Casey's Favorite Things

I am diligently working on some new items to show you guys but I don't have anything ready yet. I will also be taking a lot of new photos to replace some of my old ones as I've noticed how bad they are.

Here is what I have in the works:

1.) My bookshelf re-do is coming along nicely though the rain has kept me from painting it. It has rained for four days. lol. I do have the backdrop papered though so the rose wrapping paper work, however, I had to work that wrapping paper to death as as soon as it hit the glue it started to bubble. Spray adhesive would have been much more usable but the local Walmart didn't have any.

2.) My Stag head tutorial I pulled off a great blog. I am free handing the drawing because I wanted it bigger. so write now I have half the pieces cut out and papered with some fabulous rose wrapping paper I found, this time I'm using some stencil adhesive I have on hand. It's working well and so far the Stag Head looks like a Deer. lol.

3.) I'm making a second paperback book wreath, but this time in Twilight themed, I bought a Twilight New Moon book at the Goodwill and so far I just need to add a few more crepe paper roses (in black and red) of course.

4.) I have an awesome Christmas turned Halloween candelabra I will be showing you in the next few days as well.

5.) And of course Thrift Store finds for the weekend. Always fun to see what a girl can buy for $10.

So to tide you guys over I wanted to show you some of MY favorite things on the net that give me inspiration.

1.) An awesome wooden hanger re-do from Project Wedding. Now I'm not married nor am I getting married but I love this idea with scroll work or even my initials. I'm completely redoing my room so you guys are my guinea pigs and will be seeing a lot of what I do.

I can totally see this in pastel pink and white.


2.) These canisters from Tinkered Treasures etsy shop, they are so CUTE and very vintagy. They are sold on her etsy however I don't think it would be too hard to DIY these. I've seen similar stickers on eBay and Collections Inc.

Add a little paint in the color of your choice, possibly a glaze to keep it from cracking or chipping and it would be fabulous.

3.)  Now one of my FAVORITE websites of all time has to be Hostess with the Mostess. She creates some of the most FANTASTIC parties you have ever seen and I love browsing the real parties pages to see actual parties that regular people have planned. It's very fun and gives you TONS of ideas for your own parties.

4.) Anything from Cake Stand Heaven is GORGEOUS. Just go there and check it out. Trust me you'll leave drooling.

So there you have it, some of MY favorite things. Granted I'm no Oprah, but hey, we need to share what we find to make the world a happier place, One etsy account at a time. lol.

Keep on the lookout for more tutorials and more transformations soon.

Book Page Wreath

I had seen a few tutorials on Pinterest that showed a few steps on how to make a book wreath, I fell in love with the idea, and wanted to make one of my own. I didn't want to put a lot of money into it however.

I bought a foam wreath at the Dollar Tree and picked up a .10 semi-damaged book at the Goodwill. Now I'm not one to damage a book, in fact I love books and feel they should all be kept around for as long as possible. This one however had some pages that were stuck together and some water damage, it was bound for the recycling bin so I gave it my own brand of recycling. I also used some pink streamer as well. I had the streamer already from a party I had thrown so I didn't have to purchase that, and it was a last minute addition.

The first thing I did was pull out all the useable pages from the book. The rest of pages including the cover went into the recycling bin. 

I HATED the green foam wreath and that's when I dug around into my craft bins and found the leftover pink streamer. I wrapped the whole wreath in the streamer...twice. It was so dark it peaked through. 

I then rolled each page, folded it in half and glued it to the wreath. I did this with each page and the end product looked great. The book I had chosen was pretty old and the pages had yellowed with age so it gave the whole book a shabby chic look that I adored. 

Something was still missing though. It was too plain. I needed some bling. I took the pink streamer and rolled it into pink roses. 

Roses are pretty easy to make, you just roll and fold, roll and fold and then in the end pinch the back and hot glue it down. 

I used a few roses, I didn't want to go too far out of the realm of what I was making. 

And this is my end result!

The pages did photograph a bit darker then they are in person because of the yellowing.

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My Blog To Do List!

Hi, everyone! I have a LOT I want to do this week. I am working on Twilight crafts for the upcoming release party and I have found some AWESOME crafts and tutorials on some blogs I am definitely going to be doing. I wanted to share my finds with you.

1.) I am going to use a display board (the tri-fold kind) and turn it into a Vampire Tattoo Parlor. I need to come up with a cute name though. We have gotten some of those wet and stick tattoos and those are always a hit at our parties. So I wanted to make a parlor. lol. :)

2.) I found this fantastic tutorial on Living with Lindsay. She has taken an old book and turned it into a fun wreath. Well I have a book that is a little water damaged and I was going to recycle that anyway so what better way then to make a fantastic piece of wall art for my bedroom? So I am really excited over this one. (NOTE: The picture to the right is from Lindsay's blog this is the fantastic wreath that I'm dying to make!)

3.) The House of Smiths has a fantastic tutorial on making crepe paper roses and then making a hanging rose ball with them, so very pretty, and I am really excited to be able to create some of these. I want to do them of course for the Twilight Party we are going with kind of a wedding theme (of course) and these would look really really great hanging up over the dinner table. (NOTE: The picture to the right is from the Smith's blog, and this is going to be such fun to make!)

4.) There is a great clipart post featuring a squirrel on The Graphic Fairy that is begging to become some type of woodsy wedding invitation. I'm not sure WHEN that will happen but it definitely will because I can see it in my head. lol :)

5.) And not something I can make but something I have definitely fallen in LOVE with. There are these awesome duvets at Cath Kidston that are beautiful. They are vintage Rose in pinks and blues. Very attractive and I've definitely got my eye on one of them.


6.) Chronicle Books Blog has a very FUN tutorial on making a deer head. I am all over this, seriously I've been wanting one forever but they are so extremely expensive, but this is a great tutorial complete with templates. (NOTE: Photo is NOT mine...yet. lol!)

Now the reason I'm so focused on decor right now is because...well...I don't have any. When it comes to wall art I have a serious lacking simply because I don't see much I like in the stores. It's all dark colors and grapes. Not much I can do with grapes, just saying. lol. I love vintage and bright colors and things that are visually interesting. Of course there will be more to come and whatever I make I will show it to you, even if it sucks! :)

Today , Tomorrow and the rest of the weekend..lol

 Today was slow at work, got some good training in which is nice. This weekend I have so incredibly much to do, I have to redo the entire kitchen, since we are hosting Thanksgiving here at the house I need the house to be presentable, so I have to paper and paint the kitchen, paint and fix the holes in the bathroom walls. The holes weren't there but the people before us had half-assed hung a towel rack that fell and in order to fix the problem I had to rip out their screws, in doing so it created big holes in the walls so luckily I got some patching stuff to fix it and thanks to my dad I know HOW to fix it with the patching stuff.  lol.

I've been reading a lot but haven't written a review in a few days, but keep a watch out for that later today, and also I have finally finally eked my way through most of what I wanted in the next chapter of The Interview. It's been messing with me, I'd write and then I'd delete, nothing seemed to be what I wanted.

Just a good solid ending on that chapter and I will have that posted tonight as well. Also I am going to work on a few crafts and redos this weekend, I KNOW busy! So here is my to-do list for the week.

- REDO Trash found chair in purple and maybe a bird? I don't know yet, I'm working on that. lol.
- REDO 8 Kitchen Chairs, yellow painted, fabric from Ikea possibly.
- Wash ALL wine glasses and water goblets
- Bake (peanut butter fudge, chocolate pound cake, etc, etc)
- PAINT AND PAPER THE KITCHEN --------
- Paint and fix holes in the Bathroom.
- Finish Foyer, also need to recover a pink chair, the fabric is UUUUGLY.
- Carpet clean, wash any blankets for stay overs, and definitely hang new Ikea bathroom towel racks.

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Updated Casey-Do List

1.) Cut out Barbie and Barbie heads on the Cricut.
2.) Mail Check to the Mortgage company
3.) Buy Book of Stamps
4.) Buy more Poster Board for little purses.
5.) Blog about little purses and invitations to Bachelorette party so you all know what I'm doing. (Blogged about invitations at least!)
6.) Pick Up Dress (this is in reference to Reagan's bridesmaid's dress.)
7.) Buy Tea
8.) Make Cupcakes or Brownies for next weeks lunches.
9.) Laundry
10.) Dishes
11.) Wash Purple Sheets
12.) Hang Purple Curtains
13.) Find Recipe for Samoa Cupcakes
14.) Write Adopted soldier
15.) Paint three random trash chairs for use in the living room. (1 will be pink and 2 will be sunny yellow)
16.) Finish painting the ugly 70's inspired foyer with a fresh coat of Buttercream Yellow.
17.) Set up Dinner/Lunch menu for next week.
18.) Hang Pink wrapping paper on the walls.
19.) Put together Adult Raffle Basket for Party
20.) Work on The Interview!!
21.) Frame and Hang NEW posters
22.) Work on Diaper Cake for photo purposes
23.) Work on Diaper Cake website!