August Break~ Gone to the Rodeo

Happy Monday Everyone! I hope you all had a good weekend. Still August Breaking over here. But never fear! I have some good projects and DIY's I've been working on in the meantime to show you next week!

I want to remind everyone to enter the Giveaway for a Home Depot Gift Card!! It ends on Friday!

Today I wanted to share a little bit of our weekend with you. You know we live in a small town; and where else nut a small town would you have this- closing down the streets for a horse parade?

Our town's rodeo was this past weekend and the kick off is a parade of all the cowboys who participate. They close down the streets and parade through town. Con-Man loved it.

He was also excited to ride a pony at the rodeo:

What did you do this weekend? Anyone getting excited for Labor Day?

CouponCabin Home Depot Gift Card Giveaway!!

*This Giveaway has ended- check back soon to see who the winner is!*

Do you like saving money? Do you like the Home Depot? Do you like saving money at the Home Depot?

If you answered "YES!!" to any of the above questions I have the giveaway for you!

If you haven't heard CouponCabin is an incredible resource to help save money on all of you home improvement, DIY and crafty projects! 

"CouponCabin works directly with Home Depot and more than 3,700 other retailers to offer incredible savings on quality goods. Users can grab a code quickly or sign up for CouponCabin Rewards to earn points towards gift cards.

CouponCabin has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Oprah Magazine, and many other publications."

CouponCabin is now offering a Mobile App that lets you do everything from comparing everything from local gas prices, to searching for the latest and greatest money saving coupons at your local grocery and other stores right from your phone! You can download it here.

If all that isn't enough good news the friendly folks CouponCabin are offering one lucky reader a $25 Home Depot Gift Card just for checking out their site! Score!

To enter just go to CouponCabin and look around. Come back and tell me in a comment how you think you would use these valuable coupons! Easy!

Giveaway starts today August 24, 2012 and ends August 31, 2012 at 9 PM central time. Winner will be chosen using Random.Org and will be announced shortly after. Please leave a valid email address if you do not have a way to be contacted through your blog.

Good luck and Have a Great Weekend!!

Legal Jargon Mumbo Jumbo:

I am not compensated for this giveaway- I just want to offer my readers an awesome opportunity to save money at one of my favorite stores.

*Disclosure 

In addition to any disclosure required by applicable law, Promotion Partner shall include a full release of CouponCabin by each entrant or participant, with language substantially

similar to the following: “I received no compensation for this post and the opinion stated here is that of my own. I was not influenced in any way. By entering this promotion, each participant agrees to release, indemnify and hold harmless the Sponsor and its parent companies, affiliates and subsidiaries and their respective representatives, officers, directors, shareholders, agents and employees from and against any injuries, losses, damages, claims, actions or liability of any kind resulting from or arising from participation in this promotion.”

Quick Stop

Still August Breaking over here! But I have a fun giveaway to tell you about on Friday so don't wander to far off!

This past weekend I made some time for a quick stop to one of my favorite junk stores. I blogged about it a few months ago. 

Last time I stopped there I had seen an awesome vintage metal "S". I thought it would be a fun addition to Sawyers room if it was still there.

Low and behold it was!

But, the owner quoted me $70 for it!! &#(%^(@?! That was way more than I was expecting especially considering the deals I had gotten last time. So sadly I did not buy the awesome letter "S".

They had some other plastic letters I thought about buying and spray painting, 

But I didn't get those either since I didn't think they were as cool as the metal "S" I originally wanted. 

I'm considering trying to make one using this technique. We'll see.

Hope your all having a happy Wednesday!

Attempts At Craftiness

Supplies for a project I'm attempting this week. Baby steps until our real baby is older and I have time to do things again!

Woo Hoo!

I don't know about you guys but I enter blog contests all the time. I don't usually win but this time I did! 

I won a roll this Kick @ss wallpaper from 2Modern!

I'm a Fan of theirs on Facebook and they have a contest each Tuesday for a different piece of furniture or accessory from their store. I enter every week (I'm sure my Facebook friends never get tired of thus) and haven't won until now! 

I already have some ideas of where I might put it- if you remember I was dreaming of redoing our bedroom a while back. Could this be the beginning of our redesign?

Or should I use it in our living room? 

Or should I use it to cover a piece of furniture?

The possibilities are endless!!

August Break: Passing The Summer-Time

Have you seen this popping up all over Blogland this month? Some bloggers are choosing to take a semi-blog break for the month of August and just post pictures of their daily activities.

Well I'm joining the party Mid- August but better late than never right? Taking care of newborn Sawyer and energetic Con-Man is taking up most of my time these days.

Yesterday Con-Man and I talked about shapes. I cut different shapes out of sponges and let Con sponge paint. He had to do this right after breakfast at 8:30 in the morning- that's why he's still in his pajamas.

And of course our learning soon gave way to mess making.

And I have to send a special thanks to a friend who brought us homemade cinnamon bread last night so we could enjoy it for breakfast today. Just what a new mom needs to get her day started!! Thank you!!

Good luck to everyone who started school this week and for those of us who haven't yet enjoy the last days of summer!!

Frank Gehry "Makes It Right" In New Orleans

In Design School Frank Gehry was and still is one of my favorite architects. When we were in Seattle I had to go see his Experience Music Project just so I could say I have been to and seen one of his buildings. (Unfortunately on that trip my camera crapped out and I lost all photos...) 

Source

Source

His envelope pushing style and design gets a lot of praise and a lot of criticism. Either way when I heard he had designed a "Make It Right" Home for Hurricane Katrina Victims I had to check it out! "Make It Right" is the charity started by Brad Pitt to help Hurricane Katrina victims in the Ninth Ward build new housing. Local architects and designers throughout Louisiana, along with a lot of nationally known architects have have been donating time and resources to build new, affordable, green homes for the residents to move into.

Gehry hasn't designed many homes in his career so this is kind of a big deal. The home he designed for New Orleans is in the vernacular style of southern Louisiana joined with his personal style. 


I think it's pretty cool looking!

Source

Homeowners get to choose their own exterior colors of the home. This one is a duplex and both homeowners choose bright fun colors; both from Benjamin Moore's Natura and Aura zero- VOC line. It's said that Brad Pitt encourages this and all the Make It Right homes and bold and colorful.

Source

The interior seems pretty simple. Materials for the home are Green and costs are kept down. Each home is supposed to cost about $150,00- $200,000 and homeowners pay what they can toward the house. I'm not sure if materials are donated or purchased. The flooring is made from postindustrial recycled content.


Windows are abundant throughout the home. Natural daylight was important to have according the Gehry.

Source

This home has 4 balconies for each home owner including a rood deck. Snazzy! The solar panels and geothermal energy heating and cooling systems keep the energy costs low- I believe one homeowner said her energy bill is only $25 a month!

I also found this video explaining more about the house- enjoy!

I love the outside, the style and all those balconies! Awesome! The wood flooring is beautiful and I love that it is green. The kitchen is pretty bare but that's expected since costs are kept low. 

So what do you think? Do you totally dig it or can you live without it? 

Make a Statement...

Bracelet!

One thing that having a newborn has done is made me focus on smaller projects that I have been putting off for a long time. I have all these ideas in my head but don't always get to them. 

This is one project I can cross off that list.

A friend of mine gave me a few small decorative tiles a long time ago- knowing that I like things like that. I hadn't done much with them until now. My favorite one is a Fleur De Lis one (I love Fleur De Lis- they remind me of home in Louisiana!). I thought it would be cool to make a piece of jewelry out of it.

I've dabbled in jewelry making before but this is my favorite piece so far!

To make the tile a little more decorative I decided to add some glass beads around the edges to finish it off. I used Gorilla Super Glue and some glass beads I bought at the craft store.

Then just glued them all around the edge of the tile.

To make the leather wrap I simply cut out a piece of leather to the size and shape I needed. Once the beading around the tile was done and dry I needed to adhere the tile to my leather bracelet. I used snaps and Gorilla Glue Epoxy for this task. 

I used the Epoxy to glue one part of the snap onto the tile.

Then connected the snap into the leather band.

After snapping my tile onto the band I treaded a piece of suede ribbon through the leather to use to tie the wrap down.

Then it was done!

I used the suede ribbon to tie the bracelet off.

What things have you been crossing off your list lately?

Bedroom Styles & Bedroom Dreaming

These past few weeks (months actually) I've been diligently working on both of my boys new bedrooms. I had fun coming up with inspiration, looking for sources and ideas, then coming up with an implementing a plan.

I wish the same could be said for our master bedroom. It hasn't changed since we got married- in each house we keep putting the same furniture and accessories in the same sort of layout and go with it. I'm not sure why this is. Because no one really sees our bedroom but us so I don't feel as pressured to work on it? Maybe because we have a queen bed and I'm dreaming of owning a king- so why buy new bedding now when I might have to buy a larger set in the future? Or maybe I'm just uninspired? Or maybe I like to many different styles??

Whatever the reason I would like our bedroom to be more "us", more of a sanctuary, somewhere we want to spend time in; not just the room we sleep in.

So I've been perusing the internet for bedroom ideas and will be dreaming of these for a while:

I love this room- the high ceiling, the skylights, love! I like that it is contemporary but has rustic elements as well. I can see myself hanging out in here. Not sure about the Hubs though.

Source

I'm also digging this room. It's more on the traditional side, I love the bright window, love the colors, and I like the sitting area and chunky moldings. It's relaxing and I think the Hubs would be more comfortable with this style of room.

Source

I was drawn to the warmth of this room. Not loving the fabric on the chairs but I like the layout, the frames on the wall are pretty cool and the curtain and headboard fabric is beautiful as well.

Source

OMG where can I find a house with a bedroom like this!?! Love the view it's amazing! I also like the stone wall and simplicity of the furniture. It lets the architecture and view take center stage. 

Source

Again, love the rustic elements of this room and the softness of the linens. I don't know if I'd go all out with the wood side table and furry rug but like the overall look.

Source

I like the contrast of the dark wood and light grey paint and linens in this room. It has a contemporary feel but is soothing and comfortable feeling. I like the patten mixing as well. Would the Hubs approve?

Source

Again- love the architecture- the ceiling and windows are amazing in this room! I like the simplicity of the bedding and dark wood of the bed itself. It was smart to use an armoire with mirrored doors since the room looks a little narrow. This room is clean and simple and me likey!

Source

Ok this bedroom is totally different than any of the others but I thought it was really cool! Maybe when I was a single gal back in college or if I were more hip I could have a bedroom like this now. But I might have to file this one away for a future kids room. Or guest room???

 Source

Is your bedroom the bedroom of your dreams? How do you handle you master bedroom style? Do you get your partner's input? Or are you like me and hope no one sees your bedroom unless expressly allowed?

Aviation Inspired Onsies

Happy Wednesday Everyone! I didn't think I'd be back to crafting anytime soon but I'm back at it this week. Sawyer has been a really good baby and we have had family in town helping out- so I've had some time to get a few things done.

Just Chillin' Like a Villian

One of my good friends here in Altus is expecting a baby in a few weeks- a boy! He and Sawyer are going to be good friends. Her husband is a pilot in the Air Force; so I thought what better baby gift than one inspired by planes. I was supposed to work on this project last weekend; but Sawyer had other plans.


I found an image of an airplane online and resized it in Photoshop to the size I needed. Then printed it and traced it onto my felt.

For the second shirt I did the same thing; found an image of a vintage pilots hat and an image of aviator sunglasses. Photoshopped them up and printed them out.

Now it's just a waiting game for the little guy to show up! 

Along with the Onsies I'm also giving my friend a few new mom survival gifts- a cute water bottle, tea, lotion & chapstick, breakfast bars and some magazines. Just a few things to help her get through those late night feedings and early mornings.

Hooray for babies!!