Brighter Betty

I had a wonderful day yesterday! We had a free-be weather day from work due to icy conditions. I was so happy when I read that on the website. I immediately said to Jes, "Yes! I'm going to paint and craft all day," and that is just what I did.

I don't have much "taste" when it comes to interior decorating. I'm pretty happy with neutral brown and tan everything. haha However, now that I have a baby coming in to brighten my life, I feel I need to brighten my apartment as well. I'm not necessarily ditching all the brown and earth tones, but just adding some color to the baby spaces. Since I don't have much of an interior decorating bone in my body, I just stormed Pinterest for ideas (as usual).

I had already started a Japanese/ cherry blossom/ zen kinda feel in our office/music room, so I wanted to follow that theme for the baby's space. They baby doesn't really have what Virginia Wolf would call "A Room of One's Own," but we will all be sharing the space of our apartment. Plus, she will be a tiny baby. She won't even know she doesn't have a room of her own. Still, I am making the office/music room as baby-like as I can. It's a good thing she will be surrounded by all those books and the piano. :)

Anyway, I had already made a trip to Hobby Lobby and started some crafts over the weekend, so I just picked up where I left off.

I painted a cherry blossom stem with water color, then made little flowers and petals out of pink tissue paper and hot glued them on. The wooden frame was re-purposed; I only repainted it. I'm so in love with the teal and pink/coral color combo, so I kept following that theme.

I collect the weirdest things sometimes, like seashells, buttons, beer caps...paint swatches. I went through a phase where everytime I went to Wal-Mart, I would take a paint swatch sample. Hey, the larger ones make great frames for scrap booking. I had a collection of a variety of blue paint swatches, so I decided to use them. I used acrylic on canvas for the background. Then, the meticulous part, all the cutting of the petals. This is where I put "Parks and Recreation" on Netflix, so I could multi-task during the boring cutting part. Anyway, after that, just arranged the petals and hot glued them on the canvas. Viola! 

I still had the urge to craft, so I decided to make some flowers that wouldn't die. I just used tissue paper, pipe cleaners, and a re-purposed Starbucks frappuccino bottle for the vase. 

I re-did this picture frame too. I had some coral paint left over, and wanted to strip away the boring, black frame. It took several coats of paint because the frame is a smooth plastic type material. Also, It scuffs really easily, as I found out. ( That is why there is the white LOVE decal on there. haha) 

 After painting, I added Elmer's to the inner edge and covered it in pink glitter. It's so girly; I love it. To make it complete, I added a picture of my sweet baby girl. 

The last step was just to hang everything. I already had the blue cherry blossom painting from a previous crafting spell. The colors still matched, so I hung it with the others. 

The last piece, and probably my favorite, is the monogrammed yarn wrapped letter. I already had the yarn, gifted from my friend Erin. The yarn has coral and blue tones, so it matched perfectly. I added a little ice blue flower. The frame was 50% off too, so the whole monogram project cost me under $20.00  dollars. 

The little hootie owl is so cute. He has glittery, teal blue eyes. I got this last week at work when I was "hooted" by my boss. Getting "hooted' just means someone leaves you a surprise gift at your desk, and then it's my turn to pay it forward and "hoot" someone. 

It definitely looks much brighter in the room. We also hung these curtains, which adds a cool, calming effect to the room. 

Anyway, the full day of crafting was so fun; although, the downside was back was KILLING me from sitting in the floor. Literally, I was in tears by the end of the night. I've been trying to avoid medications during the pregnancy, but I absolutely had to take a tylenol yesterday...and it still didn't help. I'm ready for the back pain part to be over. 

Jesse made the night better by cooking me some RED MEAT...mmm steaks. Then I had a bowl of caramel pecan frozen yogurt as a treat for a "job well done" on the crafts, and to make me forget about my aching back. hahah