Valentine Garland

I thought I would celebrate today by sharing a tutorial for a simple, little decoration I made...
So here it is, my Valentine Garland!
This box of old business cards was just waiting to be turned into something useful (and now you know that I never throw anything away)...
So I attacked a stack of the cards with a big-ol' paper cutter, and I turned them into little triangles.
So the other night I pulled out a couple of bottles of paint, my jar of brushes- and I got to work!
And after a few minutes, I had slathered all of the triangles in pink or red.
But they were pretty boring that way, so I used a piece of dowel and added polka dots up the side of each pennant.
After leaving them to dry overnight, they got a little curly.
(But it was nothing a quick press under an iron couldn't smooth out!)
After I had all my triangles flattened out, I placed them in a row (alternating pink and red)...
And used my trusty hot glue gun to adhere them to a piece of paper twine.
And after lots of glue (and only one burned finger), I had some completed garlands ready to hang.
I chose to hang them on a door in my hallway- a subtle yet festive way to celebrate Valentine's Day!
Overall, I was pretty pleased with this project! And not only was it cheap, but it was a great way to re-use some old cards that were destined for the trash!
Thank you for visiting- I hope you have a happy Valentine's Day!

Finally finished!

I'm not sure if you remember, but a couple of weeks ago I was lamenting over the fact that I still hadn't finished decorating my office. (Here's a link to that post.) And believe it or not, I'm going to make my end-of-the-month-deadline and reveal my finished office! But before you see the final product, I just have to show you what I started with:
I'd forgotten that I'd taken these pictures this summer before I moved into my office. As you can see, it was pretty rough in the beginning, and while I'd made the office functional for the last months, it was still lacking...
Until now!
Not too bad, right? I must admit, I was extremely lucky these past couple of weeks, and almost all of the recent decorating changes were made for free! For example the associate dean moved and gifted her furniture to myself and a couple of other coworkers (which is why I get to have a Pottery Barn rug and quality furniture in my office)... and the Aida poster was a gift from one of my students who thought it would look nice in my office... isn't that sweet?

My desk area also received a bit of rejuvenation, and I'm doing my best to keep things neat and tidy (which is sometimes a little difficult).
And I finally put those shelves to good use by using them for all sorts of storage!
So while it might have taken me a while to make my office "my own"... I'm pretty pleased with the results! What do you think?
Thanks for stopping by- I hope you have a great weekend!

Spontaneous shopping

There are hundreds of stores in NYC that I love to shop in... and for the sake of my budget I try not to! But the other day my friend invited me to join her in a quick spree through Crate and Barrel. And I agreed, because I hadn't been there in ages and I was convinced I could spend 30 minutes in the store without buying something.
But I was wrong... very wrong...
Because Crate and Barrel was selling colorful, braided rag rugs!!

I know- of all the things at Crate and Barrel, I went and fell for a rug! That might seem odd, but #1: I love rag rugs...
And #2: my foyer rug was sad. And I mean SAD!
So when I saw that colorful, quality rug at Crate and Barrel, I just knew it would make the perfect addition to my front hallway!
So much better, don't you agree? I guess little forays into fun stores are okay... especially when they spruce up my foyer! (Wow- fitting the word foray and foyer into one sentence was harder than I thought!)
Thanks for visiting- I hope you have a great day!

Still more work to do...

In August, I moved into my own office at work.
I had grand plans of decorating it in with photos of my travels...
And other trinkets from my vacations.
Well, 5 long months later, I haven't done much. While I framed a few photos, they're still occupying floor space...
While their paper placeholders have been taped to the wall for months!
Even some of the pretty picture frames I've been given by students and professors sit empty, just waiting to be filled with smiling faces!
FINALLY, I decided yesterday that 5 months is WAY too long to toil in a half-completed office... so I'm sharing my shame with you in an attempt to get in gear and finish decorating! I always work better under a deadline, so I'm giving myself until the end of the month to tackle my tiny alcove of an office... here's hoping I can get it done!

Thanks for visiting- I hope you have a great day!

It's Christmastime in the city...

Last night, as I was walking home from work, I was day dreaming about the holidays.
And as I walked, I started walking past all sorts of holiday decorations... and I had an inspiration...
From now until Christmas, I'm only going to blog about the holidays! I'm really excited about it- so I hope you're in the mood for some cheer!
Make sure to stop back in the coming weeks- I've never done something like this before, so this is sure to an interesting experiment! I hope you have a great day!

Bronner's: CHRISTmas WONDERLAND

The last thing I did in Michigan before I headed back to NYC was visit Bronner's!
As the website states:

Bronner's was founded in 1945 by Wally Bronner. When Wally painted his first sign over 50 years ago, little did he dream that his small business would one day become the world's largest Christmas store visited by millions of people. Open 361 days of the year, Bronner's features over 50,000 trims and gifts, including Christmas ornaments, artificial Christmas trees, Christmas lights, Nativity scenes, Christmas decorations, collectibles, and more.

Bronner's is practically a Michigan landmark, and I love visiting at any time of the year...
But a visit this close to Christmas is just too good to be true!
As you can imagine, as the world's largest Christmas store Bronner's is HUGE and carries an endless variety of holiday themed items!
From forests of artificial trees...
To walls full of ornaments... Bronner's has it all!
If you're ever in the area, I highly recommend stopping by! Thanks for visiting this blog- I hope you have a wonderful weekend!!

House full of holiday cheer!

When I was home during Thanksgiving, I was able to help my family decorate their house for Christmas!
I haven't been able to do that in a while, so it was really fun to get all the decorations out of the attic and put them up throughout the house!
We started with the tree, which meant unpacking lots of boxes full of ornaments.
As we got to work, I couldn't help but check out all of my ornaments... like this ball from my alma mater!
Almost all of our ornaments represent something from our lives- from trips we've taken, hobbies we're involved in... even cities/states that I've lived in!
As we unpacked and started to decorate the tree, I had a blast looking through our ornament collection and recalling why each one was special or important! For example, when I was a kid I was heavily involved in dance, so I also have quite a few ballerina ornaments.
This ornament is the first ornament I ever received- it was given as a gift to my parents before I was even born... it's still in pretty good shape, right?
We especially love this bell, because my great-grandmother made it!
And my aunt made these little booties for my first Christmas- so sweet!
These rocking horses are just a few of a collection I have from my other aunts. Every year they purchased me a new ornament from the collection, so we have quite a few rocking horses hanging throughout the tree!
As you might imagine, we've accumulated quite a few ornaments over the year, so our tree is pretty laden with decorations.
So while it might take us a while to put together (my Dad is in charge of hanging the ornaments up high because he's so tall)...
The finished product is worth all that hard work!
But the tree is only a small part of our family's holiday decorations!
My mom has a cute collection of smiley snowmen...
And they also have a beautiful winter village that we set up in the dining room.
Isn't it a lovely addition for the holidays?
Thank you for joining me on this little tour throughout our family's decorations- I hope you have a great day!!