Coordinating.

My house can best be described as "eclectic".  Because that sounds a hell of a lot nicer than "third-hand furniture and crap that doesn't match".

Don't get me wrong, I love my junk.  I love my stuffed piranha that my grandparents got from Brazil, I love my eight bookshelves of novels alphabetized by author, I love my large framed painting that Batman says looks like "gorilla butts".

  Horses, people.  Not gorilla butts, not plums.  Don't hate on the Franz Marc.

More and more, I start looking around when I'm at people's houses--people my age, not "grown-ups" (we are not going to discuss how I don't consider myself a grown-up yet) and their stuff actually matches.  Their kitchen furniture is a matching set--not a table from a thrift store that is embarrassing looking without a tablecloth, two folding chairs, and two chairs that I painted turquoise on a whim and are falling apart.

I am never going to have a pristine, beautiful museum of house.  It's not my style.  I really do love eclectic decorations, bright colors, and unusual paintings.  I think homes should be comfortable--you shouldn't be constantly afraid you're going to break something or dirty something up. 

Still...I'm starting to tackle the little things and make an attempt to coordinate.  I've started with our bathroom.  I got rid of the accumulated clutter left over from the last three bathrooms we had--the trash can, the soap dispenser, etc. and bought an inexpensive but matching set of turquoise accessories from Target.  I also made these:

They are darling, no?  And they were ridiculously easy to make.  

1.  I bought frames from a thrift store.  $1.25 each

2.  I spray-painted them.  I did another frame at the same time with a different color--the high-gloss of the royal blue turned out better than the matte finish of the other one.

3.  I used Google images to find "octopus silhouette" and "shark silhouette" and copy and pasted the ones I liked into a Word document.  I re-sized them to fit inside of the frame and printed them out.  I cut it out and used it to trace the shape onto scrapbook paper.  Pay no attention to the bird, that's for a different project.

4.  Cut out the scrapbook paper silhouettes, rubber cemented them onto a piece of card stock cut to size, and framed them.  Viola!  I have art that matches my the colors of my bathroom.

Now if only getting a new set of kitchen furniture was this easy...

How to make a container for hair ribbons

I'm coming clean: This is not an original idea. I found it here first. It was quite simple and I really like how it turned out.



You will need: empty formula container, 1 or 2 sheets of scrapbook paper, paint, ruler, scissors, glue, and sealant.

1) Wash and dry the formula container.

2) Measure the container. Cut the scrapbook paper to size and glue.




3) Paint the lid. This took the longest time--it'll take three good coats of acrylic paint to get it all covered. Make sure it's completely dried before starting the next coat, or it'll rub off. I used only two coats, probably should have done the third.

4) Spray the lid and container with the sealant in a well ventilated space.

Here's the finished product, sans headbands.


Here it is filled up with bows and headbands stored on the outside. It turned out great!


Other possibilities: glue ribbons on the edges, cover the top with fabric, modge-podge initials on the lid.