Where do I blog?

Kate over at her blog, Centsational Girl, asked bloggers to do a post about where they blog.  And while sometimes I switch it up to lay and bed and blog, this is the place I love sitting down to write a post.

My Bedroom.

I've always been one to love my room.  My mom says when I was little I could entertain myself in my bedroom for hours on end.  I'd build "block houses".  You know those jenga blocks?  They were walls for the houses I'd build.  My entire floor would be covered in these blocks...mom used to say it would be a serious fire hazard.  I also loved dolls, Barbies, dressing up and anything girly.  I remember having photo shoots with the Barbies in my room.  I was the photographer; they were the models.  And I was serious.  They were no longer Barbies, they were real.  That's the imagination of a little girl.  But my mom always knew there was a problem if my door was closed.  I was hiding something.  It was always the same thing.  Why I thought mom wouldn't know about what I was doing behind closed doors is beyond me! She'd listen from the other side of the door, "What kind of haircut would you like today, Skipper?"  I was playing spa.  The Barbies would always leave with shorter hair than when they entered my salon. 

I have memories in my room.  That's why I love it so much.  That's why I'm inspired to write in here.  Here are more pictures of my space.  Notice the LOVE print by Made by Girl.  She's awesome!

My high school sketchbook.  The left half of the picture is from a magazine, right half is the sketch I did to "complete" the left half.

Happy Tuesday!

Love and block houses, barbies, & blogging,

Michaela

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You are my Sunshine

As I've mentioned before, I'm getting an apartment this year at school with some friends.  So, of course, the most important thing is decorating it! One of my favorite things I've put together for the apartment are these two pieces of wall art.  They're colorful, whimsical and totally DIY.  These are some of the supplies I used:

First, buy a few flat canvases (as opposed to the ones stretched over the wood frame).  I got mine from Michael's because they're cheap and come in a pack of 3.  Next, paint the background of your canvas in whatever color you wish!  I chose turquoise, because that is the main color in our family room.  After that dries, choose a saying that you like, or if it's for a child's room, their name would be cute.  I used cardboard scrap booking letters:

Here's the process:

1. With a paint brush, paint the back of the cardboard letter with a good amount of acrylic paint.  I used Tempora paint because it is washable...(aka if I got it on unwanted places on the canvas, it easily comes off with water and a paper towel!).  You want enough paint so when you stamp the letter on the canvas, the whole letter's imprint is left.

2. Lay the letter down where you want it on the canvas and lightly press over the entire letter, making sure the paint touches the canvas on all parts of the letter. 

3. Carefully lift letter off canvas. When you take the letter off the canvas, the paint may be uneven in certain places.  Never fear-- just take a small paint brush and touch it up!

The next step is picking out a frame and embellishing it.  I chose a black frame to compliment the black/turquoise curtains we have and because the walls are white. It will be a nice contrast and really pop off the wall.  I hot glued a beautiful printed paper to the cardboard piece of the frame that holds the back together.

Then I hot glued the canvas in the middle of that cardboard piece. 

Next, I embellished the canvas with the same paper flowers I used to dress up my lamp!

Then I put it together in the frame and called it done.

These two pieces of wall art will hang in the family room.  Best part...they weren't even expensive! They came in around $15 each. (I got the frames as a two-for-one at Aaron Brothers!)  Stay tuned for more of these I did for little girls' rooms.  Precious. 

It's only fitting, since I go to college in Seattle, that I'll need some sunshine.  Because, really, skies are always gray.  I wish I was exaggerating.

It's going to be okay. It's going to be okay.

Hey, maybe if I keep telling myself that, I'll get used to it this year!

Love and Reassuring Myself This Wall Art Will Make The Gray Skies Better,

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Sneak Peak!

Here's a sneak peak at a project I will be posting a tutorial to on Monday!

In other news-- It's the weekend!

Yay!

I'm gonna spend it by doing more projects. And you know what? That makes me really happy (: It also makes me happy that I'll be doing what I love for the rest of my life. That fact alone brings sunshine to my life. What brings sunshine to yours?

Remember you, my friend, are

Love and Sunshine,

Michaela

3

Let there be LIGHT

Once upon a time we had a lamp that was just too boring. So I fixed it. I'm going to make a flowered lampshade, I thought to myself. And the rest was history. It was quick, easy and totally affordable!

The previous day I had been to Anthropologie and seen some fabulous lampshades, but at a steep price. I always seem to look at things and I say I could make that for half the price. Well, my friends, I made this for MORE than half the price of the Anthro lamp! Sure, I'm no professional, and it's not pristinely sewn silk fabric, but it's pretty darn close (: Regardless, here is my inspiration. This one is a hand-painted shade with fabric flowers applied on top. Lovely.

Here's how to make a more affordable one:

You'll need hot glue, whatever color flowers you desire, a lamp shade and about an hour's time. I ran to Michael's and got 2 packages of flowers to make sure I had enough to cover the entire lampshade. Since the colors for my apartment's family room is primarily turquoise, I decided to stick with that and keep the majority of the flowers in that color palette. I also wanted to pop a few accent colors throughout, to bring in the accent colors that will be seen through pillows, vases and art work. Enter yellow, orange and purple flowers. Here's the trick: to make sure I spaced the accent colors over the lampshade evenly, I hot-glued those flowers down first. Then I filled in the rest of the shade with the turquoise flowers working from the top to the bottom to make sure the layering was consistant. To add more texture, I used varied sizes and shapes of the paper flowers.

For those wondering, I spent $18 on the lamp from target, and $12 on paper flowers from Michael's.

This will be going in our family room, but I think it'd be the perfect fit for any age girls' room! It's so easy and especially perfect, because you have the ability to customize it according to the color and look of the space!

While I was sitting on the garage floor glueing about 100 flowers on the shade, I was thinking if was either going to look really cheap or really chic. Upon finishing, I have to say, I think it's sophisticated, fun, quirky and gives any room a little needed personality. Questions? Just e-mail me!

I also used the same flowers in this project as I did on my You Are My Sunshine project!

Love and Lamps for a Fraction of the Price,

13

Sweet friends: the moments in between

This past week my family and I were able to go on a mini vacation down to southern California. We stayed at the Hilton Waterfront at Huntington Beach Resort and loved it!

A sunset has this way of taking you to a different world. (Hawaii, maybe?) The colors of the sky are vibrant and saturated, while everything in front forms a dark silhouette. Inspiration in nature is simply beautiful.

I also had the chance to see two of my friends who I met up in Washington for college. Reconnecting with best friends is always special. It's funny how when you live with someone for a year, they inevitably become your best friends, but also become your family (especially when your real family is two states away). Both these girls are like sisters to me. Maybe it's because we went to dinner together, had sleepovers even when we lived down the hall from each other, borrowed clothes on a daily basis, laughed, cried and experienced everything in between. Those "in between" moments are what made us so close. Moments like blasting music when you should be doing homework, spur of the moment trips down town to get our tomato soup from the Nordstrom cafe, rushing to go pick up the Tim McGraw/Lady Antebellum tickets we ordered on Craigslist (the day before the concert), being completely covered in mud while walking through a corn maze (did I mention it rains in Seattle??), spontaneous decision to go catch the Mariner's game, or just hearing the simple "goodnight, love you!" after an all-nighter. Those are the moments I remember, and those are the moments that stole my heart.

Leta is beautiful and compassionate. Her heart is gentle and longs to serve others. She's going to be an occupational therapist and I know her patients will say the same about her the minute they hear her voice. Living with her last year was one of the biggest blessings in my life thus far.

Kendra is stunning and kind hearted. She has a way of always making me laugh. We share an unbreakable bond through the love of shopping and she has real talent in photography. Seriously, be looking for her work out there soon! We're getting an apartment together this year and I couldn't be more excited.

I'm so grateful for good friends who become the sisters I've never had, and even more thankful to the One who put them in my life.

Now, I vow to myself and to these girls: I will always make an effort to keep our friendships going; the laughter, the tears, and everything in between.

Love and the moments in between,

Michaela

1

Within the past 24 hours...

lots of great things have happened.

I went shopping with my beautiful roommate, Anna, for new thin

gs for the apartment. We were quite successful. We ordered turquoise bowls from Anthropologie and found the cutest dish towels for the kitchen (and ON SALE! 2 for $4).

I'm a big fan of ice cream, so when I saw the print of that one, I was sold.

Next, we hit TJ Max Home Goods store (it's like the regular TJ Max, but on steroids.) We got a decorative piece of white, antiqued rod iron to hang in the bathroom.

Very organic and simply chic.

The BEST part of the day was buying candles from Anthropologie as well. It's inevitable that every single time I go into the store, I will smell every single candle, in which case all the scents become one. But it's pure heaven. In a jar. And they're beautiful, too! (They may be a bit of a splurge for a candle, but honestly, they're too good to pass up.)

SEE?!

Today something beautifully tragic happened. I found an online site called etsy. The reason I say "tragic" is because I'm quite possibly addicted to it. It's a website where you can buy AND sell items. There's a whole home good section with cute hand-made things. After careful consideration, I decided it was necessary that I order one from MadebyGirl:

I ordered the yellow print above the desk. I am in LOVE with it (: It will go great with the turquoise colors I have going on already. A pop of color thrills me.

In other news, I'm also in the middle of making a lamp shade to go in the same room as this yellow LOVE print. Stay tuned to see how it turns out!

Hope everyone's having a fantastic weekend!

Love and heaven in a jar,

Michaela

2

Social Media Madness

This summer I've been working here and there for my dad at his company Pacific Business Centers.

Most of the time I fill-in as a receptionist, but lately we've been working on promoting the office space for rent by filming the interiors of the buildings. That way when potential clients call inquiring about an office, we can point them in the direction of our youtube channel to view short clips of vacant offices. Yesterday, however, we got a little more creative.

If you know my dad at all, you know he loves a good pun. He also loves being the first to think of that pun. One word to describe him? Witty. Needless to say, I'm his number one fan (: Yesterday's task was to create a short film that centered around the importance of social media. You know- facebook, twitter and linked-in, to name a few. My dad has all three. And he had a twitter before me. He now has around 3,000 followers, which puts my 17 followers to shame. Recently though, these concepts have become some of the best, smartest, and easiest ways to promote a business of any type.

So, we brainstormed ways to get the optimum number of views. And what did we come up with? A spoof of the hit show, The Office.

You may have heard of it.

My dad plays a character who resembles Michael Scott and the premise of the film is that his employees are ultimately spending WAY too much time doing what they're paid to do, and NOT enough time on their social media network of choice. The boss gets a little upset. (Disclaimer: the character he plays is a polar opposite to his character in real life.)

I was laughing so hard behind the camera while filming, we even had to re-shoot one scene (: Oops! Last night I came straight home and spent several hours editing it, which was really fun. Turns out imovie (movie editing program on my mac) and I are becoming good friends.

I happen to love it and think it will be "viral" within a week. Take a few minutes to check it out! I promise, you won't be disappointed.

To sum up: I love making movies, I love laughing, and most of all, I love my Daddy.

Love and social media,

Michaela

2

Dorm Rooms

It's time to start thinking of dorm room decorations! Now, this next year I'll be living in an apartment with some friends (super excited...another post to come on decor for that!), but last year I remember having a blast picking out the cute things for my dorm. You definitely have to get creative when living in a small room. Looking back, I think ours was just about as cute as they come :) When people would walk in they'd be in shock of how well everything went together. Then I'd tell them...

First of all, we went to high school together and have been planning all summer. And second, I'm an interior design major and she's visual communications.

Then it all made sense.

The whole idea was to make it feet like "home" even though I was two states away from my real home. I wanted it to be bright and fun since outside is so dark and rainy. So here is how my process went:

1. Find a graphic bed spread that was affordable and I'd love for my entire 4 years of college. (Pottery Barn Teen had great mark-downs last year around August.)

2. Pick colors. A main color and an accent color.

Easy.

Purple & lime green.

3. PERSONALIZE! I went a little crazy with personalizing ordinary objects I bought at Target or Michael's, but only because I was so excited :)

Here's just a few of the things I did in my dorm room:

This was my favorite thing in the room. Yes, they are decoration. Yes, I was inspired by Juicy Couture. And yes, people tried to sneak the gum balls when I wasn't looking :)

This is an ordinary bulletin board I covered with fabrics that went with the theme of the room. I simply applied the fabric with hot glue and a staple gun and lined the edges with a purple ribbon so the frays were hidden. I'll be using it in my apartment this year, but I'm going to paint the frame black so it's more dramatic.

Every dorm room needs some type of window treatment. It's one of the best ways to turn a room into YOUR room! Instant cure for the hospital/dorm-like feeling. You can also see the two plants on the window sill. It was a good way to give the room life. Then they died halfway through the year...either because I'm a bad gardener or because there wasn't enough sun in the room. I prefer the second one.

We were lucky enough to have our own sink and vanity in our actual room, so we bought cute bathroom accessories and I painted the small canvas there for a pop of color. The wire dress is purely decoration with the lavender ribbon tied around its waist.

My roommate and I each did our first initial for above our bed. We bought the wood letters at Michael's and we each painted our own and added rhinestones for a finishing touch. Under my "M" is a wall decal from Aaron Brother's with a picture of my best friends and I at the beach.

This was the most fun project. Lamps! I KNEW the lamps they provided would be terrible so we bought these plain lamps at target and bought a 1 inch purple satin ribbon and hot glued it around the base of the lamp. Then, I accented the ribbon with a strand of fake pearls. It made it feel more classy :) Adorable lamps for $20! (If you wondering, the lamps they provided were just as bad as I imagined and stayed under my bed for the entire year.)

This was our finished product. I can't believe it's already completely dismantled and ready for the next set of freshman girls to move into come September. Maybe I will stop by next year and see how they did it! The cute lime green ribbon rug you see on the floor was a rug for my room at home, but it fit perfectly with the colors so why not throw the 10 pound rug in the car, too?! Cute, but totally not functional. I think it lost half its ribbons. Oh well! Sometimes cute outweighs function. The girls who wear heels all day can tell ya about that.

So, tips for girls and guys going off to college:

~Make your room a fun and relaxing place to come home to each day.

~Give it some color! College classrooms are WHITE. You need some color when you get back from class.

~You will need more storage than you think. Bring baskets, the small ottomans from Target, storage cabinets and another bookshelf if you can.

~Bring those self-adhesive hooks and plasti-tak so you can hang curtains and picture frames since you can't put holes in the wall.

~If you do put holes in the wall, fill them with toothpaste at the end of the year :)

Questions or want advice? E-mail me at michaelawarner90@gmail.com! I'd be happy to give out ideas or offer my opinion!

Love and Cute Dorm Rooms,
Michaela

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