Well helloooooo there! Hope you had an awesome weekend! It was Fall Break here and the Utah masses always come down south for the warm weather. We bucked the system and went up north to Salt Lake and it was wonderful (Family! IKEA! Food!).
Lets talk about nurseries shall we? I am on the hunt for a perfect rug (seriously, it shouldn’t be this hard!) and so I’ve been researching what makes a nursery magical. There are about a million different ideas and themes and projects.
Themes. Can we talk about themes for a minute? Wow. Theme-ing can get real um…intense? I feel like there has to be a balance. Because lets be honest, when you decorate a nursery, you’re doing it for you. The baby will be none the wiser if it had to sleep in a dresser drawer like my Grandma. My little guys wont know, and/or care. But you know who does? Me. I care! I want it to be amazing. And that’s ok. I can care.
Out of the approximately 9 million nursery ideas that live online, there are some that (IMHO) are just so right.
The queen of everything Emily Henderson (she had her baby girl yesterday!) killlllled it with Charlie’s circus room. It’s perfection. You get that its circus, but you’re not afraid that a clown is going to pop out of the closet and honk your nose. Look at all of the furniture pieces; they are good period. In fact if I could blow up that rocker, I’d put it in my bedroom.
LOVING this rustic nursery from Autumn at Design Dump. Anytime you wallpaper a ceiling is a bonus entry in my book. And that rug! Amazing.
The magic in this room is undeniable. The wallpaper is made by a company called Little Hands and it is such a showstopper (you’ll want to click over and see all of them. I promise.)
The bright colors in this woodland themed room are so cute, and that mural is FANTASTIC.
This one is maybe a little more gender neutral, but that light is out of this freaking world. And those baby animal prints? Stop it.
Happy Friday!! I have been on pins and needles for a month to tell you guys about this project. Settle in cause there is loads of info and inspiration!
One of the biggest hurdles that comes up in my DIYin’ adventures is being able to create the things in my mind. Sometimes little projects (that I’m suuuuper excited about) feel like inventing the hover board. The idea is solid. The actual how to? Mmmmm. Not so solid. Technology is getting crazier by the day, so when the opportunity came up to experiment on the HP Sprout I was all over it. Anything to help these ideas come to life is a-ok with me.
The HP Sprout is an all in one desktop computer that is pushing the limits of what you can do with a home computer. It has the ability to 3D scan almost anything that you can put in front of it. Seriously. Can you even imagine the project possibilities? Let alone the parent referee potential (oh you both want this discontinued Littlest Pet Shop? Let me just duplicate it and then maybe you’ll stop fighting?) Below is the first thing that I scanned and printed. Its a mini replica of this cute salt shaker that I found at Target.
Adorable? Absolutely, the girls have already taken it over for the above mentioned Littlest Pet Shops.
But aside from miniaturizing something, there has got to me more right?!
Oh-ho-ho my friend, you have no idea. We all love a good cactus, but unfortunately sometimes we love them so much that we kill them…with love. I scanned a cactus cutting using the Sprout (its mesmerizing!)
Then I was able to take that scan, and by duplicating it and manipulating the dimensions, I made a whole new cactus.
Once it was right I sent it over to my Dremel IdeaBuilder and printed it out.
My experience with 3D printing was zero. I mean, unless you count the Grey’s Anatomy episode with the dramatic human organ printing situation. I had NO IDEA what to expect. Would it be hard?! Would it take 46 hours?! Would it look stupid?! Is it loud?! You know, the real questions. For real questions I have real answers. It was not hard. Each element that I printed took about 4 hours. There are very light surface lines that can easily be sanded smooth with 300+ grit sandpaper. The printer is very quiet. And its sort of musical. Lots of my projects stared printing during one of my all too frequent 3:30 insomnia-fests.
When the little guys were done printing I glued them to a lit and stuck it inside a terracotta planter.
Now I have this adorable cactus that cant be killed!! (The OG cactus clipping is there for comparison!)
Cool right?
Ok so, when I say this next project has been years in the making I am not exaggerating at all. For the life of me I couldn’t figure out how to make these bauble lights that lived in my brain. I knew they needed some show stopping geometric pieces but making them out of wood only resulted in an unrecognizable wonkfest and a very real fear of cutting my fingers off with the saw. I tried paper, ceramic, concrete and time and time again it was just wrong.
I knew that the Sprout could make my dreams come true, but it didn’t happen in the way that I expected. Originally I created the pentagon shape with paper and tried scanning it, but because the shape was perfectly symmetrical no matter what I did, there was always a side missing (by rotating the item during multiple scans it can typically capture all sides.) The Sprout cameras work sort of like an ultrasound, though the picture on your screen comes up with photograph like colors, it doesn’t sense those (I tried marking different patterns on each side to combat the blank spaces. Ultimately because the shape was exactly the same on all sides it just wasn’t going to work, it needs variation to put the puzzle pieces together.
I was bummed. But motivated.
This project was happening come hell or high water.
Fortunately the folks at HP customer support are fantastic and told me about an app called MeshMixer. There are literally THOUSANDS of free project patterns that you can download and create with. That is how I finally got my geo-shapes.
MeshMixer is relatively simple to learn, though I’m sure I’ve just scratched the surface. I was able to make the shapes exactly like I wanted them, with a hole down the center and all. I printed my shapes (Court asked if I was printing a Madonna bra when he saw the cones. That man is full of great ideas.)
To finish the lights I drilled holes into some wooden spheres from the craft store. (I totally could have printed those too, I was just itching for some wooden contrast)
I also gave some of them a quick coat of natural wood stain (it made a huge difference in the color!)
After the stain was dry, I strung all of the white 3D printed pieces + the wooden beads onto my favorite twisted lamp wire and wired the light sockets.
I LOVE LOVE LOVE how they turned out.
I want to make 5 million.
My mind is absolutely racing with all of the project possibilities. From functional, like scanning and printing missing hardware from a thrifted dresser. To completely creative like wall art full of different types of succulents, because lets face it: who can actually keep those living walls alive?
The crazy thing is, this is just one side of the HP Sprout, my girls love drawing and painting on it, and there are a bunch of great apps for kids to unleash their creative genius.
3D printing isn’t just for Meredith Grey and Dungeons and Dragons fanatics anymore, its for everyone.
To get more ideas, and see how other creatives are knocking this technology out of the park check them out here! And we put together a quick video so that you can see the Sprout in action!
If you have a question leave it in the comments below and I’ll do my best to answer it!
I am a vivid dreamer normally. Full color, talking in my sleep, the whole shebang. Pregnancy has taken it to a whole.new.level. At least 4 nights a week I am dreaming so wildly that I wake myself up at 3:00 and cant get back to sleep. So that is when my day starts. Fun yes? (ANY tips on combating this would be massively appreciated!!)
So as I am sitting in my dark living room working and being exhausted I get these really deep burning questions. Maybe you guys can help me solve them?
Why does no one put subway tile on their floor? Obviously the tile would have to be rated for flooring but just in general, why? People put penny tile on the floor and wall, but search Pinterest, there is like zero subway tile floors. Weird, cause it seems like an obvious option. Is it not? Am I delusional?
Speaking of floors. We have a really light colored tile in our kitchen. I LOVE the way it looks and while spills do show, I feel pretty happy about knowing when the floor is clean and when its not (unlike the tile we had previously that masked all the crap like a world champion chameleon) How do you feel about light colored floors? Would you put them in your house?
Has your local Home Depot started selling Walnut? Ours just started carrying it and it is so pretty! I’m itching to come up with a cool project so that I can use it. Something small to start because it’s super not cheap.
Have you seen this shelf? Can you even handle it?! So much math but its a show stopper for sure.
Why has Frog Eye Salad seemed like a good purchase while I’m at the grocery store on multiple occasions when I’ve confirmed (on multiple occasions) that its in fact NOT a good purchase? Its never a good purchase Mandi.
Is it a bad idea to IKEA hack a crib? I know the tutorial will bring out the crazies but is it actually a bad idea to make it prettier?
How are you feeling about plaid? Is Target going to kill the trend before it has a chance?
Hello!!! Did you guys have a great week last week? I decided to take a little break from the world of the internet and it was exactly what I needed. This pregnancy is forcing me to slow down and savor life as we know it. I’m usually racing from one thing to the next, and I’m quickly learning that sometimes you’ve got to just chill it and unplug. Last week Court and I went to Pittsburgh to watch the Cubs Wildcard game. You guys. Have you ever been to Pittsburgh?! When we found out the game was there (instead of Chicago) I was really disappointed. I love Chicago and hellloooo, Wrigley Field. But to quote my husband “If the Cubs make it to the postseason you go to the game.” So Pittsburgh it was.
I have never been so pleasantly surprised in all my days. Pittsburgh was AMAZING!
I don’t really know what I was expecting (dirty metal? crime?) as we started driving into the city I knew we were in for a treat.
On Thursday night we went to a restaurant in the strip called Gauchos (it had great reviews and was pretty close). While we were waiting in line to order we started chatting with one of the guys that worked there. We told him why we were in town and he said “You’re not going to believe this, but Jake Arietta is sitting upstairs right now” (for those that don’t know, Jake Arietta is the starting pitcher for the Cubs). Court was SO excited. Like little kid grinning on his favorite Christmas morning ever excited.
We waited until they were leaving and Court went over and wished him luck. (Yes he’s in an Orioles hat, we weren’t sure if Pittsburgh was a hostile city…its not.)
On Wed. we decided to spend the afternoon downtown. We walked and walked and walked. This may be a completely obvious observation to those that live in big sports cities, but EVERYONE was wearing Pirates gear. I’ve never experienced anything like it!
My favorite little trek was to the Incline (its a super old trolley that takes you up the side of a mountain). Court wasn’t so sure about a preggo lady walking that far but I was not going to miss seeing the view. Um. SO worth it!!
The Cubbies won the game (!!) my only regret is that I wish we would have had 1 more day to adventure before we had to come home, there was still so much to do! But all in all, Pittsburgh we love you! What a fantastic last trip before the little man comes and turns our lives upside down!!
So tell me, (all preconceived notions checked at the door) where is your favorite city? When I was a little girl my family didn’t travel, so every place we go is new and it just makes me want to go to 15 other cities!
Friday is here (how!? it was just Monday!) and things around these parts are moving just as fast as this last week! My family came down last week for a last hoorah before my sister Amy moved to Dallas.
We miss her SO much already. While she was here, she rocked our Week 25 bump video with some of her favorite names for the little guy. I am so glad that we are taking the time to do these, it will be such a fun thing to look back on and see all of the people that we love dancing and just being all around amazing.
I have an event coming up that I wanted to share. As most of you know, addiction and addiction recovery is a massive part of my life. When Jacy from The Togetherness Project reached out about speaking at a conference that they were putting on for women affected by addiction in their marriage, I was so honored and excited to be part of it! The event is October 17 in Salt Lake City.
The Togetherness Project was founded to help support women who have dealt with addiction in their marriage, being heavily focused on those who have dealt with pornography and sexual addiction. Any addiction is devastating and so many times when it’s our partner that is dealing with it, its easy to say “its his problem, I’m just the victim.” which in most cases is true. But addiction destroys so much more than just the addict’s life and healing has to happen for everyone involved whether you are staying in the marriage or not. To have a place full of women that understand, truly understand, is more important than we realize. That is what The Togetherness Project is about. The one day conference is full of breakout sessions lead by AMAZING speakers. I will be speaking during the lunch break, and would love to see you there!! You can get more info on the event and register for tickets here!
Lastly, I just want to let you know that I think you’re wonderful. I so appreciate the time that you take out of your life to visit my little corner of the world. Its so easy to get caught up in more and more, and better and better. And while I feel like I am failing miserably right now on the content front, I’m thankful for each and every one of you.
Now. I’m going to stop crying (lets blame the hormones) and get to building. Have an awesome weekend love!
Hellloooo!! Exciting news on the home front, the Master makeover has commenced!! Man its been a long time coming.
One of the main motivating factors for this space (and for the spaces in the house from here on out) is to tie everything together in a way that flows and makes sense. All without losing the personality that I am so passionate about infusing. Its kind of a new challenge for me that I’m excitedly embracing! Looking at the house as a whole, and not as individual rooms…what a novel idea. Just a little growing up if you will (but I mean, not growing up that much because where is the fun in that?)
To give you a sense of where we’ve been at we are working with, let me share some of my most favorite pictures ever. This is what the master looked like when we bought our house. Minus the furniture. That carpet, am I right?
The room got a heavy dose of stenciling circa 2011 and stayed that way for about 2 years.
Ah the days of the ornate frame obsession.
One of the best things about having a blog is that instead of daydreaming about what I would do to a space, and pinning, and pining over what to do, I have permission to just do it (and Court gets to go along with it!). Since then the room has been in a constant state of unsettledness (<—totally a word in this context).
I tried a few things that I didn’t love (like the green wall above) so it went back to white, and without a fire to get me started it just sort of stayed fine. But fine is lame. Fine dies today. (Pretty shot for BHG but not real)
The configuration of the master bedroom cant really be messed with. There are 3 doorways (the door into the room from the hallway, the bathroom, and the glass door onto the patio) Which sort of leaves us with 1 great option for the wall that the bed goes on, right smack dab between the windows. The windows that I love and hate at the same time. They are just troublemakers. The wall is really wide and even with a king size bed, the windows are a little far away. To put nightstands on the sides of the bed they obviously need to be centered on the windows, that are large, and far. So basically I need 2 smallish dressers instead of 2 regular size nightstands. Because what’s the point if you cant even reach it from the bed?
I want the room to feel happy and collected. I want to tie it into the anchor spaces in the house (the living room, entryway, and soon to be kitchen)
So here is the plan. We are doing a modern planked wall (it is awesome, I cant wait for you guys to see it!!) and trimming out the windows in black like we did in the living room. Which means the old board and batten is coming down.
The headboard is going to be a fun variation of my favorite project in the Nugget, the geometric floor.
The light is a giant version of the geo brass one in The Nugget, I’ve got a video tutorial coming up on The Design Network and everything!
I’m on the hunt for dressers to serve as nightstands (maybe?) and I’ve got some really great shelves in mind. Maybe a couch? I don’t know, do you have a couch in your bedroom? Is it functional or is it a laundry couch?
Its kind of fun to look back and see how much my style as changed. Lots of “oh.my. what was I thinking?!” moments.
The master bedroom makeover is in full swing, which (naturally) requires a new headboard. The problem is that I am still madly obsessed with the retro rattan ones that we had in there (Court just wanted to “man it up” a little…whatever.) So I played a game of musical furniture and swapped some things around. Side note: don’t ever come over while I am playing that game because you will end up without a chair.
Our story actually starts a few months back. I’d been lying on Ivie’s bed having one of those 12 year old talks (heaven help us all) and fell asleep. When I woke up my back was killing me. I was very quickly reminded of the reality that her mattress was old…really old. While all of these ideas were swirling around in my head at 3:17 in the morning (pregnancy insomnia is totally a thing) I popped online to do a little mattress research. One company repeatedly popped up in my research. Leesa. They are sort of like TOMS, for every 10 mattresses purchased, one is donated to a shelter. The reviews were stellar (the words affordable, luxurious, best sleep ever, came up over and over.) I wanted to show it to Court before and pulled the trigger and went to bed. The next morning I got up and went on with my day per the norm and it slipped my mind.
As fate would have it, a couple of weeks ago I got an email from Leesa asking if they could send me one of their mattresses to try. It was one of those waves of memory moments where it all came flooding back (Back Pain! Poor Ivie! How did I forget about this?! Mom guilt! ) I very excitedly agreed and we were off!
I couldn’t just put a new mattress in Iv’s room with no decor (it was in process for a while and then the process shriveled up and died from lack of attention) so I pulled the previously mentioned headboard out of the garage and gave it a quick coat of the perfect drab olive spray paint. (RustOleum Oregano) Remember what they looked like in my master?
![Master Bedroom Before[2]-2](https://vintagerevivals.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/MasterBedroomBefore22.jpg "Master Bedroom Before[2]-2")
