Sunday, April 27, 2014

OOTD: Easter Sunday

Hey everyone!  Hope ya"ll are having a wonderful weekend!  I've had a nice 4 day weekend.  I am NOT ready to go back to work.  LOL!  I am however excited to see my Boo this evening.  He's been in Houston for drag races.

But anyway, I wanted to share another fashion post with ya'll.  My Easter Sunday outfit.


We had a such a beautiful day for Easter.  We spent it at home this year with my immediate family.  Very laid back, but nice.

So back to the outfit.  I just LOVE American Eagle jeans.  I spotted these about a week prior and just knew they would complete my look.  They are the cropped leggings.  At first I was worried about them being distressed for attending mass, but quickly got over that once I put the look together.  I found this top at a local boutique.  Virgo Boutique if you live in my area.  Blue is my favorite color and this royal blue print just jumped out in front of me when I walked in the store.  And the pink added that Easter feel to it.  


And the shoes made all the difference in the world.  Paired with the distressed jeans added a little edginess to my look.  Which I personally like.  



Love love love the cut outs & laces.  They are only about a 2" heel so they were super comfy.

I kept my jewelry light & easy with a simple long necklace with a  white pendant on the end, white floral earrings, stacked rings & my new beloved Michael Kors watch.

Bella had to join in on the fun as well ;)



I hope you enjoyed this post.  This outfit will not only be for Easter Sunday.  I can see many possibilities & different looks with all these pieces.  Especially those white crop jeggings.  White is very much in right now.

Thanks so much for reading ya'll!  Hope your Easter was just as blessed as mine was.  Till next time...

Lots of love,
Aimee Lou


My outfit:
American Eagle White Jegging Crops
- Top from Virgo Boutique, similar here
Material Girl Harley Lace Up Wedge Sandals
- White Pendant Necklace, similar here
- White Floral dangling earrings, similar here
- Stackable rings, similar here
Michael Kors watch
-

Sunday, April 20, 2014

Chalkboard Wall

- The Resurrection of Christ is a historical fact.  When His enemies believed that they had destroyed Him, His real triumph began.  To die to sin and to live with Christ is our way to victory and glorious resurrection. - New St. Joseph Daily Missal and Hymnal - Easter Sunday

Happy Easter!!  What a beautiful time of the year!

Today's post is another little home/DIY post.  I have been in serious redecorating mode lately.  Just so ready to change things up around here.  (Check out how I turned our plain pantry door into a fun accent piece here.)  And after a LONG 2 weeks, my chalkboard wall is finally complete.  


Isn't it super fun!!  I'm no artist by any means, as you can see, but I had so much fun drawing on it.

So here's what we started with....

My husband was not too excited about this project as we had to sand away at our beautiful cabinets.  But after some time and thought, he was cool with it. I got to sanding right away.  I used a piece of 100 grit and 150 grit for the process.  The block was there to help hold on to the sand paper.




I gave it one good round with the 100 grit, followed by 2 rounds with the 150 grit.  Wiping it clean with a damp towel in between sanding.  Very important to make sure no sanding debris is left around when you are ready to paint.  So clean clean clean and let it dry naturally.  You don't want any fuzzies hanging around either.


After it dried, I put my painters tape on areas I didn't want painted.



OH!  And don't forget to cover and protect your surrounding areas ;))


To start the project, I made sure I had all the essentials.  A good angled brush, a sponge roller, paint pans and the paint of course.  I chose Valspar Chalkboard paint.  I personally just trust the brand, but you can use whatever paint of your choice.  And I went with the traditional black.



Also make sure to keep a damp cloth handy for those oopsies.


I started off by trimming with my angled brush and then filled in using the sponge roller.



That pic above is after one coat.  The paint can says you can wait 1 hour in between coats, but being the busy body that I am, I was only able to do one coat per day.  Which suited me just fine cause I wanted to make sure that paint was nice and dry before each coat.  The paint can also suggest 2 - 3 coats as well as priming.  I skipped priming after some deep discussions with Michael on if I would ever want to strip the paint off.  So use your own judgement.  I think it worked out fine without the primer for us.  I did however use 4 coats of the paint.

This took me about 2 weeks mainly because, as mentioned before, I'm a busy body.  I had other things to accomplish and attend so it just took me a little longer.  But I finally finished it yesterday.  Here's the finished look.....

Isn't she pretty!!

I waited over night before removing my painters tape too.  Just to be on the safe side.

As I'm reading different blogs about how to go about doing this, everyone single one said you have to "chalk" or "condition" your board before use.  One even said to wait 3 days before doing this, but I jumped right in.  LOL!

To "chalk" or "condition" your board means to basically run the chalk all over it like so.......

This is what it will look like when you're done.......

Another blog said to wait a day to erase this.  Once again, I jumped right in!


This method basically evens out your chalk paint and primes it to be ready for your creations.  If you were to skip this step, you might notice that even after you erase your creations, you can still make them out or see them.  Follow what I'm saying?  So you definitely want to "chalk" or "condition" your board.  I'm using Mr. Cleans Magic Eraser here to erase.  I wouldn't suggest using it wet though.  It has cleansers in it that may strip off your paint.  Just a little FYI there.  To give your board a good cleaning every now and then, I would suggest using a clean damp cloth.  Simple as that.

Oh, and another FYI, this can get a bit messy.....

Chalk dust everywhere!  Nothing that a damp cloth can't get rid of though.

Now for the fun part!  Creating your own art work!  Here's another look at mine....

I'm pretty excited about it!  

So that's it for this post!  I hope you enjoyed it and hope that it was helpful.  Till next time....

Lots of Love,
Aimee Lou

Saturday, April 19, 2014

Leopard Love

Happy Saturday!  Hope everyone's having a great weekend!  

I thought I would do a quick fashion post today.  I love putting together outfits and looks and these last couple of weeks I've had to put a few of them together.  Lots of things to attend lately.  Not a bad thing, just a busy thing.  

I just love this pic of me and Bella so I had to include it.  She's like, "Hey Momma!  What cha doin'?"


I'll start off by saying how much I've been loving some leopard print lately.  I have 2 pairs of leopard shoes at the moment.  A pair of ballet flats and some cool slip ons that I'm sporting in the above photo.

For my first look, I wore the ballet flats to my niece's percussion ensemble for our High School.  Go Gators!!  It's still been a little on the chilly side.  So I combined a breezy sweater with my American Eagle Artist Crop jeans.  Adding that fun leopard print really made the outfit.


My husband is not the best photographer.  LOL!  Neither am I, but I need to practice with him.  He was making me laugh and every shot he took I was making a weird face.  So we both need a little work in photography and modeling, but until then, let's just focus on the outfit.


I tucked the sweater in the front of my jeans and left the tail out in the back.  I thought it turned out super cute.  And very comfy.

In this next outfit, I wanted a more more laid back look but yet still chic.  So I paired a plain black tee and black blazer with my favorite American Eagle jeggings.  I love me some American Eagle jeans.  And my new leopard slip ons from a recent haul.  Check out the haul here.



I think a fun bright colored clutch would really add to this look too.  

I just love these shoes.  Here's a closer look......


Bella wanted in on the photo shoot too.....


Notice:  weird face + awkward pose = fun picture ;)  Gotta love him though.

Hope you enjoyed this quick little post.  Enjoy the rest of your Easter weekend.  Come back tomorrow for a home/DIY post ;)

Lots of Love,
Aimee Lou

What I'm wearing....
- sweater Forever 21
- crop jeans American Eagle
- leopard print ballet flast Target
- v-neck tee J Crew
- blazer Forever 21 similar
- jeggings American Eagle
- leopard print slip ons Macys
- Michael Kors watch Macys
- Michael Kors studded large Selma Macys similar  *I couldn't find my exact one :(

Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Haul Part 1 - Sephora & Ulta / Haul Part 2 - Macy's, BBW, B&N & J Crew

Haul Part 1

Hey everyone!  Hope everyone is having a great week so far.  It's almost the weekend!!  Yaaaay!

So last week and last weekend I did a good bit of shopping.  Part of it for the VIB sale at Sephora.  I really wanted to post this up over the weekend for you, but a migraine decided to visit me Sunday morning.  So any productiveness (is that a word?) just flew out the window that day.  I did film the second part of my haul though.  Although I'm not my usual self.  But it made me feel better to get dressed and filmed.  So that's what I did.

Check out my videos below to see what all I got.  I'll include a list of everything as well.  And I will talk to ya'll very soon!

Lot's of Love,
Aimee Lou


Clinique Take The Day Off Cleansing Balm
Clinique Bottom Lash Mascara
Dry Bar Detox Dry Shampoo For Brunettes
Benefits They're Real Mascara
Anastasia Go Brow Kit in Medium Brown
Buxom Lip Cream in White Russian
Buxom Lip Polish in Sophia
Korres Wild Rose and Vitamin C Advanced Brightening Sleeping Facial
Formula X New Classics Nail Polish in Harmonics
Kat Von D Everlasting Blush in Bellisimo
Bite Beauty Creme Lipstick in Retsina
- Paul Mitchel Hot off The Press



Haul Part 2

Material Girl Harley Lace Up Wedge Sandals
Report Argo Elastic Gore Slide On Flat
Steve Madden Ecentric
J Crew Vintage Cotton tees
J Crew Crystal Leaf Necklace
The Maze Runner
The Big Kitty
Keep Calm and Buy Shoes Wood Box Plaque
I couldn't find the exact bookmark, but this one is cute if you like kitties
Gentle Foaming Hand Soap (kitchen lemon, rainforest sugarcane, lavender blossom, eucalyptus mint, white citrus)
Bubble Bath (French Lavender Honey, mad about you, pink chiffon, carried away)
Fragrance Mist (French Lavender Honey)
3-wick Candles (lavender blossom, spring)



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Saturday, April 5, 2014

Accent Door

Hey everyone!  Hope ya'll are having a wonderful weekend so far.  It's a bit rainy here in G-town Louisian, but it's still the weekend.  And I love the rain!  Perfect excuse to get cozy with a good book, or in my case, post a blog.  LOL!

I've actually been meaning to post this for 2 weeks now, so I am so sorry this hasn't gone up sooner.  If ya'll have seen my "Let's Talk" video back in February, then you know I am in the midst of redecorating.  Along with redecorating, I'm also "revamping" some pieces.  I've been wanting an accent door in my kitchen for the longest.  It finally happened about 2 weeks ago.  I researched a lot on how to go about doing this, but there wasn't much out there for me to go by.  I did get some tips from this guy here, but kinda just went with the flow.  So I thought I would share with you my take on how to paint an accent door.  Where ever it may be in your home.  For me, it was my kitchen.  I have a walk-in pantry that was screaming to be different.  LOL!  Here's a before look.


Boring right?

So, first I removed the handle and hardware.


Then I sanded it using an 80 grit piece of sand paper.



Keep in mind that this door had a LOT of paint on it and I wanted to partially get down to the wood.  So sand accordingly to your preference.  Tip..the lower the number, the more aggressive the grit.  Once that was done to my liking, I wiped it down with a wet washcloth and waited for it to dry.  The reason for not drying it with a dry towel is so no lent or any other particle settled on the door.


Here's what it looked like after sanding.


Oh!  Very important!  Don't forget to cover your floor and surrounding area with a sheet to protect them.


I waited about 30 minutes for it to dry.  And then the painting began.  I was very nervous during this process.  I've never done this before and I don't really think of myself as a crafty person.  Although I would like to.  

I knew I wanted an antique green.  After lots of Lowes trips and paint swatches, I finally settled on this one called Pine Needles by Valspar.  


The lady at the paint counter was very helpful and suggested that we could just use paint samples if we were just painting one door.  So we got 2 to be on the safe side at a whopping $2.50 each.


We used maybe a little over a half of one of them.  So I'm sure I'll be finding other pieces around the house to paint ;)

And the painting began.....


After putting on the first coat, I really liked how it came out.  So I just stopped there.  Some of the white of the door was peeking through which is exactly what I had envisioned in my head.  Hence the usage of so little paint.  Here's a look after 1 coat.


Bella was totally helping.  LOL!  I think she was after a dragon fly if I remember correctly.  But she was all up into my little project here.  #curiouskitty

I didn't get a picture of me doing this cause I was seriously in the zone at that point, but I took a taupey brown color and sparatically painted over the green.  Not fully covering the green.  I wanted a distressed look.  Here's a pic of what the door looked like after that.


 See what I mean?  I just messily smeared brown paint on it.  LOL!  I actually used our bedroom paint.  While we were painting our bedroom almost 9 yrs ago, we referred to the room as "the poo room".  It really looked like someone smeared baby poop everywhere.  LMBO!  But I promise, once it dried, it turned out to be really pretty.  But we had some left over and it turned out to be the perfect color I wanted to distress with.


 Thanks to my mad organization skills (commonly known as OCD), I kept a folder of everything we did in the house while we were building.  Including our paint colors.  So I can proudly tell you that the color I used to distress the door is Brown Moss.

I let that dry over night.  The next day I used a 150 grit piece of sand paper to "lightly" sand over the entire door.  I did this to sort of blend out the brown color so to speak.  You don't want to sand any color off.  Just lighten it up maybe.

After that I wiped it down once again with a wet washcloth and let it dry again for about 30 minutes.

Next step...sealing.  Now this is the key part.  I used a polyurethane stain to seal and make everything come together.  I used Pecan Satin.  I didn't want the stain to take over if you know what I mean.  Just to add to the distressing of the door.


To do this method, I used a sponge brush.  You can get these really cheap at Lowes or even at the Dollar Store.  


To paint the door, I just used a regular straight paint brush.  To apply the brown paint, I used a more stiffer brush that we had in our 'house building supplies".  


The brush on the left is the stiffer brush.  And the brush on the right is just a regular paint brush we picked up at Lowes while getting the paint.  And the sponge brush in the middle.

Anyway, remember, as you're staining, you must wipe away the stain with either a paper towel or clean cloth.  It will look scary at first while you're staining/sealing.  I stained a section at a time followed by a quick wipe of a paper towel.


Just to warn you...you will get your hands dirty doing this.  LOL!  Stain is pretty messy.  But it made the look of my door come together.  I'm so excited about it and really proud of myself.  Just shows you that if you really put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything.  I even put on the new door handle and hardware all by myself!  Here are a few pics of the finished product.




So much more interesting.  Don't you think?  Now, all that's missing is my new rug for my table ;)  

More redecorating post coming your way.  Just forewarning you.  LOL!  

Hope you enjoyed this post.  And I hope that maybe it was helpful if you're thinking about doing something like this yourself.  I thoroughly enjoyed this project.  Next up!  Chalkboard Wall!  

Till next time Loves,
Aimee Lou