letters for the laundry room

January 8, 2014January 15, 2014 Rachel Atwell2 Comments

No, I’m not talking about writing love letters to my laundry room. Maybe when I finish the room, but until then here’s an art update!

Yesterday morning I made a quick trip to Hobby Lobby and picked up some supplies for some word fun: cardboard letters and scrapbook paper.

I traced each the letters on an individual sheet of scrapbook paper and then cut the paper letter out with scissors. The “A” was the only letter that required me to use a rotary blade {note: using a rotary blade after drinking an espresso drink is alot harder than imagined… #shakyhands}.

After the scrapbook paper letters were all cut out, I decide to paint the edges of the cardboard letters white since they were going to be a little exposed once they went on the wall. This was probably the most time consuming part of the project, and by time consuming I mean 10 minutes {I like to keep things simple}. Once they were dry, I got my trusty glue adhesive tape and secured the paper to the cardboard. I’ve read some instructions where some people modge podge letters to cardboard, but I like that I have the option of changing it up if I get tired of my green ikat print. But let’s be honest… will I ever get tired of ikat print?

And now all that’s left to do is hang them!

Onto the next items on my laundry list…

Around the House

pre-treating the stain {aka our laundry room}

January 6, 2014January 15, 2014 Rachel Atwell6 Comments

One of my January goals included organizing our laundry room. This is why.

My apologies if that hurt your eyes so early in the new year.

I try to follow the rule that everything in your house should have a place, but unfortunately, things in this room haven’t found there place yet.

The room itself is about 5.5 x 6.5 with half of the space occupied by the washer and dryer we purchased in December. It also has upper shelving along the back and left walls.

My overall goal for this room is to make it as functional as possible {bonus points if I smile upon opening the door instead of screaming}. With those things in mind, here is my to do list for the room.

move small bookshelf into the room for extra storage
move all laundry and cleaning supplies to bookshelf
move miscellaneous kitchen items on left shelf
setup over the door ironing board
adjust the way the dryer door swings open
purchase/make some type of art for the room
purchase glass jars for detergent and oxy clean

Are you organizing anything in the new year?

Around the House

decorating for our first Christmas

December 18, 2013January 15, 2014 Rachel Atwell7 Comments

As I write this, I am wrapped up in a blanket {we’ve yet to turn on the heat}, sipping some hot chocolate with a giant marshmallow, and staring at this view.

Ahhh, Christmas.

I was so excited to decorate for our first Christmas! The only problem – our move fell on December 4, so we had to wait until after our move was complete to purchase our tree and decorations. Booooo. Imagine me feeling like a scrooge when our house had nothing but a wreath on the door for the first 9 days of December.

As it turns out though, it was worth waiting a few extra days because we got some beautiful things – and memories – to begin our Christmas collection!

The Monday after our move, we ventured out for some lights, ornaments, wrapping paper, and a tree.

We found a local tree stand less than a mile from our house and brought home our first Christmas tree!

As for tree decorations, we kept it pretty simple for the colors – golds, silvers, whites – and used just a little over 50 ornaments. Our tree topper is actually an ornament that G carefully placed and made it look like a topper.

I also made one ornament, which has still yet to be placed on our tree. So far its my favorite.

It’s a basic glass ornament with one of our wedding invitations inside. I cut up one of our wedding invitations {white} and envelopes {gold}, “curled” them, and placed them inside the ornament. Now I just have to find some string to hang it.

Another favorite? Our stockings!

Finding stockings that we both liked, weren’t too expensive, and are somewhat neutral was alot harder than I expected. But when I found these and showed them to G after he got home from work last week – we made an order! I’m thinking of getting our monograms in white, but may wait until next year to see if I really like the idea {but let’s be honest, when do I NOT like a monogram;)}.

First Christmas | Atwell Adventures 7

Speaking of white, you may see some white peeking out of the base of our tree. We still haven’t found a tree skirt that we love so right now, we just have one of our white quilt underneath, which actually kind of works and G says looks like snow:)

I love to look at our tree all lit up – especially at night. I only wish we had a pullout sofa so we could sleep by it!