Sometimes inspiration strikes me all in one piece. Maybe I’ll see something on pinterest or facebook, or an idea will just pop into my head, and just like that I know what I want to do (examples: the mason jar lid pumpkin, $9 compost bin, hand-lettered coffee cup, etc.). Other times, I’ll start with a little spark and spend days or weeks mulling over the best way to bring it to life. For example, my first idea for the skirted counter that hides the litter box was to lay a piece of painted plywood across two short filing cabinets and hang a curtain from a tension rod suspended between them. But the more I thought about it a better plan came together. And I scoured the internet for weeks searching for an attractive and affordable option for pet food storage before finding some oversized glass canisters at Target.

To illustrate the sometimes complex path that leads me to an end result I love I’ll lead you through the process of creating the painted storage boxes I posted about earlier this week. It all started with a need. My laundry room shelves were empty because they just weren’t working for me. I wanted to fill them with baskets or bins to corral smaller items, but they would have been expensive to buy all at once. I searched the internet for affordable options but couldn’t find anything that worked. Then I got the idea to cover cardboard boxes in fabric! So I posted on facebook and within a few days had a bunch of empty diaper boxes donated.

When I put them all up on the shelves to see how they would look, I realized that A) it would look much better if they were all the same shape and size, and B) it was going to take me forever to cover all those boxes in fabric! So I waited. That was two months ago.

Then when I started taking pictures of the house for the updated house tour page, I realized I really, really needed a new picture of that side of the laundry room. It was still painted blue in the old picture, which was confusing if you saw photos of the other side of the room painted white. So I started thinking about the shelves again. I even considered taking them down and replacing them with some large-scale art (maybe using this technique). But when I got back home (that brainstorming session happened on a long-ish car ride to visit my parents) I looked at the shelves again and decided to try different arrangements of boxes to see if I could make it work. I settled on just using two rectangular boxes, but then I had to figure out what to do with them!

I thought about painting them first, but I wasn’t inspired by the idea of a solid color. Then I saw this and thought about covering them with colorful/patterned duct tape.

My Fave 4 Letter F-word

But when I searched online I didn’t see any duct tape I found appealing. But I DID see this, which was done with washi tape. So I started researching where I could get some washi tape for cheap.

Elise Blaha

But the washi tape was going to add up to more than I wanted to spend and it didn’t seem like it would be all that durable, so I actually went back to the idea of using paint, but this time I would use painter’s tape to create uniform stripes. I raided my paint collection and pulled together a palette of blue, green, pink, and purple.

I even mocked up the layout on my computer.

But when I started painting the blue I decided I wanted to do a colorblock instead, with blue on the base and a pink band around the top. In that case it would be easiest to paint the pink first, then wrap the top with 2″ wide painter’s tape before adding the blue. So I started painting the pink.

THEN I decided I really liked the loose, wavy stripes with the pink, blue, and white primer showing between them. So I tried adding a white stripe. But it looked too much like this:

image source

So I painted over the white and that’s how I got to here.

So if you’re perusing pinterest or reading blogs and feeling bummed because you think you’re just not creative, have hope! Inspiration is not always something that strikes in a moment of eureka. It’s a process that’s sparked from a problem, and having limits like a small budget or whatever materials you already have on hand can really be a catalyst for coming up with something special that works for you.

I hope you all have a lovely long weekend! I’m really, really looking forward to it. I’ll be taking the day off from blogging on Monday to indulge in some family time, but I’ll be back with regularly scheduled programming come Tuesday! Happy Memorial Day!

I’ve mentioned about a dozen times that I was hosting a baby shower for my friend Cassie at my house this weekend. It went so wonderfully and I can’t wait to share pictures and details tomorrow, but today I want to show you the last-minute decoration I made that can be repurposed to adorn the nursery. It all started with a $4 yard of burlap that I cut into triangles. I bought the whole yard because I knew I could use it for other projects but probably used less than half for this. Burlap is super forgiving so I didn’t have to worry about cutting them perfectly.

Then I printed out my letters in 300 point Cambria font (there are prettier fonts out there for sure, but I needed something that would be easy to trace with paint). How beautiful is the name that Cassie and Nic have chosen for their daughter? I hope that Jack and Olive grow up to be friends.

It was hard to resist the temptation to buy every bottle of pink paint Hobby Lobby had to offer. They were all so pretty! Even Jack was a fan–he yelled until I let him hold the bottle while we finished shopping.

I laid the paper letters behind the burlap and used a stiff brush to apply the paint. It went more quickly than I thought it would and was actually a really relaxing activity to take on the day before the party. Jack was napping and Nick was still at work so it was just me and my paintbrush in a quiet house.

After letting them dry for a little while, I peeled the paper off the backs, laid them out to get the spacing right, and then folded the top of each pennant over a length of cotton cord with a line of hot glue to secure. It’s the exact same technique I used for the banner I made for my sister’s wedding, except this time I didn’t get the letters mixed up!

My original plan was to hang it in front of the dining room curtains behind the food table, but I couldn’t get it to look right and it’s just as well, because I actually LOVED the way it looked over the drinks station we set up in the kitchen pass-through. I just used white thumbtacks to secure it to the wall (they blended right into the wood trim, but I used a dab of taupe paint to camouflage the one stuck directly into sheetrock).

My hope was that Cassie would like to bring it home to use in the nursery, but I didn’t mention it because I didn’t want her to feel pressured if it just didn’t jive with the look she was going for. Imagine my excitement when she said she wanted to hang it over the crib! Cassie is truly one of my oldest and dearest friends so I’m honored to have something I made on display in her daughter’s room. I am so so happy with the way everything with the shower came out and I can’t wait to post about it tomorrow! I hope you all had as lovely a weekend as I did–it’s not every weekend I host a fabulous party at my home AND celebrate my first Mother’s Day!

Good morning, friends! I’m sitting with a sleeping baby at the Baton Rouge airport waiting for our flight to Dallas, where we’ll connect to Amarillo and meet up with my parents to celebrate my Pawpaw’s 90th birthday! So far so good on the travel front, although our flight is delayed but that just gives me extra time to blog and a shorter layover in Dallas.

I only work one day a week, but when I’m there I share an office with a sweet lady named Robin. Robin got an offer for a fabulous new job so tomorrow is her last day! She was so helpful in helping me learn the ropes when I first started and has always been super nice to me so I thought it’d be nice to make her a little going-away gift. One of the things she mentioned about her new job was that they’re all big coffee drinkers there, so I thought a special mug was in order. I picked up this plain white one for under $4 at Target.

I’ve seen a couple of pins and blog posts about decorating porcelain mugs or dishes with sharpie and then baking to make it extra permanent. I know the whole “keep calm and ______” thing is everywhere these days and lots of people are, like, so over it, but this is actually my first time using it and I thought she’d get a kick out of it. So I practiced different fonts and spacing on some scrap paper until I felt comfortable writing on the real thing.

Then I just scrawled it on there with my sharpie! I kind of like the handwritten look.

I put it in a cool oven and heated it up to 375, then baked for 30 minutes before turning off the oven and letting it cool. I hope it stays!

I filled the mug with a special little soap and some hand lotion I had in my gift stash and wrapped it up in some pretty tissue paper, then brought Jack by the office with me to give it to her yesterday. I’m pretty sure she was waaaaay more excited about seeing Jack than the gift, but I could tell she liked it and was touched.

I just found out that our flight isn’t leaving for another hour, but as long as Jack is still peacefully sleeping I’m cool. Hopefully he’ll be well-rested, calm, and cheerful on the flight. Fingers crossed!