Tis the season....

I LOVE to decorate.....clearly! (it is part of my job!) My house never looks the same during the holidays. This year I had some tricks up my sleeves.....

This year I decorated with the color red! I used red accessories that I had stuffed in a closet and....apples. Simple little apples :) 

I traded out my red pillows on the couch (which these are quite comfortable and made me think....hmmmm I need new pillows) and threw some super red apples and pine cones in the coffee table basket. Love.

Here are some more ideas.....



Hang wreaths over the mirrors....this is fake, but a real one would be nice...I'm just too cheap!



I pulled out my granny's china and put it with my white dishes. So happy to have pieces that she loved so much. Look at that....has special meaning and is decor. LOVE!

Our mantel is tricky considering we have a giant TV and awful speakers.....man stuff. But this year I finally found a good balance of decor and all I want to do is be in our living room....it is so homey!

Lights always make it look holiday'ish (I like to make up words!)



 

Apples!!! Great color decor AND a great healthy snack if you get hungry!

  I filled glass vases (one vase is from Pottery Barn from our wedding and the other is from Walmart.....same thing for waaaaayyyy cheaper!) with apples and pine cones. And wrapped the vases with tweed. The pine cones had a nice scent to them....I originally was going to venture around the neighborhood to find some cones, but went to Big Lots and found a bundle of them for $4! Waaayyy worth that to stay warm and not be sneaking through people's yards like a crazy neighbor.

Brought the big red start down and wine bottles (good thing we like wine cause they make great accessories!)

I used old books to create different levels on the mantel. Usually accessories look good grouped in three's and at different levels. I went to the thrift store and got 10 books for $5.....I took the covers off and looked for hard back books that were neutral colors. Stack those up for a great Pottery Barn look! I also wrapped some tweed around the wine bottles to help tie the look together....you always want to repeat things in the room so it doesn't get too crazy and seem cluttered.

What I'm not looking forward too.....putting all the Holiday decor away :( HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!  ENJOY YOUR FAMILY AND FRIENDS AND REMEMBER.......FAMILY IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING!! BE THANKFUL FOR WHAT YOU HAVE AND TELL YOUR LOVED ONES THAT YOU LOVE THEM :)

The Girl Room gets a face lift!!

We have lived in our house for almost 2.5 years and I am room by room decorating.....yes still! Actually, to tell you the truth....it is hard for me to sit still with the design of the rooms....so I am pretty much on round 2 of decorating. As a design teacher I see new trends in Fashion and Interiors everyday......which makes me want to change things around. I have closets full of accessories for the house that I just rotate when I change my mind.....the hubby loves that closet. (JK...not sure he even knows it exists). When we moved in he finallllllllyyyy had his own space called the "Man Room"...most guys have a man cave, however, our basement is creepy and old with many nooks and crannies....reminds me of the new show American Horror Story. And if you have seen that show then you will understand why I do not go down there by myself and if I do then I sprint up the stairs when I'm done! (a great workout)

So the hubs got the super cute screened in porch off the kitchen instead of the scary basement......we put a tv in there and some comfy patio furniture and the latest antique find....an Eddie Bauer bar. I added some pictures from our annual Key West trips and some hanging lanterns....I even added some pillows.....ok ok it is starting to sound like I decorated the "Man Room" but the hubs actually picked these things out. I am just really good at persuading him into things and making them sound like his ideas....shhhh don't give my secret away! He does love the room and has added his own touches...so he is happy with the results!

There I go off on a tangent again.....lets get back to the "Girl Room"....my own room :) First I needed a really comfy chair and a TV.....wah la!!!!

(I made pillow covers for the pillows that came with the chair....these are the softest pillows in the world by the way!)

(Don't make fun of the TV...clearly the Man Room got a better one. Annnndddd you notice I have loose cables, yep no cable in the girl room....again the Man Room won.)

Next I headed out on big trash days in neighboring neighborhoods and found this shutter. I thought it was great all tore up and paint chipped....I literally brushed it off and hung a $10 frame on it....turned it into a giant wall art frame. LOVE!! I love trash to treasure finds :)

One of my favorite things in the girl room is the jewelry holder made out of a towel rack and shower curtains!! Let me show you....

Here is what you will need if you liked it: a towel rack (I got a brass one for $8 at Walmart) and shower curtain hooks . First, have your handy hubby hang the towel rack where you want it......and then hang your necklaces from the hooks. SO CUTE and SO CHEAP!! 

(I got the brass S-shaped ones from Walmart for like $3 for a box of 12)

ONE more thing.......the fabric store had a huge sale (yes I go to fabric stores...call me old!) and I bought some canvas fabric for drapes...I could get away with this flowery "girly" fabric because I get to decide what goes in the girl room, right??

This project I did as a demo in class. Many times when I do projects for my own house I take them into school to show the kids how to make things and think of what they can do in their own rooms. So they are learning and I am getting some side projects done. They are more engaged when it is a real life scenario. I usually take pics and show them what it looks like in my house when finished. That is what I did here....

All I did was hem up the bottom and sides of the panels about 1 inch.

At the top I folded over the fabric about 5 inches and sewed that to create a "hole" to slide the curtain rod through. These are very basic curtains, but still looked great :)

Fall Trend Alert.......

Every week I do a "weekly trend" where I cut out fashion magazine clippings to share recent trends with my fashion students. (Money tip: Why pay for a college degree in Fashion Merchandising when you can just find trends yourself and become a buyer for a top apparel company?!?! Good idea, right??? Ha, not really....stay in school!)

It's funny cause around my birthday I posted a weekly trend on masculine watches for women. I had begged my hubby to get me one....sent all the normal birthday lists info like three different websites to order it from, color, size, descriptions, you know all the normal things that men need for birthday ideas....he followed through. ;)  So it was perfect timing to post the trend. A week later one of my students came up to me and said "Potter, you inspired me. Look at my watch....it's fake, but it still looks good". Ah ha, success! I "inspired" a student. My career can end now......even if it is over a fake $25 masculine watch....I made a connection! :)

(When a celebrity does it...you know it is legit!)

So my newest favorite trend that the students actually followed was turning a summer dress into a fall outfit.....how so you my ask?? Well, I LOVE my summer dresses.....ok ok I just love summer...who wants to move to Florida with me?? Nevermind about that, all you need to do is take your summer dress and pair it with a matching blazer. Add some boots and it is perfect for this Kansas City kinda fall and sometimes summer weather we are having deep into November......as it gets colder you can still have this look, but pair with with some tights and short boots. And ta daa......you can still wear your favorite summer dresses in winter!!!

(This is me in my classroom with my beloved dresser <3 that was a do it yourself project that I CAN'T wait to share......another obsession!)

Paper Towel Pictures.....

A few coworkers and I eat lunch in our new Culinary room.....well my eyes "walk the walls" when I'm in there....as everywhere I go. I think I notice more of my surroundings than the normal person, but who is to say I'm normal.....aaaanywaaayyyys one day I noticed on the board one of her students had painted her name in black paint on a plain old paper towel. She included a heart under her name.....super cute! I had just redone my living room and made a picture frame collage on our wall with old frames from around the house. I filled 2 picture frames with some heart. Here is how I did it......I'm spreading the love!

Here is what you will need: Black paint, papert towels, frames with matte board, and a paintbrush.

First thing is dis-assemble your frame and pencil around your matte board onto the paper towel so you know how big to draw your shape (ps I'm not left handed....I just couldn't push the camera button with my left hand...not that coordinated! Ha!)

Next, paint on the shape you wanted.....I did a heart cause that is what I saw in the classroom, but I want to do the shape of leaves or flowers next time and then line the frames up in straight lines on the wall. I love straight lines. 

 Finally, cut out the paper the size of your frame (don't cut the paper the size of the matte board...the more paper the better)

I taped the paper onto the matte board then put it in the frames.....and wah la I have some basic pictures for my picture collage......obviously I need more pictures for the collage....Get excited cause I have some ideas up my sleeve for those frames!!!