Thinking about Christmas…

Posted by Amber in Holiday on November 13, 2012  ||  10 Comments

We are heading into the holiday season which means it’s time to start thinking about how we are going to heck our halls. This weekend was spent brainstorming lots and shopping even more…purely to gather ideas. We have taken on the the Dare to DIY challenge with Decor and the Dog, Maybe Matilda, Newly Woodwards, and Two Twenty One.

Long story even longer we had lengthy (and probably unnecessary) conversations about Christmas, color schemes, and general game planning for the holidays. Luckily Nick was totally into talking through things and shopping. I expect his enthusiasm to wane quickly once things get underway. (No offense baby.) I digress. The plan is to have a gold and cream/white Christmas with some hot pink.

We headed off to Target in search of whatever we could get into (we live dangerously around here). We found these cream gold dipped vases. The bottom is similar to West Elm’s Hive Vases. Sold.

Wait it gets better. That’s right we paid $5.98 for the large one and $5.08 for the medium one. Crazy right? Even if I wasn’t having a love affair with gold right now, I would have got these. Just too cheap for something that is so useful.

We also found these beauties. Gold polka dots. Yes please. Wait for it…

$3.88 for the large one, and $2.98 for the medium. Seriously.

If you were thinking about judging me for buying 4 gold and cream vases, remember that I need to fill the hutch in the formal dining anyway. Plus they are neutral, so they will work all year for pretty much anything.

Moral: Go to Target and buy some beautiful clearance vases (just not any Targets in DFW in case I want/need more).

Want to join in the dare to DIY challenge? Go link up here. Do it.

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October Goal Check

Posted by Amber in Side Note on November 5, 2012  ||  Comments Off on October Goal Check

1. Complete at least 1 crafty project per month.

 

 

 

 

It was a good month to be Ramona. Our crafts (and our normal lives) revolved around her exponentially more than normal in October. We crafted our little hearts out for her airplane birthday (and here) with printables  (Nick’s crafty contribution and gift to you). Hey it was even featured on apartment therapy. More importantly our baby turned 3. Yikes!

I also whipped up an airplane for her Amelia Earhart costume. I guess our crafts were also very airplane focused this month too. Whatevs. She looked adorable and did considerably well walking around getting candy for us. Of course people were telling her how cute she was, so I’m sure that encouraged her continue carrying the plane. It wasn’t heavy just bulky.

2.. Read at least 1 book per month.

I decided the last week of October that I should get a book fitting for Halloween since I really had to get on reading a book for this month. I went with The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. You know I love young adult books (here, here, here, and many more I never blogged about), and I have heard a ton about this book over the years. It won the Newbery Medal and been on several must read lists.

I did not like the way it started with the murder of Nobody Owens’ (main character) whole family. I have to remind myself that this is fantasy. The whole point is to set an unrealistic stage in which characters deal with typical human emotions and struggles. Overall it’s a wonderful story about a boy who grows up in a graveyard parented by ghosts. Sounds strange I know. It is, but there are also sweet moments that illustrate the hope of life and the love of a family. If you can get past the sadness of the intro (I think that’s harder for adults specifically parents), you will enjoy the story.

3. Do more fun things with Ramona.

I already admitted that this month revolved around Ramona, so I will just pick 1 of the awesome things that happened. We did some post birthday ice skating with Macie. Ramona was really tired from her party the day before, so she wasn’t really into skating. Then she saw how much fun Macie was having and jumped on the bandwagon. It was very tiring going around twice with two 3 year olds, but we made it. We followed it up with bounce houses to wear the girls out even more. Tired kids = fun times

4. Journal everyday.

I gave up on journaling. Yes that’s right I didn’t even make it a whole year with this goal. I figured I would just blog on the life side of things on here instead. I thought I was doing really good, but I just checked and have only done 3 this month. Well I am behind for sure. I need to share about the state fair, the Dallas Arboretum, a Halloween party, and probably tons more. Of course you can check out what life stuff is going on here via the tab on the menu bar, but it won’t show up in google reader. We decided not to post it on facebook anymore either since the more you post the less it shows up in people’s feed. Bummer.

 

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Getting it on in the Master

Posted by Amber in Side Note on October 30, 2012  ||  17 Comments

Pretty risky title for a post about styling the mantel in our master bedroom. Who says home decor isn’t sexy? It totally is friends.

This project is brought to you by a mix of dude get on it already and the pinterest challenge. We tried to focus on Pinterest projects that we could take with us since tackling huge projects just doesn’t make sense if we move. Who knows where we will wind up and what the next house will need.

via Emily Henderson

Emily Henderson has a great video on styling a mantel. Go watch it. She gives 3 different approaches to styling a mantel, but the above picture was my favorite. I decided I would try to recreate it in on our master mantel.

I know you recognize our Giant movie poster and dog needlepoint from here. The rest of the stuff up there was just sitting around the house/garage. It isn’t as complete as Emily’s, but it provides a good base for additional styling as I find pieces.

Our mantle is very shallow (especially in comparison to the one in the living room). Luckily I had a few small books. Yes that book is called More Boners. It’s by Dr. Seuss. Even more appropriate for this saucy post.

Nick bought the robot in Portland specifically so he could put him under a dome. It’s quirky and sculptural. We do have a Kennedy bust that I thought about using, but I liked the robot more.

I pulled these fake flowers from the garage. I bought them from Pottery Barn years ago. I know real flowers are better, but I also know I won’t keep up with them. I figure when it matters I can always spring for real ones.

Ta-da a styled (ish) mantel. It makes the sitting area in the master look more complete even though there is only a chair and our dresser there. A fireplace in the master is pretty ritzy, so we might as well exploit it for potential buyers.

You can check out our past pinterest projects.

 
 

Airplane Costume // Ombre Dresser
Vintage Art Modification // Gallery Wall

Of course go check out Sarah, Katie, Sherry, and Carmel’s projects and all the lovely link ups!

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DIY Halloween

Posted by Amber in DIY on October 28, 2012  ||  29 Comments

DIY-Halloween

So I was planning on mailing in Halloween this year. I’ve mailed in the last 2 because our first Halloween with Ramona is pretty hard to compete with (just ignore the sleepy eyes we had a 3 week old).

But then I read this. Yep that’s right Pinterest Challenge time again. I couldn’t start until Thursday afternoon (thanks strep), so I decided I would rush to make Ramona’s Halloween costume by our first event Friday. I mean it says challenge right.

via Oh Happy Day

Jordan Ferney has a great Homemade Halloween series this year. I saw this airplane costume a week after Ramona’s birthday. It’s amazing, so I figured I would abandoned the idea of dressing Ramona up as a princess. She does that every day, no Halloween needed.

I got my supplies: gold spray paint, pink spray paint, dowel rods, tacky glue, styrofoam ball, duct tape (gold and white so I can have options), paper towel roll, straps, poster board, 20 x 20 x 20 box (for the wings and propeller), 14 x 14 x 14 box (for the plane body)

I used the 14 x 14 box for the plane body. I folded down the front, but I left the back open.  I needed the length. I put an extra piece of cardboard on the back.

I cut the 20 x 20 box in fourths. I rounded the edges of the wings. The cut the top and bottom pieces out. Added the dowel rods. I couldn’t use the prepackaged rods because they were 12 in. My box was 14, so I bought longer ones and hack sawed them.

I liked how Jordan’s plane had a circular front, but I couldn’t get my box to round out. I faked it with poster board for the front. I made sure the propeller was longer than circular façade.

I assembled the propeller with the paper towel roll and spray painted the plane and propeller. I let it dry overnight. Then attached the propeller. I picked pink as my main color because Ramona’s trench coat is tan with pink piping. I thought it would be a nice accent. Plus we did red planes for her birthday.

I literally screwed the styrofoam ball on the front. I wish I would have left about 2 inches of the paper towel roll to cut into the ball, but it stayed on with the half inch I used. I went with gold tape to match the propeller. I cut small slits to attach the straps and hot glued them underneath. It will also keep them from fraying.

We had the aviator hat from Ramona’s birthday for a photobooth prop. I think the Wills Casa version is a bit bigger than the original. Ramona is also smaller than Moses, so it’s exaggerated in the pictures too. Ramona didn’t seem to mind walking around in the big airplane. It isn’t heavy. I cut a big hole for her legs. Plus everyone was freaking out about how cute the costume is, so Ramona eats up the attention.

So here’s a little budget breakdown:
Boxes – $6
Styrofoam – $2.25
Gold Tape – $3.50
Dowels – $1
Spray Paint – $8

Total $20.75

It took about 3 hours (not including dry time) to complete, so it was ready within 24 hours to wear to a carnival. It was incredibly easy. All the small details make it look more complicated and more impressive than a costume made from just cardboard.

You can check out our past pinterest projects.

 
 

Mantel Styling // Ombre Dresser
Vintage Art Modification // Gallery Wall

Of course go check out Sarah, Katie, Sherry, and Carmel’s projects and all the lovely link ups!

*Affiliate links included.
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Style on TV: HBO Girls

Posted by Nick in Trend Watch on October 25, 2012  ||  4 Comments

Disclaimer: I’ve been sitting on this post a while and since Amber has caught strep throat this week, I thought I would finally write it. So send Amber a get well soon note and enjoy my writing (or not, it’s your choice).

Not sure if this is normal, but Amber and I love to break down interiors on TV Shows (and commercials). True Story: the other day we stopped a commercial to talk about how awesome the set was (specifically a great vintage rug). Yes we’re weird, but there’s a reason why we have a blog.

So the interiors from Girls are awesome for a few reasons: First, there’s a huge DIY feel to them. Like the upper cabinets in Hannah and Marnie’s apartment. The door have been taken off, they’re painted green and had craft paper placed at the back.

Secondly, they use a ton of vintage: like the chairs in their dining area. And they mix in a lot of pieces that are recognizable from the places we shop: like the saarinen style table (DOCKSTA from Ikea) above.

Hannah’s room is prety much all Urban Outfitters. The sheets, the drapes and I’m pretty sure the headboard (though I can’t find it right now). Side note: in this scene, she dances exactly like Amber does. If you ever want to see how Amber gets down, watch this episode.

This room is probably my favorite on the show. The industrial-style island matched up with the Era style counter stools are super great. Not the best picture, but you get the idea.

On the other side of the room is this (i believe to be) West Elm table with some mixed windsor style chairs.

Shoshanna’s apartment is wearing out the west elm… the bedding, sofa and side tables are all from there.

Charlie’s apartment is the real star of the set. In the show, he’s supposed to be a low-level architect with carpentry background. The set up is pretty amazing.

It’s also a genius moment when Marnie says “This is amazing, it’s like a Target ad” and Charlie responds by saying “I don’t know about that, it’s good, but it’s no Target ad” real sarcastically.

Here he is back at the girls’ apartment building Marnie a coffee table like one that she wanted from Restoration Hardware.

In a complete aside, I can’t see Charlie without seeing my cousin. It makes me think that his character probably posts enough political commentary on facebook that would make me want to end it all too. (But seriously everyone go vote.)

Back to the coffee table, here Charlie is reclaiming the finished product. Pretty handy dude. Lots of vintage going on in the girls’ living area, and some anthropologie drapes.

Anyways, there you have my break down on the interiors of Girls. Any of you guys like this show? Amber actually hasn’t watched the show yet. She’s still catching up on Mad Men. So 2007.

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Buying Art and Other Unnecessary (but Desired) Things

Posted by Amber in Antiquing on October 18, 2012  ||  1 Comment

It all started when Nick and I set out antiquing to find suitcases I could spruce up for Ramona’s birthday. It ended with having to borrow my dad’s truck to haul our purchases home. Shocking right? No. It doesn’t surprise us either. The great thing about antique stores is you can find really amazing things typically at a reasonable price, but you have to be ready to purchase them immediately. This is how I justify these these things. Seriously it’s fact though.

Just to preface this text. Nick was in the store. I was in the car with a napping Ramona (she has a very low tolerance for shopping unless she gets to try on clothes). This is what we like to call text shopping. This is all screenshot from Nick’s phone, so he’s the blue speech bubbles.

First notice how little regard I had for the 2 suitcases – you know the whole purpose of the trip. Then admire my impeccable use of emoticons.

Obviously, we did not hesitate purchasing this dresser. Do we need a dresser? Not really. In fact it’s in our entry now. It’s a gorgeous campaign dresser. In really good condition. It is something that you don’t find often, but you see it on blogs looking all high style and what not. It was $425 originally which is a good deal, but probably not enough of a deal for us to pull the trigger (despite my bold text to “get it all”). They offered 20% at first ($390), but Nick wanted to get this unnecessary purchase cheaper which is how we ended up paying $375. Deal. Haggling plus writing a check (no merchant fees for the store – we would have used our debit card anyway) gave us bargaining power for the dresser and the Giant poster.

For the record, we never haggle. Sometimes we ask for the best price the seller will give (that’s happened like 4 times ever) and just go with that. It’s not because we want to needlessly spend money. Generally we don’t buy big ticket items. It seems ridiculous to haggle over a $20 item. Either you love it at $20 or you don’t need it. (Possibly you don’t even need it at $20, but I’m not going to judge.)

Here’s a close up of our pretty dresser. It’s in good enough condition that I don’t have to paint it. I might. I don’t know. I’m thinking maybe grays or blues or kelly green or white (or…) if I decide to paint it. Most likely won’t happen for a while since it’s in usable condition and the fact it’s not really being used right now anyway.

I am looking at this, this, this, and this for inspiration. One thing we can all agree on is you can’t go wrong with a campaign dresser.

This is literally a giant movie poster of the movie Giant. It’s 30 x 44. Huge. It was filmed in Marfa, TX (hence Nick’s reference in the text). We have been saying we are going to go there for over a year now, but it’s a loooong drive. We will go there eventually, and I promise to share all the awesomeness that Marfa has to offer with you.

It was originally $135, but we bought it for $100. It’s in pretty good condition. The frame can go, but we aren’t dealing with that now.

Besides Elizabeth Taylor and James Dean, Jaime (BFF) pointed out Chill Wills is in it! Nick says he is related somehow. Look how cool we are.

You know we have a special place in our heart for creepy art. I found this guy at a different stop (one in which we could actually shop together not via text). He was on sale for $7. Seriously why wouldn’t I take this creeper home? Who cares if I scream a little in fear when I glance his way. $7 is worth it. If I’m honest I was going to buy it at it’s original price $10, I didn’t know it was on sale until we checked out. Double win.

All the cool kids are hanging people on their wall now (here and here). So maybe they aren’t as creepy as our guy, but whatevs.

I loved this little guy when I saw him. It’s a 7 x 9 needlepoint. It was $18, so I didn’t buy it. (Sounds ridiculous when you think just hours later I unnecessarily dropped $475 for a dresser and a giant poster.) Then I went back a few days later because I couldn’t stop thinking about it. He’s so cute and small, so it gives me a different option when styling dressers and etc.

I’m starting to believe you can’t have enough landscape art (here and here). We stopped by an estate sale in the neighborhood we’ve already mentally moved into. Secretly we were hoping the house hadn’t been listed yet, and we could take a sneak peak. Sadly, it was already sold. I digress. The painting was $2. The frame is yuck, but that’s an easy change.

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Shopping at Ikea Childless

Posted by Nick in Kitchen, Shop on October 17, 2012  ||  2 Comments

This weekend we needed to make the trek up to our nearest Ikea in order to get our nephew a birthday present. This was the first time Ramona was able to go into Småland (their onsite playground), allowing us to mosey around the store without having to chase her between small square footage dwellings. Here’s what we found:

One question we get a lot is people asking us where we got the cable on the chalkboard wall in our kitchen. Normally I’m all like “figure it out yourself”, but today I thought I’d be nice. Ours is the loft cable system from west elm, which (*cue sad music*) is no longer available. Since we get asked about it a fair bit, I thought this was worth mentioning:

These guys are available for only $12.99. I believe we paid about $30 for ours, so that’s nice alternative if you want to display your kids’ artwork like we do.

I was loving the Henny wool blanket. It was $40, so I bought it. It’s sitting in my office right now.

There were some pretty nice pieces of art. Botanical / Vintage animal prints are all the rage right now, and these butterflies are a nice cheap alternative. The vintage rocker print is nice as well.

There was also this rug that we were digging on. We’re talking about it for our formal dining room. Apparently these rugs are one of a kind, so we’ll need to get back up there soon if we want it.

Amber was also digging this pattern (a little girlie for my taste). She wanted to talk about Ramona’s room being shifted from nursery to toddler room. We’ve been putting it off (yes, we’re terrible parents) until we see how the whole moving situation shakes out. We aren’t wanting to buy anything until then.

Overall, a pretty productive trip to Ikea. Ramona got to play in Småland for the first time ever, and Amber and I got an hour to ourselves talking about home design (it was super hot).

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Cleaning House Up in Here

Posted by Amber in Side Note on October 16, 2012  ||  Comments Off on Cleaning House Up in Here

Despite the constant beat down of keeping a sparkling house for showings (imagine that with a toddler), we have somehow managed to knock out some house cleaning on the blog too. We created pages for our tutorials and our projects on the navigation bar.

It is something we have been wanting to do for a very long time because searching for our bigger projects and tutorials can be slightly overwhelming. It’s only going to get worse as we do more, and we will do more friends.

Some of the projects and tutorials overlap, but we still wanted to put them in both since technically they are both. That way you don’t have to think twice about whether it was a project or if it came with some instructions! Looking back on the big things we’ve accomplished in the past 10 months it’s pretty amazing. Thank you blog for making me do stuff.

Go peruse the tutorials and/or projects especially if you are a new reader.

We also added more connect buttons because we want to connect…with you…in a bad way. We started a twitter a while ago but haven’t been overly active on it. However with facebook not showing our updates to everyone (dislike), we want to pay more attention to our twitter. And we think you should too. Go follow us since no one else does, and it’s depressing. I need this people.

We have a very neglected instagram that I want you to follow too. I really want our instagram to be antique finds especially things we see that are awesome, but we don’t need. If you live in the DFW area, then you definitely need to follow. We might turn into your personal shoppers except that we won’t buy it and delivery it to you. It’s really hard to get motivated to instagram when you have 1 follower…yes I know so sad. It’s our fault we aren’t active on there yet. However the first picture we ever posted was liked by Mat Sanders (Domino Mag), so at least we have that going for us.

I know I am shamelessly begging for followers on twitter and instagram, but I’m not going to apologize folks. We need you. To follow us. On said social media outlets.

Finally we listed our categories out on the side bar, so you can waste spend hours navigating through various posts from a specific…well…category. Say you want to read all my posts about the kitchen, click on the kitchen category. Bam. So easy. Just thinking of you friends. I want all those hours that you spend on wills casa to be as productive as possible. It has absolutely nothing to do with making it easier for me to pull up my old content. Okay well maybe that has a lot to do with it too, but no matter how you look at it everyone is winning here.

In summary, go look at the tutorials and projects page. Then follow us on facebook, twitter, and instagram.

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Another big anouncement

Posted by Nick in Side Note on October 15, 2012  ||  Comments Off on Another big anouncement

That’s right, we’re selling Wills Casa Dos (pause for dramatic effect).

We’ve been talking about moving for a surprisingly long time (for people with a blog dedicated to their house anyways) and decided about a month ago that it was time for us to move westward, closer to Amber’s family.

At the beginning of the summer we started looking at some houses to get a feel for neighborhoods in our price range. We found a couple of houses that we liked and a specific neighborhood, so we decided to get the house ready and try and sell it. It was officially on the market about 12 days ago.

There’s a certain amount of sadness thinking about this house not being done, but we feel like we’ve passed the point in which any more money being put into the house will be recooperated.

We’ve learned a lot from this house and there’s a ton of stuff we would do differently. So it looks like we’re going to get a chance.

The good news is that the houses we are looking at (we have our hearts set on one right now) are really old and need a lot of work. So the blog will live on (I’m sure everyone was really worried about that), and the projects will only get bigger.

Here’s to hoping we get the house we want (It’s already got a contingency offer on it)! So we needthis house to sell soon, so we can get started on the next phase of our Home Improvement adventures. Our mantra for the last 2 weeks has been: Out of Casa Dos and into Casa Tres! Sit tight, it’s gonna be a fun journey.

In case you want to buy our house (please), contact our realtor Pam Snowden. I’m sure she would be happy to assist you.

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How to Make a Cloud and an Awesome Airplane Table

Posted by Amber in How to, Party on October 11, 2012  ||  9 Comments

As promised I am going to share the little details about putting the party table together. I think the food table causes me the most stress every year. It’s the one piece that has to be done the day of the party. In fact you have to pull it together just before guests arrive.

Let’s start with the hanging decorations then make our way down to the table scape.

First recruit your best friend who is also super crafter (and her husband too) the night before the party (PJs required). Then let the cloud making chaos begin. I wanted to make a less complicated (read lazier) but equally awesome version of this cloud.


Supplies:
– Poster board
– Spray Adhesive (my new favorite thing)
– Poly-fil (basically pillow stuffing)
– Hole punch and fishing line (only if you are going to hang the cloud)

Sketch out a cloud. No need to be exact. Clouds never are. If you are going to hang it from the ceiling, punch the holes into it now. You will need to punch holes on both sides or your cloud will spin once it’s hung.

Spray the adhesive on the cloud and the poly-fil on it. I pulled the poly-fil off in clumps to make it lumpy like a real cloud. There are several advantages of using the poly-fil over cotton balls. Mainly it’s easier and quicker to use. Plus the texture and the fact that it’s slightly gray make the cloud seem more realistic.

Flip it over and attach poly-fil to the back. If you are hanging it, I recommend this step. It looks fuller. If you are stapling it on the wall, skip it. I made sure I had some poly-fil over lap the bottom. It conceals the poster board a little and makes it realistic and fluffy.

Tie your fishing line through your punched hole. I knotted it a few times just for good measure. Ta-da, they are done and ready to hang.

We stapled the fishing line to the ceiling and triple knotted the line before cutting it. Last year I hung poms poms from the ceiling and they kept falling, so lesson learned.

We bought airplane puzzles and assembled them (yuck but they were only $4). I spray painted them red and hung them in the clouds.

I bought 2 suitcases for our in-flight snacks and spray painted them in our party colors – red and teal. I lined them in Michael Miller’s Stitch Petal fabric. I used spray adhesive and a hot glue gun to attach the fabric. Just fold the fabric under at the edge and glue. Then spray and smooth the fabric onto the suitcase. It’s super easy and a great way to customize such a huge statement piece on the table.

Our sandwiches were little airplanes cut via a cookie cutter. It just so happened that the Curiosity Shop’s line at Target included a cutting board in the shape of the USA. Perfect for our cheese plate.

We have actually had the metal 3 for a long time. I’ve secretly been counting the days until I could use it for Ramona’s birthday. Double win that it was also red!

Airplane-Party-Cloud-Tutorial

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