whirly shelf

this is a little storage shelf i dreamed up after noticing the rims on a car one day. i was thinking about how they spun and thought it would be fun to make a shelf that spun too.

the 'cover' spins from the blue square to reveal three little secret shelves. the whole whirly shelf only measures 16'' x 16'', so the little shelves inside are tiny....perfect for hiding jewelry and little nic-nacs.

built for my friend tammy, but named after my friend shawna shirley.

(don't worry tammy, i'm thinking up something to name you after!)

crystal box

i woke up to dancing rainbows this morning...
the sun was beating in my hallway window throwing its light through my crystals. the whole hallway was lit up and rainbows were sneaking in to the bedrooms. i love sunny mornings!

this 'window treatment' was one of the first things i built for the house when we moved in. i found the idea in one of my style at home magazines way back when.


the box was made with pine. i drilled little holes through the top to weave my invisible thread through and then hung my crystals (from ikea) from the thread. i used two little cup hooks to hang it from inside my window. fun and easy!

lazy days

we've been battling a stomach bug in my household this past week. lots of fussing over and swaying little ones to sleep. my parents brought us this hammock home from mexico. since we don't have any big trees to hang it outside i decided to hang it in eden's room. i see us spending lazy sunday afternoons hanging around in the hammock when she gets older. here are the instructions i used for hanging our hammock.


d*s diy contest

Grace at design*sponge is holding her 2008 diy contest. so, break out the paint brushes, glue guns and tools and enter your funky project. the deadline for entries is march 2nd. there are some great prizes up for grabs.

on-cue key holder

i am forever losing track of my keys, bank card, lipstick, basically anything that isn't attached to my person. so, it was really important for my sanity to have a designated place to dump all of my stuff when i come in the door. i wanted something really casual. my original idea was to have something that i could just chuck my stuff at and it would stick. this design doesn't quite do it, you have to wedge things in, but i still think it's fun. this catch-all holder is a pine box with four bright green broom heads screwed to the insides. i do think that if the broom heads were a little more ridgid that i would get my stick-to-it effect. i'll have to try it out some day!

named after my friend jason (louie) cullen...on-cue because it was supposed to 'catch' things on-cue!


THANK YOU TO LESLIE AT A ROOM SOMEWHERE

i'm feeling a little 'awh, shucks' about the write-up leslie over at a room somewhere posted on akacarolyn. seriously, leslie...so nice. thanks!

myng vase slipcover

one day when i looked around my home i noticed that i seemed to be collecting little rectangular glass vases, i had at least half a dozen (no idea why). just the cheapy walmart kind to hold flowers, candy, loose change, etc. i decided to spruce them up a bit and put together the myng vase slipcover (named after my friend amy long).

this one is made out of 1/4 poplar. i used a couple of different drill bit sizes to add the circles and glued it all together. super easy.

i'm thinking of a couple of fun ones as well...maybe some funky painted mdf ones. what do you think?



THANK YOU TO DESIRE TO INSPIRE

thanks to jo and kim over at desire to inspire for featuring akacarolyn on their blog over the weekend. their site is a must see! so gorgeous...take a look.

a touch of red for valentine's day

in observance of valentine's day i'm featuring the bright red flower i painted on the wall above my fireplace. i snagged the idea from canadian house & home's september '06 issue. the issue featured the work of wallpaper designer tracy kendall. i love that it's both bold and soft at the same time.


here's a link to a site that gives you step by step instructions for painting wall murals. i love red, but as we know... red is all about applying multiple coats. i think i ended up having to paint 5 coats of red paint to get it just right!

check, the red bench

the curtains are complete! remind me never to do that again...it took a few hours of massaging to coax my hand back to its normal state. here's the finished product.

to show you something new i've dug up the photo below of bench i built for my living room. actually, i built two benches for my living room, but the second one literally fell apart. not my best work (i'm going to whine now and say "but, i was 7 months pregnant at the time i built them", even though i don't know that it really makes a difference...things i've made have been known to fall apart every now and then!).


i made the bench with pine and upholstered the top cushion with my old ikea curtains (i still need to replace those curtains!). the material on the side that covers the storage below is simply a translucent plastic...the same material that people use to cover their florescent lighting.