Sarah M. Dorsey Designs at LeLePets

Mark your calendars, my pet silhouettes will be selling for 20% off next Thursday, October 18th at LeLe Pets!

LeLePets is a members only, daily deals site dedicated exclusively to design inspired pet goods. Each shop is featured for 72 hours and sells their pet inspired goods for a discount!

I've created a few new designs, so be on the look out for the ones below (as well as the ones currently in my Etsy shop)

LeLePets is a members only site, click here for an invitation to join and browse!

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DIY Herringbone + Chevron Rug + Delta Touch2O

Over the weekend we painted the Danny Seo jute Runner that I picked up at TJ Maxx the other week. I was inspired by Serena & Lily's Feather rug, a mix of chevron and herringbone patterns.

I was ambivalent to paint it because of the rise in the jute; however, using 3M painters tape hard to stick surfaces (the green one) it worked great!

We measure and centered the two vertical vertical lines, to lay out the rest we used a piece of paper with two dots, so that the distance was equal. As we went, we pushed the tape down into the crevices so that the tape would have good adhesion. 

I used SW Overjoy and SW Loyal Blue, left over from the console table in the bedroom and the Moroccan rug to mix a teal. 

I painted the larger areas and David filled in the hard to reach spots with a small brush. The key to getting clean lines with tape or a stencil is to use a thin layer of paint, especially near the edge. 

It took about an hour to lay out the tape and an afternoon to paint.

Once done, I removed the tape and admired the clean lines (I was a little nervous up until this point!) 

I decided to put it in the kitchen underneath the sink and dishwasher. It is nice to have something break up the matching cabinets and floor!

You may also notice our new Delta Touch20 Faucet, which I got to try out after attending Delta's blogger event in June. Yes, we may be crazy for installing it since it is a rental, but I couldn't help myself ... I just had to try out the touch on and off feature. Plus it was super easy to install, so not too much time invested in that, I imagine it should be easy to take out too (it's definitely coming with us!) 

It took a few days to get used to the touch feature after using a normal kitchen faucet, but a few days later it was second nature ... I hope I never have to go back! David even says to me every so often that he really likes it! 

Annabelle seems to like the rug ... or maybe she is just asking me for a treat? (they are next to the sink)

This is my first Danny Seo product, and I'll definitely be on the lookout for more! The rug is beautiful, thick and well made! 

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Weekend in Photos and What I'm Working on!

I'm working on finishing up a few DIY projects and thought I would share a few images from my weekend.

We had breakfast Saturday morning next to this neat sign in Pismo, I love it when new places (now a yoga studio) keep the old signs!

We laid out a pattern on our new Danny Seo Jute runner ... and we painted a small dresser and the runner, almost done!

and last but not least, I wore my new ruby red slippers on Sunday to church!

I'll be back soon with finished photos of the rug and dresser! If you wish to follow me on Instagram, you can find me @sarahmdorseydesigns

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Fall Patio?

It is a beautiful morning today ...

On the CA Central coast most of the summer mornings are very foggy, hopefully today is a sign of sunshiny mornings to come!

Yesterday was spent sanding and priming a few pieces, but before I show you those here are some updates to our "fall" patio.

I know my colors aren't exactly fall appropriate, but I couldn't find reds, oranges, and yellows that met my part sun requirement, so I improvised!  

I'm not much of a gardener and everything that I planted at the beginning of summer in the two planters died ... I guess the fact that the railing is plaster doesn't help, I had shade plants there but they never did very well. Maybe the wrong fertilizer?

So I decided to plant one of my favorite flowers, pansies! I was able to find a part sun variety at Home Depot, since it does get some late morning early afternoon sun, I am hoping that they will do well here.

I have a fondness of pansies from my Grandparent's house in South Carolina, my Grandfather, an expert gardner, had a long curving walkway with large beautiful pansies on both sides brimming into the walkway. Hopefully, mine will be flowing out of the box soon!

In addition to pansies, I planted astors in the ladder planter

I know my colors aren't exactly appropriate for fall, but CA has all kinds of flowers year round, so I figured I should enjoy while we are here!

Happy Friday! I hope you have a great weekend!

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Aqua Tray Update | How to Fix a Crack in a Tray

When I made covered buttons for the headboard, I decided to use the aqua tray for a hard surface while assembling the buttons, bad idea ... it broke on the very first button. So this week I finally got around to fixing it!

I found paper at World Market on clearance for $1.98, and decided to paint the red with liquid gold leaf

I then cut a circle (tracing the tray) and used a little spray adhesive to adhere the paper to the tray

I used the resin that I purchased for the folded rope light fixture, but never used ...

Following the instructions, I mixed equal parts of the resin and hardener (purchased at Michaels). I used 1/4 of the bottle, which is about 1 square foot of coverage. I poured it in the tray and tilted the tray around gradually until there was even coverage. Waited a few minutes and then exhaled (being careful not to inhale any in) to remove the bubbles that had been creating during mixing.

It was dry to the touch overnight, but for a hard cure I have to wait about 72 hours.

And that was it, a super easy update/fix for my aqua tray in under an hour! 

I love the super glossy finish! Have you used resin on anything recently?

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Annabelle's favorite thing

This weekend we went to the baseball field with Annabelle, her favorite thing ever! I had my 50 mm lens on the Nikon D3100 which doesn't auto focus (it only auto focuses on my older dslr) so most of the action shots were very blurry, here are a few that are semi in focus 

We left as the sun was going down. Annabelle was ready for bed extra early Sunday night!

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Yesterday I repaired a broken tray ... just waiting for the resin to dry!

and last day to enter for a chance to win one of my stencils! Click here to enter

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not my weekend!

This weekend had a few almosts but no quite moments ... here we go:

1. I've been looking for two new desk chairs my current chair is not so comfy for an extended period of time, from the road I thought I saw these amazing chairs reminiscent of Jonathan Adler's Chippendale Arm Chair, but when I stopped I realized that it had a weird turn style bottom, and weren't so cute ... anyone have any suggestions for a comfy cute office chair? 

2. The paper/printer storage is a little out of control in my office, I decided on a storage solution involving repurposed cabinet doors; however, couldn't find 4 matching ones, close but not quite right... 

3. I bought the wrong tape to mark off the rug for stenciling ... since the jute is higher, it needs very sticky to adhere! 

So onto plan C, tear apart an existing chair in the garage.

A few months ago, I picked up this chair from Goodwill for around $30, it's peachy vinyl is very very bad. I was thinking a new upholstery job will make it miles better!

Here is where we are at now, there were so many staples to pull on the bottom, just to get the back panel off!

I'm thinking maybe this fabulous arbesque fabric from Kravet

Studio Ten 25

vintage revivals 

Or a neutral with contrasting cording ...

via

maybe a bold trellis ...

After measuring, it is too large to fit in the office where I was planning on putting it, so maybe reupholstering and then selling or selling as a project chair??

Ugh this really wasn't my weekend! I'm going to regroup, and find some solutions!

In the meantime remember to enter for a chance to win one of my stencils! Only a few more days!

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