Decor: Light Paint Versus Dark Paint

For a while a few years ago, I was obsessed with painting walls in my home dark colors.  I took the bathroom that my kids, which was painted builder’s beige, and painted it dark green.  It’s a small bathroom and while I worried the dark color would make it seem miniscule, it actually make it feel really cozy and made the lighter colored floor really come to life.  But, while I loved it for a while, (and still don’t mind it) I’ve learned that dark colored paint in a children’s bathroom is just asking for trouble.  Water spots and toothpaste shows up so much more than if the walls were painted a lighter color, and I feel that no matter how often I clean the walls, they still don’t look clean enough.  So, it’s time to repaint, and while I’m trending towards lighter and brighter colors in my home right now, I still have a serious love for the coziness of a dark room.  What are your thoughts? Light? Dark? I’ve found some great examples of both styles…it’s hard to pick a favorite!

Decisions, decisions, right???

Free Designs: Camping Kit Collection

First of all, thank you to all of you who had such kind words about the summer issue of A Sweet Spot: Home Magazine.  I’m so pleased with the end result and look forward to making the autumn/Halloween issue bigger and even better! I’m so thankful to everyone who took a moment or two to browse through the issue, and I’m also extremely thankful to those who contributed.  Doing an entire magazine all on my own is so much more work than I’d ever anticipated, and having those who are willing and excited to participate in the process is such a gift.  Many, many thanks to you all!

Now, on to today’s post.  If you read the summer issue of the magazine, (and if you haven’t, you can read it here), you saw an article contributed by Thuy Bui of My Paper Pinwheel.  When discussing in what way she’d like to contribute, Thuy threw out the option of creating little care packages for kids going away to camp this summer.  I instantly thought it would be a great idea, and she ran with it.  Together, she and the amazingly talented Bridgett Edwards of Perideau Designs came up with the perfect printables to send with your favorite camper this summer.

Aren’t these adorable? I love the color combinations that Bridgett chose to use, the blue, green, brown, and pop of red and orange from the campfire, the whole thing just works.  If you’d like to download this entire collection including large note cards, small note cards, s’mores gift tags, and encouragement cards, for FREE, click here.  Bridgett has graciously agreed to share the entire collection with all A Sweet Spot: Home Magazine readers for free.

Many thanks to Thuy for styling, photographing, and writing the article featured in the summer issue, and to Bridgett for designing such an adorable printables collection.

 

Publications: A Sweet Spot: Home Magazine Summer Issue Now Available

Today’s the day! After a whole lot of work, the summer issue of A Sweet Spot: Home Magazine is now available! Thank you to my amazing contributors, Melissa Chambers from Truly Chic Inspirations, (to whom I owe thousands and thousands of thank you’s!) Thuy Bui from My Paper Pinwheel, and Stephanie Studer of LifeCreated.  Also, many thanks to Carmen Taylor Rogge of The Flair Exchange and Kori Clark of Paper & Pigtails and koriclark.com for patiently answering my interview questions.  I sincerely hope you will all like it as much as the spring issue, I’m extremely excited to move on the the autumn/Halloween issue…but for today, my poor house desperately needs my attention!

Click the image to be taken to the issue…enjoy!

Out and About: Going Antiquing

I have a confession….I’d never actually gone antiquing before.  I’d been in antique stores, but had no interest in purchasing anything “old”, so I didn’t really pay attention, nor did I buy anything.  But, this past weekend, I decided that I wanted to go check out a local antique mall to see if I could find some deals on things I could use as props for my posts.  I was beyond pleased when my sweet daughter told me that she wanted to come along, too!

The first thing I learned, antiquing can be overwhelming! Walking into a huge building packed to the rafters with more goodies (and some junk) than you can imagine can cause you to panic, just a little bit.  Where do you start? There’s so much stuff that you can’t see anything! But, we worked up a plan of attack and got started.  While I saw many, many things that would work as photography props, we decided to stick with just a few items and head back another day to tackle the props.

As many of you know, our family is currently saving up for a big, BIG family vacation to the UK.  My daughter and I couldn’t be more excited about it, my husband…is along for the ride, and my son…let’s just say the idea of such a long flight is less than appealing to him.  So, when I came across a set of coasters with this image on top, I was instantly curious.

The only down side? I couldn’t see the others! They were tied together tightly with twine, so I had no idea if I was buying 6 different coasters, 6 of the same coasters, one coaster with a picture of London and five other coasters that could possibly be extremely inappropriate…who knew?? But, for $3, my curiosity lured me in and I bought them…and here’s what I discovered when I got home.

Holy moly, it’s London, baby!!!! London, London, everywhere!! My daughter and I were literally squealing with delight (over COASTERS, mind you!).  But isn’t that kind of the fun of antiquing? The find and then the surprises?

This is one of my daughter’s scores.  While I don’t think they are necessarily old, my daughter’s obsession with cows caused me to spend the $5 and get her this cow sugar and creamer set…even though she doesn’t drink coffee.  Not sure what she plans on doing with them, but she was excited as can be to find them!

Seriously, the cutest hat EVER! She’s hardly stopped wearing it since we bought it…it was an adorable find and she loves it.

She’s already asking me when we’re going back…and if you follow me on Instagram, you know there are a few items that I’m kicking myself for not buying.  I foresee a return trip very soon in our future!

Decor: Fabric Covered Books

It’s something I’ve chatted about in the past, I love decorating with books in my home.  Surrounding myself with my books makes me feel comforted and cozy, so it’s something that I do often.  Books are a perfect way to provide a little lift to items that may naturally sit a little lower than we’d like.  I have lamps in my home that aren’t as tall as I’d like them to be, so by throwing a few books under the lamp base, I get the height that I want.

The only down side to decorating with books? Sometimes the colors and designs of the covers can be a distraction and not coordinate with your decor.  A simple fix is to cover your books with fabric.  It’s quick (once you figure out what you’re doing!) and the look is nice and cohesive.

First things first, gather up your supplies…

Next, measure your fabric to be about 2 inches larger than the size of your book.  Make sure you allow enough fabric for the binding to be covered as well.  It’s better to have your fabric be too big than too small, it’s always easy to trim!

Using your hot glue gun, glue down the side of either the front or back cover.  Then, spread your fabric to smooth it out so that you can then glue the side of the opposite cover.  (I should have taken a picture of this…sorry!)

Now that your front and back cover sides have been glued, you’ll want to cut out the excess fabric above and below the actual book.  (I hope the picture above explains what I mean!) The reason for this is so that you don’t double up your fabric when you glue the top and bottom of the fabric onto the book.  Before you glue the top and bottom pieces, make sure you clip out the fabric that’s above and below the binding.  (You can tuck the excess binding fabric in and add a dab of glue at the end.)

After you’ve secured all sides, you can add any lace or trim if you’d like.  It’s totally up to you!

(Because everything looks better on a cake plate, right??)

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...