My Creative Blog [Search results for nate berkus] 

Hey, It's Monica…Wow! What an amazing, incredible, awesome, expereince it was… did I mention it was amazing? We'll definitely do a full post with oodles of fun pics and behind the scenes info (yes, Nate really is adorable in real life and incredibly easy to be around too!) but for today, we're keeping it short and sweet. We're completely exhausted from an 18 hour day and we both have crazy, busy days today (Jess is back in NYC for the US Open and I'm driving 7 hours to pick our new puppy out of a litter!) Anyhow… here's a little peek of the awesomeness…
Sneak Peek of our time on The Nate Show (AKA… 2 girls playing with a camera before going on the set)
This is how I prepare for my national TV d ebut … I take cheesy self-pics in the green room.

We're complete dorks! Nate, did you know what you were getting yourself into?

I LOVE this picture. We heart Nate! (by the way, Jess' make up looked amazing didn't it?)

Here we are as soon as we finished up the taping! We made it, it went so smoothly, and we want to do it again! LOL… I know we're not showing much in the way of real-deal, behind the scenes pics, but we will, once we're allowed to! I'll give you one little inside tidbit. I had an insanely awkward moment with Nate Berkus… We all know he's a side-cheek kisser right? Well, I've been preparing myself for that, because I'm not much of a kisser or a hugger. I knew it was coming at some point… so we're finishing the third segment, we're taping in front of tons of people, and he comes at me with his hands low, for like a low hand squeeze?? Palms up?? I went with it and then he goes in for the side kiss… He goes left and I go LEFT. Ugh… quickly he goes right, I go… who knows which direction (I'm being told it looks like I went for lips) and eventually we ended with what is now being referred to as the Nate Berkus Nuzzle. Epic FAIL! We asked one of the producers at the end if they'd cut that part out, and she laughed and said,"Sometimes they like to keep the awkward stuff"… Oh, Lucky me. Well, at least I can say that I got a Nate Berkus Nuzzle. Can you? haha!

And here we are heading out to see the sights of NYC after a hard day's work.

Have a Wonderful Labor Day Weekend!

Have you guys seen Nate Berkus' line at Target? So many cute things, it's impossible not to fall in love. We like to think we're good buddies with Nate, since we spent so much time with him last year, so we're pretty sure he wouldn't mind if we knocked off one of his items. I loved this jute-wrapped hurricane vase. It retails for $25+ but I knew I could make something similiar for much less.

Here's what I came up with;

Isn't it awesome? I love the colors and think it looks very high end for less than $10!

Here's what you need to make your own:
-Rope of any kind(I found this utility multi-colored utility rope at the dollar store)
-Ribbon
-Large Hurricane Vase (found at Target for $2!!)
-Upholstery Tacks
-Hot glue gun

These colors were totally calling my name, and I couldn't resist! It'll work with holiday decor, for sure, but can totally work the rest of the year too!
1. Wrap the rope tightly around the base of the hurricane. Cut one side so that the ends meet.

2. Wrap regular ol' tape around the ends to prevent fraying (don't worry- you won't see this in the end!)

3. Using one cut rope as your template, cut the remaining rope into however many strips you need. Cover the ends with tape.

4. Starting at the bottom of the hurricane, place a line of hot glue around the entire base. Immediately lay your first length of rope around the hurricane. Put a dab of hot glue on both ends and attach them together.

5. Do the same with all of the rope, making sure that ends match up to create a seam. Other than the rope at the bottom of the hurricane, I only put hot glue at the seam, the back and then the other side of the seam of each rope (not all the way around- I'm so cheap I don't like to waste anything!)

I used 10 pieces of rope stacked on each other for my vase, but you'll have to decide what looks best on your hurricane depending on it's height and width.

6. Now it's time to cover the seam! Slightly pull the top piece of rope away from the glass, run a line of glue behind it and tuck one end of the ribbon behind the rope. I used navy grosgrain ribbon because I like the thickness of it and because I know that Nate loves this stuff! It looks messy, but the glue comes right off the glass with a little warm water and some scrubbing.

7. Flip your hurricane upside down, cut your ribbon to the desired length and hot glue to the underside. Be sure not to leave too much ribbon, because that plus the glue can make your vase wobbly.

8. Adhere the tacks to the ribbon. Because nothing is ever easy, my tacks were too long, so I cut the back of it off with some heavy duty wire cutters. I added a dab of hot glue to the back of the tack and poked it through the ribbon so that it laid flush with the ribbon.

Ta-da! I'm sorry, Mr. Berkus, but I'm kinda partial to my version. Thanks for the idea!

These would make a fabulous under-$10 gift for anyone this Christmas! I sort of want to make one for everyone I know.: )

Linking up to: Tutorials & Tips

Happy December, everyone! If you've been following us then you know that our 3rd appearance on The Nate Berkus Show airs today! If you're new here as a result of the Nate Show, welcome! We're so glad you're here. We honestly still get a little giddy when we think about Nate calling us his best DIYer's, and are hoping all of this is not some crazy dream. No matter how often we get called back to the show (fingers crossed they ask us again!), it is still so surreal. But, we can't.get.enough. We're going to give a little glimpse of the two day room transformations, and our time in NYC for the live taping. Plus, we have a fun announcement, so read on!
Behind the Scenes The first part of the process is getting miked, which was stinkin' hilarious to me this time. Monica's outfit created all sorts of problems for our sound guy, Matt.

Case in point. Hehe. Tell me that doesn't make you giggle.
Then the filming started with an interview with Jesse, the big shot producer (which did not make it onto the show, but we thought we were really funny. Obviously, they did not.: )

Love this picture!
And this cutie is Jesse:

Adorable, right? (Sidenote: he is our age and so successful! Kinda made us feel like underachievers.)

Dean, cameraman #1, was on our very first shoot with the show, and is phenomenal. Just sayin'.
Eventually, we got to do our ridiculously silly and goofy smooth and athletic run out to take a peek at Nate's Crate.

The rest is history, as they say. Anyway, we're so excited to show you the rooms we decorated for Christmas for the show. Of course, Nate pulled another switcheroo on us (see our first house swap here), and I had to decorate Monica's family room, and she had to Christmas-ify my basement den. Switching houses totally puts us out of our element because we have to find all their DIY supplies to use without their guidance. Plus, it's a lot more pressure to decorate someone else's house! We couldn't use any of our existing Christmas decorations and could pretty much use only what was in the crate, although we could shop the house. But the end results turned out pretty good, if we do say so ourselves.: ) Ready for some before and afters?
Monica's Family Room

Jessica's Basement Den

Wheeeeeee! Don't they look amazing? There are soooooo many projects we want to share from these two makeovers- way too many for one post- so we'd like to invite you to:

Beginning tomorrow we'll be breaking down each of the projects from our room makeovers. We'll be sharing loads of ideas for Christmas decor that are easy and cheap- anyone can do them! You don't want to miss it, so come back with pens and paper in hand.: ) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ok, so back to Nate…we headed into NYC in mid-November for another live taping. This is super fun for us, especially watching all fun, crazy stuff that goes on behind the scenes. When we arrived, we headed up to our green room to get settled in and make ourselves look presentable.

Yes, this is another pose-in-the-mirror shot. We're sorry. We won't do it again.

Thank goodness for the wonderful makeup ladies. Each time they do our makeup differently, but every time it's great!

We kind of coordinated without planning it. Great minds…

Our green room didn't stand a chance against us make-a-mess-of-everything girls.

I was so hungry that I needed two plates full of food. (Sadly, this is not abnormal.)

Oh, wait, here's another mirror shot.

And another. Oops! She's cute, though, so that kind of makes up for it, doesn't it?

Once the show was over, we met up with Ed: the sweetest, most personable, down-to-earth, extremely successful producer on earth. I can't say enough nice things about him, so I won't even try. But, we love him.
Then it was off to see the sights!

I can't believe we toted some of our projects around Times Square. We are such dorks. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- So, that's it in a nutshell! We're seriously hoping to be asked on the show again, and if we are, we will be pulling out all the stops to get a picture with Mr. Nate himself. (We're coming for you, Nate!; )
Please don't forget to stop by tomorrow for Monica's easy handwritten lamp shade transformation.
Thanks so much for all of your support! Have a great day!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Welcome, Moo & Puppy, our newest sponsor! Moo & Puppy is a modern digital paper shop, and their stuff is seriously amazing. We created our 12 Days of Nate Show DIYs header with paper from her shop (Brewster Red & Teal). You should totally go check it out, and use the code HOUSEWIVES20 for a 20% discount on your order.

You're welcome.

I'm going to keep it real here and first say that I felt like I was in a blogging slump the last few weeks. But a wonderful Christmas break and looking back over our past year has rejuvenated me! I'm so proud of the projects Monica and I completed, and of this blog that we love! I'm going to try to keep it short and sweet (I tend to be a bit wordy, yes?; )

1. Ever hear of a guy named Nate Berkus?

I just couldn't do a 2011 recap without mentioning our whirlwind love affair crate challenges with Mr. Nate Berkus, himself. You can see what we did for the show here, here and here.
2. Barnwood Artwork

This beauty was, by far, my favorite project of the year. Modern, rustic, simple. Plus it was made with love for my best friend- you can't beat that!
3. Easy Door Headboard

This sort of makes me laugh, but this project is one of our most popular. My hubs and I made this headboard on a whim using some very non-traditional methods, but it's a winner!
4. Antique Table turned Vanity

I had been wanting to do this for a long time, and the Crafting with the Stars challenge gave me the perfect opportunity to give it a go! Monica and I spent one looooong evening getting it just right, but now I can't even express how much I love this vanity! (That sentence is ridiculous, but oh so true.) You can check out two of the other projects we did for CWTS on Monica's post yesterday.
5. Modern Typography Meets Reclaimed Barnwood

Oh barnwood, how I adore thee. Same to you, typography. Why not marry the two and make something fabulous? Well, ok, I will. Thankyouverymuch.
6. Pallet Shelf Love

Who loves free projects? This girl (said with thumbs pointing at chest)! This shelf was free, easy and quick. Love that.
7. DIY Drop-cloth Window Treatments

Drop-cloth window treatments have been floating around the blogosphere for a while now, but I tried my hand at making some valances for my living room when I heard aforementioned Mr. Berkus was sending a team to my house to film. That sure got my rear end in gear, and boy, am I glad. Those naked windows were in desperate need of some clothes!
8. From an Oops! to a Yes! Mirror Transformation

That this mirror turned into something I'm proud of, is an absolute miracle and purely an accident. It made me so thankful that, sometimes, persistance pays off!
9. Faux-Stained Glass Window

I have a crush on old things of all kinds, but can't often pay for the real deal, so I came up with this idea of using a wall decal from Home Depot and an antique window from my in-law's barn and making a faux stained glass window! I really liked it then, but liked it even more after Monica used it in my basement makeover! 10. A Garden Wall

I brought a bit of green into my kitchen by creating a garden wall with succelents. You know, the kind that are ridiculously hard to kill. It's true! I've had these since May, and they're still living, for which I can take no credit!
11. The Barn

Monica and I were so excited to combine our talents this year to design and create one-of-a-kind products using reclaimed barnwood. We opened our etsy shop in September amidst all our crazy Nate show stuff/ Crafting with the Stars submission/ and our first appearance on our local news. Can you say bad timing?: ) Even so, we love the items and our shop, so if you are ever in need of a unique gift or item for your home, we'd be thrilled to make one for you! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- So, we've had a GREAT year, and owe you a huge, fat thank you! This year would not have been possible without you and we so appreciate you taking time out of your busy lives to stop by our blog! Here's to another fantastic year in 2012!

I've already shared my undying love for reclaimed barnwood with you (see my barnwood artwork here and my huge barnwood frame here and our striped shore frame here), but it's about to get even more sappy. Are you ready? I adore reclaimed barn wood. I can't seem to get enough of it. It adds such character and warmth to a room or a project and, luckily for me, I have access to loads of it because my father-in-law has a barn just filled with the gorgeous stuff! That leads me to this project (and I promise I am going somewhere with all this rambling…)

This was my basement space before Monica went all Nate Berkus on it and transformed it into an awesome. comfortable, totally liveable room. As soon as I heard about the Nate Berkus Show, the wheels started turning. We thought that we were going to redesign a room in our own homes, so after I woke up from my shock-induced coma, I started thinking about how I wanted the space to look, and what projects I should attempt before we did the taping. That's where the bench comes in. I decided I wanted to build that my hubs should build a big corner bench across from the bar that would make for a great hangout spot. As you might have noticed, I roughly taped out what I thought would look good (the blue tape lines are in the bottom left hand corner of the pic), and then we made more detailed measurements.

First, we painted the entire space and got rid of the rust/orange color. Then, my hubs had his dad come out to help and together the three of us decided that the one side would be 10 feet long, 22 inches deep, and 20 inches high, and the other side would be 8 feet long with the same depth and height. (It's a BIG bench!)

So, they went about framing out the bench, making sure it had a ton of support. If we had had more time, (let's say more than 5 days! Nate likes to keep you hopping, you know?) I would have liked to incorporate some kind of storage into the bench, but alas, it was not to be. And wait, what's that on the bench? I was so impatient that I threw a couple of pillows my mom had made for me on it before anything was nailed down! I just couldn't wait!

Now we're getting to the fun stuff…I picked a few planks of barn wood out for the top of the bench- the stuff you would see when sitting on it. They started nailing it down, which included a lot of brute force and grunting (from the guys, not my poor mother-in-law who somehow got sucked into helping with this project while I happily took pictures).

Just look at all that gorgeousness! It certainly makes my heart skip a beat.

This piece especially is super cool. It's an old plank of wood that says Air Force and"handle with care", so I imagine it has some great history attached to it. I love that the pieces have some interest to them.

Finally, my hubs added drywall, painted the bench the same color as the walls, added moulding to the bottom of the bench, and sealed it with a water-based polyurethane. And now, it looks like this:

Ha! Gotcha! Did you really think I would should an AFTER picture before The Nate Show airs? Not on your life! But I can tell you this, the bench itself is absolutely beautiful and Monica worked some design magic with the stuff in Nate's Crate to make it even better.
Only 2 days until the BIG REVEAL!

Oh yeah, one more thing: to find out when The Nate Show airs in your area, click here.

Well, this is really exciting.

Source
The wonderful people at the Nate Berkus Show have given us TWO EXTRA TICKETS to the show we'll be taping on September 1st in New York City!

Source That could be YOU sitting in the audience within an arm's reach of Mr. Cutiepie himself! (And note to self: do not wear super low-cut top, ie: woman in white shirt below Nate. Who knows what might hang out that you don't want seen on tv?)
Shout it From the Rooftops Contest This is a spread-the-word contest. We want to see what creative ways you can tell the world about The Nate Show and our Debut! This is a totally subjective contest… no Random.org involved! We're picking the winner based on pure awesomeness!!
Interested? Here's what you need to do to score these tickets:
Creatively Spread the word about The Real Housewives of BC being on The Nate Show. (Ex: Rent a highway bilboard, Make us your Facebook status for 15 days straight, Get a tattoo announcing the big news and head to the beach, you get the idea…)

You have 15 days to be as creative as you can and to reach as many people as possible. We're looking for quality and quantity and we're sure we'll get a few laughs in there too! We have a tentative date for the tv airing of the episode, but it's not concrete, so you need to direct people to the blog and facebook to find out when. We'll let you work out the details on your own. We told The Nate Show producers that our readers would do an insane job promoting this upcoming episode of their show, so make us proud, and we'll thank you in person in NYC!!
To Enter: you need to email us and let us know what you've done to spread the word (therealhousewivesofbc@gmail.com ) We'd also LOVE to see a picture of what you've done. The Nate Show wants to see it too! Who knows, maybe you'll be their next guests??!!?? All entries must be recieved by August 15th. We'll be looking over all the entries and annoucing the winner on Wednesday, August 17th!
The Prize: The Winner will get TWO tickets to the September 1st live taping of The Nate Show! We'll both be there and will be so excited to meet you!! (If for some reason you can't make the 9/1 show, let us know a date that works and we'll get you tickets for that show instead). Sorry we can't fly you there or anything fancy-schmancy, but we would if we could!
So, Who's going to win? Who's coming to NYC with us?? Leave us some comment love and let us know if you're ready to WIN!

Good morning! We're so excited to watch our second appearance on The Nate Berkus Show later today and hope you are too! However, we're pretty sure the aprons we had to wear could be the least flattering article of clothing one could wear on TV, so that makes us a little less anxious to see the show.; )

We created some pretty awesome projects for this episode that we're super proud of, and had one epic fail that we wish we could erase from history (and Nate's memory!). Check back later today for all the juicy behind-the-scenes details we know you really came to read about. Plus, you can find out if we decided to use any of these things in our design:

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you're new to the blog, WELCOME! We're happy to have you here in our little slice of blogland. You can get a backstage pass to our big TV debut on The Nate Show here, and see all the fun projects we created for that show here. Be sure to"like" us on facebook for even more info about the show and other projects we're working on! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Don't forget to check back this afternoon for an unprecedented second post of the day!

It's amazing to think that it's already been a year since our whirlwind season on the Nate Berkus Show. Jess and I wanted to share the full segments from our Christmas Episodes with you today, but unfortunately the widgets aren't working. Boo! Instead, we're going to share one of my favorite projects from our holiday episode. I was at Jess' house tonight for our Favorite Things Party (re-cap post coming later this week!) and she had her deer hung proudly again this year!
Also, tomorrow we're going to begin our 2012 Christmas House Tours. We're both excited to welcome you guys into our homes and show you how we fancied them up for Christmas this year!
Okay, without further ado, here's a great DIY from 2011! --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'm so excited to share this project today! It was by far my favorite project in the room! Lots of fabulous Nate Show viewers have contacted us over the last week asking when this tutorial was coming… well, the wait is over, here is is!

First off, I want to give a shout out to a few bloggers that inspired this project. During a Nate Show Challenge we can't be browsing Pinterest or anything, but we do rely on remembering some cool ideas we've seen in the past and are ready to try. Check out Amber's project that she hand painted or this cool canvas on sale on Etsy for more inspiration.
Ok, now get ready, because this project is so simple that you might miss it if you blink! I didn't take any process pictures, and I really wanted to steal the artwork from Jess, so I made a new one for myself last night!
Start with a plain canvas. For Jess' I used an 11x17 and for mine I accidently bought 18x24. During the show, I quickly looked on Google images for a reindeer that I liked and found this picture.

I printed out the picture as an 8x11 and took it to Staples to blow it up for me. It cost all of $1.04! Score!

Have I mentioned that I seriously can't cut well with scissors? I actually had a"Needs Improvement" on my elementary report card for cutting…I still Need Improvement! So… instead, I cut it out using my handy, dandy, Xacto knife.

I used spray adhesive and spray paint.

First, flip your reindeer over and spray a thin layer of spray adhesive.

Position it onto your canvas and then pose for a cheesy picture. Okay, the posing is optional, but will make your hubs really happy, especially if you ask him to do it at 10:30pm!

Did I mention it was getting late? Perhaps all the fumes went to my head! Ugh! After making sure that the template is pretty well sealed down, all you need to do is make a creepy face and spray!

Try to spray from directly above the artwork. Less paint will sneak through under the template. A little bleeding is okay and gives it a pretty cool look though.

I wanted to get the template off right away, so simply peel off to reveal your masterpiece!

Ta-Da! I'm totally in love!

Because I'm a blog slacker, my new artwork is still drying and not ready to be hung on the wall.
So there you have it. Insanely simple artwork that makes a BIG impact!

We Love Simple Silhouette Art! Have you tried this simple DIY yet?

Hey! If you're new around here- welcome! We're super glad you found us and we hope you'll stick around a while. Use the icons on the right to take the plunge and follow us. We love all things DIY and we'd love to share our projects with you! -Monica & Jess ******************************************************************************** Phew! The days that our segments on The Nate Show air are just so surreal. It's sort of like watching someone else there on the TV, you know? Even after four times on the show, it's still so strange. Plus, it's a shame we didn't lose any of our dorkiness over the past few months. We were so busy working our rear ends off to make the stuff look good, that we sort of forgot to play it cool. Anyway, if you missed yesterday's show, you can see the super-fun reveal segment below:

Isn't Nate the cutest? And he seriously could not have been nicer to us. Love him. This room gave us a run for our money, but it came together so beautifully. We love that it took us out of our design comfort zones, and also made us try a few things we'd never done before.

One of the things I'm most proud of is this ugly-$15-beat-up-leather-turned-handsome-houndstooth scene-stealer. Yes,, you got that right. One of our greatest strengths, especially as a team, is that we're not afraid to tackle any project, and this is proof! First of all, reupholstering usually means sewing a bit, and we don't sew. Secondly, we've never even attempted upholstering anything.at.all. So, why not give it a whirl for all of tvland and Nate Berkus to see? Ha! We're crazy.

I'm not even going to try to explain to you what we did in tutorial-fashion, because quite honestly, it was a whole lot of trial and error with some yanking and grunting thrown in. But I can tell you a few simple things that really helped the process go smoothly.

We were able to take the arms off of the chair, which made sanding and staining, not to mention reupholstering one hundred times easier to do. I sanded and sanded and sanded and then stained the arms and legs in a deep walnut. I followed that up with a coat of water-based poly to seal it all up. We used about 1 1/2 yards of fabric and two small boxes of nailheads, both of which we found at Joann's. We sort of viewed reupholstering the chair as wrapping a present, and got started on the least noticeable areas. Once we got going, the process got easier and easier.

It took us about 2 hours off and on to get it right, but we were so happy with the results. It's not perfect, but it's pretty close!

My favorite part, for sure, is the nail head detail along the back. Not only does it look awesome, but it covers the seam so well!

Isn't it lovely? Now, we have to decide who gets to keep it. You can be sure we'll be flipping a coin for it.: )

So, my recommendation to you is go ahead and give that project you're a little afraid of a shot! Sometimes it's worth the risk. Or, if you'd rather not, that's ok too. Let the pros do it for you- we highly recommend Jet Upholstery to get the job done for you. That way you can be sure it'll come out perfect, without having to stand in compromising positions next to your best friend (not that that happened to us!: )
What project are you hesitating to tackle for fear it might not turn out right?

>Linking up to: TT&J, Sundae Scoop, Sunday Showcase, Saturday Night Special, Show & Tell Saturday,

You get to read about our projects, you know what the inside of our houses look like, but who are The Real Housewives of Bucks County? Well, this must be your lucky day, because today we're sharing a bit of ourselves with you… (Warning, some of these questions are cheesy, but who doesn't like a little cheese and we like 'em!)
Meet the Real Housewives of BC

1. Do you have kids?

2. Where is your birth place and are you far from it now?

3. What is one thing you could not do when you were a child, but you can do now?

5. What are your hobbies?

6. What is your favorite ice cream flavor?

7. If you could travel anywhere in the world — where would you go and why?

8. Have you ever met a famous person?

9. What is your least favorite thing about yourself?

10. One that describes your BFF and blog partner?

11. How tall are you?

12. When you were little — What did you want to do"when you grew up?" Are you doing it?

13. How do you spend your free time?

14. Favorite sport you like to watch or participate in?

15. What kind of food do you prefer eating when you are out?

16. Last Movie You Watched?

17. Would you like to be famous?

18. What Book Are You Reading?

19. Favorite Bible Verse?

*Photos courtesy of Doug from Candid Moments Photography. Thanks so much, Doug! You did a great job working with some very amateur models.: )
So, it's your turn now. What questions do you have for us? We're game for answering {almost} anything!

In T minus 24 hours (there I go again!) our episode of The Nate Show will be airing across the country. We can't believe it's almost here. Since we're only 1 day from Go Time, we thought a behind the scenes play-by-play was a must. We love our blog readers and we're excited to share this crazy experience with you! Get ready, it's a lot of pictures. We couldn't take all of you with us, but we want you to feel like you were right there too!
Backstage Pass

Me, Jess, Eric & Kevin (our hubs) were picked up in a fancy-pants car at 6am to head to The Big Apple!

It was an amazingly beautiful day in NYC

We arrived a few minutes late (darn NY traffic) and were escorted all VIP-like up to our green room. We were laughing just saying things like"green room." Usually our days are filled with words like"pull-ups" and"snack time" so it was pretty crazy!

We snapped a few pics as soon as we arrived.

After getting dressed we were wisked away to hair and make-up. The hair woman was insisting that my hair looked"just great" as it was, but you and I both know that she was completely thinking,"That mess needs more than a touch up!" My hair is always a little crazy. I love this picture of Jess and Kev. Just a normal day getting makeup done in NYC.

Yes, the men needed make up too!
Jess' make up lady (and yes, I'm probably offending half of the world by calling her that) was amazing. Jess' make up came out awesome.

Then we were back waiting in the green room. Waiting. Waiting. Waiting.

So… since I'm not one for sitting around thinking about being on National TV, I grabbed the little ole' camera and started having some fun!

Kev managed to ignore all my shenanigans and just chill watching some TV. Guys have it so easy!

We really are dorks and loved every second of it. I mean, if you're in a Green Room once in your life, you might as well enjoy it!

Then, it was time to get down to business. Producers were coming in and out and explaining the segments and what questions Nate would ask us. We ran through some responses and botched them royally. We're pretty good on the fly, but man, we stink at acting. It ended up being fine, because Nate went rogue on the planned questions and pretty much did his own thing. I guess you can do that when you're Nate Berkus.

Before we knew it, it was time. Guess what? We weren't nervous at all! Can you believe it? We totally couldn't. We thought we would be, but the nerves never came. Perhaps it was the fancy makeup or something?? Off we went to the set.

Sound room backstage. Let me tell you this… some men would say sound guys have a pretty good job… We learned during our 2 day taping that all modesty and embarrassment goes out the window pretty quickly when someone is running wires down your shirt. Thankfully, we knew this and were cool as cucumbers as we got all wired up. Thankfully we weren't awkward because Peter Greenburg (travel guru) was there with us getting mic'd up and we acted like we do this all the time too! Fake it till you make it right?

Approximately 5 seconds after getting mic'd and doing a"testing, testing, 5,4,3,2,1" we were through the doors and taking our spots on stage. HERE GOES… I couldn't bring the camera on the set… weird right? lol but in 1 day you'll be able to see it all!! About an hour later, we were back in the green room. We were totally in one of those,"is it really over? Wow! That was awesome!"

We hung out with our favorite Nate Show producer Ed C. for a bit (talkin' about the Biz… haha! Kidding, we don't know a thing about The Biz, but we did have a great time catching up with Ed)
Then, we were off to take the rest of NYC by storm (and by that I mean walk 20 extra blocks because we never knew exactly where we needed to be heading)

Times Square

We were so excited to have lots of our friends join us for the show and we had an awesome afternoon and evening in the city. We're both so blessed to have these amazing women in our lives.

Well duh, what would a day in NYC be without some Naked Cowboy? My 9 year old accidental saw this picture and just couldn't wrap her mind around it. Don't worry Kenz, I can't either!

So, there you have it… our fabulous whirlwind of a day. Tonight Jess said other than having 2 beautiful kids and marrying Kev, The Nate Show was her favorite thing ever.
and here's where it all started… 2 girls squished into a wooden crate, ready to do some design!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Also, a BIG welcome to our newests sponsors, Stuff Closeout & Consignment and JET Upholstery! Check out our Sweet Sponsors Page for more info on their awesomeness. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- So, Go double check your DVR, make sure everything's set for Thursday and then, let us know what you think once you see it! Thanks for your support!

P.S. We took all 28 of our friends and family to Carmine's Restaurant in the Theatre District. It was so good! If you're in town, check it out.

I am one lucky gal. I'll be in New York City this week for a taping of The Nate Berkus Show featuring an audience full of design bloggers. I am so excited and hoping to meet a lot of fellow bloggers...

Thank you all for hanging out with me here. It's so awesome to know a group of folks that are excited about the same things that I am.

You guys rock! See you in a few days!
all photos: Nate Berkus Designs

Hello world! Welcome to our blog! We're pretty darn excited you're here. So, hang out a while and get to know us; we hope you'll like what you see and come back and visit us often!

Did you get a good night's sleep? Because, we were pretty wound up for some reason… hmm, what could it have been?? Oh, right… today we finally get to reveal our Nate Show projects and you get to see our TV debut!
Weekend Warrior Room Reveals As you know, Nate pulled a fast one on us and did the old switcheroo. Jess turned my empty dining room into an amazing space (that I love) and I took Jess' basement from"basementy" to a comfy, coastal hangout (that she says is perfect for her style!)

As you know, Nate gave us some pretty random items to work with, but we were up for the challenge. Here are a few of the projects that you might have seen on the show!
Monica’s Farmhouse Table Remix This table wasn't made during the 48 hours of taping, but we worked like crazy to get it done before the show. This is really Eric's masterpiece, and I couldn't appreciate his hard work any more than I do (ok, enough mush! Geesh, this is a public blog!) Click HERE for the complete table post.

Jessica's Barnwood Coffee Table I made this using Adirondack tables and reclaimed barnwood. We have a slight obsession with barnwood, so you can check out some of our other barnwood projects HERE and HERE.

Monica's Barnwood Art Jessica made this piece of art during the show and man-alive is it awesome. It's the kind of piece where people walk in and go,"Oh wow! That's incredible!" Then I proudly tell them that my bestie made it and I mention that Nate Berkus said he wanted it! Click HERE to read our post on how this beauty was made

Jessica's Beach-Cottage Shelves I made these using… you guessed it… Barnwood! The combination of the wood and the accessories just screams Nantucket. I was thrilled that Jess liked them.

Monica's IKEA Hack Sideboard Jess blew me away with this one! This table was originally a bar-height, square table from IKEA. With the help of her trusty husband and a saw, it was transformed into an adorable two-tiered addition to my room.

Jessica's Bench This is another project that was created pre-taping and we need to give a huge shout out to Kevin and his dad for doing the handywork on this one. There were many late nights spent in both of our homes getting projects ready for the show's taping. Click HERE to see how this piece came to life.

Jessica's Faux Built-Ins I didn't have the time, materials, or know-how to make custom built-ins for the weird nook in Jess' basement. So… I got a little creative with the storage units Nate gave us and voila… faux built-ins! To achieve this look in your home, you just need to be sure to get some super-strong mounting brackets (I also recommend a handsome assistant, but I guess that's optional. Sorry, my hubs is taken!)

Phew, that was a lot of projects in 48 hours… and now I'll mention that 48 hours in TV land is very different than the real world. Between interviews, mic checks, and all that jazz, I think we had about 12 hours to work and that was between 7PM and 7AM! Let's just say, we were beyond exhausted when everything was said and done, but we'd do it again in an instant!

And now the elephant in the room… the awkward kiss. If you'd like to try this at home here's how you do it… When a famous celebrity leans in to give you a side-cheek kiss trick him by going the wrong direction, then hesitate, pause, act like you're going for the lips, and then finish it off with an incredibly awkward little air kiss. This method works every time and will give you a story to tell for ages.

So, thanks so much for supporting us in this crazy, amazing, stupendous,"are you kidding me, is this really happening" event! Be sure to leave us a comment and let us know what you thought of the show (and don't worry, we have thick skin!) Check back tomorrow for a special annoucement and… we might even include a few pictures from the VIP anyone we could get to come over Episode Viewing Party we're having tonight!

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We thought today would be the PERFECT day for us to announce the launch of our Etsy shop,"The Barn". We've had several requests for custom signs and art pieces, so here you go! Take a peek at the stuff we've created and shop until your heart's content!

The Barn

Click here to see our"Shop the Barn" page and here to go straight to our Etsy shop. Enjoy, and please, let us know what you think!
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Today's a Seriously Important Day: Happy 30th Birthday Jess!

(Kev and Jess at the"decades" prom we went to last year- they looked awesome!) Let me just tell you that I officially have the best friend ever. Jess is hands down, my favorite person in the world. She's confident, strong, dedicated to her family, friends, and most importantly her faith and having her in my life for the last 13 years has made it all that much better. So here's to 30 Jess, I can't wait to see what this decade has in store for you. Love ya- have an awesome day! ***********************************************************************

So every once in a while I have a pretty cool, unique idea… trust me, it doesn’t happen all that often, but when it does I pretty much love it. The stenciled wall panels in our Nate Show room were one of those rare times. If you haven’t seen the room yet, here she is in all of her fuzzy, screen shot taken from a video glory.

We were walking through the thrift store and saw a roll of this black paper stuff. I didn’t know what it was at first, but then I thought way back when and remembered putting a new roof on my parents’ house with a high school boyfriend (ah, the crazy things teenage girls will do to impress boys. Eric couldn’t pay me enough to get on a roof now!)… Anyhow, I remembered it was like the paper that you put under shingles. Tar Paper it’s called.

This is where the random awesome idea part comes in… I immediately stopping seeing this as roofing material, and I saw it as a canvas-like material for some fabulous high-end-meets-industrial-art. Jess sort of wasn’t quite sure about my plan, but being the wonderful BFF that she is, she trusted me and encouraged me to go for it. Here’s how I turned this roll into art. We had just gotten the stencil in the mail from Royal Design Studio for Jess’ kitchen renovation. Remember, she used it here:

The first step was to simply figure out the size of my panels, I knew I wanted two stenciled images on each panel. Once I had them cut to size I rolled on two coats of semi-gloss navy paint. I was worried it wouldn’t take the paint well, but it worked like a charm. No primer needed- score one for the lazy DIYer! Once they were really dry, it was time to stencil. Stenciling 4 images was a cake-walk compared to Jess’ kitchen. It took me about 15 minutes to complete both panels. I used DecoArt metalic gold paint and it needed about two coats to really get the pop we wanted.

Did you notice all the gold on the stencil when Jess posted about her kitchen? It was a mini spoiler alert!

One additional thing I’m crushing on and could have added to my crush post are grommets. I have been using them as much as I can lately. I pretty much can make an argument that everything is better with grommets! We added them to this piece to give it a finished look and also play off of the industrial nature of the tar paper.

These are grommeting tools. The funny thing is that no matter how many times I use it, I have to think pretty hard to get it all lined up correctly. Once you do, it’s a piece of cake.

There she is… I’m pretty sure it’s the prettiest a piece of tar paper has ever looked. She’s like the Miss America of roofing materials. (It got a tad wrinkled when it was shipped back to us after the show, but it really does stay nice and flat on the wall)

I was really thrilled with how they looked in the room and wow, look what Nate was saying during this part of the show…

Oh, you didn’t hear him say that?… weird. Must have been a glitch with your TV. (hehe) The bottom line here is that ANYTHING, literally anything can be turned into art and it doesn’t need to cost a million bucks to be fabulous. This was $10 tar paper (for a whole roll, I could make about 50 more with what I have left) and it was beautiful enough for Nate Berkus.
So who’s going to their local roofing supply store today? Ha! Actually, next week I’ll share another awesome project I used tar paper for. It’s a pretty cool one and saved me a ton of moolah!

katie lee's manhattan townhouse designed by nate berkus is now for sale. For the listing and more fantastic images, click here. discovered on the beautiful blog {this is glamorous}

Source: tumblr.com via The Real Housewives on Pinterest
Is it just the English teacher in me, or is this funny? I seriously laugh every single time I see it. Perhaps this picture is what inspired me to shoot for a non-traditional fall mantle this year. I'm usually a warm colors, traditional fall mantle girl. Not this year. I wanted something with cooler tones and some personality. Enter the Poe Inspired Mantle.

The black & white pumpkin and the raven are both from Hobby Lobby. (My daughter claims it's a crow, but it's a raven to me, heck it even squaked"Nevermore" the other day!) I was thinking of getting sticks for the vase, but I saw these peacock feathers and they just screamed"AWESOME" so I went with them and some spoooky branches. The owl is adorable and will become a permanent part of my decor somewhere.

I still really struggle with having the TV above the fireplace because it cramps my decorating style, but it's definitely the most practical. Sorry, for the BTR promo… when you have 4 kids, sometimes you gotta let them watch tv so mommy can take blog pics. Who knows, maybe BTR will want to be featured on our blog? Ha! (If you don't know BTR, then you clearly don't have an 9yr old)
In addition to finishing my fall mantle, the babies and I (perhaps at 2 and 4 they're not babies, but we call 'em that) did a little fall craftin' with some scrap particle board.
DIY Scrap Fall Sign Nothing fancy about this wood; I think the builder left it. It's really poor quality particle board, but I saw its inner beauty! Well…actually… I was just glad it was free.

My famous paint can shot (can something be famous just because I declared it so?) I just used some leftover paint that Nate left here. Oh, who's Nate you ask?? Umm, just my pal Nate Berkus. We're tight. (hahah!) This paint did come in the Nate Crate though.

Did you know that Jess and I like to paint topless? KIDDING!! I let my kiddos do the painting… you thought I was a hoochie for a second there didn't you?

We did a very rough base coat. I didn't want it 100% covered. Then it was time to stencil the letters and I needed to get it straight, so rather than take 2 minutes to find a ruler, I just used a scrap piece of paper and a piece of chalk to make some guide lines.

The stencil I used was the Helvetica font and I got it for $7.99 at HobLob.

I love these little bracket symbols. Jess and I probably over use them, but we can't help it. They're cool.

Some of the letters require a little work. First, stencil in the shape as is…

Then, you need to fill in where the plastic was for support. I just used two little pieces of painter's tape. It fills in nicely as you'll see in the finished product.

DARN my lack of planning. LEAF PILE was too long… I had 2 options… pretend"AF PILE" is a cool, family inside joke, or come up with a plan B…

I went with plan B. I painted over the AF…

and decided that a visual would work. Kaden ran outside and picked out two leaves that he liked the most. I pressed them on the wood and did a light stencil around the edges to create the shape of the leaf

I'll be the first to admit: 1. This is not a fancy-schmancy masterpiece 2. It's really hard to read. (Fall sorta looks like"fail"… The hubs was confused why I wrote the word"pile" until I explained it… and yes, there is a P missing from"pumpkins" for the sake of space)

However, even with all its quirkiness, after a final light sanding, I was really happy with the finished product.

I think it's a fun, personal addition to our front porch.

Sure, it's no crazy-cool subway art, but for $7.99 it's cute and kept me and my kids busy making it for at least an hour. That scores one in my book!

So, do you have any junky wood sitting around that you can make a cool family sign with? Give it a try and let us know how it turns out.

P.S. I have to confess, there are many things I wanted on this sign that didn't fit… Starbucks and Pumpkin Spice Latte just to name a few!

Linked up to: Stories of A to Z

One of our very favorite things in the world is taping for The Nate Show. Seriously, we did our first show back in the summer and decided it was the most fun ever. We're so thrilled to going back on for a final time and this evening we had a full night of shooting! Since I'm honestly completely and utterly exhausted (working our real jobs and then doing Nate is a lot of work!), I'm just going to give you a little sneak peek into our field taping today!
Poor Tommy our Camera guy had to look at us for hours on end!

The later it got in the evening, the more crazy and silly I seemed to get. At one point, Jess did something with her hand that I apparently thought was the funniest thing ever, because I ruined the take by crying laughing. I couldn't stop. It took me quite a while to get things under control again! Actually, I'm laughing about it now.

You might remember our producer, Jesse from our Christmas episode… he's super talented and really fun to work with. He was sitting in for me, while we adjusted some lighting. Looks like he's trying to replace me as Jess' BFF!

This was our crew from today. Since Jess and I are working together for this show, we only needed a small crew, but we were thrilled that it included our very favorite sound guy Mike. Not sure which one he is??? He's the one that has my hand on his thigh! OMW! I was using the self-timer and running into the shot, and totally didn't notice how crazy awkward I was being. Thank goodness Mike and I are buds!

This shot is WAY more realistic and what most of our Nate shoots are like. (Did we mention we love these guys?)

Ok, we've got one tired blogger/mommy/teacher on our hands, so that's all the peek you're getting. Wait, what?? Oh, you want to know what we're working on for this episode?? Hmm… well, don't tell Natey boy, but here's a teeny peek.

Don't worry, you'll know all the ins and outs soon enough! This just might be our very favorite project yet. We're insanely excited about our top-secret plans. Okay, time for some R & R.

We're SUPER EXCITED about this week's Fab Find… Us!!

If you haven't heard…
Our blog was found by Nate Berkus and we will be taping a segment for his show!

We are Beyond Excited! We're going to be taping next Wednesday and Thursday. On Wednesday the film crew will be taping a back story with our families and our homes (GASP! We have LOTS to get ready!) Thursday, Jess and I will be given a"Mystery Crate" filled with supplies and accessories to re-do a room in each of our homes. Jess is doing her finished basement gameroom, and I'm doing our dining room. The crazy part is that we only have one day, and we're COMPETING against each other! We're both two competitive girls, so this is going to be interesting and oh, so fun! In late August/September we will be brought to NYC for the show taping with Nate, in front of a live audience.
If you don't know about Nate… Where have you been?? He was a regular contributor as a designer on Oprah for years and now has his own show on NBC.

His room designs and his own line of fabrics, and accessories are amazing. Jess and I can't believe we're going to be working with someone so talented!
This is Nate's living room

Source: houseandhome.com via Sarah on Pinterest
This is his Great Room

Source: cococozy.com via Chloe on Pinterest
Who wouldn't want to work with this cutie?

Source: google.com via Sarah on Pinterest
So, pardon us if we're a little crazy in the next week or so… We're frantically working to get everything ready (well actually Jess is, but I'm on vacation for another 4 days!) We promise to take tons of pictures and to share this amazing experience with all of you!
Now, for the most important question…

What on earth should we wear?

Hey! If you're new around here- welcome! We're super glad you found us and we hope you'll stick around a while. Use the icons on the right to take the plunge and follow us. We love all things DIY and we'd love to share our projects with you!
-Monica & Jess ********************************************************************************
What a bittersweet day… we’re so excited that our fourth episode airs today, but we’re also bummed that our crazy Nate Show journey is coming to an end. It has been such an amazing ride! If you’ve missed any of our episodes, you can check out some clips here.
Since we spent a good amount of time in the studio this year, we really had a lot of work to do behind the scenes.

Haha! Kidding! We totally snuck these pictures in the control room when we were waiting for our mics. Yup, we’re dorks. Want to know the funniest thing ever? When we were taking these, there was another woman waiting to go on for her segment. We didn’t know until she was on that it was Christiane Lemieux, the founder of Dwell Studios! We LOVE Dwell! Can you imagine us taking these pictures while she was watching. OMW we’re Dorks!
Thrift a $250 room that looks like a Million bucks! This time Nate gave us a seriously tough challenge. $250 to design an entire room including furniture is insane! We never could have done it without an awesome thrift store. Liberty Thrift is a personal favorite and they have 5 locations in PA. We love the mission behind Liberty and it makes shopping there even better! They’re our newest blog sponsor, so if you’re in the area, go and check out one of their stores! Since you’ll get to see the finished product on the show, we’re going to highlight just a few of our favorite projects this week. We don’t have a ton of process pictures, because it was about 19 degrees in our work area and we were so tight on time, but we’ll try and give you the main gist. Here’s all the furniture pre-DIY… oh man it was in rough shape!

Our very favorite piece in the room was the Navy buffet. Something we love to do is to look at a piece of furniture and think of what we could turn it into. The minute I saw this dresser, I envisioned it as a fabulous buffet! When you’re working with thrifted pieces, don’t be afraid to try something a wee bit daring, the worst thing you can do is ruin it and have to head back to the thrift store to try again! Here’s the pretty darn dramatic before and after…

We don’t have process pics, but we do have some process video outtakes! WARNING: These are totally unedited and really goofy, but we’re all about keeping it Real and this lets you see just how the navy beauty came to be!
Step 1- The Game Plan!
Step 2- TV makes it seem easy!
Step 3- To Mold or not to Mold?
Step 4- Oops Still looks like a Dresser!
So you're getting the idea right? Good, because we don't have any more process shots! This picture shows all the changes we made. Isn't she pretty? We both were sooo thrilled with her makeover!

Now, when you go thrifting you can look at the rows and rows of dressers in a whole new light! And now, here's the cheesy End of the Night recap from day 2!
Tomorrow Jess is going to show you how two DIYers that have never upholstered a thing in their lives, decided to tackle a chair for Nate! We're crazy!
We hope you had fun watching our final episode, let us know what you thought of the room!

*** If you're wondering about the amazing stencil we used for our wall art, you can get it here. We love Royal Design Studios and their stencils are by far the best! *** >Linking up to: TT&J, Sundae Scoop, Sunday Showcase, Saturday Night Special, Show & Tell Saturday,

We interrupt the Fall Lovers Series to bring you a super cool project that my BFF completed for my dining room. If you don't have a crafty best friend, I highly recommend one! (I'm not positive we're allowed to share this post yet because of The Nate Show taping we did two weeks ago, but I don't think they'll recognize us do you?)

Now, first and foremost, I adore this project and it looks awesome in my dining room. Secondly, did I mention that Nate Berkus told us that he LOVED it and wanted it for his home (to which I said"Umm…you can have it!" Sorry Jess!)

Jess is sort of obsessed with barnwood. She can get fabulous barnwood from her father-in-law's old barn. We have big plans for all the wood, so stay tuned for more info about that. (dedicated bloggers take pictures in their garages at midnight. Excuse the quality! It's dedication!)

The awesome thing about using barnwood, is that it doesn't have to be perfect. I love the edges of this project. You can use any type of wood for the back of your artwork, just choose boards with lots of character to show on the front.

Jess' inspiration for the pattern came from the material on the dining room chairs I had redone. Remember this post?

Using some heavy plastic, she planned to trace the pattern from the fabric, but you couldn't see through it. Bummer!

Don't worry, that didn't stop her! She FREE-HANDED it! Yup, impressive right? I totally wouldn't have tried it, but she did and it turned out great! If you're not as gutsy, you can just put whatever you're tracing on a lampshade and it will make it more transparent. (I can't be held responsible for minor house fires)

After you paint your design on the wood, let it dry and the seal the entire piece with a water-based wood sealant. This makes the colors darken up a bit, emphasizing all the charater of the wood and gives it that rich, warm feeling.

I hope you're inspired to create your own art. Amazing art doesn't have to cost millions. In fact, this piece is sorta priceless to me because it was made by my BFF.
So, sorry Nate…you can't have it,
but now you know how to make your very own!

P.S. We're submitting this project to Crafting with the Stars… how cool would that be?? We're crossing our fingers and will keep you posted!!

Linkin' Up to: TT&J, Tutorials & Tips Tuesday