manzanita

kitchen cart re-style

I work in property management and when people move out of their homes sometimes they leave things behind. Most of the time its junk, but every once in a while I snag something that has some potential. This cart was full of stickers and missing a back when I found it, but I hoped that with a little attention it could be a cute addition to our little kitchen.

I scrubbed the thing down, took it apart to put a backing on it, painted it, and added some pretty world market knobs to match our cabinets. It took me about an hour and I think it's perfect. The color is a bit loud, but I think I like how much character it gives the room. What do you think?

Today Dustin and I are relaxing and going to meet up with friends for dinner. Have I said that I love the weekend?

besitos,
rebecca

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DIY// clay paint brush holder

This weekend we finally got some Spring here in Colorado. Saturday was lovely, I had a photo shoot with some old friends and Sunday was the most peaceful afternoon I have had in a long time. I left the door open and I painted and made things and listened to music for hours while a perfect breeze cooled me down.

I have been painting quite a bit lately. Watercolor and calligraphy are a couple of my loves and sadly they haven't much attention in the last couple of years. It is funny to put something down for a while and then pick it back up. There are some fundamentals that will always be there, but for me it is always kind frustrating to find it hard to do things that used to be second nature. Practice makes perfect! I am already seeing progress and it is very rewarding.

So with all the painting I have been doing I have found myself wishing I had a paint brush holder more than a few times. I used to have this beautiful japanese ceramic one, but that has been long lost. I decided I would try to make one myself and here it is.

The whole process took me about an hour. First I used this clay and molded it into a sort of half oval shape. Once that looked good I took my most used pen and brushes to pinch crevices into the top of the shape. After that I took a little bit of water to soften the surface of the whole thing. For this brand of clay you are supposed to bake it for 30 minutes at 230 degrees and then let cool. I am a little impatient so I only let it cool for about 5 minutes. I am sure you could let it cool overnight. I threw a coat of mint craft paint on it before using a sharpie to make a pretty design. I plan to put a coat of mod podge on it as well to make sure everything lasts longer.

I used the brush holder last night and I love having somewhere to pause or switch brushes with. Do you paint or do lettering? Have you ever used anything like this?

besitos,
rebecca

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DIY// beetle kill pine counter tops

My mom and step dad recently did a project with some beetle kill pine wood. Once they were finished they had quite a bit of it left over so they made new countertops for themselves using it. Once I saw it I fell in love immediately! Being the sweet and lovely people they are they came over to our little place last weekend and put them in for us as well!

While we were at it we also decided to put in a new sink, can't tell you how much of difference the whole project made. I wanted to share it here because it was so simple and cheap and I love how it looks. 

For starters here is a before photo of our little kitchen. The sink was really tiny and low and the counters were just sort of blah. Of course you can use whatever wood you would like, personally I love the dark streaks in beetle kill pine. You will want to cut the wood to fit the shape of your counter top. Once you have the wood cut out you will want to take a liquid laminate and pour it over the entire surface. This will give the counter a very glossy look and it makes it much easier to wipe down and clean. We used this brand from home depot. For our little space we needed two coats. Each coat needs to dry overnight and vuala!

We have plans to put matching beetle kill pine cabinets in where you see the shelf in the photo, probably some time this spring.

Have you done any home improvement projects lately?

besitos,
rebecca

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DIY// tripod lamp

Hi all! So with all the rearranging that we have been doing to our little home some things have popped up as necessities that we weren't expecting. One of which is lighting! My mom got me this beautiful old tripod a couple years ago from a friend. I took it with me on a few photo shoots and while I am sure I looked "really cool" it really wasn't practical. So, I was excited when D and I came up with the idea of making it into a lamp. 

It is a pretty simple and affordable project. I got a lamp making kit at home depot and my lamp shade at target. You will just want to assemble the light fixture by following the instructions on your package, then attach the fixture to the tripod. This part will depend on your tripod but mine had a convenient hole that the bottom of fixture fit right into. 

If you would like to make one for yourself you can find some pretty cool old tripods on etsy and ebay!

How was your weekend? Dustin and I had his brother, his lady, and their adorable little baby here. I love it when Annabelle is here, it gives me such baby fever. I get so excited about having kids with Dustin:)

besitos,
rebecca

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DIY// block print gift

I'm not sure that Dustin and I will be following all the anniversary traditions, but the first year is supposed to be paper and well, I love paper so I wanted to make something special that we could keep forever. So, I decided to make a block print. I had never worked in this medium before but had been excited to for years so I jumped at the opportunity.

I wanted to make it so that I could write something to him on one side and use the other side for the print so that we could frame it. I thought it would be nice to sort of hide all those sweet words from our first year of marriage behind a frame for who knows how long and maybe stumble upon one day or even have one of our kids find it in the future when we are all old and wrinkly.

Of course our innitialls carved into an apple tree and our very special (to us) wedding date seemed to be the most appropriate image I could come up with. I even carved exactly 11 apples into the tree:) For now we have it hanging on some twine in our hallway while we look for the perfect frame.

I used a linolium block, a roller, oil based paint, and stamp carving tools. I am also really excited to make some stamps when I get back from my trip next week. I am leaving for Boston very very early Weds morning to spend thanksgiving with one of dearest friends. SO excited to see the ocean and get pretty pictures! 

What are your holiday plans?

besitos,
rebecca

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my diana mini gets a makeover

So last night I was browsing the web for some nice camera straps for t3i and my canon ae-1 (if you have any suggestions let me know!) and I got inspired to make some for my diana mini. I came across this post by the sweet Meghan of pocketful of pretty and pleastantly plump knits, who I had the pleasure of meeting a couple weeks ago at a local blogger meet up:) Well I started playing around and I couldn't really find a color combo that I liked, so I decided that maybe I should paint the camera. This was probably not the best idea at 10pm but you know how those things go.

It took forever and many many coats. Over all I like how it came out but if you look closely you can see some texture in the paint, which I don't mind but if you are a perfectionist about things like that it might bother. So as the 989423 coat of outdoor craft paint was drying I got started on the straps. I followed Meghan's tutorial and substituted things I didn't have for supplies I had around the house. Yarn, jewelery links, and some more yarn. So here is my little diana all dressed up!

What do you have planned for the weekend? I am going to have my head stuck in a book unfortunately, but I am going to try and make time to get some posts lined up for next week since I will be in Boston with my BFF amelia for thanksgiving:)

What do you think about the new blog look?

besitos,
rebecca

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a book of memories

Like I said in the flower crown post my mom turned the big five oh and I wanted to make it super special for her. As a small gesture I took the first photo that her and my step dad ever had taken together and blew it up and put it in a pretty frame. She had been wanting that for a while.

I don't know about you, but I feel like turning fifty is a pretty big deal. Fifty years to create memories, loves, relationships, children, and homes. My mom has lived a pretty full life and I know that sometimes it's hard to see how much you are loved. I wanted to show her. So, I decided to make a book of memories for her.

I had a photo book printed at my local photo shop and left every two pages blank so that I could paste tiny envelopes on them. I contacted as many people as I could think of that have loved my mother or that have been special to her in some way and I asked them for their favorite memory. For her birthday we all cooked her dinner and sat around reading the memories out loud to each other.

So many of them were about my mother standing up for them, so many were about her strength, her sense of humor, her ability to teach and hear and love and accept. If you read this blog I am sure you have gathered by now that my mom is a huge presence in my life and I am constantly more and more grateful for her. To hear all of these people's stories about my mother as a child or a young woman was more touching than I can express.

Thank you to everyone who contributed to this gift. You all made a very special day for the beautiful Isabel! A special thanks to my Tia for helping me with translations, I couldn't have done it with out you! 

Happy Birthday Mama! I hope this little gift made you feel as special as you are<3

besitos,
rebecca

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a flower crown for my mama

My lovely mama turned 50 on the 18th and I wanted to make it really special for her. I made her a couple gifts and this flower crown was one of them. It was pretty simple, I just got some filler flowers and some chamomile and bunched it up around some flower twine. I finished it off with a long thin piece of lace.

My mom was a total hippie when she was younger so she loved it and she looked so great sporting it all night!

besitos,
rebecca

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t-shirt restyle

Hey hey, here is my first restyle sewing project. In no way could I make this a DIY because I very much just took each step as it came. I had to redo the peplum a couple of times and I still wanted it to be more pleated. Also the collar is way too boxy, but all disclaimers aside I love how it turned out!

I am really excited to get my lines straighter and perfect this style of shirt because these are my fave and all it took were 2 $4 t-shirts (1 small and 1 XL) and my sewing machine:)

What are some projects you have been working on?

See how I styled this top here.

Take a look at my ready to ship items in my etsy shop!

besitos,
rebecca

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DIY// paper staining

Finally a DIY, right? It is so nice to get back into the swing of things after things slowing down at my day job:) So today I wanted to show you all how to do some easy and all natural paper staining. Most of this stuff might even be laying around your house right now!

I used beet juice, which I got from just boiling beets in water for dinner and using the water after I was done. I also used coffee, this I got from soaking the already used coffee grinds from our morning coffee in a simmering pot of water. After it has sat for a while you can strain the grinds out and use the juice left behind.

So all you will want to do is simply submerge some paper into both types of dye. I used drawing paper because it is textured but not so textured as watercolor paper, but any kinda of textured paper will work great! Don't be scared to sort of crinkle up the paper because this adds some interesting patterns to the way the dye dries. If you want more of a uniform look try and keep your paper flat.

Once you are done with this just lay them out to dry. I used my oven racks, which seemed to work great, although the racks did leave some line marks on the paper. I have seen some people even bake their paper on a low heat. You can play around with this part and see what works best.

This stained paper works great for letter writing or even as a gift when paired with pretty paper like shown above. I hope you'll give it a try!

How is everyone's week going? I cleaned my whole house yesterday and it feels so good to have everything all tidy! I am excited to get home today after work and crochet my little hands off:)

besitos,
rebecca

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