The Interior DIYer

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I love you to the Death Star and back

Today is a special day as it is husband’s birthday. He’s turning the ripe old age of 27. The same age I was when we got married. Yep, I’m a cradle robber. Represent. Anyways, I had a very special present in mind for him this year and I had it stored in my memory bank for some time …

Back in April my lovely friend Pat from In My Wheele House blogged a project she had done with a globe, some chalk + chalk paint and blew my mind by drawing the Death Star right onto that baby. I knew it would be a perfect home made present for husband. I found a globe in a charity shop, picked up some spray paint and I was on my way.

First I washed the globe, let it dry then I sprayed it with one coat of Iron Curtain grey paint – how very appropriate. Since it was plastic I went with spray paint to avoid peelage. And of course I went with my good old reliable Montana. I let it dry over night, and the next day I taped it off with washi tape. I used a thinner-than-usual black washi-style tape I got in IKEA. The reason I chose washi tape vs. masking tape is because it’s a lot more gentler when it comes to removing. 

I taped out a grid  of sorts {as seen above}, then sprayed with a darker shade of Montana paint {I cannot for the life of me remember its name right now}, peeled off the tape and again let it dry overnight. And please excuse my incredibly shoddy phone pic above. I was working sneakily in the spare bedroom at night – not the best for taking photos. 

The next day I used a Montana acrylic extra fine paint marker to draw in the details. I free-handed the wobbly and incredibly inaccurate lines and finer details, hoping it would closer resemble the Death Star. Yeah, I know it doesn’t look exactly like it, so if you’re a hardcore fan, please be gentle. If you squint your eyes at it from far away, it’s a dead ringer though. The perfect addition of nerd to our living room if I may be so bold.

It’s about to get sappy all up in here folks. You’ve been warned.

Happy birthday husband. You are the light of my life, always and forever. And as I wrote on your card, I love you to the Death Star and back.
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New plummy painting

Yesterday I woke up and decided to make my life a living hell, so I immediately dove into scrubbing the oven at 8am. Did I mention I haven’t thoroughly cleaned it in 4 years? I didn’t? Probably because that’s embarrassing and it means I’m a bad person. I also decided the Christmas tree and all the decorations had to come down, and they had to come down now. Whilst in the middle of cleaning the oven. Because I like making things difficult for myself. Oh, and I wanted a new painting for the living room. Are you noticing a trend? I had a very short attention span yesterday. 

The black and white painting on the left – I repainted that canvas nine times. Nine. So you can imagine I was happy when I sat down and in 20 minutes managed to paint my new burgundy number, and then I actually liked it the first time around. Said black and white painting is the only thing I’ve really painted in the 10 years since I moved to Ireland. I don’t want to sound emo, but once I moved here my interest in painting died. I used to paint a lot in Canada, and I’d paint huge behemoth paintings. So I really enjoyed my little painting stint yesterday. The picture above is the closest representation to what it actually looks like. I’m quite happy with it and its nummy colours and drippy drips. It’s giving me hope to start painting again. I know. Barf. 

Also featured – black and white painting – DIY Scrabble monogram – faux hydrangeas {spray painted since} – Karlsson flip clock. 
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2013 – in review

I can’t help but jump on the bandwagon and dedicate a blog post to my 2013 in review. I really liked going through all my old blog posts and seeing how things have evolved over the last 12 months – my photography ‘skills’, my taste in design, changes that have happened to our home, my writing, my styling and the little steps I’ve taken in the right direction. 
In January I blogged about our honeymoon in St. Petersburg. Russia absolutely blew our little minds and we’d love to go back. In fact, we’re hoping to this summer for a couple of days and just writing about it, I am so excited …

In February I painted over the remaining chalkboard wall in our living room, and painted it to it’s current state. Just looking at the picture below … Yeesh. Our living room has come a long way this past year, baby. I have a couple projects up my sleeve this year for not only our living room, but the rest of our apartment, and I cannot wait to start …

Our kitchen gained the perfect amount of kitsch in March and I put up two plummy shelves {with help from parental unit male!}. Perfect for our busy little kitchen …

Thanks to Emily‘s lifestyle blogger meetup, in April of 2013 I met another blogger for the first time. And lots of them. I know it doesn’t sound like a big deal, but I had never spoken with someone about blogging before to the same extent. We had an amazing evening at Avoca in Malahide and were absolutely spoiled rotten … 

I started and finished this man blanket for my broseph just in time for his birthday in April. It was quite the feat since I gave myself only 4 weeks to crochet it. I’ve noticed a trend in that I don’t like making things very easy for myself …

We traveled to Dubrovnik for our 7 year {dating} anniversary and it was heaven. What I wouldn’t give to be by the sea again with a cold drink in my hand. Le sigh …

I converted a corner of our living room into a home office space, as well as revamped a sad charity shop lamp and fancied up a footstool too to finish off my office nook. Those two revamps are still my favourite revamps to date … If you’d like to spy all of my DIYs from 2013, click on over to my DIY tab here. 

There were two key features added to our living room last year. First, I finally got my mitts on the IKEA Stockholm rug and I layed that beauty down on the floor. Oh it was good … 

Then I struck charity shop gold when I spotted this bar cart, and carted that mother home. It was so worth the argument with the bus driver who wouldn’t let me bring it onto the empty bus. Cart and I made it home safely, and I didn’t say my usual thank you to the bus driver as I got off the bus that day. I sure showed him … 

I purchased some way awesome art by Bon. I’m hoping to update how all our pieces are displayed this year and I think I may have to invest in some serious framing. This piece however is incredibly heavy, so it sadly won’t be framed. Although it would look so killer framed.
I nabbed my first styling gig in House and Home magazine in July of 2013, and all I have to say is I want all kinds of more of that. I really did love every minute of it. I think I was made for arranging things and fiddling with tiny styling details. I loved every minute and I’m going to try my best this year to put myself out there for more styling gigs. 
2013 also brought a couple more features – House and Home’s January My Style feature, Modes & Travaux featured my himmeli tutorial, The Irish Independent’s young age pensioner feature, my IKEA Family Live online feature as well as U Magazine’s crafty Christmas feature. 

I became a cyclist in August and am the proud owner of this yummy plum Dawn Duchess bicyclette. I’ve noticed I haven’t been sick since I started cycling {KNOCK ON WOOD}. I think it’s a mix of exercising as well as not being on a crowded, germ-infested bus every day …

I caved and became an Instagrammer in September. That thing is like crack.

I was involved in designing, DIYing and painting the Localise youth room at Sophia House in October and November this year. That project holds a special place in my heart, and all that hard work was so worth it. Plus, I made it onto RTE News! I’d love to work on more projects like this in 2014 … 

But for me, 2013 was the year of the DIY. I tried to make interesting DIYs that were not only reusing old junk destined for the landfill, but easy to follow tutorials, and as inexpensive as possible so they’re accessible to everyone. I started my DIY Friday series, and I’ll be continuing it well into 2014. I already have a little list of ideas for projects I can’t wait to make for our home and of course blog {like a drip wall – I want to do one in our home because I’m that crazy about the one I did in Sophia House}. I better get my ass in gear …