Staying Organized: Kraft Paper Dry-Erase Calendar

I am a planner.  Not my best quality, not my worst.  I'm working harder to be a bit more spontaneous -- our summer road trip was proof of that -- but I will probably never be able to turn off the part of me that wants to make sure everything is in alignment.

I am also a visual person.  I need to see plans in writing, physically see my to do list on paper, to make it make sense in my head.  While I love technology, it is not always my friend in my plan making.  

This physical need to visualize plans is what inspired this project.  For nearly all of my adult life, I have had a physical calendar in my kitchen, planning out the months.  Usually, I'd look for calendars that would add a bit of art to my space, or even let me dream of far-off places.  You know, something that looks nice.  Not too long ago, we "upgraded" to a dry-erase magnetic calendar for our fridge since wall space is a bit limited in my current kitchen.

Kraft Paper Planter

So, I took a bit of a summer break.  I hadn't really planned to, but plans just kept forming, and life became more important, and I realized it was a much needed break.  I will admit though I've had kind of a hard time getting back to my projects:  all those little things on my to do list so I can one day stop and smell the roses.  So, here I am getting back into the swing of things.  I missed my wittle bloggy-blog.

I mentioned in my last post that we are giving our kitchen a mini-makeover.  #goodbyeyellowkitchen  Between the hubby's and my work schedules - and our summer break - it's taking a lot longer than I had hoped, but I think we have most of the major projects out of the way.  Now, we are just down to the nitty-gritty...you know, the stuff that always gets pushed to the end that's just not as much fun to do as the rest of it.  I'm not entirely sure when those last little bits will get done.  To be honest, that's driving me nuts, but I'm trying to be chill and just go with the flow about it all.  I'm more grateful for my life being so busy because it means we are living.  

But, that also means the most exciting part -- the reveal -- is still a ways off.  Womp-womp.  So I thought what I would do in the mean time is share all the little projects that make up the big project, which will hopefully get you excited for what our kitchen looks like now.

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In an attempt to add some greenery to my house with indoor plants, I opted to put an aloe vera plant in my kitchen for decorative - and practical - reasons.

I can't really remember how the idea came about, but when I was planting the little aloe plant in its pot, I was wishing it wasn't the color it was because it just didn't work with what I had going for my kitchen.  I thought it would be neat to have a pot that looked like Kraft paper.  I'm trying to keep my kitchen modernly neutral with farmhouse touches and the Kraft paper look is right on par with that.  But how does one get a Kraft paper pot for a real plant?

Wrap it.

{Re*Made}: Cabinet Door to Tray

I am probably 85% hoarder.  I have this problem with throwing things away.  I mean, surely I can figure out some sort of use for it, right?  My house is full of just stuff waiting for me to figure out its use, some of it has been waiting years.  I know, it's ridiculous.  I am trying to be better about it, and the hubby and I tried doing the 40 bags in 40 days.  We started out great and got rid of a ton of stuff, but between our two work schedules, we couldn't stick with the schedule.  I'm hoping we can keep going even though it won't be within the original planned 40 days.

A few of the things I keep I know right away what I want to do with.  Thank goodness.

If you follow me on Instagram, you've seen we are giving our kitchen a face lift.  #goodbyeyellowkitchen  We aren't calling it a makeover really because there's mainly just painting and accessories being added.  Ok, and some new shelves, and a new cabinet....  It's taking a while (due to those work schedules I mentioned) but hopefully I'll have that reveal soon (because I'm so ready for it to be done!).

Strawberry Shortcake Birthday Invites

I have been chomping at the bit to share these invites!  

Since jumping into the graphic design world, the majority of my customers have been of the boy variety.  Not that I have anything against boys, but not being able to do sugar and spice and everything nice has had me itching for some time to have a girl client.

My very dear friend made my wish came true when she welcomed her sweet little daughter to the world.  I can't even begin to tell you how excited I was when she asked if I could do her first birthday invites.

And then how even more excited I was when she told me the party theme was Strawberry Shortcake.

Too cute!  

I loved the color scheme, which was something we had done before when she was born.  Her mom had asked me to make towels for the sweet baby, as well as name art for her room, which was all in the Strawberry Shortcake color arena.

I couldn't resist making a little strawberry onesie, too!

Ch-ch-ch-changes!

Times, they are a'changin'.

Or, maybe just I am.

Which is an odd thing for me to confess because I've never really been a big fan of change.  But yet, when I think about it, I am always changing things up, always wanting to mix up my routine, always varying my interests.

With all this talk of change, I bring you a post all about change!  Betcha didn't see that coming, did ya, haha!

First things first, the blog itself.  I am finding myself leaning more and more towards modern design:  in my pins, in my home and now in my blog look.  I've gone through several modifications (even an entire name change!) to get to this point, but I hope (really hope) this is it.  For a while.  A long while.  (:  And I hope it speaks more to what I hope this blog will be about:  me doing whatever makes me happy and sharing it with you guys, whether it is a DIY project, a graphic design project or a design trend or space that I'm in love with.  

The blog's new design has been up for a bit, but I thought I'd formally introduce you.

{Functional Art} Broaches in the Bathroom

Here's a little "me" trivia:  I don't wear much jewelry.  I love jewelry, I own probably more pieces than I'll ever wear, and I like to buy pieces that I may never wear {go figure!}.

But I usually just stick to the basics:  wedding ring, college ring, watch, "What Cancer Cannot Do" cuff (for my mom), my diamond studs and a necklace {usually a simple pendant}.

I do love the occasional "dress-up" event, when I can really lay on the jewels, and I have some really pretty pieces for those times, but most days, I just keep it simple.

Somewhere along the line, however, I became a broach gal.  I just LOVE broaches, especially vintage, sometimes quirky ones, and I try to work one into most my outfits.

My Top 13 of 13

I know traditionally this is done at the end of the year, or the very beginning of the new year, but I've debated about doing a post like this for a while.  In the end, I swayed myself to do it.  I love a good reminiscing.  (:

So, here's what ya'll were loving in 2013 from {be made designs}:

Happy 2014 & a Sweet Little Desk Makeover

Happy New Year!!

I hope you guys had a great holiday!  Mine was actually pretty swell, save for a small case of the flu infiltrating a portion of my family, but all in all, I had a really nice holiday.  And I gotta say, not being overwhelmed by Christmas projects was such a relief.  That feeling has inspired me for 2014 and how I want to "run my life."  I have no resolution for this year.  While my past resolution {to try new things} has served me well, I feel like it has become enough of a habit, or second nature to me, that I can let it go as a standing resolution.

And I didn't want to give myself anymore pressure with a new resolution, continuing that relaxed feeling I had during Christmas and New Years.  I am going to keep that feeling by not creating a goal list for myself and my business for this year.  Not that I don't have goals or things I'd like to accomplish this year.  Because I do.  More than I'd like to admit to, ha ha!  But if they get done, they get done.  If they don't, they don't.  I'm just going to go with the flow and see how it goes, and while that goes against EVERYTHING in my personality, I'm excited to try to break away from that planning restriction.  Although, I am still going to make my lists so I can cross off what I do {such a feeling of satisfaction there!} and because it seems to be the best way I can organize my mind.

Know what I mean?! / via

Ok, enough of that!  I've got a couple of fun things to share with you to start off this new, carefree year!

If you follow me on Instagram {which, if you don't, you should.  It's the best way to get to know me and my quirkiness}, you probably saw a few fun things from this last month:

{1}  My hubby informed me he had NEVER seen "White Christmas!"  At the time I thought he had to be from another planet or something because that was a holiday staple in my house -- and everyone elses, too, right?! -- but I quickly learned there are countless others who have never seen it!  Crazy!  I'm thinking a social intervention is called for.  Community-wide "White Christmas" festivals.  Or something.  Who's with me?!

{2}  I watched both my nephews (18 mos & 4 yrs) Christmas Eve Eve, and upon arrival at my house, Matthew (the 4 yr old) asked me if we were going to make cookies for Santa like last year.  Uh, yeah, sure.  We took a quick trip to the grocery store to get sugar cookie supplies, which were next to none the day before Christmas Eve.  Lucky for me, Pillsbury heard my pleas for help and provided me with instructions on how to make cookies from a cake mix right on the box.  Santa cookies saved!  They are pretty yummy, btw.

{3}  I have seen the entries and winners for Design Within Reach's cork chair competition for years and have always wanted to try my hand at creating a mini chair just using the cork, wire and foil from the New Year's champagne bottle.  After years of saying "I wanna," I did.  I'm not going to submit them but it was fun trying to imagine what I could do with those small parts and what I could create with them.  And that cork is harder to carve than you'd think!  

I also got back to designing our Christmas cards after a hiatus last year.  It took me a little bit to find inspiration but eventually it found me, via the hubby.  He found this cute little graphic of Santa and his reindeer that had been heavily pixilated on purpose -- like the classic video games.  I've also been drawn to the winter sweater pattern {you know, the snowflakes & deer one} that seem to be everywhere now, so I thought to combine the two.  I was quite pleased with how they turned out.

There was a project I completed just before Thanksgiving but with the Christmas posts and my blog on hold until the new year, I haven't shared it yet {unless, of course, you saw on Instagram}.

I love color.  Like, all colors.  I hate being asked what my favorite color is because I don't know!  But as much as I love color, I have always stayed away from it in my interior designs, especially my own home.  You can see this in all my makeover posts.  Mostly whites and browns with hints of color here and there, but nothing bold.  Nothing that really says, "Look at me!"

I did have a brush with boldness when I redid this little metal student desk.  That green was just perfect.

And this little desk inspired me to step out of my comfort zone and do something bold again.

But this new redo may be my favorite makeover to date.  Well, maybe second, but just barely.  That metal student desk still holds my heart.

A tiny bit of history before the before and afters.

I had this chair forever.  We had bought it several years ago at a garage sale with the intention of making it over.  But some major life events pushed that project to the back-40 burner and we just used it as a chair here and there.

Great little back detail!

I really wish I could have gotten a true before pic of the chair so you could get the whole effect.  The seat was upholstered in this creamy satin stuff that would have been all that in the early 90's, but obviously over the years it got dingy.  Plus, the seat base was made of particle board and time had taken its toll, and it had begun to disintegrate, until one day I sat on it....and fell through.  Ugh.  Yeah, that's a boost of confidence, lemme tell ya.

So we replaced it -- der! -- with plywood so it's super sturdy now.

Then one day the hubby came home with a desk in the back of his truck from our landlord, saying he was just going to throw it out but wanted to see if I wanted it first.  Heck yeah!

I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it -- makeover-wise -- but I knew I would be painting it because it did have a bit of water damage at the bottom.  Plus, I knew we wouldn't be keeping it because we just had no use for another desk, so maybe that's another reason I was ok with doing something different.  I wouldn't have to live with it, ha ha!

But since I was going to try and sell it, I knew it needed a chair, and that's when I remembered that poor lonely garage sale chair.

From there, I found my fabric I wanted to redo the chair in -- something fun -- then picked a color from the flowers to paint the desk.

Initially, I was going to go with the lighter blue for the desk.

However, when we got to the paint swatches, the blues just weren't doing it for me.

But the pinks were!

So I picked the perfectly Pantone "Raspberry Wine" pink, shaking in my boots the whole time.  Was I nuts to paint a desk this bold of a color?  This bright of a pink?

Hubby said no, and I trust his judgement when I doubt mine, so I went with it.

And I love it!!

He does too, believe it or not.  In fact, he said if it didn't sell, it looked good where I had it for photographs and we would just keep it there.  Wow!  I was shocked!  But that made me feel good when this Army-green-&-neutral-lovin' dude was diggin' my bright, bold pink desk!

Ok, ok, without further ado.....

{Before}

{After}

{Before}

{After}

I thought it would make a perfect desk and vanity, so I styled it as such for the sale photos.

Kitty photo bomb!  She couldn't resist trying out the new chair.

Isn't she lovely?!  I just loved how it turned out, and so did everyone else.  After I nervously posted her for sale, I had all kinds of interest, and she sold rather quickly.  Now I am earnestly looking for my next redo to sell and spread the beauty!  Exciting!

Wow, that was a lot for my first post of 2014, but I'm thinking its a great way to start!  I'm hoping to share some other new stuff -- including an Etsy shop announcement that's been way too long in the making -- but I'm in no rush.  I know non-regular posts are a turn-off to readers, but, selfishly, I'm looking forward to the go-with-the-flow plan and only bringing you guys posts I feel are valuable and not time wasters.  Because that annoys the heck out me!

So here's to a low-stress, carefree 2014!!  Hooah!!

TTfN!

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Mini Christmas Advent Calendar

I know, I know.  December is well under way and I'm bringing you an Advent DIY for my last Christmas project.  Really, this should have been my first, right?  As much as I'd like to say I'm on the ball with getting stuff like this done on time, I'm not.  I could say that I've had this done for a while but took forever to write the post, but I didn't.  I finished just a couple of days ago.  Just a few days into December.  Ah well.

To be honest, I'm not sure how much of a DIY this will be.  The little shelf I used was something of my mom's that she had forever.

I mean, check out this sticker on the back:

When was the last time you saw that logo from Wal-Mart??

Like I said, I'm not sure how many of you would have a shelf like this, but I did a quick search and found a few on ebay, and this board on Pinterest shows a couple of options as well.  I love the typesetter drawers, and those are fairly common in antique venues.

My mom loved cats, was a collector of all things cats, and she kept her miniature cat collection in this knick-knack shelf.  But after moving a couple of times, I guess she figured she wasn't going to display them anymore -- I'm not sure -- but I found the shelf in a closet one day and asked her what she was going to do with it.  She told me nothing, that I could have it, and when I counted 25 spots, I knew it would make a cute Advent calendar.

That was a couple of years ago actually, but life happened and I remembered this year I had that thing and decided to do something with it.

First of all, the sad brown wood would have to go.  It was just not in good shape, and overall was too dark.  But before I painted the thing, I had decided the numbers would be done like I did my design on my corkboard redo -- I'd pull off the stickers to reveal the background color.  {Side note:  anybody know what that process is called??  Apparently I like using it and I'd like to know what to call it, ha ha!}

I wanted my calendar to be fun, so I picked different Christmas-y colors and randomly painted spots in each section.

Then I picked my numbers from several different sticker sets in different fonts.  I also decided to spell out a few of the numbers, just to mix it up.

Once I had each number in place, I painted the entire shelf.  Which took much more paint than I thought it would, and was much more tedious than I expected.

That's why I finished last night.  Instead of before December 1.  That, and painting with an 18-month old running around thinking he needs to be painting, too, can be a little difficult!  O, but I love it.

After I painted the whole thing white, I painted the little decorative brackets at the top gold, and then free-handed a gold star on the top of the roof, where the roof "hip" is.

Once the paint was dry, I began peeling off my stickers.

Here's some advice should you want to try this method:  use plastic stickers.  These would be -- in my experience -- the ones that come on a clear plastic sheet, not on a white sheet where when you peel them off, you see the outline of the letter still on the sheet.  Those are made of paper, and do not peel well when wetted with paint.  Well, their paper layers peel well.  Ugh.

So after carefully and frustratingly peeling layer after layer of my stickers -- and having to touch-up a few places -- my Advent calendar was complete.

I really like how it turned out.  My hubby said it was very Christmas-y.  Well, that works!  :D

When my brother and I were growing up, my mom did an Advent calendar for us, although at the time I didn't know that's what it was.  We just got a little gift everyday for 25 days before Christmas, and it was awesome!

And even though my husband and I don't have kids, I don't see why that means we can't have fun with an Advent calendar, too!  This year I just stuck some candy and then these cute little felt ornaments I found in there.  But I thought it would be fun if he and I take turns -- i.e., he gets odd, I get even -- and find cute little things for each other.  The challenge of finding little, miniature gifts is exciting for me, although I'd be pretty easy.  I mean, a ring or a pair of earrings or a necklace would fit easy in any of those compartments, ha ha!!  He'd be fairly easy, too, with his love of toy police cars.  {BTW, he's reading this idea for the first time just like the rest of you.  Surprise sweetie! ;)  Don't you think that would be a great idea?!}

Just browsing Etsy, I found all kinds of cute, fun things:

Miniature Book Charms

Miniature Nativity made from Rice

Miniature Felted Barn Owl

Miniature Terrarium Necklace

Mini Flashlight

Miniature Vintage Wood Cigar Box

Motorcycle Police with Sidecar

Tin Police Car

Some of those are a bit pricey for an Advent calendar, but I think the hunt will be fun!  Target One Spot would also be a great place to find cute mini gifts.

Well, friends, that's all for my Christmas posts this year.  We got our tree and decorated this weekend, then decorated our house.  We had a crazy strong cold front come through a few days ago, so now, here in South Texas, it is feeling more like winter, which gets me more in a Christmas spirit.  It's just hard to get in the mood when you are running around in shorts and flip-flops!  Know what I'm sayin'??  But its perfect weather for chili, hot chocolate and Christmas movies, all while decorating!  Ya-hoo!

And, in case you're reading this post first, here are my other Christmas projects:
*Tomato Cage Christmas Tree Card Holder*
*Frosted Woodland Snow Globes*
*DIY Fleece Ruffle Wreath*
*Christmas Wreath from a Fan Cover*

TTfN!

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