Cake Decorating 101

You volunteered to bring a cake to a party. You have no idea how to decorate. No worries, I've got you covered. Relax. You don't have to go buy a Wilton decorating kit or scour the internet for ideas. 

The easiest decorations are non-edible. It's alright if you have to take them off before you cut the cake. No one cares what the cake looks like after it's cut. Fresh flowers are a great way to top off a cake. This past Christmas, I decorated a cake with ornaments. Andrew's graduation was a few days before Christmas, so I combined Christmas and Clemson with these decorations. 

I had to make the cake two days in advance, so it worked out really well to pile these ornaments on top of the cake. Instead of stacking the ornaments and hoping they wouldn't roll off, I used a hot glue gun to make them stick together. The topper was also really easy to transport and move since it was all in one piece. 

Ribbons are also a great way to decorate. Just wrap a thick ribbon around the circumference of the cake, put some fresh flowers on top and everyone will be talking about your cake. 

My Thrifting Adventure

Hi readers! I wanted to share another project I recently fixed up. I found this little treasure at Goodwill one day for $8.

Nice and dusty. 

First, I filled in some holes with wood filler and then sanded it down. Next, I painted it with a gray primer and finished it off with a black topcoat. I probably wouldn't have painted it boring black if was for me, but it was another piece for Andrew's apartment. I had to make it look a little bit manly. 

I decided I wanted it to look scuffed up, so I sanded it again so the gray would show through.  I promise I don't usually wear pink dresses while sanding. 

Nice and scuffed up. Just the way I like it. I think I actually ended up scuffing it up more after this picture. It will make a great little end table.

Flea Market Facelift

Last week I was able to go to the Pickens flea market for the first time all summer. If you have never been to the Pickens flea market (which you probably haven't), let me tell you, it is an experience in itself. Just be prepared for anything. Even if you don't buy anything, the people watching experience makes it a worthwhile trip. Also, it is only open on Wednesday mornings, and make sure you get there early. Everyone is basically gone by noon. It opens at 5:30 a.m., but we didn't get there until about 7:30 a.m. and we were fine.

It was a very special day because it was Andrew's first time at the flea market! I've have always wanted him to experience this wonderful redneck place. We were on the hunt for a dresser for his new apartment at school. Here's what we found...

Isn't it ugly? I know, it's pretty bad. But I saw potential, and it was only $20! My mom and I were deciding whether to buy it or not while Andrew was taking some junk another great flea market find to the car. I knew we had to decide while he was gone because I was 100% positive he would not be for us buying it. He just wouldn't see the potential in this little treasure. Sure enough, he walked up and tentatively said "uh, that's not for me is it?" I smiled sweetly and told him yes, yes it was for him. I then assured him I was going to give it a complete makeover and he would never know it was the same dresser. Here is the process I went through of giving this little thing a makeover...

First, I decided the drawer pulls from the 80's needed to go. 

Next, I sanded the whole thing and filled in the holes from the drawer pulls with wood filler. 

Then I painted the dresser with one coat of light gray primer. Originally, I wanted to paint gray primer followed by a coat of black paint so that I could give it the shabby chic look by "scuffing it up." I thought it would look neat if the gray showed through. However, after painting the black, I decided not to scuff it up. 

The finished product! Not necessarily what I would have painted if it had been for me, but I tried to make it look somewhat masculine. I knew Andrew wouldn't want anything over-the-top. I wish I had gotten a close-up of the drawer pulls, but hopefully you can see them. It ended up being much more masculine and modern than I planned, but I was happy with how it turned out and really enjoyed this little project!

Dorm Room Decorating 101

Since it's almost time for school to start, I thought I would do a post about my freshman year dorm room. It seems like yesterday that I was going shopping for all the dorm room essentials, and now I am going into my senior year of college!

Because you typically don't have much to work with, decorating a dorm room is an ultimate makeover project. I remember walking into my room for the first time thinking "I thought it was bigger than this..." or "how in the world are we going to make this look good?" It was possible. But here is what I started with:

I wish I had taken pictures of the space before I moved anything in. These pictures have a few of my things in them, but as you can see, everything looks pretty bare and yucky- notice the water stains coming from the ceiling. There was a flood the year before I moved in because of a water pipe breaking. Girls were running around the hall in their rainboots - so glad that didn't happen when I lived there. 

Here is what we transformed the room to look like:

I loved my desk area. We covered up the wall here with simple curtains made from two tension rods and fun fabric. The curtains made a huge difference in the room and really made our room stand out. In fact, we were finalists for the "Best Room on Campus" competition. 

Another shot with the curtains. The middle curtain is another simple curtain made from a tension rod and fun fabric. The fabric is literally just sewed around the rod and we then draped ribbons over the curtain and tied them to create the "balloon" effect. 

The space under my bed is my least favorite part of the room, but I know you have to have somewhere to store a TV, micro-fridge, etc. 

Another shot. The patterned rug also made a big difference in the room. Trust me, you want a big rug so you will feel somewhat sanitary when you sit on your floor. Also, the two small brown ottomans not only acted as footrests, but also came in handy as a storage space since they open up. These are $17 at Target and come in lots of fun colors. 

I loved my futon! The throw pillows were so fun to pick out and added a personal touch to the room. They also added comfort and came in handy when people ended up sitting on the floor for movie night. 

Of course I had to have some pillows on my bed too :)

Hope you have enjoyed looking at my former dorm room! We had a lot of fun decorating it and you will find that the little details go a long way in a tiny space. Make sure you like how the room looks because you will be spending a whole lot of time in it. This doesn't mean you have to go spend a ton of money - get creative! I got a ton of my stuff at places like Marshall's and TJ Maxx. Target also has a huge selection of dorm room decor to choose from. 

Good luck! Would love to see other ideas!

Father's Day Fun

So I was browsing my new favorite blog that I told you about and found some great Father's Day ideas. They did a Father's Day round-up of some of the best ideas and I just wanted to share some.

Photo credits:(1) Martha Stewart (2) Lilyshop (3) Paper Crave.

Could the presentation of these gifts be any cuter? I'm in love. I feel like I would appreciate the wrapping way more than my dad would. However, they are still really cute ideas.

To be honest, I probably won't end up wrapping my dad's gifts like this because my family is leaving for the beach on Saturday! Because we are already cramming a crew of 8 into our Suburban for the trip (no, my family isn't that big, we take a few extras), I don't think it would be super practical to pack a bunch of gift wrapping options for the trip.

What did you get your dad for Father's day? My dad recently just bought a Big Green Egg Grill because my brother can get a great discount at the place he works. He loves to grill and was so excited to get a good deal because they never go on sale. My siblings and I decided to get him some nifty accessories for the grill.

Anyone have any fun Father's Day plans?

Sweet Designs

Please allow me to introduce you to this wonderful blog. Her name is Amy Atlas. Her blog, Sweet Designs, is no secret. In fact, her work has been featured in InStyle Magazine, Parents Magazine, Better Homes & Gardens, The New York Times, Every Day with Rachael Ray, The Los Angeles Times, Food and Wine Magazine, Life & Style, Gotham, New York Magazine, Martha Stewart Weddings, Brides, and many more. However, her blog is a new discovery for me. I'm in love. Sweet Designs is all about entertaining and party planning. Could that scream my name any louder? Nope. Didn't think so. 


Make sure you check out some of her stuff. She is best known for her dessert tables, but everything on her blog is beautiful. Now I am in the mood to plan a party. I have to go to work instead. Thankfully a few of my friends are most likely getting engaged pretty soon. Let the wedding showers begin.


By the way, I have two more wonderful blogs to share with you soon. Don't want to overwhelm you with too many good things all at once :)

DIY Burlap Frames

After searching around for Christmas presents for my roommates(who are all completely opposite btw), I decided I would make them something instead. My first idea was to personalize some picture frames to match not only their bedrooms, but also their personalities. I went to Hobby Lobby to pick up some supplies and ended up getting a couple wood frames, burlap, and some random accessories.

Then I used hot glue to cover them with burlap. They looked ok from the front...

But looked AWFUL from the back...o well, at least that's not the part that shows :)

This is what the frames ended up looking like...

 So I wouldn't say they necessarily match the personalities of my roommates, but they will match their rooms :) I put a picture of the four of us in it and glued the back on...hope they never wanna change the picture because it's impossible. It was my only option once I put the burlap on, however, next time I will know to have a better strategy when putting any kind of fabric on frames. Merry Christmas roomies!

Happy Birthday Andrew!

I love birthdays. Anyone that knows me at all knows this about me. My parents say that I treat my birthday like it is a national holiday. But I don't just love my birthday, I love other people's birthdays too. Last week it was my boyfriend's birthday, and I am pretty sure I was more excited about than he was. When he was giving me gift ideas he gave me some boring ideas like a soccer jersey, PS3 controllers, iPod adapter for his car, or clothes. Then he told me maybe I could get him some "paraphernalia" for his room. I don't know why he chose to use the word "paraphernalia" or why he decided he wanted that, but he had me sold on the idea the minute it came out of his mouth. The other gift ideas didn't stand a chance. Here is what his room looked like before...

I wish you could see the other pictures, but I took them on my phone and can't figure out how to get them to my blog. There was a (very unorganized) bookshelf in the other corner of his room. He bought this huge bookshelf at the beginning on the year and didn't really have anything to put on it, so he turned into a "filing cabinet" for all the notes for his classes. His "filing cabinet" consisted of small stacks of paper scattered among the shelves. Also please notice the jersey decorations he made. He loves soccer jerseys, which is what I got him last year for Christmas. He loves them so much he decided to display them on his wall by putting a nail in the wall and hanging them up on a wire hanger. Oh Andrew, this is why I like you :)

So I decided I would help him with his room a little. I obviously couldn't decorate it to the extent that I wanted to 1) he would hate it and say that I went overboard, and 2) I didn't have the budget to do everything I would have liked to. I had to still keep it simple and manly for him. This is what I came up with...

Found this comforter at Kohl's for 80% off and decided it was manly enough to get. Also got some Clemson pictures to post on the wall, annnnd added a throw pillow. Andrew HATES excessive throw pillows. We had an ugly couch in my apartment last year, so we covered it with throw pillows to make it look pretty. Also had lots of throw pillows on my futon freshman year. Andrew hated them, he always threw them on the ground when he came over. Needless to say, I knew I couldn't get away with getting him more than one, and one was pushing it. 

I also reorganized his desk area and framed this Zlatan poster and hung it up. I had to add Zlatan in there somewhere because he is Andrew's favorite soccer player. Remember the jersey I said I got him last year? It was Zlatan. When I first started asking him what he wanted for his birthday he would just say "Zlatan! Zlatan! Zlatan!" What does that even mean??? 

Here is the bookshelf when I finished with it! I wish you could have seen it before. It actually looks full now. Plus, all the sport stuff that was scattered on the floor of his room now has a spot. Seeing a theme with sports? We are a little bit opposite if you couldn't tell :)

Another shot of the bookshelf +the beautiful picture his mom painted for him. 

He was very surprised when he came in his room. I think he liked it, at least he said he did. Maybe for Christmas I will do a more boring fun gift for him :)

Design Like a Diva

The holidays are here. Thanksgiving has come and gone. Black Friday is over. It's finally "legal" to play Christmas music. Let the Christmas decorating begin.

At my apartment we get lots of magazines. We never actually ordered these magazines, but my roommate Lindsay went through this phase where she entered a ton of sweepstakes. Shortly after, we started receiving various magazines in the mail, so sometime during that phase she forgot to uncheck the boxes that say "Sign me up for...." However, I enjoy flipping through magazines so I am definitely not complaining. Thanks Lindsay. One of the magazines we get is Martha Stewart Living, and we recently received the holiday edition which inspired me to do a little project...

I decided to make my first wreath this weekend. After hitting up all three craft stores in Greenville on Black Friday (middle-aged much?), I finally had all my supplies to begin my project. This is the link to a picture on the cover of Martha Stewart Living which inspired me to make my wreath. Here are the supplies I bought:

• Foam 12 inch wreath ring
• Silver tinsel
• Metallic Bows (here are examples of what I used, but I found them at Hobby Lobby)
• Different colored jingle bells
• Floral pins
• Wide ribbon for the bow 

Here is a picture of the supplies to give you a visual

The first thing I did was wrap the wreath completely in tinsel while using the floral pins to hold the tinsel in place. The wreath in the magazine did not have this, but I didn't have to buy as many bows by doing this. It also helps the wreath look fuller by covering every part. If you don't want to add bows, you could definitely decorate the wreath with this as your base. 

Next I went through and pinned the metallic bows around the wreath. Like I said, you don't have to use the bows, but I think it gives the wreath more depth and detail. After pinning the bows, I started pinning jingle bells randomly around the wreath. Below is a close-up of the wreath after I pinned the bows and jingle bells.  By the way, you don't have to use jingle bells, go to your craft store and pick out whatever decorations you want to put on your wreath!

 The last step is adding the bow at the bottom. My mom helped me some with this part because I don't have much experience making bows, but you don't  even have to add a bow if you don't want to.

 

 Here is the finished product!

I did my project a little different than the directions in the book. They used a wooden wreath ring and hot glued everything on. I didn't use any hot glue but instead used the floral pins. The foam wreath ring is definitely a lot less sturdy than the wooden one. Like I mentioned earlier, you can add different details to your wreath. I had a certain color scheme in mind, and jingle bells were the only details I could find that went along with that color scheme. The more creative the details, the better! Have fun designing your wreath!

How to decorate your Thanksgiving table

Thanksgiving is here! Well technically it's not here for two more days, but I have one more class until break so it feels like it's here for me. Some of you may be having family over and scrambling around for ways to try to make your house look "thanksgiving-y" (yes I just made up that word). Here are a few simple ideas that you could try. My cousin got married last weekend and my mom decorated the table for the rehearsal dinner. Here is what it looked like....

This look is really not hard to achieve. Here is what you need:

• Vases varying in height and size (most of us have a few random vases sitting around somewhere-now is the time to use them!)
• Fall-colored flowers-we used orange roses and reddish-orange gerber daisies. You don't have to go all out here-just go look at the grocery store!
• Greenery- go look out in your backyard! You made have some pretty trees that you can just cut a few leaves off of. If you don't have good trees, then just look for flower arrangements with greenery interspersed throughout when you are buying your flowers.
• Leaves and twigs-just walk outside-they are EVERYWHERE.

Now you get to be creative. Just start putting different flowers in different vases. It doesn't have to be this huge bouquet or have a pattern, just start creatively placing things. If you look at the pictures, you can see we just placed various flowers throughout the vases. Some of the vases have one sole flower in them, and some have a  mini-bouquet of flowers. Add some small candles, mini-pumpkins, or scattered leaves around the vases to complete the look.  These decorations are different from your typical cornucopia, and they also are cheaper and easier if you are trying to pull something together last minute. Good luck!

Shabby Chic: flea market style

I think I inherited my taste in decorating from my mom. She has a very classy, shabby chic taste and loves antiques. Needless to say, we find ourselves shopping for furniture at flea markets and antique auctions. Our favorite flea market is the Pickens Flea Market, which is an experience in itself. I definitely recommend going if you ever get the chance. Anyways, we have found a lot of junk treasure at the flea market. Now sometimes my mom goes a little overboard, like the day she came home with a cow skin rug to put at our lake house-I am still not a fan of that rug. However, she thinks it is the coolest thing ever. She also gets really excited about paintings she finds at the flea market. Now I am not an art expert by any means, but some of the paintings just aren't, well, very pretty. However, 98% of the time I like my mom's decorating choices, so I am glad I get my taste from her. I have never been into the modern look. It's not that I don't like it, I just wouldn't want to look at it every single day. This year I moved into a new apartment at Clemson. This is the first year I have had my own room, meaning I got to decorate it any way I want without worrying about a roommate's opinion. My room is the perfect example of how we turned flea market junk into pretty decorations (at least I think so : ) ) Here is an overall picture to show you before I start going into the details...

As you can see, we had a small space to work with. As my boyfriend says, everything in my room is at least 70 years old. Ok, that is not exactly true, but some of it is pretty old. For example, my gray dresser was actually my grandma's dresser she used while in high school. Her dad painted it with car paint way back in the day. It has been sitting in her garage for the past 20 years. All I did was clean up the dresser (a lot) and buy some cute drawer pulls from Anthropologie. The mirror on top of the dresser was one of our flea market finds (only $25!). I wanted to do something unique with my headboard, so we found this antique french door at an auction and added the curtain. Basically everything else in the picture (bedding, pillows, nightstand, picture, lamp) came from one of my favorite places to shop, the one and only Marshalls. Did I mention I am a huge bargain hunter? Here is the other side of the bed...

I love picture frames. However, as you can see, I don't always use them for pictures. I have been wanting to try this picture frame idea for a long time. First, I bought old frames from the flea market in various sizes (probably paid $5 for all of them). Then I went to A.C. Moore and got patterned scrapbook paper to coordinate with the colors in my room. I have also heard of people doing this project with wallpaper or fabric samples. Here is another picture without the blinding light from the lamp..

The floor lamp in the corner is another thing I love about my room (yet another Marshall's find). It used to be my sister's, but she says it is way to "grandma" for her. She's 14. I gladly relieved her of the "grandma" lamp. 

That's all for today friends! Hope you have enjoyed reading about my decorating taste and ideas. I know most college student rooms aren't decorating with antiques and flea market finds, but that's ok because that's what makes my room unique and it's what I love. 

Fall is here!

So I have decided to give blogging another try. This summer I created a blog and wrote one whole blog post. So it's time for attempt #2. I am hoping this one will be a little more successful than the other one. I decided to create this blog to practice writing however I want, unlike all the writing I do for my communication studies. Another reason I want to blog is to write about all the things I don't always have the time or opportunity to do in real life, but still love to do. Things like decorating, baking, planning and decorating for parties, DIY projects, or any other artsy thing that inspires me. While I might not always have the time to do this in real life, I can at least pretend that I am going to eventually do everything I write about in the blog world. It probably won't  could happen, right?

Here in the south, it always seems like it takes fall forever to decide to make an appearance. I am always so ready for it to come-90 degree weather at the end of September is not fun. Fall is my favorite season-cool(ish) temperatures, scarves, the leaves on the trees turning brilliant shades of orange and red, college football, and of course, my birthday :). However, I think fall has finally decided to stick around-temperatures have been cooler and the leaves are starting to change! To celebrate the season, my boyfriend and I went apple picking last week at Sky Top Apple Orchard. Even though the leaves hadn't really started to change a lot , it was still a beautiful day and it actually felt like fall outside. We got way too many apples so we baked two apples pies to get rid of some of them. They also had tons of fun, fall decorations at the apple orchard. I only got one pumpkin to put on the porch but I would love to decorate my porch like this or like this...
                                     
However, I do not have the money or space to decorate like this, so my little porch with my lone pumpkin and my mums will do for now :)
Another thing I love about fall is all the pumpkin flavored things-pumpkin spice lattes (my favorite), pumpkin pie, pumpkin pound cake, and pumpkin bread to name a few. I have been making pumpkin spice coffee every single morning for the past few weeks and haven't gotten tired of it yet. Hopefully I will find some time to make some yummy fall treats soon. Might even post about them. We shall see. That's all for today!