Faux Sho: My Faux Flower Canvas

Hello, friends! Have you ever had one of those projects on your to-do list that just keeps getting pushed to the bottom of the list? Well, over the weekend, I finally finished the middle piece for the art collage on my guest room wall. Read about the rest of my do-it-yourself wall art in this post. And what was my piece de resistance??

This adorable faux flower canvas. Several weeks ago, I saw a tutorial on this cute little project over on the blog Twelve Crafts Till Christmas. I knew it'd be perfect for our guest room wall, which just got updated.

Here's a close up of the guest room wall art collage.

See that blank middle canvas? Perfect spot for the faux flower wall art.

It took me awhile to find fabric that I wanted for the project. I love the purple, green and coral scrapbook paper that I framed and wanted something fun and funky to accompany it. After searching through several fabric stores, I finally found exactly what I was looking for in the form of tea towels from Cost Plus World Market (on sale, half off! yesss). Let's be honest, I did a happy dance in the aisle- the towels match the existing wall art perfectly!

I simply started by cutting circles in the fabric, alternating sizes and patterns. I then scrunched all of the circles up in a plastic baggie, so that the flowers would have a wrinkled, 3-D look.

Next, I threaded each flower with a straight pin stuck through a faux pearl. This makes the flower's center and it also connects each flower to the canvas.

On the back side of the canvas, I bent each straight pin back with a pair of pliers so that it wouldn't scratch against the wall and so that it wouldn't slip out easily.

Here's a close up of the finished product.

I love it! It's exactly what I was looking for. Here's my new art hanging on the wall in the guest room.

You'll have to forgive the empty frame on the left... the frame fell in the middle of the night and shattered the glass. Until I replace it, the frame is just sitting empty. Another thing for the to-do list! :)

Lets not forget what this guest bedroom looked like before.

Don't you think it's looking a lot better these days?! :) Thanks again to Twelve Crafts Till Christmas for sharing the idea! What do you guys think?

Linked to:
Between Naps on the Porch
The Girl Creative
Skip To My Lou
Remodelaholic Craft Blog
Fingerprints on the Fridge
Today's Creative Blog
Blue Cricket Design
The Girl Creative
Tatertots and Jello 

Hello, Nate

The blogging world has been abuzz lately with news about interior designer, Nate Berkus. For those of you who don't know who he is, let me start here.

I know, right?! Very cute. Nate got his big break on the Oprah show, years ago. I remember being in my late teens and being glued to Nate's bits on the Oprah show (which, by the way, is a show that I have watched religiously since I was a child! I am my mother's daughter....) without any clue in the world as to what a gilded mirror, chevron rug, or lucite chair was.

But now, I can certainly appreciate all of Nate's design insight. So, when I ran across his book, Home Rules, on the clearance rack at Barnes & Noble for only $7.97, I was super excited!



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On this beautiful Friday, I thought I'd share pictures of some of the beautiful rooms Nate has worked on. Without further ado....


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Incredible, isn't it? Nate's got his own show now and you can check that out here. I haven't had a chance to watch it yet, but I deifnitely need to get a few episodes on my DVR and catch up! Nate's also got his own design line with HSN. He's everywhere! Here is my favorite item from his HSN line.

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And only because I can't get enough, I'll leave you with one last Nate tidbit from the end of his book (which is currently sitting on my coffee table- hooray!).

Your home should be a beautiful reflection

of who you are and what you love.
 

Coloring in the Lines

Good morning! How is it already Wednesday?! Considering Monday and Tuesday both consisted of twelve+ hour workdays for both me and David, I guess I shouldn't be complaining. Come on, weekend!

A few weeks ago, I read this post on The SoHo (a greaaat blog read, check it out!), which showed some beautiful pictures of color-coordinated books. Of course, my little brain started ticking and I just had to try this in my house. So... I did!

Here's my disjointed Ikea Expedit office bookshelf before the mini-overhaul.

And now, with the color-coded rainbow system.

The green books.

The red books.

The black books.

The blue books.

Don't you just love it! A quick and FREE way to add a little fun to the bookcase! It honestly just flows so much better than the unorganized, disjointed look from before. I'm super happy with the big impact we got from this quick little fix!

If you're wondering about the lovely stripes on our office walls, be sure and check out our stripe painting tutorial.

Linked to:
Between Naps On the Porch
Blue Cricket Design
The Girl Creative
Somewhat Simple
Fireflies and Jellybeans
The Shabby Chic Cottage
Tatertots and Jello
Just A Girl
Funky Junk Interiors

I'm So Icing

Over the weekend, I had a craving for one of my favorite, favorite desserts. And I looove sweet things, so you know it has to be good to be on my list of favorites! So what was my treat of choice? Black. And. White. Cookies. Let's all just say yummm together!



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I have had a thing for black & white cookies for awhile. It all started back in college, when my best friend used to surprise me with them (our campus Starbucks had the BEST black & white cookie) when I wasn't having a good day (aw!). I haven't had one in awhile but for some reason, they were on the brain all weekend long.

So while the hubs watched some football Sunday afternoon, I got to baking. Here's the recipe.

THE INGREDIENTS

For cookies:
-1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
-1/2 teaspoon baking soda
-1/2 teaspoon salt
-1/3 cup well-shaken buttermilk
-1/2 teaspoon vanilla
-1/3 cup (5 1/3 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened
-1/2 cup granulated sugar
-1 large egg

For icing:
-1 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
-1 tablespoon light corn syrup
-2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
-1/4 teaspoon vanilla
-1 to 2 tablespoons water
-1/4 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder

PREPARATION:

For cookies:
1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl. Stir together buttermilk and vanilla in a cup.
3. Beat together butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes, then add egg, beating until combined well. Mix in flour mixture and buttermilk mixture alternately in batches at low speed (scraping down side of bowl occasionally), beginning and ending with flour mixture. Mix until smooth.
4. Spoon 1/4 cups of batter about 2 inches apart onto a buttered large baking sheet. Bake in middle of oven until tops are puffed and pale golden, and cookies spring back when touched, 15 to 17 minutes. Transfer with a metal spatula to a rack and chill (to cool quickly), about 5 minutes.

For icing:
1. Stir together confectioners sugar, corn syrup, lemon juice, vanilla, and 1 tablespoon water in a small bowl until smooth. Transfer half of icing to another bowl and stir in cocoa, adding more water, 1/2 teaspoon at a time, to thin to same consistency as white icing.
2. Turn cookies flat sides up, then spread white icing over half of each and chocolate over other half.

Wouldn't you just love to see a big glossy photo of me in the middle of baking these, posing with a beautifully fluffed bowl of cookie batter? Not gonna happen. This is what it looks like in my kitchen while I'm cooking.

You call it disaster zone, I call it a work of art in the making :)

So, I have to tell on David. As I'm mixing up the icing for these glorious cookies, he walked by to peek over my shoulder and check out the baking. And, sure enough, as he leaned over my shoulder, he was singing to himself "I'm sooooo iiiciiingggg." His own little suburban rendition of Gucci Mane (get it? "I'm so icy" ??)! How hilarious is that. Hey, I laughed for hours. 

Anyways, here's my finished product.

Nowhere near as pretty as the Starbucks version, but I assure you... JUST as good. With cookies as good as these, a girl could eat them as a meal. Okay, okay... I actually did. In fact, I had two for supper on Sunday night!!

Have any of you made anything delicious lately?

On the Road: Savannah Style

Early in August, David and I loaded up the car and headed down to south Georgia to move my little sister into her freshman dorm room. Remember the DIY dorm room art I gifted her with for the big move? Yes, yes, I am a sappy one :)

Anyways, while we were down in the southern part of our lovely Peach State, we decided to take a little road trip over to Savannah. I've been to Savannah a number of times, but usually spend most of my time on River Street (whaaat, you were in college too!) and not admiring the beauty of this historic city. And, Savannah is considered a "sister city" of my all-time favorite city in the world- Charleston, South Carolina (where I went to college- go Cougars!)- so that just gave me even more reason to spend some time exploring Savannah.

Most of our trip, we just walked and walked and walked and walked around the city, admiring all of the insanely gorgeous architecture.

Check out those ivy covered stairs! Ah-ma-zing!! Definitely adding this to my "wish list!"

All of this historic architecture certainly does remind me so much of my sweet Charleston! In case you all were wondering, this is the house I asked David to buy me.

And he said yes. Or, he laughed and said only when we win the lottery. Hey, a girl can dream, right?! Isn't the exterior black trim to die for? I saw it all over the city and just fell in love.

Oh and don't forget all of the gorgeous, Spanish moss covered oak trees!

I'll take one of those in my front yard, please. We also visited the beautiful and famous Forsyth Park.

There is an adorable cafe in Forsyth Park that we stopped at for a little refreshment. How cute are these chairs?! I want one for my office desk!!

And what do you think about this architecture?

This sweet little house is actually the lighthouse keeper's cottage (and lighthouse in the background!) on Tybee Island. As a matter of fact, my grandfather used to be the Tybee Lighthouse keeper back in the late 1950's! Seriously! I've been to visit the lighthouse several times with my family, but I was super excited to take David back to see it.

So David, my sister and I headed out to Tybee Island while we were down in Savannah. As fate would have it, we arrived to visit on a Tuesday morning- the one day of the week that the lighthouse is closed to the public! As we parked our car and started to get out, a gentleman who was repainting the fence around the lighthouse actually yelled out, "Sorry guys! We're closed today!" My sweet husband yelled back-  “Sir! I know you’re closed today, but these girls are actually granddaughters of a lighthouse keeper who was here in the 1950’s.” A big smile broke across the face of the man, “Oh! Well, they must be Godfreys. Come on in!” That's right, I'm a Godfrey- grandaughter to Bobby Godfrey. So we all trekked in and spent a little time exploring the lighthouse! It is really cool to think that my grandparents lived here for awhile. In fact, legend has it that my grandmother actually became pregnant with my father while living at the lighthouse! Here is my sister and I in front of the lighthouse on our visit. 

How cool is that!?! If you're ever out in Savannah, you've GOT to go check out the Tybee Lighthouse. And if it's closed, I won't mind if you tell them you're a Godfrey ;)

Of course, we also did a little shopping while we were roaming the streets of Savannah and I collected some fun trinkets to bring back to our casa. You can read about a couple of the amazing stores we visited while we were there in this post. In a nutshell, that was our trip to Savannah! Have any of you ever spent time in this sweet southern city?

David and I are always on the go and I can't wait to share some of the other amazing places we've been and some of the amazing places we'll be visiting in the near future. I hope all of you have a fantastic weekend!