A Budget-Friendly Display

We've been fortunate to host some of our friends and family since our move south, many of which are able to stay longer than just a weekend.  Because they're usually looking for something to do while we're at work, we've been wanting a way to display our suggestions.  We've collected a hefty stack of brochures for tours and activities, but let's be honest, it's mostly about the food, drinks, and socializing here.

I thought about painting a list of our recommendations onto canvas, but there are constantly new restaurants and bars popping up.  And our favorites change quicker than it takes Kirb to run from bed to dish at dinnertime.  He's hefty, but can really move when it's time to feed.  So we decided on something less permanent.

We started by searching thrift shops and Craigslist for a large, chunky frame.  Turns out it's hard to find one on the cheap.  Anything I spotted that fit my liking was over $100.  Right.  So I figured it was time to think outside the box.  With some loot from Lowe's and my own stash at home, I took a less traditional route to get this 2-foot by 3-foot chalkboard creation for less than $35!  Woop woop!

Here's the end product:

I guarantee Pinterest is already teeming with this idea, but here's the how-to for my version.

I bought two 10-foot foam trim pieces from Lowe's for about $15 each.  They had several styles, but I chose a wider version for a sturdier look.  I think it's about 3" wide.  Wood trim would've worked well too, but I liked the idea of the foam being so lightweight.  Our paint situation is looking pretty ridiculous (we're talking big grocery sacks full of paint samples I've collected over the years), so I already had chalkboard paint and a sample tub of red satin paint that happened to be from the front door.  I also busted out some Frog Tape, Liquid Nails, mini foam roller, paint brush, tape measure, ruler, and miter box and handsaw- all of which I had on hand.

You can probably tell by the lighting that I took this after dark.
It was daylight savings time, people.

The first thing I did was tape off the area on the wall where I wanted the chalkboard.  I decided on 2' x 3' for the inside dimensions of the frame, so I taped off an area just slightly larger to make sure I had some leeway with frame placement.

Then I rolled on my chalkboard paint.  It ended up taking 3 coats to get a nice, solid black.

Next, I used my handsaw to cut two 2-foot pieces and two 3-foot pieces of trim.  These would be the top/bottom and sides of my frame.  I used a little sandpaper to smooth out the edges.

After wiping them down (sawing the foam gets a little messy), I layered on the red satin paint with a brush.  I added the first two coats, then used Liquid Nails to connect the pieces end-to-end to form a frame.  I ended up slathering on one last coat once the frame was together, just to make sure all the nooks and crannies were covered.

Once everything was dry, I attached the frame to the wall with Command Strips, cut in half lengthwise.  The advantage of making a frame that weighs no more than a pound!

Boom!  So easy and inexpensive!  

Here's the completed version with our latest restaurant/bar/music recommendations.  You can see we've already made some changes- every time we turn around there's a new place to add to the list!

Mardi Gras Prep

It's Carnival Season, folks!  If you read most of the posts here or follow me on Facebook or Instagram, you're already well aware.  Holding in excitement isn't something I've mastered yet.

The season technically begins following Twelfth Night (the twelfth day of Christmas, if you will, on January 5th), and lasts until Mardi Gras, the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday.  Depending on when Easter falls, Fat Tuesday could be as early as the beginning of February, or as late as March.  This year it's March 4th.  Which means even more time to celebrate the season!  It also means Valentine's Day becomes virtually obsolete.  Sorry, Cupid.

As it goes for any other holiday, the mood changes a bit in the house.  Our first Mardi Gras is all about the homemade.

Exhibit A:  Paper "Bon Mardi Gras" flag banner and appropriately colored tissue paper pom poms.

I free-handed letters on yellow sparkly scrapbook paper (way cooler in person than in pictures, obviously), cut them out, and double-stick-taped them to plum colored paper.  The edges are lined with green pipe cleaners, hot glued on.

A House Update: Details

Seeing as I haven't given a house update since right after we moved in, I think it's time for another peek.  Now that the Christmas decor has made its way up to the attic, some of our standard decor is coming out, and the Carnival Season creations are making their debut.  The Arvins' "tourist season", as I've started to call it, is just beginning.  The guest rooms are booked most weekends through the end of March!  I won't have as much time to work on little projects around here, but we're so excited to host great friends and family for the next 2 months!

In the meantime though, let's focus on a bit of normalcy, shall we?  Before things get too purple, gold, and green around here, I'll share some pictures of the little details I've been loving so much.

We'll start in the living room.  I made the garland for about 5 bucks with wood beads and twine.

Gingerbread Hizzouse

The worst part about making a gingerbread house is that I want to barf afterward.  Because I eat half the candy and icing as I make it. Obviously.  This year was no different.

The last time I made a gingerbread house, I made the house from scratch.  Gingerbread isn't that difficult to make, but it takes so much time to do all the mixing, baking, shaping, and cutting, I'm pretty much over it by the time it's ready for decorating.  Patience is not a virtue of mine.

Enter gingerbread house kit a la Walmart.  Don't judge me.  I did make some alterations.

Holiday Project: Anthropologie-Inspired Felt Leaf Wreath

It's my first holiday project of the year, folks!  I wish I could've started all these projects sooner... I'm trying to cram them all into these last couple of weeks!  With the move mid-November and leaving town for Thanksgiving though, here we are.

Actually, over Thanksgiving in Minneapolis was where I spotted my inspiration for this wreath.  While perusing my faaaavorite store, Anthropologie (I live off of gift cards from the fam- you know who you are!), I immediately took a liking to this felt leaf wreath.

Anthropologie

Fancy Baby: A Bow Tie Onesie

With many of our friends expanding their families these days, we were bound to get into baby-related crafting!  I posted here about visiting our friends and their new addition last month in Indy.  I wanted to make a small "welcome" gift for the little guy, and a bow tie onesie seemed right up his alley :)  I knew it should detach, for washability, and I also knew I wanted Purdue colors... baby Momma and I both graduated from there.

Our Sideboard Turned Creole

One of the things that excited me about moving to New Orleans was the style.  The clothes, the art, the decor.  Wild colors and eclectic bohemian mixes are the groove here.  As you know though, we came from a pretty traditional old house.  Wild was not our style.  So I'm working on it.

Meet sideboard.  He's dark, shiny, and beautiful.  But a little boring for such a lively city.  So I plan to jazz him up.

Here he is in our old house:

And in our new house:

I'm hoping I can successfully incorporate multiple colors into this project... without it looking like it belongs in a kid's room.  Here are some of my inspirations from good ol' Pinterest:

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On my way home from work yesterday, I picked up a few paint chips that struck my fancy.

These are the combos I've been playing around with.  I have to admit, I'm sort of nervous about getting so bold.  I could do one bold color... but two or three?  I feel like I wild woman!

What do you think?  Should I stick to different shades of the same color, maybe?  Or go with opposite colors on the color wheel?  Help?!

Downsizing and a Parlor Tour

Things are starting to shape up around here.  As you can probably imagine, we had a lot of decisions to make about all of our "stuff" when we moved from our 4000 square foot Indiana home to our 1100 square foot New Orleans shot-gun.  We gave a lot of our handed-down antiques back to my parents and grandparents, and we sold a lot more at the Woodruff Place Flea Market.  Even with everything we unloaded to family and flea market buyers, we still seemed to have more that just couldn't make the trip.  Salvation Army and Goodwill came in handy at that point.

The good news is, we've had plenty to furnish and decorate our new place with!  Moving from our first home to our last one was quite the opposite- we had a lot of empty walls and rooms to fill.  This time around, we're filled to the brim.  Talk about an opportunity to simplify!

Here's what the place looked like post moving-truck-unloading.  We definitely didn't think it would all fit!

He's really photogenic.

Thank goodness Kirby helped with the unpacking.

As always, decorating, organizing, and redecorating will be a continuing project.  At the moment though, there's only a little de-cluttering left to do before I can slap a "done for now" sticker on this bad boy.

I'll give a bedroom & kitchen tour later, but below are some shots of the double parlor.  Ignore the extra boxes and rug in the first parlor- did I mention we're still settling?

I've got a few plans for this room.  The first is to paint these chairs.  I'm considering matching the green color of the throw (which my mom crocheted for us, by the way) on the back of the left chair.

I haven't even asked our landlord if we can paint.  I'm kind of diggin' the yellow for now.

Yep, I've already created another gallery wall!  I can't help myself.  Especially since most of our wall art was condensed in the downsize.  I'm hoping to add at least another row to the top.  NOLA is overflowing with great local art, so I'll have no problem finding more pieces!  Check out my last gallery wall post to see my how-to.  I used the same method this time.

We have four mantles in this house.  FOUR!  Dream. Come. True.  Sigh.

We can't forget a little piece of our old 'hood :)

The pugs approve of the move, too.

Have a good week!

More Sharpie Paint Pen Excitement

You already know from the Pinterest Challenge post that I've got a newfound obsession with Sharpie paint pens.  Really.  I could be out anywhere and think, "Hmmm... that window would be sooo cute with a little paint-penned decoration," or "Oooh, those tiles could be much more unique with a paint pen design," or even, "Wow, those pugs would be stunning with paint pen stripes down their backs."  Okay, maybe not the last one so much.  But I think you get the point.

So on a quest for more paint pen craftiness, I remembered my need for cheap art in the dining room.  I have a wall that's in need of a gallery.  I dug up a postcard, my sketchpad, and some frames I wasn't using to see what I could come up with.

One particularly lazy evening, I plopped myself in front of the TV and started doodling a pattern with my black Sharpie paint pen.  I'm crazy about tribal prints these days, so I made one of my own.

I kind of like it all framed and hanging like it's fancy.

I always like incorporating maps into decor, so for another piece I printed one off from the internet.  I used one of my favorite travel quotes and a gold paint pen to finish it off.

And lastly, I found this postcard in our mess of "souvenirs" from our summer in Spain a few years ago. Maybe I'm feeling a little travel-bug-ish.  Used my gold paint pen for this one, too.

After adding a piece of black craft paper to fill the extra space in the frame, it looked like this:

I'd say I'm well on my way to a dining room gallery wall!  Do you have any new paint pen creations?