As soon as I saw this post over on my girl Courtney's blog, I knew I had to make this craft for my nieces (8 year old twins) and my nephew (their 3 year old little brother). They are all at the stage where they are LOVING arts and crafts (awww, they must take after their incredibly gorgeous aunt!), so I decided that an art kit would be perfect to make for each of them for their Christmas gift!

For the record, I know I'm incredibly frugal most of the time. But, I promise!!, the DIY Christmas gift approach was not just my attempt at being a complete and total cheap-o. Many of these were gifts that were made in addition to other presents or were "handmade" gift exchanges, where most people brought baked goods. Just wanted to throw that out there :)

Throughout the last few months, I've been bookmarking ideas that I've seen out in blog world, with thoughts like- "ohh, my mom would LOVE that!" and "what a wonderful gift idea!" So, I decided it was high time to get my glue gun out and actually make some of these projects come to life.

So, THANK YOU for having such wonderful ideas, my friends.

Because, thanks to you, I just copycatted my way through Christmas : )

my gift to my sister

MOUSTACHE GLASSES

thanks to Jen over at Tatertots & Jello

When I saw this post on Jen's blog, I knew I had to recreate this fabulous gift for someone. And the perfect candidate became my little sister, Callie. She's a freshman in college (remember the dorm room art I made her back in August?) who is always in need of basic house items for her dorm room. Plus, she loves to ham it up with her roommates, so you can see that this is the perfect little gift.

Supplies:

-drinking glasses (I got mine in a 12 pack at WalMart for $8)

Seriously, how awesome are these glasses?!

 David and I are nearing home plate with our master bathroom renovation. We tackled some major end-of-the-road projects over the weekend (like running water... as in, I can brush my teeth in there! This is finally happening!). And one project that we can finally cross off of our list is the vanity.

We installed the bathroom vanity four times. I told you all about the first install here, with the Pottery Barn vanity that I wanted for about two years and then fell madly out of love with as soon as it hit our doorstep. Takes two, three and four all occurred with the Home Depot vanity I mentioned last week. Let me backtrack.

But unfortunately we still had to reinstall this vanity... thus vanity install attempts two, three and four!

Because of the nature of the open scheme of our first PB vanity choice, we had the plumbers fix the pipes so that they came up from the floor instead of from the wall (so they could be easily covered and not hanging out all over the place). Of course, we didn't end up choosing the open vanity option, so that was all for naught. Oh well. No harm, right? Ahem... as David and I attempted worked to install the new Home Depot vanity, we realized that it couldn't fit over the piping as it was laid out. Road block. So we had to get some help (in the form of our local handyman) to move the vanity over so that it fit over the pipes...which meant moving the matching electrical sockets and lighting as well. I know- it's like one of those "if you give a mouse a cookie" scenarios! Unfortunately it took our guy two attempts to install the vanity so that it's just perfect, rounding out four full (and final!) attempts at getting this bad boy in.

But oh, is it worth it.

It has been a busy few weeks around our house, but I am excited to finally have some beautiful "after" pictures to share of our kitchen and breakfast room makeover.

Last week, I shared the big reveal of our freshly painted kitchen cabinets. They went from a dingy off-white to a fabulous stark white.

Here's the room before.

And here it is after.

As you can see, our second big step was to take that salmon pink/orangey color and transform it to a calming gray. The paint color is Behr's Mineral, a perfect mix of beige and gray. Which, if I might add, goes perfectly with it's new fresh white trim, which is a custom color.

Here's another before shot of the breakfast area.

And after.

I absolutely love how light and bright it is- the paint really opens up the space.

 

 

So there we have it! It's amazing what a little paint will do! David and I are suuuuuuppper happy with the results. We woke up yesterday morning, walked in the kitchen for our coffee and just smiled :) It is so much more "us." What do you think?

I did it. Jumped on the sunburst bandwagon. I couldn't resist! I think this super-sized version of the DIY sunburst is exactly what my newly painted dining room wall needed.

I followed Janell's tutorial but switched up a few things. Instead of using regular sticks, I used bamboo sticks (a bundle from Michael's was only $4 with a coupon). FYI, the mirror is a Target clearance special ($9.99). 

I spray painted the sticks a metallic silver color, instead of a flat white.

And as you can see, I just about doubled the size of the sticks as compared to Janell's mirror- I knew I wanted the sunburst mirror to go in the dining room and, therefore, it had a lot of space to fill. So, I decided: go big or go home! I know that I need more art on the walls to help balance out the dramatic mirror (and I need to change out that light fixture! I'm working on it!), but I think this is a good start.

I know it's not perfect, but neither were the shape of the bamboo sticks that make up the mirror. Each stick sort of bends in its own direction, so it was a chore to get them to lay in a semi-straight pattern.

  
For example, see the little gap on the top of the mirror? Both sticks are rolled out in opposite directions, leaving a little space. Awww, it's sort of like a kid with no front teeth, isn't it?! See, now you love my not-so-perfect mirror too! 

I kind of love the fact that it's not perfect- it gives the mirror lots of dimension and personality :)