Colors! Colors! Colors!

How can I sit at work and be productive when I have so many decorating ideas running through my head for the house?  I want to jump out of my desk chair and run to Target, Ikea, Lowe's, Garden Ridge, Macy's, and the list goes on (anywhere that sells bright, colorful fabrics and paints).

Where does one start when you have a blank canvas?  What colors do you choose when you have a crisp white canvas to paint (in our case white with green trim...everywhere!)?  I've had several ideas just for the living and dining room... how I choose?

Thank goodness for apps on the iPad like Behr paint, Pinterest, and Words with Friends (sometimes my design brain needs a break).  Even though I'm not totally in love with Behr paint color choices, the Behr paint app is really nifty because you take a picture of anything (screenshot of cute pillows at Target, pillows I already bought from Marshalls, fabric from our existing pillows, poster from Ikea for the craft room...) and you can then select ANYTHING in the picture for it to color match with an existing Behr paint color.  Pretty cool! It has given me a lot of inspiration for paint colors! Then I take a screenshot of that color and it's complementary color palettes and I can pin it to a board on Pinterest so that I can organize all of my ideas and thoughts for each room. Cool? Yes, very cool. Oh technology!  Anything to keep me organized is cool.

 

(who would paint the trim green around those beautiful windows? Sorry, I'll paint you back to a crisp bright white soon!)

 

As we go through the process of changing the house over to our style, I'll be posting before and after pictures.  It will be really exciting to see the transformation take place in our first home!

Christmas Crafting!

I openly admit that I'm a Pinterest addict.  It's like heaven for me.  One place to share, collect, and organize endless data, it's genius!  Sometimes I have to take a break from it because my mind goes on overload with a billion of projects I want to try.  Here is a craft that I stumbled upon when I allowed myself a few hours to get back in touch with Pinterest after a short hiatus...

Glass etching.
As my friend, Amanda, and I found out, the opportunities are endless (pyrex dishes with your last name as Make It and Love It shows, wine glasses as Happily After All shows, and beer mugs as The Yummy Life shows).  For Christmas gifts, I wanted to make beer mugs for the uncles and wine glasses/cocktail glasses for the aunts (I'll get to those later).  Does that give the impression that my family likes to drink?

This was my first attempt at etching and the tutorials I found were great! The tips and tricks helped to get the etching just right, although it's really not a hard thing to do.  The hardest part was finding the etching cream (Hobby Lobby came to the rescue!).

Materials

Etching cream (Armour Etch worked great)
Contact paper (or any sticky paper to make the stencils) or etching stencils
Glass (dollar stores have a lot of glass items, SCORE!)
Rubbing Alcohol
Gloves
Paper Towels

1. Wipe the glass clean with rubbing alcohol to make sure any residue on the glass is removed.

2. Prepare your stencil.  I used a Cricut machine to cut the letters onto contact paper.  This worked really well as it adhered to the glass and didn't allow any cream to sneak underneath.

3.  Once the stencil is applied to the glass, apply etching cream to the glass and allow it to set for 5-10 minutes (I did 10 minutes to make sure I got a good etch).

What can't a droid do?

 4.  Put on gloves and run the glass under warm water to remove the cream.  Peel off the stencil and wipe the etch with rubbing alcohol again to remove any excess cream.

5. Admire your etched glass! Amazing, right?!

Go try it! It's easy and awesome! You can etch the glass on your fish tank, candle hurricanes, shot glasses, beer mugs, wine glasses, everyday drinking glasses, pyrex dishes (no one will ever be able to steal your pyrex dishes at the next party if your name is etched on it), and the list goes on...  Happy etching!

It's a polka dotted life!

Hello and welcome!

This is where I intend to share my polka dotted life, my interpretation of things that make me happy.  Whether it be an adorable picture of my cute (but sometimes bad) dog, a quote I received in my daily quote email, a recipe I tried, a craft, or something new that I learned, I intend to share it with all of you in hopes to add another polka dot to your life. 

I love sharing my experiences and knowledge. I feel it's a great way to learn more, to pass along more polka dots. I'm inquisitive, my family and friends know this very well.  I ask a lot of questions to add more polka dots to my life.  Here, take some of my polka dots (please give credit, where credit is due.)

Your polka dotted friend,
Beth