How to Regrow Green Onions Indoors

Welcome back to Tip Tuesday lovelies! I've got another life changer for you today. And, it's so easy! Like seriously, you have no idea. But you're about to.

You guys! It's true! You CAN re-grow and re-grow onions to your little hearts content off just one bunch!!! This is another one of those gems that I saw on Pinterest that I had to try for myself. And it's easy peasy, so totally my kind of project.

Here's the details:

Next time you use the green part off the top of a bunch of green onions, leave the white portion at the base with at least a small amount of green above (this is necessary to help with photosynthesis I assume....plus, I just wanted to sound smart by using the word photosynthesis.) I typically leave my stem about 1 1/2"-2" in length.

Place stems in a jar of water and set in an area that will get some natural light. It does not have to be direct sunlight just some natural light. I leave mine on my kitchen counters and it is a good 10-15 feet away from the nearest window and mine still grow great! You will begin to see growth after just one day and it's such a fun project for the kids to watch and monitor the growth. What a fun little project for them to even take care of and be "in charge" of. They'll love it!

You will be able to re-grow them back to full size in approximately a week. Trim off when you need some and they'll just grow back again! And again! They're persistent little suckers I tell ya! Cuz trust me, I can kill just about anything and these just keep growing and growing for me. I can usually regrow each bunch about 5 or 6 times before I notice they're beginning to grow slower and not taste as potent. After all, the water does not have any nutrients for growth. At this point you can try placing them in the ground and they should still take hold in the soil or you can just toss them and start over with a new one. Some claim you can regrow these indefinitely, but I have not found that to be the case, but 5 or 6 more bunches after only paying for one? That's good by me!

A few tips I've found:

I change the water daily or at least every other day to keep it fresh. Trust me when I say if you don't do this, they will begin to stink! You may notice in the photo above that there is one stalk that is starting to change color a bit a few inches above the base. This occasionally happens if you haven't changed the water frequently enough and on occasion it happens even when I'm diligent about changing the water. I have found it helps to rinse the onions themselves off every few days to keep them from getting slimy. In this case, I just rinsed them off and then peeled that portion away from that stem. That onion still grew perfectly and didn't have any other issues.

I've heard this works great with several other items such as garlic, celery, parsley, cilantro and romaine just to name a few. We haven't tried any of these yet, but we'll get on it and be sure to report back our success (or lack of). In the meantime I found this website that details 10 Vegetables & Herbs You Can Eat Once and Regrow Forever. Who knew?

Have you tried this before? Have you tried regrowing any other vegetables and herbs? We would love to know what's worked for you. Please share in the comments and thanks for stopping by!

How To Upcycle Old Candles

Don't throw away your old, used candles with leftover wax! Melt them down to make new ones in just a few easy steps!

I'm addicted to candles! I love when my home smells good and I love the warm and homey feel that burning candles brings into it. So when my lovely candles burn down to where they no longer light, I shed a little tear or two. Especially when there is still a layer of waxy goodness at the bottom of the jar. Do you hate to let that go to waste as much as I do? Well wipe away those tears my friends! I'm here to share with you a quick DIY to upcycle those old candles into new ones!

I began by collecting a few old candle jars.

Okay, so it was more than a few.

I just didn't have the heart to throw them away! You know we're all about frugal here.

Let's get down to business......

What you'll need:

Old Candles 

Pot or Double Broiler

New wicks and tabs (Less than $3 for 6 at craft stores, but don't forget to use a 40% off coupon!)

Pencil or Popsicle stick (to hold up the wick)

Oven mitt

How to do it:

1.) Bring water to boil in a medium to large pot or double broiler (Use the ugliest pot you can find. It's what all the cool people do.)

2.) Place candle jar in pot of boiling water. Leave in boiling water until all wax is melted.

3.) Place your new wick in the center of the clean container or jar you will be using. I like to place a small amount of wax at the bottom of the jar before placing my wick tab in. This helps to hold the wick in place (you can also use a glue stick to glob some glue on the bottom).

4.) Pour melted wax into jar. 

This is the final layer of my first jar. I chose to melt the candles separately but I could have melted them all at the same time when using the same scent.  To do that I would've just cut the wax out of each jar (using the method described below) and added them all to one jar to melt.

There are several methods for melting down old candles. I also tried melting my wax in the microwave and got similar results. To do this, cut into your candle with a knife (it should cut very easily) and remove the wax from the jar. Discard the used wick base (tab). 

Continue cutting until your candle wax is broken into pieces.

Place cut up pieces of wax in a microwave safe container. 

Microwave on 50-60% power in 1 minute intervals. This could take anywhere from 5 minutes to 20 minutes if your microwave is a dinosaur like mine. Lightly stir after each interval until your wax is completely melted.

When using different scents, make a layered candle with similar colors and scents. For this candle I grouped together fall and "baking" scents and poured them into my candle in layers. Tip: Notice the little black soot at the bottom of the wax? This is heavier than the wax and sinks to the bottom, making it easy to avoid pouring out or you can easily scoop it out with a spoon before pouring into new jar.

Let each layer cool until hardened (at least 15 minutes) before adding the next layer to prevent the colors and scents from mixing.

Voila! Now you have a beautiful layered candle with some of your favorite scents!
Bonus! Your house will smell SO good when making these!

Additional Tips: 

I bought my initial container at the Dollar Store and then once I had an empty candle jar, I washed that one out and used it for the next candle. That way I was only out a dollar for the first container and for all the others, I was using the previous jar.

To wash out old candle jars. Add a small amount of dish soap and fill jar with boiling water. Allow to sit for 15 minutes and then carefully pour out water. In most cases the jars will now wipe clean with a paper towel. If wax is especially stubborn, a little more dish soap, water and elbow grease should do the trick!

You could really get creative with containers! Mason jars look great and tea cups would look really cute! I have even seen halved fruit peels filled with melted wax. I hear they burn even more fragrantly. 

There you have it! How to melt down your old candles to make new ones! You'll be so proud of yourself for stretching a dollar and your house will smell amazing! It's a win win!

Thanks for stopping by! Do you save your old candles? Have you ever melted them down before? We'd love to hear your tips in the comments!

How to Build a Coffee Table in a Matter of Seconds

The coffee table in my living room is often a topic of conversation for people who come to my home for the first time.  With it's original, aged wood appearance, and it's two-tiered design, it is not like anything most people are used to seeing.  This unique table is one of my favorite pieces in my home for the simple reason that it literally cost me nothing, and even better; took me less than a minute to assemble. With how simple it was to create, I almost feel sheepish accepting compliments on it. Let me show you just how easy it was!

All you will need is two wooden crates. I have seen wood boxes like this priced very reasonably at thrift and antique stores many times. I got lucky a few years back, when on a camping trip, hiking deep within the woods, I stumbled upon a wrecked and long abandoned camping trailer. The license plates years past expiration, the walls all but completely deteriorated, and most of the contents missing or weathered beyond use, it had obviously been long forgotten. Me, being the curious person I am, I decided to take a look around, which ended up being such a great idea! I found so many wonderful and interesting artifacts, many of which I display in my home to this day.  Having been deserted so long, most items were incredibly weathered and rusted, which gave them a very interesting and unique appearance. Two such items were the wooden crates pictured above. I excitedly made my way back to camp with my unexpected loot.

I wasn't entirely sure what I would do with it all, but after getting it home (and giving it all a good scrubbing down), I had the boxes sitting in my living room, and I kept thinking to myself how well they belonged in the room; how nicely they fit in with my decor. Then, suddenly it dawned on me! I had been needing a coffee table for some time, but hadn't been able to find one that I liked that also fit my price range, and my tiny living room. Light bulb! I loved the boxes so much, I decided to turn them into a coffee table, which made the perfect addition to my otherwise lacking front room.

I simply turned the long thin box up-side-down to create the table surface, and turned the smaller box on its side to create the base. I would like to tell you it took more skill on my part, but it really was as effortless as that! I loved the way that it came together; I love the texture of the wood, and the way that it blends so well with the many natural elements in my living room, and how the age of the wood somehow made it look both antique and modern.

To make it easier to transport (I was about a month away from moving into another home), and to keep future changes in design as an option, I chose not to attach the boxes together. Had I decided to  make it a more permanent piece, seconds with a hammer and a few nails would have done the trick!

Having the base of the table be made from an enclosed box brought another interesting design element to the table (no pun intended...okay...maybe a little intended); it created a built-in shelf. I love the versatility that lends to the table. At times I like to leave it open, or occasionally I will create simple vignettes on the bottom shelf to utilize the space and to add some variety to my living room decor.  

Voila! By thinking inside the box, I managed to think outside of the box. With only two materials, and practically no skill required, I was inspired to create a coffee table that I hope in turn inspires you.

Tip Tuesday

Welcome back to Tip Tuesday, where we share our favorite tips with you! This week's tip was completely inspired by the never-too-early glimpses of warmer weather we've been getting lately. Every year when spring has finally sprung, I get a jolt of motivation, and spring into home improvement mode. This beautiful phase full of sunshise and comet usually lasts only until the hot summer sun comes and dries up all my motivation. Like too many wonderful things, it's gone too soon. So I have to take advantage of what little time I have. We're talking serious cleaning and reorganizing, yard face lifts, attempting to plant things that grow, getting out of bed on Sundays-the whole shabang!
The biggest roadblock I've encountered in attaining that perfect(ish) home I'm always striving towards is, and always has been: yardwork! I loathe it! My thumb, like my grass, is definitely not green, and I hate digging around in the dirt. So when I suddenly felt inspired plant things, (even to spruce up the front yard a bit), I quickly got to work, excited about this new challenge.
So in celebration of my temporary insanity, I present to you this week's tip: 

Turn it into a flowerpot!

I wanted to bring some life to my front porch and the inside of my home. I have always been in love with succulents, even more so recently, and heard they were easy to take care of; a major plus. Since I can never seem to be satisfied with the conventional, I didn't want to plant them in just ordinary flower pots. So I set out shopping in my own home, thrift stores, and at my go-to discount stores to find cute little containers to plant my plants in. I found so many fun alternatives to flower pots, I had to restrain myself from buying more (after already going way over my budget on just the plants). These were some of my favorite finds:

Not too bad! Give or take a few cents on the bowl from Gordman's. By the way, if you join their mailing list, they regularly send out 20% off coupons. The small plate under the bowl I got at Thai Pan (who also sends out amazing coupons if you sign up) on clearance for $.99. The Candy Dish (originally from a thrift store) was a milky white, but a quick coat of white spray paint on the outside (not the inside! Plants don't care for spray paint!) gave it that nice solid white color. The plant stand, amazingly, was a thrift store find I scored for a whopping $2. The price tag was what made the hour of intense cleanup I had to do to make it usable well worth the effort! 
All of the succulents were from Home Depot, who has an incredible selection and great prices. The only thing to look out for when omitting flower pots is overwatering- since there is no drainage, take extra care to not water more than needed. Pst! If you are like me, and have a knack for killing plants, artificial is honestly a great way to go with succulents. Since they naturally have a somewhat of an artificial look, it makes it much easier to cheat. We won't tell!

Thanks for stopping by! We hope we've helped you to think outside the flowerpot. Join us weekly for Tip Tuesdays, as we pass our favorite tips on to you!

How To Hang A Gallery Wall For Next To Nothing

One trend that we've been seeing a lot of lately is the gallery wall.  Reason being, simply stated, because they are FABULOUS. They fit in any space, any design aesthetic, and it wouldn't be us if we didn't mention; any budget. A wonderful way to fill a large wall without having to purchase large pieces of art, gallery walls are the perfect way to update any room and the options are endless! 

See?! This is why we can't get enough of them! Fabulous examples from Top left: Architectural Digest, top right: Southern Living, bottom left: Liz Marie Blog, and bottom right: Emily A. Clark

Another wonderful advantage to this trend is the fact that you can change, and improve them gradually; replacing old pieces with new, updating outdated photographs, and even expanding and adding on with time, and as budget allows. And they are PERFECT for indecisive people (such as myself). Can't settle on one piece for that main living room wall? No problem-try ten!

With so many pieces working together to create one final product though, it can be a little intimidating knowing where to begin. Achieving balance can be a challenge, so mapping them out properly is crucial. To make the task a little less daunting, we've put together an easy 3-step guide to implementing this stylish trend in your home. 

The first step is to determine the space you have to work with. You'll want to figure out the size of the wall(s) you will be working on, if you want things to be spaced out or clustered together, and approximately how many items you will need to fill that space. For me, I knew I wanted something to fill the relatively small wall behind my kitchen table. So, got the long roll of paper that my wonderful grandfather made for me as a kid and rolled out three very long sheets to fit the size of the wall I was wanting to fill (multiple pieces of computer paper or even posterboard would also work), and just scotch taped them together. This would give me a general guideline for scale while laying out my wall.  

If you lack inspiration on how to properly utilize the space on your wall, have no fear! There are plenty of awesome guidelines online, like these ones from Hubpages (left), and The Sun Shines Blue (right).

 

Then you'll need to gather pieces you would like to feature in your gallery wall. This can be the fun part, but finding an assortment of individual pieces can be incredibly challenging if you are looking to keep things affordable. When you are using multiple pieces on one wall, things tend to add up fast! I knew I wanted to do a collage on my wall, however, I also knew that I did not have the budget to do so. I decided not to let that stop me (I've never been good at being told no anyways!); I would just have to do what I do best-fake it 'till I make it! So I hit my favorite thrift store; one nearby that does all you can fit in a cart for $10 one day a week! It can get pretty packed on these "cart sale" days, so things get picked over fairly fast (not to mention a little competitive and sometimes downright scary!), so I didn't have cream of the crop choices but I was on a mission! One thing they did have a surplus of were aged wood frames. These would do just fine! My kitchen is by far the "girliest" room in my house (floral table cloth, frilly antiques, flowers on the windowsill-the whole nine yards!), so the aged wood would flow with the vintage feel, and the brown color of the frames introduced a nice neutral in my otherwise brightly decorated room, and allowed for me to fill the frames with bright pieces without the whole thing becoming overwhelming. Amazingly, I was able to pick up all of the frames I needed for my wall in one trip (along with a cart packed full of other great finds), and spent next to nothing.

Once I had all of my frames together, I laid them on the floor on top of my guide for the wall, moving them around until I found an arrangement that was balanced in both the finish on the wood, and the size and shape of the frames. When I was happy with the composition, I took a marker and carefully outlined each frame where it laid on the paper.

You will not want to hang each piece one at a time. The pounding of the nails for the next frames you hang can cause the pieces to fall off of the wall (I may or may not have found this out the hard way). So since I needed all of the nails to go into the wall before I actually started hanging the frames, I then drew a tiny dot in each shape that directly lined up with where the nail would need to be in order for the frame to hang in its outline. 

Then, I taped it flush to the wall in the exact position I wanted my collage to hang.  

I hammered nails exactly into the dots in each shape (through the paper), and in a matter of minutes I had all of the nails hung. Then I just ripped the sheet of paper down, leaving the nails in place and the wall ready to start coming together.

Since I had the same budget for filling the frames as I did acquiring them, I kept my eye out at the cart sale for things I could use. I found the clock in the center (which was a little obnoxious at first but as you'll learn there is NOTHING that spray paint can't fix!), along with the dried flowers in the small barnwood frame to the center right, and a children's book with illustrations of woodland creatures and flowers that I was able to cut pictures out of. The rest of the things I found by shopping my house. Fabric scraps make wonderful fillers for picture frames, or backing for pictures. Most frames contain a cardboard insert cut to the exact size of the frame, which fabric can be fit to, or that can be painted and either used alone, or as the backing for a smaller picture, eliminating expensive matting costs. Also, there is an abundance of free graphics online that are absolutely wonderful, and with resources like pinterest, even easier to find than ever! Even if you don't have a printer (like me!), they can be printed very affordably in a number of sizes at any local store with a photo department. 

Eventually I would love to be able to transition my gallery wall into being a little more polished and modern, like some of the above examples. I plan on adding and updating pictures and frames with time, and as I can afford to. For the time being though, I was able to get one assembled for almost no money out of my pocket, which was the only way I would be able to make it work. And as I mentioned before, one of the biggest perks is that they can be updated gradually, growing and ever-evolving, like our homes and lives should always be.

Tip Tuesday

Hello friends! Welcome to Tip Tuesday where we share a tip or trick that we love. Some weeks it might be a kitchen tip, other weeks a home decor tip or an organizing tip.....anything we've found that's made our lives easier. How fun is that?

This weeks tip is a Pinterest fave! Seriously, I think Pinterest makes me better! Hear me out on this one. Yes, sometimes it can be overwhelming to see perfectly decorated homes with what looks like an unlimited budget, someone else's perfectly dressed and behaved children playing quietly with the homemade toy mom just "whipped up" this morning, the lavish breakfast spread to celebrate Groundhog day (doesn't everyone celebrate Groundhog day?). It can be a bit discouraging and sometimes feels like a reminder of all the things we're NOT doing. However, I have found a lot of things on Pinterest that have made my life easier. I try more new recipes. I've found beautiful, free printables for my home. I've read quotes that were just what I needed to hear. I've started more meaningful traditions and found out what works and what doesn't work from other families similar to mine. The trick is to take away what benefits you and not worry about the rest.

Today's tip is one of those where-have-you-been-all-my-life tricks. One of those I-could-kiss-you-on-the-mouth kind of tips. Life changing. I used to dread shredding chicken (and pork) and my arms feel like jello even thinking about it. But not anymore! Introducing........

Many of you may have already seen this on Pinterest but if you haven't seen it or haven't tried it yet, I am here to tell you that you need this in your life. IT WORKS! In seconds flat.

If you have a Kitchen Aid with a paddle attachment, you're in business! Cook your chicken as you normally would for the recipe you are preparing. While the chicken is still hot (this is important), place it in your Kitchen Aid with the paddle attachment.

Start your mixer on low, slowly increasing your speed to medium. I could try to drag this post out by giving you some other invaluable tidbit about this process, but really......that's it. Beat for approximately 30 seconds on medium speed.

Voila! The only real tricks are to shred while the meat is still hot (notice the steam in the above photo) and to watch your speed or else you will have shredded chicken in your hair. Don't ask me how I know. It may or may not go everywhere if you turn your mixer speed too high.

And there you have it. Perfectly shredded chicken in 30 seconds using your Kitchen Aid!

As I said before, I have also used this for shredded pork for homemade Cafe Rio Pork Barbacoa. It works just as effortlessly.

So thank you world of Pinterest for making my life so much easier!

Do you love Pinterest or does it make you feel inferior?

What have you found on Pinterest or elsewhere that makes your life easier? We'd love to hear from you in the comments!

Allover Wall Stenciling

In a recent bout of ambition that I would later question to be temporary insanity, I decided to try my hand at wall stenciling for the first time. I have a small half bath that I have been remodeling very slowly, since I moved in a year ago. It needed some excitement and the room seemed like just the spot for such a bold and vibrant statement, and happened to have a wall that was the perfect size and texture for a first attempt at stenciling. I felt fairly confident and set off to work on what I was sure would be the perfect project to complete on one of my elusive days off. I really got the rug (or should I say bathmat) pulled out from under me there! It turned out to be a much more time consuming, tedious, and at times downright excruciating project than I had imagined. I laughed, I cried, I painted, I repainted, swore off stenciling for life, probably cried some more, and finally ended up with something that somehow made me forget all the hours I spent cursing myself for not just buying wallpaper. I fall in love with it every time I walk in the room. And best of all, I get to look at it and know I did it myself. As I'd like to think, I learned 500 ways not to stencil a wall. It took me most of the project to perfect my technique, but it could have been much simpler and less time-consuming if I knew then what I know now. This is information that would have really come in handy for me many hours and temper tantrums ago. I would like to pass it on to hopefully make things just a little bit easier for those of  you who might want to give it a try- I promise you it will be worth it!

You will need:
- Stencil of your choice. For my wall, I chose the Casablanca allover wall stencil from cutting edge stencils. This particular stencil included a large allover stencil and two smaller stencils for gaps and edge work (depicted below).
- Interior latex or acrylic paint in the color(s) of your choosing.
- Dense foam roller (I started out using a standard sized paint roller, but after some trial and error, found it was much easier to use a mini foam roller)
-Small, easily controlled paint brushes for touch ups
-Paint tray (or a plate works, if using a mini roller)
-Painters tape
-Low tack spray adhesive (I used Loctite General Performance Spray adhesive)
-Stepping stool
-Punching bag

-Oh and the instructions say you will also need a stencil level, which was said to be included. I'm sure it was. I'm sure knowing me I just lost it, but for whatever reason, I know nothing of this stencil level. Alas! I never even needed it.

Casablanca Allover Wall Stencil from Cutting Edge Stencils

You will want to pick a time that you have the majority of a day to devote to your project. While stenciling seems like a fairly easy process, it can be very tedious, and time consuming. I would HIGHLY recommend doing this on a day where you can be sure to get at least all of the full panels of the stencil up, and not have to stop half way through using it. The adhesive is very difficult to remove, so you will want to try to avoid having to clean the stencil until you are completely through with it. If you run out of time (or steam!) and need to save the edge work, or touch-ups for another day, it is much easier to pick up from there than to try to store your sticky stencil or attempt to clean the adhesive off and start back up later. Not to mention if you are unable to remove ALL of the adhesive, it can leave the back of the stencil slightly uneven, and more likely to bleed, making it much more difficult when you come back to it (could i be speaking from experience?!)
Preparation:
First, you will need a game plan! Visualize your desired finished product, and the overall style you would like to achieve.  Decide if you are wanting it to be a  subtle pattern repeated throughout the room, for example, or a bold colorful design on an accent wall or at a focal point in the room. Based on that, decide which wall(s) you will be working with. Smooth, texture-free walls are ideal to ensure the stencil lays flat and minimal bleeding occurs . Select a stencil that fits the style of the room. I was unable to find allover wall stencils anywhere in town, so you may end up having to order yours online as well. Using the free samples provided at any home improvement store, carefully select colors that compliment one another and the rest of the room.

Fill any nail holes or chips in the wall, so you have a smooth surface to work with, then if you are repainting the base color on the wall, select which color you want to use first (depicted by the positive space on the stencil). I would recommend using the darker color as the background if you are undecided on the order of the two. Then when you have to go through and do touch ups (which if you are as skilled as I was, you WILL), you will have a much easier time covering mistakes. I used the lighter of the two colors first, so when I went over the wall to fix the bleed marks, the touch ups often needed two coats in order to cover the dark. Which was double the work!
Tape the selected wall(s) off with painters tape for clean lines, and after painting, make sure you allow at least 24 hours to fully dry before stenciling. Make sure that you know which color needs to be used first to work with the stencil.

Stenciling:
Once the base coat is dry it is time to start the actual stenciling. Make sure that you are working with a completely clean and dry surface before beginning. Take the stencil in the garage, or outside away from dirt and wind. Lay it on a clean flat surface that you don't mind if it gets very sticky (I used a big flat board I had in my shed). Coat lightly with a low tack spray adhesive*, spraying in short horizontal bursts, as you would coats of spray paint. Use enough to make it noticibly tacky, but not drenched, and give it a minute or two to dry before making contact with the wall so as to not damage the paint underneath. Choose the least conspicuous corner of the wall for your first panel, to ensure you get the hang of things by the time you work your way to more visible parts of the wall. I started in the bottom right-hand corner of the room.
*The instructions that came with the stencil stated that the spray adhesive was optional, and painters tape alone could be used.  For all I know, this may be true, as I did not opt to even try it without it. However, having spent as much time on the project as I did, I was able to really get a feel for things, and I can't imagine trying to work without it.

Line the corner of the stencil with the corner of the wall, and very slowly and carefully lay the stencil down smooth on the wall, making sure there are no bubbles or wrinkles. Be sure that the stencil aligns as perfectly with both of the walls in the corner as possible. I guess this is where the stencil level would have come in! Run your hand or a dry unused paint roller over the stencil, applying enough pressure to ensure that the adhesive is secure to the wall. Tape the edges of the stencil down with painters tape for additional hold if desired. I only found that to be necessary as a lot of adhesive built up on the stencil, or on tricky corner pieces.
Once the stencil is in place, pour a small amount of paint into your tray, and roll your roller in the paint so that it absorbs most of it. Then, using the flat part of the roller tray, roll as much of the excess paint as you can off of the roller. You may even want to roll it once or twice over a folded paper towel to blot the majority of the paint out, and then blot some more! It is almost impossible to have too little paint on the roller. It is much better to do multiple very thin coats than to saturate your roller. You spend much more time on touch ups than you would have spent had you just been patient and sparing in your coats, and you achieve a much cleaner result.

 Having excess paint will cause paint to seep between the stencil and the wall, creating bleed marks (hmmm...experience again?)

Use very little pressure when applying your coats, as pushing too hard can also cause seepage.  No need to allow each thin coat to dry fully, a minute or two between coats is sufficient. I found it worked best to then immediately remove the stencil from the wall when the last coat had freshly been applied and  let the wall and stencil dry separately for a little while before starting the next panel. Allowing them to dry together sometimes caused peeling of paint and imperfect edges when the stencil was lifted away from the wall.

The instructions state that if you would like to check your progress, you can peel your stencil away from the wall, then lay it flat after you have taken a look. I would not recommend this. Shifting the stencil too much allows room for error and risks paint getting on the back of the stencil, and therefore applied to the wall when it is laid back down.  When the first panel has dried enough that you can move on without compromising your work, you can move on to the next.

The wonderful thing about the damask (allover) stencils is that they are designed so that each panel can lock in with the last, so you can overlap and ensure that the patterns line up perfectly. Just be sure to try to avoid re painting over the shapes which overlap. You should not need to reapply the adhesive with each movement of the panel, especially if you are also re-enforcing the stencil with painters tape, and if you are following the two most important rules: Very little pressure, even less paint. When the stencil does start to lose its tack, you can respray it (always on the same side), still using very light coats. Continue to repeat the stencil until the surface of the wall is covered, making sure that each stencil repeat lines up perfectly with the last (and with the walls, when doing panels adjacent to a wall, the floor, or ceiling), so that the stencil can continue to remain level and maintain its consistency.

When I got close to the edges of the wall and didn't have enough room for another full panel, I overlapped the stencil as far as I could without having to bend it. 

At this point, you really only have the gaps to fill in around the edges, top and bottom.

For the bottom, I used the stencil included for finishing the top and bottom. I simply aligned it with the existing design, and taped it off where I wanted it to stop, to ensure clean lines. 

Around the sides, I found it easiest to just align the stencil with the rest of the pattern, bending it slightly just along the edges to completely cover the remainder of the wall, but overlapping as little as possible. Be sure to keep the walls you aren't planning on stenciling taped off at all times to avoid clean ups later. The best way I found to ensure crisp lines when filling in the corners is to line up the stencil and bend (but not crease) it at the seam of the wall. Then tape again over the stencil to hold it in place and solidify that line, so that you don't get paint on the other wall. For the corner pieces, it was easiest to use a small brush instead of the roller. Foam brushes work well because it is better to dab the paint on than to brush it. Using a regular paint brush also works, just use the end of the bristles and apply the paint in a dabbing motion. Remember to continue to use very little paint on the brush! It is especially easy to bleed on the corner pieces because the thick plastic stencil does not bend easily, therefore does not lay flush with the corner. 

Once you are finished stenciling, all you have left to do is the touch ups. If things went well, there should be very few. If you took a while to find your stride, like I did, this might take a little longer (not to mention the fact that I am an insufferable perfectionist). Step back and look at the wall before you start. Most of the minor imperfections you see when working up close are no longer visible. There is no need to kill yourself spending countless hours retracing each and every shape (remember when I said I was insufferable...yeah.). Use a very small, flat paint brush to fix any spots where the paint may have visibly bled outside of the shape.

When you are finished, peel off any remaining tape and step back to admire your work, and basque in your well-earned satisfaction. 

Once the wall is completely dry you are then free to add personal touches. Hang (or re-hang) any wall fixtures or decor. I am still in the remodeling stages in my bathroom, so I will be moving things around, but I quickly arranged this small vignette to show a (somewhat) finished product. 

Stay tuned for the photographs of the bathroom once the remodel is completed!

Last look at the overall finished product.
Due to the extremely small size of the room,  most of the pictures had to be taken from outside of the bathroom, so I apologize for the limited view. Please excuse the picture quality, as the camera used for these shots was not a high quality (aka: I didn't borrow my moms).

Cleaning:

When it is time to clean your stencil, I found it best to lay it flat in the bathtub and run warm, soapy water over it. After letting it sit for a few minutes the paint will just wipe away. You might even want to do this during the process of stenciling if it starts to accumulate a thick layer of paint that might compromise your work after multiple repeats. Do not try to remove the spray adhesive until you are completely done with the stencil. I promise you! Doing so will cause so much unnecessary grief and actually end up being counter productive and making finishing the project so much more difficult and messy. When you are completely done with it, you can try to remove the adhesive to make storage cleaner and easier. One way I found to do it was to leave it soaking in the bathtub after cleaning out the paint until the water got completely cold (warm water just makes the adhesive tacky and is virtually ineffective, not to mention incredibly frustrating), and leaned over the tub, scraping the adhesive off with my thumb nail. This did take a fair amount of time. So, if you don't have the patience (or the fingernails!) to remove the adhesive this way, a small can of Goof Off worked wonders for me! And at only $2.97 at Home Depot, it was well worth the investment. It is a professional strength remover, and a very harsh chemical, therefore requires a little bit of caution when using. Always wear work gloves (it will eat through latex gloves, so use something a little heavier) and don't work on a finished surface, such as a table or countertop, as it will ruin the finish. Leaning over the empty bathtub worked great. Pour small amounts of Goof off at a time onto an old dish rag or towel, and wipe over the adhesive. It comes off fairly easy, with minimal scrubbing. When the adhesive starts to build up on that area of the towel, simply wet a new area and continue working until you have removed all of the adhesive from the back of the stencil. When you are finished, store flat if possible, using large drawers if you have them, or you can sandwich it between two pieces of cardboard, and under a bed. For me, it was easiest and most out of the way to tape it to the underneath side of a large shelf I have in a utility closet, so I don't have to worry about it getting damaged. 

We linked up to The Turquoise Home Work It Wednesday party and Home Stories A To Z