My latest projects

I've done a bit of sewing lately and gotten some fun results. These are super fun skirts that don't even need a pattern and I made them for about $3 each.
Aren't they the cutest models even with their after church hair?
The patchwork took more time and I don't know if I would do one again but it turned out cute.
I also made some accessories with ideas from these links: Rosette tutorial and snaps

The girls really like their new clothes and it was fun to make them but I think I'm done for a little while. As much as I like the things I made, I don't love sewing!

I am linking this to Made by You Monday, All Thingz Related, Tatertots and Jello, and Works for me Wednesday.

Need your ideas...

Over at We are THAT Family she is having a backwards WFMW where we put our most pressing, perplexing, mind-numbingly difficult problems, out into cyberspace and people use their great mind powers to solve them for us. Now this isn't one of those questions but has been bugging me none-the-less. What type of window covering should I use for my kitchen window?

All of the other windows have shutters but I wanted to be able to watch the children blissfully playing out my window while I lovingly wash each dish until it sparkles in the sun. Did I mention the window is slightly rose colored? However, in the afternoon, the sun shines in so mercilessly that I can't even see if my dishes are sparkling. Yep, that's my excuse as to why they have spots and small crusted amounts of food still on them. That's my story and I'm stickin' to it!

The wall space on either side is too narrow to allow side curtains, I'm not too fond of traditional window toppers, so you can see my dilemma. I am thinking some type of roman shade? If I do, how can I get one to match my decor? I would love to have something functional that adds to the pretty of my kitchen and draws the eye from the stack of dirty dishes waiting to be polished to a glorious sheen.

So, for the health and safety of my family and my eyesight, please give me any ideas you may have!

A few Christmas projects

Loved this idea at Thrifty Decor Chick and so decided to make our own. Check out the tutorial if you want to make one too! Here is a picture of how ours turned out: I imediately thought "stringing things on a long wire" sounds like a preschool project! So while I glued the tops on (a necessary step), Emma began stringing our Dollar Tree ornaments on a coat hanger. A not so easy twist of the pliers, a pretty bow, and we've got a beautiful decoration that I will be keeping around for quite some time!

When I saw this reindeer I wondered where she got it and then happened to see them at Dollar tree and had to have them 2 for $1. I used them with some leftover ornaments like this:

This floral arrangement took me forever to do! Just kidding, I don't have that kind of time. This is a garland I just bought for 60% off at JoAnn's. I was surprised it really looked this good! Gotta love the really simple!

Dollar Tree at Christmas time definately Works for Me! I even found the same brand Christmas village they were selling a JoAnn's 60% of 4.99. My favorite Christmas supply store DOLLAR TREE (mentally put it in twinkly lights) still beat that sale price! I'm participating at WFMW and over at A Soft Place to Land for DIY day and Today's Creative Blog fo Get Your Craft On. Check out all the great ideas.

Our favorite Christmas tradition

We have a favorite Christmas tradition. We call it our Christmas quilt. My wonderful and creative sister-in-law, Sallie gave us everything to start this tradition a few years ago. She gave us a small lap quilt, a storybook, and a beautiful poem with all the kids' names in it telling us how to use our "Christmas quilt" each night of December. Over the last few years it has evolved into quite the production. On December 1st, after pjs are on, we bring out the quilt and lay it down in front of the Christmas tree. Then we read our poem about the "Christmas Quilt Magic" Each night family members take turns choosing a Christmas carol to sing, and a story to read.

We have family prayer on the quilt and then rush to watch the chosen person open the advent for the day and hang the mini ornament on our felt tree.

Then, in procession, we all help to carry the Christmas quilt to lay on the foot of their bed ensuring sweet Christmas dreams that night. Each person really looks forward to their turn and we are true believers in the magic!

This tradition has led to another. As one of our family Christmas gifts, we must get at least one new Christmas book each year. As you can imagine, we have quite a collection by now!

We made two of these quilts to give to some friends this year complete with a poem describing the tradition. It was a bit of a race to get them finished, but I think they were appreciated. It is sure a fun DIY gift. Though not a usual crafty gift, it is the gift of a tradition.

When all I have are weeds

Unfortunately our house was finished too late in the season to plant any flowers or trees that would expode into fall glory. What we have is a whole lot of dirt and 2 lots worth of weeds next door. So when I wanted something for my front porch, something large, something seasonal, I decided to work with what I've got. I figured if people can put dried cornstalks on their front porches I can put weeds!

I used duct tape (everyone's friend) to tape two #10 cans together, covered them in construction paper to blend better, weighted it with rocks, and added our weeds. The kids had a blast helping me gather them, bringing me new and different weeds to see if they would look good in the arrangement. We talked about texture, color contrast, and fillers. As you can well guess, we needed some pretty heavy gloves for some of them. When we had it "just right" (couldn't fit another weed in the cans) I arranged some of my pumpkins and an artificial mum that were already on the porch to cover the can and add more color. It was a fun project. I like how it turned out, and the best part, when I get tired of it, I can just toss it all back in the field!

On Tuesday, I am sending this to the DIY day over at A Soft Place to Land and Get Your Craft On over at Today's Creative blog. Then on Wednesday, to the Works for Me Wednesday carnival over at We are THAT Family. I have also added to 31 days of Autumn Bliss over at the Inspired Room.  Go check out what other people are doing!

DIY project - Jenna's chair

Over at A Soft Place to Land, Kimba is having a great giveaway so I decided to enter with the project I am trying to finish up for Jenna's b-day. I bought an unfinished chair at Michaels with my 50% off coupon (gotta love those). Sorry, didn't take a before picture. I sanded, and sanded, and sanded! They say they are pre-sanded but don't believe them. They have not been sanded nearly enough. I painted 2 coats of white and then began painting the back slats and seat slats with pink. This is what it looks like so far:

The blue tape is still on because I had plans to paint the arm rests and the rest of the seat slats yellow (the girls' room is yellow) and then mod podge some butterflies and or flowers on the back and maybe the seat. Now that I look at it, I wonder if I should forgo the yellow and just put on the pictures. What do you think? Would the yellow be too much?

Update: Here is the final look. I printed the butterflies on vellum to give them a little depth. I think it turned out cute even if the yellow is a little brighter than I wanted.

I am looking forward to seeing all the great things everyone else is doing over at the DIY party. I love to see the new things Kimba is doing and my "wanna do" craft link list is full of her ideas! Check it out!

Update 2: She loves the chair!

People have asked...

I thought I would describe a little about a couple of our projects that we have done. They were the least expensive with the most impact!

1. Framing the bathroom mirror - We had a gigantic mirror just glued onto the wall. I wanted more of a wow factor and something that looked upscale. I had seen people use moulding to frame their mirrors around the blogosphere but really got excited when I saw it on "Sell This House" and they used velcro! It was perfect because who knows whether a buyer would like it or maybe want to change the color. No problem, it's removable! I was grateful to the person who told her blog readers to be sure to paint the back too because you see it in the reflection.
   This project was so easy! Excluding paint dry time, it took me about an hour total to paint and assemble! I took my measurements to HD and cut the moulding to length right there, picked up 4 rosettes, and brought it home and painted it with one coat of paint (it was preprimed). If you have a miter saw, you wouldn't need the rosettes if you don't want them. I used 2" square pices of self adhesive velcro. All I had to do was stick one side of each piece of velcro onto the moulding, hook the other pieces onto them, remove all of the papers protecting the adhesive and stick the whole piece of moulding onto the mirror at once. The whole thing cost $25-$30. A framed for a mirror this size would probably cost $400. Love it!


2. I'll be back to talk about the no sew curtains made from $4 Walmart sheets. American Idol can't wait!
3. Okay, got my dose of AI last night and I'm ready to show the curtains. I bought some twin size sheets for $4 each at WalMart and some clip on rings (if you click on the picture you should be able to see them enlarged). The rings were about $5 for a package of 7 so I used one package for each curtain. We bought the rods on clearance 3 or 4 years ago for $10. Sooo, this window treatment cost less than $40. These took practically no time! I folded them in half lengthwise to give them more fullness and turned them upside down to have a nice wide hem at the bottom. I then decided how long I wanted the curtains and folded the top down and tucked the inside corner up and in so it didn't flap out. Then I just clipped on the rings and hung them. So simple! By the time Dh had the rods hung, the curtains were ready. Less than 30 min. People can't believe they are cheap sheets! They look like designer curtains. It sure worked for me!
   
   Check out other frugal projects going on over at WFMW!

What's new at our house...

Thought I would post some of the projects we have done in preparing our house to sell. I wish we had done these things 5 years ago! Our realtor is a trained house stager and I have been watching a couple of shows on HGTV for ideas. In other words, there have been more projects than time! You should be able to enlarge photos by clicking on them.

If you are interested or know anyone who might be, check out the professional photos and our official listing here!

I especially love my room. I feel like I have a Master bedroom and a Master bath instead of just a plain old bed and bath.

BTW, the moulding is velcroed onto the mirror! Yep, the self adhesive stuff! Cool huh?

We have lived here for almost 8 years and it takes moving to get us to actually furnish the living room. It just hasn't been a priority. This cushy loveseat will find a new home in our bedroom in the new house.

Above the computer desk in the dining room.

Basement:

Basement Bedroom

Basement Bathroom

You can read about some of these projects and others we have done here, here, here, and here.

And be sure to check out what's happening at other people's houses at WFMW and Remodeling Guy!

How is your day progressing?

Remodeling Revelations Vol. 1 - Paint

I am learning a lot of great things throughout this process and decided to list them for future reference because my memory is as holey as swiss cheese. Now, these things may be no brainers for you DIY veterans out there but they were revelations for me.

1. Start by prioritizing your projects by $ as well as how much they bug you. In hindsight, there is a large ticket project that really bugged me butI wish we had considered other options and spent the extra $ on some other projects.
2. If your paint doesn't need a color change, try washing the walls first. It's amazing how it will brighten the room. Magic Erasers can be very useful but try to use them sparingly as they will dull your paint sheen. If washing the wall doesn't make enough difference, consider paint matching and touching up as another option.
3. Remember, color matching isn't perfect or fail safe! The difference of "just slightly off" can be as big as the wall you are painting. Old paint is hard to match and needs to be washed (see #2).
4. Paint sheen is more important than you may realize. Don't let anyone, even the Home Depot guy tell you that your ceiling paint is a semi-gloss. It isn't! Instead of painting one section of the ceiling stained by Cherry 7-up, we ended up painting the entire ceiling. Uggg!
5. Contrasting paint colors adds interest and drama. We are very happy we chose a bright white for doors and trim rather than a more mute eggshell or cream color.
6. There are lots of uses for paint that make big changes for little $. We are excited about our new blue front door and the "hammered" metallic paint we used to update the light fixtures in the bathrooms.
7. Buy expensive paint tape and remove it while the paint is still wet to prevent bleeding and flaking. I just learned this yesterday from a professional painter! Wish I had known this long ago! No more DollarTree tape for this house!
8. Removing hardware, switchplates, etc is worth the time and effort. No matter how hard you try, you will get paint on them. It is more difficult to clean the paint off of them later.
9. A higher grade brush can make all the difference when cutting in those edges!

DIY Before and Afters

Well, I imagine that most of my blogs for the next few weeks/months will be about getting this house ready to sell and planning the new house. It has become my obsession!

I have put a few before and after pictures of a couple of projects we have done, info on a fun product I discovered, and a disposable paint tray idea!

First of all, I hate to paint doors. I mean I REALLY hate to paint doors. I have spent days painting doors and door frames. The only thing I hate worse than painting doors is cleaning up after painting doors. One night, I was washing out a food tray from our ready-made dinner from Costco (We've been having a lot of those dinners lately). I looked at the ridges in the bottom and on the sides and thought "this would work great for the 3" paint roller I was using to paint the doors." I just put it inside the regular paint tray to keep it on a slope, covered it with plastic wrap between the (count 'em) 3 coats I had to do on the front door, and then threw it away! It Worked for Me! Check out other paint tips (here) we have learned along the way !


Before & After

I don't know if you can see the white front door, but we painted it the blue you saw in the paint tray and it really accents the otherwise monotone colors of the house. The new color and a planter on the front porch should add to the welcoming feel.

We had old brass colored light fixtures in the master bath. The finish was peeling and tarnished. I took them apart and lightly cleaned them with steelwool. I then used a new (to me) paint by Rust-oleum called "hammered" metal. You can spray it right over any metal surface, even if it is rusted! I chose a nickel type finish to match the new shower door Paul installed although I really liked the idea of the antiqued bronze. It is a little hard to see in this photo but the "hammered" finish has a lot of depth and really updated the look. It was an inexpensive alternative to replacing the fixtures!

Before & After

Here is a picture of the new shower door. I don't have a before, but trust me it was scratched and needed replacing. We chose the rain glass which I really like, especially since it is easier to keep looking nice and clean.












Well, I guess I'd better figure out what to feed my family for dinner and plan that Family Home Evening lesson!