At the end of July Emil found himself on a work trip in the middle of South Africa, and I found myself decorating, painting, and DIYing for 10 whole days. There is nothing like a good long house project and a glass of wine to get you through the lonely evenings when the baby is in bed sleeping and you are by yourself. Emil was sent on a 10 work trip to South Africa where he did some training for Precision Planting. Before he left he helped me pick out a color to paint our bedroom and told me to have fun decorating while he was gone. =) He even left me home his Menards card... ladies, that is like an open invitation. ;)
After getting several paint samples and trying to figure out the perfect shade of the color I had in my head, I finally chose this beautiful minty green color. This was our sample wall in our bedroom. I had a full list of projects I wanted to do while Emil was gone, and decorating our bedroom was the biggest project of them all! I wanted to find/make curtains, paint, decorate the walls, paint the fireplace in our bedroom, paint the bathroom, and make some mason jar projects that I found on pinterest. Needless to say, I stayed pretty busy while Emil was in South Africa. Many nights I was invited to friends and family's houses for dinner and to hang out, which was very nice! 
This is what the fireplace in our bedroom looked like before I got my hands on it. I have always disliked the brown color the previous owners painted the fireplace. But there had always been other projects that kept pulling rank and getting the painting of the fireplace pushed down the list. So when Emil first talked to me about the trip to South Africa, this was the very first things I said I wanted to do!
I dropped Emil off at the airport on Saturday morning and then spent the afternoon at Costco with my parents, and then at Aldi finishing the grocery shopping for me for the week. Liam and I stopped by the resale shop where my sister, Ashly, works and we got this darling antique chair that I had been keeping my eyes on. I wanted to reupholster it as a completely new project for me. And then the evening was spent beginning to tackle the bedroom fireplace. 
This is what the chair looked like before I took my trusty scissors to it. =)
After reading a few things online of how other people reupholstered, I just kind of dove right in. I began by cutting off the fabric that the chair had on, careful to make sure I was able to use them as pattern pieces for the new fabric. I then was able to take the necessary measurements and cut the new fabric pieces out for the chair using the original pattern pieces. This seemed to work really well!
A glass of wine and a new project always goes well together! Reupholstering this chair was quite possibly my favorite project (next to painting) that I did that week!
My next project was a mason jar one. I wanted to mount 4 mason jars onto this plaque of wood I cut and stained. (Ashly actually helped me cut all the wood with Dad's power tools for all my projects this week, she's the best!)
I got the hose clamps for pennies at Menards.
And voila! The hardest part was drilling through the hose clamp. There were a few scrapes, but when I am determined and have a drill in hand, I would suggest not questioning "if" I can do it... maybe just how "long" it will take me. ;) And just an FIY, I did not do the drilling over my living room carpet. ;)
And then the next project was.... A jewelry hanger for the bedroom! Another inspiration off of Pinterest! Again, the wood was helped cut by Ashly, and then I stained it up and bought the necessary hooks.
Emil texted me these pictures while he was in South Africa...
Apparently he was at a lion farm... Those baby lions are 3 months old! The days that Emil was gone were hard, but I am so thankful that we were able to chat, call, text, email, just about the whole time he was gone. It was so exciting hearing all about his experiences out there!
And then it was time to finish the projects and hang them up! Emil was due to be home soon! Ashly came over and helped me move furniture back, which was so nice! And then up went all the decorations; my favorite part! 
I had saved some wine bottles and wrapped them with twine. I then found some fake red flowers to give a small pop of color by the fireplace! The lanterns were 50% off at Hobby Lobby that week, so I thought those were a perfect addition as well. Here is what the fireplace looks like all painted and decorated now. I hope to get some heat resistent rustoleum and paint the gold around the fireplace, but that one will have to wait until next time. ;) 
My chair turned out amazing, I was so thrilled! I trimmed it with a burlap lace that contrasted well with the linen look reupholstery fabric I had gotten from Hobby Lobby.
And I was able to whip up some curtains as well! So I bought the panels and then sewed them together to create a romantic overlay. We have blinds on the windows, so it was okay to have the curtains sheer.
They are complete with lace bows to hold them back.
I hung the Mr. and Mrs. back up above our bed.
And I made 2 more mason jar mounts for flowers! I painted these mason jars white before mounting them with the hose clamps.
And then the bathroom!
We had had a clunky mirror vanity thing in our bathroom that Emil was kind enough to remove for me before he left for South Africa. He also hung and installed the light for me. So while he was gone I picked up the mirror and made the mason jar storage.
This was late one of the nights and after trying mount the mirror on the wall for like 30 minutes. It was seriously no easy task; that thing was heavy! But I was determined! And I succeeded!
I also painted a few more glass jars and filled them with some bright yellow flowers for down in the living room.
Monday dawned nice and early and Liam and I headed out to pick up Emil from the air port! We stopped by Dunkin Donuts to grab coffee for both Emil and I, and also some munchkins... ;)
And Daddy is back!!!!
Since having Emil back we have gone on an extended Ryken family vacation in Tennessee, worked on some landscaping, and celebrated our second wedding anniversary! Life sure does keep moving over here. :) But we sure are loving it. Sumer is almost over and fall is right around the corner. The little munchkin is almost 9 months old and is close to trying to walk. I don't know where the time has gone!
Its so good having my man back again! <3 <3
During my time when I'm not decorating or dreaming up decorations, I knit and drink my share of coffee ;) Currently working on a vintage sweater for a friend of mine!
There are not many things that coffee, an oversized sweater, yesterday's curled hair, and lipstick can't fix... I seriously can't wait until its sweater weather All. The. Time.
Until next time!!
You sure were busy. Everything looks great. Proud of all the creative work you do!
ReplyDeleteLove Grandma F