Spring 2013 Pinterest Challenge: DIY Roman Shade

Since we finished the master bathroom about six months ago, I've been wanting to replace our crap-ola miniblinds with a Roman shade.  The trouble is that I could never make up my mind on a fabric.  Mr. GI finally guilted me into finishing it, so I looked in earnest last weekend for the perfect fabric -- and I found it on sale at JoAnn's:  Robert Allen's Baja Damask Greystone.  It was marked down to $10/yard (originally $20/yard), and I'm glad I swiped it up because it's no longer available online.  (They also have a beautiful blue version of the same pattern).  To spoil the ending, here is the finished product in our bathroom.

Christmas Crafts

Merry Christmas!  It's tough blogging about Christmas gifts because I don't want to give anything away to my family... so instead, here are the gifts I made last year!

Felt snowflake ornaments
I pinned a tutorial for felt ornaments courtesy of Purl Bee and thought I'd try it for my family gifts.  Besides a few mechanical problems (don't we all have love-hate relationships with our sewing machine?) it all turned out well.  The instructions were easy to follow and I got the fabric on a super sale on Black Friday from JoAnn's Fabrics.  Win!

Another Guest Bathroom: Guest Amenities

I hope you all enjoyed the reveal of E's guest bathroom earlier in the week!  It's just in the nick of time, too, because UGA football season (starting today!!) brings all sorts of guests to E's house.  She pretty much has a revolving door every fall (we also run our own bed and breakfast during football season).  :-)  With that in mind, we worked some guest amenities into E's guest bathroom.

Psst... in case you're curious, the font I used is "Channel" on PicMonkey.

Another Guest Bathroom: Complete!

A few months ago, I introduced you to my friend E's guest bathroom.  She had been renting a home for the past two years with a roommate and now has the place to herself.  We worked together to make a plan for her guest bathroom.  Here's how it turned out!

Summer Pinterest Challenge: $5 DIY Vintage Sign

It's that time again!  The fearless ladies (and fellas) behind Young House Love, Bower Power, Centsational Girl, and Ten June announced this summer's Pinterest Challenge last week. I made some window art last summer, framed paint chip art last fall, and the always fabulous redneck Mason jar chandelier this winter, when Sherry and Katie were nice enough to ask me to host!  So I was definitely on board with a challenge this go 'round!

Wrapping up the Winter Pinterest Challenge

Or, as I almost typed 233463847 times in the past few weeks, the Winterest Pinterest Challenge.  Maybe next time Katie and Sherry host the Winter Pinterest Challenge, they could rename it that.

I intended this post to come much earlier, but I was actually on vacation in Florida with the hubs when the Challenge went up, then went straight back to work.  So I've been sneaking in as much time as possible over the last week and a half to look over all your fabulous Pinterest crafts.  Let me tell you, I'm amazed at your talent, determination, and all-around creativity!  In case some of you haven't had a chance to read through all of the projects, I've plucked out a few of my favorites. 

Winter Pinterest Challenge: Mason Jar Chandelier

If you're coming over from Young House Love, Bower Power, or Hi Sugarplum, welcome!  Take a look around The Great Indoors.  I'd suggest starting by taking the House Tour or looking at the Project Archives.

I seriously did a big ol' happy dance when I got an invitation from Katie last week to participate in the winter edition of the Pinterest Challenge.  I started reading Young House Love back when it was This Young House about three years ago now, and then got caught up in the bacon-stravaganza at Bower Power not too much later.  So it kind of feels like these girls are family!  And I'm glad to get to know Cassie at Hi Sugarplum, too!

When I got on board with this challenge, I considered several different pins, like this fun stickered canvas inspired by Kate Spade, or a super easy pillow cover, or even starting in on my guest bathroom remake with a printed (shower) curtain.  But the one that really got me was this Mason jar chandelier on Style Me Pretty (see the pinned page here and the original post here with lots more inspiration; photography by Tanja Lippert Photography).

Announcing the Winter Pinterest Challenge!

I am honored (and frankly a little surprised!) to be amongst the great bloggers heading up the Winter Pinterest Challenge.  That's right-- Katie at Bower Power and Sherry at Young House Love are back at it again, and Cassie of Hi Sugarplum and I have been invited to join in on the fun.  And yes, it's totally less than two weeks until spring (and we've been having spring-like temps in Georgia for the past month), but you should know by know that this crew follows its own set of rules.

The idea of the Pinterest Challenge is that Katie and Sherry realized they had pinned all sorts of great ideas on their Pinterest boards that they should just do.  Sort of like an early Dude, Get On That Already challenge, except with Pinterest.  So they decided to team up once a season to create one project based on a pin.  You might remember the last few challenges I participated in, including summer's guest bedroom crayon wax paper artwork (and summery recipes for extra credit) and fall's framed paint chip art.

This time around we're putting out the challenge for all of you crafty folks to post your own projects by next Wednesday, March 14.  You don't have to do something too huge or time-intensive to participate (my past projects have been completely freeeee and only took a tiny bit of elbow grease each time), but please share if you create something!  You're welcome to use the Pinterest challenge banner in your own blog post, and make sure to link up to the hosts in your post, too.

P.S.  You can follow me on Pinterest here, and follow Katie, Sherry, and Cassie, too!  Come on-- you know you want to continue the vicious cycle.  If you still haven't heard of Pinterest, check out their About page and request to join the madness ASAP.  And in the interest of full disclosure, Pinterest doesn't endorse this challenge.

DIY Week and Pinterest Challenge: Paint Chip Art

If you're stopping by from Bower Power or Young House Love, welcome!  Take a look around The Great Indoors.  We're in the midst of DIY week!

It's that time again!  Thanks to Katie and Sherry, this season's Pinterest Challenge kicked me into gear and got me to finally publish all of my DIY week posts (some of those projects have been in the hopper for a while... oops).  If you still haven't heard of Pinterest, here's my last Pinterest Challenge post to fill you in.  Follow me with that cute red button at the top of the page!  (Or just click here, although the button is more fun...)

This time around, I decided to finally do something about the paint chip ideas I'd had stirring in my head.  (No pun intended...)  I've included both the original source and my pins for each of the ideas I considered, just in case you want to do some research and/or pinning of your own!

The Pinterest Challenge

Two of my favorite ladies, Katie of Bower Power and Sherry of Young House Love, decided to team up to pick one project per season from their Pinterest boards and create it.  Instead of, you know, pinning a bajillion images and never doing squat with them.  Here's Katie's post about the project and here's Sherry's.

{If you haven't heard of Pinterest, check out their About page.  And request to join ASAP.  Aaaand you can follow me with that cute little red button at the top of the page}

I thought it would be fun to participate in the link love, so I combed through my pins to find a project that I already had the materials for.  I narrowed it down to four options at first:  this cork garden marker, these cork drink coasters (remember what I said about us being alcoholics entertainers?  We drink lots of vino), these zucchini chips, or these melted crayon shapes.  Tough choices!