Weekend wall art

Happy Monday ladies and gents!

First off, how amazing was the weather in Dallas on Saturday??? It was rainy and went from 75 in the morning and dropped all day to about 52 at night. It was the perfect day to layer up, open the windows, and get some work done! That being said, we did ALL the laundry in the house and managed to do some deep cleaning, cooking, and DIY projects. I'll be sharing those on the blog this week, along with a few snippets of our Fall and Halloween decor. Stay tuned! :)

One thing that I am always wanting more of is art or wall decor. I have tons of picture frames and I end up making collages out of those, but many times you need a bigger piece of art in your home to make it more personal. Here's the problem: we're not millionaires. We can't go to an art show and drop $1000 on a piece of art, and even if we did, I would be terrified that my tastes would change and I would end up not liking it. Since my taste does seem to vary often, I'm always keeping my eyes open for some DIY art ideas.

Here are two images that I pinned about a month apart from each other:

This nursery wall, via Pinterest, is so cool! 

These canvases via Etsy have just the right pop with the metallic peeking through. 

Notice a pattern? I liked these because of the geometric look and it looked like they would be pretty easy to make. Plus, the larger canvas in the second image, from Etsy, goes for $97.50! That's a little steep for a bargain hunter like me, so I decided to give it a go myself.

I looked long and hard for the original photos of these canvases, but I can't find them. I bought a 2-pack of canvases about 5 years ago and painted them when I was still living in the dorms at Tech (so a LONG time ago!) I outgrew them, and was looking for a project and this was the perfect one!

First, I covered them both in gold metallic paint, from the Martha Stewart Home collection.

              

 

Then, with 1" painters tape, I marked off my sections (I want the gold to show through, so anywhere the blue tape was, that is where the gold would be) and made sure the wrap the tape over the edges as well, since that will show too.

 

Once I was happy with my finished product, I mixed black and blue and painted two coats of navy paint over both canvases.

   

coat 1

coat 2

I did some laundry, checked Instagram, and let the paint dry and settle for about two hours. Then, I slowly removed the tape from the edges to reveal the gold underneath!

Don't be too worried if your paint bleeds through the tape. Embrace it, because this your work of art!

I continued removing the tape, stuck a few nails in the wall, and voila! New bedroom art!

I really like how it brings the eye up. Everything else in the room right now is pretty low, so these help give it more height!

Like I said, embrace your errors! Bleeding above and streaks in the navy below, but it's mine and I love it!

So, what do you think? Would you take the time to do this, or spend $100 for something off of Etsy?

Next item on the to-do list: window treatments in the the Master bedroom! I'm thinking something natural...

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One more thing! Please be sure to check out my Etsy shop! I've added lots of things, tweaked some things, and lowered prices on many of my handmade custom items. I hope you can find something you like and I always welcome your feedback. Thanks so much!!!

Weekend update + bonus recipe!

We meet again, Monday. I won't be missing you this time next week!

So we got another weekend under our belts and it was a fun one, at that! Like I mentioned, Emily came up and spent the weekend in the area.

Before Emily arrived, Mark and I whipped up some fajitas on the grill for dinner on Friday night. Cooking has been rare in the house so far!

After dinner we headed up to our friends house for a game night. It was full of laughs, as usual. While playing Taboo, one of our friends described a ladybug as a 'domed creature' and I could. not. stop. laughing. So fun!

Emily and I got up on Saturday morning and enjoyed breakfast by Mark and then headed down to Aveda. Our friend Jody is going to school there and was giving manicures, so we couldn't turn that down! We hit up Velvet Taco after that with Jody in tow.

Emily requested a stop at a boutique so I obliged and scored some cute mint colored crocheted shorts while Emily picked up a silver necklace.

We both tried those shorts on and they were definitely a no-go. 

We stopped at HomeGoods and Tom Thumb for a few things, then headed home where I made this loaded baked potato dip to take to a housewarming party later that night. 

Here's my simple recipe, found just about anywhere:

-about 3 lbs of sour cream (this was for a large party, I just bought the big tub)

-two bags of shredded cheese

-one package of cooked bacon, crumbled

-two bunches of green onions, chopped

Mix it all together and serve it with potato chips and it's pretty dang good!

Mark, Emily and I then made the drive to Arlington to congratulate our friends Jimmy and Courtney on their new house. They had a great turn out, lots of food, and the perfect yard for lawn games. I saw quite a few of my best high school friends and we played corn hole (also known as bean bags) until the sun went down. We got to hang out and chat for a while and then the old people (us) headed back north around 10:30pm. It was a great night!

Emily headed out on Sunday morning to see some other friends, so Mark and I got back to it with decorating, cleaning, and making changes to the house.

 I love having fresh flowers around!

This was part of my day on Sunday...fabric shopping!

I also hung a few things in my office for inspiration.

Stay tuned this week for more updates, as promised!

linking up with Sami today!

One more thing-I'm doing a draft tonight for my very first fantasy football league with other bloggers! Karoline at Karoline with a K is heading up our league and to say I'm excited is an understatement. 

how cute is she???

Wish me luck and share your fantasy football stories, tips and tricks!

Our weekend...

...if you want to call it that! I feel like I worked all weekend, mostly because I did. 

Friday night, Mark and I took Motley and a few items over the house and then headed to Fuzzy's down the street to meet up with my sister, her husband, and her two kids. Right when we got there, they noticed my niece was breaking out in a rash and she was screaming! About 30 minutes later they had determined that she had 'hand, foot, and mouth' disease. Poor baby! They still came over to the house to see it and we chatted for awhile and laughed at Noah's 'selfies' on his LeapPad. 

Sick little baby!

Saturday morning Mark and I drove over to Fort Worth for brunch at my aunt's house while my dad's oldest sister was in town visiting. I happened to check the invitation while we were on our way and it turns out it started at 10:30am rather than 10am, like I had thought. So we decided to stop at Petco to pass the time. Look at these cute little mice! 

He was posing.

After brunch, we headed home to pack up some more and went to the house to help my dad unload some items that he brought from my parent's house, including a lawn mower!

Like I said before, my parents are giving us a bedroom suite and a table and chairs, so my dad brought over the bedroom furniture and some other things my mom wanted to get out of her house.

Heather (my trusty assistant) and I then headed to Ace Hardware to pick up some paint (free this weekend!) to get started on the dresser.

We painted the 6 drawer dresser white, took out the top drawers and painted inside. I will be on the hunt for some long skinny baskets soon. Do you know of a good place to find baskets?

Heather brought Edward over on Saturday and he and Motley channeled Lady and the Tramp with this stick.

On Sunday we continued packing and Mark's dad brought over a truck to start taking the 'big items' over. This took a little longer than expected because the truck blew a tire about 2 exits away from our apartment, after it was loaded up and en route to the house. Since this wasn't his truck, things got complicated and he didn't show up with the first load until about 3:30pm! Bless him!

The boxes started coming in...so did the fridge!

I need help with how I should paint this mirror frame...Suggestions? TBD on where it will end up.

And lastly, a sneak peak at our progress!

The house is nowhere near complete, and there is still some packing to do at the apartment. We did spend our first night at the house on Sunday night and everything went well! Cheers to new beginnings!

Link up with us and share your weekend!

pssst! I'm guest posting on Emily's blog today! Click on the link to check it out! 

Guest post on Brown Eyed Girl!