Best of March Round-Up

It's the last day of March, y'all! How did the time pass by so quickly?! I think I ask myself that every time a new month rolls around...

I love doing these wrap up posts each month - especially for those of you who are new around here (hi! nice to meet you!), or if you're a regular and missed a post or two. So let's get right to it, shall we? Here are my favorite posts from the month of March.

New Site Design & Branding

The biggest thing to happen to the blog this month was definitely launching the new site design. I'm loving how much it reflects me and my personality.

10 Complimentary Typeface Combinations

Y'all seem to love fonts as much as I do (yay!). This is a good one to pin for reference later...

Hand-Stitched Monogrammed Onesie

This gift was a big hit with my friend, so I'm definitely planning on making a few more of these in the future.

River House Tour: Day One | Day Two

I loved sharing these photos of my parents' river house with y'all. It's such a special and relaxing place for us and we can't wait to spend a bunch of time there this summer.

April Calendar iPhone Wallpaper

Don't forget to download this freebie April calendar for you iPhone (or other smart phone - it's just a photo). It's handy to have the month-at-a-glance when you turn on your screen.

Decorate for Spring Without Breaking the Bank

Y'all, it snowed again yesterday. I don't mean to be a whiner, but I'm so ready for spring and it's arriving so late this year. Writing up this budget-friendly spring decor post helped me remember that it will come. It's only a matter of time.

DIY Instagram Coasters

And lastly, I shared a tutorial for these easy, make-em-yourself Instagram coasters last week that I think are so fun! Have y'all done any fun projects with Insta-prints?

See ya March! April, I'm ready for you!

Best of February Roundup

My how time flies! I just looked back and realized I didn't do a favorite posts round up for December or January - eek! So we'll just pretend that didn't happen and start again with February, mmk?

In case you're new around here, once a month wraps up, I always like to take a quick look back and highlight some of my favorite projects. It's nice to see where I've been up to, and it also makes it easy for y'all to catch up on any posts you may have missed.

Let's take a look back at February!

I had fun experimenting with and repurposing plastic spoons to create this Valentine's Day heart garland. If there's a next time, I think I'll actually buy plastic spoons in the appropriate colors to avoid the mess of having to paint plastic (or buy some spray paint made for plastic). Hand painting was fine for this project, but if it needed to be durable or "chip-proof" at all, this certainly wouldn't have been the right paint!

I flexed my typography muscles and created some DC-shaped art for the city I love and will be leaving all too soon! If you love DC too, you can buy one of the prints from my Etsy shop.

Speaking of leaving DC, I detailed our next adventure in this state of the blog address. We're headed to Philadelphia this summer! Hello cheesesteaks and American history!

Y'all seemed to dig this round up of photography tips I pulled together in February, so I'll keep my eye out for more of those for a future post. I'm always eager to learn more and improve my skills, and apparently y'all are too!

I love the little West Elm-inspired makeover I gave my bedside table for the Be Bold Challenge. I'm so glad I took a risk on making the little wood tiles - they turned out even better than I imagined!

And finally, I showed off one of my tricks for keeping my office organized and my workflow efficient: magazine files! These little things are really hard workers in my tiny office area.

That wraps up February's favorite posts! I'll be back tomorrow with my favorite links from around the web this week!

October Project Round-Up

Man, October was one crazy month! As you may have read in my closing thoughts on my 31 Days series, I loved doing the series, but I'm so glad it's over! It's always fun for me to look back at the projects I've done over the course of the past month though, and I think this one might take the cake for most projects completed in a month. That's what writing for 31 days straight will do for ya :).

Before we get too far into November, I want to take take a few minutes to round up a few of my favorite projects from my series on using and loving what I have. If you missed any posts from the series, this is a great time to catch up!

This pleated fabric wreath has to be my favorite wreath I've made so far. The pleats are so feminine and that mustardy yellow remind me of fall.

I'm happy to report that Jackson loves the toys I made him. He has tried really hard to undo the knot in the middle of that coral and gray polka dot one, but has been unsuccessful so far (that's a win in my book!).

The enormous chalkboard I made using Annie Sloan Chalk Paint was a fun experiment. I tried out hand-lettering for the first time and was pretty happy with how it turned out. It's hard though y'all! I truly admire people who do that kind of stuff well.

I finally put together a home tour for the blog. I'd love to add more to it and flesh it out a little bit, but now you can catch a few glimpses of our itty bitty city apartment in an easy to scroll through format. :)

Reusing and making items I already own better is one of my favorite things to do (duh, that's part of why I did my 31 Days series on that...) and that's exactly what I did with these appliqued pillows. They've taken the place of those gray, white and yellow pillows you see above on our couch for the fall season.

Who loves a trash-to-treasure story? I do! The base of this side table is an old wire trash can, so yes, there's a literal trash-to-treasure element to this one!

Felt and fabric came together beautifully to make a set of gold and white coasters for a friend of mine. I'm definitely going to be making more of these soon - Christmas is coming!

I introduced my 2014 desk calendar that's now available in my Etsy shop. Head on over and get yourself one! Here's a sample of a couple of the months. It's an instant download (which equals instant gratification :)).

My car needed some love, and I finally cleaned it and got it organized this month. I've now got a designated box for all the items I regularly keep in the car. It makes me so happy to not have clutter everywhere!

My ho-hum, blah roller shades got a Greek key treatment this month. I'm still working on finishing all of them, but they look so much better now with that little extra something on the bottom edge.

I styled up the shelving in our front hall, and I still smile every time I walk by it.

This new system for storing our dog, Jackson's leashes is working great so far. I love not having them scattered all over the top of that piece of furniture in our front hall.

And last, but not least is this scrap wood turned votive holder I made using my new drill. I'm thinking I'm going to need to make a few more of these and put a few more scrap pieces of wood to work!

So goodbye October, hello November! Off to do some more projects! :)

September Project Round-Up

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Another month coming to a close? My how the time flies...I'm wrapping up September a little bit early this month because tomorrow is the start of my very first 31 Days series! That's right, I'm joining The Nester and about oh, a couple thousand other bloggers on a quest to write on the same topic for 31 Days straight. Come back tonight for my introduction post and to see what my topic is going to be. I think you'll like it! Any of y'all participating in this this year?

Now before we can get to that, it's time to take a look back at the past 30ish days at some of my favorite projects. Monthly round-up time!

First, my purse got a major organization overhaul this month thanks to this nifty little bag in a bag. I'm over a month into using it and I'm happy to report that it's still like, the most awesome thing ever.

I had fun messing around with a free website that makes watercolor maps of any place in the world, and framed up an image of Venice for the living room gallery wall.

If you love brownies as much as I do, you might want to try making this easy brownie cake sometime. Just sayin'.

I finally organized the last bottom cabinet in our kitchen - the under-sink corner cabinet. It felt so good to be able to access everything again once I cleaned it out!

Three of my posts focused on chalkboard-related items this month. The first was this typographic chalkboard art I made for my friends at CHAT (head to the post to read more about them).

Second was a round up of favorite chalkboard-appropriate fonts:

And third was a freebie for you - three iPhone lock screen wallpapers! The day after I posted these, Apple released iOS7, and I'm glad to report that these still look fab on the updated system.

I finished up the "Defining My Style" series with some snazzy dining rooms...

{Jones Design Company}

And to finish off September's round-up, I showed y'all my fall "makeshift" mantle, which I think is my favorite one I've ever done. :)

Adios September. You've been great. Can't wait to get started on my #31Days series though! See you tonight!

August Project Round-Up

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I can't believe September is here! August was a whirlwind - we were out of town literally every weekend this month, including Labor Day weekend, so I can't wait to have a few weekends at home to get my head on straight (i.e. actually clean our apartment among many other things! :) ). Did anyone else have a month like that? Since we were out of town so much, I didn't get to work on many "big" projects last month, but I've got a bunch of ideas swirling around in my head, so I'm hoping to tackle a few of them soon now that things have calmed down a bit.

Before August is distant memory though, I wanted to take a look back at some favorite posts from the past month. If you missed anything, this is a great way to catch up!

I've been loving coral this summer, and couldn't resist including that color in the stool makeover I did for my parents at their river house. The coral and white looks so crisp together! Talk about the power of paint. Oh, and a cute dog doesn't hurt either.

I continued my quest to define my style - this month in the kitchen and the bedroom. I'm pretty set on the style of my kitchen (classic white), but I'm a little more torn on what I want the look and "feel" of my bedroom to be. Head on over here to weigh in on my dilemma.

A super fun series I did this month was "5 Days of Book Page Crafts." The most popular of the five were the garland and the wreath - were those your favorites or did you like one of the others? I've made it easy to follow the series if you'd like to go back and see all the tutorials. At the bottom of each post, starting with Day 1, there's a link you can click to go to the next project in the series.

I love finding new uses for old things (see: book pages above), and the twig and paper flag centerpiece I made last week out of an old newspaper fits nicely into that category. Another thing I love? Simple, quick projects that have a big impact. This one is that too. Have a party, bridal shower or birthday party coming up? Boom. Centerpiece. Done. In about ten minutes. 

Annnd lastly, after we took our awesome trip to California (hitting up LA, Route 1, San Francisco and Napa Valley), I shared a post about my favorite packing tips. I managed to squish eight days worth of stuff into a carry on because I despise paying for checked baggage...and I hate waiting at baggage claim. Go ahead and call me a penny pincher and impatient. I'm ok with that :). If you want to see how I did it, head on over here.

How was your month of August? Are you as sad as I am that summer is "over" (even though the weather strongly goes against that notion in DC right now)? I'm slowly coming around to the idea of fall, which I love, but I am a summer girl all the way. Le sigh. I will say that I am SO GLAD football is back though. Don't even try to talk to me when my Tigers (of the Auburn variety) are playing. If you need me, you'll find me screaming at the TV :).

July Project Round-Up

July was a really fun month over here. I loved all of projects I took on and there are lots of exciting things in the works behind the scenes that I can't wait to share with you. In fact, one of things is happening TODAY! I am guest posting over at Serenity Now. I'm honored Amanda asked me to be a part of her guest posting schedule this week while she's away. If you've been around MRFB for awhile, the crafty project I'm sharing might look familiar, but go on over (have I piqued your curiosity yet?) and say hello.

I'm hoping to make a few more announcements next week about the exciting things to come once they're set in stone, but you'll just have to wait a little longer to hear about them!

Now let's take a look back at some favorite posts from the past month. If you missed anything, this is a great way to catch up.

My biggest (and most exciting) undertaking by far this month was launching the onesie line for CSW Designs. You can read more about the announcement here. I had so much fun designing the animals, prints and colors for these guys. Again, I'd love for you to spread the word about these fun baby items - they're perfect gifts for your own little one or would make a great gift!

Green polka dotted elephant anyone?

My favorite DIY project for the month (and seemed to be many of yours too!) was this vintage kitchen cart makeover I did for my parents at their river house.

Just a hair behind that, my other favorite DIY was the upholstered headboard I made for our bedroom. It's sooo nice to have it after living without one for over a year!

I love the summery look of my Ralph Lauren-inspired aqua and white striped tray. It lightens up our big, dark coffee table so nicely. Ah, the power of paint. :)

I shared a bunch of photos from our Fourth of July spontaneous photo shoot, as well as some portrait photography tips in this post. 

Ever since I put up my vanilla almond granola recipe, I've been making it non-stop over here. It's definitely our new breakfast staple. I've even been adding some healthy stuff to it like chia and flax seeds - heyo! Considering how much of a sweet tooth I have, I'm pretty proud of myself for trying to incorporate some healthier things as well.

Operation {Re}Organization continued on this month in the kitchen. I'm right in the middle of overhauling the bottom half of it, so expect to see more posts about that in the near future. You can read the first three I wrote this week here, here and here. 

And lastly, many, many thanks to these wonderful blogs for featuring my projects over the past month - so grateful and humbled!

Craftivity Designs | Living Better Together  | Just Do It Y'all | The Shabby Creek Cottage | Roadkill Rescue | The Inspiration Gallery | Sparkles and a Stove | Serenity Now | Give Me the Goods Monday | Rain on a Tin Roof | Suburbs Mama | If It's Not Baroque | Tatertots and Jello | Lambert's Lately | Wait 'Til Your Father Gets Home | Chase the Star