New Shelves & DIY Bookends

My very kind and generous husband had a great idea of putting up new shelves in our apartment. We had an old wood book shelf that we were using for DVDs and Blu-Rays but it was getting full and getting full fast. We had a great empty wall for this idea. When we put up the shelves and started putting up all of the DVDs and Blu-Rays we knew right away we needed bookends...

We started shopping for bookends and found the cute 'a to z' ones at Barnes and Noble (see second to last shelf). They were around $50.00! Kind of pricey to me for bookends! 

So I'm kind of addicted to Instagram (follow me! @jessicaneedham) and I follow Elsie from A Beautiful Mess and this weekend she put up a picture of a spray painted brick for a bookend. That got me thinking...I could use vintage looking wrapping paper instead of spray paint! Then my husband said, "why don't you use the vintage fabric you have just laying around?" ...So that's just what I did...

Brick bookends wrapped in vintage fabric... (see 3rd shelf in above photo)

You'll Need:

- 2 bricks (43 cents a piece at Lowe's!)

-vintage fabric (check the thrift stores, so cheap)

- Scissors

- Glue gun

Cut your fabric just big enough to wrap you brick, you don't want too much extra fabric

Wrap it just like you would wrap a gift and everywhere you'd put tape use the glue gun instead

Simple as that!

(see 2nd shelf)

Aren't they pretty! Super easy too!

Flowers Everywhere in Your Home

One of my new goals for 2012 is to be happy hanging out at home. We live in a tiny apartment and we love the location and the place it self but it's kind of an old place. Little by little we decided we'll do little projects here and there to spruce up the place. It makes us proud and happy to be in our apartment. 

So far we: 

- put up shelves in our dining area for my Pyrex

- we made a pretty faux flower lamp

- made a wall in our dining area chalkboard

Another little thing I have been doing about every 2 to 3 weeks is buying a cheap bouquet of flowers from the grocery store. All you need is 1 bunch that usually costs $7 to $10. I never spend more than that.

This bunch I paid $7.99 for.

You'll need little jars or bottles. ( I used recycled jam jars, Martinelli's apple juice bottles, and old mini glass vases I found)

When you get your flowers at the store make sure you grab a few of those flower food packets. I use a good amount in each little vase and my flowers sometimes last up to 3 weeks!

Trim your flowers and seperate them in different arrangements. Have fun with this! 

I even use yarn for decoration around the jars...

Then stick them all over the house!

It brightens up areas.

It's funny how something so small, makes me so happy. It really makes a room cute!

Do it! I bet you'll get addicted to having flowers always around, like me!

Thrifty 4- Pyrex Heaven

Last weekend my husband and I went to Santa Barbara just to spend the day there. The weather was perfect so we had lunch and before we went home we decided to stop by a thrift store to look for some Pyrex.

My husband is getting pretty good at spotting them. He usually finds them all first, then I give them a once over and usually buy them.

This one (I looked up online) is a promotional Pyrex Cinderella bowl

The outside is frosty white with gold leaves and baby blue on the inside

These casserole dishes we also found there! The bottom one (the black on white) had its original holder with it. I've never seen the holders before!

Once we get in a Pyrex hunting mode we can't stop! So we went to Ojai before coming home.

Here's what we found!

This at the first store...

This one at the second...

and oh my! Yes we found another full set! 

Aren't these pretty!? Not a scratch on them.

My shelves are getting pretty full! But I won't stop hunting. This just means I'll have to look for a pretty hutch for them all eventually.

I also found these Fire King mugs by Anchor. They were only 50 cents each! I see more succulents being planted here in the near future...

Happy Friday!

DIY Chalkboard Wall

This is a fun idea to spruce up a wall in your kitchen or dining room! It's so much fun!

You'll Need:

- Chalkboard Paint (around $13.00 at Lowe's)

- Paint brushes

- Painter's Tape

- Chalk

- Patience (you'll want to start writing on it right away!)

I was so excited I forgot to get a full before picture!

(thanks babe, for getting the top of the wall!)

Let the paint dry for 24 hours...

it's hard to wait, but it's worth it.

Peel off the tape...

I was trying it out...

It worked! When you're painting you don't think it will come out like a chalkboard, but it does.

LOVE my new wall...

50 Friends :)

When/If I reach 50 friends/members (through Google) I will do another pair of custom slippers GIVEAWAY! Spread the word!

Faux Flower Lamp

I'm really excited about this project I finished in one afternoon! I, of course, got the idea from Pinterest. 

It's a plain paper lamp decorated with faux flowers. 

You'll Need:

- A Paper Lamp (I got mine from World Market)

- Glue Gun (With lots of refill sticks!)

- Faux flowers ( Garland is the cheapest if you can find it. You get a lot for your money. I got mine from Michael's.) 

I started by cutting of the flowers from the garland and glueing them in rows around, from the bottom up.

This is what it looks like finished!

 You can find the original website I used here.

Please try this! It's so easy! Let me know if you do. Have fun.

Vintage Canister Obsession

So it's been awhile and I'm going to try to start blogging more. I have some ideas lined up so keep following! 

I wanted to share with you all my current obsession with vintage kitchen canisters. I recently purchased these lovelies from Pocket Full of Heirloom on Etsy. 

I was very please when I received these in the mail! 

The packaging was so adorable.

Even the tissue paper was vintage! 

(old sewing patterns!)

I'm in love with my little kitchen. I'm in the process of fixing up my apartment a little so look out for some future apartment tour posts. Meanwhile look at these beauties! 

Happy Friday Everyone! Hope you have a great weekend.

Here's a sneak peak of a baby blanket I'm working on for a friend of mine...