Tag Archives: design

Loving Lately

If you follow me on Instagram, you already know that I was beyond excited yesterday when I received my first UmbaBox. I may have even been squealing and dancing a jig in our driveway when Tom got it out of the mailbox.

And I was not disappointed! Check out my swag:

March UmbaBox -- TwoPurpleCouches.com

4-leaf clover pin by Neogranny / pom-pom flower by Love and Marshmallows / ceramic vase by Material Good

On Saturday, Tom & I were at IKEA, where I totally made a scene in the art section over this print: a Keri Herer for IKEA for $3. Yes, that’s three dollars. Holy Affordable Awesomeness, Batman!

keri herrer for ikea -- TwoPurpleCouches.com

If you haven’t seen her stuff, check out her Etsy shop. It’s full of creativity and gorgeousness.

What are you in love with this week?

Decorating Confessional

In the spirit of a New Year, and all the resolution-making happening this week, can I make a confession?

I am terribly nervous to pack away all of the Christmas decorations.

I realize that this sounds silly, but getting all of the usual things back out stirs up all kinds of thoughts and doubts on how to decorate our house. It was nice to focus on Christmas decorations, which obviously fit a set theme. But we’re still figuring out our style (and trying to agree on the same style/s), and as silly as it sounds, thinking about this, plus how to incorporate it into each room, and get all the furniture and art and accents to work together, stresses me out a bit! Okay, maybe more than a bit. Maybe alot.

So I keep trying to remind myself of some of the points that Sherry and John of Young House Love made during their talk at Books by the Banks. Mainly, don’t feel like you have to do everything perfectly, and all at once. Because I feel like this all the time, and I really need a reminder.

Maybe I need to print this out on poster-sized paper and hang it in every room in my house???

Am I the only one who gets stressed out about home decor? Do you have tips on how to deal with stress, home-decor related or otherwise? I always like to remind myself that “stressed” spelled backwards is “desserts”… and I do still have plenty of holiday sweets lying around the kitchen…

Chalk It Up to the Holidays

If you saw my recent Weekly Wishlist, or follow me on Instagram (@onuwriter06), then you know that I’ve got a thing for Chalkboard prints. It’s a recent thing that has come on quite strong, too. And once you’ve fallen head-over-heels for a typographic print, there’s only one thing to do… try to recreate it yourself.

I started off by trying to free-hand my own versions of ones I’ve found online (mostly on Esty), carefully studying how the letters are created, connected and filled out. Here’s one example from my “sketchbook:”

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The next step was to decide on the phrase I wanted to write (so hard! there are sooooo many great Christmas song lyrics), and sketch it out. This way I could decide which words I wanted to emphasize, which would be serif or sans serif, etc. I also had to decide on a color. I didn’t want to do a black background because I wanted the colors to feel a bit more Christmasy. I chose Americana Hauser Light Green Acrylic paint (purchased at Michael’s, and also used on my clay lollipop ornaments. Such versatile paint…). I think the canvas size is 14″x18″, if you’re wondering.

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I prepped the canvas by painting the whole thing with the green paint. I only did one coat, and didn’t worry about making it too perfect or uniform. So some parts are darker/have more coverage than others. One of my friends described it as “rustic.”

Then I used a pencil to lightly sketch out the words “Christmases” and “White” to get the placement where I wanted them. And then it sat on my kitchen table (i.e. crafting space) for a few days while I got up the courage to put paint to paper, err, canvas.

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Here’s an action shot. Lucky for me, Tom was hovering with my iPhone camera on.

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And here’s the finished product:

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Weekly Wishlist: Holiday Chalkboard Prints

I have recently become obsessed with Chalkboard-style typography. So I thought I’d round up a few beauties from Etsy to share with you this week.

Olive Rue snowman print
Sarah Says Sew print
Lily and Val Holly Jolly print Lily and Val Merry and Bright print Lily and Val Silver Bells print

I’ve been practicing my skills and am working on my own version of this holiday-themed art! Check back soon to see how it turned out!

1. OliveRue / 2. SarahSaysSew / 3. – 5. LilyandVal

Dare to DIY: Deck the Halls

This is the last installment of the Dare to DIY challenge (sponsored by Two Twenty One, Newly Woodwards, Decor and the Dog, and Maybe Matilda), and I am sad to see it go! I really enjoyed each week’s challenge, and seeing all the great ideas that other bloggers came up with. Definitely found some great inspiration and some new blogs to follow! Whoo!

So, without further ado, here is how I’ve decked my halls for this holiday season:

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I wanted to go for a “Winter Wonderland” theme, full of metallics and whites. It all started with the silver Ornament wreath I diy’ed a few weeks back, and from there, I started envisioning a mantel awash in mercury glass, silvers and golds. I would love to do our entire family room in silvers, golds, and whites (tree included), but… one thing at a time.

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www.twopurplecouches.wordpress.com

Some items I already had on hand, some are new additions, like the mercury glass pillars, metal reindeer, angel, and silver sequin tree (from Kohl’s and JoAnn Fabrics, respectively).

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I used the branches on the far end in my Fall Mantel, but wanted to glam them up a bit for the holidays. I added glass vase fillers, a spray of white flowers, and swirly silver twig things that you always see in the floral section of craft stores. I have no idea what the official name is. Then I hung a few ornaments and mini-snowflakes from the branches to give them some festive flair.

The only items that don’t really fit the theme are our stockings and stocking holders, but they are too sentimental for me to switch them out, even for just one season. My stocking is the one on the right – my mom hand-stitched it for me when I was a baby, and my aunt made the Santa stocking holder. My mom also made Tom’s stocking. He’s always used whatever generic stocking we had stashed in with the Christmas decorations. But not this year! He’s finally got a personalized stocking 🙂

Check out more decked-out halls here!

I’m also sharing this at:
HomeforHolidays