Beauty in the Abandoned

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Quirky, Comfy, Eclectic Living Room [Decorating the Dream Apartment]

Recently, I have decided that next semester I will be taking time off of school, and time on in real life. I've come to a convenient time in my academic career to do so, as I will graduate at the same time regardless of whether I take classes this semester or not. Any opportunity to learn outside of the lecture hall, I'll take. For the first time in my life I have the opportunity to get out, to go somewhere far away, live alone, and learn about myself. After a long discussion with my Mother, she said "you want to run away".  My response was "Yes." I am running away, and I couldn't be more excited for my adventure.

A part of this journey involves living alone for the first time! With that comes so many amazing opportunities. What's more exciting than having your own apartment? Being able to decorate it. Duh. ;)

Realistically, I'll be working with a budget of like $50. But screw it. I wanna dream. My dream starts with an amazing Black and White print from www.invaluable.com, an online auction website. They've got tons of great paintings and prints for a fraction of the price you'd find elsewhere. Bid away.

The "Interpreter" Poster and Black and White print would serve as the focal pieces in a small gallery wall. Of course, I'll be renting; so break out those Command Strips! Honestly, after living in 3 dorms within the last year and a half, I swear by them.

The Chair and Couch are both from the awesome site www.joybird.com

Want a custom piece of furniture?! You can select nearly any color you would like for the upholstery, including leather. AND you can select the stain on for the legs/frame! I'm in love. No, I'm not sponsored by them. [But I wouldn't be opposed.] 

Add a few other midcentury pieces, an awesome Moravian star [Have you seen the one I made yet?! Click here], some comfy pillows, a colorful rug, and you've got yourself a Pretty Little room.

Lets just say I wouldn't be opposed to a Wayfair sponsorship, either. I mean, this rug?!?!

Take in the Gorgeousness. TAKE IT IN.

Thank you. 

Sources

Chair

Rug

Moravian Star

B&W Print

Lamp

"Interpreter" Print

Couch

Throw Pillows

Coffee Table

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Hey hey! It's been a while! Exciting updates for Pretty Little Lady.

Hey hey, y'all! 

It's been a while.

I'll be finishing up my freshman year of college in just one week. The last month or so has been busy with projects and finals, and I've had the opportunity to do some pretty darn awesome stuff!

Like, this happened.

I got to see Tramped by Turtles in Concert.
They're a bluegrass type band from Duluth, Minnesota. They're kinda like Mumford and Sons, but better. Never heard of them? Check out their music here.

The next weekend I partied it up in Iowa with my friends form my former college.

Note the gorgeous weather. I got sunburnt, and two days later it was snowing again.

Welcome to the Midwest.

Then last weekend, I unleashed my inner nerd. 

Recognize the sexy gentleman in the picture below? That's none other than Matt Smith, who played the 11th Doctor in Doctor Who. I got to see him on a panel at the Minneapolis Wizard World Comic Con.

Of course you would know this if you followed me on twitter, in addition getting to sneak peaks into the next Pretty Little Lady Tutorials.

Long story short, Matt Smith lives with me now.






Fine. He's cardboard, but I still think it counts.

Oh, you're not following me on Twitter?

Don't worry. All you have to do is press that button.

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Follow @Misskaerose

The next thing is very exciting for this blog. A few weeks ago I just so happened to win this little contest.

All I had to do was submit a photo of a project I've been procrastinating on and write up a short description of this project.

Check out Duluth Trading Company's Facebook Page to see the other winners and
upcoming promotions!

With the prize money, I'll be building a geodesic dome tent! Read my [slightly sucking up] description that I submitted below!

Have I expressed my obsession with for geodesic domes on here before?

Weeeellllll, I've pinned many of them. What's this button below? A pinterest follow button?

I think you should click that one too. Just sayin'.

Follow Misskaerose

If you're interested in learning more about me, subscribe to my new personal blog.

www.katherineannrose.blogspot.com

Stay tuned for a decor DIY and some amazing geometric tutorials soon!

Yes. There is a lot of shameless self promotion in this post. Deal with it peoples.

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(#TBT) Power Tools are a Girl's Best Friend

Happy Throwback Thursday! Today, we're throwing it back to my first (and only, really) interior design project. This is the basement bathroom of my parent's home. 

The room was completely DIYed, but I never broke down the projects into their own posts.

I'll be re-visiting a project or two from the room over the next few months.

The vanity has quite a story of it's own. When I began designing the bathroom, I was set on using a dining room table as the vanity. I had even chopped the table in half, and cut the hole out for the sink.

As time went on, I fell out of love with the table. I didn't feel like it was the right height or style anymore. The idea of using a dresser was born. Let's just say it took a while. About a year, maybe? I'm kinda a procrastinator, and I wasn't going to settle for anything short of perfect. 

Eventually, my mom gave me an ultimatum. If you can't find a dresser in two weeks, you have to use the table. Well, day 14 came. I'd pretty much given up hope, but decided to stop by Goodwill one last time. And there it was. In all it's [perfect height, depth, and width] glory! The price tag? $25.

AHHH! I screamed! &*$@# FINALLY! Huzzah! Take that, mother. (JK, she's pretty awesome.)

Enter the power tools. Turning a dresser into a vanity isn't too complicated.
You can see a full tutorial over at DIY Network.

It mostly involves cutting out room for the sink and plumbing parts.
Sadly, this leaves most of the drawers pretty unusable.

A few coats of polyurethane later, and much assistance in the plumbing department, it was completely installed and operational!

Be sure to subscribe for a new #TBT next week! 

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Hiding Behind a Sheet & Splattered in Paint? Dart/Balloon Art DIY!

Growing up, my all time favorite movie was The Princess Diaries.
The movie came out when I was 6 years old.
When I first saw it, I was majorly in the middle of my princess phase. Still holding out hope that I'm royal.

Anyways. Remember this scene?! Bucket list worthy.

Well, I decided to start ticking things off of that list!

I fell in love with the following balloon painting:

Source: My Good Morning

This is definitely a different style than the movie, and I plan on eventually making both styles.

Ok, let's get started! 

Gather the following supplies:

[I really using suggest all of these. Hint: I didn't]

-A canvas

-Tons of drop clothes 

-Lots of coordinating paint colors

-Lots of balloons (I used about 16, but suggest more)

-Darts

-Pins
- Metal Key Ring (optional)

I cut down costs by DIY-ing my own canvas. I simply put two layers of indoor wall paint on an inexpensive piece of cotton fabric. After it dried, I stretched and stapled it to a thrifted bulletin board. Not perfect, but hey! It's going to be covered in splattered paint anyways!

Next is the setup. This involved lots of sheets/ drop-cloths around my workshop to cover things that couldn't get paint on them. Even if things are far away, don't take the risk. Paint flies, people!

BUT if you do it outside, you really only need one underneath.

Outdoors wasn't an option for me at this time, but I feel like that'd be much better! Splatter prevention and all.. hehe. 

 The next step is to fill your balloons with paint. 

First, blow up your balloons a bit to stretch them out before filling with paint. 

Here is where the key ring comes into use. 

This created a bigger hole, and helped prevent paint ingestion... 

OOOO. They paint in the balloon looked pretty cool in person...

Experiment with a variety of color combinations, amounts of paint, and amount of air in the balloons.

Then, randomly arrange your balloons and pin them to your canvas.

Then comes the fun part!!

Confession time. I didn't actually use darts. I couldn't find any, and was too lazy/cheap to go buy some.

I first attempted a Macgyver dart, made with a pencil, eraser, and pin.

I don't think it was exactly heavy enough or something. It kinda just bounced off of the balloons.

 After chucking 3 random pointy things at the canvas (my mother's suggestions!), I gave up.

SO! Solution time! 

Macgyver dart was back, but not really as a dart. Prepare to be splattered, people!

This involved a bit of hiding behind the drop cloth. Didn't do much in the splatter avoidance.

After all the balloons were popped, I did a little splattering to add a bit more color.

Splatter avoidance? Eh, I tried.

After a little finger painting, it was perfect!

Macgyver dart was preeeetty afterwards :D

And so were my hands.

TADA! Finished piece.

I apologize for the lack of nice staged photos. They'll be coming eventually!

This thing was still wet when I drove back to school.

Overall, NEXT TIME, we're going HAM.
More balloons, more paint, more like The Princess Diaries, and actual darts!

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