Category Archives: Home Sweet Home

Tis the Season to be Jolly!

Posted on by under Christmas, Home Sweet Home, Sew-Easy, Walnut Creek

Fa la la la la…la la la la. There’s something about the Christmas season that makes me think that I can sing opera in the most off pitch tone and often forgetting the correct lyrics but I enjoy it (not to say that others do haha). I guess it’s a talent I’ve acquired over the years and well I love traditions so I’ll keep this one going.

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree was of course my song of choice as Mas and I went to go get our very first Christmas tree together! I promised him that he would love the 5′-6′ foot tree, unlike the 3′ft he was sold on BEFORE we arrived at Lowe’s. We brought Douglas home, along with a wreath for our front door and our place turned into Christmas. Douglas is a true beauty and mmmm our apartment smells sooo good.

I’ve always wanted to make my own stockings so this year was indeed the year for just that! Of course with my obsession with Hello Kitty and Domo seemed only appropriate to base my stockings off of those two. I seriously love the way that they turned out! If you are interested in the main shape of the stocking, email me and I’ll send you the template that I created.

Creatively Caught Up Friday (Maps)

Posted on by under Creatively Caught Up, DIY, Home Sweet Home, Japanese

Well hello there! Yes, we made it through the week! Anything interesting happen?

Today I’m Creatively Caught Up in …drum roll…maps!

They’re fascinating and so many are quite historical in themselves. It’s interesting to think that states / countries have been split from land movement (and politics of course) and have change maps over time. Recently, Mas had bought me a Japan & Korea map from Etsy (I swear this is the place to buy anything and everything now of days as well as support small businesses at the same time). I took it upon myself to matte and frame it. Eek! Let’s just say that I’ve one thing crafty that I don’t enjoy that much. I think it came out great for my first time, but there was quite a bit of cussing while working on it haha.

I wonder who keeps up with map information now of days (other than Google). How did Thomas Guide keep up when printed maps were the way to go? The evolution of maps is now of course digital, but I think it’s only making me appreciate printed maps much more.

Growing up I remember my Grandma having a travel globe and would mark each place she had visited. Since I’m now starting to venture into traveling I’d like to start something like this as well.

So I’m going to contradict myself a bit right now eh maybe not, but I’ve found Google Maps to be extremely helpful with planning our trip to Japan. All I have to do is create a “place”, search for a location, drag and drop a marker and “save to map” (using the dropdown to select your saved map “place”). All of the places are saved within one map and appear to the left. Below I have our map so far. If you’ve been to Japan and have any suggestions that aren’t marked let me know! I’m definitely looking forward to seeing friends, Mas’ family and… Sanrio Land haha, yes it exists!

What do you use to keep track of where you have been?




View Larger Map

In case you missed them:

DIY – Wood Wall Art

Happppppy Halloweeeeeen!

DIY - Wood Wall Art

Posted on by under DIY, Home Sweet Home

This past weekend was DIY central around here, I think it’s the change in weather! We’ve been racing our heads on ways to fill our walls with personalized touches and of course DIYs that the two of us could work on together. When we visited Mendocino a few weeks back the bed and breakfast that we stayed at had naturally divine artwork from local artists. The high ceilings were complimented by elongated pieces of beautifully painted wood art. Remembering our love for the art pieces, we thought, hey why not take a stab at creating our own wall art. So off to Lowe’s we went!

Straight to the lumber area! I was surprised by the several variations of wood. At first we were scared of the cost of the project as each wood plank was $20 each and beyond what we needed BUT as we were walking around the store the flooring area caught my eye. Why? You ask. Well, the amazing wood floor samples that were not only already stained but in different colors and textures! Did I mention the low cost? Yup! Only $0.25 each and they are 5″x4″ blocks (roughly 1/2″ thick). Score! We also grabbed 1/4″ / 2′x2′ plywood for the main backing. Lowe’s offers free wood cutting, so we trimmed it down to 14″x22″. Save the extra wood and have the wood person cut a piece that is about 13″x 2″, this will be for the backing that you’ll attach the hardware to.

Onto the stain, both Mas and I had never stained anything before but it looked like fun! We chose an ebony finish and picked up liquid nails (totally amazing for non-hardware owning people) while we were on the aisle.

Steps

  1. Sand the plywood to get the little stickers off.
  2. Stain - apply a coat, let it dry (stain says 24 hours but it was hot out and waited about 4 hours), apply a second coat.
  3. While you’re waiting for the first coat of stain to dry, peel the stickers off the backs of the wood floor samples and sand.
  4. Stain the top & bottom pieces of wood edges so they blend with the background.
  5. Liquid nail time! Yes! Although the wood floor samples snap together, spread some glue to hold them nice and tight together. Allow to dry.
  6. Once the final coast of stain has been applied and dried, evenly spread liquid nail on the backs of the wood floor samples and place on the plywood.
  7. Allow to dry! (we placed books on top to hold them in place and secure the placement)
  8. With the 13″ x 2″ piece of wood, glue to the back of the plywood.
  9. Screw in bracket wall hangers to plywood.
  10. Measure out where the two nails should go and hang!

Supplies + Cost breakdown

(1) 1/4 2×2 Oak @ $4.65
(1) Shaw Siena Hickory Wood Floor Sample @ $0.25
(1) Shaw Frontier Hickory Wood Floor Sample @ $.025
(1) Shaw Pioneer Hickory Wood Floor Sample @ $0.25
(1) Shaw Metropolitan Map Wood Floor Sample @ $0.25
(1) Shaw Cashmere Hickory Wood Floor Sample @ $0.25
(1) Shaw Renaissance Maple Wood Floor Sample @ $0.25
(1) 2″ Foam Brush @ $3.44
(1) 4 oz Liquid Nails @ $3.47
(1) 3m Coarse Grit Sanding @ $2.97
(1) 1/2 pt Ebony Oil Stain @ $5.19
(1) pack of bracket wall hangers (had these)
(2) nails (had these)

Total cost: $23.08 (including taxes)

Supplies

Before

First coat of stain

After

DIY - Chalkboard

Posted on by under DIY, Home Sweet Home

Craft time! We’ve been thinking about nifty ways to spiff up our apartment to make it reflect more of our personalities. Mas came up with the great idea to make a chalkboard, so we went to Joann’s and found an awesome frame that fit a 24×36 poster - within the backing of the frame was a harder type of cardboard that we thought would work for the actual chalkboard itself. Then we went over to a local craft store - Richard’s Arts Crafts & Framing in Alamo (3 miles away) and found black chalkboard paint, brush, chalk (white and colored) and an eraser. This project was fun, fast and totally made our living room feel homey. We’ll be using the chalkboard to decorate for holidays and just to write little messages, we started out by drawing a mooostache and put our names down in the bottom right corner. :-)

Try it out and let me know how it turns out!

Project Cost

Frame: $27 (40% off)
Chalkboard Paint: $7.19 (checked in at Yelp and received 20% off)
Brush: $3.85
Chalk: (2) x .99 = $1.98
Eraser: .99

Total: $41.01

Home Sweet Home

Posted on by under Family / Friends, Home Sweet Home, Walnut Creek

Well we spent the weekend in Walnut Creek to catch up on some much needed sleep from last weekend and to go couch shopping! After almost a month of couch looking we finally decided to go with a style at Ikea, this wasn’t an easy process, couches now of days are made so pourly that we had such a hard time finding a sectional that we actually liked. We headed out to Ikea Saturday with the idea of buying that couch and be on our way buuut, of course once we were there we decided to do a run through of all of the other couches just to make sure. Then we came across the heaven of all couches, the Hovas. We couldn’t fight the comfort of this couch. We chose an off-white corduroy fabric/cover that is washable. Woo!

For those who haven’t purchased an Ikea couch, yes you have to put it together, but honestly this was a plus to see how the couch was actually made. It took us longer to put the covers on than to put the couch together. I have to say, I’m impressed, the top pillows have a thick layer of hard foam in the middle, surrounded by loose cotton(?) that make the backs of the couch amazingly comfortable. Together we had to put (4) pieces together. Yup! That’s it. UPDATE: I didn’t originally mention that the delivery was only $59 (we’re about 16 miles away from the store)!

My Grandma/Grandpa, Aunt/Uncle/Cousin also surprised us with a very cute patio set after visiting and seeing that we needed one! So excited to have dinner outside now on the warm Walnut Creek nights!

It takes muscles to handle this couch…NOT haha

Cushions!

Wow, we’re done already!

Switch sides of the sectional

And….he’s out haha!

Patio Set!