Exciting News! More to come soon...

In the last year or so, I have become kind of obsessed with vintage looking wingback chairs.  I have thought to myself more than a few times...I wonder how hard it could really be to reupholster one of those things.

Mainly it was this picture right here that really got my head churning...

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I mean, they are Chevron, black and white and wingback! How could I not fall in love?  So lately I have been on the hunt for a vintage wingback chair, in really good shape, and not crazy expensive (since I have to buy a lot of fabric to re-cover it, and that is not cheap...)

Well, my exciting news is that yesterday I was casually looking on craigslist, and I finally found my match!

Ain't she a beauty?!

 I picked her up yesterday at a peddler's mall (for only $40!!) and I am really happy with the condition, the tufting, and the fact that I got a matching ottoman to go along with her :)  I haven't started ripping her apart yet, because honestly, I'm a little scared of what I am about to take on...  I also have not been able to decide on a fabric fully yet.. I know I want something black and white and patterned but I just haven't decided fully.  These are the 5 that I have pretty much narrowed it down to.

 I would love something more in the Trellis family, but unfortunately I just haven't been able to find anything like that that fits in my budget :(  I'm also a little frightened to take on the stripes or the Chevron because I'm scared of how much harder that will make the upholstering process (trying to get lines to match up...etc, etc).  Also, what if Chevron is just a fad and I don't love it anymore in a year?!   Ahhh, decisions, decisions.   Any input on my choices would be GREATLY appreciated.

Anyway, I know it's been forever, so I wanted to post to let you all know what's going on in my life.  I did get all moved into my apartment, and I am loving how everything is looking.  You can see a little glimpse of how amazing my striped wall turned out in my bedroom in the picture with the chair above.  Stay tuned for an actual apartment tour post, there are just a few things I am still needing to get done before I publish everything on the internet for the whole world to see!

Also stay tuned for updates on this crazy adventure I am about to take trying to reupholster this chair and ottoman, YIKES! I am scared, but very, very excited :)

Thanks for reading and again, any input on fabric choice would be appreciated! Also, for all the shopaholics out there...look out for BIG sales coming up.  The semi-annual sale at Victoria's secret usually starts around Jan 3rd, and Dillard's has one of their biggest sales of the year New Year's day (and they open early for all you crazies like me!).  EVERYTHING in the store that is already marked down at all is an additional 50% off.  You really can't beat that...I can't wait! Hope everyone has an amazing New Year's and hopefully I will be posting again soon!

Catherine

CHIC.CLASSY.CHEAP

OOTN: Feelin' animalistic

I finally had a night on the town this past Wednesday...I say finally because it's been over a month since I have been social and gone out! I can't help it, I become a couch potato when it gets cold outside :) Anyway, I put together a fun outfit to cope with the weather, and thought I would share my 'outfit of the night' with you all! As always...please excuse the mess in my room.  I always take these pictures right after I get ready, and I get ready sitting on the floor in front of my mirror that I use to take selfies....oopsies! Shows that I'm human I guess :)

Red Jeans: Gap (from Gap Clearance Outlet in Hebron, KY)

Leopard blouse: Forever 21

Black Chunky Heels: Target

Watch: Michael Kors

Bracelet & Ring: Groopdealz & Forever 21

Crossbody Bag: Michael Kors

I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving! I know I ate wayyy too much food over the entire week, it's always so hard to say no when you can use the excuse 'it's the holidays..' I am moving into my apartment in 10 days!! I really do have a countdown going.  I can't wait to post some DIY posts in the next few weeks, so keep an eye out! 

Catherine 

Chic.Classy.Cheap

Creative Jewelry Storage

First off, I have some very exciting news!  I am moving into my own apartment with a friend in 2 1/2 weeks!!! I have been living at home with the parentals since I graduated in May, and as much as I love them and don't mind living here (plus the free rent ain't half bad), I can NOT WAIT to be back out on my own again.  There is just something so satisfying about living in your own apartment, it makes me feel so much more accomplished and grown up.  We have been waiting to move for about two months now, so of course I have been feverishly searching everywhere for decor/inspirations/ideas, etc etc.  I have pretty much decided on color schemes and what I want things to look like, now it's just a matter of  putting it all together in the next few weeks.  So on the positive side, this means I FINALLY will be doing some DIY and decor posts!! I love love love being crafty and creative but I haven't really had the want or need to since I knew I wouldn't be staying at home forever.  Anyway, my head's a churnin' with ideas and I can't wait to make them come to life and showcase everything for you all.  I will do a post soon showing little tidbits of ideas and things I have picked up so you all will get a hint of what things may look like.

Anyway, enough rambling about the future! I wanted to do a quick post and show you all the way I have been storing/showcasing the jewelry that I wear on a day to day basis.  I have a jewelry armoire (which I love) but to be honest, I always felt like I needed to have pieces that I want to wear regularly laying out so I can see them and remind myself to wear them (sounds silly, but it's the truth). If everything was all crammed into a jewelry box, I found myself just skipping jewelry for the day because I didn't feel like searching through all my drawers and compartments.  So when I moved home,  I decided to use an extra little accent table (super cheap, from Target) to store jewelry that I wear pretty regularly on.  I also bought a little hook with a fleur de lis on it from Hobby Lobby for about $2 to hang my big bulky necklaces.  The end result is pictured below:

Mini Apothecary jars from Hobby Lobby

I love how I can see everything so clearly.  It usually takes me less than 2 minutes to rummage through it all in the mornings and figure out what I'm wearing for the day.  The plate is actually from the Dollar Tree, the bracelet holders are from Michaels (watch out for a sale, you can easily get them for 40% off)  the apothecary jars are from Hobby Lobby and I got them half off.  They hold all my stud earrings (one for silver, one for gold).  The bracelets are also separated by gold and silver if you couldn't see that in the pictures.  My Michael Kors watches are all just sitting on the cases they came with.  And as I mentioned already, the necklace hooks are from Hobby Lobby and just hold all of my bulkier 'statement necklaces'.  The pile in the middle of everything are just items that I haven't worn yet, so they are still in their packaging.

I plan on getting a white table just like this turquoise one when I go to Ikea this weekend because I would really like to figure out a place in my new room or closet to do this same thing.  I've grown accustomed to seeing everything and would love to incorporate it somehow in my apartment.  I hope you all get inspired by this post, and get some ideas for your own jewelry collection!  Thanks for reading :)

Catherine

Chic.Classy.Cheap

OOTD: Saturday Work Day

I had to work yesterday (never very fun to work on weekends, wahh) and I wanted to do a quick outfit of the day to showcase what I wore to the office.  I do love getting to dress up for work (most of the time...) because I get a chance to wear some of the clothes in my closet that I didn't used to get the chance to wear very often.  Saturdays are usually pretty busy, so I always want to make sure I'm in something comfortable enough to run around in.  I also love that it's boot season and that I can wear dresses with boots to work, always one of my fav combos.

Dress: Old Navy

Boots: Steve Madden Intyce

Watch: Michael Kors (Dillard's)

Monogram Necklace: Etsy

Bag: Louis Vuitton Speedy 30 (Sak's 5th Ave)

Bracelets: iOffer (not David Yurman)

Catherine 

Chic.Classy.Cheap

OOTD: Fall Work Day

Today was the most amazing fall day, the sun was shining and the temperature was a perfect 70 degrees.  Great day to wear boots to the office.  Here are a few pictures of my outfit of the day.  Sorry for the weird lighting in my room that makes me look like I have a halo or something :).

Absolutely love my monogrammed necklace :)

Blazer- Forever 21 (last season)

Dress- Target Clearance (old)

Necklace- Etsy

Belt- Forever 21

Watch- Michael Kors Runway

Bracelet- Juicy Couture (old) 

Boots- Steven (Steve Madden) Intyce

Catherine 

CHIC.CLASSY.CHEAP

OOTD: Casual Birthday Dinner

Last night I went to a casual birthday dinner with my family.  I wanted to be comfortable but still feel cute, so I went with a pair of dressy'ish' shorts and a silk top.  I only had a few minutes to run home and change after work, so my hair was just pulled back in a ponytail and my accessories were minimalistic.

Also- please excuse my disaster of a room. By Friday, it always looks like a tornado has come through.

Top: Banana Republic (bought at Gap Clearance store)

Shorts: Forever 21

Shoes: Steve Madden (bought at Dillard's for 65% off)

Watch: Michael Kors Runway (from Macy's)

Arrow Bangle: Forever 21

Catherine

CHIC.CLASSY.CHEAP

DIY Tutorial: Thumbtack Monogrammed Chevron Canvas Art

This turned out to be such a fun project, and it really wasn't difficult (although it may look like it was). I must say, I absolutely LOVE how it turned out.  It is the perfect addition to a very plain room, and the best part is: if you for some reason are not a monogram lover like moi, you can customize it any way you want with the thumbtacks.   I worked on it super slowly, mainly because I have been all over the place these last couple months with graduation, and moving, etc, etc.  Anyway, if I had decided to do it all at once I probably could have gotten it done in a day or two, depending on how long it took the paint to dry.

What you need:
A canvas- This one is from Michael's, I believe it is 16x20 inches
Blue painter's tape
Paint color of your choice (mine is the flamingo pink I used for my monogrammed dish)
A paint brush or sponge (Michael's has them for super cheap)
A washable marker (for sketching the monogram)
A whole lotta thumbtacks! ( I had 300 from the dollar store, but that wasn't enough. Had to get a 2nd box, which was from WalMart and worked the same)

The first step is to tape out your zig zags on your canvas. This can be kind of tedious, especially if you are a perfectionist.  Luckily, I am not. Anyway, you want to start cutting many, many strips that are all around the same length from your painter's tape.  At first, I was trying to be perfect and measuring out all the strips to be exactly the same length.  If you want the same size 'zig zag' every time, this is the way to go.  If you don't really care that it's perfect, you can eyeball the length. You then just start to lay them out in a zig zag fashion, all the while smoothing out any ridges or bubbles in the tape.

If you want perfect lines, use this technique
 of measuring the tape every time

I did about 2 lines of zig zags with this technique when I realized it didn't have to be perfect, especially since the monogram itself was going to be the focal point.  From then on, I began to eyeball the length of the tape and didn't measure between each row of zig zags.  It wasn't perfect, but like I said, it didn't really matter to me.

As you can see, my lines are not all the same.
It's not obvious in the end though.

The bottom and top rows end up being little taped out triangles. You just need two small pieces of overlapping tape to form these triangles as shown in the picture above. As for the edges, I didn't worry about continuing the zig zag line on them, because I had decided to paint them coral from the beginning.  You can definitely continue the line if you want it to be chevron patterned on all edges.

Once it's all taped out, you can paint a coat over the canvas.  Remember when you are taping, what's white will actually be where the color is in the end, so if you want it thin, leave the space between rows thin, and vice versa if you want it thicker. 

Try not to get TOO much paint on the tape,
because it will bleed through in some places

I painted one thick coat at first, and after that dried went back in with a light second coat to get any white-ish spots.  I then let this dry FULLY before I pulled off the tape.

I was pretty satisfied with how it turned out, even when I first pulled off all of the tape.  There were definitely spots that needed touching up, but I just used a small detailing brush and guided it along the edge of any shaky looking lines.  It probably took about 15 minutes to clean up the lines to where I was satisfied with them. 

The next step was tracing out my monogram onto the canvas.  I found the easiest thing to do this with was a Crayola washable marker.  I chose to use pink.  I think you could also use chalk, or anything else that would be easy to wipe off, because trust me- you will make mistakes. I had a wet washcloth handy to wipe away any mistakes until I got it right.  I chose to do my monogram in a script font, which I can personally sketch out in about 2.5 seconds.  But if you are not familiar with how to draw your own- here is a picture of the alphabet in this font so you can figure it out on your own.  Note: My initials are CGB, but you want your last initial to be in the middle, and your first name initial on the left side with your middle name initial on the right.  So my monogram appears like this: cBg (little C, big B, little G). 

I sketched out the B first since it was the largest and in the very center of the canvas.  I also went ahead and put the thumbtacks in on the B so I knew exactly where I wanted to go with the smaller initials. 

It's very faint, but you can see the sketch of the B if you look closely

The next step is to start pushing the thumbtacks through the canvas.  You can just do this with your thumb, you don't need any type of tool.  It's relatively easy.  I also decided I wanted my thumbtacks to overlap because I liked the way that looked much better.  You can leave space between them if you prefer, and this would also save you a lot of thumbtacks.

Truckin' along on the B

After finishing the B, I went ahead and sketched the 2 letters on the side and begin to pin those as well.  They are supposed to be smaller, and almost fit into the large initials 'wings' or curls that branch out.

If you are not happy with the way a pin is laying, or the way a few pins are laying or curving or anything of that nature, it can be easily fixed.  All you have to do it pull the thumbtack out and re-pierce the canvas where you think it should lay.  I had to do this PLENTY of times throughout the process because I felt that if one was sitting wrong it stood out like a sore thumb. 

Closeup of the finished thumbtack monogram

As you can see, neither the chevron pattern or monogram itself is perfect,  but I think it turned out amazing and looks really good in my now tan room at home.  Plus it's just such an interesting piece, and something a lot of people would never have thought to do with some $1 thumbtacks :)  Here are some finished product photos of it hanging on my wall in my room: 

closeup with flash

From a different angle...

Sorry the colors are so off in some of these, I use my iPhone for pictures because my camera sucks, and it takes better quality pictures, but it's frustrating because I can never seem to get the color right! In real life the color is a really pretty coral, in most of the pictures I know it looks really bright and orangey.

I hope you guys enjoyed this tutorial and found it helpful!  Like I said earlier, you definitely don't have to do a monogram, you could do words, a picture (a fleur de lis would be really cute!), or anything your mind can think of! I would love to see the results if any of you do try this at home, so link it to me in a comment if so!

I plan on getting a new camera pretty soon, so hopefully my pictures will get better in my next couple of posts.  Also, be on the lookout for an update to the very popular cobra stitch bracelet tutorial in the next week or so! 

Don't forget to Share/Pin/Subscribe etc etc etc :)

Catherine

CHIC.CLASSY.CHEAP

DIY Tutorial: Scrapbook Paper & Mod-Podge Wine Bottle Makeovers

This is just going to be a quick tutorial, there aren't many steps to this craft.  It's simple and pretty easy to do, although it can get a little sticky!

What you need:
Old (empty) wine bottles
Scrapbooking paper of your choice
Mod Podge (I use 'lamination glue' from Hobby Lobby, it's only $2 per bottle and it's exactly the same)
Scissors
Fake flower of your choice

First off, you are going to want to clean your  wine bottles, and soak them in water to be able to scratch off any labels that may be attached.  You want to start with a clean, DRY bottle.

You can pick whatever scrapbooking paper you like to do this with, the ones in the picture above were in my kitchen at my apartment.  I just used one type of paper for each of those bottles, and they were both a paisley type of print.  There was one other in my apartment but I couldn't find a picture of it, and it is now packed away in a box since I am now officially moved back in at home :/

Anyway, like I said you can use whatever you want.  For the bottle that I am showing you, I actually used three different prints of paper, vs. the one print I had used on the ones above.  The trick with using multiple prints is making sure you don't overlap one specific print too many times.  You want the prints to be evenly placed on the bottle.

The three prints I chose to overlap

The picture above shows the three pieces of paper I chose to use for this particular bottle.  I went with these colors because this bottle was for my little sister for her birthday and she goes to NKU (black and yellow are the school colors).

The next step is just cutting the paper into about one inch strips, and then from there cutting those strips down into about 1x1 inch squares.  Nothing has to be perfect at all, and you can even tear the paper with your fingers if you want less of an 'edge'.  I just found using scissors was really easy and quicker than tearing.

Roughly 1 inch strips

Squares of all the paper
(ignore the god-awful bleach spot on the carpet, please!)

Next you just want to brush a thin layer of mod-podge on the wine bottle itself so that the paper will stick to it.  I usually do it in about 2 inch sections, and I recommend starting from the top of the bottle because the neck is the hardest part to do.  Once I have multiple pieces secured to the bottle, I then brush a pretty thick layer of mod-podge over the pieces.  It will look really milky at first, but it dries clear and then gives it that finished look.

Still milky looking after a layer
of mod-podge is put on top

Like I said, if you are just using one print, then you don't have to worry about your placing of the pieces.  However, if you are using multiple prints you want to make sure not to have too many of the same beside each other...just pay attention to your placement and it's really not hard. You continue this process all the way down the bottle until it is fully covered with paper and a thick coat of mod-podge.  Then you let dry.

You can stop at this step and it looks perfectly fine.  However, I like to overlap things on top of this layer.  For instance, if the print is paisley, I like to cut out a few full paisley shapes and overlap them (shown in the first picture).  I also did that with a floral print that I used on another.  For this one however, I wanted to stick with the NKU theme, so I printed off an NKU logo online and colored it in to make it stand out.  I then waited for the bottle to be completely dry and overlapped it on top.  

After adding the NKU logo

The last step is just to let that baby dry and pick out a fake flower of your choice to add to it (if you want of course)!  I picked up little flowers at hobby lobby in different colors, I think they were like $1 apiece- super inexpensive. These are super fun little personalized additions to any room, like a kitchen, bathroom or even bedroom.  And the best part is, you can personalize them any way you want.  You could do any sports teams, any colors or prints, any overlaps (initials would be adorable!) that your heart desires.

Emily's turned out super cute and exactly how I had wanted it to, and I can now post this blog because I gave her her birthday present early :)

The finished product!

I hope you all give this a try at home and personalize it in different ways! I would love to see the finished product if any of you all do give it a try.  Just an additional note: don't get it wet.  The mod-podge is water soluble, so it gets milky again if it's wet and then the paper could get soggy, which is just a no-no.  You could also seal this with an acrylic spray paint if you'd like.  I haven't done that to any of mine just because I didn't think it was necessary. 

Anyway, I hope you enjoy! Stay tuned, my next tutorial is turning out to be soo so cute!

Catherine

CHIC.CLASSY.CHEAP