Desktop Dry Erase Board

Last month I entered a giveaway at one of my favorite blogs, Two Twenty One. And to my surprise, I won! We won't talk about the fact that I had my mobile network turned off on my cell phone which prevented me from getting email notifications and almost caused me to miss out on some awesome goodies...

So what exactly did I win?

A bunch of tape! But not your run-of-the-mill, plain, boring tape. Nope. This tape came with all sorts of awesome designs!

I started brainstorming what my first project would be. Of course I hit up Pinterest for some inspiration,  and found some amazing ideas like this, this, and this. But, ultimately, I decided to try my hand at creating the very project that was the inspiration for the giveaway - a picture frame turned dry erase board. I found an old 5x7 frame in our junk closet and got started.

Chelsea has a great how-to on her blog, so I'm not going to go into much detail. The only difference between what she did and what I ended up doing was that she applied the tape directly to the glass. I chose to apply the tape to the photo insert of some random family that always comes with frames. Since the tape was thin, I chose to tape the white side of the paper.

The finished product:

I started to write a to-do list to see what it would look like. But, since the Hubby and I both share this desk, having a to-do list for just one of us seemed silly. So, I decided to erase it and write a little message instead:

Dan and I are constantly surprising each other with dry erase messages on our bathroom mirror. I think it will be fun to have another place to write surprise notes and see how long it takes him to notice... :)

Overall, it was a pretty straightforward project. The only struggle I had was lining up the tape to match perfectly. To be honest, if you look close enough, you might see some gaps between the tape. Oh well. For a 5 minute project, I'm not going to complain. It instantly added a pop of color to our otherwise dark desk.

I can't wait to use these rolls of bright & patterned tape on another project. I'm thinking maybe something like this? If only I had another good frame lying around...

A big thank you to Chelsea for hosting this awesome giveaway and for the desktop inspiration!

A Little Touch of Green

Our guest bedroom is rarely ever used by guests. We had plans to host an out-of-town guest for our friends wedding, but at the last minute, she made other plans. The only other guests we've had in there is our niece and nephew (you might remember them as the ring bearer and flower girl from our wedding).

Nope. Our guest bedroom isn't really a guest bedroom. It's mainly our office space. Pretty much the only time either the hubby or I are in there is if the laptop is taken by the other person, or if he wants to play one of his simulator games.

Other than that, it's basically become the cats' bedroom. They like to sun bathe on the twin bed we have in there.

You see that square, white pillow? The one that doesn't quite match the same white tones in the comforter and pillow sham? It's actually one of those pillows that comes in a fleece blanket gift set. On the other side it a wintery scene. Yeah. It was getting on my nerves. Don't get me wrong, I like the pillow, but it just didn't fit in that spot.

A few weeks ago, the hubby and I were exploring some of the shops in the neighboring towns and we came across this little boutique.

Lucy's Upscale Resale. It's located in The Villages/Oxford area. There is a ton of stuff in there. I didn't take any pictures because I felt like the shop owner would have given me the evil eye. Why? This is The Villages, i.e. a haven for all retired people. I don't think she's use to having a twenty-something couple enter into her store. But the store is definitely one to stop by. The prices were a little high on some items, but others were priced pretty reasonably.

Like this little green gem that has found a new home on our tiny guest bed.

I saw it. Thought about it. Walked away from it. Couldn't stop thinking about it. Went back later that week. Brought it home.

I think it's originally from one of the lines at K-Mart (are these stores still open??). It cost me $4. A little high for such a small pillow. But, the color and size were perfect for what I had in mind for it. And I'm loving it even more since I did a little switcheroo with the bedding.

We washed the sheets in anticipation for a possible guest staying the night at our place. Even though the bed is rarely used by humans, as I mentioned before, it does get a lot of usage of the feline kind. What does that mean? Lots of fur...

When I pulled the pillow sham out of the dryer, I realized that it was reversible.When I originally purchased the set, the image on the packaging showed that the design carried over onto the sham. But when I opened it all up, I only saw the white. Picture me being disappointed. So to find out I was wrong all along, I was thrilled! Since the sham had the design in the larger print, I decided to flip the comforter over to also show off the larger printer.

I'm so glad I went back and picked up this little pillow. I think it definitely warms up the bed more so than the other white pillow did. And I love the stitched design in the pillow too. I think it plays off the pattern in the comforter well without clashing.

So what happened to the little white pillow? Well, it found a new home in our paupausan chair.

I love being able to update our home with resale items. There isn't much room in our budget for apartment/design upgrades, so when we're able to stretch our dollars a little bit and make small improvements, it definitely brings a smile to my face.

Anyone else out there score a cool thrift store find lately? Or maybe you found yours at a flea market? I'm dying to go to a local flea market! But it's only open on Mondays, so it'll have to wait until school is out for the summer.

Office Gallery Wall

I've been on a roll. I did it again. I hung another gallery wall in our apartment. This time the office got the gallery wall treatment.

For my gallery wall inspiration, you can check out my pinterest board, or check the gallery wall we created for the dining room.

Here's what we were starting out with in the office space (sorry, I didn't get a shot of it head-on).

When we first moved in, I had thrown up a bunch of frames in a makeshift gallery wall. But I wasn't happy with it. The frames didn't coordinate. I didn't like the layout. And I felt like there wasn't any sort of flow.

We'd been talking about hanging up some of our degrees and awards in our office space. I received a really nice degree frame for my UCF degree from the hubby for Christmas. And one day while we were walking around Michael's, we came across these guys in the "as-is" bin in the back of the store.

Normally, this would come with four 8x10 frames for about $20. We were getting two frames for a quarter of that price. So it was like getting each frame at 50% of the normal price. Score! We brought them home and one of the frames had a crack in the corner. Nothing a little super glue couldn't fix.

Originally we planned on swapping out the hubby's Eagle Scout award with his community college degree, but the scout award didn't fit in our new frames. So, both of our community college degrees found homes in the clearance frames.

With the dining room, I played it safe with a symmetrical layout. But I was dying to try out an asymmetrical layout. This is what I came up with.

Not to bad if I do say so myself. The hubby of course likes to point out that not a single frame is level. However, they all slope at the same angle, so you really don't notice it unless (a) you are standing on the opposite wall, or (b) the hubby points it out to you and makes you take a closer look.

I like that, again, all the frames coordinate well together. Plus, there is a pretty common theme: everything within the frames has to do with either high school, college, or work. The only frame that doesn't is the round  frame (which is actually a photo Christmas ornament), which I threw up on the wall because I didn't like that gap.

I'm looking for a small "C" to put up on the top between our high school graduation and prom pictures. One, to add a little more of a personal touch to the wall. Two, I loved the initials in all of the inspiration photos and I think an asymmetrical gallery wall is the perfect place for a letter. But other than that, I'm pretty happy with everything.

Anyone else jumping on the gallery wall bandwagon? Or do you still admire from afar?