I’ve mentioned before that we moved about 6 months ago, and we’ve been a bit stuck home-decor-wise. Every little thing that needs to be done (not to mention the big stuff…) takes forever to get around to.

In this case, I was inspired by these DIY gold pears shown by Elisheva on Hook ‘n’ Loop Design’s blog. The idea of taking a cheap item and covering it with gold (or in my case – silver) struck me as genius, and I had to try it myself.

Our bathrooms actually got quite a bit of my attention, we have mirrors, towels and I even got some greenery as decoration (ahhhmmm, plastic. Don’t tell any one…). However, I’ve always liked rubber ducks and I just had  to buy a few and try it. So I did.

I don’t know about you, but everytime I see a beautiful  wood play kitchen for kids I think: “Wow! That’s incredible!” And right after that: “But where will I put one of those?”

So, if you’re like me and have already told all your friends and relatives you have run out of room for toys and only bring gifts if they are two dimensional please, this tutorial is for you: A play kitchen in a box. The fabric covered box is the stove and oven, and all the accessories are kept inside. Cook, play and put it away! And – when it gets a bit dusty and musty, take the fabric cover off and wash it! What could be better…

It’s that time of the year and everywhere I look there are Valentine’s Day hearts. Pink and red and all the romantic colors of the rainbow. I must confess that I’m not excited about Valentine’s Day, but I do love pink. Yes, I have grown up from a black-wearing-rock-music-loving teenager to a pink wearing Alicia Keys enthusiast. Not that I don’t still wear an awful lot of black or stopped rocking, but I certainly have opened up to other colors and musical options.

So while all these hearts are popping up all over, “Listen to Your Heart” by Alicia Keys kept playing in my head. I decided to listen and be true to myself: Pink – OK. Heart – let’s go for it. But I gotta keep my street cred (ha! what street cred?) so I chose black and neon green for complementary colors.

I added the heart to a simple ear warmer, placing hearts over my ears (because, listen…), but the pattern can be added onto any crochet piece. In fact, after making the ear warmer, I decided to give in and make a softer toned coaster. I wouldn’t mind being served a nice cup of coffee on one of those. Especially if someone else made it for me.

It’s been over 6 months since we’ve moved, and it’s about time to get our act together and start decorating. We had a big “push” right after the move, obviously, but we’ve been stuck since.

The first room I decided to tackle is the family room. This is the room we hang out it – it has the Wii, a TV, a craft table for the kids and a computer desk, and it also doubles as a guest room. Eventually it will become a room for a child – so I didn’t want to put a lot of money in to it only to change it in a few years.

So: low budget, comfy for everyone, durable and washable are in order.

I started out with a more sophisticated vision in mind – grey with pops of yellow, which is definitely one of the trendier design schemes around right now. I filled my pinterest board with grey & yellow inspiration. But then I saw this rainbow bright living room and this “Confetti Pop” room and yellow went out the plain-no-curtains window and strong base colors came in.

My daughter is quite a girly-girl. And while I will raise her to be strong and independent, I’m thoroughly enjoying her girly-ness. A couple of days ago she came home from day care upset because her plastic headband had broke. In an effort to cheer her up I asked if she would like me to make her a new one.

That didn’t work.

So I asked her if she’d like to help me choose the fabric.

She chose three.

Then she was happy.

Then she went somewhere else to play, and I sat down to sew.