#81...baby T's nursery

I was so happy to be able to decorate this nursery for my cousin Jenna & her husband Justin, who are awaiting the arrival of their first child. The jumping off point for the decor was the "you are my sunshine print" that Jenna bought on Etsy. I tried to further the 'weather theme' with a sun and clouds chenille blanket, a cloud mobile, and a bird wall sculpture above the crib. I made striped Roman shades for the four windows in the room, which you can find instructions for here. We decided to open up the closet space and make it part of the room, however I made a curtain door in case they need to close it off. I also covered the boring wood curtain rod with fabric matching that of the Roman shades. To see more of this nursery, check out my flickr photostream here, and for those interested, I will be posting instructions for making the cloud mobile and a few of the other things I made for the room in following posts.

#80...better bitig

BITIG before

Last week I traveled to Kansas City to attend my cousin Jenna's baby shower, and decorate her nursery. I will be sharing the finished nursery result this week after I cull through the photos. This is one of the DIY projects that I added to Jenna's room. It is the magnet board/clock BITIG from Ikea. To personalize her clock, I painted the hands in Citron by Benjamin Moore. I also added some chipboard number stickers to the plain orange magnets. I purchased the sticker pack that included numbers and letters from Target, and it is pictured below.

BITIG after

#79...tools I can't live without

In my giant arsenal of tools, none get as much use as the three pictured above. These three tools make cutting everything from fabric to leather to paper to vinyl a snap. And straight every time too! Originally designed for quilters, artists and crafters of all kinds use the above original Olfa Rotary Cutter, plastic grid ruler and self-healing mat. Try them, and I bet like me, you'll come to love them so much more than regular scissors.

#78...rescue dogs rule

Pets are a big part of my life, and even participate in my DIY endeavours as you can see here, here, and here. This is Mazie, whom we recently adopted from Border Collie Rescue. She is learning the ropes here, and we are thrilled to have gotten such a sweet rescue. She is one years old, and very much a puppy still, but I'm sure it won't be long before she is ready to play willing victim in whatever DIY project I subject her to!

#77...ink drip lampshade

I decided to embellish this plain looking lampshade with some India Ink that I had leftover from a previous art class. To create the drip effect on the linen lampshade, I mixed about 1 teaspoon of ink and half a cup of water into a jar. Then I simply dipped a round small paint brush into the ink solution, and wiped it at the top of the shade, watching the ink drip down. Tyler said that he likes how it looks, which is good, because sometimes I wreck perfectly nice things with my offbeat painting ideas.

#76...shaved ice

I realize that summer is drawing to a close, however here in Houston, we can enjoy a cool treat like shaved ice longer than those in cooler climates. Last week while I was in Hawaii, I got to enjoy some famous Hawaiian shaved ice at Matsumoto's in Haleiwa on the North Shore. I even bought this cute Japanese inspired T-shirt to remember my fun treat.

Yesterday was my birthday, and I thought that maybe I could make my own shaved ice to celebrate, so I did a little research and realized that there is actually is an art to making shaved ice, and you need a machine. This ehow link convinced me that making my own shaved ice is not a DIY I should try. The mention of a free 106-page shaved ice manual really took the wind out of my sail, and scared me off. So, for now I will be happy to frequent the shaved ice carts in my neighborhood like this popular spot! Happy weekend!

My surf instructor & his Matsumoto Shaved Ice

#75...mimicing the mummy

I really loved the quirky, eclectic quality of these mummy chairs by Dutch designer Peter Traag when they debuted back in 2005, as seen here in a room designed by Stefan Boublil found on the contemporist blog. Their price is way out of my budget, but I thought I could recreate something similar using twill tape. I purchased two stools at a discount retail store that had a simple round foam top on four wooden legs. I bought two 72 yard rolls of white heavyweight cotton twill tape in a 1.25 inch width (one for each stool). I first painted the legs of the stools white (they were brown). Next, I stapled the edge of the twill tape roll to the underside of the stool and began wrapping around and around until I was happy with the look. They are a subtle detail in my room, but I like how they look, and they remind me of the fun designer original. The project cost me about $35 for each stool and took me a few hours to complete.

#74...hawaiiana

Here are some cool things I've seen while in Hawaii, and on a side note, I learned today that Hawaii is celebrating its 50th anniversary as a state this year!

mid century architecture......

birds of paradise........

and a mahalo mini........

#73...DIY vacation

Tyler and I arrived in Honolulu yesterday, and I am going to try surfing for the very first time in my life today. I think surfing is a real DIY type of sport, considering it involves lining up a board and a wave at just the right second. Hopefully I'll be successful!

#72...sisal makeover

After several years of pets and parties, the sisal rug in my TV room was looking a little sad, (as you can see below.) Sisal lasts forever, so the rug was not worn, but had some discoloring due to spills and wet paws. The twill rug border was really dingy looking, so I thought that before tossing it out and buying a new one, I would attempt to paint it. I first painted it chocolate brown with a flat latex enamel paint. It looked better, but did not quite pop enough for my taste, so I recently redid it in lime green semi-gloss enamel. It has a really nice floor mat look, and the painted surface is actually softer and smoother to walk on than the sisal was. I bought a gallon of paint for about $30, and simply applied it with a roller.

#71...mom's dining room

dining room before

This past year, I have been working on helping my parent's update a few rooms in their house. I previously posted about the living room here, and today I am sharing the dining room. They bought their house in 1989, and chose the bird wallpaper that you see above for the dining room. When deciding what to keep and what to change in the room, we all still liked the print, and the paper was in good shape, so to update it, I decided to paint wide stripes onto the wallpaper to give the room a fresh, more modern look. Here is the result.

To accomplish the stripe effect on the wallpaper I used a laser level and painters tape to section off the stripes. Next, I used a product called Prep-Rite by Sherwin Williams to prime over the existing wallpaper. In order to paint on top of wallpaper, the paper has to be adhered very well to the wall. It would not have been possible for me to paint the stripes if their paper had been peeling at all. After the primer, we chose a paint color for the stripes and the bottom half of the wall under the chair rail. We added a few new furniture pieces to the room including a buffet to match their existing dining set, and some upholstered chairs for extra seating. My Dad built drapery cornice boxes and we chose woven wood blinds and a swag style drape. My Mom collects Hummels (a German figurine) and my Dad had built the box shown above years ago to house her collection. I updated the shadow box (you can see it in the before) by painting it a pearlized cream color and adding a striped silk fabric to the back and sides. A new chandelier, some table dressings, and a few new art pieces finish off the room.

#70...pillow winner #5

Tate Modern, London

And the winner for the fifth and final pillow cover giveaway is...STEPHANIE...congrats! and thanks to everyone for playing. I'm planning to do another month of pillow cover giveaways in November, so please stay tuned! Happy Labor Day weekend!

(Stephanie, email your shipping address to christie.chase@gmail.com)

#69...DIY bridesmaid

This upcoming weekend my family will be celebrating my brother's wedding, and I thought I would share a DIY project from my sister's wedding a few years ago. My youngest sister Sarah (in the middle) and I were the maid and matron of honor, and Julie wanted our dresses to have a two tone look to differentiate us from the other bridesmaids, who wore various styles of dresses in the solid pink color. I made my dress using yardage ordered, but Sarah's dress was a store-bought strapless dress that I cut up and re-designed to include the red front detailing and strapping. I have a lot of sewing classes under my belt, so this is not a novice DIY project, but I love to re-design clothing, and this is one of my best efforts, so I thought I'd share!

#68...closet solutions

My early 1900's bungalow has only one closet in the whole house, and the door to it is just under 60 inches tall and looks like something out of Alice in Wonderland. Needless to say, we've had to be creative with storage. I turned this old Ikea bookcase into a wall closet in my spare bedroom. Granted, it is open storage, and I am always hurrying to tidy it up before parties, instead of simply stashing stuff in a closed closet, but overall I like how it looks, and it stores a ton of stuff!

To add hanging space, I used a wood dowel with round wall holders from Home Depot. I painted them white and attached one side to the cabinet and one side to the wall (using anchors.) Next, I added the shelf above the hanging rod, where you can see I store my bags and totes. Underneath the closet rod area, I decided to use the floor space, and added this valet from West Elm, in which I store jewelry.

The most functional part of this system are the door fronts that I created for the bookcase to give myself some closed cubbies.

To make the door fronts, I cut squares out of a 1/4" thin wood veneer panel sheet. I attached this drawer pull to the back of each door panel using clear Liquid Nails. Then I attached a magnet to the inside of each cubbie and to the back of each door panel atop the pull using Liquid nails. (see photos for detail)

I created the striped pattern on the door fronts using painters tape and some white acrylic paint that I wiped onto the wood with a rag, as if I were staining it.

#67...reinventing time

clock before clock after

My grandparents gave me this clock as a wedding gift, and while it was a very nice clock as it was, it was not really my style, and therefore had been living at the back of my book shelf....until now! I painted it black and painted the hands white, and it is now chiming away happily at the forefront of my shelf.