A CORNY CHRISTMAS FOR CLAY.

My hubby is a big Baylor fan and loves to tailgate at the BU football games...so for Christmas, I ordered him a gift he could use for the upcoming football season. The game of cornhole! (In Texas, it is more commonly referred to as the bean bag game.)

 

After researching online I discovered there weren't many options for Baylor boards so I made the decision to order unpainted boards and paint them myself. I was excited about the idea of a blank canvas as I was a studio art major at Baylor and haven't painted many projects like this since I graduated.

Here is a preview of the unpainted wood:

Since the boards represent opposing teams, I painted them with different Baylor logos. Thanks to the help of a handy dandy tracer, I was able to draw the BU and Baylor bear to scale with ease. After picking out a lovely green and gold at Lowes and painting several layers of paint, the boards are complete. All they lack now is a protective coat and they are ready for play! 

 

 

Baylee with the finished Baylor boards. Sic'em Bears!

A NEW PURPOSE IN LIFE...YOU WROUGHT TO BE PROUD.

In May, Clay & I will have lived in our house for two years! Wow, it's crazy to think two years have already gone by....Today I am posting one of our first home projects - an old wrought iron trellis above the planter in our entry way.

Side note: <<Our house was built in 1957 and apparently planters were a big hit back then. For those of you who can't picture "the planter" I am referring to, I found a picture of our entry way before we moved in. Take a look at the right hand side of the photo...the white wrought iron trellis is above the brick half wall and the planter is located inside the half wall.>>

{view of entry way with trellis & planter}

I knew when we moved in our house the old & dated wrought iron trellis would have to go. I didn't want to throw it away and I didn't exactly have a gameplan, but knew it could be given a face lift and a new purpose somewhere else in our house. After removing the trellis, it sat outside in our backyard for months...here is the proof.

{the trellis removed}

In the meantime, I started collecting an assortment of letters for our guest room. Once I accumulated enough letters, I began brainstorming the best way to hang them on the wall...and then I remembered the rusted wrought iron trellis in our backyard! With the help of some paint and some hefty duty nails (for hanging), I present the new and improved wrought iron trellis. No longer above the half wall in our entry way, it is now hanging in our guest room as a neat vintage frame which houses all of the letters I found!

{ the old wrought iron trellis with a new purpose}

Moral of the story: never throw anything away because almost everything has hidden potiential - with a little imagination and some paint, an old (or ugly) piece can always get a new look!

WINE A LITTLE MORE.

I am deviating from my normal design related entries to share A Breath of Fresh Erin vacation.....

My incredibly sweet & thoughtful husband surprised me for our 3 year anniversary with a trip to Napa Valley. Didn't see that one coming...I was completely surprised. I have to give Clay props for being so sneaky. He secretly requested time off at my work and everyone in the office knew besides me. Can't believe I didn't have a clue. So to my husband, family, friends and co-workers: Job well done. You are all great secret keepers!

I loved Napa Valley. We stayed at the AVIA Napa located in downtown Napa. It was decorated beautifully. As you all probably know, I love decorating so I immediately started taking pictures of the lobby as soon as we entered the hotel. Please check out their photo gallery to appreciate their decor!

We drank lots of good wine and learned lots about wine on our trip. We visited several wonderful wineries - Robert Mondavi, Castello Di Amorosa, Raymond and Schraumsberg to name a few.

Wine Tour at Robert Mondavi.

Neat set-up outside of Raymond Winery. 

Castello di Amorosa Winery.

(same castle filmed for Jake's season of the Bachelor)

Sparkling Wine Tasting at Schraumsberg.

Did you know that California produces 90% of the wine in the U.S.? and that Napa Valley produces ONLY 4% of that! A very surprising number if you ask me since Napa Valley is so well known for their wine.

 A few highlights of our trip:

>> First time to eat an IN-N-OUT Burger. Oh so delicious.

>> We saw a peacock spread its feathers at Castello di Amorosa.

>> Tried fresh oysters for the very first time...still deciding how I feel about them.

>> Met the dog who was the centerfold in Winery Dogs of Napa Valley at Trahan Winery.

>> Drove across the Golden Gate bridge in San Francisco.

We hope to visit Napa Valley again in the future, but in the meantime we will continue to drink all the delicious wine we brought back! :0)

WALKING THE LINE.

Oh my. It's been awhile since my last post....however it doesn't feel that long since I have been very busy working on multiple projects!

For those of you who have never been to our house, EVERY room is painted (with the exception of our hallway...which will probably be painted at some point in the near future). I really believe a paint color can transform any room.

Our kitchen was in need of some color so I went to Lowe's and bought four small samples of paint (side note: whoever came up with the sample paint idea is genious). Once I got all four samples on the wall, I couldn't decide between two of the colors and therefore decided to paint stripes...this way I didn't have to choose :0)

Since there is not much wall space in our kitchen I figured painting stripes would be a fairly challenging, but simple undertaking. However, I was mistaken. This painting project took FOREVER! I would like to say that you should not attempt to paint stripes if you do not have the following: 1. patience, 2. a realllly long level and 3. a helper (preferrably one with math skills). My sweet husband was #3 and I could not have gotten the stripes drawn/level on the kitchen wall without him.

Mi Cocina before.

please note: the vertical blinds need to go

Stripes complete!



 

Mi Cocina complete.

with new mirror & Bayley with her new bunny

Even though it took hours and hours to complete this painting project, I am pleased!

CELEBRATING THE BIG ONE. 

Ahh, decorating and design...these are a few of my favorite things.

My first couple of posts have been all about decorating and DIY projects so I thought I would switch things up a bit and post my latest pink door design. This birthday invitation was designed with love for my sweet cousin in Midland, Texas. Lauren, thank you for allowing me to design your little man's FIRST birthday invitation!

{front}

{back}

The cute phrase on the back of the invitation is compliments of Lisa (my mom). She is incredibly creative!! Growing up, my mom handmade ALL of our birthday invitations (and for those of you who don't know me very well, I have three younger siblings - that's ALOT of birthday invitations). I must say, we had the greatest birthdays parties...all thanks to my mom's creativity (and my dad's willingness to partake in her imaginative ideas)!

All that said: birthday parties, my mom & designing invitations put a big smile on my face! If you are in need of invitations or announcements, please let me know as I would love to design something just for you!

WHAT DO YOU FORESHADOW? IT'S GOING TO BE A BALL!

Well, hello again. Did you foreshadow it would take me longer to make my next post? I'd imagine so since it took me such a long time to make my second entry!

But have no fear, the third post is here! I won't let this freezing weather overshadow my ability to write another blog entry. Speaking of foreshadowing & overshadowing...let's talk about the next Breath of Fresh Erin reveal:

A shadowbox. This is not just any shadowbox. It was not found at a salvage yard or an estate sale....although I do love to find items at these places. This shadowbox is special because it was built by my great grandfather in the late 70's. He had a little woodshop in good ole' Abilene, Texas and built this shadowbox for my grandmother who then passed it down to my mom and now it is in my house!

The shadowbox has been painted several different colors in the past thirty years so some serious scraping needed to take place in order to get the wood back to its original state. Unfortunately, scraping off the old layers of paint  proved to be a very difficult job. Lots of elbow grease required and since my muscles are a bit lacking, my dad assisted with this part of the project. I feel very lucky that Tom is always there to tackle my tough design dilemmas!

Here's a look at the beforeshadow:

& the aftershadow:

Without a shadow of a doubt, I think the scraping paid off! The only problem now is my small obsession with decorative balls...and the only problem with the previous statement is that small obsession is a huge understatement! Although, I don't feel too bad about my obsession because Bayley has an obsession as well...but her obsession is with tennis balls. To each their own.

A STUDY IN THE ART OF WOOD.

I LOVE before & after pictures! How can you truly appreciate the after if you haven't seen the before? 

I must say I am extremely pleased with how the wall turned out. Each individual board has so much character and I think the textured surface adds some (much needed) pizzazz to the study. Sooo without any further ado, the before and after pictures of the study transformation!

the BEFORE.

& AFTER!

I give this transformation a thumbs up! Across the boards! :0)

Our dog Bayley loves the new study....especially the new rug! She can't pass up a fluffy rug and I can't pass up an amazing deal! Would you believe me if I told you the rug was $25? It was originally $50, but marked 50% OFF on red line clearance! A 5' x 7' rug for ONLY $25...what an unbelievable deal! Better hurry to Garden Ridge before they are all gone.

  

And last, but certainly not least I would like to say this project would not have been possible without my parents : my mom (Lisa) and my dad (Tom)! A special thank you to them for spending their entire Saturday with me to build this wonderful wall! You really nailed it!