Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Get Outfitted


Urban Outfitters sale section is a wealth of goodies. In a matter of minutes I had found a handful of sale items that could easily help some newlyweds dress up their new abode.

Navy (for the hubby) and Florals(for the wife) duvet: $44.99
Polka Dot Ruffled Curtains: $48 a panel in Navy or $19.99 a panel in Ivory!
Night stand: $39.99
Bird Pillow: $19.99
Add a new coat of paint on the walls and existing accessories and you are on your way to a new master bedroom retreat for pennies  a handful of dollars. 
*On the right hand side of the blog there is now a box for feedburner subscriptions. If you want to receive my posts via email then submit your email address today. 
**Anyone know how to automatically forward my existing High-Heeled Foot in the Door subscribers to Effortless-Style? I’ve tried a bunch of times, but I can’t get it to work. 

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Monday, November 29, 2010

Weekend Recap: Latest additions


Hi All,
Hope you all had a great holiday weekend! Things have been a bit hectic over here with the blog move, work and of course a little personal drama that has thrown me through a loop! So, it was nice to have a couple of days to step away from the computer, hang out with family and use said family as free labor to help out with a couple of finishing touches. :)
Here are a couple of sneak peeks of projects that got wrapped up:
Added trim adds a punch of color and style to my bland Ikea curtains:

This lovely lady made it home with me last week. Still testing her out around the house. Who knows where she’ll end up.

I used the same steps from my DIY fretwork napkins and added a custom flair to more window treatments.

Changed artwork yet again and drove Jon a little nuts having to cut maps and make more holes in the walls.

My latest thrift store find all cleaned up and made pretty with some blooms.

My Pierre Frey fabric find didn’t make it on my caned chairs, but I still included it in the living room:

Pillow Play:

Modern Art = DIY art in my eyes. Loving this piece!

Mirror, mirror on the wall:

Whew! I need a new weekend to recoup. What were you up to?
* The blog is still a little funny in some sections so please bear with me as I try to get it all fixed. Still working on getting a plug in done so that you can subscribe via email. This will hopefully be done today.

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Be Thankful



From my table (ok so it’s Christina Hendricks) to your table I’m wishing you all a very Happy Thanksgiving!
Now let’s all step away from our computers and enjoy some quality time with friends, family and FOOD!
xo,
Camila
Image via Full Housevia

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

DIY decorative napkins


This November has been jam packed and it was only until yesterday that I had a little down time to work on an easy and inexpensive project for your Thanksgiving Table!
I wanted my table to have a little more of a custom look this year so I went out to purchase some inexpensive white napkins. I was able to find some for .99 cents each.
Here is what you will need:

-Napkins
-Two different widths and colors of ribbon
-Paintbrush
-Fabric Glue
-D-rings
Not pictured:
-Frog Tape
-Pencil
1st Step: Iron napkin. You want a nice crisp base to get to work on.
2nd Step: Make a border around napkin. I decided to go with my thicker/teal ribbon for this section. Use paintbrush to apply fabric glue to ribbon:

3rd Step: I wanted to added a fretwork pattern to my napkin in a contrasting color (I picked orange, shocking), but I wanted a bit of the white napkin to peek through before I started. The easiest way to do this with go around the border of the napkin with frog tape to save my white space on the napkin.

4th Step: Use you pencil to make a guide for your fretwork pattern. At first this seemed really consuming to me. I wasn’t sure how to start it then Jon came home for work and figured it out in seconds. Gotta love him. In order to make the pattern we started with a 2 inch x 2 inch square from the corner and then worked our way out in 2 inch sections.

Do the same thing to each corner and then draw lines in between to connect them all.
5th Step: Cut ribbon and start gluing! I know in sewing their are different ways to do corners, but in playing around with the glue and ribbon the best option was to indivisually cut and glue each section.

One half finished:

Step 7: Check and see if any sections need extra glue, let dry and then iron! All done.

For an easy napkin ring just grab the thicker ribbon (teal for me), two D-rings and a glue gun.
Step 1: Cut 5 inch section and loop ribbon through two D-rings and glue down:


Step 2: In order to get a finished edge of the end of the napkin ring you need to take the ribbon and have the D-ring seem faced down. Then on the end of the ribbon glue the seem facing up. This will make it so that when you loop the ribbon through the D-ring you have no exposed edges.

That’s it now the napkin ribbon ring is finished.
Put it all together:


Plus once the holiday is over you can throw the napkins in the wash and use them to make a pillow!
Mock-up:

Enjoy! I had so much fun doing this and have already used the same principle to get a fretwork pattern elsewhere in my house.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Christmas morning has come early!!!!!!!!!

I can't believe that I'm finally typing this, but the new blog is officially launched! 

From now on all of my posting will be done at Effortless-Style:



Head on over and check out my new home.

If you have a second it would be amazing if you could change your blog rolls, google readers, etc to my new URL. I would hate to lose any of my readers. :)

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Monday, November 22, 2010

Rue la la!

Issue 2 is live! 





I'm going to start this gloomy Monday from the comfort of my bed and read it from virtual cover to cover.

Let's all report back afterwards and discuss. :)


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Saturday, November 20, 2010

Giveaway Winner!


{Guest Room designed by Effortless Style}

This morning I used Random.org to pick out the winner for the give-away!

This give-away was the first time I was actually happy to see Anonymous comments pop up!



Very excited to work on give-away winners guest room! I'll make sure to share the design process with everyone on the blog.

For those of you that did not win don't fret I'm planning on doing some special promo prices on my rates and will have more give-aways in the future!

Thanks for playing!

xo,

Camila

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Friday, November 19, 2010

Blog Crush: Manhattan Nest

So the other day when I was online doing blog hopping research I landed on Manhattan Nest.

Manhattan Nest.is a blog written by Daniel & Eva who are sophomores at NYU that recently moved into their first apartment together. After reading today's post I was hooked. I settled in with a cup of tea and started at the beginning.

The majority of the posts have been written by Daniel (Eva was home for summer) and showcase some amazing and budget friendly projects that he tackled to turn their apartment into a home.

Check out his bedroom:



That stunning bed originally looked like this:



Only $49.99 and with some imagination, batting, mdf, staple gun, fabric and these steps you now see the finished product in his room.

His desk area is another stunner.

Check out the before:



After a trip to Ikea for some legs and knobs and a trip to Home Depot for some MDF & painting supplies he now has this:



Let's move along to kitchen where you can check out how some accessories, lighting swap, paint job and a duvet turned window treatment can brighten up a space.

Before:



After:




Their bathroom also needs a little time in the spotlight.

Check out their bathroom vanity before:



After: No that's not a new piece. It's just gotten a little TLC +wood+paint.



He also gave the walls a fresh coat of paint, which made me love my own black bathroom walls even more:



I can't wait to see what Daniel & Eva do next. If this is what they are doing as college sophomore's I can't wait to see what they accomplish next. Guys if you read this post we must get together and grab lunch one day so I can pick your brains and see that apt in person!

Images via Manhattan Nest

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Thursday, November 18, 2010

Last Chance: Give-away day!

Had to share one more sneak peek into a current e-decorating design that I'm working on.



It's a bit outside of my design style, but that makes me love it even more. Your home should look like you! Even if you hire a decorator/designer for help make sure your style shines through.

If you need a little help in your decor today's the last day to enter my give-away!

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Etsy Art Highlights

I love Etsy, but I must say the thing that I love most about it is also what I hate. There is just too much. I know it's a wonderful problem to have, but it can be time consuming to search page after page of items and not find the perfect thing.

I figured others must be feeling the same thing so here is a round up of some of my favorite artists:

Art by Rodriguez


Hershberger & Huff Studios:



D Robart:




Jazz Green:



Valentina Design:



JKL Designs:



Sarah Giannobile:



Siliso:



Claire Nereim:



Rachel Austin:



There you go a mix of styles that are currently on my radar. Who is your favorite etsy artist?

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Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Life in a fishbowl



Latest obsession of course comes in wallpaper form and Jon will be happy to know that it's filled with fish and not flowers. It's designed by Nina Campbellwho holds the key to my heart with wallpaper patterns. Let me tell you she does not disappoint!

Close up of fish:


I could only find one image of it actually used in a room. While I was dreaming of it in a master bathroom I love seeing it in a living room setting as well. Anyone else ever see it in action before?



On a totally random yet related note I did find out that once upon a time the pattern was available in gift wrap form:




While that pattern is not available currently there are a couple of other great options available here. I don't think I could ever get myself to wrap a gift with that paper. I would probably frame it instead.

Images via Nina Campbell

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