I wanna be a cowboy...or just decorate like one

It's great as a designer to have these really huge budgets to work with, and the sky is the limit for any ideas you might have.  But, more often than not, you are given a huge project to accomplish....with very little funding.  I was called by a friend to help decorate an elementary school nurse's office with a western theme.  I see this blog as a perfect opportunity to teach a little lesson of my own.  Take notes.

How to decorate an elementary school office on a very limited budget:

1.  Beg, borrow and steal....well, maybe not STEAL, anything you can from anyone who will let you.  We were able to snag these awesome denim draperies from a student's mom.  Some grommets, rope from the hardware store, and dollar-store bandannas complete the look.

2.  Paint the existing cabinet hardware to match the theme.  This school had an overall western theme, with the nurse's office being called, "The Okay Corral."  To buy 376 new knobs...okay, 72.... would have been waaaaaaayyyy beyond our budget, so I compromised. 

3.  Think outside the norm.  The nurse needed a privacy curtain, so I fashioned one out of a hardware-store canvas dropcloth, and had the third-grade students design cattle brands to adorn it with.  I made a creative decision to leave out some of the more...uh...colorful designs.

 4.  Turn scrap wood into creative signage:

5.  Splurge on inexpensive wood plaques and a mirror from the hobby store if you can't resist buying stuff at those hobby stores.  I mean, really?  Who can possibly resist buying things from those places?  I can't.  Really.

6.  Look at garage sales for painted canvases.  With a little sandpaper and primer, you can easily cover something ugly into something wonderful.  Just sand the painting, prime it, and paint anything you like over it.  I used some leftover twine to make a frame and added accents with leftover rope.

(I had to paint a few of these....they kept "disappearing" suddenly)

7.  Paint anything and everything that will stand still:

  

On this tree mural, I was able to just tell a couple of the moms and their daughters what to paint and where.  I painted the individual birdhouses myself.  If you watch the sale ads and coupons for craft stores, you can usually find these birdhouses for 50% (or more) off. 

8.  Finish with a few well-chosen items scavenged from your family and friend's houses.

9.  Take a well-deserved break! 

Red, red wine...dinners make you feel so fine

I've been a bad blogger again.  When I started writing this blog, I wanted to post my own photos...rather than someone else's from their blog.  So I dug deep into my computer files and found the pictures from my first Wine Dinner, with a picnic theme. 

I made table squares out of fat quarters, in different shades of blue and red.  I made centerpieces out of paper flowers and craft tissue stuffed into a brown paper bag.  My place cards were simple calligraphy on plain white business cards, trimmed with plaid scrapbook paper and placed on cut corks.

A few months later, I used the same theme, but took it a step (or four) farther.  I used most of the same table squares, but this time on an ivory tablecloth.

  

I used more paper flowers in ice buckets lined with blue gingham as the main centerpieces, flanked by the smaller brown paper bag centerpieces on either side of the table.  I made paper napkin rings to look like old wine labels, with burgundy napkins rolled inside.  I cut butterflies out of scrapbook paper for the place cards and lined small candle holders with autumn leaves for some fall color. 

 Stay tuned for more Wine Dinners!

Do a little dance, make a little...dinner party

Do you ever go into something knowing it's not going to turn out well, despite your best intentions?  Well, that is this post.  I wanted to show photos of the disco-themed wine dinner, but I don't appear to have any good photos.  But, I missed talking to y'all, dear readers, so here are the few measly pics.  I promise I'll do better next time, m'kay?

I used old cassette tape cases for the placecards, and made my own 'album' covers for the various guests.  I searched high and low for inexpensive cases in good condition.  Granted, they are available in most thrift stores, but I had to buy at least 50 of them...and with a $10 budget.  Not such an easy task, but remember that I am ShelSquared, SuperDecorator.  I searched garage sales, thrift stores, and my parent's garage.  I had three different emails going on with Craigslist folks. 

Side note:  if you're selling something that is fairly obsolete in this day and age, don't feel that you have to drive a hard bargain.  If someone desperately needs to buy 50 of your best Country Christmas from Cleveland County cassettes, work with them.  Seriously.  This is clearly a desperate measure from a desperate woman three cities over. 

Anyway...I finally tracked down a boxfull of cassettes from a church tag sale.  Crisis averted.  Whew!

I made centerpieces out of brightly colored feather picks from the craft store, 45 records, glow sticks and dollar-store bud vases. 

The best part of the decor was the napkin and menu combo.  I made the menu to look like a big-collared black shirt unbuttoned, and folded the standard white napkin like a white jacket. 

Overall, it was a rockin' huge success.  Groovy!

You oughtta know, how I feel...about Pinterest

One of the not-so-pleasant side effects of having Pinterest-addicted friends is that you probably do not get any credit for coming up with something creative on your own. 

I made some felt fortune-cookie party favors for a friend's birthday party a few weeks ago...something I had tried for the first time about 9 years ago after watching a cooking show on TV.  I thought it would be cool to use felt, so I sketched my idea and tucked it away into an idea file.  When I debuted my felt creations at the recent party, I was greeted by "oh, Pinterest!" 

Sure enough, there was a Pinterest pin for felt fortune cookies.  Not mine.  Mine were zebra-print.

Martha Stewart

Whatever.  I'm not bitter.

Much.

If I had known the other party guests better, I would have defended my craft...but then I would have looked like the weird party goer who can't stop talking about herself and her felt cookies.  I promised myself I wouldn't do that...again.

Anyway.

I realized that there is nothing new under the sun, and my versions of cute things can be quite different than other people's.  So when I saw this cute photo on Pinterest, I decided to repost it.

http://www.reckless-glamour.com/2010/11/painted-curtains.html

But, I also wanted to post a photo of MY curtains that I made three LONG years ago.  Before Pinterest.  Not bitter, in case you were wondering.

 

Mine are sewn, but I admit it would have been cool if they were hand-painted.  I made mine out of inexpensive white sheets and RIT dye; with lots of measuring, cutting, swearing, crying and Airplane movie breaks. 

I won't even admit out loud that I'm thinking about painting my old dining-room chandelier and hanging it this room in front of these curtains.  Maybe a silvery-grey color? 

Still not bitter.  Nope. 

And don't call me Shirley.

I'm a survivor; I'm gonna make it...whatever it is

I have such a creative bug these days, but also seem to be creatively blocked at the same time.  While I was planning our wedding, some of my friends on Facebook and Pinterest were doing a crafter's challenge and making things by hand for five of their friends.  I wanted to participate in that, but had way too much to do in wedding preparation.  So, I've decided to do my own challenge.  The first five people that read this post, and leave a comment....I'll make something for them.  Hopefully, I can keep up with the vast demand!

:: crickets ::

Until then, here are some photos of last month's Wine Dinner.  We did a 'Survivor' theme, but didn't vote anyone out of the restaurant.  Brad wouldn't let me have real fire torches either.  Oh well.

Each table of twenty had a team name, color and flag. 

Each table of twenty had a different tribe name, flag and color...with coordinating chairs, of course. 

I used a simple burlap table runner, and painted the guests' names on river rocks to use as place cards.  The centerpieces were made out of dried grass, sticks and twigs set in old vases that I painted to look like tiki statues and totem poles.  The menus were printed on craft paper, torn on the edges and tied around the napkins with strips of fraying leather cording. 

Now I'm ready to tackle those handmade projects for you.  Keep those comments coming! 

Let's do this!

I should have been the one to invent Pinterest.  I have been saving ideas, notes, magazine cutouts, photos, sketches, blueprints, 80s music, more ideas and photos for 26 years....or more.  One of the first photos I ever cut out of magazine is the one that inspired my love of interior design.

Image courtesy of Seventeen Magazine, circa 1986

Now, if there were only a quick and easy way of magically scanning all of these thousands of ideas directly onto my Pinterest boards without the fear of copyright issues, etc.  Oh, and not having to actually chain myself to the scanner all day.  That's not even counting the even more thousands of photos I have saved to my computer files. 

So what am I doing with all of these valuable resources shoved into binders and boxes and computer files?  Nothing. 

Until now           (Cue dramatic music)

From now on, I'm not going to wait to have children so that I can decorate their rooms.  I'm not going to wait until October to make fun Halloween decorations.  I'm not going to wait to start a business until I win the lottery and I'm NOT going to wait any more to start creating all of the things I've been saving to do someday.  Well, maybe I shouldn't decorate children's rooms until I actually have some of my own.  That would be weird.

Maybe by creating this blog, I'll hold myself accountable for actually doing something about my dreams.  Maybe someone will let me design their kids' rooms or decorate for their dinner party.  Maybe I'll win the lottery and can spend my days painting furniture and listening to 80s music. 

Who knows. 

Are you with me, dear readers?

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas wrapping....

I made a resolution this year to not buy any wrapping paper, bows, ribbon or ornaments.  I have plenty of that stuff around the house, and it would encourage me to be more creative.  Like I have a problem with that or something....anyway...

What I didn't think of at the time was that a lot of the wrapping paraphenalia I had around said house was of the green and black & white polkadot variety, with some zebra-print thrown in.  But I was determined to make it work, without having a repeat of the toilet-paper-and-an-old-extension-cord wrapping job I used three years ago.  I decided to rely on my trusty Microsoft WordArt and love of fonts to create my own name tags. 

Here are my first efforts...

Next up:  creative ways to wrap gift cards.