recycled road map

This super cute recycled idea brought to you by Design*Sponge. It's a DIY recycled road map cork board which is a great way to use something that I love: old maps! Check out their site for all the details. Happy weekend!

shag pillow

I had found this article on making a shag pillow on V and Co.'s blog and thought I'd give it a try. The article had said that you buy jersey fabric in such and such dimensions which would have made everything so simple. However, I always try to recycle stuff which usually just makes everything more complicated and time consuming. So of course I am trying to make it out of some old t-shirts. 

Which went fairly well except it got a little sketchy around the neck and sleeves. And the fact that it won't be all nice and uniform colored like hers. But I have a great pile of blue t-shirt strips in the meantime. I will keep you posted on how it turns out!

let there be light!

I have been thinking about making a new artsy light fixture for our bedroom (shh...don't tell my husband). It just seems like it would add so much character-right? Although my lamp project was a bit of a failure, I am undaunted and think that my second attempt at lighting will be better. Here are some inspiration photos. 

from here

from here

from here

Remember this one? From here

What do you think? It's hard to choose a style. The floor lamp looks totally doable, right? But the huge rhododendron chandelier is so much fun! But it would swallow up all remaining space in our tiny bedroom. I might need to think about this one for a bit. 

down under

These interior design shots caught my eye over at DesignSponge. They are of a lovely home above Bettenay's at the Prince Albert Hotel in Australia. It's actually the home of Jessica and Ash Bettenay, the owners. I love the clean light walls and eclectic mix of old and new styles-if I ever get to Australia I'm checking it out for sure.

clean and simple

Isn't this beautiful? I would love to turn my piles of crud and clothes strewn across the bed into this clean, simple style and the stacks and stack of books! I've got a start on the book collection at least...Found here

i love lamp

Another unfinished project lurking in my beckley office/junk room is this lamp. I saw this forlorn thing at a local thrift store and loved the simple contours of it's base and had to have it. Somewhere down the road I hope to give it a bulb and a lamp shade to round out the new coat of paint. However I sort of hit a road block.

In my focus on getting it all taken apart for the paint job (my favorite part) I snipped the wires. Now I have to rewire it but I don't remember which wires go where. I'm pretty sure which ones are which, however, if I do it and go to plug it in and they are wrong, I think electrocution might be a possiblity.

So in the meantime it just sits with this lovely high gloss black paint job. Looking lovely, although useless. And yes, that's my garage full of stuff-anyone want to buy a surfboard?

compromise stencils

I got a definite no on stenciling our kitchen table, but I figured vintage floral napkins would be a good compromise! This was the first one-trying some with black lettering soon. Maybe monograms?