IKEA Hack - Bar Cart

A couple weeks ago I told you all about the utility cart I purchased at IKEA. Well this weekend, I finally got around to the redo! In case you missed the last post or don't remember what the basic cart looks like, here it is:

BYGEL Utility Cart - IKEA

It doesn't look bad or anything, I just wanted to give it some more character. I decided to stay simple and just go with the gold and white look. I figured I could then add some color with the items I put on the cart and I could change it up for different parties. Honestly, all you have to do is spray paint everything that is silver, including your screws. Don't forget, my go to spray paint for gold is Rust-Oleum Metallic Gold. I dressed it up fun to show on the blog, don't feel like you have to go all out for everyday...unless you want to! Always fun to have a little corner of party in your house.

Tada...

It has a nice drawer for storage - great place for extra cocktail napkins, koozies and straws! I also had some fun plastic silverware to put in there.

I found the cute liquor candies while in Florida at their World Market - if you live in a state where you can buy liquor at a grocery store, you should be able to find them.

It's amazing what a can of $3 spray paint can do! In total, this bar cart cost me less than $35 to make. Plus, the good new is that IKEA now has regular shipping rates. If you aren't near an IKEA or you get anxiety going there, you can order online and shipping looks to be around $10 (at least to my address). Leaves you with money to go buy cute wine and liquor to stock the cart with - Dustin just loved going on that liquor run...not!

Lots of Love,

LOC Stocking Stuffers 2014!

Not sure what to fill stockings with this year? Here are some of my favorite finds that are practical, fun and pretty...

1. If you have someone that is wanting to redo a dresser or cabinets, a stocking a fun place to put the knobs they've been dreaming about, but can't afford. Zara Home - Knobs

2. Diane Von Furstenburg is one of my fashion icons and I really hope someone puts The Woman I Wanted to be in my stocking this year! She has led quite the life and is truly an inspiration.

3. Everyone loves a fun wine stopper and I look how pretty these Safari Bottle Stoppers from C Wonder are!

4.|5. Surprise, surprise, I have Rifle Paper Co. options in here. Their pocket notebooks and floral coasters are gorgeous pops of color for any stocking.

6. Gloves that are texting friendly are the best! When they are as cute as these Kate Spade Bow Gloves, they are perfect for a stocking!

7. Marc Jacobs is a favorite designer of mine and when I saw these Kiss Pop Lip Color Sticks, I decided this would be my stocking lip choice for the year.

8. I know it's a personal plug, but I really do think the Love of Character Hair Ties would make a great item to throw in a stocking! You can do the fun Christmas edition or one of the other great packs. Details below.

9. I love the Kate Spade Planners and this year I'm craving this small green one! I need to get my schedule more organized and I love that she has smaller sizes that are more purse friendly this year.

Don't forget that a lot of these websites are having sales - check out  my post from yesterday to see the list.

Also, it's Small Business Saturday, so make sure you are getting out and supporting the small businesses in your area this season - here are a few of my favorites that come to mind:

The Plaid Giraffe

Social Manor

Dandurand Drugs

Watermark Books & Cafe

The Pink Saloon
The Little House - Kansas City
Bloom - Lawrence

I also love any support you have for my small (ok, tiny!) business. If you are interested in any hair ties for stockings, here are my current selections:

E-mail me at fortheloveofcharacter@gmail.com or Facebook message me!

I am also going to work on fun Little Boxes of Christmas Character today and will post about them next week!

Lots of Love,

LOC Christmas List 2014!

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I put together my Christmas List for this year to help give you some ideas (for yourself and for others!) and it is kind of across the board. I put all of my favorite current finds, some that I have, some that I desire!

1. I really want some elegant frames for my house this year. I have some mixed in, but would like to upgrade the rest of mine from the college days: Gold Frame - Zara Home | White Floral - Zara Home | Green Enamel - Kate Spade

2. I love getting makeup for Christmas because it is something I need, but hate to buy myself. This Too Faced set at Sephora is a perfect set because it has all makeup needs in one adorable carousel.

3. Who doesn't love a fun place to put their trinkets! This little Trinkets Tray from C Wonder is perfect for a dresser or bathroom counter.

4. Tree by Lafco is not only a gorgeous candle, it smells amazing. The Plaid Giraffe is a good place to go and smell the different candles.

5. This Baggu Pouch is featured in this month's Martha Stewart Living and is hand painted by Anna Bond (my favorite!) - I want it, so I can try out painting it with her leaf pattern.

6. I honestly can't believe I don't already have one of these adorable acrylic tape dispensers from Social Manor because I have gifted them to others.

7. Last summer I purchased the "B" Jewelry Box from C Wonder for our bedroom and I love how elegant it looks. Great gift for someone who has everything.

8. You all know how much I love my Rifle Paper Co. In Bloom Books! What a pretty present!

9. My mother recently told me that The Plaid Giraffe got in these fabulous MacKenzie Child's Storage Boxes - they would make leftovers much more appetizing!

10. For the finale, I put my biggest want this season - a Cuyana Leather Tote in Caramel monogrammed. I love the simplicity and elegance of this leather tote, plus you can have it personalized!

If any of these items caught your eye, you should be aware of the amazing sales going on for some of them:
C Wonder - 40% every little thing! 
Kate Spade - 25% off site wide!
Zara Home - 30% off site wide!
Social Manor - Monday they are having a Cyber Monday Sale 25% off online!
Rifle Paper Co. - 30% off almost everything! Trust me I did my damage this morning and everyone is having a very Rifle Paper Christmas.

Happy Shopping!

Lots of Love,

Thanksgiving Day Table 2014!

I don't know about all of you, but I am excited to spend the day with my family tomorrow and enjoy the nice break! Tonight, I headed over to my mom's to start the holiday early and we got her table all decorated for tomorrow. I wanted to share it with you before feasting time in case you want to get out there and find some leaves to paint!Okay, I know I'm not giving you much time, but maybe you have some gold paint lying around...

If you love the place settings those can all be found at The Plaid Giraffe - you wouldn't expect anything else in Nancy's casa! I am in love with her Annie Glass plates on top of the MacKenzie Child's black and white chargers. I also love her ceramic MacKenzie Child's napkin rings - jealous of those! The pewter pieces, tray and goblets are Juliska and go with my mom's everday dishes. The centerpiece is comprised of a fun metal basket from the Plaid and my mom had some greens arranged in it. Then today she picked up some flowers from the floral department at the Plaid and I did some fun arranging. The velvet pumpkin and little nest (with velvet mushrooms and acorn) is also a new item at the Plaid and they are really a great way to incorporate fall into your decor. The pumpkins come in lots of different colors.

Now to the DIY aspect of the table, the golden leaves and acorns. In my Thanksgiving Prep post, I had pinned a fun idea of painted leaves for the place cards at the table. My didn't turn out as fancy, but I still love the pop of gold they add to the place settings. Dustin found leaves and acorns out in our front yard (he must really love me). Then I used my favorite craft staple, liquid gold leaf paint, to paint them. I tried using a Sharpie, but it didn't flow smoothly, so I decided to paint on the names with black acrylic paint. Like I said earlier, if you have some paint laying around, go pick some leaves!

Overall, I love the table my mom and I put together. It helps when she has great pieces to work with, but I think if you find ways to incorporate your own character to your turkey day table, then you will be successful! Flowers always add a nice pop of color and there should be a grocery store near you open tomorrow morning if you still need to get some.

Happy Thanksgiving!! Thankful to have you all in my life!

Lots of Love,

Craft Room Sneak: Aunt Mary's!

This past weekend I journeyed down to Florida to meet my cousin's new baby Beau - so cute! He is such a good baby and I might be biased, but he is seriously one of the cutest baby boys around:

I stayed at my Aunt Mary's house and like usual, night one we were in her craft room checking things out. She has quite the craft room and has recently added some amazing peg boards, similar to the one in Baby Beau's nursery. The are so fun and add another element of character to her fun and inspiring room. Plus, they are useful when trying to find tools! Check them out and the rest of her fun room:

The baskets and hooks on the peg boards make for great storage - she organized by activity and is able to easily grab what she needs - pretty and organizational!

She made a cute bench after I posted about the one in our guestroom - I'm obsessed with her fabric choice! You can check out the how to instructions here.

Whole corner is adorable and the green flower knobs are a great pop of character.

The colors and shapes of her peg boards are amazing. She has a framing/artist lady that helped her - jealous!

On the other side of the room she has all of her paper and ribbon storage - she has quite the collection! It is so fun to go through when I'm there and I love receiving packages from her!

I also love this board - she took a cookie sheet, covered in gorgeous paper and viola! magnetic board!

I am so jealous of her craft room and all that she has stored away in there - seriously she is like an in home craft store! There is probably a reason I was named after her...

Lots of Love,

Thanksgiving Prep

Sitting on the couch, drinking some wine and trying to decide how I want to help my mom decorate for Thanksgiving. Here are some of my favorite ideas to help inspire you as well (probably beneficial to your thought process if you also drink some wine!):

Gold Leaf Place Cards

Mini Pumpkin Pies

Floral Napkin Rings 

Gold Leafed Pumpkin

If you want to show up with a gag gift to your Thanksgiving, this is perfect:

Inflatable Turkey

Thanksgiving is a great time to try out fun table settings! Last year we had Thanksgiving at my grandma's house, this year we are trying out my mother's new dining room set. I always love Thanksgiving and can't wait to share this year's table setting with you next week!

Lots of Love,

To Do: Ikea Barcart Ideas

This weekend Dustin and I headed up to Lawrence to visit with his parents and siblings. It's always fun getting back and catching up! Today, I dragged my mother-in-law and sister-in-law with me to the new IKEA in Kansas City. I warned them about the craziness ahead of time and luckily, since I had recently gone for the first time, I was able to get us through decently quick (which sadly isn't very quick at all). We all found fun things and filled up the car to the max.

One of the items I wanted to go for was the BYGEL Utility Cart because I thought it would be fun to redo for a holiday party I'm going to host. I figured for $30, I could add some character to it and make it look festive.

Now, I'm trying to figure out what I want to do with it. I have seen lots of pins on Pinterest with the silver parts spray painted to gold and I love that look. I wanted to see what other ideas I could find to see if something else caught my eye.

Here is the classic, just spray paint the silver gold - I love the simplicity of this because then you can add the character with items on the cart.

They did all gold on their makeover, almost too urban for my house.

This is a chic look with the black and gold.

For a quirky touch, they added shelving paper to the shelves - could be fun if you find great shelving paper.

They got fancy with their makeover and added overlays on the sides. The pop of color is fun, even without the overlays.

There are lots of fun ideas you can do with the simple cart, I just need to make my decision!  I am hoping to squeeze in some time this week to do the makeover before I head off to meet my adorable new cousin, baby Beau, in Florida (can't wait to share pictures with you all!). If I'm not able to find time, I will conquer it the next week!

Do any of you have any fun ideas or color combos I should try!?

Lots of Love,