What I have been up to

It’s been a while since I have been here…it seems that my body has been keeping me busy trying to create a new life along with the many projects I have lined up for myself.  My energy levels in the evenings (when I write my posts) is, well, non-existent.  For some reason I have a little burst of energy tonight so I am going to take advantage of it! 

If you remember, I started putting together ideas for the master bedroom in this post.  I didn’t waste much time getting started.  Since we will be getting the house on the market before the end of March, I need to wrap up the majority of this project A-S-A-P.  I also decided that rather than waiting for all the info, I will post it as I go.  So the first project on the list is the board and batten on the walls.  There are some good tutorials out there, and it really seems like a no-brainer on how to put it up.  And CHEAP!!!  Love that part too. 

 

I got started with some furring strips that Garrett and I sanded down 3 sides to get them nice and smooth.  Then Jeff made all of my cuts for me.  I think the hardest part of this was deciding whether I should take out the baseboards or not.  I did buy the boards to replace them, but then decided that I didn’t want to tackle that.  Instead I am using the boards I purchased as the top part of the batten to make a thick edge to place a ledge on.  Check out these pics of the in process work:

 

First I painted the top half of the wall.

 

Next I put some lines on the wall to keep the top edge straight.

And then I marked the wall on each stud by using a stud finder.  I went ahead and taped up each board so that I could get an idea how they would fall and if I needed to fill any spaces. 

The bottom edge was my biggest concern, and although it does hang over some, I don’t think it will be very noticeable once it’s all painted white.

Here is what the top boards and ledge will be like.

So that’s where I am.  I need to permanently attach those boards with some liquid nails and nails, fill holes, prime them and paint them all white.  That’s on the agenda for this weekend.  I will try and fit that in with the home and garden show that is going to be at the Salem Civic Center on Saturday.

 

I have also been working on the master closet, so I thought I would share my current jewelry situation.  I think I am going to change it up and do some purging.  Here is what  it looks like now.

 

I don’t have any plans for it just yet.  But something on a smaller scale would probably work. 

 

And in case you missed it, I did share some news last week… I am expecting a new little member of the family in November.    We are hoping for a girl I think.

 

What have you guys been up to lately?

Pinterest challenge Winter edition -DIY Coffee sleeve

Winter??? Says who?  Well, either way, this is the winter edition of the YHL and Bower Power Pinterest challenge.  If you remember I shared the news last week and hinted at what I would tackle.  Well, I decided that I needed to stop eying this cute little cup sleeve and just make one already.  I really need to do projects like these to build some sewing skills.  Did I build sewing skills?  Maybe a little…. I DID realize that I need a basic sewing class very badly.  Adding that to the list of things to get taken care of this life-time. 

 

On to the tutorial… oh but first, see where I started from!

 

I pinned this a while back

 

Isn’t it cute!!????  Well I am an avid coffee and Starbucks lover, so this was something that I would put to good use on a regular basis.  The tutorial over at Crafty Staci is a pretty good one.  There was some impairment on my part since I really don’t know how to sew.  My mom was such a HUGE help.  She helped me get through most of it without throwing in the towel.  Here are the steps that I followed:

 

First I picked the materials that I wanted to use.  I used one piece of cotton I had just purchased and some silver stretchy material from a pair of pants that Hannah had in her dress up clothes (she was getting rid of them).  In retrospect… use all cotton! 

 

 

I had printed out the template that Staci had provided and cut it out.  She was specific to state not to let it scale down to print… I didn’t think I had, but possibly did a little. 

Next I used a fabric marker to trace it on my materials. Be sure to flip the template over for one of your outside fabrics. 

 

Here are all of my pieces laid out and ready to put together.  I ended up being able to get some batting that was lined with a heat resistant material from my mom (told you my mom hooked me up!).  I forget the name of it.

 

 

Before I could get to pinning it all together though, I had to make my little “hook”.  I took the hair band cut it in half, then used some super glue to hold the ends together until I could sew them down.

 

Next I layered all of my pieces together. This was actually kind of complicated for some reason.  Maybe because the tutorial I was using had used batting and ironing board material so there was extra pieces, or maybe I am a little slow… not sure on that one.  Either way, my mom and I figured it out. 

1. batting material

2. printed fabric face up

3. “hook”

4. printed fabric face down

 

Seems simple enough once it was put together.  My mom actually pinned it all down and turned it right side out to make sure it would work. 

Next it all got pinned together to get it ready for sewing

 

I would probably pin it in more places next time around.  Then sew an edge around it using a 1/4 inch seam allowance.  I had major problems with this step (hence my mention of needing a sewing class).  It kept gathering on my and was really frustrating.

And using that stretchy material was exacerbating the issue for sure.  Here it is all stitched together.

And you notice that I stitched the whole thing?  Yea… I was supposed to leave a small section open to turn it all.  I just used my seam ripper and opened up a little spot.  Then I trimmed up all of the edges outside of my stitching.

 

And then turn it right side out and see how you did!  Just a couple more steps now…. take your turned piece and do a step I missed… IRON it!!  That should make things nice and flat.  Then take your whole piece and stitch as close to the edge as you can get all around it.  I had trouble with that little spot that I used to turn it but thanks to the advice given to me from Melanie over at The Crafty Cupboard, I think I can do a better job next time around.

 

Ok, down to the wire now…. we have to sew on that button!  I didn’t have any toothpicks, so I just used a spoon handle that seemed the appropriate thickness.  I closed up the sleeve and made a mark with my fabric marker where I should put the button.  Once I sewed it on I  wrapped the thread around underneath the button several times to add some support.

 

And voila!! Here you have it!  One coffee/drink sleeve made to order!  Whadya think??   I am, of course, my own worst critic, so I am not 100% happy with it.  There will be repeats of this!!  I am going to try one with all cotton and see how I do.  Oh and sign up for that sewing class   Notice the blooms on those trees??  Winter Sminter.  It’s spring in Virginia!!

 

Anyone else decide to jump into the challenge??  Go link up if you did, and please share here too!

 

younghouselove

Bower Power

The Great Indoors

Hi Sugarplum!

Bananas for red spray paint

I really do have a spray paint problem.  It’s becoming quite obvious.  I can’t imagine that it’s a surprise to anyone that my latest project involves a can of spray paint.  What can I say?  It’s a super simple and cheap fix for about anything.

Jeff and I had been debating over which banana holder to get for some time now.  I have no idea why this is such a hard decision…it should be a pretty simple pick.  Nope.  So when I came across this banana rack at the goodwill for .55 I couldn’t leave it.  OH yes, I did say 55 cents.  As in the change on the bottom of my purse (if I had change on the bottom of my purse that is).  Since we had a pretty full weekend, I figured this was one project I could get done pretty quick.  I used Rustoleum 2x spray paint again, and was very happy with the results. 

 

Here it is… now ready to reside in my kitchen!

 

I find it quite amusing that 5 out of 7 days a week we have bananas.  I went to take after shots of this tonight and guess what?  NO bananas!!  Ugh.  I am sure you can squint a little and just imagine a bunch of bright yellow bananas are hanging from that hook. 

 

So what did everyone else do this weekend?  Any spray painting going on???  We headed to Monterey, VA for the Highland Maple Festival again…. seriously amazing fresh maple syrup!!

Another Pinterest challenge – they just don’t get old!

It’s time for YHL and Bower Power’s regularly programmed Pinterest Challenge!! You know you have been pinning, you know you have a dozen projects you want to do. Well quit looking and talking and DO IT! I have a bunch of pins that are just no-brainers for getting done. I am pretty sure I have my project picked out, too. So go check out your boards and pick a project, then come back here next Wednesday, the 14th, and share what you did! Link up in the comments! Those crazy girls over there teamed up with Erin from The Great Indoors and Cassie from Hi Sugarplum! for this challenge. And if you aren’t familiar with Sherry at YHL and Katie at Bower Power you need to remedy that situation right now.

I think I will do one of these… you will have to wait till next week to find out which!

And while you are at it…go check out what everyone did over at:

younghouselove
Bower Power
The Great Indoors
Hi Sugarplum!

(Both Pinterest Challenge banners were found over at yhl)

Let the pinning begin!!!

DIY chevron rug from a towel

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post that I am purging some towels from our home, I decided to see if I could find a way to use a couple of them in other ways in our home.  I have a serious lack of rugs in this house.  As a matter of fact, I have 2 rugs – one in each bathroom.  I really need rugs in the kitchen, I want rugs in other places in the house for décor purposes.  I figured I could try this out, and if it doesn’t work, oh well, nothing lost but a little time and very little of my paint stash. 

 

Ok, well here goes… I am still not decided if this is a success.  I will have to let it hang out for a while.  It was very easy, but I am not sure if you can get it done without the helper that I had

 

One plain white towel.  I cut the end off that has the design on it as well as the edge on the opposite end.  I wanted it to be uniform on each side.

 

Then I used a level (because it was the longest thing I could find to make the lines) and measured lines all the way down the towel every 6 inches.  The tractors had to make sure I was keeping things even.  I then started placing my zigzags pretty much the same way I did in this tutorial where I made a DIY canvas.  You can’t really tell if they aren’t perfect, so just use your best judgment.  I did each row at a time, all zigs, then all zags… make sense??  Of course it does.

 

I just overlapped the tape as I went and trimmed up any edges I didn’t like.  Oh, and I used a plain old masking tape, about 2 inches wide.

 

Once all the lines were on, place child on towel to ensure all edges are nice and tight.  The dog on the corners is optional.

 

Next I chose a paint.  I was going to use green, but I forgot I used it all on the green wall.  Yellow it is then!  I used a small sponge applicator since that is what I had on hand.  I didn’t want to use a paint brush because I was afraid it would lay too much paint.  I did end up putting more paint in the first row than I would have liked, but it still worked well.

One line done…

 

And paired up with my lovely sunbeam mug… coffee just tastes better in that mug.

And here it is… It does look like a towel huh?  My plan is to apply some non-skid backing on it to keep it from sliding as well as give it a little stiffness. 

I guess we will see how it holds up and if I like looking at it.  I am hoping I like it and can figure out other ways to use towels like this.  It would be awesome if I could make rugs for several rooms to at least use to get the house on the market.  I think I am going to need to break down at some point and actually spend a little money on a real rug.

 

And since I have a love for chevrons, check out this window display I saw at a shopping mall in Richmond a weekend ago.  I couldn’t help but snap a picture.

 

 

Anyone else find any items to repurpose lately?  Maybe you made something or bought something you aren’t quite sure about? 

A new opportunity coming my way…

I am very excited…my sister-in-law is moving into her very first apartment (not as a college student!) and she is allowing me to help her with making her new place “hers”. (Can you see me jumping up and down I am so excited???) I have had so much fun in the last 4 months or so blogging and tailoring my home decor radar. I love to decorate, and it’s even more fun since her style is a little different from my own. I mean, I see things all the time that I like, and would love to have in my home, but they just don’t jive with my current style. So now I get to step out of that mold and have some fun! And did I mention she has great taste?? (She was key in my fabric choice for that ottoman – picture me standing in the isle with my face all contorted from the effort of trying to make that decision – lol, she gave me the nudge to get it!)

The apartment complex is going to paint an accent wall for her before she moves in (pretty awesome, right?) and she chose…. turquoise!!! Wow, bravery!! And I love it! I am currently putting together a mood board for her bedroom. It’s challenging, and I never realized all the questions I would have for her… and I really need to see the space. She moves in this weekend, so I will be able to check it out and hopefully get some before pics.

She picked up some items for the apartment already, and has been pinning things that suit her style. I think some inspiration “shopping” might be in order…after all, she is on a budget (aren’t we all these days, ugh) and I don’t want to deck her mood board out with items that our out of reach. She did splurge on some really nice Ralph Lauren lamps at Marshall’s…. check ‘em out!

Nice?? Oh yes. Funny, you can tell a little bit about a person’s style just from a lamp choice..

I am very honored that she values my opinion and wants my help with this …. so stay tuned to see what we come up with.

Pinterest art challenge!

Amanda over at Our Humble A{Bowe}ed announced a Pinterest art challenge a week or so ago.  It’s been a while since I participated in a challenge, if you remember, I did this little canvas for the fist one.  I love when I see these challenges, cause you know that you have pinned at least 5 things that say “Must do this!”  And…. you never get around to it.  You don’t? Well, I do…so, I decided that since I had a pin I have been looking at for a while, and all of the supplies at home already to do it, that I should jump in with 2 feet on this challenge. 

I had pinned this lovely canvas a while back.  I love some chevron and was really wanting to find ways to add it into my home.

 

Then I found where someone else had done it as well.  Here is the pin, for over at the embellished nest I used as a tutorial for my project.

 

Let’s get right into it.  I chose to get the kids involved with this one as well.  They love to help out, and I love having projects that we can keep for years made by them.

My supplies – plus several paint brushes, acrylic paints and little hands.

 

I followed the advice from my tutorial and measured out where I wanted my stripes to be.  I did this on both ends so that I would have markers to line up my tape.

 

Next I taped the straight lines that would serve as anchors for my chevron pattern.

 

I thought this next step might be tricky, but it wasn’t at all!

I simply marked the first side where I wanted it, judging distance without measuring.

 

The rest was easy peasy.

 

Now for the fun part!!  Painting!  I let the kids do most of this.  I filled in some spots and generally tried to convey to them what I was looking for.

Paint brushes in hand and paint ready… they went to town!

 

I think at one point Jeff even got involved.

And here you go…all painted!  I added some silver metallic for some shiny contrast at the end.

 

I let it dry overnight.  And when I looked at it in the morning I realized I had missed an important color.  Oops!  Yellow!  I had some puff paint handy, so I just streaked around some yellow and white puff paint to brighten it up a bit.  I ended up having to use an exacto knife to gently slice the puff paint where the tape edges were so that when I pulled the tape off, the puff paint wouldn’t slide off with it.

And here we go… project complete!

I have gotten into the whole staging thing, can you tell?  lol  I am still getting the hang of it.  I really like how this turned out…and the fact that the kids made it makes it double awesome!

 

Anyone else do some DIY stuff recently?  Any fun kids projects?  Please share! I love to hear what others are doing! 

Quickie DIY bathroom art

I have been trying to finish up the guest bath for some time now… almost 5 years if you want to put a number on it.  I have done a few things, like paint half of a wall yellow, add some colored circles and monogram letters for the kids above some dog hineys for hooks.  We had a colored shower curtain that I wasn’t crazy about, but it served its purpose for a while….that is until a certain miniature pinscher had a little stand off with a skunk.  UGH!!  So that was a farewell to the shower curtain.  The room started out like this when I started this blog :

 

 

 

It’s a pretty bare bones bathroom.  Builder grade mirror, light fixture, and even curtain rods.  I really need something to warm this room up and make it feel less bathroom at a local convenient store, and more like the kids bathroom.  I like the monogram letters above the towel hooks, so that stays.  I am not 100% crazy about the paint anymore, but it will work for the time being.  That wall behind the toilet is my focus for this post.

 

I pulled that shelf down and brainstormed for a while on what I was going to put up there.  I had decided that I was going to put something up there that I already have…no shopping for this one.  I dug into my craft bin to see what I could find.

 

I came a across some little wooden letters.  I had them for one project or another years ago, and just hung onto them because you never know when you are going to need to put some words somewhere.  Really?Am I the only one that does that?  Say it ain’t so!

 

I tried to put some words together that “fit” in a bathroom.  I settled on ~wash~rinse~clean.  I used some acrylic paints to paint each letter a different color, then used plain on Elmer’s to glue the letters onto a piece of white card stock.

 

I had some frames that were in use in that bathroom a while back that I spray painted a glossy white.  Into the frames went the cardstock and words… and here you go…simple and quick are.

 

 

Here are some close ups.. I still need to fill the holes from the shelf.

 

I have some more ideas in the works.. I happened to run by the Goodwill yesterday and found some fun stuff to see if I can work into the bathroom!  This room really needs a nice shower curtain.  And there is always the possibility of something happening with that mirror. 

 

Anyone else whip up some quick art lately?  Work with any monograms?  Maybe you followed a tutorial to the letter?   Please share!

Faux capiz chandelier

I have been meaning to write about the a project I did right before I started this blog.  I kept putting it off since I didn’t have any pics of the process,  and finally decided that it was actually a successful project, and I needed to share it.  I had been seeing capiz chandeliers in people’s homes (in blog land) and really liked them.  The problem is, these chandeliers are out.of.my.reach.by.miles in the price department.  Then I started to see where people had made faux capiz chandeliers.  Perfect solution, right??!! I mean, they are made of wax paper, string and various metal bases.  Cheap…possibly time consuming, but pretty simple.  The first thing I had to do was figure out a base that would work for me.  I was on the hunt for a little while.  I had seen several different options used on different sites.The main one that I used was this one from Freshly Picked.  I lucked out in September, when my mom was going to toss an old lamp shade.  She let me take it, and even let me borrow some spray paint to paint it white.  I didn’t take any pics of the process, but there are many great tutorials out there that I will link up to.  I used a couple of different tutorials to get this thing done, it took me a while, but I did get it done.   I will give the best recap I can without pics to demonstrate the steps.

 

My first step was to get all of my supplies together. Here is what I used:

 

wax paper

red solo cup

ink pen

scissors

white thread

frame (I used the metal frame to a tapered lamp shade)

hooks that screw into the wall

wire

 

The first thing I did was to pull all of the fabric off of the shade.  Once it was cleaned off, I spray painted it white.  That was probably the easiest step of this whole project.

Next, I took wax paper in strips about 2 feet long and ironed 2 pieces together.  I put the pieces together and laid them on the ironing board, placing an old shirt on top and bottom of them to keep any wax from melting on the iron or the ironing board.  Once the pieces were ironed together – I started the part that had me wishing I had just shopped harder for a cheap capiz.  lol.  I took the solo cup and traced as many circles on the pieces of ironed together wax paper as I could fit.  Then I spent countless hours cutting, and cutting and cutting… seriously.. buy a circle cutter if you are going to attempt this. 

I actually found the next step kind of interesting.  I chose how far I wanted my “shells” to hang down, and proceeded to sew them together in strips 2 times that length.  I followed this video, because at first I thought it was not possible to sew them with thread….I was wrong!  Hop over there and check it out… she gives a very simple tutorial on the sewing the “shells” together. 

 

This is pretty much the meat of the project.  Once you have all of your strips sewn together, drape them evenly around your upside down, spray painted lamp shade.  Once you feel you have covered the shade and made it as full as you want, you need to hang it.  I ended up making loops with some picture hanging wire in 4 spots on the top of the frame, then screwing some hooks into the ceiling around the light fixture that was already up (a boob light without the glass dome).  That’s it!  If you can stick it out through the circle cutting marathon, you will have an awesome faux capiz chandelier!

 

Here are some photos of the chandelier hanging…

 

 

 

Here is a shot from below inside the chandelier, it fits perfectly over the fixture.

 

And here is how it is hung… be very careful to get those screwed in straight and tight.

 

I like how it turned out.  It doesn’t look like a real capiz to me, but I find it to be a cute alternative.  Hannah loves it and is ready for me to get going on the rest of her room!!  One step at a time… lol  One step that I didn’t take was adding a wire around the middle of the shade to add another layer to it.  I think it would look nice, but I am happy with how it is.  It’s good to know there are other options though!

 

Has anyone else been making any faux decorations lately?  Maybe you have some favorite light fixtures you have on display? 

Sharing the love–week 3

 

It’s that time once again.  If you want to know what I have been reading, you can check out my blog roll, or you can go check out One Project at a Time. The name says a lot, but don’t be fooled into thinking that the “one project” is anything small….these guys tackle some major jobs!  Right now they are elbow deep in a bathroom renovation.    Beautiful penny tile and mosaic tiles galore!  Erin, her husband Jason, and their little man, Ryder, have been putting hard work and lots of love into a foreclosure in efforts to make it a home for their family.  I think they are well on their way…. what do you think?

 

A beautiful living area

 

What an awesome laundry room!

 

 

Serious closet envy

 

My personal favorite, the playroom.

Take a few minutes to go check them out… heck, take more than a few minutes.  We’ll pretend its Friday and you don’t need to be super productive anyway.      Heck, in my book, getting to know great bloggers and getting ideas for projects is super productive.   And the best part of this blog?  They haven’t even scratched the surface on what they want to do with their home.  They have a whole list of projects waiting in the wings.

While your over there, check out their first house as well.  Gotta love a family with the drive to not only do one home, but start all over again with another!

 

 

While I am at it, check out what I pinned today… this little piece is inspiring me to get to work on another project… hope to have some progress this weekend!

 

 

What have you guys been up to this week? Any great blogs to share?  Already a fan of One Project at a Time?  Please share!