My Surprise Ball!

I was fortunate enough to get in on the "Surprise Ball" gift exchange hosted by Melissa over at "Oh, My Darling". What a great idea! It was really an exciting process, finding things to put into my partner, Angie's ball. And then figuring out HOW to make the ball round was interesting. I didn't take pictures of the one I made, but it came out a little cone-shaped. (Just a little.)

My ball came in the mail yesterday, but I wasn't able to pick it up until this morning. I couldn't wait to open my box and start unwrapping my ball! It was like being a little kid again.

My partner was Angie, from "angie may handmade". I've posted about Angie a couple of times. She has a gorgeous Etsy shop, where she sells jewelry, little owls, and other things she's made. I was lucky enough to get a little owl in my ball! He's so cute, and will live with his brothers in my shadowbox.

I ended up with a lot of cute stuff! A lot of Hello Kitty, which is probably one of my most favorite things ever. She also found miniature art supplies. A tiny set of watercolors and colored pencils. Even a little keychain notepad! Adorable.

I was really excited when I saw the hair flowers Angie included. I have to go to a party Thursday night and dress like a "pin up" girl, or at least accessorize accordingly. ;) They are PERFECT, and now I won't have to make my own hair flower!

She also included a really great quote that will be going in my "art journal". It says:

I totally believe that. My life has been much richer and more meaningful since I've gotten back into my crafting. It had been YEARS since I sat down at my sewing machine or tried to learn how to make something new. I've been doing something creative almost every day for the last few weeks. It's amazing the pride, fulfillment, even the frustration at times, that you can feel. There's nothing better than looking at something you've made and knowing you did a good job, even if the process was difficult at times.

Thank you so much, Angie! I love everything you put into my ball, and appreciate your hard work and thoughtfulness. I hope you like your "Surprise Ball" as much as I do mine! :)

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?

Surprise Ball Gift Exchange

I read a lot of blogs, which lead me to reading other blogs. So I stumbled across the blog, "Oh, My Darling", where the author, Melissa, is sponsoring a gift exchange. I read the details, and was super excited.

You can use a plastic egg and fill it with whatever goodies you can fit inside. Then you wrap it with crepe paper. As you wrap the ball, you add all kinds of trinkets to the outside, so that when the recipient is unwrapping more items fall out of the ball.

What fun! It reminded me of being a little kid. This is the sort of thing I would love to start with my friends. If you would like to read about the Surprise Ball Gift Exchange, here's the link:

http://o-my-darling.blogspot.com/2010/07/surprise-ball-gift-exchange.html

I'm hoping that the ball is easy to make. I guess it doesn't have to be perfectly round, but I'm such a perfectionist. I can't wait to get my buddy and start on this project! :)

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!)