This Just Pinned: May

Welcome to This Just Pinned: May Edition!

I started up this monthly series in April in order to highlight my favorite pins so that none get lost in the shuffle! By the way, if you don't already, you should follow me on Pinterest!

I didn't pin as much this month because I was honeymooning and traveling for a good deal of May, but I still had a hard time picking my favorite pins in each category. Here's what I ended up with!

Note: Please pin from the original source rather than pinning from my blog! You can click on the source links below each image to navigate to the original posts, or you can click on the image itself and repin my existing pin, which links back to the originators :)

Recipe: Mac ‘n Cheese Muffins

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These mac ‘n cheese muffins dreamed up by the team at Brit look both scrumptious and adorable! I would love to serve these bites at a party—now I just need to dream up an occasion that merits them. They’d be great for cookouts—guests could enjoy the American classic without worrying about dropping cheesy noodles on their laps!

DIY Project: Vacation Shadowboxes

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It’s no secret that I love travel-themed projects and decor, and this one is no exception! I always save mementos from my vacations, but they usually end up stuck in boxes, never again to see the light of day! I would much rather have them displayed in shadowboxes. I also love that the letters are comprised of images from the cities. I could do something like that with my Silhouette! I might tackle this project later this summer.

Home/Decor: Ironing Board Vignette

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I am simply in love with this little vignette. Using an ironing board as a console is just genius, and I love the styling, from the gilded bird cage to the stack of books to the vintage camera to the lovely wire cubbies above. I’m now on the lookout for an old wooden ironing board so I can recreate it. So far I’ve only seen a small one for $45, which seemed a little high for its size.

Organization: Dollar Store Spice Jars

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I'm pretty much obsessed with this dollar store spice organization from The Social Home. I went on a fruitless search of Missoula’s dollar stores for similar spice jars. I’m hoping that I have more luck finding some in Missouri! I need 25 jars, so I want to find an affordable option. I would probably design my own labels so that I could use some of my favorite fonts, and I’d label the sides of the jars as well as their tops so that the names would be visible from my spice rack.

Tips & Tricks:

Removing Writing & Images from Plastic Containers

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I always rinse out plastic food containers and save them for organization projects-they’re functional but not exactly aesthetically pleasing. But with this excellent tip from 2 Busy Brunettes, I now know how to remove the writing & images from the tubs using items I already have at home. I haven’t tested this out yet, but once I do I’ll report back on its effectiveness.

Party Plans: Sleepover Invitations

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Aren’t these sleepover invites simply adorable? If only I were still 10, I would totally use these to invite my friends over to spend the night. They could be cute for a spa/relaxation party, though! And I’m keeping this in mind for when I have a little lady someday :)

Product: Vintage Pink Pyrex

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If you read my blog regularly, you’ve probably picked up on the fact that I am a bit of a Pyrex fanatic. I started collecting vintage Pyrex this year, and I basically love any colorful pattern! For right now I basically buy any thrifty, good quality dish that I run across, but as time goes on I may choose to narrow down the colors, shapes, and patterns that I collect. Who knows. I do know that I love this pink collection, especially the pink butterprint casserole and the teensy magenta pie dish at the very top of the pile! I’m on the lookout for both of those pieces!

Beauty/Style: Free Clutch Pattern

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I don’t know how to sew (maybe I’ll learn someday?) so sister, consider this a free Christmas gift idea—I just love the look of this clutch, which you can sew yourself using this free pattern. With the right fabric, I think the clutch would be a wonderful addition to my wardrobe!

Just For Fun: Strawberry Coconut Margaritas

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It’s officially summertime, which means that I want to sit back and unwind. This strawberry coconut margarita would be a great way to do just that. It sounds absolutely delicious. In fact, I think I need to whip up a batch right now…

What have you pinned lately?

Pinwheel Canvas

As I shared in my gallery wall reveal and update, I have plans to expand the gallery to include a few crafts. I want to keep things visually interesting by not just including photos--plus I have some mementos from the big day, like our personalized napkins and programs, that I want to showcase as well. 

Some of those mementos are the many pinwheels that my sister, bridesmaids, and I lovingly made to cover the bulletin boards at our reception site. Here's what they looked like all dolled up that day:

{photo by Heather Breshears Photography}

I promise I'm sharing more details of the wedding--I'm saving that for our six month anniversary in July! :)

I wanted to replicate the look of the bulletin boards on a smaller scale for our gallery wall, so I decided to make a pinwheel-covered canvas!

And here's how you can make your own!

Supplies:

• Canvas in your desired size (I picked up a 2 pack of 8 x 10 canvases on sale at Michael's--they regularly have specials on these)

• Scrapbook paper (I used 8 small pinwheels, which takes 4 sheets of paper, and 5 extra small ones, which takes 2 sheets of paper)

• Hot glue gun

Instructions:

• First, make your pinwheels following the steps that I shared in this post :) As I said above, I needed 13 total to cover my 8 x 10 canvas--8 small and 5 extra small. You'll obviously need to make more if you want to cover a larger canvas. You can also make larger pinwheels to cover more space.

• Now gather your pinwheels and canvas. Play around with a layout on the canvas by piling your pinwheels on until you like what you see. You'll need to layer the pinwheels to be able to cover the whole canvas. Remember to take a picture so that you remember how you want the final product to look!

• Once you have your desired layout ironed out, remove the pinwheels and start gluing on the bottom layer. Since there's not a flat surface on the pinwheel, you'll need to apply a big glob of hot glue in order for it to stick. 

• Once you've finished gluing the entire bottom layer, keep on gluing until all the pinwheels are on the canvas! Be sure to cover all the white spots.

And that's it :) An easy peasy craft that perfectly showcases our carefully made pinwheels, I think! I can't wait to see it nestled among our wedding photos. Next, I plan to make a shadowbox, a canvas monogram, and to add some of our honeymoon photos to the wall.

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I really love how the project turned out! Imagine how cool it would look with a larger canvas, too--perfect wall art for a nursery, playroom, or fun craft studio!

Linking up to Tatertots & Jello for the Weekend Wrap-up party!

Basement Apartment Paint Plan

Since Ryan and I will still be in Missoula for another year as he works toward his Computer Science degree, we’re officially living in my parent’s basement this summer! We have multiple weddings to attend and many family and friends to see, so we’ll be in Missouri for around 3 months.

Most twenty-somethings would probably try to keep such a living arrangement hush hush, because let’s face it, anytime you hear that someone lives in their parents’ basement, you judge them a little. It’s practically synonymous with being a loser.

But we’re not losers and we don’t really care if people think we are! The arrangement honestly couldn’t be more perfect for us. Our basement is finished (so we won't have any major renovating to do!) and it’s pretty spacious. We’ll have a kitchen (it’s ovenless, but that’s okay--I can use the one upstairs!), 1 ½ baths, our own garage, a living/dining area, an office nook, our own front door, and an area that my sister and I plan to transform into our dream craft studio!

Since my sister and I have major plans for the craft studio area, I’ll divulge details on that project, including paint colors and our mood board, next week. Today I wanted to share our paint plans for the rest of the rooms. To give you an idea of what we're working with, let's go room by room and explore the current "before" and the intended "after."

First up, the living room area to the left of the stairs. Right now it’s painted a dark tan, with the fireplace painted and one wall navy as focal points.

We want to keep things neutral since our existing living room decor is more earthy with some pops of aqua and lime green. Also, the space has very little natural lighting, so we don’t want to paint it too dark. Thus, we settled on this light tan, Sisal by Martha Stewart for Glidden.

I think it'll go nicely with our existing furniture and fabrics:

We're not going to do a focal wall in the living room, but we will be painting the fireplace a dark gray-brown shade,  Mushroom, another Martha paint by Glidden.

We’ll extend the sisal through the hallway that leads from the living room to the garage and utility closet. We’ll also continue it to the right of the stairs, where Ryan’s office nook will be located.

As you can see in the photo below, the kitchen adjoins with the living area, so we want the walls to complement the living room’s scheme. We also have lots of aqua yellow, and orange in our kitchen decor, particularly the gallery wall, which I'll be placing over this sink once we move. So the deep red color of the current kitchen walls wasn’t going to cut it.

Instead, we’re opting for Hummingbird by Martha Stewart's line for Glidden.

It'll look great with our current scheme and decor:

Moving on, let’s see the current bedroom! It’s pretty spacious and painted a sort of golden-green color that’s hard to capture on camera.

It’s a bit too dark for the windowless room, so we plan to lighten it up a bit with this shade of light brown, Natural Twine, again by Martha for Glidden.

I think it'll complement our existing color scheme:

The adjoining master bathroom is currently a cheery yellow color that would look great with our kitchen decor, but doesn’t really jive with our bathroom/bedroom scheme—maroon, teal blue, tan, sage green, and cream.

We plan on using the brownish-gray from the fireplace wall in the bathroom--it goes quite well with the greenish countertop in the bathroom, and though windowless, the room is well-lit enough that this color won't make it feel like a cave.

Plus it looks great with our bathroom stuff!

So there you go. Our basement paint plans, save the craft studio. We have some major organizing, purging, and painting to do to turn this place into our future home by next summer!

I can't wait to spill our craft studio plans SOON! We're working hard to clean out the room and get some projects done to share :)

Fab Finds Friday: Honeymoon Edition

Happy Friday, y’all!

I’m back to share the fabulous finds we purchased on our honeymoon last week :)

I spilled the beans about what we did on Wednesday and Thursday, so back it up and read those two posts if you haven’t yet.

As I mentioned at the end of the second recap post, on Saturday Ryan and I did plenty of thrifting and antiquing in Whitefish, MT. We hit up so many cute stores and I saw so many items from my thrift wish list—it was hard to resist scooping them up, but many just weren’t in my ideal price range, so I left them! I am proud of myself. Of course I took lots of pictures to share. So, ironically, I’ll kick of the visual portion of the post with some of the things I didn’t buy:


I loved those white drawers and the black wire basket, but they cost much too much.



Same with this globe.
  
I saw so many antique fans! None were priced right for me to grab them.



This Pyrex casserole was $4 and in great condition, but I wasn’t in love with the pattern, so I left it for someone else!



I loved these player piano music rolls, but I couldn’t figure out a good way to display one, so I left them behind.
  
I loved this yellow and gray vignette, especially the sunshine-y desk!


These bronze-y pendants were to die for. They’d look great in a kitchen! Too bad we don’t have one to put them in.


Loved the table and the numbers in the background. And the green tub. And the stool.


See? More fans. Taunting me.


I wanted that backwards B so badly, but it was like $70.  The little blue bin holding the maps was cute too!


More thrift wish list items! Double drawer locker bins AND another fan!!! I’m not sure how I had the willpower to resist these…still holding out on the hope that I’ll find them at some thrift store or garage/estate sale…


So much beautiful milk glass…but none from here joined my ever-growing collection.


Locker baskets! These weren’t actually for sale. Bummer!



I loved these lamp bases from Goodwill (originally from Target!) but Ryan didn’t. They were $9.99 each.

That Goodwill, by the way, was the fancy schmansiest Goodwill I’ve ever been in. I tried to capture it on film, but I’m not sure it does it justice:



They also weren’t kidding around with their prices. Someone there must know what’s antique, because they had these vintage green glasses priced at a steep $9.99!



Luckily, I was able to take advantage of the discounted tag (yellow) on my purchase, because it was a vintage gem that they’d priced high (for a thrift store): a 1.5 quart oval Town & Country casserole! Yes, that’s right, I scored some of the Pyrex from my wish list!

With the yellow tag discount, I got this beauty for $4, while online it’s priced for $19+! There was a little discoloration on the lip, but it was easily removed with a bit of liquid Bar Keeper’s Friend!

My next Pyrex score came from Studio 8, a cute group of antique/craft shops all collected under one roof. It’s the store that featured the adorable yellow desk and many of the vintage fans that I salivated over. I actually found this 2.5 Town & Country casserole before the Goodwill one, so when I came across his oval friend later, I thought it really was meant to be. This dish set me back $8, but since the pattern was on my wish list and the casserole itself was quite large and in mint condition, I went for it!

I also struck Pyrex gold at the Salvation Army in Kalispell, MT. I was actually staring at a dishwasher damaged Pyrex dish (I think it was a Horizon Blue, but the image was so faded that it was hard to tell) when I looked up and saw a Royal Wheat with cradle staring right back at me! Lovely condition, and for $3.50, it’s my first divided dish.

Yay for Pyrex scores!

I also bought some of the usual suspects which I mentioned in my Thrift Wish List post—some milk glass & a white ceramic animal:

The milk glass was priced funkily—I actually saw two identical vases priced at $0.50 and $1.50—but the checker noticed that and changed all the prices to $0.50, which knocked $1.50 off of my total! Score! I’ve never actually seen vases with the starburst pattern that two of these had, so I of course scooped them up. And I couldn’t resist the sweet little blue-eyed birdie.

I also snatched up these 4 pale yellow baskets, priced at $0.50 each:

I plan on spray painting them and using them as storage in the craft studio my sister and I are creating this summer. I’ll be sharing tons of details on that soon, as well as in-progress pictures once the project is underway!

My last score was this jar for $0.50.

Recognize it? Yeah, it’s one of the cork-topped jars I from my Thrift Wish List, sans cork lid. I almost didn’t get the jar because the lid was missing, but the price was too good to pass up. Now I’m on the hunt for the right-sized lid in craft stores, online, or in thrift shops! Once I’ve found the topper, I’ll group it with the other jars in my kitchen.

And even though they weren’t super thrifty purchases, I’m still sharing the few souvenirs Ryan and I purchased to commemorate our trip. We have a tradition of buying a local photograph from every place we visit together, so we bought this print that beautifully captures the Canadian Rockies, from the blue waters to the craggy mountains laden with glaciers:

I also collect snowglobes, so I grabbed this guy:

And we both bought T-shirts so we can represent Banff with our swag:

So those are the purchases we made on our honeymoon! Good thing we drove, otherwise we wouldn’t have had room for it all in our suitcases ;)

Do you buy anything to commemorate your vacations? Shot glasses? Postcards? Magnets? Or do you stay away from souvenirs altogether?