It's About to Get Crafty Up In Here.
Confession time: I lust after crafts. Pretty DIY projects, super complicated paper crafts, recycled garden ideas, revamping old furniture, all of it. I've always secretly wanted to be one of those people that can Macgyver their way to a brand new kitchen with nothing but a can of paint, some string, and a 50's sink.
I've never done anything about it before now though for multiple reasons:
Reason 1: DIY is expensive. People can talk about "oh I got this table at a garage sale for $15 then slapped some paint on and stenciled this design and blah blah blah. Best $15 I ever spent!" Bitch, it was not a $15 project. Crafting supplies are a lot more expensive than people think. Paper, paint, veneer, scissors, paint brushes, specialty glue, normal glue, and the list goes on and on. I'm sure for a woman that's been collecting that stuff for years, yeah it would be an inexpensive project, but I don't and it's not!
Reason 2: I have no faith in my artistic skills. You wanna know why I love computer design so much? Ctrl + Z. Undo buttons are magic. There's no mistake that can't be undone and, no matter how many times you screw up, you never run out of materials. When they put an undo button on a print screening project then I'll be first in line to get to it. Until then, I hesitate.
Reason 3: Projects are almost never as easy as people say they are. When I'm indulging my craft lust on Pinterest or some site, I always get sucked in by the tagline "So cute and so easy too!" Easy is good. Easy is that gateway drug I've always been waiting for to lead me into the wide world of DIY art all over my living space. And then I see that they lie. Easy for who, exactly? A woman that's been doing this for twenty years? A team of HGTV decorators? Bitches lie, and so do crafting tutorials.
I'm talking about this now because it's Spring Break and I've been feeling the need to redo my room. Actually, it can't be a redo because it's never been decorated in the first place. Well no more! I want, I crave, I need some honest to god decor. And since I am a poor preschool teacher that can barely pay my student loans, let alone pay for new shit, it's going to be almost entirely all DIY.
Here are my thoughts.
My favorite color scheme: chocolate brown and baby blue. I have an awesome quilt from college that's blue with a brown grid and different shades of blue/green/purple in-between. I'm poppin that sucker out of storage and making it the center of my soon to be awesome bedroom. I also already have out my chocolate brown papasan chair and the stripey blue decorative pillow that matches the quilt so my seating is good to go.
I have this lamp from Target. It's not great but it doesn't suck so I've lived with it. I'm thinking of pulling off the lampshade and making my own like this:
I can get the doilies in packs from Michaels and I can sew them so that shouldn't be a problem. I'm thinking of dying them different shades of blue first. Opinions? (I should note, dyes are one of the things I do have a lot of, though it's not technically mine. My daddy tie-dyes. We got dye out the ass in this house. XD)
Next thing. I need another lamp, a floor lamp. Funny story, I have one that's been in the garage for the past two years. I went to get it this afternoon and found that somehow the base, which I didn't know was filled with cement before today, had broken in half. Yeah, all that cement? Landed on my foot. It hurts. A lot. I don't think anything's broken though.
So yes, the floor lamp. IKEA, that wonderful wonderful Swedish shop, has this:
Simple, cheap, and it's the same steel base as my Target lamp. I don't think I'm going to keep that lampshade but I've yet to decide what to do to change it. This caught my eye:
But I don't know how well that would work with a paper lampshade. If all else fails, I can go to Goodwill, grab a cloth one for $4, and do it myself. What do y'all think?
That's all for lamps. I've just ordered this rug from Overstock.com:
A rug has been on the list for a very long time, ever since my dad installed a wood laminate floor in my room. Looks great, but it's loud and hard. I'm very happy with this, it's just the right size to fit by my futon.
Other things that aren't nearly so cohesive as the quilt/lamps/rug. I want wall art. Hardcore I want wall art. But again: broke teacher makes her own. These are what I've found so far that I'm considering:
This is something that could be as easy as it looks or a major pain in the ass. The idea is to buy canvas, wrap some tape around it in interesting patterns, then paint over it and voila! I like it because it'd be an interesting contrast to all the circular art I've got going in the rug and doily lampshade. I don't know what colors I would paint though.
Obviously, no clothespins but I really like this idea. You find interesting shaped objects then spraypaint the canvas, leaving a cool silhouette. I like that you can do multiple canvases all with the same theme. My mum had the idea of doing different types of leaves or other nature things. That could be cool or it could be silly. Another plus for this project: it would be very easy to test on newspaper or the like first before shelling out for canvas.
The font whore in me saw this and screamed Yes! but the rest of me isn't sold. t's just painted letters on canvas that's framed in a sewing hoop. I like the circle frame, it's different and goes with my circular theme which is always good, but I definitely don't like the punctuation shit they've got going on in the smaller hoops. I would do the jumbled letters, maybe in different fonts? I don't know.
I got all of these off of the Better Homes and Gardens website just tonight so obviously there's a lot more out there to look at before I make my final decision.
Oh! I forgot. In exchange for helping my dad do some massive Google spreadsheet work for his biker club, he's going to tie-dye me a curtain. Window treatment. What the hell ever. It'd be either a light cotton or muslin window valance, but much cooler. I'm thinking peacock-colored lightning bolt pattern? That's going to be a lot of color right there, which is also going to change how much of an oomph I want my wall art to have. Oh the choices! ;)
I've never done anything about it before now though for multiple reasons:
Reason 1: DIY is expensive. People can talk about "oh I got this table at a garage sale for $15 then slapped some paint on and stenciled this design and blah blah blah. Best $15 I ever spent!" Bitch, it was not a $15 project. Crafting supplies are a lot more expensive than people think. Paper, paint, veneer, scissors, paint brushes, specialty glue, normal glue, and the list goes on and on. I'm sure for a woman that's been collecting that stuff for years, yeah it would be an inexpensive project, but I don't and it's not!
Reason 2: I have no faith in my artistic skills. You wanna know why I love computer design so much? Ctrl + Z. Undo buttons are magic. There's no mistake that can't be undone and, no matter how many times you screw up, you never run out of materials. When they put an undo button on a print screening project then I'll be first in line to get to it. Until then, I hesitate.
Reason 3: Projects are almost never as easy as people say they are. When I'm indulging my craft lust on Pinterest or some site, I always get sucked in by the tagline "So cute and so easy too!" Easy is good. Easy is that gateway drug I've always been waiting for to lead me into the wide world of DIY art all over my living space. And then I see that they lie. Easy for who, exactly? A woman that's been doing this for twenty years? A team of HGTV decorators? Bitches lie, and so do crafting tutorials.
I'm talking about this now because it's Spring Break and I've been feeling the need to redo my room. Actually, it can't be a redo because it's never been decorated in the first place. Well no more! I want, I crave, I need some honest to god decor. And since I am a poor preschool teacher that can barely pay my student loans, let alone pay for new shit, it's going to be almost entirely all DIY.
Here are my thoughts.
My favorite color scheme: chocolate brown and baby blue. I have an awesome quilt from college that's blue with a brown grid and different shades of blue/green/purple in-between. I'm poppin that sucker out of storage and making it the center of my soon to be awesome bedroom. I also already have out my chocolate brown papasan chair and the stripey blue decorative pillow that matches the quilt so my seating is good to go.
I have this lamp from Target. It's not great but it doesn't suck so I've lived with it. I'm thinking of pulling off the lampshade and making my own like this:
I can get the doilies in packs from Michaels and I can sew them so that shouldn't be a problem. I'm thinking of dying them different shades of blue first. Opinions? (I should note, dyes are one of the things I do have a lot of, though it's not technically mine. My daddy tie-dyes. We got dye out the ass in this house. XD)
Next thing. I need another lamp, a floor lamp. Funny story, I have one that's been in the garage for the past two years. I went to get it this afternoon and found that somehow the base, which I didn't know was filled with cement before today, had broken in half. Yeah, all that cement? Landed on my foot. It hurts. A lot. I don't think anything's broken though.
So yes, the floor lamp. IKEA, that wonderful wonderful Swedish shop, has this:
Simple, cheap, and it's the same steel base as my Target lamp. I don't think I'm going to keep that lampshade but I've yet to decide what to do to change it. This caught my eye:
But I don't know how well that would work with a paper lampshade. If all else fails, I can go to Goodwill, grab a cloth one for $4, and do it myself. What do y'all think?
That's all for lamps. I've just ordered this rug from Overstock.com:
A rug has been on the list for a very long time, ever since my dad installed a wood laminate floor in my room. Looks great, but it's loud and hard. I'm very happy with this, it's just the right size to fit by my futon.
Other things that aren't nearly so cohesive as the quilt/lamps/rug. I want wall art. Hardcore I want wall art. But again: broke teacher makes her own. These are what I've found so far that I'm considering:
This is something that could be as easy as it looks or a major pain in the ass. The idea is to buy canvas, wrap some tape around it in interesting patterns, then paint over it and voila! I like it because it'd be an interesting contrast to all the circular art I've got going in the rug and doily lampshade. I don't know what colors I would paint though.
Obviously, no clothespins but I really like this idea. You find interesting shaped objects then spraypaint the canvas, leaving a cool silhouette. I like that you can do multiple canvases all with the same theme. My mum had the idea of doing different types of leaves or other nature things. That could be cool or it could be silly. Another plus for this project: it would be very easy to test on newspaper or the like first before shelling out for canvas.
The font whore in me saw this and screamed Yes! but the rest of me isn't sold. t's just painted letters on canvas that's framed in a sewing hoop. I like the circle frame, it's different and goes with my circular theme which is always good, but I definitely don't like the punctuation shit they've got going on in the smaller hoops. I would do the jumbled letters, maybe in different fonts? I don't know.
I got all of these off of the Better Homes and Gardens website just tonight so obviously there's a lot more out there to look at before I make my final decision.
Oh! I forgot. In exchange for helping my dad do some massive Google spreadsheet work for his biker club, he's going to tie-dye me a curtain. Window treatment. What the hell ever. It'd be either a light cotton or muslin window valance, but much cooler. I'm thinking peacock-colored lightning bolt pattern? That's going to be a lot of color right there, which is also going to change how much of an oomph I want my wall art to have. Oh the choices! ;)