Bohemian / Mexicana Budget Dining Room

 

 

I'm a thrifter.  I love scouring craigslist's FREE section, visiting second-hand stores, and finding new ways to decorate with random things.  My style is eclectic, colorful, boho.  I'm enamoured with religious iconography and Mexicana.  All of this is reflected in our little cottage, which still doesn't have a name.  I want to call it Cherryland Cottage because we live in Cherryland, but Dave has taken to calling it Mockingbird Heights - partly because we have a mockingbird in the palm tree in the front yard and partly because that's what The Munsters' home was called.  Whatever we end up calling our cottage, more and more it's beginning to reflect our style.

A Quick Patchwork Curtain.

Fabric / Fat Quarters & My Pattern

I don't think anyone else would be able to decipher my pattern scribbles - but they make sense to me!


My latest DIY project is to make curtains for our bedroom. I've been collecting scarves to make bohemian scarf curtains for the larger windows, but I've also been lusting after patchwork curtains on Pinterest.  So I decided to grab some fat quarters yesterday {half price at Joann Fabric!} and give the patchwork curtains a try. And I love them!

Laundry Room {Cherryland Cottage}

The other half of our pantry is our laundry room.  We didn't have a washer and dryer in our apartment, so we are pretty excited to have a laundry room of our own.  In fact, when we went to buy our new washer and dryer, we felt like married adults for the first time - buying major home appliances!  We're a tad dorky, but Wow! it was exciting to make such a big purchase together!

DIY Boho Steering Wheel Cover

I saw these steering wheel covers over at Junk Gypsies... and fell in love!
How could I not? All the bright colors, fringes... and leopard!

Here

Here

Fell in love... but not about to pay $25, plus shipping for them.  After all, I have scrap fabric and a sewing machine.  So, I set off to duplicate one of my own.

I couldn't be happier with my attempt!  I am glad I went for a patchwork fabric design too, instead of a solid base like theirs.

Mine came out perfect!

DIY Baby Gifts

My husband's niece is having a baby girl... like due any minute now! I made these cute little things for her. A bib, binky clips, washcloths, and burpy pads. I LOVE the green zebra flannel on the burpy pads. So cute!

Our Mexican Inspired Kitchen

For years I've been collecting things here and there...  a cross in OK on a road trip, a print of the Virgen de Guadalupe from a friend, a shadow box for Christmas from my husband, a Frida from my neighbor... and I've also been slowly crafting....  sewing the chair covers, after painting them red and blue, making an oilcloth table cover... and now it has finally all come together - with our new wall color - Goldenrod!

I absolutely love how our kitchen finally feels like our kitchen and no longer feels like a rental we're just inhabiting.

Before Painting, but with most of our decor.

Our Bohemian Valances.

 The Inspiration.

 

I saw a few beautiful photos of Bohemian inspired rooms with these gorgeous Toran curtains.  But if I can make something, instead of buying it - I will.

Scrap Fabric Pillow Slip Cover

My latest craft project... a throw pillow for our bed made from scraps!

It was kind of fun after it was made to name all the different projects it represents.  =D

And the zebra throw pillows behind it are new-to-me.  I found them at a thrift store for $2.99 a piece on my most recent trip to Boston. 

Vintage Photography Themed 50th Birthday Party

My sister celebrates her 50th birthday later this month, so to surprise her we held a 50th birthday party last weekend.  When she walked in the door, she had NO IDEA!  It was truly amazing how much our family and her friends were able to pull off.  Below are some photos of the dessert table that I designed.  I also did some other projects that I will post about another time.

The theme?  Vintage Photography.

The Dessert Table

 

I LOVE this table.  =D

The garland along the front is book pages sewn

together all ruffle-y.

Cupcake Tier and Candies.

I love the jars and vintage glass filled with treats.

Giant Pink Gumballs, Peanut M&Ms and Pocky Sticks.

Chocolate Skeleton Keys

After I made the keys I placed them in snack size ziplock

bags then sewed kraft card stock and book pages to the top.

The Birthday Cake

Let me tell you... this cake took 10 hours to decorate!

My niece Jessica is an amazing cake decorator.

She was able to print my sister's photographs onto

sugar paper and place them on the white fondant.

It's just a stunning cake!

50 Candles

I'll post more on this later, but I took basic number

candles and painted, glittered and blinged

them to perfection!

Cupcakes

An extra book from the centerpieces was a perfect platform

for some extra cupcakes.  I made the little flags on top.

Photo Cupcakes

With the extra photos from the cake, my niece adhered them

to fondant and cut them into circles.  Perfect little cupcake toppers!

The cupcake platform I made with extra fabric and trim

from scrap wood my neighbor had tossed the week before!

50 Chocolate Pops

I made the chocolate pops in a 50 mold then stood

them in sturdy foam in the bottom of this cute

little suitcase.  The shredded book pages helped camoflauge

the foam support underneath.

Centerpieces

I know I said this was about the Dessert Table, but I

had to show you the centerpieces!  The framed

camera print was printed onto book pages.  The vintage

books covered with either brown kraft paper or

newsprint wrapping paper (depending on the table you're

looking at).  Then wrapped in ribbon and topped with

one of my sister's photographs.  The upside-down wine glass

acts as a terrarium for a gerbera daisy bloom.  And the crystal

bowl is just some snackies. I also sewed the fabric for the tablecloths.

50 Photographs

Lastly, I made these posterboards with my sister's 

photographs in the shape of a 50!

Sewing New Pillow Slips

We're frugal people.  Most of our furniture is thrifted or hand-me-downs.  In fact, I'm pretty much against paying full price for furniture, when there is plenty out there that is still perfectly usable (and relatively attractive) that can be had for less.  My only exception to this is our mattress.  There is nothing more important than the right mattress.  But that's not really what this post is about.  It's about the ugly, but nice feather pillows we got for free, with our sofa (also for free).

We got our sofa from craigslist from a student moving away.  It was free because it had a few minor cat scratches on the ends' upholstery.  This didn't bother us much because we have cats that have since added to the destruction.  The sofa did come with fluffy feather pillows, which was nice.  But as you can see below, they're pretty ugly.

Home Decor Crafting

I've been decorating our home a bit more lately... with my meager sewing skills and the endless supply of burlap we have from our table runners. You've already seen our upholstered dresser here, but I've also finished our nightstand, which was started at the same time.




Nightstand




Dresser




Notice the jar of rocks? Those are our blessing stones from our wedding.



I've also created a pendant lampshade and, from scraps from the previous projects, a tote bag!



Lamshade




Tote Bag



And... not with burlap, I've sewn a new kitchen curtain and valances (with a matching pillow case) for our bedroom.


Kitchen Curtain




Bedroom Windows - Before




Bedroom Windows - After




Bedroom Valance



The photos aren't that great... I took them with poor lighting and with my cell phone, but I've been having fun crafting for the inside of our home, while Dave has been doing amazing things outside in our garden!

Wedding Decor - Upcycle!

Some of you may remember these table runners, that I sewed from burlap and Dave screen printed with our monogram for our wedding reception.


There's a tutorial HERE on how to make these fabulous table runners.





I recently upcycled them to redo our dresser. With a little brown paint and the old table runners used to upholster the drawer fronts, it looks like brand new! I especially love re-using the monogram/ruffles on the top! All we need now are some new drawer pulls and it's a whole new dresser!


PS - That's our "guestbook" on top of the dresser, too! Love it! So glad we decided to do the wood slice.