Primer and paint

Those things can do wonders! 

I found this cabinet at a flea market and I instantly noticed it for its shape and structure. I also noticed that the black and white psychedelic pattern was starting to spin. But with a little love a care it could be perfect! it was sturdy, but also light enough to hang on a wall. I had been looking for something to add storage to my bathroom. It just needed a cleaning and a few coats of paint. Two coats of primer later I got this.  

It looked better already! 

Then I visited Pinterest for some painting inspiration. A few weeks ago I had pinned a painting which is now my iPhone background. 

It looks so fun and cheerful so I decided to put my version of it on my cabinet, and this is what I got! 

Crafting up a storm ⚡

The past week has been super busy due to work, so I haven't had time to blog. But I made sure to make time to craft! So far I've mad one more pillow, a chalk board, and a cork board. 

I made just a simple pillow and then hot glued rope around the edges to give it a more finished look! This was super quick and easy! 

Now, the chalk board was a little more difficult. I found this pink plastic frame at a flea market for 15$. Then I had my dad help with the construction part. He got some ply wood and cut it out in the shape of the frame. Then came the difficult part, painting! I thought this would be the easiest part of the whole project. On the first try I used a can of chalk board spray paint but that soaked into the wood and looked very rough and uneven. Then my dad said to try plaster to give it a smooth finish. But that was eaiser said then done. So finally I went to my trusty hobby lobby and found a chalk board sticker. My dad and I stuck it right on the ply wood and trimmed the edges and then attached that to the frame. It took longer then we expected but it's my fravorite craft so far! 

That same day we worked on the cork board. This frame was also found at the flea market for 10$. It's very light weight so it will be super easy to hang. I took a trip to micheals, where I found a piece of foam board attached to cork. How perfect and lucky was that! So I brought it home to my dad where we cut out the shape of the frame and attached it to the back of the frame. 

I think all three crafts turned out great and I can't wait to get them into the apartment!!! And Thanks for the help dad!!

Buttons are great!

So I made my first pillow for the living room couch! I was feeling school spirited so the pillow was covered in a big OU.

I wanted to stitch around the letters to complete the design, but that was difficult once I had already hot glued on the big felt letters. So buttons became the next best thing! And I think it looks so much cuter then my uneven stitching. 

Our first pillow

The first floor pillow for our DIY apartment is finished!! 

There are a few bumps in the seam and the button loops look to be a tiny bit loose, but if you twist them they seem to fit just fine!

 I am no professional pillow maker, but I'd say I did a pretty good job! This blog is all about DIYing things for our first apartment. The things we make are supposed to look homemade, so it's okay to make small mistakes when crafting. If I  had 40$ to spend on a perfect pillow, then I would. But this DIY pillow only cost me around 10 bucks!! DIY is all about trying out new crafts and making mistakes along the way! 

So when you have friends over and you get a complement on your cute new pillows you can take all the credit yourself :)

Lets look on the bright side...

It could be worse! 

I have just sewn my first pillow seam.I've done a seam before, but one that was seen. It's probably the hardest part of the pillow making, besides figuring out how to close up the pillow without it looking like kindergarten craft project. I've decided on DIY button loops! 

Lets see how this works out!! 

Pillows pillows and more pillows

The DIY pillow making has begun! So far I have made a floor pillow in a pink fabric with black buttons. Tomorrow I will finish with the button loops to close up this horrible leopard pillow.

The other fabrics I chose are patterned but there just seems to be something missing. So tomorrow I will be making another trip to hobby lobby to find something to spice up our new pillows! Hopefully they will come together nicely and all match! 

P.S. 

any suggestions on where to get cute and cheap pillows or how to spice up our new, DIY pillows would be greatly appreciated!! 

Trying to match

A few weeks ago after a lot of pillow hunting for the living room, I decided to go to hobby lobby and look for some fabric that would match our extremely difficult curtains. After about a hour of walking through the fabric section, I finally made a choice! 

I sent a pic to the roomies and they approved! So it was settled, we finally had a color pallet for our living room. 

The curtains that couldn't match

As summer hit, my roommates and I got super excited that we would be moving into our very first apartment. As three creative college girls, we tried bargain hunting, flea marketing, garage sales, and shopping at discounted and fairly cheap housing stores. So we decided to make a trip to the infamous Ikea! Very overwhelmed by all of the cheat prices on super cute things, we somehow managed to walk out of the store with only three things. A single pillow, curtains, and a sock holding spider for the laundry room.

 A strange combo, we know!  So after about a week I went out to look for pillows that matched our new curtains. That's when I realized they were the most frustrating thing I had ever had to match something to. We don't want just pink, orange, black, and white. We are more interesting than that!! So I was left with only one option...Make our own pillows!!  

IDEAS

ISome Ideas...

So this is my very first blog post ever, so pardon my awkwardness. I was looking through a HGTV magazine when I saw an article about a young couple who are fixing up their house and started a blog called "Young House Love." In their blog, they talk about all of their projects and ideas for their house. This got me thinking... I am moving into to my first apartment with my two girl friends, and we have been brainstorming ideas since we signed the lease back around march.  Why not try to start a blog about DIYing our first apartment on a college budget?This might be a total failure, but why not just give it a try, right??



P.S.

Here is a link to the young couple's blog
http://www.younghouselove.com/