Fashion Friday: Fall Cravings

I am loving all the rich colors in stores everywhere – be it home decor or apparel, deep greens, browns, burgundies, and golds are everywhere. Let me share a few pretties that have caught my eye recently:

1. Wool blend coat from Old Navy

2. Cotton peplum shell by LOFT

3. Polka dot top by Merona @ Target

4. Rose bouquet print skirt by LOFT

5. Leopard print cropped pant by Merona @ Target

6. Hooded anorak from Old Navy

7. Celtic riding boot by Etienne Aigner at DSW

8. Wedge pump by Adrienne Vittadini at DSW

9. Stargazer bangles at Nordstrom

10. Lost in Paradise Earrings at Francesca’s Collections

11. Rustic Wear Scarf at Francesca’s Collections

12. Bellini Lip & Eye Palette by Bobbi Brown

What has caught your eye from among the fall season offerings out there?

Embellished kitchen towels

Recently I saw a fabulous idea for a craft – embellishing plain kitchen towels with Sharpies! Heather at Setting for Four came up with this super easy, super awesome craft. All you need is some Flour Sack towels, a Sharpie, and whatever image or text you want to copy onto the towel. I printed a few from the Graphics Fairy, but if you’re better than me at Photoshop you can always create your own graphic.

I decided to make two of the towels using a metallic bronze Sharpie. This color is great, and gave my towel a very vintage look.


As Heather explains in her tutorial, you can see through the towel fairly well so it’s easy to follow along.

Here are the two towels I made with the bronze color:

As much as I loved the look, I could only find the bronze color in the regular fine tip marker, not the super fine size, so I was not able to add some of the more detailed elements of the graphic. I did, however have a super fine tipped-Sharpie in black, so I went to town on this towel.

And forty-five minutes later I decided perhaps I’d been overambitious. It took longer than I had planned for, with all the detail and shading, but I do love the finished product.

Here are my three towels:

Now, I must admit, I have about 25 different ideas in mind for these towels. I LOVE how generous they are in size, how soft the cotton is, and truly, the possibilities are endless — pillowcases? cafe curtains? kids’ artwork-embellished towels?

I have a feeling I am going to be buying a ton of Sharpies in the near future. Thank you Heather, for this awesome craft!

The Bathroom Saga – Sink and Faucet

The last time y’all got a look at my bathroom was when my husband re-tiled the floor.

We had previously painted the walls, changing them from white to Ralph Lauren’s Chamois.

The next part of the ongoing transformation was to replace the sink and faucet.

When we moved in, the sink was already in poor condition. It was still working fine but it was rusted and stained. Over the years, it kept rusting to the point that there was a hole in the sink, so water could fall through into the cabinet. This is how it looked when removed:

Ew, right?

I wasn’t a fan of the banjo-shaped counter or the marble itself. It is apparently really pricey and top of the line, but as I’ve said at the beginning of the year, I am a complete peasant and I like what I like, regardless of price or trendiness.

I wanted a plain, white sink, so we went with this oval one from Lowe’s. For the faucet, I went with the Caldwell by Moen. They look so good together.

Uncle D was there to help my husband, Steve, and answer any questions – the amount of knowledge Steve has gained from Uncle D is truly invaluable. Here he is in action:

The coolest part, though, was when Steve couldn’t find his level and Uncle D downloaded an app on his phone and had a level ready to use in 19 seconds. No, we don’t have iPhones. Yet.

Here is the new sink in place

Isn’t it lovely, all that clean, sparkling white?

The faucet is gorgeous, too

I’m off to get more of the Chamois paint to touch up the areas that got messed up during the removal of the old sink. I am so happy with the way this bathroom is (almost) looking. My hubby went above and beyond and repainted the door back to its original white loveliness, too. Once the paint is touched up this bathroom will be ready for the next few gatherings we’re hosting. I’ll tell you more about that in my next post. Happy Monday!

Frame Jewelry Display

You know how sometimes the glass that comes with a photo frame breaks? And you don’t want to throw that frame away so you stash it for months in various places, until your husband is all “hmmm, are you going to do something with this thing?” And then a friend gifts you their old coffee table but one of the ten knobs is missing and you’re all “Whoa! Frame + knobs? Can I say jewelry display?”

Okay, so maybe you haven’t thought this, but I did, and here are the results.
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I took the frame and painted it in Oil Rubbed Bronze, then covered the backing with gold dust vellum paper from my favorite paper store.

The backing was a piece of laminate that my husband had leftover from a project and he cut it to size for me. Once the laminate and vellum were adhered, I marked a grid of nine spots on the back – three across, three up and down. My awesome husband drilled the laminate and paper and we bought some new screws because the ones that came with the knobs were too long.

I now have a place to display some of my bracelets and necklaces:
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The total cost of this project was solidly under ten dollars. The paper was $2.75 (plus tax) and the new screws/washers were under $5. I had the frame, we had the piece of laminate and we had the nine knobs from my craft table project.

I hope you have enjoyed my repurposed photo frame craft!

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Beautiful nail

No, not that place where they make your finger go like dat! I mean the wonderful package of nail goodness I got in the mail from my college friend Carina and Overall Beauty.

The nail color I won is called Glampyre – I mean, how am I supposed to resist? I won it in Carina’s giveaway but really, it’s a gorgeous color and I would have so hunted it down otherwise, just look at it:
My nails are crap right now, so these are pics from Carina’s blog. And her manicures are so much better than mine!

I also received from Overall Beauty a pedicure set, a gorgeous mineral eye shadow, and some sweet nail art.

After all my work jazzing up my office area, I’m going to get some pampering done – have a great weekend!