A Giveaway and a few other bits of news

Hello everyone!

There is a great giveaway going on over at the DIY Showoff with lots of wonderful vendors. I've donated three 8x10 prints (of your choice) for three lucky winners so be sure to head on over and comment for your chance to win!

I've also been kindly awarded the Kreativ Blogger award by Francine Gardner. I absolutely love her blog so receiving this from her was such an honor!

To follow in the Kreativ Blogger tradition, I must now tell my readers 7 things about myself they do not already know and then nominate 7 other bloggers for the award. Here goes:

1. I could eat cereal for every meal of the day (but I don't!)
2. If I had another place I would decorate it very modern and kitschy. It's my secret alter-ego. :) 3. My favorite TV show is Frasier. Yep, I love re-runs!
4. If I had to live outside of the US, I would move to Bavaria (southern Germany). I love the countryside and how charming all the villages are.
5. I used to be a Starbucks barista and cringe when I hear "expresso" rather than "espresso."
6. I don't really have a favorite color, although I do tend to lean toward neutrals.
7. My favorite flowers are wildflowers and lilies.

The 7 blogs I chose are:

1. Just Beachy
2. A Day in the Life of Karen
3. A Life's Design
4. Adventures in Suburbia
5. At Home At Home
6. Belle Maison
7. Camilla at Home

Also, while I'm confessing things, I thought I'd take this chance to answer some of the questions I received from the Honest Scrap Award.

Q: If there was one thing you could do with no fear of failure, no amount of money standing in the way, nothing stopping you, what would it be?

A: I think I would complete the degree I'm earning right now and turn right around and go back to college for interior design. I love what I'm doing now, but I think about interior design every single day and feel like I could learn a lot with a college education and combine it with the 3D modeling skills I've already learned. If I could be an interior designer for a living I would die happy!

Q: What is your favorite DIY/creative project that you have completed so far?

A: I know I've posted about it a lot but I think my favorite is still our balcony makeover. I love sitting out there!

So there you have it! Be sure to check out the lovely blogs I've posted!

Boo!

Happy Halloween everyone!

{images courtesy of GettyImages}

Hope everyone has a fun night!

p.s. Thanks for the well wishes on our washing machine, we got it working (although I couldn't save my shirt unfortunately). It was very nice to do laundry again!

Oh dear...

I'd like to introduce you to our washing machine.

Yesterday, it decided to be bad. Very, very bad. In fact, I'm pretty sure it grew a stomach because it decided to eat our clothes.


Yep, it ate them. There they are, stuck under the agitator. My poor shirt! And DH's poor apron!

We've tried for about an hour now to pull them out and no luck. Unfortunately there was no manual with the machine when we moved in, so we're not sure how to take the agitator thing off (if we even can?). I've already taken the cap off the top to look for some kind of bolt, but alas there was none. Any ideas? I suppose we'll have to call maintenance (what a silly thing to call for).

Oh the joys of renting!

I think I'm sold on a front loader for when we buy a house ;-)

Living Room Makeover

I'm participating in a party by Funky Junk! Head on over to join the fun!

Our apartment is finally starting to feel more like home now that it's been given a little face-lift!

This is what the living room looked like on the day we moved in:

Here it is now:

I've been slowly piecing together our living room for months now and I still have a few projects I'd like to complete for this room (painting the coffee table black, sewing some new throw pillows and perhaps hanging up curtains). Here's how this room transformed over time:

For lack of an actual before shot of our previous setup, I quickly cobbed this picture together. This is what we started out with in the room. It took some major convincing for DH to part with his old TV (even once we had a new one!) but when a friend offered to take it, he knew it was going to a good home (which made both of us very happy)!


The couches and bookshelves were freebies from my husband's parents (given to us when they moved out of state. I still can't thank them enough!). Until recently, the bookshelves were used in other rooms. We then scored some great deals on a new TV, a TV stand, an area rug and a coffee table, all for a total of $600.

It took us a while to decide on a TV console. I was worried that by going dark there would be too much brown in the room. When we brought this one home I had a mini heart attack thinking, "Oh my goodness we live in a cave! Dark couches, dark TV, dark TV console, dark fireplace..." But I stuck with our decision and quickly came to realize that our windows let in a pleasing amount of light to break up all the darks and the walls and carpet provided a nice contrast. I liked the masculine feel the room was taking on as well.

I purchased a jute area rug to add some texture and fell in love with how soft it felt under my toes. *Edited to add* The jute rug was from Cost Plus World Market and is currently on sale for $99. There is also a printable coupon/coupon code (good through 11/16/09) you can use to receive 10% off here. If you don't have a store nearby, shipping is only $4.95 on all orders through the 23rd!

The coffee table was a craigslist find. Because everything else in the room was so dark, we wanted something that helped bounce light around the room, which is important when you live in a small apartment. The accessories on the mantel were mostly gifts from our wedding.

The bag near the fireplace was one of my DIY projects

Notice the giant blank wall behind the TV? I had planned on filling the entire wall with framed prints, but soon realized just how expensive buying a ton of large frames would be (and after our previous splurges we decided to cool it on spending for a while). With frames out of the question, I still felt like the wall needed something, but I couldn't put my finger on what.


As luck would have it, the solution was just around the corner. My mom purchased a sewing machine cabinet for me and when I brought it home I realized I would have to move things around in order to accommodate it.

I really liked the looks of bookshelves on either side of a TV console...

... and we happened to now have two bookshelves that needed a new home. By adding the shelves to either side of the TV, it filled the empty space and also provided a central place to store things (and it was free!). I decided to add some inexpensive picture frames ($7 each from Ben Franklin) above the TV to draw the eye up, and filled them with some of cheery yellow fruit prints from Vintage Printables.

{And yes that is a Batman DVD player!}

You may have noticed that most of the books on the shelves are turned around. I've read all of them through at least once, and many twice since many of them were books I've had since childhood (with the exception of the German books passed down to me from my Oma (Grandma). I've been learning German over the years but I don't think I'll be delving into any novels anytime soon, so it's nice to just have these out to remind me of her).

I need to start buying some new books (especially for all those rainy days here!), but that will have to wait until we get a bigger place! I love the way the pages yellow with age and thought they would be very fitting with the rest of the decor.

I've organized the books in a way that if I need a certain title I can find it very quickly, although this amount of "reversed" books is probably the most I would ever strive for. If I had a whole library like this I would probably start forgetting where I put what, although I have to say they do look striking (and easy on the eye)!

{Pottery Barn}

Some of my favorite accessories from this room are very simple things. For instance, this rock. I know it sounds silly, but this rock came from the woods where I used to play as a child. I spent so much time in those woods!


I found this neat old bottle when I was cleaning out one of the barns on my parent's property. I love the color of it and how it mimics the shape of the vase we purchased from Ikea on the opposite top shelf.

And there you have it! Our living room makeover.

Once again, the after:

Free art for your home

Have you heard about Vintage Printables? It's a fantastic website filled with vintage and antique illustrations that you can print off for free! I've found many that I love and I've decided to use several of them in our living room (which is finally coming together)! I'll be sharing the reveal later this week!

In other news, I was given another blog award by the lovely Tricia over at boutellefamilyzoo! Thank you Tricia!


The rules for this award are:

1) Say thanks and give a link to the presenter of this award

2) Share "10 honest things" about yourself

3) Present this award to 7 others whose blogs you find brilliant in content and/or design, or those who have encouraged you.

4) Tell those 7 people they've been awarded HONEST SCRAP

The 7 bloggers I think are fabulous are:

1. Eat, Drink and Decorate
2. From My Feathered Nest
3. Claiming Our Space
4. A Day in the Life of Karen
5. Life With Lulu
6. Maman Tattoo
7. Modern Country

And since I like Tricia's idea of breaking the rules, instead of listing 10 honest things about myself, I'd like to open it up to you to ask me any question you'd like (g-rated please!) and I'll answer back honestly. I'll leave it open all week and you can either ask me a question here or email me at hirondellerustique@gmail.com. Ask away!

I'm a sucker for free stuff

I was driving to class when I happened to glance over at the trash pad area of our apartment complex and saw these two gorgeous barstools just sitting there. I'm pretty sure they were crying out, "Saaaaaave meeeee!" I slammed on my brakes, threw my car in park and ran out to inspect them. I couldn't believe how nice they were, and even though I was completely embarassed to be taking things that were sitting next to the dumpster, I had to have them (hey, at least they weren't IN the dumpster!).

Once I got them inside I realized that they were missing three stretcher bars and were a bit wobbly, but a quick trip to the Home Depot for some dowel rods and paint and they should be good as new.

Now I have a question for all of you. I like the black that's on these chairs and they match our dining chairs pretty well (in color and style) but I'm wondering if I should branch out. What color would you paint them or would you just leave them as is?

Something is a wee bit different around here

I'm happy to announce that Hirondellerustique.blogspot.com has now become Hirondellerustique.com! Woohoo! I feel so.... official? Anyways, I did a little happy dance when I typed it in for the first time.

And for a bit more news, I was given another award by pk over at the fabulous blog Room Remix! *squee!* Thank you! I'm still blushing over this, especially since I've been a bad blogger lately due to being crazy busy with school.


For this award, I am to nominate 5 lovely blogs. I chose:

1. Its the little things that make a house a home
2. Paris Hotel Boutique Journal
3. High Heeled Foot in the Door
4. Funky Junk Interiors
5. Thrifty Decor Chick

Hopefully I can squeeze in some time this week to hang around here a bit more, I miss all of you and I've been dying to post about some new projects and decor ideas. Hope everyone had a great weekend and here's to an even better week!

Award!

I've only been in the blog world for a little over a year but I'm amazed at how many wonderful people and friends I've met thus far. I hit a new milestone of 100+ followers and I'm so thankful for all of you! You're all the reason I post and I love waking up in the mornings to read your comments and head over to your blogs to find out a little bit about the awesome people behind them. One such person I've befriended this year is Roeshel from The DIY Showoff and Evangelin's Vine. She's kindly tagged me with the Fabulous Blog Award, and I couldn't be more flattered!
As recipient of this award, I'm to name 5 obsessions and tag 5 fabulous blogs. Here goes:

1. Decorating - I'm obsessed with decorating because I love coming home to a space I feel comfortable in (and thankfully my husband and I are on the same page as far as style goes)! I always love being in a space that inspires me. We've filled our little apartment with the things that mean the most to us and have slowly been purging the clutter, which makes for a room that has a LOT of meaning. I always find it fun to see how other people have decorated their homes. It gives me a little window into what their lives might be like and finding interesting decorations in one's home can reveal a lot about a person's quirky personality or a memory worth sharing.

2. DIY projects - I find that restrictions are often the source of creativity. The more restrictions and fewer options a person has, the more they are likely to be creative. We've been sticking to a pretty tight budget since starting college and it seems like these have been the most creative years of my life. I love pursuing do-it-yourself projects because the rewards are so much higher when you create or re-purpose something yourself and each project has its own uniqueness and personality.

3. Art - I'm a self-taught artist (although going to college has greatly increased my ability to draw/paint). I drew a lot of animals when I was a child, as well as a lot of houses (hmmm foreshadowing perhaps?) I always put a sun up in one of the corners of my paper and it always had a smiley face. I'm glad I still have the same sunny outlook on life, and that drawing still makes me happy.

4. 3D Modeling - This is still a fairly new chapter in my life but I uncover more that I love about it every day. It's fascinating to me to be able to create an entire world for someone's eyes to delve into. I'm a huge nerd and I lovelovelove video games. For me though, I'm not really "playing" the game so much as looking at the environments/buildings within the game and allowing them to hypnotize me. As a side project to my schoolwork this year, I'm going to be looking into more of the interior design aspects of 3D modeling.

5. Fairy Tales - I've started a collection and can't get enough of these beautiful books filled with enchanting stories. My parents used to read them to me as a kid for bedtime stories and I suppose I could credit that for my huge imagination (I am definitely a daydreamer). I also love the illustrations, fonts, and motifs in many of the old books and often look at them for inspiration.

And now onto 5 of the blogs I think are fabulous (it was really hard to pick just 5!)

1. Francine Gardner - Art de Vivre - Her work (and her showroom) is completely amazing. I love her eye for design!
2. Treasures From the Heart - Barbara has an adorable gift shop and a keen eye for creating the treasures within it. She's always a great person to "run into" in the blogging world. I love her writing style as well!
3. Peanut Petunia - I love her decorating style and she's always coming up with amazing projects I wish I could try out too! Her house is more charming by the day!
4. Willow Decor - I find so much inspiration from her blog. I could spend hours there! She's also one of the friendliest people I've ever "met"!
5. Beneath My Heart - Traci's home and DIY projects are stunning and her talent really shines through with each project she posts. She also has a wonderful way with words and I always look forward to reading her posts.

Fabulous Blog and Website Alert!

One of my new favorite blogs is Marley&Lockyer. I stumbled upon it while google searching for rooms with a rustic appeal and wow was I floored! Ness, the author, has such excellent taste! Her blog is filled with inspirational pictures reminiscent of European Design and Rustic Revival (think cottage/farmhouse style). I started to save some of the pictures she's posted for my own inspiration file, but stopped after I noticed I was saving every single one. When I'm in need of inspiration I guess I'll know where I'll be headed!

I know it's early to be talking about the holidays but her Christmas posts are some of my favorites. Somehow the images she's collected sum up entirely what I love about Christmas: the coziness, the cheerful colors, the spirit of giving, and the magic of it all.
Ness is also an amazing designer/artist and even has her own Etsy shop filled with fabulous decor items. I'm in love with these little clay tags, aren't they neat?


And thanks to Marley&Lockyer and Willow Decor I've become a new fan of a Norwegian store by the name of Slettvoll. Why didn't I see this earlier?

I love the neutral color palette for their rooms as well as the richness of textures.

I'm dying to make some cable knit pillows for winter.


Our own office is a work in progress, but I'm making mental notes of how this space offers organization, room to spread out, light pouring in and of course, style.
Those chairs look like an incredibly comfy place to curl up with a book. I love the grain sack style pillows, the oversize lanterns and the cable knit throw. I like how the light gray shutters add just a touch of contrast to the french doors and wainscoting on the walls.


I love the idea of having real (or real looking) trees indoors.
This dining room makes my heart go pitter-patter. It's very classy with its crisp white drapes, wing back chairs and contemporary lamps, yet laid-back with its cozy sofa full of pillows, natural fiber rug and slip covered chairs. The votive candles and flowers add just a touch of glam as well. It looks so inviting!
I'm really looking forward to future inspirations from these sites!

Giveaway winner!

Thank you to all of you for entering my giveaway! I got to meet many interesting and friendly people and I enjoyed reading all of your comments.

And without further ado, the winner of the Contemporary Birds print is....


Helena Marette!

Congratulations and I hope to get in touch with you soon so I can mail off your print (I'm so excited!). Thanks again everyone!

Giveaway Ends Tonight!

Just wanted to give everyone the heads up that my giveaway for the Contemporary Birds Print ends at 11:59pm tonight so be sure to enter! I'll be choosing a winner tomorrow via random.org. Good luck!

Join the parties!

Hope everyone is having a great Labor Day! We're going to be spending it with some friends later on tonight and tomorrow we start our first day of school (eek!). But for today I wanted to share a couple of great parties you're invited to!

First up is the Fall Festival from The DIY Showoff, featuring your very own fall/autumn DIY projects!

This party is being hosted on Mondays in September, October and November. While I don't have anything for this week, I'll be prepping some projects for the upcoming parties. I'd love to see what you submit, so head on over join the party!

Next up is a Before and After Party from Thrifty Decor Chic! If you have any before and after projects you'd like to share, be sure to submit them there! I've been spending the better half of my morning looking through many of the submissions, and wow they are great! I've fallen in love with several of the projects, including this gorgeous and rustic front entry makeover from Our Extreme Home Makeover Experience, an awesome DIY chalkboard shelf from Rocky Bella, a beautiful chandelier makeover from Ashley's Thrifty Living, and a gorgeous living room makeover from Eat, Drink, and Decorate. Of course, there are many other fabulous before and afters so be sure to have a look for yourself!