Tag Archives: DIY

Washi Tape Runner

July 28, 2015

I feel lame even sharing about this, because it is like, stupid simple. But sometimes its about the little things. Right?

I have like a billion rolls of half used washi tape just laying around the house. Okay…not a billion…I sorta wish…but I have a lot. I get bored with our furniture a lot and our kitchen table was just feeling sort of bleh one day. So I snagged some orange stripy tape, and some mint patterned tape and just taped it right onto the table.

It’s totally temporary and think of the possibilities! I also love that if something gets on it you can just pull it off and throw it away. You can totally do more than just stripes too. I think this could get pretty fun near the Holidays. Such an easy and quick way to spruce up your table real quick!

Also it should be noted that I set the table and added fruit to our bowl before I took these photos. Lets be real. I have a nearly two year old who is coloring, play doh-ing, and pasta-ing on this table on the daily. Thus the need to be able to just pull it off and toss it! As I look at Penny and think “this is why we don’t have nice things!”.

What other things are you using washi tape for, around the house? Or…is it just me…

DIY: Photo Display

July 16, 2015

DIY

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I’ve been wanting to put some family photos up for a while now, but I wanted to do something a little different. I’ve done the whole gallery wall thing, and the GIANT statement piece thing, and I wanted something new. Theres a little wall space above our record player and my original thought was to get some square frames and do a little 9 photo sort of dealio. Then, on one of my many trips to Target with the Penster, I stumbled upon these super cute binder clips. I wanted them and needed a reason to have them, this sorta got my brain going. So I bought them, because…Target. I’m a little bit of a craft binger. When I have an idea, it needs to be done now. Preferably with no extra trips to the store and no well planned out methods. Which makes me a bit of a corner cutter. Some times it works, some times it doesnt, but in this case it turned out pretty well. I had one left over 1x from our pallet deck project. So I harrassed brett to cut it down into 3 even pieces because I’m annoying and I don’t quite trust myself yet with unsupervised power tool usage yet (soon.). I like the natural wood, but it doesnt really go with anything in our house. Plus I’m trying to suddely switch to everything black, white, and metalic (because pinterest told me to). I had no sort of stain, so I just grabbed some black acrylic paint and water. I watered the paint down pretty well, and then just layered it on until I was happy with it. This was way better than just painting it completely black, because i got to keep the woodgrain in there as well. It sorta got me thinking what else in my house I could “stain” but thats a whole different set of posts… After letting the paint dry for a while. I got out 9 binder clips and hot glued them to the boards. I just eye balled it and put them where I thought they looked good. In hind sight, I wish I would have set them further apart, I didnt take in account the spacing for 8×8 photos. In order to get these guys up on the wall I took a tiny drill bit and put holes on either side of the wood and then nailed right through it. These are definitely light weight enough for that to work. If you use sturdier wood you may have to us an anchor and screws, but for this type of project my impatient unplanned ways worked just fine. Then I found 9 of my favorite photos and had them printed in 8×8 from Walgreens. Usually I would have just gone through postal pix or any other app from my phone, but the problem with that is some of my photos are super edited and because of “low quality” they wont print them for you. Which is great that these companies want you to have great quality photos, but honestly, I do not give a rip if my photos are slightly grainy. You do you, I’ll do me. In the end, I’m so happy with how it turned out. I love that we can trade photos in and out of it as well. Anything that can be changed up every now and then is a-okay with me. This project cost me about $30 and that was mainly the cost of the photos. I had everything else on hand. If I include the cost of what I had laying around it would be about $35, so it’s super affordable and super quick to make. I have some other home projects lined up that I’m SUPER excited about! I can’t wait to share! What are some of your favorite ways to display family photos?

Faux Cacti Gift

July 14, 2015

Crafty, DIY

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On mothers day this year I wanted to make some little gifts for a set of moms that have become very special to me in our new hometown. I have seen a bunch of little rock succulents around pinterest and have been dying to try it.

All you need:

Rocks
Acrylic Paints
Small Clay Pots
Yarn
Hot Glue/Gun

What ya do:

Paint your rocks and assortment of greens.
When they dry take some white paint and make little marks for the pricklies
place rocks 3 – 4 rocks in the pot
make a yarn pom and hot glue onto one little cactus

Thats it. I stuffed a little bit of fluff in the bottom, but it would be even cuter with some gravel holding them in. This is a super simple little gift and its totally affordable too! They would be really cute as center pieces for a party and you could really use any container to add a fun little spin on it. Now go make your friend a succulent that wont die! Those are my favorite kind!

I built something!…well, I helped.

March 12, 2015

DIY

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I have been planning on building a coffee table since before we moved. I even gave the coffee table we had away, to motivate myself. We are very much a family that eats in the living room. We watch A LOT of movies, and we usually eat dinner on the coffee table. So, with my hasty furniture give away, and my mega procrastination, we’ve been eating (GASP!) at the dinner table.

Until today! One of the people I’ve grown quite attached to up here, is Brett’s cousin April. She really has become a pretty great friend to me and BONUS she has power tools and sweet sweet ideas.

Thus, our coffee table was created! And I’m sort of obsessed.

We cut down a pallet and cut scrap wood down to fill the gaps, which was much easier than breaking the entire pallet down. We did a dark stain all over, but when I got it home I felt like it was missing something. So, I took a chance and slopped some gold paint on the smaller planks. I’m so happy and I feel like it really completes our living room! Furniture is so hard to commit to, for me, and I love this more than anything I was thinking about buying. PLUS! It was 100% free! Thanks April!

I’m taking a chance and really trusting my toddler with a mug of flowers. So far she’s doing super well and touching with one finger, but the eagerness in her face tells me I may come into a room full of shredded petals. Only time will tell!

Oh hey, creativity!

May 6, 2014

Crafty, DIY

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I like to make things.

a lot.

I am sad to say that after having penny it takes me a WHOLE lot to muster up enough energy to make anything. I got ideas…so. many. ideas. but when penny is asleep and brett is out of the house, what I end up doing most is just sitting. and staring. you know how everyones big advice when having children is “sleep when they sleep”? in theory, that sounds great! but when she is sleeping I want to stay awake and enjoy the silence. I want to be aware that I have nothing to do. I want to feel the nothingness and soak it up so that when she is awake again im not like…dang…I slept through my rest!?!

anywho…ive been getting the urge lately. you know…that diy feelin.

so I made a michaels run with my dear friend faith and bought some canvases…one of which is a 40X60 BEAST that I have GREAT plans for. of which I only paid 40 bucks for because michaels was having an absurd 65% off canvas sale. WHAT!

so with my 2 other little canvases I decided to make a little simple something for our bedroom.

brett and I are kind of a mushy pair. we are definitely THAT couple that says “I love you” probably a little too much. one of my favorite things that we have been doing since we first started dating, is whenever we say good bye…he shouts out “YOU’RE BEAUTIFUL!” and I reply “YOUR HANDSOME!” I’m quite fond of this little farewell, so I took literally like 10 minutes and made it into some bedside “art work”.

If you are curious at all, our headboard was made by my dad and was actually our back drop on our wedding day! I have SO many other home projects planned. At the rate I’m going I’ll most likely finish one project every 6 months or so. Hopefully my creative spurts will be more frequent than that.

pancakes. rest. and bicycle tires.

July 29, 2013

Crafty, DIY, life

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this weekend was…heaven. we did nothing. we cleaned a little. we ate at home. there was a target trip somewhere in there. but mostly we watched movies and laid down all day. it was perfect.

on saturday morning, brett and i made pancakes for the very first time. i know. why this long? the truth is…i dont really like pancakes, unless they are my sis in laws punkin pancakes that she makes for my brother (and on rare occasions i get to partake. those are damn good pancakes my siz!). i’m thinkin penny loves pancakes because they were gooooOOOOood. we got to sit and have a little fam breakfast with bretts bro and we felt so fancy with our pancakes, eggs, and breakfast potatoes (it doesnt take much).

ive been having extreme nesting mind. i say extreme because it is not limited to our little girls room. no no no, that would be too simple. i actually said this to brett the other day “hey babe, do you think our landlords would be mad if we took our cabinets out of the kitchen?” to which he lovingly replied “yes, i dont think they would be too happy about that.” eff nesting yall…i want to RENOVATE. everything. because the things i have in mind are all sort of grand i have done nothing. which is super productive.

but on saturday i got my craft on. i spent some time outside reading the other day, and brett had left a bike wheel on our patio. its been sitting there for a couple of months and i weirdly enjoyed the way it looked out there. i started to think about what we could do with this thing. it started to get dark outside and my reading time was dwindling and i though…man i wish we had like a lamp out here. IDEA! bike wheel chandelier!

i spent most of the afternoon wrapping yarn around the wheel, and around the wire that would hold it up. our plan is to get some battery operated led lights (soft white, because i hate that bright white biznass) and wrap them around the tire. i think it will add a little bit of fun and definitely some much needed light on our patio. we can move our scrabble games outside long after the sun has gone down : )

hopefully i’ll finish this soon and i can update you with some pictures of it in action. how this project helped brett and i prepare for penny, i have no idea. but it eased my nesting mind for a moment. just…a moment.

happy monday friends, hope your weekend was whatever you needed! i know ours was : )

pom invasion.

June 7, 2013

Crafty, DIY

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Ever since I made those yarn poms for Penny’s room, I’ve kind of been a bit obsessed with them. I’ve been using them as bows when I wrap gifts and the other night I made a little bouquet of some for our dining room table. They’re actually pretty fun! I may make another little bouquet for our patio.

I really love flowers but they don’t last very long and in the mean time between floral deaths its nice to have something colorful in a vase.

This whole nesting thing I think is getting a bit out of hand. I have a list about a mile long of projects I’d love to achieve by the time Penny gets here. We’ve got about 3 months now, so I’m hoping most of them will be completed by then. I may not have the time, energy, or mental stability after she moves into our home to do much after : )

The Mr. and I have some fun things to attend to this weekend, so I’m super pumped that its Friday!

Happy weekend friends!

nesty mc nesterson.

June 3, 2013

Crafty, DIY

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We FINALLY got our giant print for our kitchen!

One of my good friends recommended this company, where you can upload photos and order posters of pretty much any size and have them delivered! I am SUPER satisfied with the outcome. The quality is awesome, and its the perfect addition to our little coffee nook.

My dear friend Kim Bogardus is a pretty spectacular photographer. She had taken some photos of Brett and I for Christmas last year and we both are so in love with the way they turned out. This print was one of our favorites and its fun to turn it into a giant piece of art for our home.

A while back I saw a post on A beautiful mess about industrial sized prints and since then ive been on the hunt for a way to print a color photo that didn’t break the bank. I also really loved the triangle accents and what they added to it. It’s a super fun and clever way to add some color especially when you are renting like us.

I really love the way it turned out and I may order some more of these bad boys for other parts of our home. Maybe not quite this large and in charge but some bigger ones of our wedding may be nice, and of course some family photos when Penny makes her way into the world : ).

a well nested weekend…

May 13, 2013

baby, Crafty, DIY, life

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This weekend was full. It was totally fun, but oh so full, and i find myself pretty exhausted from it all today. The heat isn’t helping much (geez California with your 100 degree weather…takeachillpill).

We were lucky to spend some mothers day time with my mom yesterday and she and her boyfriend blessed us with a crib for our little lady! We were so excited and let me tell you, standing in that ikea in front of a crib with my hands resting on the side of it was the most surreal feeling ever. When did we become old enough to have a baby? When did we go from “yeah maybe in 5 years…” to “hey maybe we could do this now?”. Its so amazing and wonderful and terrifying and incredibly ridiculous all at the same time. I’m so glad that I get to do this with Brett and when we talk about our little girl and the dreams and plans we have for our family I feel so lucky. And when we talk about how scared out of our minds we are and how we have literally no idea what we are doing, I feel even more lucky that I’m not in this alone and that my husband is just as clueless and scared and excited as I am. That may not make sense, but its oddly comforting.

Anywho…in the midst of hanging out with some of my favorite people this weekend I actually got enough energy to get our spare room in order for some baby craftin. I really wish I had a before photo so that you all could be impressed with how much I did. Our spare room was FULL of boxes, some empty and some full of random crap, from our move (no worries…i did not lift things…there was a lot of scooting, pushing and sweet maneuvering skills…but no lifting). Our friend Eric came over and helped put up our curtains and my friend Faith and I hung out and made some pom garland for above the crib. I did all this stuff before Brett came home from work so I could surprise him with all the good work i did : ). Then he surprised me today by building the crib while I’m at work (we like to surprise each other with things).

It’s definitely coming together and also has a long way to go, but I’m already in love with the direction its taking. I’m on the hunt for a dresser to refurbish for the changing table, we have some shelves we’re going to hang above that, and im scouring all etsy sites for cute little prints to hang up. I cant wait till that little white book shelf is full of books to read to our little Penny and it will be awesome to see her snuggled up to mine and bretts childhood stuffed animals (fuzzy the blue bear and bubba the dolphin).

I cant wait to meet this little girl that is just gonna rock mine and bretts world. Shes already so awesome.

Operation homey home…

April 15, 2013

Crafty, DIY

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This weekend we FINALLY got some of our shelves up in our new place! I haven’t really been all that excited about our new apartment. We moved from a place that we actually loved a lot to a new place that has some major perks. Cheaper rent, smaller commute, and right next door to some of our favorite people.

I think a big reason why I’ve had a hard time adjusting is because we moved during the height of my first trimester tired-no-motivation phase. A lot of things are still in boxes which is something I have a super hard time with. I am a super crazy unpacking organizing machine…so having no interest in putting our house together for the first 3 months was a bit of a downer. Ever since we got these shelves up though, I’m falling a little bit in love with our cozy space.

One of my favorite things so far has been this little coffee station. Our new place has a teeeeny tiiiiny kitchen with no counter space at all. So adding this one little shelf in our dining area for all of my caffeinating equipment was a super nice way to get some clutter out of the way. There are still a couple touches that I’m going to add, hopefully next weekend. But the more we do the more I enjoy where we live and the more I can picture our little family making sweet memories here.

Side note: Decorating when you know you are going to have a little one running around getting in everything is a whole different vibe than the kid-less decorating. I’m super conscious of the height of everything and making sure nothing valuable or unsafe is close to the ground…look at me…thinkinlikeamom…weird.