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I'm trying to decide, buttons or no buttons on the reworked bodice of this dress. Apparently there's this thing called me-made may which I'm thinking would be fun to participate in, at least a little.

nightstands are difficult and bedroom update

I've been slowly but surely finishing up my bedroom since the great diy bed project of last month and one of the final things remaining was some sort of bedside table. I don't know why but bedside tables, or nightstands, seem to be a very difficult thing to manage. The height and scale need to be perfect, and they tend to be awful or crazy expensive so for a while I just had a stack of books there and called it a day. With lights mounted on the wall I don't have a need for a table with tons of space, mostly just a place to put my book, my glasses, maybe a glass of water. 

I was trying out this little side table that has been in my living room for years (seen here) for a bit and it seemed to be a good scale so I just updated the top a bit. I used my favorite marble contact paper and covered the top. It took maybe 15 minutes and from a distance it looks convincing, though really I don't need it to look like real marble, just to be light and not a huge draw to the eye, since I feel like the bed is the real star of the space.

And with that finished I was motivated to make my bed and take some quick pictures. I've added art and made some new pillows as well since and they are really helping to make the space feel more finished. The photo is a blueprint of a photo I got from my uncle of my mother when she was in the circus. I like how looking at the whole room I can see that a bunch of elephants have made their way in and then see the place from which my love of elephants comes from. The pillows are just a sweet little calico I have a bolt of, I actually liked how quite and washed out it looked on the wrong side so I made them inside out. 

I also moved the diy Moroccan wedding blanket (tutorial here) on the wall next to my bed. My roommate has been dogsitting a bunch and Ruby has been a  bit too interested in it so it was moved from the couch. Turns out I love the way it looks on the wall so for now that's where it's going to stay. Of course I can't say the space is done, when is anything every really done, but it certainly seems done for now, and I continue to be very happy to go to sleep and then wake up rested here each day. So it seems like it's working out pretty well.

quick fixes- record cabinet

A few months ago my roomate was redoing his bedroom and dragged a low cabinet out into the hallway. He said it was not the right scale and I asked him what he was going to do with it. Already I had some ideas himself and as it turned out he was intending to just leave it on the curb I snatched it up. I traded it in for the tall fabric covered consol that was in the far corner of the living room, and it turned out it was exactly the right size to hold records. So it's been hanging out for about two months now, and while it is great functionally, it stores a bunch of games too and also makes a nice surface for some of my bigger plants, and I find that I play the records much more now that I can actually see them, it definitely wasn't winning in the looks department. it was square a dark and boring. 

I considered painting it briefly but no particular color sprung to mind. And then I thought, what if I covered it with something? So I pulled out some marble contact paper I had on hand and wrapped the top and sides of the piece, as well as covering the front and already I like it so much more. I am still considering extending the contact paper into the shelves but for now I am enjoying the contrast. The whole thing took about twenty minutes and just one roll of contact paper so it proved to be an exceedingly simple fix.

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April party details

Just a quick update about some of the little extras from the April party earlier this week.

First, I made up a quick invitation for the shower party, just a drawing of some umbrellas inspired by the tablecloth fabric, which I scanned and printed up on heavy cardstock and cut down to postcard size. I really like postcards in general (maybe cause I enjoy being nosy about mail) and as invitations it seems easier plus less cost towards stamps. Easy to just do a two sided print with info on the back or even just hand write out a simple what where when plus the address. 

Then there was the seed packet favors. I just sewed the packets out of basic construction paper and then fastened them with a clothespin. The seeds were a mix of wildflowers from the hardware store's nursery department which I mixed up and divided among the packets. 

And finally the umbrellas. I used this tutorial and then modified it by layering the blue circle on top of the white doily for some texture. I think if these were actually to go in drinks they might be a bit oversize but for table decorations they were pretty great, they could also easily be stuck in a cake for a cute topper.

April showers party

Somehow this month seems to be getting away from me. I swear it was just the first day of spring, just March, just beginning of the year and yet now it's almost the end of April???!? How this happened continues to baffle me. But regardless, I was due for another little party setup.

This month I decided to take inspiration from the classic phrase "April showers bring May flowers" and do a really straightforward 'shower' theme. Could by baby, could be wedding, could just be some sort of rain dance for California. 

The table was set with pretty basic dishes, I didn't want to get too busy since the fabric (which I just happened to have in my stash from an old fabric) was just so perfect and the little storm cloud I set up on the wall was a lot as well. I used white dishes and some blue rimmed salad plates, added in some copper mugs with cute stripey straws to break up all the white and then added some various sized pom poms to the middle of the table to add some interest. 

I was thinking about the whole rain leading to flowers thing and decided to make some pretty seed packets for favors. I just sewed some little envelopes out of dark green construction paper, filled them with wildflower seeds and added some decorative paper and a mini clothespin. I also made the paper umbrellas on each plate, using a small doily, blue paper and a cocktail skewer. They were actually super quick and I think I will now have to make custom drink umbrellas for all my parties.

The wall decoration was very straightforward too. I made the raindrops from construction paper covered with crepe paper fringe (though they could have just as easily been solid paper I felt like the added texture was fun) hung from fishing line, and the 'cloud' was a bunch of white balloons with I attached to the wall with washi tape.

As far as how the budget broke down I again was mostly pulling from my stash for fabric, paper and dishes, but I had to pick up a few things.

wildflower seeds............................................5.00

white balloons................................................3.00

paper straws...................................................5.00

total...............................................................13.00

I also have some more details about the making of the umbrellas and the favors as well as some little invitations I made that go with the theme.

Now if only I could get it to rain here for real............

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