Time for a Change

My roommate and I were talking last night, and we were discussing how we'd like to be crafty and do some fun things this upcoming weekend as it is Labor Day. I will go home on Friday, but I'll come back Sunday because I'm helping out with my church's youth group, and they meet on Sunday nights. But I don't have school on Monday and neither does my roommate, so we're going to spend the day being crafty.

I was first inspired to start all these crafty projects from Pinterest, a fun little website full of pinboards that you can add and save to and organize so that if you're surfing the web and find something you like, you can just pin it. Well, I've pinned quite a few things lately, and many of them are crafty do-it-yourself projects.

But I've also realized more than just wanting to be crafty is that I'm ready for a change in my room decorations too. See the room I'm in now resembles the leftovers of a freshman girl's college dorm room. Not that anything would be wrong with that . . . if I were still 18, but I'm not. I'll be 22 in less than two months. I want a room that says, "Yes, I'm in college, but not for long." Not that I'm ready to be done with college, I just don't like the colors or style of what I have right now.

So, my roommate and I are going to spend Monday not resting but redecorating our room. And I'm going to try to get all of the things I need for $100 or less. I have about that much from camp that I put back waiting for something that I would need it for. When I go home this weekend, I'll be going to some flea markets and other places to discover what treasures I can find.

Here's my list of things I want to do:

• get rid of all colors preceded by the word "hot" (hot pink, hot orange, etc.)
• take down some paintings from my sophomore year of college and replace with something new
• paint a wall decoration with something I wrote at camp this summer (I'll show a picture later.)
• Recover a couple of pillows
• find a new lamp
• paint and distress my bookshelf and nightstand
  
• maybe take some lace and hang over my bed
• focus accent colors on mustards, creams, browns, and hints of green with whatever earthiness I can find
• reorganize and throw away stuff I don't need
• take clothes I don't wear to a consignment shop
• And if we have time, my roommate and I want to make some crafty stuff to wear as well.

So my project this week is to take out $100 and try to find a good majority of these things for under that much. I know where I can get some cheap fabric and some cheap wood/particle board. Distressing the bookshelf and nightstand will not be expensive. If I get lucky, I can find a lamp at a flea market here or my hometown. I had some old brightly colored fake flowers in my room, but I know I can find something cheap to replace those.

I am super excited for this. I haven't redecorated anything since my freshman year of college, and I'm ready. My roommate and I have similar tastes, and we both have projects we want to tackle. Part of me wanted to stay and work on stuff all weekend long, but this Friday is my brother's last first home game at high school in the band. I want to be there. Plus, my dad and I will have fun antiquing/thrifting when I go home this weekend. But I can't go over budget. That's the key. I'll also be on the hunt this week when I have any spare time in between classes. This town is loaded with thrift stores/flea markets.

I will post before pictures soon, and then you'll be able to anticipate the after pictures. (Well, I don't know if you'll anticipate them or not, but I will!) I'm excited for this week. It will be fun. I wish I could clone myself and the clone could go to my classes, but I could go exploring. How fun would that be?

Until next time,
God Bless