Purple Monkey

Busy times here in Sweeneyville! Finally got moved into the new place over the weekend. Now begins the massive unpacking efforts.

I do have a purse to share from a few weeks ago. This was a special request for a friend of a friend. Get this: She likes purple, monkeys and skulls! This is a girl after my own heart.

It's hard to see in the picture, but the purple in the monkey is a fun glittery fabric. The same fabric was used for the lining. I learned the hard way to iron the wrong side of the fabric or the glitter would come off. I used a skull and crossbones button for the tab closure. This was a fun one to make!

Now, I should go unpack the kitchen. Or I could keep watching Heroes. Eh, we'll see. :-)

Picnik

Getting good photographs has definitely been a challenge for me, particularly the close ups needed for my etsy shop. I was aware of Picnik, the online photo editing tool, but hadn't made the time to play with it. I was going through some photos we took in the city over the weekend (expect a post on that soon) and it was the perfect opportunity to see what it can do.

This first picture was taken in Indiana on a return roadtrip from Virginia a couple of weeks ago. The windmills go on and on as far as you can see.

Not a bad picture, right? But not a great one. A little crooked and a little bland. I pulled it into Picnik and started clicking away until I liked it better. This is the picture after straightening it and applying Boost, HDR and Lomo-ish. I still would have liked the blue to be more blue, but I'll keep practicing.

Here's another example. This picture was taken in the city from a moving vehicle as the sun was setting. You can see it's a little dark and doesn't do a good job of focusing on the street performers.

Here it is after cropping, adjusting the exposure and applying Cross Process (I think. It's easy to lose track.) and Lomo-ish.

Thumbs up to Picnik! It can be a little intimidating at first with so many options, but just get in there and start clicking to see what you like. You'll definitely find that you'll develop a few favorite go-to effects. There are also options to add frames, stickers, text and all sorts of fun stuff.

Now I want to go back and work on our wedding photos!

Dresser

I'm not sure I've mentioned it here, but I've been on the hunt for a dresser. When we move to the new townhouse (in 2 weeks!), I'll be executing a new bedroom design plan.

It all started when those wacky kids at Young House Love posted about In Mod's tool for designing your own pillow. While playing with the tool, I landed on this design and inspiration struck!

I'll get into more bedroom design details as they happen, but I will mention that I really want a red dresser for the room. So, the hunt for a cheap, old dresser to refinish began. I've been scouring Craigslist for a few weeks for something with an interesting shape that was in my budget. I decided early on that I didn't want to pay more than $50. Last night, we found a winner!

This is the pic from Craigslist, but I'll get some better ones later (it's currently still in my friends' truck). At $60, I went a little over budget, but I feel good about it. It has a matching mirror and I heart the spindly legs on casters!

I probably won't have time to work on it until after the move since I haven't packed the first thing yet (guess what I'll be doing with my long weekend). But I can't wait for her fantastic red makeover!

Enter to Win a Free Silhouette Craft Cutter!

Southern Hospitality is giving away a free Silhouette craft cutter! Seriously! Go enter! You may not know that you need it, but you do. And even if you don't, you can give it to me. :-)

Fabric Panel

Here's another project I made for our blank, white walls. My requirements were that it needed to be fairly large, cheap and easy (insert "your mom" joke here). A fabric panel would fit the bill!

I've had this fabric for a year or so. When I spotted it in the store, I new it was perfect for a purse for a friend, but I also needed some for myself. I bought 3 yards, I think, with no project in mind at the time.

Don't you love it?

With the fabric settled, we headed to the hardware store for 2 pieces of 1" x 2" wood and a 4-pack of brackets. I believe we spent about $5 at the store.

Because The Hubs jumps at the chance to use power tools, he put the frame together for me. The first step was to saw the wood to the right lengths. I wanted the finished project to be 3' x 4', so he cut 2 pieces to 3' and 2 pieces to 4'. Yeah, it would be an inch or two off at the end because of the way we put the corners together, but I was okay with that. No pics of him sawing, but I think you can imagine what that looks like.

The next step was to drill pilot holes for the brackets. Here's an action shot...

With all four brackets in place, we had a frame that looks like this...

Here's a closer look at the brackets we used...

With the frame assembled, it was my turn! I laid out the fabric face down, and placed the frame on top. Then I cut around frame, leaving a couple inches of fabric around the edges. I was not precise, by any means.

The next step was to pull the fabric over the edges of the frame and staple the heck out of it. I started with one staple in the center of each side and pulled it taut, then kept pulling and stapling until there was no more to pull and staple. Once it was all stapled, I trimmed off any excess fabric. It looked a little something like this...

Here's a look at the corners. Not very pretty, but that's okay. I'm all about cutting corners on things that no one is ever going to see.

And that is it! Time to hang it on the wall...

Just to recap, the cost of this project was about 5 bucks and some fabric that I had on hand. This was a super simple and fast project, but I love the impact it makes in the room! Because I left the fabric relatively in tact, I can always pull it off the frame and reuse it! I just can't get enough of those bunnies.

Linking up to the CSI Project. The challenge this week is Wall Decor. Why don't you head on over and see what people are making?

Color Coding

Let me begin by saying that I am a sucker for personality tests. Doesn't matter how lame they are. If you can tell me which Simpson's character I am based on a short quiz, I'm there. Which Hogwarts house would I be placed in? Please, tell me! What is my character profile based on my taste in eighties movies? I have to know! I take all of these tests for what they're worth: An interesting way to kill time. (I'm Slytherin, btw.)

With all that out of the way, I just took this neat one that determines your personality traits based on your color preferences. Here's what the test had to say:

You are 42 % extrovert and 58 % introvert.
Independently of any order of importance :
You are imaginative and creative, you have always new ideas, and you know how to apply them.
You are also able to have an in-depth thinking, you think before acting, and you know how to communicate your knowledge.
Finally you are dynamic, your actions are only directed by your own will and you know how to lead people.

There was more information about how awesome I am, but IE crashed and I lost my results. :-( I could retake the test, but... nah. If laziness wasn't in the profile, it should have been.

Anyway, this was a fun one. Try it out!

Ho-Lee-Crap

I want to eat these. A lot.

Thanks to Positively Splendid for the amazing recipe. I think The Hubs should add this to his baking repertoire.