Pinning It On the Wall

As I move into 2012 I am trying to change some basic things, one of them is my focus ( probably better known as my lack of focus) on organization.  How many times have you spent way too much time looking for something in your home office or craft area.  Me Too !! So this year is all about a new me, so I'm starting with my office/craft area.  I've shown you my new chair, so next is something that's really not a big item, but will save me tons of time. I'm looking at using my wall space to help me organize, so.. New Bulletin  Boards are next.   My cuurent bulletin boards are cute, but don't really allow me to organize and find those notes and ideas that I need most often.  Here they are:

Cute, but not really useful, right.

So I've been looking on Pinterest and in Catalogs for ideas and here's what I've seen so far...

                           via Pinterest

         

                            via Ballard Designs

                                                                                                            via CasaSugar.com

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

         via Flickriver.com                                                  

                                                                   

       

                                     via loosecanvas.com

  Lots of ideas, just can't committ yet. Any ideas or suggesstions are welcomed.

Reflections...

No , not words of wisdom or nuggets of truth. Reflections, as in mirrors. Along with all things personalized, chairs, finials and anything turquoise, I love mirrors.  Could there be an unconscious egotist lurking inside, seeing my name on everything possible and then actually seeing me , might need to check that out.  LOL .Oh well, in the meantime, mirrors.  As an accessory there's not a room in your home that couldn't be enhanced by adding a mirror, or in my case two.

While these two mirrors are probably my favorites, they certainly weren't the first ones I made. The first mirror that I made was inspired by the famous ( yes, if it's featured on the  Better After blog, it counts as famous in my book) zebra chair.  Okay, in case you missed it, the chair that is, just click on the link on this page for zebra mania.This led to quite a few touches of zebra in my home. The mirror was the most exciting to make since it led to me learning to etch glass using Amour Etch. Run out and grab a bottle and start personalizing vases, wine glasses, etc.  Oops, there I go again with the personalizing thing... Anyway, here's the Zebra mirror:

It was made with moulding, plywood, mirror squares, the etching creme, and you can figure out the rest. What do you think?

In a previous post I showed a picture of my dresser which has a number of mirrors over it.  Here are some of them...

A few great looking mirrors:

I can't wait to make one of these!!

via Pinterest

Clean, simple, yet elegant lines.

via HGTV.com

Grouping mirrors is always a hit.

Hope you like my choices, cruise the internet and find one you like and go for it?

Initials Galore!!

I revisited a favorite of mine this weekend... all things personalized.
Maybe it's the fact that growing up with an unusual first name I never found my name on anything. Remember the small  license plates for the back of your bike, nope, never. Or the pencils, personalized christmas ornaments or keyychains, nope, none of those either. Just never saw anything that said, MONTINA. Go figure. Oh sure, I'd sometimes find TINA but that's just not the same.

 Well, in 1995 I bought a Tajima( that's a commerical  embroidery machine) and Motor City Embroidery Works, Inc. was born.  I had to practice so... of course I put MONTINA on as much as I could!!

Still working a full time job and as a mom  of 3 kids and a wife, I kept it small and manageable. But I still did a decent amount of embroidery all over Metro Detroit.  Moving to Georgia put this business on the back burner for a while.  But I now have my machine up and running and am glad to see that folks are still in love with seeing their monogam and name on just about everything!!   Here are a few personalized items that caught my eye this past weekend.

Classic chair, classic design!

via   http://bellesbowsandaniphone.tumblr.com/post/14809458355/colors-are-gorgeous

via Montina Burt on Pinterest

 

Isn't this a cool gift for a teacher!!

 

http://acreativemomma.blogspot.com/2011/05/crayon-monograms.html

via Pinterest

via Pinterest

 

via http://www.etsy.com/listing/83753776/monogrammed-ornament?ref=sc_1

via Pinterest

Who doesn't love to see their monogram !!

 

Believing in 2012 and ME!

My first project for 2012 was a new chair for my new office space. Ok, if you come to visit, you'll call it the guest room, but any other time, it's my office.  Using the basic color and design elements from my former office space.  I got started by putting up window treatments and pics.




Embroidered pics

 

I've read that you could/could not mix animal prints. Well, I'm not sure which is true, so I'm just doing what I like. Staying true to my decision to post at least 3 times a week, I knew I needed a comfortable chair.  Found this at the GW while "just shopping, not buying anything."




Chair Before

 

 NOTE TO SELF: Always try out all of the levers that raise and lower every part of the chair. After sitting in the chair and being comfortable that I could change all of the positions on the chair. After sitting in the chair

and checking it out, off to the register I went.

The chair sat in the garage for a week awaiting it's encore.During this time I  began taking it apart, as much as I could.  I also sparyed the foam parts of the chair with a disinfectant several times.  I decided that I wanted to add a vibrant color to the room and settled on a red/orange color for the chair.  I had in mind that I didn't want to spend more than $10.00 for fabric, a challenge, you bet. On a trip somewhere else, I passed a local fabric store, Frugal Fabrics (Buford, GA). A quick look inside yielded at least 4 good choices of fabric, all on sale ranging from $4.50 - $5.00 per yard. I was geeked!! But alas, I hadn't  measured the chair yet so I didn't know how much to buy. I left, planning to return the next day.  But the next day I set out with a good friend following a tip that Old Time Pottery often had great deals on fabric. We heard right, I found this great faux suede in a great color for $3.49 a yard!!

 I added a monogram to the inside back and some leopard print ribbon, and here she is:






Chair After

















She photgraphs darker than she really is and has more orange color to her .



Total cost of this encore: $20.00!!

 

Fabric Wall Art- Have It Your Way!!

Looking for wall art in an unusual color combination. Just can't find it, make it yourself. A great cheap ( come on, if I'm suggesting it, it has to be CHEAP) way to put some color, YOUR color on your walls is to use fabric.  I know it's not a new idea but just in case you'd forgotten, here it is.  My new kitchen has white walls with silver hardware on a gazillion cabinets and black appliances. The go to color for black and white is usually red. No way, that's too Hobby Lobbyish! No offense, I like HL but, I just wanted a different look. So I reverted back to my favorite color, pink. Not a soft pink but a vibrant, full bodied pink. I then decided to look for fabric that had 4 basic colors, pink, green, white and black. The unifying element in this wall art would be black square frames.  It took a couple of trips to a variety of Goodwill stores but I finally had enough square frames in different sizes.  Here is the finished collection, please pardon the glare, still working on my photo skills.



Pink & Black



Pink, black and green on white.





Drk pink  & green on pink



Pink, white and green pokadots on black





Pinks, green and black on white

             

Pink on white fabric with pink on white scrapbook paper overlaid
 with black adhesive letters





Pink, green, black on white



Wood letter painted pink & black stripes and glued on outside of
glass. Inside black border is good old black electrical tape. Pink on
pink fabric.





HAVING IT MY WAY !





There's always some leftovers, gotta use 'em!!
It's almost an unspoken challenge. LOL