Granny square goodness...

When I discovered flickr and "dottie angel", I almost instantly fell in love with the granny square (of course the one shown in this photo is actually a granny circle, but you see what I mean) and the style they call "granny chic". Ooh... to have a house full of mid-century modern furniture, afghans, and doilies is a dream. Since I live with a man who apparently has an opinion on home decor, I've been working on compromising. (Not that I'm complaining or don't like the direction we're going in. Its just different from what I have in my head.)

Anyway, my love for granny squares moved my determination to learn how to crochet one. My mother had taught me how to crochet YEARS ago, when I was IDK... 10 or so. I knew if I had someone there to teach me, I could pick it up. Since I don't know anyone who actually crochets granny squares, I took advantage of the good ol' interweb. I looked it up on youtube and found a tutorial.

That helped me some, but I was doing something wrong. I couldn't figure it out. Then I remembered Carol's post. She had written a granny square tutorial. I basically merged the two together to fill in the blanks. What one tutorial was missing, the other made up for. I was crocheting my little granny square blanket in no time!

I've been working on it for about two weeks, now. Any time I want to just unwind, I break out my crochet! I started with the big piece in the middle. I was just going to keep crocheting a big square until it was the right size. Then I realized it would be square, and not the shape I wanted. So I bought a skein of aqua yarn to add some color, and give it the right shape I wanted.

I know I messed up a little. I didn't want to undo all the squares, though. So I just filled in my gap with single crochet. Its not completely done yet, but I'm sure it will be nice when it is.

Despite my mistake, I am so proud of myself. I took the time to teach myself something new, and I actually followed through. (I have a bad habit of giving up on stuff. And I don't foresee me giving up on this because I have enjoyed it so much!) Now I have a new talent. AND I actually crocheted SOMETHING instead of just a chain! Next up... zig zag crochet!!

Kitchen cabinets...

Kris, my fiancé, and I moved into our apartment at the end of January. It was a blank canvas for us, all white and beige. We have the option of painting the walls, which a lot of renters don't, so we're kind of lucky.

If you're one of those renters who cannot paint without breaking your lease, there's a few simple things you can do to add a little color and personality to your home. Today, I'm going to discuss my kitchen cabinets.

I added vinyl wall decals to my cheap "plastic" cabinets.

I saw these cute bird decals at Target on clearance and bought two packages, planning on using them on the kitchen walls. Now, if you're walls are highly textured like mine, they won't stick. They just kept falling off. I thought I had wasted my money, until I realized how cute they might look up on the cabinets. So here's what you do:

First, clean the surface cabinets. If yours are actual wood, you may want to use a wood cleaner, otherwise a simple all-purpose cleaner is fine.

After you've cleaned the cabinets and they're completely dry, you can figure out where you want to place the decals. I had a lot of decals, but I didn't want my kitchen to look too tacky, so I only used about half of what I had on hand.

As you're placing them on the cabinet, smooth out any air bubbles that appear. It may take a couple of times to get it just right, but don't worry 'cuz the adhesive stays sticky a long time!

In all, I used the decals on four cabinet doors in the kitchen and two in my "laundry room" (below). Since you only see one set from the living room, they look more like a cute little accent. People always think I actually painted the cabinets, but I'm sure that's NOT allowed.

There are all different styles of wall decals. You can buy them at craft stores, home improvement stores, IKEA, you can even buy them off Etsy! I think they're great because they aren't permanent. When you get sick of them, you can just peel them off!

Do you have a decorating tip you'd like to share?

Loveliness...

I love Etsy. I was looking at my "favorites" the other day, and realized Etsy suggests shops with items they think you'll like. One of the shops was "Lola's Room". She does beautiful photography. I would love to purchase one of each of her lovely prints. Here's just a few:

"Buttons"

"An Uninvited Guest"

"The Shoe Collection"

http://www.etsy.com/people/LolasRoom

I also found an incredible DIY "bubble chandelier" that I thought was SO cute/cool/pretty/elegant. Apparently, this lady made it for her lingerie shop, and people were writing her wanting to know how it was done.

They made it out of silver Christmas ornaments and glass bubble balls from CB2. Since I've already had the bubble balls on my gift registry for my wedding, I just increased the quantity I'm requesting. (Although, I'm not expecting anyone to actually purchase these for me. Just thought they were super cute.)

Their instructions call for 50 of the small bubbles, and 40 of the larger ones, as well as 80 small and 80 medium Christmas ornaments. You could scale down the size by using less bubbles and ornaments, though. If I were to make this for my dining room, I would make it much smaller. Still, I LOVE the idea and it sound totally do-able!

http://froufroufashionista.blogspot.com/2010/05/bubble-chandelier-diy.html#

(This lady's lingerie is also a thing of beauty!)