After we moved into our new house just over a year ago, I knew that our old dining furniture just wasn't going to work. As much as I loved the pieces, the antique look felt out of place in our house, not to mention the whole set didn't fit into our new dining room since it was much smaller and enclosed. The buffet table was too long and too deep and the only place we could find for it was in the family room. Weird, right? Anyway, after being listed for numerous months on craigslist, a middle-aged couple contacted me and scheduled a time to come look at the set and surprisingly, they took it home that evening. I owned the set 3 years and sold it for either the price I paid for it, or $100 less. WIN.
After the room sat empty for nearly a month, we decided to purchase this set. I was leaning towards wanting a medium-wood "farm house" style table - something rustic and cozy, that could withstand many years of use. Unfortunately, this wasn't C's style - he is more a fan of clean lines, dark wood and mission style pieces.
Here is our new set, which we purchased from Morris Home Furnishings
in Florence, KY. Over a year ago, we saw a dark wood set with
"crackled" glass inserts which we loved, but after searching online and
all local stores, it appeared it was no longer manufactured and we settled on this.
Keep in mind the room has not yet been painted, and I'm not sure I will keep orange as the primary accent color, as it's going to be prominent in other areas of our home. I do know I want to keep the room simple and clean, with pops of color. Also, we're debating purchasing 2 more chairs so the table seats 8. It comes with 2 large leaves and realistically, it can seat 10 comfortably. I don't think our dining room can handle that though!
Ahhhhh... I don't think orange shag ever looked so good! It took me nearly a year to convince myself to buy THIS rug and since the room was small, an 8x10 was too large and covered nearly all the exposed carpet, so we decided to give the 5x8 a try and I think it works. If we decide to switch things up, I know it will work well somewhere else in the house.
I know it's pretty basic, but what do you think so far?
Friday, January 31, 2014
Monday, January 27, 2014
The Perfect Anytime Gift : Man Bouquet ?
To get started, I thought I would start posting some of my craft and
DIY projects. Pinterest is great for so many things - tips and tricks,
recipes, etc. but my favorite is the endless DIY and craft projects.
Some of them may be unrealistic (I mean, who honestly has time to spend
an extra hour a day cutting your kids' sandwiches into a dinosaur shapes
with snacks to go with the lunch theme?), but many of them can be
achieved!
Over the past couple months, I've seen lots of people posting various DIY gift ideas, one of which is the idea of a "Man Bouquet." When it comes to what items to include in your "Bouquet," the possibilities are endless. I'm going to show you my quick version of the bouquet and walk you through the process.
This is a great gift for Valentine's Day, Birthdays, Anniversaries or "just because." I gave my "Bouquet" to my husband for his Birthday last April. Here are a few photos of my completed Man Bouquet, which was made in one evening after work.
"Man Bouquet" Material List:
"Man Bouquet" Instructions:
1) Choose a container to hold your bouquet. I chose to use a metal beer bucket we had on hand
2) Cover your base and place your base inside your container. I used a 1/2 Styrofoam ball, which fit snugly in my bucket. My ball was purchased at Hobby Lobby using a 40% off coupon, making it around $3.50. To cover my base, I used some tissue paper I had on hand
3) Lay out your goodies to put on the "stems" - I've seen some use cigarettes, cigars, single serve alcohol bottles, candy and packs of gum. Since we don't smoke and have an overabundance of candy and alcohol already, I decided to keep it simple with snacks and lottery tickets
4) Once you have your goodies together, you need to attach them to the stems, which I recommend using wooden skewers (the kind you use in cooking to make kabobs). I used wood skewers in 2 different sizes to do this because I had them on hand and thought some dimension would look pleasing.
5) Adhere your goodies to the stems. To do this, I then used both packaging tape and a glue gun
6) Arrange your stems and insert them into your base. You can arrange things symmetrically, or randomly place them in the foam ball.
You're finished!
Here are some other versions of the "Man Bouquet," from which I got my inspiration. They can all be found on my PINTEREST PAGE linking you to the original sources
Have you made any "Man Bouquets" that were a hit? Do you have any other ideas for goodies to include in your "Bouquet?" I'd love to see and hear them!
Over the past couple months, I've seen lots of people posting various DIY gift ideas, one of which is the idea of a "Man Bouquet." When it comes to what items to include in your "Bouquet," the possibilities are endless. I'm going to show you my quick version of the bouquet and walk you through the process.
This is a great gift for Valentine's Day, Birthdays, Anniversaries or "just because." I gave my "Bouquet" to my husband for his Birthday last April. Here are a few photos of my completed Man Bouquet, which was made in one evening after work.
"Man Bouquet" Material List:
- Container (some easy ideas include a basket, box, pot, mug, bucket or anything else you can think of. I chose to use a beer bucket I had on hand)
- Styrofoam base (I used a sphere shape, but you can purchase Styrofoam in a variety of shapes and sizes to fit inside your container)
- Material to cover your base (I chose to cover my Styrofoam ball in tissue paper, but you could use anything really - tissue paper, wrapping paper, newspaper, Easter grass, etc)
- Goodies for the bouquet (the possibilities are endless, but I chose to use some lottery tickets, Cracker Jacks (got a 3-pack at Kroger), some PB crackers, Slim Jim sticks and printed a photo that correlated with the MMA tickets I got us for that weekend)
- Wooden skewers to use as "stems" to attach the goodies to the base
- Glue gun and/or packaging tape to adhere your goodies to the wooden skewers
"Man Bouquet" Instructions:
1) Choose a container to hold your bouquet. I chose to use a metal beer bucket we had on hand
2) Cover your base and place your base inside your container. I used a 1/2 Styrofoam ball, which fit snugly in my bucket. My ball was purchased at Hobby Lobby using a 40% off coupon, making it around $3.50. To cover my base, I used some tissue paper I had on hand
3) Lay out your goodies to put on the "stems" - I've seen some use cigarettes, cigars, single serve alcohol bottles, candy and packs of gum. Since we don't smoke and have an overabundance of candy and alcohol already, I decided to keep it simple with snacks and lottery tickets
4) Once you have your goodies together, you need to attach them to the stems, which I recommend using wooden skewers (the kind you use in cooking to make kabobs). I used wood skewers in 2 different sizes to do this because I had them on hand and thought some dimension would look pleasing.
5) Adhere your goodies to the stems. To do this, I then used both packaging tape and a glue gun
6) Arrange your stems and insert them into your base. You can arrange things symmetrically, or randomly place them in the foam ball.
You're finished!
Here are some other versions of the "Man Bouquet," from which I got my inspiration. They can all be found on my PINTEREST PAGE linking you to the original sources
Have you made any "Man Bouquets" that were a hit? Do you have any other ideas for goodies to include in your "Bouquet?" I'd love to see and hear them!
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