Showing posts with label favorite products. Show all posts
Showing posts with label favorite products. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Basement Renovation - The Reveal

Chad and I were so excited about the way our basement renovation turned out.  We've long had the "building bug" and this project just made us even more excited for future house projects. The basement has gone from my least favorite place in our house, to my absolute favorite... I LOVE to go down there now to do laundry (except for the carrying clothes up and down the stairs part which still drives me crazy!!) and we spend the vast majority of our "down" time downstairs now (pun!).  Hope you enjoy this little tour of our hard, fun work!

Coming down the steps, this is the view... 


I took out the clutter for a few pictures to show how the finished wall turned out... You'll probably notice how the paint color that we chose for here - Wedgewood Grey by Benjamin Moore - looks very different depending on the lighting... sometimes it's a light blue and sometimes it's a dusty bluish-grey: 



We keep Asher's crazy massive "cat condo" in the corner (not pictured) and a keyboard that we have no other good place to put :)


I designed this pretty dandelion out of vinyl and I hope one day to set up an etsy store and start selling this design and some of the others that I've made...


And Chad and I made this bench for the entryway space (more on how we made this in another post to come!!):


Now to the actual relaxing space!! 






Chad and I had a local furniture maker make us this cabinet (we don't have any knobs on it yet because we couldn't decide what we wanted...).  We searched high and low, near and far for a TV console that would work in our space and hold ALL our 400+ DVDs and Blurays.  I cannot speak highly enough about his work! We were so pleased that we decided to go with a local business.  It turned out to be cheaper than almost anything that we could find anywhere else, and it's the exact specifications/color that we wanted.  So pleased with it! (Also very pleased with the cool big screen TV we got to go along with it!) ;)

 

Chad also built some speakers into the ceiling along with the pot lights for a great surround sound system :)


I love having soft throws around this room... there is always one nearby to grab.  Just in the basement alone I have 7 right now! And I'm addicted to them... they always catch my eye in stores.  Chad makes fun of me because I can't keep myself from buying them!!


Plus I think fabrics are so important in a room like this to soften it and make it feel comfortable.  The sectional sofa and the pillows it came with (which Chad brought with him when he left home) is very comfortable and the color wasn't horrible with our other choices, so we decided to keep it and save some money.  We did get some new drapery, though, in a soft white color, almost burlap/linen texture. Plus how cute is the curtain rod we found??



I closed the blinds to help with some lighting issues but check out the gorgeous view we've got today due to snow a few days ago and an ice storm last night:


 
 
I love looking out the widow at that!  Speaking of looking out of windows, remember how we switched out the door to the patio to one that had a window in it... here's how that corner of the room looks now:



We made it into another little "entryway" space since we do use this door quite often to get in and out!  The bookcase and rug were also brought with Chad from his parent's house.  The bookcase fits so perfect in this spot!  Getting it "staged" is still a work in progress though... :)  Also, check out the view from this door... dreamy, icy, lovely winter. (I know most people don't like it because it causes a lot of problems, but you have to admit, it's beautiful!) ;)


We finished off the basement with some decor in a variety of grays/metals paired with wood grains/warmer tones.  Threw in some pretty clear glass pieces, and a bit of black and white to anchor it all together.






 
This space will be a work in progress, I'm sure, until the day we move... I'm always very slow to actually buy things (Chad makes fun of me because I oohh and aahh over things like crazy, but I can never bring myself to actually spend the money...) but over time I will slowly buy and incorporate new things! :)

Thanks for stopping by and checking out this "new" space and sharing in my excitement of it!  Just as a reminded of how far this space has come I'll leave you with a few pictures of what it used to look like.  In case you missed it, you can read about how it all got started and see all the progress pictures HERE.





I think we've definitely made an improvement! :)

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

My Top 20 Favorite Script Fonts




I threw together a compilation of my favorite script style fonts the other day because I use them on a lot of my Silhouette and crafting projects, and I wanted an easy way to remember which ones I love without having to go searching through the thousand or so that I have on my computer every time I need one. It's so addicting to add new beautiful fonts to your collection, but the downside is, the more you have, the harder it is to find the ones you love the most.  Since they are organized alphabetically on the computer, if you can't remember the name, you might be looking for a while!

I'm finding my little cheat sheet so handy, that I thought I'd put it up on my blog along with links to download these FREE fonts! If you're like me, you'll go download a few to add to your monster collection now, knowing that one day, one of these fonts will be The Perfect One for some or another project you're working on! And if you really want you can pin the pretty picture so that you can remember what they were later! :)



Free Script Style Fonts With Download Links:

1. KG Eyes Wide Open  {Download HERE}  
2. Lavenderia  {Download HERE}
3. Janda As Long As You Love Me  {Download HERE}
4. Janda Stylish Script  {Download HERE}
5. odstemplik  {Download HERE}
6. Janda Celebration Script  {Download HERE}
7. Euphoria Script  {Download HERE}
8. Freebooter Script  {Download HERE}
9. KG All Things New  {Download HERE}
10. konstytucyja  {Download HERE}
11. Champagne  {Download HERE}
12. Janda Cheerful Script  {Download HERE}
13. Sverige Script Demo  {Download HERE}
14. Parisienne  {Download HERE}
15. Great Vibes  {Download HERE}
16. Sail  {Download HERE}
17. Contribute  {Download HERE}
18. Janda Elegant Handwriting  {Download HERE}
19. Reliant (Limited Free Version)  {Download HERE}
20. Exmouth  {Download HERE}


Just in case you've never downloaded a font before and you want to put one of these on your computer, you just need to click on the link of the font you want and once it loads the website, click the 'download' button.  A box will pop up, select the 'open' option and click 'okay'.  A folder will open, probably with a few objects in it.  You want the one that ends in either .ttf or .oft.  If both file types are in there, just pick one, it doesn't really matter which.  Double click on that and it will open the font.  At the top toward the left there is an 'install' button.  Click that and it should tell you your font is being installed.  If this doesn't work, or if you have a mac, you can click here for different instructions or do a Google search for downloading and installing fonts on your specific computer system.

I think that the font style of something can really make or break a project and sometimes I spend hours (yeah, seriously) trying to find the perfect font.  I'm a perfectionist.  But it's always worth it when I create something new that I love.  Here are a few of the projects where I've used some of the fonts listed above (you probably have seen some of them before!!)

"Welcome To Our Nest" Vinyl Decal using Janda Stylish Script (because look how whimsical is it!):



"For Better or Worse" Vinyl Decal using Janda As Long As You Love Me for the script-style part:


Birthday Card for my Hubby using the fonts Janda Celebration Script and KG Eyes Wide Open:



My Laundry Room Jars using a slightly modified version of odstemplik (I had to buff it up a little on the thin sections so that the vinyl would cut without tearing):




Hope you find a new font you love!


Also, check out my favorite handwriting fonts HERE!