New Apartment Decorating Inspiration

I've been collecting easy decorating ideas from around the web using supplies like paint, frames, and corkboard. Our old apartment had white walls, lots of windows, and black appliances. Our new apartment has white cupboards in the kitchen and we can paint the walls {hallelujah!} so I'll be pretty much starting my design board from scratch. Can't wait!

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I love everything about this room {below}: the color palette of mustard yellow, powder blue, turquoise and gray, the white couch, the framed wallpaper, the metal accents, and the print on the coffee table. I also love the fact that the side table is a filing cabinet. Two birds with one stone.

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Our Thanksgiving Table

The long holiday weekend was fantastic. I had a pretty long list of to-dos and got about half of them done, but it was still a satisfying, fun time. I got to celebrate my birthday last Tuesday {November is quite the birthday month in my family} and it just went uphill from there. It truly was a wonderful holiday, and we even got to take the family pictures I've been trying to coordinate for months! Wait for that post. The pictures turned out really well.

As is tradition in the Castrejon family, we have Thanksgiving dinner at my sister in law Iris's house {because she has the most room!}, and this year my special assignment was decorating the table for dinner. I didn't buy anything new, I just gathered up all of the brown, red, orange, green, white and yellow things I had in my apartment, placed them strategically in and around glass jars, cake stands, and on top of pieces of fabric, added a few fall motifs and this is what resulted:

Craft Night

I almost forgot to blog about last Friday's fabulous craft night until I hooked up my camera to download pictures. It was a pretty successful night. Before the crafting began we had a dinner of Asian chicken salad and homemade California sushi rolls, of which I had seconds...and maybe thirds.

While we ate, we were taught how to decorate and set a table for the Autumn season with things we already have in or around our homes. When I walked in and saw these tables set up, the first thing that popped in my mind was, "Wow, that looks expensive!"
Well, doesn't it??

This beautiful tablescape is made up of fruits like lemons, oranges, apples, and pomegranates; vegetables such as pumpkins and gourds; leaves, branches, pine cones, cloves, wheat, paper, candles and string. Um, I have all those things at home, or can borrow them from my parent's house--or from csuci {they've got crazy trees and lots of pine cones}. So guess what I'll be attempting to do after I take my Halloween decor down next weekend?

Back to the craft night. I taught how to make paper pinwheels and had a fun time talking with the other girls all night. There were some beautiful and colorful pinwheels created! One gal kept coming back to make more and more. They really are addicting to make once you get the hang of it.

  

Couldn't resist making one of my own. It's going for sale at a Craft Fair on November 6 a friend of mine is putting together. More details to come!

Pink Blossom Decorations For Church Event

I was once again able to work alongside the wonderfully talented lady, Lindann, with decorating for an event. This time we worked on decorations for a Relief Society fireside which was held last Sunday, March 14th. Hours of work paid off: we got many, many compliments as the night went on. I kept saying, "I didn't come up with any of it. Lindann envisioned it and I just did what she told me to do."

I love the blossoms~ tissue flowers glued onto driftwood branches. All the other decor stemmed from their delicate, feminine look. We added pink and white tablecloths, flowers, and candles to accentuate the pictures of Christ, to remind us that we are daughters of God and our Savior will always stand beside us.

It was a long day, but it ended on a beautiful, spiritual note. I'm so grateful I got to be a part of it.

Wedding Decorations

My friend Lindanne Cheney called on Jan 1st asking if I could help her with flowers and centerpieces for a wedding the next day.

I love helping out with weddings so I said, "Sure!"

It was a long day.

I met her at her house at 9 AM and we loaded up both our cars with flowers and bouquets.

The wedding was in Moorpark, about a half hour away.

Right when we got there we got to work.

We made ten feather centerpieces, five other smaller centerpieces,

decorated the gazebo, finished up all of the boutinnieres and bouquets,

hung all the feather balls along the aisle,

and lastly, scattered white rose petals along the sides.

I was finally heading home around 4:45 PM.
And to think Lindanne was going to do it all by herself.
We were so tired by the time the ceremony started.

But the place looked gorgeous.

Halloween Decorations

I know these Halloween posts are getting old but I need to empty out my camera.

We were at my parent's house {aka our "storage" unit} on Friday night looking for our Halloween deco but we didn't find it.

We go home and it's in our closet.

So I didn't decorate until Halloween day.

I love the morbidity of Halloween.

You can't get away with this level of gothic creepiness any other time of the year.

Give me some black roses and bleeding picture frames,

add some chains and red candles,

& what would Halloween be without Jack Skellington?

I had me a scary Halloween, Haunted Mansion style.

Franco took the deco down as soon as it turned November 1st.

Party pooper.

Shadow Boxes

Olivia was kind enough to send me a couple of

cute shadow boxes in her package last month.

I was ecstatic because I've always wanted to make

a shadow box keepsake for all of the

receipts, hotel confirmations, metro tickets, plane boarding passes,

pictures, etcetera from my European trip in 2005.

I finally got to do it,

and now all my memorabilia is up for display,

a reminder to me of how much fun I had

& of how hard I have to work to go there again someday.

Good idea, don't you think?

:)

{craft idea from here.}

Map Of The World

I like the description of this product on their website:

"This is the perfect wrap for the world traveler in your life. Wonderfully vintage, you can make sure that the right country is featured on their gift. Make mine Egypt! Also very kool framed on the wall to inspire a budding explorer."

  That's exactly what we did. I forayed into Paper Source recently and bought a whole bunch of stuff, one thing being this big map {supposed to be wrapping paper!} to frame in a silver $5 Target frame I had found earlier. It's now hanging on my turquoise kitchen wall, inspiring the "budding explorer" inside me.

Update

I know, I've posted a lot today.

I'm behind, sorry. I took a few pictures of our studio.

We've finally added furniture! Remember our barren and messy apartment from before?

Well, it's not much better, but at least we have proper seats now.

{ok, so I took these around Christmastime, but without the decorations it looked even more empty!}

Paper Ornaments--And 100th Post!

I wasn't aware of how many ornaments were needed to decorate a 5-foot tree.

I didn't have ornaments.

I didn't want to buy them either, (expensive!!) I'd rather buy Christmas gifts.

But a bare tree would have just been sad. Solution?

Homemade paper ornaments! I already had all the supplies & after a Google search for "paper ornaments," I found great ideas which I readily put into use. Here are some of our creations:

Glittery Star

Origami Star
Spheres

"Vintage" Ornaments

Ribbons, beads, and berries finished the gilded look

Last Wednesday we had Franco's family over to celebrate Bishop Castrejon's birthday!

Here they are playing Mancala

Franco & his mom Clara Luz

Mosiah & Clara Luz

The Cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory--YUM!