Texturizing

I hope everyone had a good weekend! Tom & I both took Friday off to use up some of our vacation time, and it was glorious to have a 3-day weekend. But then again, when isn’t it glorious to have a 3-day weekend?

We got some Christmas shopping done, mainly things I’ll be using for our “Winter Wonderland” metallic-y themed mantle/family room, but also a couple of gifts! We also browsed through Pier 1 and brought home two plush pillows to add some cozy texture to our couches. I have plans to build on these for aforementioned “Winter Wonderland”.

Look at all that plushy goodness! They are just so delightfully fuzzy, I can’t stop petting them. Tom thinks this is weird.

Oh, and they were 20% off, so we paid about $18 per pillow! Ow, ow!

Did you add any texture to your home this weekend? Or maybe to your wardrobe?

Weekly Wishlist: Quirky Quartz

A few weeks ago, I came upon some really unique accessories via Bliss Home and Design, an interior design and furnishing store. As impatient as I am to just get stuff done when it comes to furnishing and decorating our home, I am also perfectly willing to hunt high and low to find the perfect accessory that I cannot live without. As a kid, I never wanted to go home for dinner or bedtime because I was so afraid I’d miss out on something. I think that same feeling creeps over me when I’m working on a home project. I don’t want to overlook the perfect accessory because I was too impatient to check this store or that website.

So, when I saw these beauties from their Mineral Collection, I knew that I’d be willing to shell out some bucks just to be able to plant one of these on top of a console table, bookshelf or mantle. Hubba, hubba. (sorry, no idea where that came from!)

In true Emily fashion, I haven’t committed to one just yet, because I’m holding out for the right mineral, at the right time, for the right room 🙂

What’s on your Wishlist this week?

Happy Halloween!

So, I’m kind of a Halloween Slacker. I didn’t have time to carve any of my pumpkins, I didn’t bake any sweet or spooky treats, and I don’t have a costume. Ooops.

But I felt it would be remiss to let the day go by without a little acknowledgement of the festivities.

So, here’s a little digitized “carved” pumpkin I created to wish you a Happy Halloween!

Even though it’s going to be about 40-degrees in Cincinnati tonight, I’m really looking forward to passing out candy to the trick-or-treaters. We never had kids trick-or-treat at our condo, so this will be our first “real” Halloween in a long time! Maybe next year I’ll do some pumpkin-carving or some spooky-treat making 🙂

What are your plans for the day?

Fall Pinterest Challenge: Holiday Ornament Wreath

When Sherry at Young House Love. issued the Fall Pinterest Challenge last Tuesday, I eagerly accepted… Annnnd then later that day I found myself in the acrylic paint aisle at Michaels, completely overwhelmed and unable to decide which Pinterest project I should finally take on. Ack. Cue crafting meltdown.

After recovering, thanks to the help of some Panera mac ‘n cheese, I thought it’d be smart to get a head-start on some Christmas crafts, since that’s what I’ve been pinning a lot of lately.

The winner? An Ornament Wreath. The inspiration? This one, and this one.

Except mine would be all in silvers and whites to fit into the sparkly scheme I’m dreaming up for our mantle/family room this Christmas.

After reading up on some other bloggers’ tutorials to gauge how many ornaments I’d need (answer: a ton), I shopped around hoping to find some all-silver sets including small, medium and large sizes. I couldn’t find exactly what I wanted, but Hobby Lobby had the next best thing – a set of 50 medium ornaments in various silvers for $19.99 plus 40% off! They also had color-coordinated sets of smaller ornaments.

I pretty much followed the instructions from Deep Fried Kudzu, starting with spray-painting a 14″ foam wreath so that the green parts wouldn’t show through. I used Krylon Brushed Metallics Satin Finish in Nickel.

Once dry, I flipped the wreath over so the back of it would face me while I worked. I removed all of the ornament caps, then started gluing the largest ones around the outer edge of the wreath, just like so:

I was relieved when the ornaments were nearly-perfectly spaced around the outer edge! Yesss! I didn’t even count that out in advance!

Then I did the inner circle. I decided to use up some remaining large ornaments, with a few mediums throw in for good measure.

I waited a bit until everything seemed dry and secure. Then I flipped the wreath over and plotted out a “pattern” of medium and small ornaments. Here’s why my photo-taking fell apart. Sorry. I was in the Glue Zone.

So, here’s the finished product. Ta-da!

Not gonna lie, I’m pretty pleased with myself for completing a Christmas craft before November! I am never this on-the-ball! And before you ask, no, I do not have any gift-shopping completed yet. Priorities, people!

Come back in December to see how my Sparkly Winter Wonderland theme pans out. This wreath will surely be taking center-stage.

And now, a few stats to round out this post:

Total Number of Ornaments Used – about 100! Broken down by size: 27 small, 50 medium, and 24 large. I think it was enough. Honestly, you could probably keep gluing ornaments to each other until the cows come home!

Total Number of Glue-Gun Burns – only 1!

Total Project Cost – about $35

You can find my Pinterest Holiday Decor board here, or all of my Pinterest boards here.

Thanks for reading! Now go check out the other great projects from the Fall Pinterest Challenge Hostesses!

Sherry @ Young House Love / Sarah @ Ugly Duckling House / Katie @ BowerPower / Carmel @ Our Fifth House

I’m already getting ideas together for the Winter Challenge 😉

I’m also sharing this DIY at:

7 Reasons Why I Can’t Be Allowed In Beauty Stores

Origins Clear Improvement charcoal mask // Origins Ginger Gloss smoothing oil // MOR Italian Blood Orange bar soap // bareMinerals kit // bareMinerals Night Serum // bareMinerals mineral veil // tarte emphasEYES liner (in purple, of course)

Is it weird to covet a bar of soap? Because I have been obsessed with these MOR soaps since I first saw them in a Korres store in Soho back in 2010. I don’t know if I’ll be able to bring myself to open it up – the packaging is just too pretty!