The Art of Layering

Today I want to touch on the fine art of layering in your home decor. This is something I struggle with because I tend to go with the "less is more theory" most of the time. I don't like lots of doodads or tchockees (is that a real word?). They can easily overwhelm your space and give a cluttered appearance. I have an version to clutter, thus the reason for the less is more theory. But, I have noticed lately the importance of layering things in your decor. The Nester is an expert at layering. I'm pretty sure she has her master's degree in layering home decor. It seems to come naturally to her, and I love the eclectic looks she comes up with. So, in an effort to help myself, I decided to do a hands on post on the subject.

Here we have the ultra extreme simple look...............boring!

But with the addition of a colorful runner, some tassells, and decorative plates.....the look is transformed and seems more finished, more polished. The beautiful colors in the runner compliment and accentuate the gorgeous red pears. The different textures of the tassells and the runner add interest. And the plates bring in another splash of color and pattern.

Here's another one for you.....my mantel. I knew I wanted this large piece of art and the urns with feathers. I really like the scale of these items together, but it needs more. If you wanted to go minimalist, this would work. I personally think it needs more balance and a bit of personality.

Watch the scale of the items you put together. You don't want to put lots of little things in front of one large item, like I did here. This does not work! It needs balance.




Yes, the scale of this large platter with the even larger piece of art is much better. I really like having personal touches in all of my decor. And honestly, this is nice, but could use that personal touch. Let's see how adding some framed pictures and a couple of decorative accessories will look..........

Ok....that's it. I think I've manged to put together a nice mantel, with some beautiful accessories, color, texture, and personality without being too cluttered or too simple. Mission accomplished. Now if I could only channel the Nester in all of my decorating I would have it made. Everything she touches looks simply beautiful and effortless. Can I be her when I grow up?????

My Salvation Army Treasures and a Winner!

We have a WINNER!!!!

Drumroll, please..................................

Lucky commenter #159, The Hershey Bryces.

CONGRATS and happy glossing!

Like my cute new spring jacket? Guess where I found this adorable little thing? I'm sure my title didn't give you any clues, right? Ha! I scored this treasure at The Salvation Army for $2.99. I hear people going on and on about their local Sally Ann or Goodwill and I feel slightly jealous. Our local store is super icky and way overpriced. NOT a good combination. So, while on vacation this week, I about made my hubby wreck when I shreiked STOP.THE.CAR. Not only did he stop the car, he actually dropped me off by myself and took the kids to the toy store. Reason # 687 why I love my husband! He totally gets me.....sometimes.

Have I mentioned my love affair with frames? One can never have too many frames, in my humble opinion. Especially when you can find nice sturdy solid oak ones with ridiculously large molding for a dollar or two. These will be painted and hung on my wall of empty frames. Another thing I love...empty frames. Weird, I know.

I pretty much peed my pants when I saw this lamp. I have been waiting and waiting and waiting for Target to clearance these out...with no such luck. I just can't bring myself to spend $30 or more on a lamp that I technically do not need, but desperately want. But, for $6.99 with the plastic still on the lampshade.....wrap it up, I'll take it! I saw lots of crap, but also lots of great stuff too. They had this giant upholstered chair with a cane back for $39 that I briefly considered, but I would have had to leave a child in Georgia, and that just didn't pan out. But for under seventeen dollars I got a trendy little jacket, 4 great frames, and a brand new acrylic lamp. Not too shabby, huh?

We had a wonderful time being together as a family this week. Despite the fact that all 6 of us battled a wicked nasty stomach virus, we still had a good time. I guess that says alot about our desire to be together, no matter what. My 4 year old said it best when she saw her daddy that first night......"Dad, I missed you so much....but we're back together...we're a family again". Heartbreaker, right? That girl has a way with words. There's nothing much sweeter than a little girl and her daddy.....so precious!

SPRING BREAK GIVEAWAY!!!

So, I promised you a giveaway this week and I'm finally making good on that promise. In honor of Spring Break and the beautiful weather we have been blessed with this week, I decided to share one of my very favorite accessories for spring........lipgloss! Not just any lipgloss, though. And not just one lipgloss, but SIX tubes of fabulous lipgloss from Smashbox!!!! I am in absolute love with their lipgloss. It is my favorite by far. If you could see the bag full of various glosses I have in my purse right this minute, you might possibly be horrified. All 6 of these are in the bag, plus a few more. I love to wear each one alone and sometimes I mix several colors. How ever you wear them, you really can't go wrong. I treated myself to this set after Christmas, and I use at least one of them every single day. The colors in this picture are not all that accurate. They are much much prettier in person. The set includes 2 full size glosses and 4 half size glosses, valued at $96.

To be entered in to win this giveaway, leave a comment on this post before 10pm on Sunday March 21st.
Good Luck.....and happy commenting!

20 Minute Spring Table Runner Project

Hi there! I'm so excited to be guest blogging at Imperfectly Beautiful. I have to say -- Amanda is one of my favorite, favorite people in the blogging world. She is so creative, so smart and so sweet!!! Thanks for letting me visit!

I'm Jen from tatertots & jello. And I have a quick little project to bring some Spring sunshine to your table.

{20 Minute Spring Table Runner Project}

I was at Target the other day when I saw these fun placemats. I fell in love with them because they kind of remind me of crocheted doilies. And I am having a little doily fascination lately. Plus, they had really great Spring colors. So I bought a few -- and oh ya, they were a really good price too - that doesn't hurt!

Materials:

Placemats -- you can use as many as you like depending on how long you want your runner to be. I used three.

Scraps of materials -- two coordinating prints

Buttons

Doilies/burlap or whatever you want to use under your rosettes

Ribbon -- one spool (9 feet)

Needle and thread

I brought them home and experimented and thought they might make a cute table runner. So the first thing I did was attach the placemats together -- overlapping. I used a simple needle and thread. I attached them at both sides of each placemat.

Then I made some simple flowers using coordinating fabric. I cut a 2 inch wide, by 2 foot strip of fabric from both fabrics. I folded each strip of fabric accordian-style.

Then I secured the end of the fabric by sewing through all the ends of the material with 4 stitches. Then I wrapped it around to meet at the other side so it looked like a flower. And then I stitched up that side. Under one of the flowers I attached a doily. And on the other flower I attached it to a circle of burlap.

On top of the flowers I attached some fabric scraps and then a sparkly button. Then I attached both flowers to the placemats.

The last thing I did was thread ribbon through the holes in the edges of the placemats. If you are using regular placemats with no holes, you can sew the ribbon or glue the ribbon around the edges of the placemats. I had a little bit of leftover ribbon so i tied a little around each of the rosettes so the ends stick out from under the flowers.

It's simple, fast and easy. I love the way it brightens up my kitchen!!!

I hope you are having a wonderful getaway with your family, Amanda!! Thanks so much for letting me come by! And stop by my blog sometime if you have time -- tatertots & jello.

Have an amazing day!

XOXO

Jen is one of my besties in the bloggy world! I am amazed daily by the awesome projects she comes up with. She is seriously one of THE most creative people I have ever met! So, thank you Jen, for sharing your fabulousness with us today. Your spring table is gorgeous. And I love that you made that runner out of placemats...what a great idea. I love ya girl! {{{smooch}}}

Hand Towel Makeover from Richella @ Imparting Grace

Hello, all you friends of Amanda's! I'm Richella from Imparting Grace, and I'm so happy to be guest posting for Amanda today. Amanda's been one of my favorite bloggers for a long time, so I was thrilled when she asked if I would write a post for Imperfectly Beautiful. Today I'd like to share with you a small, fun project that I just completed.

After months of agonizing over a new paint color for my powder room, I recently decided on Restoration Hardware's Silver Sage. I love the way the new color looks in this room, and I'm especially happy that I could re-use all my accessories. All, that is, except for the towels.

I am usually a plain-towel kind of girl, but for the powder room, I like to get a little fancy. Since this room is often used by our guests, I like the hand towels here to be beautiful as well as functional. So I watch for pretty hand towels on sale, and over the years I'd picked up several that worked great with the old color in the powder room. Unfortunately, most of them didn't work nearly so well with the new color.

This towel was pretty new, and was still in excellent condition. I was wishing I could make it work with the new room when it occurred to me that I could just give it a face-lift. I had some fabric left over from another project (don't we all have piles of fabric scraps?) that I knew would look great in my new powder room. So here's what I did:

• I washed and dried my fabric scrap so that it would be pre-shrunk. My mama would be so proud that I remembered to do this.

• I pinned the scrap face-down onto the front of my towel.

• I turned the towel over to the back and, using the design of the towel as a guide, I stitched a seam. My sewing skills are very basic. Straight seams are about all I can do, but that's all I needed for this project. (If you don't even sew straight seams, I think you could complete this project with fabric glue.)

• Once the fabric was stitched in place, I turned the towel over and pressed the fabric down.

• I trimmed off the edges with pinking shears.

• Then I folded under the sides and bottom of the fabric, using the sides and bottom of the towel as guides, and pinned it all in place. Since my sewing skills are so elementary, I subscribe to the "pin twice, stitch once" rule.

• Once it was all securely pinned, I stitched it into place. Done!

Now I have a new embellished towel for my new powder room. And the best part is the price: free!

It's not perfect, but it's Imperfectly Beautiful, and that's good enough for me.

I'm so grateful to my precious friend Amanda for giving me this chance to connect with her readers. I hope you'll come visit me at Imparting Grace. I'll be so glad to see you there!

Thanks so much to my dear sweet friend Richella for guest posting for me today! This woman is such an angel and i am blessed to call her my friend. Be sure and stop by her blog and say hi. And of course, leave her lots and lots of nice comments here, as well. Hope y'all are having a wonderful week! I miss y'all so much and look forward to getting back with you soon.

Felt Travel Mat Tutorial

Hi everyone! I'm Jaime from Our Journey and I'm guest blogging for Amanda today! I feel like I'm sitting at the "popular table" ... my heart is beating fast, my palms are sweaty ... this is my first guest blogger experience! When Amanda asked me to guest blog and share a tutorial for my Travel Felt Mat, I was immediately excited ... then panicked! Whoa! That's a lot of people checking out my "blogging skills" ... I hope I live up to her expectations ... and yours! Thanks Amanda for the opportunity to contribute today! So let's get to it shall we?

Travel Felt Mat

We live in Europe and do a lot of traveling ... this little fold-n-go felt mat with storage pockets has been a hit with my 2 year old son.

Materials

Felt, Cute Fabric, Iron-On Velcro

Step 1: Lay your "cute" fabric face down on your felt

Step 2: Cut your fabric 18" long by 11" wide

Step 3: Sew three of your sides together (both long sides and one short side)
It will look like an inside out "pillowcase"!

Step 4: Turn your "pillowcase" inside out so the printed side of your fabric is facing out. Press with an iron for nice crisp edges.

Step 5: Now, for the little tab that keeps your felt mat rolled-up secure! Cut a scrap piece of your fabric, approx. 10" long by 3" wide.

Step 6: Fold the scrap piece in half (right sides facing eachother) and sew three sides (just like you did for the main piece). Turn it inside-out and iron ... now it will look like the photo above!

Step 7: Now insert the edge of that cute little tab into the open side of your "pillowcase". Now sew your "pilowcase" closed, sewing the little tab into the seam as you go.

Step 8: So lets make those edges look nice ... you're almost done! Sew a nice straight stitch around all 4 edges of your felt mat.

Step 9: Now, let's make that storage pocket! Fold one side of your felt mat in about 4 inches ...

Step 10: Sew up along both edges to make that pocket ...

Step 11: Find your center point of the pocket and make a straight stitch up the middle ... now you have 2 pockets!

Step 12: Now to finish it off! Take a small square of your iron-on velcro and iron it on the inside of your tab (Don't iron directly on the velcro ... just press it from the other side!)

Step 13: Fold your cute little mat in thirds and iron on the the other piece of velcro!

Voila! You're done!

Now find some felt scraps and have fun creating little felt play scenes!
I hope you made it through the tutorial without any "what the?" shouted at the computer screen! If you have any questions just leave a comment here or on my blog and I'll help you out!

Jamie...thank you so much!!! That little travel book is precious. Now I just need you to list this aodrable creation in your etsy shop so I can pay you to make one for me. As easy as you made it look, I can barley sew a straight line and I doubt I could handle it! Oh...and for the record, I always hated the poplular table. So let's call this the amazingly cool crafty table...how about that? Soooooo much better than the poplular table, right? I hope everyone will welcome Jamie at our "cool" table and leave her lots and lots of comments and hellos! It was great having you Jamie. Thanks for sharing your awesome skills with us.

This Girl Needs a Vacation!!!

Looking back at my posts this week and the projects I've worked on around the house, I have declared it..."paint everything in sight blue week"! It's all thanks to an old rusty can of turquoise paint in the garage and a small bottle of craft paint that is my current obsession.

With my trusty bottle of acrylic paint, I transformed an ugly gold finial and a plain nest with eggs into beautiful stand out pieces for spring.

My personal favorite was this "Keep Calm" sign I made with an extra piece of plywood, leftover paint, and some vinyl lettering I cut with my cricut. I WILL be making more of these in the future and listing them in my etsy shop!

Again, a bit of that beautiful craft paint took my cream colored frame from ok......to oH mY!

This frame for my chalkboard started out Parakeet Green, but ended up a turquoise blue, with a bit of the green peeking through for interest. This will go in my girls' room eventually.



And this Southern Living at Home bucket (yard sale $1) got an update with a bit of green and turquoise mixed and a lot of distressing! This too will go in the girls' room one day.....maybe. Hopefully I can pull it all together and make some sort of sense out of the hodgepodge of stuff we have right now!




This next week we will have some visitors here at Imperfectly Beautiful. Friends and family will be filling in for me while the kids and I spend spring break with our main man. We are heading out the door right now to start the 10 hour drive. Please pray for me that we make it there without killing each other! It's been 3months since I saw my sweet hubby and the 10 hour drive is sooooooooo worth it!!! I'll check in with y'all a couple times next week. There will also be a Spring Break giveaway one day, so be sure and stop by. Have a wonderful week....I'll see ya soon!