rock this project!  Just make sure you have the tools to make it and you are good to go!  It went pretty quick and I finished it in one afternoon.   

Here was my process and the final results:

What do you guys think?
Love B

Oh pinterest...

...you have officially taken over my life.  I must admit that I signed up for Pinterest quite a while ago, but never really got into it.  Not really sure why... What's not to love about an endless supply of inspiration, DIY projects, and all sorts of pretty little things. 

Now that I've wrapped up my fall wedding season, I have so much more time for activities!  I now have a ton of things I want to start making for the holiday season, and I can't wait to start getting crafty!!

I wanted to share a few of the things I put together this last week.  I didn't have a ton of time with a wedding celebration Friday and Saturday, but these are SUPER quick and easy!

Adorable hair style... 

I'm not quite as pretty as the girl above, but I did really like how the wrapped braids looked on me.  I actually have worn my hair down and up with this style. 

I loved this frame and the idea that you can get a dry erase marker and write out a message for your loved one!

My version is a little different, but with the same concept!  Still need to go get the marker... :o)  

Absolutely loved this framed cut out of the states.  

I decided to just do Texas since me and the hubby were both from the same state.  

Heart placed where home is!

I had an extra frame and decided to go ahead and make a cute little sign for Christmas!   

Can you guess which Christmas movie this is from??  

Only my favorite... Elf!! 

Today I went supply shopping with a friend in preparation for all the adorable Christmas decor we will be making after Thanksgiving.  I'm technically not cheating on my 'Don't do Christmas until after Thanksgiving thing'... No decor up in my house yet!

You can see all my boards by following me on Pinterest - B Walker is my user name.  Also, if you'd like and invite, let me know. 

Love B

Wall of Mirrors

So here is my most recent project that I have been working on - after about a month - it's finally done!  I know I had mentioned in previous blogs how much I need to spruce up my walls... Well I finally started on one, my dining room wall.

This was my inspiration:

My first thought was that I needed much larger frames to look proportional to my huge wall.  I set out on my search for mirrors - talk about frustrating... Anything that is that large and has a mirror is pretty expensive, even at places like Home Goods and 50% off at Hobby Lobby.  So, I figured I could just look for frames I liked and use the mirror from our old master bath.  Ha, not so much.  I found some amazing deals for the frames, but when I looked again at that bath mirror, it was WAY too heavy to cut and put in the frames.  Plus, it was about a 1/2 inch thick.  Not happening.  So, as most of my projects go... On to Plan B.

I did some searching online and found out some people used a spray paint that can be used for a mercury glass or plain mirror affect.  I was only able to find it at Michael's, but this tiny can costs $12 for 6 ounces.  Ouch.  Apparently, it was my lucky day because the check out girl thought the same thing.  She said if I 'signed' up for their emailing program she would give me 40% off each one!  Deal.

So I decided to make some of the mirrors look like mercury glass and the others just have an olden mirror finish.  One of the smaller frames I got had a regular mirror in it, so I left that one alone.  I painted all the frames with paint that we had and a darker textured paint I found at Lowes.

Here are the frames post paint, pre-glass:

Then I had to figure out how to put the glass in there and hold it there.  Originally, there were these awful horse pictures in there and they were stapled in.  I decided to use liquid nails and make it a little more secure.  After letting that dry for a day, D had to help me with the rest.  We had to readjust some of the wires on the back of the mirrors and reposition them.  Then we finally got to put them on the wall.

Thank goodness for my handy man, because otherwise I wouldn't have been able to put them up myself.  With a little math and only a few extra holes in the wall, we got them all up and secure.  I love the end result!

View from our kitchen:

View of the mercury glass affect:
 

Then to make the project even better, I found something similar on Anthropologie today -

DIY project under $100 vs Anthro's $698, I'd say I did pretty good!  I still need a few more touches to the wall, but loving what I've got going so far. 

Here's to pretty, shiny, beautiful mirrors.  Love B

Beautiful Mistakes

None of my projects are ever perfect, but sometimes they turn out completely different than I first imagined.  Sometimes they may even turn out better than what I had planned them to be.  I see all sorts of adorable things on blogs, and I think, 'man I can so make that'.  Some are awesome, and some end up on the curb on trash day. 

I STILL have not filled up all my empty walls in my house.  I keep trying, but we have other, bigger, items to work on in the house, and I can't justify spending a ton on the walls - yet.  So I saw this small project online, and I thought I could do something small and cute for the kitchen.  It wasn't quite the way I wanted it, but I think it turned out pretty cute.

 Not sure why this picture is a little blurry, but all you need is raised letters, a canvas, and spray paint.  

Since I was going for something for my kitchen, I decided to embrace my love of baking.  I placed the letters on the canvas - since mine were stickers = super easy.  In the blog I saw, they glued theirs on the canvas. 

 

I spray pained the canvas and the letters.  I had a 'duh' moment when I thought the foam letters would really absorb the spray paint.  Not happening.  So here is where I change the project up a little.  I decide to let the canvas dry for a day, and then I peel off the letters. 

I think it looks pretty cute.  It will go up on a shelf in my kitchen {if I ever get one}.  For now, it's sitting in my window seal.  

This and that...

{I've been trying to really keep hydrated, well more than I used to, so this is my new obsession}

{One of my cat's is in love with the new chair we got into the house.  He's ridiculous} 

Quick. Easy. DIY

Some times I surprise myself with how cute my DIY projects turn out.  Don't get me wrong, I get a handful of not so cute ones before I share one I like. :o)  This one is super easy to do, given that you'll need some patience, it's adorable once finished.  I am constantly trying to find cute things to put on the walls, and since I had some extra board laying around, I thought I'd put it to use. 

I stained the wood a dark mahogany to go with all the black I have lying around.  Then I bought some small nails with a larger flat head.  I found a cute font on my computer and printed out the word 'love' to the size I wanted it on the board.  Just place the paper on the board and hammer the nails in directly through.  I really like how it turned out - what do you think?

I wish I would have taken more pictures along the way, but I honestly didn't know how it would look.  Love the way the nails shine in the light.  It's the small things.

Love B

DIY Frames

I wanted to share my 5-minute craft project for the evening.  I am sick of my barren walls, so I am on a mission to pretty them up. This is a start to my kitchen nook. 

The mustache was totally inspired by one of my latest brides!  I made the items in Word and printed them on my home computer.  Frames courtesy of Target.  I will be adding more items to this wall, but it's a start!  I still need to paint/stain my little table I got at the antique fair and craft a DIY rug for the space as well.  Good thing I have the weekend free!!

Love B

Busy. Busy.

We had such a busy weekend with all the projects we've got going on.  I found this wreath online, from House of Smiths Blog, that I just had to make for my front door.  I've made these flowers with fabric for a pillow that is on my bed.  I under estimated the number of flowers needed to fill the size of foam I got.  However, tissues flowers are way easier to make than fabric ones.  What I thought would be a day project, is now a week project!  Finished pictures to come.

What I am most excited about is what has been happening in our bathroom.  TILE!!!!!!!!  That's right, we finally got the time to start on the wall.  We hope to finish it tonight and grout tomorrow..  Here are a few pictures and I'm off to get started!

The subway tiles look green in this image, but they are grey.  The shelf is not really blue, just covered in tape and those are pretty glass tiles in the shelf.  We are getting stuff done!!!  Love B