In case you're wondering where I am

I've made myself a real blog!

I've been meaning to update my site for a while now and finally made the transition to Wordpress.

You can check out my new site at jessicapenner.com. I'm still getting the hang of it, so bear with me. I plan on adding some of the graphic design pieces that I'm proud of as well.

I'm also planning on starting up my own etsy shop in the next month or so, so keep your eye out on that!

Sewing a Curtain

One last thing I needed for my bathroom was a curtain. I'm lucky enough to have a washer and dryer in suite in my apartment, but they're a bit of an eyesore in my bathroom so I decided to make a curtain to keep them out of view, but still in easy access.

I had this Ikea fabric I bought a few years ago (long before I sewed!) and this seemed like the perfect accent to the room.

I'd never made a curtain before but this seemed easy enough. A hemmed rectangle and loops at the top. Not too tricky.

And the finished product! I still need to get a hook so I can keep the curtain to the side when I'm using the machines but I'll wait a while to get that.

Contrary to what it looked like, I ironed the curtain twice before hanging it up. I blame lighting for pointing out all the wrinkles.

Bathroom Mini-Reno

As I talked about in my last post, my bathroom in my apartment has been lacking.

It's a lot of shades of beige and didn't really have a lot of character.

I decided to paint my bathroom last week with having some free time (I took a week off work for the holidays! It's been amazing!).

I did have a hiccup along the way though. The first paint color I picked out was an utter flop. It was called Silver Drop and was a light grey. However, with the lack of windows and horrible lighting in my bathroom, it just looked like the walls were dirty rather than being a COLOR.

Thankfully, it only takes about 1/4 of a quart can of paint and an hour to do two coats of paint, so I didn't have a problem with buying another can of paint and trying out another color.

The color I ended up with is called Rain Washed by Behr. I like it! It's a light blue/slightly aqua/greyish color and it looks really clean and fresh.

I made the print on the wall based off of one I saw on Etsy. I still want to get a better frame for it yet.

I really wish I could do something with my sink/cupboard area! It's so hideous. If I get brave enough, maybe I'll paint it. I'd probably lose my damage deposit though.

I hung up my pretty petal hooks from Anthropologie! I got them in May while we were in Seattle and hadn't had a chance to use them yet. I didn't want to hang them up on a white wall because I thought a colored wall would add more contrast and help them stand out more. Either way, I think they add a cute feminine touch to the room!

Medicine Cabinet Makeover

I live in an apartment and while I love it, there's a few things I've wanted to change. I don't think I'm legally allowed to do too much as far as renovating, but I figure if I'm going to live here a few years, I'm going to make it as comfortable for me as possible, right?

That said, I had this ugly medicine cabinet in my bathroom. My main problems with it were that the top was stained, and that the doors to it were glass so everything on the inside was visible at all times.

I didn't take a proper "before" picture, but I took this one once I had started blocking off the doors to redo.

I found this great product at Home Depot called Frosted Glass Finish, a specialty product by RustOleum. It's in a can like spray-paint and you just spray it on the glass surface you want. It shows up clear and then minutes later dries into a soft frosted finish! Very cool and so easy to do, and for less than $10 it's such a great quick fix.

In this picture I've already started frosting the glass (it took a few coats), but you can see the stains that I really didn't like on top of the cabinet.

I decided to paint the metal surfaces with a high gloss white paint to create a clean and modern surface.

Finished product! I think it looks a lot better than before and I'm happy with the results, considering what I had to work with (if it were my own house, I would have just ripped it out and done something else with the area).

Crocheted Cowl Scarf

In the midst of knitting the orange scarf below, I had the urge to go back to my roots and do some crocheting. I saw these pretty cowl scarves by jenloveskev and thought they'd be pretty easy to make myself.

(this one's by jenloveskev)

Three evenings later I had myself a pretty blue cowl scarf. I'm super happy with the results.

I love that its warm enough that I can wear it with a jacket outside, and yet light and chic enough that I can wear it with a sweater to work inside.

It's also something that I can whip up and give as a gift. I'll probably end up making a few of these for friends yet too, and experiment with feathers and buttons like Jen does.