what i've been up to...

I’m still here…without a (new) baby, so…yeah…whatever. (Forewarning: This post contains no cute pictures. I only have sad cell phone pictures…sorry!)


I could/should have been cleaning/organizing…but I was not. Instead, I was making felt flowers to use as hair clips because #1: I had leftover felt from my birdie project and #2: This was more appealing to me than doing whatever else “needed to be” done!

Anyway, to start out, I used a tutorial for Peony Felt clips from Yoonie at Home:

This seemed like the easiest one I could find…and I like them. I think they will be adorable clipped to a headband.

But I wanted a fuller-looking flower, so I tried this Felt Hair Clip tutorial from Julie’s Blog (except I used buttons instead of a felt center). It was easy and they turned out super cute (I will get better pics because these do not properly display the cute-ness!):
I don’t know why but I’m obsessing over hair accessories lately! Maybe because I’m so unskilled when it comes to “doing” hair, that I figure a bunch of big, pretty flowers can deter attention from lack of styling...or something… I think soon I'll need to find a tutorial for cute ways to display/store hair accessories!

Also this weekend I scored this vintage toy box from the antique mall (for $25!). I liked it when I bought it, but the more I look at it, the more obsessed I am! I don’t know what it is about this box, but I seriously love it so much!

This will go in Jack’s room to house his many books. His books are literally overtaking his room (Note: as sad as this picture is, it’s actually what his room looks like on a daily basis…we have lots of books!). So this box will be great for containing his little, ever-growing library!

So that’s what’s been going on here. I wish I could say it's been more eventful/exciting, but it has not...I’m ready to have this little girl now. I'm sure once that happens, I will wish for some peace and quiet and for life to slow down a bit while I catch my breath, but for now...I'm ready for something eventful/exciting!

birds of a feather...

This was my Friday night, and it was super exciting...thanks for all of your help Care, you're THE best!

I’ve wanted to make a bird mobile like the one I showed in my inspiration post back in March. But I’m not a sewer so I was seriously contemplating buying some birds from etsy and crafting a mobile on my own. However, I had so much fabric left over from my embroidery hoop project, that I thought, I could certainly find a way to DIY these birds!

So although I’m no seamstress, I certainly am a hot-gluer (I don’t have any fingerprints to prove it!), so with some hot glue, fabric, stuffing, felt, buttons, ribbon, and a home-made template, I was all about it! Check out my flock:

I think this one is my fav...I love the green and pink color combo! Carey was totally my "sous-chef of crafting"! She basically matched up all the buttons and color combos, and stuffed and did whatever I told asked her to :)...AND she made flower hair bows that are seriously Ahhh-mazing! I can't wait to play beauty shop with them!

another fav...

I bought little beads for eyes but kind of liked them without because the fabrics are so busy…thoughts?!?

PS: I finally bought a quilt (on etsy, of course!) that should be arriving today…boo ya! I’m super excited so hopefully I love it as much in person as I do in the pictures…here’s a sneak peek!

Nursery (part 4)

More nursery progress! We have a finished/usable armoire in the room! Here’s the breakdown.

We got this armoire for free last summer from neighbors who were moving. Free=nice. Navy=Not Nice. It sat idle in our garage for almost a year.

Finally I realized that we’d need somewhere to put all of baby girl’s clothes, so we pulled it out of the garage, dusted it off, and relocated it to our third room for a makeover. I pulled out the primer from when we primed the basement before we even moved in over a year ago. It was the consistency of Elmer’s Glue…uck! But, I’m cheap and lazy, so I made it work!
After priming, 2 coats of paint on this beast (which was a paint in the ass to paint BTW!), and a few cute door knobs from Hobby Lobby, it’s like a whole new piece of furniture!

If I’m being honest, I don’t love it. It doesn’t offer a lot of storage like I’d hoped, but it’s fine for now…and for free (+ cost of paint and door knobs). As warned, it looks way cuter in the pictures than it does in person! Hopefully it will grow on me...otherwise I'll be DIY-ing again soon!


Note: the knobs ended up being to big for the doors (they don’t close all the way), so I’ll have to go back and get a smaller set, but you get the idea!

So there you have it. Another check off the list. I feel a little bit better having this phase completed: it was the last major project to finish, but now I'm noticing all of the little projects I should work on in the evenings. Instead, I sit down for an hour and watch the Real Housewives of New Jersey because they are seriously nuts and I love it, so I'm happily entertained!

Nursery (part 3)

More nursery advancements! It’s coming together, and with around 11 weeks to go, I’m glad to be finally making progress!

Color…check! Transformed into Meadow Mist! This was such a relief. A relief that it’s #1: done, and #2: I like/love it (my opinion changes depending on time of day, mood, lighting, etc). And fyi, the pics aren’t great examples of the true color because I’m a crappy picture taker and I they are taken at different times of the day…so if it looks too “In-Your-Face-Blue”, it’s not! *Refer to example below :-)

When Jim first brushed it on, I said “OMG I LOVE it! Don’t you LOVE it?”

…then I went back into the room 5 minutes later and complained, “I hate it. It’s too green or blue, or something. UGH!” and immediately wished I would have gotten sample colors.

Jim asked if I wanted to go get another color before he painted the whole room and I said, “No, paint everything and if I don’t like it we’ll just repaint it.” We did this with Jack’s room and I know that with enough paint, you’ll eventually find something you can live with!

Luckily, it’s growing on my everyday. And just like I did when the room was freshly cleaned out, I poke my head in every time I walk past it…and sometimes I walk past it just to poke my head in!

First DIY project…check!

A while back, I fell in love with Amy Butler’s LOVE Heart fabric collection. But seeing as I’m not a seamstress or anything close, I thought THIS project was 100% do-able for me. So I bought my fabric on Etsy. And after some careful/sloppy placement, glue, and patience, mission accomplished!

My fabric rings are done and I love them, but you can never see the backs of these because I’m too cheap to invest in a pair of good quality scissors, so it basically looks like it’s been chewed on by a dog. ;-) But that dog was me!

*Notice how different the wall color looks in the 3 pictures below...as noted above, don't trust my picture taking skills! Focus on the project at hand!
Taken in the early evening:

Taken in the afternoon light:

Taken in the morning light:

Two more checks off the list. Yeah!

This weekend I hope to paint the dresser/armoire and rocking chair…oh I’m getting so ready for this baby girl to come visit me! Lila Grace? I’m just throwing it out there and thinking about it…I have the urge to start having things monogrammed!

my new(ish) chair!

Remember my chair?! The chair I rescued from the garbage and hauled down my street in the middle of the night because I saw potential?! Well, it’s finally done! It only took me like 3 months to slowly, but surely, finish the job!

So without further ado (3+ months is “ado” enough!), here’s my new(ish) chair…

It was rusty and in need of a fresh coat of paint, so my first step was to sand it down to a nice smooth finish and give it a coat of Rustoleum (in Almond). (Refer to “Funny Story” below.) Here's the rusty mess...

And now, after $16 worth of fabric and paint, I am perfectly happy with my new chair!

Now all I need is some spare time to relax and enjoy it...lol: spare time! :-)

Funny story: I bought the brush-on Rustoleum paint rather than the spray. I painted it one day during Jack’s nap, so needless to say, I was up against the clock.

When I finished, I went inside to clean my brushes as I usually would: with water in the sink. As I squeezed my hand through the brush to remove the paint, I begin to realize that the paint wasn’t washing off as my interior latex would. I rubbed more and slowly began to recall that this is oil.based.paint! SH*T. I had no mineral spirits, my hand (and wedding rings), sink, and anything else I might touch are covered in Rustoleum, Jack would be waking up at any moment, and Jim was golfing so I was stuck, literally.

After minor panic, I grabbed a bottle of nail polish remover and doused myself made the best of it. And although I smelled as if I was combustible, I was mostly paint free.

Moral of the story: Read directions (ironic that I didn’t seeing as my profession is WRITING directions!)…know what kind of paint you’re using…always have mineral spirits…and steal your neighbors discarded junk!

The end

Transplant

We recently cut down 3 large trees and removed the stumps. The next step was to buy sod and/or seed to fill our patches. Jim was just excited to use heavy machinery, even though he was reduced to wearing my sweet sunglasses for protection! Minor detail, in fact, I think he secretly stashed them for later use...jk, he broke them instead.

This past weekend, on a whim, I started to dig out the grass around our mailbox because I’ve been wanting to make a flower bed. After a few digs, a light bulb went off: why don’t we dig up this grass and transplant it in our bare areas! Brilliant!

I didn’t think it would take more than 30-45 minutes. And we would be reusing just like Bob the Builder suggests...yeah! Little did I realize that “digging up grass” to transplant was a much more heavy-duty, time-consuming feat than I realized. I always underestimate projects! It took more like 3-4 hours! Good thing Jim was up for the challenge! ;-)

Since Jim was in charge of the heavy digging/lifting, Jack and I had the job of watering the area to be “sodded”, splashing in the mud, and watering the sod once it was placed. Needless to say, it was “work” that was more fun than actual "work".
Note: Yes he is watering the grass in his diaper. After splashing in the mud to the point that his shorts were too muddy/sticky/wet to wear, I resorted to this. Luckily, he's happier with little/no clothes!

Now we just have to hope the sod takes. Water, water, water! Good thing we have a professional sprinkler-operator on site!

My chair!

As promised, here are pictures of my rescued chair! You might look at these pictures and think, “This woman’s hormones have seriously messed up her judgment!” And I’ll admit, it’s not 'porch-ready'…yet! But it will be…I see potential!

I’m still debating on whether or not I want to sandblast my new find (to clean off the rust) and repaint it, or to keep it vintage-looking and just “Make it work!” like Tim Gunn says!

Decisions, decisions!

family faces

Family faces are magic mirrors. Looking at people who belong to us, we see the past, present and future. (Gail Buckley )

l-o-v-e this! I took a profile shot of Jack and worked Photoshop magic to create this gem! I'm the first to admit it is not perfect, but it is adorable (...if I do say so myself)!

Dresser Makeover

So, this weekend I got the urge to attempt being crafty (once again!) and decided to give our (my) bedroom furniture a makeover! (I say "my" because I got this bedroom set in grade school! I so remember having a volleyball game at St. Justin's and showing off the brochure for my sweet furniture-to-be!) The furniture has definitely withstood the test of time!

During the process of this project I concluded that:
#1: I HATE stenciling!
#2: I LOVE damask...(see blog background)
#3: Seriously, stenciling sucks!

The coolest part about my furniture is that the drawers come with interchangeable "faceplates" in 4 different colors: white, black, hunter green, and red. Through the years, I've gone with the basic wood (aka: no faceplate), white, and black.

I wanted to spruce things up and being so indecisive, I thought this is a perfect way to try something new (and not permanent!). So I sprayed the red plate ivory, stenciled a damask design around the drawer pulls, and...voila: a whole new dresser!

So now, I need to find some cute, inexpensive drawer pulls (25 to be exact!) I'm thinking either green, clear, or something fun! Ideas?!?!