My Little Piece of the Smithsonian

I love taking things that I've collected from trips or places we've been and displaying them in a way where I can enjoy them everyday. I've been holding onto this agate since I picked it out at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum. 

I've wanted to go there since seeing a picture of the gemstones and minerals exhibit in a textbook as a child and the mineral gift shop was absolutely amazing. I would have brought home one of everything if I could have but I settled on my little purple agate. 

I bought a $2 frame from Ikea, got some glue dots (which are on that little paper), and got a scrap paper to stick the agate to.

I wanted it to look museum-y so I decided to add a little personal touch by printing out where I got the agate and the date.

I don't think the camera captured the pretty purple shade that the agate is- trust me, it's not a brownish looking turd rock, I promise. 

And for now, it's hanging out on my desk. Pretty cute, huh?

Pinterest Challenge Painted Pillows

Has it seemed like I've been distant lately? I'm sorry if it has felt like that but life is strange right now. We're facing down a year of sporadic deployments which are starting soon and I'm not sure how I'm going to deal with it since it will be our first long bit away from each other since we've been married. I'm thankful I'll have my mom, brother, and a house full of cats so it won't feel too lonely but it's still going to be an adjustment. 

I've been working on some projects though so hopefully I can get back to a more regular blogging schedule. 

Today I'm participating in the Pinterest Challenge that Young House Love and a few other bloggers are having on Wednesday.

I've seen lots of pillow DIYs on Pinterest and I've even painted curtains so I didn't think painting a pillow was too much of a stretch. I had some extra canvas from my drop cloth curtain project. 

For a while I had no idea what I would paint. I toyed with the idea of a monogram, a silhouette, a random pattern or design... I didn't know what.

So, I visited my "Our Rental" board on Pinterest and saw this cute sign that I had pinned.

Sign from Schoolhouse Electric & Supply Co., $20

I immediately knew that was it! I drew a stencil so I could place it on the pillow in the exact way I wanted and taped around it with masking tape. 

I used the same paint I had leftover from the painted curtain project- just regular old acrylic craft paint. 

I gave it two coats and peeled off the tape before it was dry very carefully to insure crisp, clean lines. 

With right sides together I sewed around the pillow and left an opening to turn it.

I then stuffed it and sewed the small opening... and bam! Done. It turned out so adorably! 

I think it looks great in our little dining room nook with my thrift store bench (that I bought for $9.99, I still can't believe it was that cheap!). 

Flower Power

Happy Thursday, everyone! I've finally got around to uploading the new pictures of my bathroom art so I can share them on the blog today. 

Remember that cotton towel with the pretty print that I was planning on using in the bathroom? 

I had been searching for some silvery/nickel frames for the fabric for a long time. I didn't want them to look cheapy and I ideally wanted the ones from Ikea but could not rationalize a trip 25 miles away for a couple $2 frames. I found a silver frame and a white frame at Target and was determined to make it work with some existing ones I pulled together. 

I messed around with the arrangements off and on for about a day because I didn't want to nail into the wall without being sure about the placement. 

I finally settled on this and used the paper template technique to hang everything easily. 

I think this space doesn't photograph as well as it looks in real life but I think it turned out nicely. The blue from the curtain is actually a very similar hue to the turquoise in the flower print but it's very hard to tell from the photos and the lighting. 

Accidents Will Happen

Accidents will happen when you're living in a house of four pets and one of them seeks food like a bloodhound on a hunting expedition. 

Remember this cute little bowl for holding my bobby pins and such? 

Well, I ordinarily feed Ian and Zelda downstairs and Mickey and Gizmo eat upstairs. I rinsed off a spoon I used for scooping out cat food and quickly just set it on this window sill and went about my business. I was abruptly startled by the sound of something shattering in the bathroom and discovered Mickey fleeing the scene. The bowl was destroyed and I was bitterly angry at him for about a week. It wasn't about the four dollar bowl, it was the fact that he's so food-crazed that he jumped up there for an empty and rinsed off spoon! How dumb!?

So, here's my replacement. I think it's still really cute and it was free because Mom bought a candle that came in this packaging. It's not as easily accessible as my little bowl but it was free so I'll take it. 

I've now learned my lesson about NOT placing anything food related near anything breakable. :/

Museum on a Sunday Afternoon

We've been trying to get down to Seattle more so yesterday we decided to check out the EMP Museum down near the Space Needle. It's an interesting museum filled with entertainment related fare like pop culture, sci fi, and musical exhibits. 

We really had a great time exploring the three levels of the museum that included an exhibit on the iconic leather jacket, recording studios (that you could actually use and play instruments), an exhibit on horror films, and an exhibit featuring items from sci-fi films and television. 

There was an amazing sculpture created from guitars (and the random accordion) that went from the second to the third level of the museum. 

The exhibit on the iconic leather jacket had many famous leather pieces.

This leather outfit was worn in Terminator 2 by Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Elvis' jacket he bought at JC Penney.

Michael Jackson's leather jacket worn during the 80's.

Leather jacket worn by the drummer of one of my favorite bands, Queensryche!

Customized jackets worn by various Seattle locals. 

There was an exhibit there that just opened called The Art of Video Games that we actually had missed seeing at the Smithsonian in DC this past Summer. How fortunate that we were able to catch it over on this coast (Russ was excited to see all the video game consoles). 

It had every console from the Atari to the Playstation 3 with various screenshots from games.

There were playable games too which my brother tried out. We actually used to play this computer game, Myst, when we were younger. 

Some other cool stuff of note...

If you're a Doctor Who fan they had one of the Dalek's used in one of the old episodes. 

Terminator skull which still creeps me out...

Shaun's shirt from the zombie horror film, Shaun of the Dead.

My favorite part of the Nirvana exhibit? Seeing some bits of Alice in Chains here and there. Like... on the fabric on the wall...

On the album wall with other artist...

And on another album wall... It made me happy in the sea of Nirvana artifacts (which... I don't not like Nirvana... I just feel like they're majorly overrated). 

What a fun way to spend our Sunday afternoon!

30 Day Photo Project: Days 8-14

1.) Morning Routine

2.) Shoes

3.) View From Window

4.) Favorite Color

5.) Someone You Love

6.) Your Front Door

7.) Purchased