Favorite Things

Here are a few things I'm digging right now.

Anthropologie monogram earrings

I thought it would be romantic to get one for me and one for Jordan, but since we have the same first initial, I opted for a J and D. (Which is still technically both of our initials.)

Jessica Simpson boots (from Macy's)

I bought these back in the fall, but have only begun to wear then recently. And now I can't stop. The peep toe is getting me ready for a Spring wardrobe. I've paired these with leggings, tights and even bare legs. 

Sinful Colors nail polish in Dream On

I've been wearing this color a lot lately. I think I'm getting Spring Fever (without the Spring weather!) I bought it in a matte finish and love the fact that each coat dries in no time. And for $1.99 at Happy Harry's you can't beat the price. 

Mac Face and Body Foundation

If I'm going out for some errands or brunch with the family and don't feel like packing on the makeup, I usually put on a quick coat of this foundation. It's so incredibly light that it feels (and looks) like you are wearing nothing, while still providing an even coverage to hide red spots and dark circles. 

Neutrogena Hand Cream

This winter has been brutal and this product has been a must for me this season. While it works magic on my hands, I also use it on my lips and even under my eyes (a spot that gets super dry for me). You only need the tiniest bit to coat both your hands, so even in it's small size, this bottle goes a long way.

Burts Bees Honey Lip Balm

Another must have for me this winter as I'm the queen of chapped lips. Sexy, right? I use this stick all day, every day.

Ray Ban Wayfarers
Jordan and I each received a pair as a wedding gift (thanks Ellen and Nick!) and I wear them religiously.

Look for Less: DIY Faux Zinc Letters

I think it's safe to say that we are all obsessed with Anthropologie's Zinc Letters.

Not so much in love with their $18 price tag per letter.

I've wanted these letters for quite some time now, (most recently while planning the nursery) but never wanted to shell out the cash for them. While shopping in JoAnn Fabrics this past Saturday to pick up supplies to finish one of my nursery projects, I came across an aisle filled with letters. Wooden, plastic, cardboard, large, small, curvy, boxed. Every type and size. 

I saw these 8 inch paper mache letters:

Originally $2.99 they were on sale for $1.99 on Saturday. Not to mention that I had a 25% off (entire purchase) coupon with me. Remembering that I had seen a few blogs where people made their own Anthropologie letters, I figured I might as well give it a shot myself. And if it didn't work out, I'd only be out a few bucks.

What I needed to decide was how I was going to replicate the metal finish. I had a few ideas. First was to use a metallic spray or craft paint. That would be the easiest way. So for $1.99 I grabbed a bottle of silver metallic finish craft paint and a $.39 sponge brush.

My next idea was to use the faux stainless steel contact paper I had used about a month ago on my laundry room shelves. Since I still had some left over, that cost me zero dollars.

I also thought it would be a good idea to use some sort of silver leaf but I had no luck finding any at JoAnn. If I ever come across any I may still give that a try. 

Armed with my supplies, I got to work on both my letters.

Once they were finished, they looked like this:

Left: contact paper; Right: paint

The paint looked great. Smooth, clean and honestly pretty darn close to metal.

The contact paper, not so much. Not only was it a huge pain to measure, cut and wrap, but there was no real place for a unnoticeable seam. Plus, I couldn't get the paper to lay perfectly smooth on the cardboard with no bubbles or puffiness as you can see below. Not to mention that I picked a pretty basic letter to test with easy, clean lines. This method would be near impossible with an 'S'.

We have a winner! Clearly the metallic craft paint is the way to go. Even better - it only took me about 5 minutes to complete each letter.

$1.99 (letter) + $1.99 (paint) + $.39 (brush) = $4.37 to replicate the $18 Anthropologie letters. And the best part is that the brush is cleanable and reusable, and the leftover paint can be used for more. So it actually costs even less per letter. The only other thing I could do is to incorporate some streaks of black paint to make the letters look a little more rustic/metal. 

Needless to say, I ran back to JoAnn fabrics and bought more letters to paint! I figured I might as well take advantage of their weekend sale and my coupon. 7 more letters only cost me just over $8.00.

Glider Goodness

The final piece of furniture is in the nursery!

This is how our glider set looked this morning after my father-in-law dropped everything off. We ordered it about a month or so ago from Walmart and my in-laws had been holding onto everything for us until we finished painting the nursery.

After about an hour's worth of work assembling the ottoman and glider and struggling to get the very snug slip cover over the frames, we now have this:

 

(as a refresher, we ordered the Dorel Glider and Ottoman from Walmart)

 When we first opened the boxes and pulled everything out, I'll admit I was a little unsure of the slipcover color. When I read the reviews for the beige slipcover, many people said it was a white/cream color. As I pulled it out of the box, I thought it looked more yellow/beige. The color is starting to grow on me and while I kept the receipt in case I want to exchange, I really don't think I'd want any of the other available colors. (The slipcovers actually look more cream in these pictures.)

I figure I still need to find a throw to drape over the chair for those chilly nights when I fall asleep in the chair snuggled with my little one. Something bright colored - maybe teal?

I must say it is very comfortable.

Did you notice these hanging above the chair? 

That was the DIY project I mentioned in my last post that I've been working on the last two weekends. It was finally finished late Saturday night. I'm so in love with them. I found these a few weeks ago on a wedding website and was immediately hooked. Since then, I had been determined to recreate them in the nursery. While I should admit that they were pretty time consuming to do, it was more than worth it in the end. They look exactly how I had imagined. 

I'll post a how-to tutorial later in the week. 

Hope you all had a great weekend!!

TGIF

Finishing up my latest nursery project this weekend. 

I'm pretty excited about this one. 

Wall-O-Wedding

Notice anything different?

Yup - we added more photos to the wall in our living room.

Here's a shot of what it looked like before. 

The pictures are a variety of wedding photos. We wanted to find a good place to display some of our favorite wedding memories, including a picture of Jordan and I being announced as newlyweds into the reception,

 a picture of my wedding dress on its custom hanger,

and our wedding invitation.

We still plan to purchase one more 5x7 frame from IKEA to add to the right side with a picture of my side of the family. That should complete the wall.

In a few years, (let's get real, with me it's more like a few months) when we are tired of looking at ourselves on the wall we can simply swap out photos for new shots of our little one or other family memories. 

(You may have noticed in the last post that I took the wedding invitation off the shelf above our bed. I'm in the process of trying to find a replacement for that spot.)