Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall...

Of course I couldn't let the weekend go by without doing some kind of project...

Lately, I have kind of become obsessed with chalkboards. I love how versatile they are and how fun they can be. While doing some research (inspiration hunting is more like it) I came across an ad for chalkboard spray paint. Spray paint?! What?! How easy does that sound? I got really excited, which may or may not sound stupid to you and immediately went out and purchased it the next day. At $3.84 a can (I got two) how can you beat that? I knew exactly what I wanted to put it on, and that night it was on. 

I had an old mirror that I bought from Goodwill for $5.00 a while ago. It wasn't really big enough for the dining room, so I decided that its new job was to become my chalkboard. I went out into the backyard and sprayed the mirror one time, let it dry for 24 hours, and then sprayed another layer over it. Since it was a mirror, there wasn't a really great primer that I could use, so I made sure to give it a few coats to make sure that it was good to go. I didn't work about spraying the frame of the mirror, because I knew that I was going to paint it anyways. Making a mess was pretty easy, and covering it up was even easier. I had an old can of paint that we used for something from before, so no new paint needed! I love using my own stuff!

(Look how dangerous I am painting with no dropcloth! It was just on the inside

...)

Love that handwriting, don't you? It was the best I could come up with for now. Total cost for the project: around $9.00. Great right? Super easy, and really fun. The chalkboard will hang there until I find a new mirror like these two for the dining room. Hobby Lobby just sent me a really nice 40% off coupon, so I might go back and buy something there. They have some pretty great beveled mirrors sometimes.

(image from Decorpad)

(image from Little Green Notebook)

Happy DIYing friends!

Lazy Day.

Hi guys! How is your weekend going? 

Today was a nice surprise. We had a ton of rain last night, which was a nice distraction from Bean waking up a few times last night. Very unusual for her. Josh woke up early, went and picked up breakfast with Bean and let me sleep in a bit. Sleep is precious for me, especially since I barely got any this weekend.

 

Anyways, I got distracted. Usually, my hubby works on the weekends. (He plays worship at two different churches during the month) This morning, he was wondering why he hadn't gotten the set for today's service, and it was because he wasn't playing! We planned for all of this fun stuff to do today, and of course, we just spent it listening to music, doing math tests and cleaning. Thrifting, yeah right! Homework is way cooler than that, right?

I finished my chalkboard project today, which was really nice. I'll have the steps with photos all up tomorrow! Can't wait for you guys to check it out!

Have a great rest of your Sunday!

See you tomorrow!

 

(image from here.)

 

Secret Time.

(all images via Lookbook.nu)

Today is a day that I feel like I can share a secret. While this website is one of my ABSOLUTE favorites, I know that I am not alone in this. I really would like to think that I alone only look at Lookbook, but again, I am not alone in this. If you haven't heard about it/seen it, go RIGHT NOW because it is that good. I find myself checking daily for outfit "inspiration" when I am feeling a little blah in the closet department. I love browsing through the vintage, thrifted and mismatched looks hoping to see something that I own a similar version of. Lookbook helps me put things together that I might not normally put together or wear even. Plus, the photography can be pretttty awesome too!

Go, right now! I promise it won't disappoint. Maybe it will become one of your favorites as well.

Next on the DIY List.

I want these. BAD. Really bad. 

And of course I don't want to buy them, I want to make them. 

(photo via CSN lighting)

(photo via Anthropologie)

I've had my eye on some of these gorgeous pendant lights for a lonnnng time. For Josh's pre-birthday dinner, we went and visited my friend Meg at her place of work, Culinary Dropout and of course, what do they have hanging from the tables but these beauties!! I couldn't find a picture for you. Wah wahhhh.

I have found a great tutorial on how to make something similar, so tomorrow, I'm on the hunt! Basically keeping my eye out for smaller wire or mesh baskets that I can add or subtract wire from. I would really love these in my kitchen and maybe above my dining table! And of course, with these cool pendants you have to have the Edison bulbs inside. DUH. The space is SO small that having an overbearing light fixture might make the space feel a lot smaller than it already is. 

Wish me luck! Hopefully I come back with some goodies!

Birthday Follow-Up.

Yesterday I promised a few photos of our birthday adventures yesterday, so as promised, here's our day!

5 Tuesday Faves.

It's Tuesday, which usually means that I would be writing a "5 Tuesday Faves" for today, but instead of sharing with you a few things that I loved this week, I have decided to write my 5 favorite things about my husband Josh who's 28th birthday is today.

Here we go...

1. I love that when you laugh really hard or smile really big, your eyes get so squinty that I can barely see them. I know that when your eyes disappear that you are laughing and smiling from your heart. It's a very endearing quality that I think only I notice most of the time.

2. I like that when you are trying to tell me something serious about your day that sometimes you stutter. This only happens when you are trying so hard to tell me something in the most concerned manner. I know that you are sharing with me something that is very important and just can't wait to share it with me. Your brain works faster than your tongue does and it never comes out the way that you want it to. That stutter is one of the things that made me fall in love with you.

3. I love that you have such a calling to provide for your family. You work 7 days a week to make sure that we are taken care, have food in the fridge, and money to have fun with. I know that you are never going to let us get into a bind, because it has been engraved into your spirit to provide. You wanted to be married and have children for so long and now that you do, you'll do anything for them. You are such a hero to me and every other man falls short in comparison. You've got them beat, baby...

4. I love that you have such a passion for music. One of my favorite things is watching you on stage because I know how much of your heart is playing through your hands into that guitar. The first time that I ever watched you play I knew that you were going to be my husband. I couldn't keep my eyes of you. You were so magnetic. You still are. I LOVE watching you create with the wonderful gift that God has given you. It's really amazing to watch.

5. My very favorite thing is how you love our daughter. I love watching your eyes light up when you come home from work when you see her. You have been the most wonderful father and leader to her. I have no doubt that her future husband has very big shoes to fill. Bean's heart will be protected, cared for and encouraged; all by her father. It is a relationship that I am not entirely familiar with and cannot wait to see what kind of person you will help her in becoming. From the day that she was born, I knew that you two would be inseparable.

Happy birthday, Josh.

28.

Happy 28th Birthday to my most wonderful husband Josh!

Today we will be celebrating his birthday ALL day long with a few birthday surprises along the way! Can't wait to share with you! Wish him a happy birthday, won't you?

Happy Birthday to You...

Happy Monday!

Gosh, I feel like I haven't been here in forever! We have been super busy around here. My best friend/current guest room occupant turned 23 on Saturday! Some close friends celebrated her yesterday with a nice dinner and margaritas, and the birthday game. I cried, of course. The night was simple and perfect. Last night, my wonderful friend Brittany was one of many to get baptized at our church last night. She called me earlier in the day and asked me the great honor to read her testimony aloud. I accepted the offer, and as she sat in the water waiting to be reborn, I read out loud the most gorgeous poem that she had written. Britt is an amazing writer and has such a huge heart for poetry. Her work is incredible, hence me feeling SO honored by her request. It was such a special night for Taryn, Brittany and my husband who we all celebrated last night with an awesome birthday party! Taryn turned 23 and my hubby will be 28 on Tuesday!!! We had so much fun last night, stayed up WAY too late and ate more cupcakes than we should have. That's the only way to celebrate a birthday around here...

The Power is Yours.

Hey....have you seen this yet?

Yeah, that's my sidebar if you thought that you recognized it. I put up a poll yesterday asking YOU what you would like to see more of here at Waiting for Bean. While I have ideas/plans for all of the topics that I'm asking you to vote on, I'd love to hear what you would like! So go on, tell me! I picked a "you decide" topic as well because if there is something that you would like to see, I'm letting you choose! You can pick as many options as you would like, you aren't just limited to one. 

Vote! I'd love to see what you guys come up with!

Transform your Kitchen!

I wish I had crappy, beat up cabinets just so I could use the awesome new product that Rust-Oleum came out with recently!

It's called Transformations and it COULD NOT be more awesome. There is no stripping involved, no priming involved (which I hate) and no sanding. The process looks super easy, and the before and afters are pretty amazing. 

(images via Rust-Oleum)

They have a pretty neat virtual paint tool to help you visualize what your cabinets would look like after using Transformations. They have a ton of really great colors to choose from, and think about it like this, pop some of this product on, get new hardware for those cabinets and you have a brand new kitchen! So easy! It works on laminate, wood, and melamine, so really you're not limited to just kitchen or bathroom cabinets. This could work for entertainment centers, fireplaces, or dining room tables. They also have a countertop transformation kit! This is the best!!!

Josh and I have been thinking about painting the kitchen cabinets white for a little while now and after seeing this, I'm even more interested in the idea! I really do love it! I was kind of jealous that 10 bloggers from across the country got to go and try all of these cool new home products out! I wish I could have been there. Then again, I am not the only person interested in DIY.

...I secretly wish I was though.

Recap.

Yesterday, Violet had her 18 month well visit to the doctor. We had an appointment for yesterday morning, and when I was on the phone with my academic counselor, I received some pretty startling news and missed the appointment! Thank goodness I was able to call back and make another appointment. (They charge a "no-show" fee.")

We filled out a large questionnaire; her 18 month old toddler screening. She passed with flying colors! I was advised later that it was a screening for Autism, which I was happy to see that she was free and clear. We were checked out by the nurse practitioner there because no doctor was available after I missed my appointment this morning. Ruh-roh. Since her last appointment right around her first birthday, she weighed just over 17 pounds. She now weighs 21 pounds!!! She jumped from the 4th percentile to between the 10 and 15th. YES! She grew 3/4 of an inch and her head got a little bigger. She's doing so well!

4 shots later, one TB test and a few tears later, we left the office to head home for the rest of our Valentine's Day together.

Josh came home early with gorgeous roses in arm and a bag full of yummmmy food for dinner from Whole Foods. He was taking me on surprise date later that night! I am terribly hard to surprise, so it was nice that I had no idea what we were doing. I thought that I had it figured out, but I in fact did not.

(I made white chocolate covered strawberries!)

(These were all of the cupcakes that were left today!)

 We went to downtown Phoenix, grabbed a quick drink at one of our favorite little bars, The Lost Leaf. After that, we drove over to the downtown Phoenix AMC and saw The King's Speech! It was such a wonderful movie, and just a great night with my husband. I hope that your day/night was full of love as well!

Coordination.

I've been on the hunt for new couch pillows. You're probably thinking, "That's a pretty easy decision." It's not, for me at least.

I'm thinking about this because of the upcoming living room/nook paint job in the works for the near(er) future. The living room will be some shade of gray (the final color has not been chosen). I usually have a hard time making decisions in regards to my home because I am always afraid that I am not going to like it in the following 6-12 months. This has yet to happen, but I am always thinking about it. It keeps me and have kept me from probably buying some pretty awesome stuff. My house is missing out because of me!!!

I really, really like these pillows from Etsy store Kyoozi. I am not quite sure how to mix pattern with pattern, so these might not be an option for me. I'm told it's all about coordinating colors amidst the patterns. Am I right? 

(images via Kyoozi)

 This is what it needs to "match" with...

(Gosh, my rug looks DIRTAYYYY.)

These pillow covers are serving as my inspiration. Someday, when I learn how to frickin' use my sewing machine, I'll sew some bad-ass pillow covers and a whole lot of other things. 

So friends, what goes best with espresso, red, orange, light blue, and gray? Anything and everything or nothing at all?

V Day.

(image via We Craft Daily)

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! Hope that it is a day full of love from friends, family, pets and whoever else may apply!

Later today, my husband is taking me on a secret Valentine's day adventure. I have NO idea where we are going, and I'm really excited to see where he is taking me! I am really, really hard to surprise, so this will be extra fun! I'm not really a big fan of Valentine's day, I never have been really. I think that days like today should be celebrated more than once a year. Love is something to celebrate every day! And if you can't stick to every day, how's once a week?

Here are some very easy last minute projects for Valentine's Day that I loved:

Unraveling a Love Letter from Papersnitch

Light of my Life Valentine Light Bulb from Design Sponge

Embroidery Hoop Valentine Art

What are YOU doing today to share some love?

Copy Cat.

After seeing our stencil wall, my cousin Chelsea (the photographer for Green Apple Foto that shoots for Linen Lovelies) decided to stencil her own wall the next day! I think that this is the stencil that I was going to use...

Isn't that beautiful?! I love being in her house, everything is gorgeous. We like the same things, but she has the means to make it all happen! Such a great turn out! 

Thank you for sharing Chels!

DBD.

If you are here from Dream Book Design, welcome! Thank you so much for stopping by! 

If you liked my wall post, please follow Waiting for Bean to check back with all the other projects and ideas that we have in store for 2011! 

Happy browsing!

Couch Dilemma Solved!

So, remember how I wrote the other day about our new couch and not having any idea what to do with it? 

Well, here's what I figured out after discovering a pile of extra pictures frames that I had hiding in a bin in the closet, this is what we came up with...

I mixed a good amount of art with photos using different colored and textured frames to help break up that "same" feeling I hate so much. Being that the couch is so much lower than the sofa in our main living space, it threw off the balance in the room. I think we're planning on selling our main sofa for something more like this:

(images via IKEA)

 

It's a few inches less wide than our couch right now, but I think kicking out the sofa with the chaise, and getting something without will really open up the living room. We're getting there, one project at a time!

 

 

 

Barely There.

This was supposed to happen this weekend, but I ended up doing it today. I am so thrilled with the result, I'd thought that I would share it with you. My post on Friday showed our before, which looked a little something like this...

And here is the AFTER!!

(I know, the lamps are uneven...my cat decided to chew through the cord.)

 

 

When it came time to decide on a stencil, I was having a bit of a hard time. The only actual stencil that I found that I could have used was much smaller and the design was a bit different than what I was really looking for. After searching and searching at Hobby Lobby, I went to Michael's not really expecting them to have what I was looking for. (I kind of know the in's and out's of Michaels.) For $3.99 I bought these guys (the photo is from after I traced and cut them out). I found a template online after hours of searching what the name of this stencil was (it's called a Morracan Tile in case you want to Google it). I traced it onto the stencil paper with a black Sharpie, and cut it so with an exacto knife. You'll notice that I placed tabs in the "corners" of the stencil. I did this so the tabs would keep the inside section attached. I thought that I was going to go back and hand paint the lines out, but I liked how it looked in the end, so I didn't. Ha!

It's kind of hard to see, but the light metallic silver really makes the wall pop. To get that pop, I used Ralph Lauren's Regent Metallics in Silver Plated. The paint that I was originally going to use (Behr Metallics) Home Depot doesn't carry anymore, so this was my only metallic option. It cost me about $10 for a small can, and all in all, I only used about 1/4 of the can after everything was finished. Woo!

When it came time to paint, I first tried using a small stencil roller. I quickly learned that this was not nearly as durable as the small, thin roller that I purchased at Home Depot. I lined the two stencils up one on top of the other and began to paint! They always say that the first line is the hardest because it sets the balance for the entire wall. With each move, I used a level to make sure that the top and sides were level. After completing the first row from the ceiling to the floor, I could easily finish the rest of the room! 

 See how the stencils are lined up? When I got all the way to the right side of the room, everything fit perfectly! The bottom of the wall was the tricky part. The very bottom stencil was only about half the size of the full design. For this, I left this whole row until the very end. I took the two stencils apart, applied the single one to the wall, and painted as far down as it would go. It was kind of tricky!!

You can see that here:

Start to finish, it took me about 3 hours with a few breaks in between. I'm so excited about my room now! It's really starting to feel like a "master" bedroom. What an awesome end result!

Blog Lovin'.

Woo Hoo!

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Something Old, Something New...

So, we picked up this beauty today for a whopping $60 bucks!

She's a beau, isn't she??

My problem is is that I have NO IDEA how to style around her. Before her, we had a great blue leather wing back chair, a table, lamp and a little ficus for the corner. The corner was stocked and lookin' pretty good. I spotted this couch on Craigslist last week and needed to have it. Now my living room/nook looks a little something like this:

Usually I don't have a hard time mixing vintage with new, but keeping in mind the fact that the new sofa is much shorter than the not-so-new sofa, throwing off the balance in the space. It's a long, narrow living room and I have no idea why, but this couch has thrown me for a loop. Do I recover it? How should I style around it? Gallery wall above it? Wallpaper/stenciling behind it? 

SO MANY QUESTIONS. Maybe this is why I am not a professional. 

I need to channel my inner Emily Henderson. Just another reason why her and I need to be friends.

New, New, New!!!

You want to see something neat? I mean, really, really neat??

Check this out...

(image via Green Apple Foto)

(image via Green Apple Foto)

(Click on the pictures to enlarge. Sorry they're so tiny! They wouldn't fit in their original size!)

These are a couple of photos from our shoot the other day for the new spring line for Linen Lovelies!!! I can't wait to get the rest back. That beauty in the bottom photo is one of my great friends Britt, and doesn't she look amazing?! It was such a fun afternoon with her and my cousin from Green Apple Foto, just hanging around downtown Chandler shooting some really fun pictures. I learned that I absolutely adore styling shoots! I can't wait to see the rest of these and put them up for sale!

I hope you like them, because I LOVE them!

My Weekend.

HAPPY FRIDAY TO YOU!

Here is what I think that I will be working on this weekend...notice that I said I think I'll be working on...

I'm going to be doing this to our bedroom wall. The wall color looks like this:
 

It's a super light gray, an almost light blue. I wish that it was a bit darker, but with a little work, here's what I am hoping that it will look like:

I got the exact stencil from this photo, and we will be putting it on the wall behind our bed. I will be using a small amount of Benjamin Moore's Studio Finish Latex Glaze in Silver to create an almost tone on tone wall. I'm thinking that it will add the perfect amount of texture to our bedroom, giving it that oomph it really needs!

Wish me luck!

Next week, after looking at my Faux Crown Molding post, my friends Claire and Jordan decided that they wanted to put some in their master bedroom! I can't wait to see what it looks like!! After we get a price quote and paint our living room/nook area, we'll be putting ours up as well! It's going down next week I think, so I'll be sure to take lots of photos.

Have a great weekend! See you on Monday!