Staging by M

DIY Onesie Cupcakes

stagingbym — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 18:18:26 +0000

I recently went to a baby shower for a sweet friend and decided to make onesie cupcakes. This is a super simple and fun DIY project that always gets oohh’s and aahh’s (which we all know is secretly our goal at baby showers:)
These are actually some others I did for another friend last fall. Aren’t they just so cute you could squish their little faces and eat them?!

Supply Breakdown:

4 onesies
4 receiving blankets
4 rubber bands
4 coffee filters
scissors
ribbon
baker’s twine
a cupcake bakery box (you can get them at Michael’s or Joann’s)

Fold the receiving blankets until they are 3″ wide.
Lay a onesie over your fist and make an indent in the center.
Take the inside of the onesie and tuck it into the center.
Then lay the onesie at the end of one of the blankets and roll it up.
Secure it with a rubber band, place in a coffee filter and tie with ribbon.
Do a little dance that you finished one, rinse and repeat 3x’s.
Place the cupcakes in the bakery box and tie it with baker’s twine.
What a simple way to add the “wow” factor to some onesies and blankets!

Who can’t wait to go to their next baby shower to make these? Anyone else have a fun DIY baby shower present? Do you do happy dances during DIY projects? We’re hoping to finish up all the big nursery projects this weekend!

Living Room Updates

stagingbym — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 20:18:32 +0000

I about gave Ben a heart attack last week by making several big purchases including a BOB jogging stroller, maternity pics, a loveseat and a dresser! The Craigslist gods were smiling down upon me, what can I say?! Let’s begin by taking a look back at what our living room looked like before…
I’ve never felt like we had adequate seating in our living room. This was confirmed when we had some friends over and I watched a movie sitting in our chair. Most. Uncomfortable. Chair. Ever. We’re about to have a lot of company in the next few months when our little girl is born so I was on a mission!
Enter Mr. luscious microfiber Pottery Barn loveseat. This guy was sitting outside the PB Outlet last week begging for me to take him home! I kind of love that he only has 1 arm because it opens up the room. We decided that the other arm would have raised his price about $800 in the PB world, so we’re content:)
We just moved the couch down several feet and I sold the ~~chair from Hades~~ slipper chair on CL – good riddance! Ben has deemed it “his loveseat” since he can watch TV on it without turning his head to the side like on the couch.
I’ve also been on the hunt for the perfect dresser to go under our TV for 6 months! I wanted it to be between 60-70″, have lots of storage, legs (instead of being flush with the floor) and to be dirt cheap. Every single time I found the “perfect” one on CL someone would snatch it up out from under me.
This one was listed for $50 and after sending 3 emails without hearing anything back I decided to try something different. I offered the seller $20 more for it, they magically called and we picked it up that afternoon – whew! I’m thinking it would look great with a chalk paint makeover, but right now I’m loving it as is.
Confession: every CD and DVD we own has been in stacks on our guest bed for about 3 months now – the horror! These used to be stored in the dresser that we’re using in the nursery and it’s been driving me absolutely crazy!
The BEST part about this dresser is the storage – 9 beautiful drawers! I plan on emptying our filing cabinet which is still in the nursery into a few of them and keep the bottom ones empty for toys. Also, no cords show behind this piece!
Wonder where our cute PB console table went? We moved it to the dining room even though it’s a little squished in there. I plan on using this piece behind either the couch or loveseat in our next home which HAS to be bigger. Right now we’ll pretend that it’s a fancy buffet. I do love the blue under the frame montage.

I still have a couple of small projects in mind for the living room. What do you think about the updates? Anyone else hit a Craigslist wall trying to get a particular item? Am I in full-fledged nesting mode or what?!

DIY Closet Dividers

stagingbym — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 20:18:11 +0000

While doing our baby registries, I came across some closet dividers that were super cute. I just couldn’t bring myself (or allow anyone else) to pay $20 + shipping for them so I found this tutorial and made my own!
I love how they turned out and, even though I don’t think of myself as a “crafty” person, these were really easy! Mostly it was just a lot of fun making something for our little girl myself since I’m not a knitter:)
I grabbed 6 wooden letter “O’s” and Spa Blue Americana acrylic paint at Hobby Lobby and the rest of the supplies (Mod Podge, scrapbook paper, stickers, brushes) at Michaels. I spent about $14 on this project, but many of you “crafties” would already have a lot of these supplies at home.
First, I simply painted one side of the O’s – make sure to get the inside AND outside edges because they will show! Note: your fingers will get dirty.
Then I traced around the O’s onto the scrapbook paper with a pencil and cut them out. It was suggested to use an exacto knife, but good scissors worked just fine for me. I cut an X to get to the middles easier like in elementary school.
Now it was time to glue the scrapbook paper onto the O’s and paint a thin layer of Mod Podge on top. I didn’t bother with the other side and I waited to add the stickers until everything had completely dried.
Here’s the final result – so cute if I do say so myself! Before starting this project, you will want to make sure that your closet bar is the kind that can lift out. If not, you’ll need to alter this project so that there’s a way to get the O’s on.
Now all we need are some huggable baby hangers and a closet full of adorable clothes! These currently only go through 18 months, but since I didn’t Mod Podge the stickers I can easily switch them out as she grows.

Anyone else a big fan of easy craft projects that make you feel like superwoman? What DIY projects have you been up to lately? Am I the only new momma that felt like my head was going to explode when registering?

DIY Floor Pouf

stagingbym — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 20:17:13 +0000

Hello, incredibly patient readers! I’ve been busy soaking up quality time with Ben and Cali while we’re still a family of 3:) A few weekends ago we went to MO to help my sweet grandma celebrate her birthday. While there, my mom helped me (she did most of the work) make a floor pouf and a crib skirt for the nursery.This was my inspiration from Etsy. $109 + $35 shipping = $144. A similar one on West Elm is $249 + shipping. Instead, I grabbed $20 of fabric from a local fabric store and $30 of bean bag stuffing from Bed Bath & Beyond/Kmart = $50.
Here’s a sneak peak of final product. I love the fun pop this gives the room!
How did we tackle this project? We used the basic instructions from this blog post. Then I spent what seemed like hours measuring, cutting and ironing the fabric while mom sewed a simple 3-sided crib skirt together.
I was having trouble getting the fabric straight to measure, so mom showed me a trick. You make a small cut and pull a string from the fabric all the way down one side and then simply cut along the visible line to get a perfectly straight line. Have I mentioned that my mom is a genius? So smart!
We started by sewing together the sides into one big circle. After each piece was sewn, mom would hand it to me to iron the seams out flat so that it would lay better after it was all put together – great tip!
The hardest part was attaching the top and bottom pieces which took a little trial and error. We would pin one side at a time, mom would sew, I’d iron the seam. Rinse and repeat 7x’s leaving a gap big enough for the stuffing.
Then came the stuffing. Um, how cute are my parents concentrating so hard?! A lot of people use cotton batting/stuffing, but I opted for bean bag stuffing because I didn’t want it to always look “lumpy”. Then mom hand sewed the hole.
Here she is in all her black and white chevron yummy boldness! I like to think of this as a statement piece in the nursery as well as a practical place to put my tootsies during late night feedings. I couldn’t have done this without my mom’s mad sewing skills – she’s pretty amazing!
I also mentioned a crib skirt. It was simply 3 pieces of fabric I picked up at Jo-Anns that mom hemmed on all sides. We measured it to the length of the crib when it’s in the lowest position for a newborn. I used giant safety pins to attach it so that when we move the crib up we can readjust the length – easy peasy!
It has one pleat on both the front and the sides which mom whipped up like a champ. I’ve been very intentional about making the nursery gender-neutral, but I couldn’t resist this feminine, flowy fabric – so sweet for our little girl:)
Tomorrow I will be 28 weeks and my baby bump is growing – only 3 months left!

What do you think about our DIY floor pouf? Anyone else have a Martha Stewart supermom? Who’s ready for the big nursery reveal already?

Floor pouf image found here.

Nursery Progress: Curtains and Pillows

stagingbym — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 21:57:59 +0000

Happy Hump Day! I figured it was time to do another nursery update. This weekend we worked on one of my favorite parts of a room – the curtains!
Remember our nursery mood board that shows white curtains trimmed with green ribbon? Well, I scoured the internet looking for white, blackout, 95″, reasonably priced curtains. They don’t exist. Instead, I decided to use curtain clips to secure blackout material behind regular curtains like in this post.
I found 95″ white curtains at Target for $35. The only problem was that they had grommets at the top which I simply cut off at the hem. Before any curtains were harmed, I clipped the grommets back and made sure the length was good.
I spy a baby bump in this pic! Ben took these pics so I would have proof that I do a few things around here:) I used a 60% off coupon at Jo-Ann’s to get 5.5 yards of blackout material for $15 and cut it to the exact size of the curtains.
Next up was the painful process of curtain rod hanging. Even though we reused the rod, the old curtains were 84″ and I wanted to hang these to ceiling length. We also hung them 10″ outside of the windows. This is a little trick to make your windows appear taller, wider and to let more natural light in.
Ben had the brilliant idea of flipping the curtains around and hanging them by their “butts” so that the hem would look all pretty on top. You can’t even tell that the blackout material is hanging behind, but it makes a huge difference!
My vision was finally starting to come together. It’s amazing how much curtains can add to a room, but there was still a little something missing…
It was time to trim out those plain curtains with some ribbon. I grabbed Heat N’ Bond iron on hem tape from Michael’s, 1 1/2″ ribbon from Jo-Ann’s and scissors. I ended up just using the hemline as a guide instead of the leveler.
I used this pic for inspiration on how far over to place the ribbon.
Have I mentioned how easy this stuff is to use? First I ironed the tape onto the ribbon, pulled off the paper and then ironed it onto the curtains. I use my iPhone stopwatch rather than the “Mississippi” method to count my seconds:)
In no time I was done and couldn’t wait to get those babies rehung! We also plan on adding bamboo blinds behind the curtains for more darkening. We like to sleep like vampires, so we wouldn’t want anything less for our baby girl!
Oh what a difference a little emerald green accent ribbon can make! As you can see, it helps tie in those custom-made pillows perfectly.
My friend Lauren made these and she did a fantastic job! She used the same green ribbon as piping for two pillows and as accent ribbon for the other.
There’s also a matching lumbar pillow for the rocker. The accent colors for the nursery are coral and emerald green so these are perfect! I also picked up this cute floral accent lamp at Target. It’s the first “girly” item I’ve bought, but I absolutely love how it pulls all the nursery colors together!

So what do y’all think of our progress? Anyone else try trimming out curtains with ribbon? Speaking of vampires, will I be the only one standing in line to buy Breaking Dawn 2 on DVD next week?

Curtain image found here.

How To Make Your Ceilings Appear Taller

stagingbym — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 18:50:22 +0000

Due to Project Nursery, we’ve been moving things around quite a bit which is actually one of my favorite things to do in our home to get a free, fresh look. I wanted to highlight some of those changes that I think make a big difference!
Don’t look now, but it’s a rare photo of our master bedroom! This mirror used to sit on top of the dresser we’re using for the nursery. The space above the dresser always needed something more and I love how the mirror makes the room appear taller. I also added a few decorative items I had laying around.
Remember my first attempt at camouflaging our TV? The mossy T mirror needed a new home after we replaced the living room dresser with a bookcase, so he replaced the too-small orange subway art that used to be there.
I also found a different close-up puppy pic of Cali and added an Antique filter in iPhoto for a smooth look. It makes me want to reprint all of the framed photos in our house. I smile every time I see this pic hanging above our TV:)
I replaced the PB photo frame with my thrift store art, but still wanted this photo displayed. My talented sis-in-law took this in their backyard on a freezing cold Oklahoma morning. It’s a beautiful reminder of our adventure to come!
Last but not least, I took the plunge and convinced Ben to hang my thrift store art vertically. Love. it. It makes our 8-ft ceilings look way taller! I haven’t 100% decided on painting the frames, but I’m thinking white with gold Rub n Buff like in this post. Sounds like a fun weekend project to me!

Well y’all, I’m off to see Safe Haven with a friend. What do you think about the moving and shaking I did around our home? How do you make your ceilings appear taller? What’s your favorite photo filter?

Nursery Sneak Peek

stagingbym — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 20:16:47 +0000

Alright, who’s dying to see what we’ve done on the nursery since we painted it? As soon as Ben gave me a budget, I hit the ground running (a.k.a. we’re now on a first name basis with the FedEx guy:) This is just a peek!
First I ordered this trellis wool rug. It’s so soft and will be perfect for playing with our baby girl on. You can also see my neutral Craigslist rocker. This is seriously the most comfortable chair we’ve ever owned and I paid $75 vs $800+ for it! The Bali tripod end table help adds texture and warmth to the space.
Ben spent Sat morning putting the crib together in like 20 minutes. Walmart ended up having the best price with their site-to-store free shipping. I had no idea how much I would love this non-traditional black crib!
I got the fence post tops which are waiting to be added to our repurposed dresser so it will be tall enough for a changing table. Linen white curtains and a few pillows will be trimmed in this emerald green ribbon. The artwork came too!
I got another fantastic Craigslist deal on this barely used organic cotton mattress for $70 (it retails for $249)! A non-organic mattress would have cost $100+. It really pays to do your research and keep a hawk eye on CL.
Since the crib assembly was easy-peasy, Ben decided to go ahead and sand the dresser on Sat. I’ll be doing a full blog post on this project once it’s complete.
Last but not least, I have a friend making me some nursery pillows that these inserts are waiting to fill. $3 travel pillows from Walmart are the perfect size for a lumbar pillow and the back 18×18 square one was $10 at PB Outlet.

My mom is going to help me make a floor pouf and there are about 20 more projects I have in mind! What’s your favorite part of the nursery so far? Anyone think I’m cray cray for going with a black crib? Who else is addicted to CL?

Thrift Store Art

stagingbym — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 19:46:48 +0000

If you follow me on Instagram, you know I picked up a piece of thrift store art a few weeks ago. Wait, is the Habitat for Humanity Restore considered a thrift store? Who knows! What you don’t know is that my artwork had a twin which I didn’t initially get, but couldn’t stop ~~dreaming~~ thinking about.
I decided if it was still miraculously there when I went back that it was a sign. Apparently these sisters did not want to be apart:) They are hanging in our living room and I’m excited to pull the orange out of the paintings in some pillows.
As a reminder, this Pottery Barn oversized frame is what was there before. I loved this piece, but the cream mat and mahogany finish clashed with everything else in our living room. I was also just ready for a change!
It was the bamboo frames that initially drew me to these pieces. I have a thing for bamboo in case you didn’t know. I’m still debating painting them, but can’t for the life of me figure out what color would work. I’ve thought about white, gold, black??? The distressed look is kinda growing on me.
I love how the art itself is pieced together in a cool, puzzle-like texture instead of just being plain jane. See what I mean about what color the frame should be?
I should also mention that they are currently hanging on the old anchors from the PB frame. I’ve been going back and forth about whether to stack them vertically to draw your eye upward or to just off-center them more.

So… this is obviously a work in progress! Should I paint the frames? How should I hang them on the wall? Anyone else score some thrift store art?

Bathroom Makeover

stagingbym — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 19:49:14 +0000

Apparently no room is safe from my #babymamahormones these days! I somehow convinced my superhero husband to paint the nursery one weekend and the bathroom the next. Let’s take a look at the obligatory before pic…
I found this builder beige paint color off the internet, but it always looked wrong to me. When my friend Lauren came to our house for the nursery consult, she suggested that we match the walls with the tile – brilliant!
So our walls went from ugly beige to a soothing silvery blue (Silver Strand by Sherwin Williams). Y’all, it feels like a spa up in here now! The power of paint strikes again and brings yet another room together beautifully.
My favorite part is how this color makes the white trim really pop. Ben humored me and fixed the light fixture and mirror that were both a tiny bit unlevel. Nothing like unlevel wall hangings to drive a stager crazy:)
We also upgraded to a curved shower rod to give us more breathing room. We got this one for a steal at Tuesday Morning for $10! DIY confession: we accidentally hung it too far out and plan on rehanging it this weekend.
We’ve been using the same shower curtain for 9 yrs that we got as a wedding present, so I upgraded to this fun one from Target and added a crisp white rug. Ben said that I was ~~crazy~~ brave for going with white.
Let me introduce you to the only plant I’ve ever been able to keep alive. I love this little, low-maintenance guy and plan on investing in another bamboo plant for the nursery. The bamboo soap dispenser hails from Tarjay.
One more pic to show how well this color goes with our tile – work with what you’ve got! I can’t tell you how happy this room makes me. Now, if only I could organize that linen closet behind the door. A stager’s work is never done!

So what’s the verdict – do you guys like our newish ~~spa~~ bathroom? Anyone else accidentally hang a curved shower rod wrong? Who else will admit to using the same shower curtain for nearly a decade?

Hanger Upgrade

stagingbym — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 19:18:33 +0000

Happy Monday! I hope everyone enjoyed Beyoncé’s show and Downton Abbey last night. Oh, was there a football game on? You know your husband loves you when he misses an hour of the Super Bowl to watch your adult chick flick!
Even though it’s not Jan anymore, I’m still in full fledge #organizeeverythinginthehousebeforebabycomes mode. I’ve mentioned before how I transitioned Ben’s closet to wooden hangers here and how I use huggable hangers in my closet, but we somehow still had 100+ plastic ones.
Not anymore! All of our closets have officially been de-plastichangered. This is a shot of my new guest bedroom closet that I moved my clothes into to free up the nursery closet. Target had a sale on their huggable hangers a couple of weeks ago and I snatched them up. These are great for space-saving!
I also picked up another box of wooden hangers for Ben the hen’s closet. Doesn’t it look like a Banana Republic clothes rack?! I did pick up some extras, but I took these shots right before laundry day so there aren’t that many.
I also transitioned our hall closet with all of our many coats, jackets and hoodies to wooden hangers – no closet was safe in our home! Since Goodwill won’t take hangers, I just posted a pic on FB and gave them to a friend. This small upgrade cost me very little, but makes me smile every time I open a closet:)

I somehow managed to squeeze in a bathroom makeover in the middle of nursery planning, so check back on Wed for the reveal! What was your favorite part/commercial of the Super Bowl? Any other hanger Nazis out there? Who else likes their closet to look like BR?