crafty man cave wall art.

I know, it almost seems like that juxtaposition of words should not exist. In recent months, Bubba and I have been dreaming up plans on finishing our basement. Since he's such a sport and lets me do things my way above ground, I figured it's only fair to let him take the reins downstairs. And so the man cave plans were born.

 Anyway, my husband is a class act, and would never think of plastering posters of cars or girls in skimpy shorts all over walls that are still half-mine. I'm sure he's going to fill the space with dark leathers, faux furs, and coffee table books. But just in case, I figured I'd get him started with a piece of art that says, "I trust your judgment, but don't you dare hang ratty old posters in my house" all in one gift.

 If you're like me and type things like "DIY man art" into Pinterest, then you may have seen something like this or this or this.  I normally hate words on the wall, but loved the rustic and laid-back vibe, and thought it'd be just the right springboard for the beginning of the basement story.  So, on December 23, armed with an exacto knife and contact paper, I got to work.

It was a pretty easy process.  All I had to do was type my text into a word document, choosing different fonts for different lines.   I used Open Office, and exported it as a PDF afterwards, so that I could open it with my favorite photo editor to size to my preferred dimensions (what I actually wanted to hang on the wall).  Then I just uploaded it to Staples, had it printed as a poster, and got to stenciling.. for a long, long time.

Once I had my poster, I stuck a piece of contact paper to the front, and traced each letter out with my knife.  It took FOREVER.  I can't believe I'm saying this, but wine made it worse.  A couple of hours before midnight mass, I finished the cutting stage, and peeled each piece of contact paper from the poster backing.  Since my piece of plywood was already painted white, I could just stick the contact paper on wherever I wanted, and get to spraying the whole thing black.  Admittedly, I wish I'd taken more time to make sure everything was perfect, but it's definitely got that homemade vibe going on.

Here's the finished product:

Of course, it's not in its permanent home yet.  You know, we need stuff like drywall first.  For now, it's propped up on a shelf in our dining room.  I'm hoping to sneak it into a closet for the next couple of months, but we'll see.  I caught Bubba taking pictures of it on his phone, so I think he's pretty pleased.  Now if I could just get him to use those new running shoes I bought for him..

Christmas Tree 2012

This is probably a sick statement:  there are very few things more important to me than a Christmas tree.  I know.  I mean, I value a lot of things:  education, faith, a solid foundation... but there are very few things as universally magical as a Christmas tree.

I grew up in a Christmas house.  I say that with careful tread, because if you asked my mother today, she might try to tell you that she did not necessarily care for Christmas more than any other woman or parent.  I grew up in an enchanted house.  A perfect, day-dreamy childhood home.  We had egg hunts on Easter, wore giant headphones on the Fourth, and decorated the tree together in December with rules that had been ingrained since we could walk.  If you're old enough to know Santa's nine reindeer, you're old enough to know that big, heavy ornaments go on the bottom.. dainty, glass ones up top.  Ornaments in a group are not placed right next to each other, but far enough apart in the same quadrant for spectators to realize that they're related, but not be overkill.  Tinsel is not clumped, and ugly goes in the back.  It's a lot of rules, I get it.  But life is full of rules.

When I was just starting out in my first post-college place, my mom and I went to Kohl's and bought the entire St. Nicholas Square ornament line.  They were on sale.  At the time, Bubba and I lived with his younger brother, and I gave the two of them the long-and-short of decorating a Christmas tree.  I snuck out of bed one night and rearranged.  On my wedding day, we had a Christmas tree, and after the rehearsal dinner, my bridesmaids helped me decorate.  Although I promised to relinquish control, still, they got the lesson.  Both trees, for what it's worth, were beautiful.

Anyway, nowadays, Bubba knows his place:  he follows me dotingly to the tree farm, tips the young man who ties the tree to the car with a manly bro-shake, finagles the darn thing in the tree stand, and then sits back and drinks whiskey while I fuss over whether or not we need more lights (for the record, the answer is always yes).  It may not be a perfect system, but it works for us, and it makes us equally happy.

Behold, the tree of 2012:

Yes, that is the Grinch on television.  It's tradition in our house to watch a classic Christmas movie while decorating.  Usually classic is a little more along the lines of Rudolph or Year Without a Santa Claus, but let's face it.. sometimes it takes me so long that I have to move along to the new age favorites.

stripes, stripes baby

Yes, I convinced my husband to let me paints stripes on the guest bedroom wall.  And yes, I convinced him to help.  All I've got to say is I'm one hell of a good cook.

The guest bedroom has been a work in progress.  Actually, that's a lie.  The guest bedroom has been a dumping ground so that we can make the rest of the house look nice:

I'm turning red just thinking of someone who's not blood-related seeing this.  This is basically everything in my house that doesn't have a home.  Except that picture of Remy above the desk.  Because I love that.. a lot.  I don't know what snapped inside of me that made me so determined to clean this room out, but it did.  And this is how it looks now:

Alright, this is how one wall looks now... but doesn't it look awesome?  The color is the same greige I've used all over my house (the dining room, our bedroom, and soon to be every other room I can sneak a paint roller into).  It's Valspar's Oregon Coast.  A year or two ago, greige cast its spell on me, and I picked up a swatch of Oregon Coast and tucked it between our headboard and the wall.  It lived there for at least a year, while I painted samples of countless other greiges on my terrible green bedroom walls.  I should've known that this first swatch would be the one to make its way into our home.

Anyway, the stripes could not have been easier.  They took a little math and a lot of dedication, but it was a relatively easy night's work.  I looked at about a hundred pictures on pinterest to decide the width and orientation that I wanted, and then read about four different tutorials before picking a method that would work for us.  We just painted the whole wall greige, and then purchased a quart of the ivory stripe color (for me, it was two shades lighter on the same card).  We measured out the lines at a few spots across the wall, and then Bubba just free-balled the taping.  Free-handed.  He's actually quite good at that.  Of course, we checked it with a level afterwards, and made sure to place the tape on the inside of what would be the greige block (under the line, followed by over the line, so on and so forth..).   A couple of coats later, and I've got my beautiful stripes.  Seriously, it's worse than when I first got my engagement ring.  CAN'T STOP LOOKING.

home is where the heART is.

I am thrifty.  I love to create, and repurpose, and do-it-myself.  You might also hear that I'm cheap and poor, and well, that's true, too.  Luckily for me, building and crafting is surprisingly trendy, and I'm all that much cooler for it.

When Bubba and I first bought our home, we were prepared for the unexpected expenses.  We knew that being able to afford our mortgage wasn't going to cut it.  We were ready for the surprise water bills, the annual trash fees, the never perfect lawn remedy, and the timed-just-so furnace breaks.  The part that we weren't ready for, the part that nobody had mentioned, was the bug.. it was my absolutely insatiable appetite to prettify every single corner of our home.

Over the months, I've become pretty adept at decorating on a budget.  Sometimes that means pulling trinkets out of storage and rearranging a bookshelf.  Sometimes that means painting a wall, and sometimes it means dying an old duvet.  Today, it meant printing things off the internet and sticking them in frames.  That's right, I used my opposite-of-fancy-pants printer to make wall art for my guest bedroom.  And I love it.

Over the years, one of the goodies I stumbled upon was the NY Public Library's Digital Gallery (http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/index.cfm).  It is basically a cheap-o decorator's heaven (and also very valuable and significant vintage art).  Many of the images in the database are old maps or postcard-like landscapes, while others are songbook covers or fashion designs.  If you can't find inspiration in the many categorized images or just want to cut to the chase, you can just search for your own idea.  Like me, you'll probably find plenty:

I'm sure no one loves it quite as much as me, and that may be the best part of art like this.  It is so personal. The navy in the frames is perfect against the grey of the wall.  The chunkiness fills up the space just right.  The colors inside are a soft contrast.  The images, printed for zero dollars, are of my hometown, Bubba's hometown, and our current town, or more specifically (and respectively), Market Square, the Town Green, and Main Street.  I love that it is something special to us, but also feels vintage and universal enough to hang in a public space.  Oh, and I love that it was free.  We like free.