Dani's room.

Remember this? This is the plan Autumn Clemons put together for Dani's room. Asking Autumn for help was the smartest thing I did in this room. (She has helped me with our entire downstairs, too. I'll show you those later. Awesome.)

Well, we're done (almost). I still need to add a few little details that Dani could care less about (like a bigger bookcase and ruffles and pillows and knobs, and pictures in the empty frames - you know...candy).

Autumn made this project really easy for me...she listed everything very clearly - where to get it, how much it cost, and why she chose it. So in case I couldn't get that exact item, I knew what to look for - matching the scale and colors, etc. There are only a few things we had to compromise on because of unavailability (like the awesome stainless steel desk from IKEA, blah). But the compromises still work.

I had her shelves all clean and organized once upon a time, in a far away land, but then she moved her stuff in. I kept sneaking in and rearranging everything, but she kept rearranging it back. So I backed off. It's her room, not mine. It's not my room. This is not my room. Hers. not mine.

let it go.

Dani and I made the headboard. I think it's pretty amazing. I took pictures along the way to show you how we did it, but I'm really not sure how it all came together. It was kind of a miracle. I didn't realize I didn't put the last row of buttons on until it was on the wall, and I'm not taking it down...and don't let that lead you to ask me how it's mounted to the wall (Dani is totally safe, but it's not pretty). There will be no tutorial on that one. I used the power tools before Conan came home and told him not to look closely. I got the "eyebrow". Code: unauthorized power tool usage. bad.

The chalkboard wall has been the biggest hit. It was well seasoned at Dani's birthday party...which deserves the mention: No, she does not love Dmitriy. You're welcome for pointing that out Dani. Because I know all the 6th grade reads my blog.

The peace sign is my favorite (found at Home Goods for $5). And that's Dani's mini apartment she made out of her cardboard stash. Okay, I'll show you around. It's awesome:

Yup, that's a toilet, and a shower curtain. And you can't even see the toilet paper roll.

So, Dani's room is now officially awesome to match the girl. Conan and I like to sit in there and talk all night, it's so nice. Then Dani comes in and kicks us out. Just kidding, she asks for us to leave very nicely. Just kidding, she wants me to stay in her room FOR-EV-ER.

Thank you Autumn!

And thank you, Dani, for being so wonderful. I love you.

I love this fabric.

{White Tail. Lewis and Sharon Textile Co.}

It now lives in our office.

And it's very happy there.

of life and artichokes.

I try to keep things real. You know, a messy clean, comfortable and simple. I enjoy simplicity.

You may not think blogging about what Joey got stuck up his nose this afternoon is relevant or influential, but it is good stuff. Believe me, someday you'll remember that lady's blog you read once whose kid liked to eat chocolate syrup and parmesan cheese for lunch, and think, wow...that kid was inspiring.

for real. you might.

So we've all established that my days aren't full of things that lift and inspire and motivate and make a difference and change the world and yooey whooey.

I'm common. and I like common. I'm comfortable with common.

But for real...

sometimes don't you wanna just be deep and intriguing? Don't you want to go volunteer at a free clinic across the ocean somewhere? It'd be nice to be the queen of something, like a parade. Someday I'd like to blog about the barn I built by myself out of reclaimed wood I hauled from a historic farm in Virginia, or about that huge race I just ran in my awesome umbros without throwing up. I'm not complaining, I just want to be the mayor. just sometimes. For a minute.

So I sit down and try to be intelligent. uh...

I know I have something profound to share.

I'm totally interesting. I know it.

Shouldn't I have a penetrating, thought provoking moment to exploit?

Can't I just pretend to be entirely captivating and have really real exciting experiences to pretend to be humble about?

Couldn't we all just decide my mundane is awesome; couldn't someone just ask me to be a Mormon Message already?

but alas...

look at the awesome artichoke lamp I got for 30 bucks!

that's all I've got.

In all actuality, I'd probably turn down the parade invitation. But thanks anyways.

My name's Cally.

I'm a wife and a mom.

I live a wonderfully common life,

I have a green artichoke lamp,

And I'm a Mormon.

awesome.

Dani's room.

Dani's awesome, and she turns twelve next month. This combination of coolness means two things...I'm old, and she deserves a monumental celebration! because she's awesome.

Since this is the Year of the House (and the Year of Good Health, and the Year of the Good Read, and the Perfect Sunday Roast, and Cheeescake) we decided to put our generous give-backs from the United States government (aka tax return) towards a new bed room for Dani.

It's needed. She deserves a cool place, to be cool.

I tried to come up with a plan for Dani's room by myself but soon realized I needed help to reach the level of greatness we were trying to achieve, so I asked Autumn, because she is awesome too, and she has been a huge part of our Year of the House so far. I knew she'd make it great. And she so totally did.

Here is what I sent her as our inspiration:

{Premier Prints via fabric.com}

{target.com}

{Beauty Will Save the World by Raceytay

found via Creature Comforts}

Dani loves giraffes, and the owl lamp, and purple - and I loved this color inspiration - and Autumn turned it into pure awesomeness.

Dani is very crafty and has needed TONS more storage space, and Autumn gave her that with all the shelves and bookcases. And all these pieces are grown up enough that Dani can take it all with her when she leaves home {I'm told that happens. they leave. eventually. sniff}.

So we're painting today, and buying a bed tomorrow, and waiting for Uncle Sam to deliver the rest.

I'm super excited. I mean, Dani's excited. It's all for Dani. My addiction to beautiful design and my desire to change everything this year has nothing to do with it. It's not about me. It's about the children.

We're both pretty excited.

take a picture, it'll last longer.

Whenever I clean my house {which is like, so often}

I walk around and make pictures in my head,

and if I like the picture I know it's clean. enough.

The sun was shining today, and I tidied,

so I grabbed my real camera this time.

So it can stay clean forever.

I like to preserve what our kids grow up in.

Like my messy "office"; I didn't clean that one.

Someday we may eat in there.

over the piano.

This canvas has been 6 different colors with 100 different sketches; I couldn't decide what I wanted prominently displayed in our living room. I had elaborate ideas of a big family portrait, a grand modge podge of hymns & scriptures, a collage of good words, a giant fabric flower, a doughnut; the ideas were endless. I needed a big thing the kids would see every day, staring at them with a colorful reminder of something wonderful.

So I thought about it. What do I want my kids to know. To do. Every day.

Pick up their socks.

Use a tissue.

Be nice.

Yup. That was it. But on a grander scale.

We're nice because we're happy. We're happy because we're loved. We feel loved when someone's nice.

Love one another. As simple as that.

Deep, but not really.

Because when she's upset she lost the spelling bee to that boy...again...she can be happy for him. And when he's disappointed that girl didn't come watch his game, he can give her the benefit of the doubt. And when he watches his friends embarrass that kid, he'll tell them to knock it off. Because when their little brother ruins their lego house, they can invite him to build a castle. And when we feel mad, we can be nice. And when we feel alone, we can remember.

It's a difficult concept for our selfish selves.

So that's what it became.

A big, simple reminder of something wonderful.

"As I have loved you, love one another."

Hanging over the piano.

my mom tats.

my whole life, I've watched my mom shuttle tat. She even taught me once and I made a rug for my Barbies, but then ruined it because I thought I could make it a wedding dress, and couldn't.

I used to lay on her arm and watch her shuttle go back and forth so fast I couldn't figure out what was happening. Then I'd pick up her project when she wasn't looking and try to count the number of knots she'd made.

It wasn't until my mom brought me a bag full of tatted snowflakes for my Christmas Tree a couple years ago that I realized what an amazing talent she had. Over Christmas this year she brought my sister and I bags of beautiful doilies and necklaces and flowers and lace. We divided them up semi-evenly {I snuck away with most of it} and I have finally framed some of my favorites and displayed them in my dining room.

I love it.

I have big plans to sell her tatting on bags and dresses and garlands and such whenever I open a shop.

Until then, I get it all out of the ziploc bag in my stuffed craft closet and just stare at how beautiful it is as I try to count the knots.

Still impossible.

placemats.

All right, I staged some pictures of a pretend Thanksgiving table with the placemats, and no silverware. Because we're not actually eating. And honestly, they're all dirty in my sink.

Now that it's over I wished I would have made them white with a red ruffle. Because Fall colors are so yesterday. It's Christmas you know.

I think my favorite part it the back.

These are easy guys. I don't have a full tutorial on them, but basically I sewed two pieces of fabric right sides together {with interfacing}, clipped the corners and turned them inside out. Then sewed around the edges, twice. Then, of course, added a ruffle. Because I can't stop with the ruffles.

Good food always tastes better with a pretty table.

it's officially official. It's not Thanksgiving anymore.

{My turkey was great by the way. Thing of the past. I fear cooking large fowl no more.}

{Buttercream frosting recipe coming. And another baby legs idea. And tote tutorial. Coming coming.}

{I saw slinky bracelets at the mall this weekend. I mean, really? It's like they raided my childhood and are throwing it all right back in my 30 year old face. Florescent splatter paint me, why don't you.}

necklace hangers.

I've been needing a new way to hang up my necklaces. I don't have many, but this is where I kept them:

A jumbled mess of a hand towel holder.

So I was at Hobby Lobby and saw these decorative wood blocks with a knob on them that had pretty paper decoupaged on them and thought..."hmmm. Those would be nice and simple, but they're too pretty, and cost $7. No thanks."

Then I walked in the wood aisle and saw the same wood blocks for 30% off of 50 cents. So I grabbed 3. Then I noticed that their cool drawer pulls were 50% off, so I picked 3. I spent $6. And hurried home.

Now I have this:

Much better.

First I painted the blocks white, then sanded them down on the corners a bit.

Then I drilled a hole in the bottom half of each wood block for the knobs, using a bit the size of the screws on the knobs.

I had to trim the length of the screw on the knobs or else they would stick out the back and not lay nicely against the wall. So I took the knob apart so I wouldn't damage the pretty part, and used a chisel and hammer to pound the end of each screw off. I guesstimated.

Once I reassembled the knobs, they screwed into the wood quite nicely. I did have to use pliers to tighten them, but they're good and secure. I would place some washer in between the knobs and the wood just to give more room for your necklaces to hang. I didn't do that.

Then I hammered in two staples into the back (hammered because I can't find the staple gun) just slightly and layed a piece of string under each staple, then hammered them in tight. I tied a couple knots and trimmed the ends.


Then hung each on a basic picture hanger. Easy.

easy Halloween window clings.

Andy has been going crazy wanting Halloween decor. I mean, the gigantic mummies and skeletons that talk and move their head to scare the b-geebee's out of you when you walk up to the door. He really had his eye set on those mechanical spiders that jump down in your face. Or just something to stick in the lawn, he says. Like a big nice witch on a nimbus 2000.

I told him we'd have to go non-electronic this year (uh, like every year) and maybe do the creepy show when we live on the land (because all our dreams will come true when we build our house on the land. Like the pet zebra.).

So we got out our Elmer's.

Here's how to make simple, non moving or screeching or jumping or croaking Halloween Window Clings. I love 'em.

carefully peel the glue clings off the tinfoil.
If you did the glue thick enough, this should be easy.

Make sure you put your words on backwards.
You don't want people to see a big "ood" on your house.
And stick the glue side on, not the colored side.

Sweet. Go with the glue and leave the jumping spiders where they belong. Far away from me.

Happy October!

lampshade do-over.

This was a fun project.

I have this lamp from Target I love, but I've never been happy with the red lampshade. See here. It was too dark. It only shone the bright energy saving bulb up to the ceiling instead of around the room. Not the ambience I wanted as I sat in my recliner and pretended to read a book in the evenings.

So I fixed it.

I ripped off the red polyester, which was secured with an expensive type of glue gun onto small slippery metal bars. A little tough, but nothing my girly push-up biceps couldn't handle (I can do 25 giry, and 11 manly pushups; I've been practicing. but my nose never ever ever reaches the floor with the manlies so I don't know if they count).

I traced a big wonky donut looking shape onto a soft cream muslin I was saving for I don't remember what. Sorry, no pictures of the process 'cause I was too busy speaking harshly to the skeleton of the lamp shade which kept falling apart without its cover.

Then I just started hot gluing my muslin donut back onto the base as sloppy as the red one was. Starting at the top and then wrinkling and gluing around the bottom to make the draped effect I like. And it turned out great! Except for the glue marks you could see around the top when the light was turned on. Drat.

So what do you do when you need a cover-up? You make flowers. I cut out two layers for each flower and sewed them together with a quick stitch on the machine; then glue gunned them around the top to cover the evidence.

Done and done.

Now I can see my pretend book much better.

a yellow house.

We've been planning on building a house for about...well...10 years now. We get close, and then decide to rent. We find plans and talk to builders, and then decide to buy. The market, the timing, the details, etc.

But we're close. I can feel it. It's just a matter of selling this house, really. Crossing my fingers.

So I've been looking through the humongo house notebook, finalizing how I want our new house to feel. That's important, to know this before we build it. These are a few pictures I've saved; "the feel".





Yes, that is Superman talking in his kitchen with Lex Luthor. Because ultimately I want the Kent Farm.

I want old, but new. White, but colorful. Bright and open. Practical and totally not put together on purpose.

A drinking fountain on the side porch, double ovens, a huge island and a conversation nook in the kitchen, an herb ledge above the sink, books and pillows, benches, windows windows windows, window seats, a kids craft closet with pipe cleaners and bubble wrap, pictures that make no perfect sense, words on every wall, and a green door. Somewhere. A green door somewhere.

Am I asking too much? Does the dream home really exist? It probably will be a little more practical than painted wood floors and a tiny frigidaire, but not totally put together. A place our kids can tell their kids about.

Hmmm.

And I'm pretty sure I want it to be yellow.



I'm sorry I don't remember where all the pictures came from. If I do remember, it's linked to it's bloggy source.