One thing we don’t have much of around the house (yet) is wall art. Actually, come to think of it, there are only TWO pieces of art hanging on the walls in the entire house (the Rare Prints sign in the living room and the Richmond Destination print in the hall bathroom). That’s it. I think it’s because our “vision” is just starting to come together. In my head, art is kind of like the “icing on the cake” to a room. So, it will all come together in due time.

A while back, we mentioned that we moved the antique green dresser from the foyer to the laundry room. Right now, it’s pretty much empty and the drawers don’t slide out very well (we’ve got a solution to that though). But once it’s organized and functional, it’s going to be our “central hub” for outgoing mail, keys, Bentley’s leash, etc. We’re planning on using the lower drawers for things like extra batteries, light bulbs, small tools, etc. Organization = awesome, so I’m pretty excited about it.

Over the “hub”, we want to do a small gallery wall made up of things that are special to us and tell the story of our little family. Things like our marriage certificate, a few wedding and honeymoon photos, Bentley (of course!) and maybe a baby photo or two. After reading this, my cousin texted me asking if she needed to start planning a baby shower. Um, noooo! To clarify, I meant baby photos of me and Greg, haha! Whoa. Okay, moving on… I used Photoshop to show Greg was I was envisioning, and this is what I came up with…

We’ve mentioned it a few times, but the very first thing we did once the house was ours (besides gutting the hall and master bathrooms) was paint every single nook and cranny. The other day, I came across my and Greg’s paint shirts. Now that the house is completely painted, they’ve just been sitting in the closet. Even if we were to do some major painting again soon, these shirts are worn out and and ready to retire.

Over our many weekends of painting, we had a lot of fun, and the shirts kind of tell the story…. Like when we painted the front door, for some reason the song, “My Heart Will Go On” from Titanic was going through my head and I couldn’t stop singing it. So Greg drew a heart on my shirt with the red door paint. And when we spilled oil-based primer all over the floor in the foyer, I was trying to clean it up and had it all over my hands. So naturally, I planted a handprint right in the middle of Greg’s stomach. The back of my shirt has my little brother’s initials as well as handprint on it – and a huge roller mark that he thought was hilarious. The stories go on and on… like Rose’s heart… on the Titanic.

I actually got a little teary because I felt like they were a big piece of “us” and our first steps into the world of home-ownership. Is that weird? I wasn’t about to get rid of them, but I didn’t want to have them stashed in the closet forever either. So, I decided to get a little crafty.

I cut out a section of each shirt and taped the pieces taught into a 2-opening Pottery Barn fame (that we originally had on our photo ledge in the bedroom of our first place). A few minutes later, we had the first piece for our gallery wall…

Cute, right? I really like the way it turned out, and it makes me happy every time I walk by it. It looks almost like abstract art!

Oh, yeah… the little owl. I’m constantly fishing change out of the washing machine because Greg leaves it (and guitar picks) in his pockets. So I got this little owl bank (here from ZGallerie) to have a place for Greg to put his loose change when he comes in the door. The next things on the list are a dish for keys, a hook for Bentley’s leash, and, of course, more frames and fun things to put in them.

Confession: I want to be Barefoot Contessa. Okay, let’s back up a sec… One thing that has always been in the back of my mind when cooking is the fact that I would love to cook with fresh herbs — like Barefoot Contessa. In her super-calm, Hamptons way, she’s all like, “Now we’re going to add some fresh rosemary. Mmmmm, that smells good. I always use fresh herbs from my garden.” Yeah. The only rosemary I know is Rosemary Clooney who played Betty Haynes in White Christmas.

Last week, Katie (from Bower Power) and Sherry (from Young House Love) issued this season’s Pinterest Challenge! The whole concept of the Pinterest Challange is going beyond “pinning” and moving toward the “doing” side of things. Having been busy pinning herb planter ideas to my heart’s content, I had a perfect set of projects in mind to pull inspiration from…

Okay, here’s what we’re looking at…
1. I love the clothespin idea! It’s simple and sweet–not to mention easy to assemble. Project pinned here from here.
2. The idea of having three different herbs to choose from is nice, and it’s something I think I would like in our kitchen. I also like how they’re unified by a white tray. Project pinned here from here.
3. I really like the old, reclaimed wood look of this herb box. I’m literally obsessed with reclaimed wood finishes right now. It gives the piece character, and really pops out against the white wall. Pinned here from here.

So, in the spirit of the Pinterest Challenge, I smooshed all of these inspirations together, and this is what I came  up with…

The project was a lot of fun and really easy! Not to mention I enjoyed the accomplishment of completing a project inspired by things I’ve pinned. I was as happy as a bird with a french fry. A pig in a peach orchard. Here’s how it all went down…

To make a spiffy herb planter, you only need four things…

• One 5 oz Tuna Can
• 21 Clothespins
• Dark Walnut Stain Marker
• Oil-Rubbed Bronze Spray Paint

I started out by getting the most tedious part out of the way first: staining the clothespins. You can find stained clothespins on the internet, but most are around $10 for 10. I was able to get 80 clothespins from Ben Franklin Crafts for around $8, and the stain marker was about $7. Even though staining them individually took a little time, it was a lot cheaper. Plus, DIYing is so much more satisfying, right? Right.

First, take each clothespin apart. By doing this, you can easily get the stain in all of the nooks and crannies, and you don’t discolor the silver spring. Just make sure you don’t stretch the springs too much when you’re taking them off. Otherwise, when you go to clip the completed clothespins onto the can, they won’t hold on tightly. Next step: color away! I decided to go with a stain marker rather than using the brush/rag method because I figured it would be a lot neater. I was able to stain all of the clothespins while sitting at the bar in the kitchen watching a movie, and there was almost no mess at all – except for a little stain on my fingers. There were lots of variations in the wood, so some ended up being lighter/darker than others. But that’s okay! When I got done putting them all back together, it gave them a cool, reclaimed wood look. (Like inspiration #3.)

The stain really soaked into the clothespin pieces, and there was no real need to wipe them down, but you can if you want to – as the directions on the marker says, it’s optional. After laying out for a few hours, they were dry enough to put back together. Greg actually ended up putting them back together for me because he’s nice like that – and his hands are stronger.

When it came to prepping the tuna cans, I started off by running them through the dishwasher because I wanted to make sure the tuna smell was completely gone. One thing I actually do know about rosemary is that it isn’t supposed to smell fishy! On inspiration photo #1, you can sort of see the can through the spaces between the clothespins. Since they kept their clothespins natural, it looks fine. But since we went for a darker look, I decided to tone down the silver by applying a light coat of oil-rubbed bronze spray paint that I already had on hand.

Once the cans were completely dry, it was time to assemble the planters! The assembly process isn’t rocket science – just clip the pins onto the cans and rock ‘n roll. Just make sure the edges of the pins are touching each other on the inside of the can. That will make them nice and evenly spaced on the outside.

I transfered the baby herbs we picked out at Lowe’s (rosemary, dill, and chives) to our new planters, et voila… I’m one step closer to being Barefoot Contessa! Okay, it’s one baby step. But it’s a step nonetheless…

I put the three planters on a long, white platter that picked up from Home Goods (it was only $9.99) to add some contrast and make them easier to transport when I need to move them to cook/clean (like inspiration #2).

The cool part about this project is that it’s two-fold. If the herbs die – which won’t surprise me because I’ve killed every plant we’ve ever owned – I can use them as votive candle holders! Holla!

Be sure to check out the other Pinterest Challange projects over at Young House Love, Bower Power, The Great Indoors and Hi Sugarplum . I’m sure you’ll have a lot of pinning to do!

Oh, and one more thing… We’re up for a JDR Blogger Award in the Remodeling category! If you haven’t voted yet, just click here. It only takes two clicks and there’s no registration required. The winner gets hooked up with $500 and a spiffy award for display. We really appreciate your support!

Now I’m off to make use of that tuna by making some tuna salad! ; )

For months, I’ve been keeping paint swatches of the colors we’ve used in our house in my wallet just in case I happen to come across fabric or wall art that might look good somewhere. The only problem was, the swatches were so small, it was hard to really get a good idea of how the combination would look.

The obvious solution was to make something a little larger that would accurately capture the wall color. It didn’t need to fit in my wallet, just my purse. Of course, this isn’t exactly the biggest problem in the world, so it just sat in the back of my head, and I didn’t really give it much more thought until I stumbled upon this at Office Max in the scrapbook/craft section:

It’s 5 pages of 6″x6″ chipboard, made into a “book” with a metal ring and cut into a cool pattern. I’m not sure what they are normally used for, but it looked like a good alternative to my teensy weensy paint chips.

When I got home, I gathered the paint from the shed. At the moment, we only have four paint colors, including the trim, so I’m just saving the fifth card until we have another paint color to add to the mix. Now, when it comes to painting, I tend to make a mess. Apparently I’m not coordinated enough or something. I don’t know. So, just in case, I laid down some kraft paper in the dining room, and set each card on a paper plate to dry:

Once they were dry, I put the cards back on the ring and ta da! New and improved, larger handy dandy paint swatches for when I’m on the go:

These swatches are so much fun to use, I ended up making a second set to keep in my desk.

Now, I’m not sure what I’d do without these. They’re small enough to fit in my purse, but large enough that I can get a real idea of what something might look like against our walls. The perfect solution to a small problem!

How about you? Any on the go decorating tips up your sleeve?