Insta-Nine Thursday: May 9th

Thursday! Yay!

1. Husband gave me my pretty ring three years ago last Tuesday. Not only do I love it, but I love that it represents the commitment that we made to each other. Can't believe it's been three years! Time flies when you're having fun! 

2. Cinco De Mayo party with the family. I'll take any excuse to eat mexican food.

3. We've had an amazing week weather wise. Broke some records here! I had some cute sparrows flying and chirping around my bedroom window. Caught one in a picture!

4. Buttons everywhere! I've had a jar full for years now...finally decided to make something out of them. See #7

5. Painting my Pinterest Challenge project!

6. I love me some Fro-yo. I taste tested this Maple Bacon Donut one...had to have been the grossest thing in the world. I'll stick with the milk chocolate, thanks!

7. Taa daa! Easy and super cheap button art.

8. Finished Pinterest Challenge project. A DIY "West Elm" inspired house.

9. Lace and Peplums. They better never go out of style because right now, that's all I own and I am loving it.

Follow me on Instagram at carmarie :) 

Bloglovin?

Bloglovin - does anyone use it? With Google reader going away, the way I follow blogs has to change! Honestly, I haven't researched other options at all. But I have had a bloglovin account for a while and like the look of it. I'm going to try it out! What do you use to follow your favorite blogs? Let me know! I'd love some opinions.


SO follow my blog with Bloglovin. Let's see how we like it!

Pinterest Challenge: Spring time yo!

It's Pinterest Challenge time! Yahoo!

Please join me in checking out the Pinterest Hostess' projects. I'm sure we can all agree they are incredible!

Sherry at Young House Love

Katie at Bower Power

Emily at Sparkle Meets Pop

Renee at Red Bird Blue

Want to know what I made? Hmm? Ok...here it is!

See it? 

A sweet little white house now graces my buffet. Don't you love the Pottery Barn vibe it's taking on? By far my favorite vignette in my house (or is it the only one....).

It all started out with this:

Let's talk about these ceramic houses shall we? I believe they are from West Elm - but I first saw them over at YHL I knew I wanted to DIY it. 

I also saw these on Pinterest

But I cannot find the original source! Either way, I'm loving the little house thing.

A couple weeks ago, my most recent trip to Hobby Lobby, I spotted this cardboard house

I knew I could recreate a little house in a matter on minutes.  I started by cutting off the bulky base of the house. I thought it made it look less like the inspiration, and also just looked a little cheesy and chunky to me. I just used a pair of scissors and it came off easy! I grabbed some glossy white paint and made the magic happen.

I thought about using matte white paint because it would create that ceramic look of the West Elm ones. But because the cardboard is so paper-ish, I though the matte paint might just soak in and look dull and not finished. SO, I went with glossy and am glad I did! It's not super shiny at all, but definitely gives it a nice finished look.

What do you think?

Insta-nine Thursday

Wow, do Thursdays come around fast or is it just me?  It's that time again! Insta-nine Thursday! On Thursday! Imagine that.  I've been loving this series because it "forces" me to take more pictures of my day. Now, I'm sure some of you need no help with that, but I've found that it's helped me to keep my eyes open for those perfect little moments to capture.

1. That late night sugar craving hit and of course I had zero sweet things in my house. So I whipped up this recipe. It was the perfect little bit of raw (eggless) cookie dough that I was craving! Yum yum.

2. I've been wanting to store my chalk right by my chalk board but was at a loss on how to do that. I recently saw this over at Dimples and Tangles (cute blog!) and knew I found my solution. Hobby Lobby to the rescue! It's a drawer pull turned upside down. How genius is that? It was originally brown - I gave it a quick coat of gold and taa daa!

3. Bright Yellow saltwater sandals. Tiny toes! Cute girl. Picnic. Fun day in the sun!

4. Playing cards with the family. Anyone played "Wizard"? It's fun and makes me all nervous that I'm going to make a bad decision. I get way too involved. But it's fun! I lost.

5. "O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens."

6.  Pretty lowers in my Mom's front yard. Spring is here!

7. Surprise flowers for my office! From my Mama (Mom and flowers is a theme!)

8. I took a few hours off on Monday and I needed it so badly. This was the view from where I sat. Tv, Pinterest, bed, rest. Perfection. 

9. Craft time! Working on this right now. It's for the Pinterest Challenge! Check back Wednesday to see the results. 

Hope you are stopping to see and capture the beauty everywhere! But I also hope that you aren't spending life with your face in your iPhone. It's hard to find the balance but I hope you all are mindful of it...I know I am working on it!

Update: I decided this needs a close up.

Insta-Nine Thursday/Friday

Here it is again! Insta-nine Thursday! It totally doesn't mean it has to be on a Thursday, right? Oops. 

1. I'm basically obsessed with Target's new line "Threshold". So far, I've loved all of their home decor stuff! I got a lot of the kitchen accessories (spatulas, linens, and salt and pepper shakers) that are from the same line at the cookie jar. But I could never justify buying the cookie jar! I forget how much is was originally - but I scored it for $7! How can you say no to such a deal!? I love Target and their clearance end caps.' 2.  I took a walk around our neighborhood this week. Two pretty views from that day. So really...this should be insta-ten Friday!!! Lucky you! 3. Went on a sister date to Olive Garden. We love it way. too. much.  4. Panera Bread Mac n' Cheese. Enough said. 5. This picture is from last week - I LOVE when the fog hangs over the trees. It's so pretty and a nice reminder that God makes pretty things for us to look at. Even really early in the morning when I am grouchy.  6. Notice a trend? I'm loving nature so much right now. It's been so beautiful here! I'll take the rain all year if we can have a few days like this. Worth it. 7. Again....
8. Sitting in the sun at Tulley's. Visiting with a friend! I think the top of my foot got burned.  9. Goodwill spoils. Oh man did I score!! The little shiny vase on the right is originally from Restoration Hardware. Yahoo!!! Thus, the end of Insta-nine Thursday Friday.  OH and follow me on Instagram! @ CarMarie  - it's private just to keep the weirdos reading at bay! But request...I'll totally accept you! :)

Easy Art

We just got a Hobby Lobby in my area (still 40 min away) last year. It was a dream come true to me! Blogger after blogger talks about it and I was major jelly (that means jealous just in case you've been living under a rock and don't talk to cool people like me). My sister and I spent 4 hours there. I am not ashamed! We had way to much fun and bought way too much stuff. This was a few months ago and I finally got around to one of the projects I had planned with some stuff that I bought. It's easy, quick, and adorbs!

Hobby Lobby has a bunch of these heavy iron (??) decorations. Skelton keys, bugs, horse shoes... you name it! I instantly fell in love with these little bugs. So they came home with me and sat in a box for a few months. Don't pretend like you've nevvvvvver done that.
These guys are little, but let me tell you, they are heavier than you'd think. I knew I was going to frame them and so I bought these cute square frames (50% off) to put them in. (Also perfect for Instgrams, hmm?)  I thought that spray painting them white and somehow "roughing" them up a little and letting that brown show through would be cute in a frame with scrapbook paper, or fabric behind them. But before spraying them I took a long hard look and decided that I really liked the rusty brown natural color that they were already. So they stayed that way. 

I removed the glass from the frames and disassembled them. The grasshopper had some handy dandy little hangers and so I just screwed him right into the backing of the frame. Easy peasy!

I forgot to take a picture of the butterfly. Probably because it's really boring. She basically has a little hook in the back that made it very easy! I just stuck a screw in the center of the frame backing and hung her right on there. 

I also kept the original square matte from the frame. I think it adds dimension. But that brown background? Boring! It needed paper, or paint, or fabric. I didn't have any fabric on hand that I loved, so I ended up just using some Martha Stewart paint that I had on hand. I forget the color - but it's basically mint.

Cute and quirky, hmm? Right now they are temporarily hanging on already existing nails in my living room. See the grey wall? That's just a sample patch that I painted. Not sure about it yet. It looks better in these pictures than it does in person! Ugh. 

Do you have any projects inspired by Hobby Lobby purchases? I'm hoping to go back asap for more supplies! 

Insta-nine Thursdays

Pretty much every blog in the web world does an "instagram dump" post. I think that it's time for me to join that party! Instagram is such an awesome way of capturing those quick little moments in life, isn't it? I don't think it should replace a "real" camera (dslr or digital) but I also think that it's great that technology and apps like instagram allow us to capture those quick moments. It's not something to take for granted!

I hate the word "dump" because it sounds ugly. So my instagram posts will be called "Insta-nine Thursdays. Why? Because I'll share nine pics. Duh.

Without further ado...
1. DIY Chalkboard - I love the square, frame. I don't remember where I got it but it was just empty. I painted one of those thin canvases and hot glued it in there. Easy Peasy.
2. Outside my bedroom window. The colors were just so pretty I had to snap a pic. Not to mention those stormy clouds! It was beautiful.
3. First sunshine in WA a long time. Enjoying that warmness on my facey. Hashtag reads: #firstandonlyselfie. No more for me.
4. Paint paint paint. I'm tortured by picking out a grey for my living room. I thought I liked "Gentle Rain" by Behr...but I don't in some lighting! sigh.
5. Instagram of an Instagram. I got that huge frame for free by the side of the road, spray painted it bright yellow, and used Ikea's wire and clips for the pics to hang on. I ordered my 4x4 Instagrams through Winkflash.com. They are great quality and not too expensive! This is in my office at work - doesn't it pop against the black wall? Keep reading - I'll stick a bigger picture of it at the bottom!
6. Elephant stuffy I made for a cute baby. I used Retro Mama's pattern which you can buy here. It was so simple! I'm dying to try one of these dolls!
7. Me and my favorite boy in CA a few weeks back. sigh. I miss that.
8. Ferris wheel in CA - it was pretty. But looked so rickety...you couldn't even pay me to ride it.
9. Grellow be gone! There isn't one spec of that left in my kitchen. I love it.

Well there's the nine! Comment with your Instagram posts if you've got them. Have a fabulous weekend. Mine starts....NOW.