*kinda* excited about this

I have been waiting and waiting for this day... there have been rumors, Beta versions etc., 
All I am saying is "watch out walls!"
I am not going to sleep for days now.
 I am gonna be all bloodshot eyed and glued to my computer designing shit.

Their paper will be sold in  24" wide widths,
its removable, and you can do decals.




Check it.

UPDATE:
I have been playing around with it, and it is super easy to use.
I am able to take my existing fabric designs and put them directly into wallpaper.
It gives you a view of how it looks on the wall, and color changing is a snap too:



Late Night Happenings

Ever have one of those moments were you start cleaning off your desk, and next thing you know the entire room is ripped apart and rearranged?  When it just feels easier to start fresh than actually make sense of what is going on in front of you?
Well I did. 
It entailed throwing a queen size mattress down the stairs and 
dragging a sofa bed up to my office. 

Remember my office /guest room?
It had a bed in it?
(room was also brown- that changed last cleaning episode)

Well that bed was a no-good catch all from hell.  
It attracted piles.  It was always a mess. 
And we have only had 2-3 guests sleep in it since I put that room together.

I am also ALWAYS in my office, and it bugged me that
1/3 of the room was taken up by an underused bed.


So I swapped out the sofa bed from the kids playroom, put it in my office and rearranged its face off. 
It is still a mess and unorganized, and I see a lot of little tweaks,
 but I now have both my desks side by side, 
I just spin in my chair. 



And I can close off one workspace if I want, and have invisible friends sit on the sofa and chat and drink cocktails from my invisible bar.
(Might need to actually make one visible, because that would fun to have. and dangerous.)

so that is what I will be up to this weekend. 
drinking and cleaning and organizing.

and I will be getting ready to paint my entry wall, so keep on voting.
Who-ha beware, agate is winning. 

Stay tuned.

Going Dark

I have been a blonde for over a (couple) decade(s) now.  
My real hair is something like this I think, well at least that was what I was born with:


SO not cute... 
I think I took my fashion cues from Sophia on the Golden Girls:
I had to go way back to find a photo before I started messing with my color 
(I discovered peroxide in 6th grade).


Honestly I am scared shitless to go brown, 
but it is exhausting maintaining the blonde.
Especially since I went platinum a few months ago.
(current day, roots are wallet killer$)

Both my sisters rock their brown, why can't I?

So I think I am ready to take the leap and fade out.

This is what got me started down this road:
I pinned the coat first, but then was all "I kinda like the hair- I can do that I think"
and of course then I was all delusional like
"I can grow it and ombre it an look just like Jessica"

 "or maybe ombre what I have now to transition myself"...

 and then I went back to growing it to look like her ...

F U Pinterest for screwing with my head.

Anyhow.  Hair is kind of like paint in my book. 
I can't be scared to change it, 
it grows (slowly) and I can always color it if I don't like.

How about you guys, anyone doing anything drastic lately to their head?









50 cent lucite handles y'all



You read it right. I found these SATTA knobs today at IKEA. 
6 handles for $2.99!

So the hoarder in me bought 4 packs, not knowing what I was going to do with them, but something was going down.

They come in lots of colors, but I like plain clear...


 They were fine as is, but I can't leave well enough alone.
 The stainless interior hardware bugged me, so I decided to sexy them up with a bit of gold.
I taped around the bases with scotch tape...
 and used my fave Krylon Gold Leaf Paint Pen
(Seriously Krylon, when are you going to send me a case of these and let me be your endorser?)

 They became magical, and still only cost me about 50 cents.

 IKEA also sells a 6 pack of acrylic knobs for $1.99.
$tupidne$$.
SO much you can do with them. 
Like find shiny objects to epoxy to them.

 Obviously a bigger shiny object, but you see where I am going...
now you know. but you probably already did.




you decide

It's been like a whole 9 months since I painted my entry wall, and you know what that means... it about time to crank out a new one.  
This time I need your help.  Between work and kids I have no time to seriously focus on a new look-
 I just know I want one.  I am also as indecisive as they come.

So I have chosen to throw a bunch of looks up that I have been stashing away 
I am asking for your opinion for the next step.  Tell me "Yay/Nay", "offer me therapy for my not-right obsession with painting the f*ck out of this poor wall, or give me other suggestions.
In return I will document the entire makeover, in an entertaining but informative post.

Ready? Here what I'm spinning on:
Still obsessing on dots and splashy splatter:


GIANT Agateness:

Source: houzz.com via Danika on Pinterest

but not too in your face vajayjay...


or softer more abstract organic:


or do I just completely lose my mind with glitz and texture?


my husbands manhood might just fall off with this, better save it for my office:

This is what I am working with currently. It is bright, fun and summery.

But I am feeling more deep, moody and unstructured these days.  I've drank a ton of mojitos, hung at the beach and now its time to burn shit, eat and bundle up.

I think this can be fixed by changing out a couple pillows and some paint.  (and burning shit in my fireplace & baking apple/ gourd based confections.)
So bring it on people,  I am your paint monkey!

P.S. I haven't had a chance to update my O'verlays button, but our sale has been extended until 9/20 midnight EST. get on it!

Spotted Rug for less than $100 and a Guest Post

Sometimes a DIY happens out of necessity.

I was invited to partake in a guest post series about Dream Nurseries by the ever fab
Dina of Honey & Fitz.  
As I began my nursery mood board and it all centered around this rug:

It feels fresh, graphic, can work in many settings, and was perfect for a little guy's nursery.


I had saved the above image to my file of designer porn and as it turns out I had no resource for it. 
I searched and searched the internet for hours, and came up empty.  

Update:  A big thank you to Beth and Leah for sending me the source for this rug. It turns out to be an Oscar de la Renta, named Spain 1971, and has been offered many times up for sale at OKL.  Last sale it was on for $1899!

  I wasn't going to change my nursery scheme and I was way too obsessed with this flipping rug, 
so I decided I would just have to figure out how to make it for you.  
Turns out to be really easy. 


Here is the HOW TO:
1. Get down to your local carpet place and get an off-white remnant and some discontinued samples in a similar color/ material to test on.  
There was a $40 5.5' x 8' remnant at the store that I plan on doing the full treatment to shortly. 
Most places will bind the remnant to the size you need for an additional fee,
but if you are feeling frugal here is a site that teaches you several ways to do it yourself.

2. Start with some RIT dye in your color of choice.  I tested with Navy, didn't like (too purple/black) and switched to plain Black for the final rug sample.

I got a couple rug samples.
 Some stores charge $2 for old samples, others give them away for free.
(Thank you Bass River Flooring!)
The one one the right had a subtle pattern, but that was fine since it was a "tester".  
Both samples are made from Nylon, so I followed the instructions on the dye bottle and added vinegar to the solution.  For extra permeability heat the solution. (I didn't.)

I highly recommend testing this out on swatches first until you get the hang of it and the look/color you want.

I tried a bunch of techniques: splatter painting, spots...
 and even zebra. 
(p.s. this is actually the Navy color dye here- not very blue right?):
 In the end I decided to go with my first choice, 
SPOTS.

3. I printed out the inspiration image to make sure I kept the same feel, 
gathered my brush, rug and dye & wore gloves.  You can also use black paint that has been diluted 1:1 part with water.  The final result is much stiffer though.
You will also need old rags or towels. 
(more on that later)
I put a piece of plastic under my rug and began painting on the  spots:

 I used the flat edge of the brush to get a feathered look on the edges:
 When I was happy with it I stopped.  It took me about 25 minutes to do this 25"x17" piece, but the good news is I got much faster once I figured out my technique.

4. Now, about the old rags or towels...
I used them to blot off the excess dye. This makes for a softer, faded look and keeps excess dye from rubbing off on your feet.  It also dries MUCH faster.
I laid the towel over the rug and pressed everywhere. 
A rolling pin covered in foil works great here.
 Pull off it off and you have a matching towel... yikes!

 I let it dry for a day and did a rub test:
This is all that came off, not bad.
If you use diluted black paint it isn't even an issue.
 Finished pattern (actually makes a sassy little doormat):
 Up close:
 It feels soft, not crunchy.  
FYI- You can also achieve this with Sharpie markers, just takes a lot longer!
Check out this tutorial for vinyl seat covers.
I am really excited about the finished product and so happy to know my rug obsession can become a reality.   I am off to get myself that remnant to make a runner for my hallway or maybe a rug for the office!  Hmmmm.... decisions.


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