Monday, November 19, 2012
How To: Wooden Cube Chandelier
Last week I talked about the kitchen lights, and a few of the ideas we're playing around with for the tall ceiling above the work space. We want something big and bright, but nothing too visually heavy that will crowd up the room. We want it to feel really open. Here's one of our contestants, it reminds me so much of the Ghost Lamp style, where bare bulbs shine through a beautiful skeleton.
I love how it's still the natural wood, and is so modern with it's fun angles. I think for the kitchen area I may have to rig this up with 3-4 light bulbs to get the light we're looking for. Maybe Edison light bulbs? This is a great project, and you can get the full tutorial right here, from the creative folks over at Vintage Revivals. Enjoy!
Friday, November 16, 2012
Kitchen Light Surprise
I think my favorite room in the new house, would be the kitchen - hands down. I've always wanted a large kitchen, and this house delivered! It's nice and open, so we have a clean slate to work with here. These are the old photos, so they still have the real estate agents staging stuff in there.
One of the things we want to do right away, is whitewash those beautiful open & tall ceilings. I love the look of wood, but in a light limited area, we need to do what we can to brighten it up in there. I think we'll whitewash the wood so we can still see the grain, but reflect a little more light down. One of our ideas was to eventually put lights in the eves. You can see where the wall meets the ceiling, there is a gap - perfect for lights to shine up and reflect down. So it went on the to-do list. Then something amazing happened...
Last week I was at the house taking care of little jobs, when I got the craving to hop up on the counters (I'm not a tall person!) and see if it's possible to even put lights in there. Surprise! There was a lighting fixture in the eves! Not just one either, but 8! One in each section of the roof. I was so excited I yelled. However, no switch would turn on the lights, even with a fresh bulb. But hey, at least the wires are there, right? Then.... something amazing happened...
I was showing Ralph, to see if he could figure it out, and we were still stumped. As luck would have it, I happened to turn on a few light switches right as he did and BAM! Let there be light! We were so happy we ran to the hardware store to buy 7 more bulbs. Apparently, the lights have two switches, and both have to be turned on at the same time.
Pfft! I'll turn on 10 switches at the same time if I have to, this is fantastic! I was so happy to see these there. I wish all projects got done that easily, we dreamt it up - planned it out, then all of a sudden it was done. Perfect! They add a lot of warm light to the room, and once that ceiling is whitewashed it will add even more. I'm extremely picky and sensitive with lighting, how it looks, where it's placed, the whole 9 yards. I can't wait to get some under cabinet lighting in there too, that will look incredible. Speaking of lighting, did you notice a certain light culprit in the photo above? Look at this bad decision:
Mmhmm. Not only is it just one of those standard hallway lights, but it's seriously 12 feet in the air... and the bulb is burned out {ofcourse!}. I tried getting up on the very very top of the ladder {I know, I know I shouldn't do that, so don't try that at home!} and I still can't comfortably reach, it's only a five foot ladder - give me a break! Anyway - the dead bulb is only half the problem, the other problem is I really don't like the fixture. It's too high for something so small, and I know exactly what kind of light will shine down. That faraway, weird kind of light. Maybe I'm crazy, do you know what I mean though? So we're in brainstorm mode now, something bright, something big, and something fun since it's a huge space. One idea is a large wood "skeleton" cube, with a few bare bulbs inside:
I love the look of the wood! It would be great to make a really big one, or a hexagonal one... the other idea, is to find some wonderful old brass chandelier, preferably something wild from the 70's, and spray paint it some amazing color.
Maybe something along the Mission style side of things..
Thought we may be getting up there in the price, and after everything we've had to buy to just get in this place - it's a shoestring budget for me. I think for now we're leaning to the spray paint route, but we'll see. Stay tuned, I'm going to post the tutorial for that wooden cube light soon, isn't is awesome? Have a great weekend!
Last week I was at the house taking care of little jobs, when I got the craving to hop up on the counters (I'm not a tall person!) and see if it's possible to even put lights in there. Surprise! There was a lighting fixture in the eves! Not just one either, but 8! One in each section of the roof. I was so excited I yelled. However, no switch would turn on the lights, even with a fresh bulb. But hey, at least the wires are there, right? Then.... something amazing happened...
I was showing Ralph, to see if he could figure it out, and we were still stumped. As luck would have it, I happened to turn on a few light switches right as he did and BAM! Let there be light! We were so happy we ran to the hardware store to buy 7 more bulbs. Apparently, the lights have two switches, and both have to be turned on at the same time.
Maybe something along the Mission style side of things..
Thought we may be getting up there in the price, and after everything we've had to buy to just get in this place - it's a shoestring budget for me. I think for now we're leaning to the spray paint route, but we'll see. Stay tuned, I'm going to post the tutorial for that wooden cube light soon, isn't is awesome? Have a great weekend!
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Thursday, November 15, 2012
Porch Potential
***Update: The Porch has reached it's potential, see the mega update here - but be sure to scroll down and see the crazy looking before shots***
Well we haven't wasted any time getting into the new house and tackling any project we can. Luckily we have two months to complete this move, so that gives us a little flexibility. We haven't been able to just start hauling things over yet since we were waiting for it to be fumigated. Sounds gross, right? It's normal, I swear! Oh, for those of you not living on the west coast, termites are a pretty common pest around here. So it's a standard sight to see a house dressed up like a circus tent now and then...
I can't wait for that thing to be off! I wonder what the neighbors think... ha! I'm really happy we were able to do this before moving in, I've heard it's a nightmare to bag up all your stuff for this, and move out for a week. Now, why exactly the termites prefer to eat the wood of the house instead of the 3 million trees surrounding it is a mystery to me. But it is what it is, and now that this is out of the way we can really get to work. One thing we did last weekend,
Well we haven't wasted any time getting into the new house and tackling any project we can. Luckily we have two months to complete this move, so that gives us a little flexibility. We haven't been able to just start hauling things over yet since we were waiting for it to be fumigated. Sounds gross, right? It's normal, I swear! Oh, for those of you not living on the west coast, termites are a pretty common pest around here. So it's a standard sight to see a house dressed up like a circus tent now and then...
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Wednesday, November 14, 2012
How To: Pizza Rolls
A few weeks ago we were sitting on the patio, thinking what to make for dinner. One thing led to another and we came up with an idea. Let's take a pizza, roll it up, and cook it! We figured we were total geniuses. Well - a minute or so later on the internet, and it turns out that we are not the first to think of this. The internet is bittersweet that way, but - I did get some tips that saved us a lot of trial & error pizza. We were thinking roll it, bake it, slice it. Instead, we sliced it, laid them down like cinnamon rolls, added cheese & baked them. These are delicious, you've got to try them - but I warn you, you may eat more pizza than you normally would! This is my first "full picture" tutorial, thought I'd give it go - perfect for pinning! Here you go:
Not that pizza needed any sort of improvement at all, this is definitely a fun twist though. We arranged them so the sides were touching, and this made for a super soft center roll. Good luck deciding who gets that one, it's amazing! I bet if you space them out evenly that each one would get nice crispy edges and soft centers. We also added all kinds of stuff to ours, kale, broccoli, and more sauce & cheese!
Weird about the Dental floss, huh? I see why now. The pizza is so squishy that a knife would just flatten it out. I took the floss, wrapped it under, then around the top like I'm about to tie a bow. Instead of tying, just pull the floss past itself (like a loop) and it will slice clean. I recommend doing it kind of fast, so the pizza doesn't see it coming and squish up on you. Fishing line may work well too. Now, all I had was mint floss.. and you'd think we'd taste mint, but there was no mint flavor at all... so fear not if you don't have unflavored floss! Just slice away. Oh, and be sure to lay out a bunch of fun dipping sauces - try it California style and dunk it in Ranch dressing. Enjoy, this one is a new family favorite!
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Friday, November 9, 2012
How To: Soda Can Flower Lights
I know the holidays aren't upon us just yet, but they are right around the corner. Forgive me, I know some people go crazy when everyone gets all Christmas-ey before Thanksgiving, but this project requires some prep time! I promise not to go too "deck the halls" on you right now. Plus, these can be used year round. I've been saving this one to share for a bit. I love Christmas lights, so much that I stock up on them every time I start to see them in the stores. Because really, have you tried to buy a strand of simple white lights in July? You either can't find them, or they are 4X the price... Can someone just open up a year round Christmas light store?! I'd be there all the time, and I know I'm not alone. Who's with me?
Moving on.. Today's How-To uses a strand of white lights, some soda cans, and a die cut machine. If you don't have a die cut machine, you could cut these out by hand, but please... use gloves!
Aren't these adorable? Not just for the holidays either, I'd use them year round. Especially on the patio. The use of the die cut machine in this was a real "Ah-ha!" moment for me. I love aluminum cans, and all the lanterns you see using cans are adorable. But the problem that stuck out was always the cutting of the cans. Seemed not only tedious but dangerous - remember in the movie Twister, when they cut all those cans into little fans to lift the detector-thingys (technical term..haha) up into the twister? Yea. Their hands were seriously cut up, and that always stuck with me. So that machine would be a huge shortcut. Worth the investment if you don't have one, they come in handy all the time.
To see the full tutorial on this, head over to Curbly, one of the most amazing DIY sites out there. An interesting twist on this would be to paint the backside. While spray painting light-weight aluminum flowers seems like a nightmare, let me suggest press and seal paper. I came across this pointer recently, from the genius over at Cheltenhamroad. Take whatever small thing you plan to paint, put it on your press and seal paper, then do as it sounds. Press, to seal, and that paper will hold onto the tiny items long enough for you to paint them without blowing them off the table. I can't tell you how many times that tip would have helped me! He lays the directions out far better than I could, here.
In other news, we are officially homeowners, and we got our keys on Tuesday! It's so exciting, a little scary, but mostly exhilarating. I'm really looking forward to all the projects we are about to tackle, and I can't wait to share them all with you. I know there's a lot of sweat, blood & tears in the future, but it's all going to be worth it. We have a ton of ideas, so here we go - wish us luck! Have a fantastic weekend!
Moving on.. Today's How-To uses a strand of white lights, some soda cans, and a die cut machine. If you don't have a die cut machine, you could cut these out by hand, but please... use gloves!
 |
| Tutorial & Photo Source: Curbly |
To see the full tutorial on this, head over to Curbly, one of the most amazing DIY sites out there. An interesting twist on this would be to paint the backside. While spray painting light-weight aluminum flowers seems like a nightmare, let me suggest press and seal paper. I came across this pointer recently, from the genius over at Cheltenhamroad. Take whatever small thing you plan to paint, put it on your press and seal paper, then do as it sounds. Press, to seal, and that paper will hold onto the tiny items long enough for you to paint them without blowing them off the table. I can't tell you how many times that tip would have helped me! He lays the directions out far better than I could, here.
In other news, we are officially homeowners, and we got our keys on Tuesday! It's so exciting, a little scary, but mostly exhilarating. I'm really looking forward to all the projects we are about to tackle, and I can't wait to share them all with you. I know there's a lot of sweat, blood & tears in the future, but it's all going to be worth it. We have a ton of ideas, so here we go - wish us luck! Have a fantastic weekend!
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