April Showers Bring May Flowers

Remember how I said I was going to cover every spare bit of wall space in my apartment with some sort of art? Well, progress has been made.

I've been staring at these flowers on the Urban Outfitters site forever. There's something I like about them but then every time I look at them I decide they're actually sort of dumb and not worth the $40 they cost. Then I'm drawn back and go through the whole thing again. Until all of a sudden it occurred to me that I could paint them.


I went to the craft store and bought a bunch of acrylic craft paint, the kind that's sold near all the unfinished wooden things you can paint, and some cheap brushes. I didn't really have a plan but I started by painting the backsides of the flowers. I left those to dry and came back the next day to do the fronts. I can be impatient so I was pretty stoked that this paint on this material dried really quickly.

Next I had to put them on the wall. The kit comes with these tacks and you basically just hammer them into a wall then snap the back of the flowers on. Not using a hammer is not an option, they aren't like thumbtacks, and you'll likely bend some of them. The kit comes with one extra pin but that wasn't enough to make up for the four tacks I ruined so I ended up super gluing a few to the wall. For those familiar with my past home projects this won't be a surprise. I also have a chandelier super glued to my ceiling and small rugs super glued together to create a large one.

Trust me, it's not as ridiculous as it sounds. And no, the chandelier is not going to fall down.


At this point I had super glued flowers to the walls, had a more than a few plaster mishaps being hidden by flower petals, and figured I was already in for a repair and paint job when I leave my apartment so, why not just go for broke and paint leaves on the wall too?




I can't tell you how happy it makes me to round the corner in the morning and see this. Especially with the recent sun.

A Sprinkler...

I've decided that pretty much every piece of available wall in my apartment should have art on it. This is going in my kitchen where I will never stop being happy when I see it.

I made some more art. Sort of.

I bought these really fantastic frames at Z Gallerie a few weeks ago. I wasn't really sure what to do with them or where to put them but I fell in love and they were 25% off so I pretty much had to buy them.



See?

So now I needed to decide what to put in them. I have a whole wall of photos in my living room so I wanted to do something different. I decided these were going to go in my hall and I wanted to put wallpaper in them. Except I didn't really want to buy rolls of wallpaper and I also didn't really feel like finding a wallpaper store and flipping through books and pretending I was going to buy something so they would give me samples and then get the wrong sizes and...the whole thing seemed like too much work. Know who has beautiful wallpaper though? Anthropologie. And their samples come in exactly the size I needed, 4"x6".

On their site you can request up to 13 samples of wallpapers so I decided to go big or go home and request the maximum 13. When I got them I was quite impressed.




The samples came in this really adorable envelope that someone had written on in very loopy letters with hearts and it was really just too cute. I wanted to photograph it but I also don't want to post my address and have all of you coming over for snacks and to look at my walls and all the things I super glue together.

Anyways, the samples came with this very handy and informative little card full of info. If I actually intended to buy wallpaper this may have sealed the deal. Also each sample had all this important stuff that I'm sure would be very helpful if you knew about wallpaper and were trying to map out how to hang it.

These are the samples I got.



I only had eight frames so I knew I needed to cut out five of the options. I decided I would use these ones somewhere else.



Then I mixed and matched to my heart's content.



And then two weeks later I got around to hanging them.

I made some art.

Super Rug

Remember when I posted about sewing the other day and I jokingly mentioned wanting to use glue except I wasn't really joking? Well get ready to think "Oh no she di'nt!" because I totally did.

Now before anyone gets all judgey I'm just going to throw out there that super glue is awesome, they even named it "super" glue which is probably an indication of how awesome it is or they would have named it "mediocre glue." Or maybe even "pretty good glue." But it isn't named either of those things is it? And it is super. I mean it dries quickly, it holds incredibly well, and there are about a jillion formulas that cater specifically to your glue needs. I'm pretty loyal to super glue after having used it to hang wall shelves three times and it totally working. And I didn't have to buy a drill so that just made it extra super.

Anyways, sewing was hard and took forever and I didn't want to do it again so I bought a bunch of super glue and decided to get to work.

I started with nine 2'x3' rugs that I previously mentioned purchasing at Urban Outfitters. Also eight bottles of this glue which is a gel, meaning it won't just soak into something porous like fabrics. It's also meant for high traffic areas or even outdoors so I knew it would likely stand up to being walked on. I just can't put my rugs in the dishwasher.



Javier decided to help which was nice of him. You can tell how helpful he was by the blur that his ears are.


I laid out the rugs just to sort of get a feel for it and to match up the lines. If you're going to try this yourself you're just going to kind of accept things aren't going to be perfect because these rugs varied slightly in size (not enough for it to really matter) and there's really no way you can match up the patterns. With a rug this busy though it's doubtful anyone will notice.


Javi approves.


So then I started gluing. I just put a thin line on the end of one rug and pressed the next one to it. It dried matte and clear.


I glued three rugs end to end three times to create strips of rug that I could then glue together.



Javi decided he was too sparkly for this nonsense so he ditched me.


This is the rug in it's finished state which I guess pretty much just looks like the picture where I laid them out but it's actually different.


I bought this no slip stuff at IKEA for under the rug. While it wasn't the exact size it's large enough to keep the rug in place and me from falling. Also it may be the only thing at IKEA with a name that makes sense.


Still a work in progress obviously but I think the fact that I have fairly contemporary furniture makes this rug a little less southwestern and actually ends up looking really cool.


So, the point of this whole thing was to not have to spend the amount of money that a rug this size would usually cost, plus to get a rug that isn't boring for that same lower price. I bought nine rugs for $18 each, eight tubes of glue for $3.50 each, and that thing from IKEA that was around $4. So in total this rug project cost me about $194 and took about two hours to complete. I have to say I'm completely satisfied with the results.

Sew Ready to Use Glue

So remember how I said I sewed the other day and that I'd tell you more? Well, now I am telling you more.

I'm fairly creative but sewing isn't at all my thing. I think the primary reason for my lack of sewing success is a lack of patience. Or maybe I'm just being gentle with myself and really it's a lack of ability to bring a concept to fruition. Either way, I don't sew. But I had that really great seemingly unambitious sewing together a rug plan. So I needed to sew.

Obviously, as someone who doesn't sew (is this word not seeming like a real word to anyone else by now?), I don't have a sewing machine, but sewing by hand didn't actually seem all that difficult. Turns out it is. Like, a lot more difficult. I sat staring at the rugs for a good ten minutes before I could wrap my head around how to do this correctly.

Now you may ask why I would take on sewing rugs together when I have this going on:


And the answer to that is basically that I have ADD. Only not really. Mostly just when it comes to doing things I don't want to do. So when handed a room full of boxes to unpack I decide I should learn how to sew.

This project isn't finished but progress has been made. And here's evidence.

First of all, these rugs are about a jillion times more amazing than they looked online. I love all the colors and tufts of fabric. These are just getting stitched together end to end to make a runner for my hallway. They were purchased online at Urban Outfitters.



I decided to use this red burgundy color on these rugs and the orange color on rug project number two. Also, I can thread a needle.



See that thread sticking out? That's where I sewed.


Javi decided to help until he realized sewing is exhausting.



And this is what I accomplished. Which sort of just looks like I laid the rugs next to each other but I promise they're really sewn together. Also the cardboard boxes aren't going to be part of the final decor. Also, those ones are empty so I'm not actually doing nothing and waiting for the boxes to magically unpack themselves.


I'll reveal more as it gets farther along. I may take on the big rug this weekend.

Feeling Inspired

Tomorrow is moving day! I went to bed at 2am after spending the evening packing, having a meltdown about packing, then packing some more. Luckily this girl has good friends, including one lovely lady who remained calm while I was stressing about piles of magazines and shoes (I know, I know, ridiculous) and offered to come help me pack this evening. But, even after going to bed at 2am I woke up on my own at 5am. Because I was that excited that it's the day before moving day!

My apartment is a disaster right now and it's throwing me off. I don't really handle piles of boxes and not knowing where anything is very well. Also, even though I've moved a billion times I don't have my packing method perfected. I started packing my closet by just starting packing. There was no rhyme or reason. And now getting dressed is difficult. None of this really matters though because tomorrow I get to sleep in my new, full of light apartment. And I don't even have to move a single box myself. In celebration of this, and because for some reason it just seems appropriate, today I am going to post bunches of photos from my home inspiration folder. They make me happy so hopefully they do the same for you.

Clicking on an image will enlarge it.