Archive for the ‘Home and Decor’ Category

I love the Autumn season and this year I’m getting a little more crafty in decorating my home for it. I figure I’d start with a wreath since there was a score of great items to use for one (believe it or not) at the Dollar Store! My wreath turned out so nice that I’m probably going to go back for another wreath form and making a centerpiece for my dining room table. So how much did this project cost me? As little as $7.00 (Someone my husband showed this wreath too thought it cost $50 )! I adore decorating when it won’t break our budget!

The material I used and bought to make this wreath are

• 1 Large Wreath Form (1.00)
• 3 picks of leaves (3.00)
• 6 pics variety pumpkin, squash, cat tail.. with leaves ($3.00 because they were 2 for 1.00)
• I used about 6 sticks of glue in my little glue gun but I was being pretty generous.

To start, I plucked/cut all the leaves off the pics and sorted them by color piles. You don’t have to do that but I was making my life easier when it came to gluing everything on the wreath. I placed leaves and glued and placed and glued until my wreath was nice and full with none of the form showing through. I think added the pumpkins, squash, cat tails, and other embellishments on top of the leaves making sure to spread them about in a non uniform looking way. I then glued more leaves on my wreath until I was happy with it. Voila! So simple and such a fantastic crafty decoration to add to making my home more welcome during the Autumn season.

Autumn Wreath by Erin Lowmaster is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at connected2christ.com.

I’ve really enjoy being able to theme and decorate my son Owen’s nursery area in our home. I know some people totally with go decorating a space thinking it would cost too much money and consume much time but that’s not always the case. It can be really budget friendly by simply deciding upon a certain theme and only choosing to add a few things.

I love color so I worked around decorating my son’s area with items that are bright in cheerful. I mainly worked around the colors in my sons second hand but in fantastic condition crib bedding. The crib bedding features construction worker trucks and automobiles. I found a fantastic knobby coat/jacket hanger that had high flying toy airplanes that fit right in. So I had the crib bedding, a coat hanger, a neutral colored dresser with a few coordinating toys and books on top and to bring it all together, a wonderful piece of nursery/room art from Baby Sully’s Art!

I enjoyed working with Rachel the mom and creator behind Baby Sully’s Art! It was like she was reading my mind through the process and knew exaclty what I was looking for. The set of paintings she created for me fit my nursery theme perfectly! The brightly colored painted airplanes in a cloud filled sky featured intricate patterns that are ideal for a babies room as well as an older child! I really loved how  paint and fabric were incorporated together! And how she included my baby boys name “Owen” as sky writing from a plane! How cute and original is that?

I quite enjoyed getting to see the progress photos as the custom pieces were coming together! Rachel answered all my questions and kept me on tabs on how everything with the piece was going! Definitely high quality service, if you ask me! I would highly recommend her to everyone for all their nursery or children’s room art needs! Just take it from me when I say it’s truly amazing what something like a painting on the wall can really do for a room! It’s totally spirit lifting and I love that my son is as much of a fan of his room art as me as I often catch him staring up at it as he lay in his crib!

I enjoyed getting to know the Mama behind  Baby Sully’s Art with my Etsy meet and greet questions and hope you do too! It’s such an inspiration to meet someone with such passion behind their creations!

1.Why did you decide to start doing this on Etsy and how long have you been? I have always been a wannabe artist, but worked full-time in marketing and just did arts and crafts as a hobby. When I became pregnant, I immediately wanted to paint something for the nursery. I did a set of 3 safari paintings that matched the bedding and I had so much fun doing it! After I had Erin (aka baby Sully), I could not even think about leaving her in daycare all day while I went to a full-time job. So…I made the hard decision to stay at home and try to contribute a little bit of money to the family income by doing what I love (which is painting). I opened up my etsy shop shortly after Erin was born in late 2009.

2. What do you enjoy the most when creating your products?
I love doing custom work. It is such a great feeling when someone describes what they are looking for or shows me a picture of their bedding and I get completely inspired! Nothing makes me happier than a satisfied customer, especially when I create something completely new for them

3. Apart from creating things, what do you do?
I am a stay at home mom and I also work as a part-time ecommerce consultant for a small company. I LOVE soccer and everything you can do outdoors in Colorado. My husband and my daughter are the two most important things in my life.

4. What inspires you?
Almost everything inspires me! I can’t help but come up with new ideas when I’m shopping at Babies R Us or when I see a new print at the fabric store, but my main inspiration comes from my customers. They give me amazing ideas and I run with it!

5.In five years you’d like to be…?
I’d like to be a stay-at-home mommy with a succesful business. Basically, doing what I do now, but more kids and a slightly better ratio of hours worked to money earned I’m so lucky to have a husband who is supporting my dream!

Win!

Rachel is offering one of my readers a 50.00 gift certificate to her shop Baby Sully’s Art!

To Enter: Visit Baby Sully’s Art  and let me know your favorite piece as well as a piece you’d love to see offered or would love to have customized if you win!

Extra Entries:

1. Blog this giveaway, link back to this post. (3 extra)

2. Follow on Twitter @erinlowmaster & Tweet (daily entries available)

3. Post this giveaway on a Giveaway Linky/Site and let me know where!

4. Email a friend(s) about this giveaway. (Leave name of friend)

5. Subscribe to my blog by RSS or E-mail (Feed Burner) and let me know!

6. Add Baby Sully’s Art as a favorite shop on Etsy and let me know your Etsy name.

7. Share this on Facebook and let me know your Facebook name! (2 extra)

Giveaway running till 08/13/11 . Winners will be notified shortly afterward by email. Please respond within 48 hours or you forfeit your prize to another participant. USA and Canada only.

DISCLAIMER: My thoughts are mine own opinion and have not been altered by anyone else. I did not receive any compensation for hosting this giveaway or review other than the sample above mentioned.

Scotch(R) Reusable Tabs are pre-cut squares of clear, removable and reusable adhesive. For mounting photos, posters, artwork or papers on walls, office cabinets, refrigerators, windows, etc. Photo safe. Will not stain walls like putties.

• Use instead of magnets or tacks
• Removes cleanly
• Double-sided adhesive sheet for mounting and securing objects
• 0.5 Inches, 72 Squares
• Perfect for mounting gaming & computer accessories

It just doesn’t get any easier than this! I’ve been using these to hang up posters on my wall, pictures and notes on my fridge and whatever else that’s light weight and needs hanging up! These couldn’t have come at a better time because I’ve been collecting educational posters to start hanging up in my daughter’s room and in other places around the house to help with memorization of ABC’s, Numbers, States, and more!

These are perfect for our home because I have a tendency to like to arrange and re-arrange almost constantly. And honestly because I know we live in a duplex that the owners probably wouldn’t be a fan of all the tacks, nails, and putty that could possibly lift paint off the walls.

I love Scotch(R) Reusable Tabs because you do is peel, stick, and then place whatever it us you are wanting to hang in position! I haven’t had any issues other than when trying to hang up pre-rolled posters. My photo posters keep wanting to roll back up! But I haven’t had any other issues with items that are paper, not rolled, and the like. These are totally worth the money at 4.25 for 72 tabs! Scotch Reusable Tabs, 0.5 Inch squares, 72 Tabs (R103) are available at Amazon and eligible for free super saving shipping!

Disclaimer: I was sent this product for review through Amazon Vine. This review is 100% my opinion and has not been edited or reviewed by anyone. I was not compensated in any other way for this product review.