A little bit of TLC // my new vanity

As soon as I moved in with Trent, I took it upon my self to remodel (mostly just paint) the spare bedroom and turn it into my dressing room/closet. This project seemed to take FOREVER since I travel during the week and there are only 48 short hours during the weekend (and painting takes about 700). However, I am officially DONE with all of the hard stuff and now just need to pick out some new bedding and decor, which, thanks to my indecisiveness, will probably take another couple of months.

ANYWAY, the whole point of this post, is to say that I have created the perfect little vanity for this room! Thanks to my good friend, Christy (who has one heck of an eye for antiques/seeing the potential in other people's junk), we turned this piece of crap desk:

Into this cute little vanity:

I can't get over how great it turned out! I took this picture before it was one hundred percent finished (the old nail holes by the knobs have been painted over now), but you get the picture. I bought the desk for $10, bought 15 bucks worth of paint, and spent $8 on new knobs, for a grand total of 33 big ones. I saw a comparable vanity at Bed Bath & Beyond today for $179. Holy crapaloni, I scored.

If you're reading this, Christy, thanks for all your help!!

My Book of Cards

HI!



I have recently jumped on the Pinterest bandwaggon and this new obsession of mine led me to an adorable, and incredibly easy, DIY keepsake. I have a few hoarding tendancies (but not the gross TLC kind), and I can honestly say that I cannot remember ever throwing away a single one of my birthday cards, graduation cards, Christmas cards, or any other greeting card that I've received during my entire 24 years of life. This little project gave me an excuse to finally sort through a couple shoe boxes full of these cards and after the sort was complete, I created a book of birthday cards.

Let me break it down for you.... :)

Step 1: Find yourself a piece of cardboard (I used a shoebox), cut it into a rectangular shape (a little bit taller and wider than your biggest greeting cards), and decorate it however you please. Cut a second piece of cardboard (the same shape and size) to use as the back of your book.

Step 2: Use a hole-punch to make two holes in each card. This step was very stressful for me as I felt like I was ruining these precious keepsakes with each squeeze of that tiny puncher. But, remain calm! In the end, your keepsakes will be enhanced (not ruined!). Also, it is VERY important that the holes are the same distance apart on each card--I made them 4 inches apart. Note: your cardboard cover will probably be too thick for your hole-punch to handle. Instead, I used a hammer and nail to create the hole and it was easy as pie.

Step 3: Cut two pieces of ribbon (the thinner the better) and string your back cover and all of your cards through. Make sure to cut the ribbon plenty long so you can add to this book as your card collection grows.

Step 4: String your cardboard cover through last, add a button to the end of each piece of ribbon, tie the ribbon ends together to make a bow, and waLA--you're done!

I plan on making a book for each holiday--Christmas, Valentine's Day, Halloween, etc.--and will set them out as a coffee table decoration (someday when I have a coffee table, that is) during each holiday season.

Happy Crafting!