A little crafting

So part of our big plans for redoing the bathroom is to rip out our shower doors and put in a shower curtain. I personally like the shower doors, but they are just too tough to clean. 

So the other day I headed to TJ Maxx and picked up an inexpensive shower curtain. I originally wanted to a V embroidered on it, but thought 'Why put a $15 initial on a $8 shower curtain?'. 

So I decided to paint one.

Step 1. 

Buy the shower curtain (duh).

Step 2. 

Find whatever you want to put on it. (I'll include a few at the bottom of this post). I printed a variety, like my initials, monogram, bees, birds, birds in cages, fleur di lis, flowers, anchors, etc. etc. because I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. 

Step 3. 

Figure out your design/Call in your artsy friend (Lauren) to do it for you. We just kind of did it as we went, but Lauren measured and figured out how far apart to put the bees and how high up, etc. 

Step 4.

Using an Exact-o Knife (or scissors and a steady hand. Thats what Lauren did) cut out your design.

And tape it to your shower curtain using masking or painter's tape. 

Step 5. 

Then, using a paint brush or a sponge, dab the paint on. Its best to dab, especially if your picture has small details like mine did. 

And let it dry.

Step 6. 

Once the paint is dry-ish, carefully lift the stencil off and set it somewhere to dry. It needs time to dry a bit or the small details will start to rip off. 

You're done! Easy as Key Lime Pie. 

This shower curtain is for my upstairs bathroom so I didn't want to girl it up too much (because of dear old dad). So I kept it simple with the bees and a decorated V.

We also added some little bees around the V to tie the curtain together. 

It was so easy, I decided to do another!

I was at a loss for what to do for my bathroom at school. I was going to use an old shower curtain my dad bought in his 'I'm a bachelor and living alone and still line cool beer bottles on the window sill like a frat house' days. Trust me, it looked like a drunk frat guy bought it because it was ugly. It also didn't match my hot pink towels I got last year for graduation. I wasn't sure exactly what would match them so I just went with a creme curtain and did black bees. I was going to try something new, but I just love the bees so much! Lauren recently informed me they're the symbol of French royalty. Ohhhhh!

But anyway, here is my apartment's bathroom curtain.

Matt was my model. He helped hang it to dry. 

I used the same V so I could interchange them while at home. No bees though. 

The little bees just weren't by the V, but they were there! Lauren and I made four corner bees and lots of little bees buzzing around. You can click on the picture with Matt for a closer look!

Well everyone, thanks for stopping in! If anyone is curious, I will be putting up 'after' pictures of my room soon! Suzie is coming over tomorrow to help with the finishing touches so hopefully they will be up as soon as I clean it!

Happy blogging! :)

Here are the stencils I promised. You should be able to click on them so the original size pops up in a new window. If y'all want something different you can always google 'whatever you want' silhouette. I recommend fleur di lis, shells or flowers!

Home Redecorating!

Hello to all my lovely followers (I have 20 now! Exciting!)! I'm so sorry I have been such a bad blogger these past few weeks. I just finished my three week intensive course and started my summer Calculus class a few weeks ago and it has kept me wayyyy busier than I thought it would! Let me tell y'all, Calculus is not my thing. 

Anyyyyy way, 

my reason for posting today is not only to share some small updates, but to show everyone some before pictures!

My dad and I decided to repaint our house. Our house is about 80 years old so of course it has had some previous owners who did all their own stuff to it! All the walls are a neutral taupe, which is fine, but when you have as little decorations as we do, it looks pretty boring. They've also put a ton of hooks and holes in the wall. And I mean a TON. In some places they have five or six hooks within one foot of each other. I mean seriously, how many things can you hang????

So at first we were just going to paint our living room and dining room, but that turned into painting the foyer, which turned into the bathroom, which turned into my room.

Well my room and the bathroom had wallpaper. And if anyone has ever ripped down wall paper they know it is no fun! I can't tell y'all how many times I cursed the former owners. So with all that work we decided to focus on my room and the bathroom this summer. I'll leave what colors we chose as a surprise for the 'after' pictures!

Here is my room before!

Ignore the messiness please! I was busy moving things around the repaint. This was the wallpaper that Matt, my friends Lauren, Evan and I gladly ripped off. 

It was just kind of old ladyish, some of it was falling off and the room just needed a redo!

The part of the wall not painted (two walls were fully papered, two half) were a dull gray brown and just made the walls look dirty. 

Does anyone ever notice that homes don't look as nice as you thought they did once you photograph them???

So we stripped it. 

(You can see my birdie Spice in the corner)

We stripped it all. 

We put the first coat up last night and it looks great! I can't wait to show y'all!

On a side note we got a new addition to our family!

Her name is Kevin (like from Up!) and she was given to me by Matt's friend Kevin (I know, I know). She's not quite used to us, but I think she's so cute. Hopefully she calms down and gets a little more friendly. 

And crazily enough, I'm also moving into my first apartment in August for college. I'll probably only stay there a year because junior year I'm going to try and be an RA and if not, I'll probably move back into the dorms anyway. 

But anyyyy wayy, since I'll only be there a year, I'm decorating it in the same theme as my room. Except when I say decorating, I really mean making my bed the comfiest thing ever. My dad says I won't ever get out of it and go to class! Pshhh Maybe.

I thought I'd show some of my 'decorating folder'!

My main focus is on my bed. The bed in the apartment is a full and my dad is handing me down his full bed so he can get a king. I wanted my bed to be able to go into my apartment and then into my room and match both. So I picked an all white bedding with lots of down. So far I've only bought the down insert and featherbed, but I have my duvet cover and curtains picked out so I'll have to blog about them when I make my purchase!

Even though I'm not worrying too much about decorations I still have a few things I'm really wanting to do!

For example, my boyfriend first gave me flowers on Valentine's day and I pressed and would like to frame them and put them above my bed! 

I've also come up with a few other things which I'm hoping to craft over the summer...

We'll see how they turn out!