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My friend, Steph, had a cookie decorating party yesterday. I got pretty stoked about this because I LOVE DECORATING COOKIES — as long as I’m not baking them or making the frosting.

I brought my sprinkles and my gel food coloring and we got down to business with some mulled apple cider. Oh, and Mr. Barnabus Stinson also joined us for some fun. He was pretty entertaining in his adorable holiday sweater.

And, of course, the first cookie I finished ever-so-meticulously was absolutely perfect.

Here’s a collection of the rest of our cookies. I really like Elizabeth (Steph’s sister-in-law)’s tie-die ornament. Very cool!

I ended up with a whole plate of snowflakes. And the broken cookies were decorated like they were maimed … as you can see with the reindeer and gingerbread man.

And my gluten-free cookies weren’t roll-outs, but they were delicious. They were pretty sad looking, but tasty nonetheless.

This reminds me that I didn’t ever blog about the cookies I decorated a few Christmases back. I think this was a blog only for running at that point. Here are the awesome cookies I decorated with the random frostings I whipped up (there was sour cream, cream cheese and anything that was available in the fridge in that frosting).

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WARNING: making a gingerbread house may sound like fun. IT IS NOT.

My beau somehow talked me into making a gingerbread house with him — although, he still claims it was MY idea. We spent the better part of last Sunday making this monstrosity from baking to assembling, to frosting.

Did I mention he’s an engineer and I’m a designer? So this house was going to be a really cool house. Or so the plans laid it out that way.

He didn’t want just a plain house — it had to have an addition.  I also wanted to go gung ho and do all sorts of cool piping, but that didn’t happen as I was exhausted by the time we got the damn thing to hold together.

Also — if you bake things, they change form. Something I didn’t think about going into this.

Regardless, here is our house. And I’ve got a template for the pieces here for you for FREE. If you dare.

The backside of our house was kind of sad-looking.

The side of the house refused to stay put. It collapsed 3-4 times before I finally just put a bunch of empty bottles around it to hold it up.

And here is the side. Kind of cute, but frustrating!

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I’m getting around to hanging stuff up in my apartment, and I’ve made a rule. The things I’m not sure of where to put, I’m going to hang on existing nails. That way, I’m not putting any more holes in the wall, and it makes decorating a bit more fun.  If I find the perfect place for something later, I’ll move it, but for now, everything’s been going on existing nails.

I love how the hallway turned out. I had to cheat and add one or two nails because there wasn’t enough for all my mirrors and shelves (the big mirror at the end of the hallway was there, thank you very much, Adria, who I know is commenting on how many mirrors are in my apartment). There’s a lovely piece of art by my friend, Kim, on my shelf as well. It’s what I used to create the layout for The Half Hearts first album, After the Flood.

I made a couple more frames with fabric in them.  I chose some vintage scraps that Adria had given me a while back after she cut enough squares for her vintage mini postage stamp quilt. I’d been stashing a larger piece of this because I loved the colors. Turns out, it matches my kitchen perfectly.  I painted the frames one shade darker than the walls using a Martha Stewart paint sample I bought from Home Depot.  For now, they’re hanging on existing nails.

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Another quickie project in efforts to spruce up my space: bathroom curtain.

The existing curtain that came with the apartment wasn’t really my taste …

I’m pretty sure it was fashioned from part of the old shower curtain.  Anyway, ignore my messy bathroom. I haven’t had time to unpack everything or hang my shelf on the wall.

Here’s my new curtain. I’ve been looking for something to use the last yard of my Michael Miller Lava Flowers on … and this was perfect!

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It’s been a while since I made anything, so I decided to make a few things last night.

I haven’t had much of a chance to unpack since the move, and thus, not much of a chance to decorate. I bought some vintage (or at least used) frames from Salvation Army for 99 cents a while back and they’ve just been sitting around waiting for me to do something crafty with them.

So I did.

Nothing super exciting.

I rummaged through my fabric that I’ve been hoarding and found a really cute print from Echino that pretty much matches my bedroom decor perfectly. 10 minutes later, I had a cute framed print.

Easy.

All you need is a frame, a piece of fabric and some masking tape. Cut the fabric about a half inch bigger than the opening of the middle of the frame. Take masking tape and adhere the edges so the fabric is taut. Ta. Da.

As you can see by the back of my frame, I didn’t really measure anything. Seriously. It doesn’t get easier than this. Just make sure you’ve ironed your fabric.

Ta da! If you want to get super fancy and put a piece like this to use, you could use a more permanent adhesive (like hot or super glue) and hang earrings and use stick pins to hang necklaces.  But I like this, because I can easily change out the fabric and I can even use the piece of fabric for something else if I choose.

Here it is in my bedroom. Totally cute!

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I’m super excited about this, but it’s probably pretty boring to most of you.

So I finally decided to decorate my apartment, you know, after I’ve lived here for a year-and-a-half and right before I move out in May.  I guess better late than never.

I rearranged my bedroom last weekend (finally) at the suggestion of my friend Shelly several months back.  I ordered a few cute accessories from UrbanOutfitters.  I don’t have any before pictures, but here are some after pictures. 

Bedroom — with my Amy Butler sampler quilt courtesy of my friend Adria hanging on the wall and with my new chandelier light hanging above — which, by the way, I totally installed all by myself thanks to the HerTools(tm) set I received for Christmas from my mom *cough cough* I mean, Santa. No mechanical engineering expertise from Mr. Awesome needed. (I feel so empowered! I can use a screwdriver!)

Closeup of the chandelier.

My dresser with jewelry and some cute fabric swatches on the wall

a more “artsy” shot …

I hung all my scarves and hats up on my shelves with hooks … and I realized that I had a piece from my friend Kim that she’d painted for my friend Flip’s band, The Half Hearts, for their first album After the Flood.  I dunno if this goes to Flip or not, but for now, I’m going to keep it since apparently he hasn’t missed it …

And my living room with my daybed and the new tapestry hanging behind it.  I’ve had the same daybed since 8th grade along with the ugly floral sham, but it works well with the pieces I’ve made and acquired over the years. The white and purple quilt is from my great grandma, and I love how it matches everything so perfectly. I keep designing around it even though it’s almost completely fallen apart.

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