{before & after: for the record}

for the record, we love music. one of our favorite vintage finds, and subsequent things to do, is listening to vinyl records on our old school record player. there is something about the sound that comes from those speakers that is simply mesmerizing, and for that matter, there is rarely a time we don’t have music playing in our house.

we spend hours in record stores sifting through old and new titles, growing our record collection one carefully discovered album at a time. here’s a peek at our music (and game) room and our refinished record player.

play on.

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{diy: instagram wall}

last week we posted this instagram wall and had some questions as to how we made it. so we put together a diy guide we hope you will find helpful and easy to understand.

supplies:

• instagram pictures (or any square sized images)
• black foam core board
• photo safe adhesive spray
• permanent mounting tape (we used Scotch brand, double-sided squares)
• pencil
• tape Measure
• ruler
• level
• painters tape
• cutting implement, i.e. razor blade or Exacto knife
• scissors

Step 1: Plan.

first, decide the dimensions you would like to work with. for the sake of understanding we’ll give you the numbers we used.  we went with fourteen by fourteen 3-inch squares. * hint: it helps to draw it out.

our measurements: (14 squares X 3” = 42”), with a ½ inch space in between each picture (13 spaces X .5” = 6.5”), for a total of  (42” + 6.5” = 48.5”).

Step 2: Measure.

measure, level, and tape off your work area with painters tape.

Step 3: Print pictures.

print pictures. there are infinite sites that will print instagram pictures for you; however, we found a quicker and more cost effective method.  we needed 196 photos (14 X 14), so we used photoshop to size two 3” square photos onto one picture and printed 98, 4 X 6 pictures at costco.

Step 4: Crop photos.

cut out each picture (make sure to keep each photo as close to 3” X 3” as possible).

Step 5: More measuring and cutting.

using a pencil, measure and mark 3” squares onto your foam core board and cut out using a razor blade.

Step 6: The sticky part.

adhere picture squares to foam core squares using photo safe adhesive.

Step 7: Assemble.

starting in the top left corner of your taped off square, (using the permanent mounting tape) stick the first picture, measure half an inch over, and stick another square. continue until you have all fourteen across, and then repeat the same system working downward, then across, then down until you have used all your squares.

Step 8: Admire your work.

now stand back and take an instagram pic of your instagram wall and tweet it for everyone to see.

*for the frame we picked up 1.5 ” pieces of wood from lowe’s, painted them black, and nailed them straight into the wall to form a frame around our insta-wall art. ta da.

{you have my heart}

a while back i saw the most amazing idea for pocket hearts. i.e. making mini fabric (or felt) hearts and hiding them here and there for your one-and-only to find, as a little reminder of your love.

of course i made a jar (for him to keep his stash of hearts), stitched some seersucker and burlap hearts, and now have quite a lot of fun thinking up new ways to give him my love. the hardest part is waiting while he finds them.

i love you, jesse.

{custom made}

we are huge fans of etsy. it is the first place we look when searching for gifts for friends and family. and if we can’t find it on etsy, we simply make it ourselves.

for jesse’s sister’s birthday we found the most beautiful vintage jewelry box, and wanted to put some jewelry in it too.  we couldn’t find what we were looking for so instead we set out collecting an obnoxious supply of charms, and then made a necklace we knew she would love.

she’s an awesome hair stylist so we thought the teeny scissors and tiny comb were kind of just perfect.

happy birthday, sister.

 

{valentine’s}

i have made valentine’s day cards by hand every year since i can even remember. every february my mom would pull out her craft store size stash of pretty paper, ribbon, glitter, glue, stamps, and stickers and let us go to town.

well i may be all grown up, but i still find the same happiness in hand making a special card for each of the people i treasure most. and then the person i love the very most kindly photographed my handiwork, so we could share it with you.

happy valentine’s day.

{diy: repurposed pine tree}

during the holidays we came up with the idea to make coasters out of our christmas tree after we had taken it down. we quickly came up with many more repurposing projects for our beloved tree stump, one of which was this handy pen and pencil holder.

the best part is that it still smells like pine, so it’s kind of like christmas every day around here. we thought about calling it the pine-tree-stump-pencil-and-pen-holder-airfreshener, but that was just too long.

either way, it smells good and  holds writing implements so that’s good enough for us.

{coffee corner}

in the mornings we like to listen to jazz albums on our record player and pretend we are just as cool as starbucks.

there is something about the mere smell of coffee that makes us feel caffeinated and ready to start the day. so we looked for some inspiration, and then went to work creating a little counter space we like to call coffee corner.

we used our dymo label maker to identify all of the different tins of tea on the top shelf. we picked up a vintage soda crate at granny’s attic, and thought it added a much needed corral for all of our coffee accouterments. and of course, a mason jar for the coffee grounds.

{insta-wall art}

Every house has a wall that stands awkwardly empty, you know the one. ours happens to be in the living room.

we also have a certain obsession with iPhone photography, and since both of our instagram feeds are nearing crash capacity, we decided to try our hand at insta-wall art (which for the record, was not so instant but still every bit worth the work).

we love our new wall of square-picture goodness. and Cupcake pup apparently does too.

{before & after: hallway}

we are sort of enamored with decorating every square inch of our house. we love to make every aspect of every room really feel like ours. with that being said we have been hard at work decorating, painting, finding, and refinishing walls and furniture ever since moving in last april.

take a little peek at our upstairs hallway.

the carpet was torn out and replaced with beautiful wood laminate. we re-finished the bannister (and all remaining 90s-brown wood in the house) a nice bright white. and all the walls have been painted.

jesse designed the black and white concert prints from some of our favorite concerts.we then had them printed poster size and framed. we like how the black and white against the grey wall turned out.

thanks for looking.

{cozy home}

the most wonderful time of the year is wonderful for so many reasons. not the least of which are the ornaments, evergreens, gingerbread houses, and everything else that makes the house feel festive and full of love.

growing up my mom used to wrap our bannister in garland and lights, this year i couldn’t wait to wrap our first bannister in green garland too.

christmas decorations have the ability to make a room feel infinitely cozier. and so, it was a sad day when they had to come down last week. guess we’ll just have to break out the valentine’s day boxes.