paper chandelier/mobile

 Ben's room needed a mobile. i had seen something similar to this online with a price tag of over $50.00. Here's what "handy andy" and i came up with (fyi- this is my new name for husband. those of you with preschoolers have probably met "handy manny" on tv. my handy andy is waaaay handier. in fact, i think he could probably take over this blog with all his handiness. Yesterday he made homemade yogurt. today he reupholstered the top of the footstool in baby ben's room! such an over-achiever :)
Here's how YOU can make one too:

1. First, i cut out about 100 circles. i used Creative Memories circle cutter to cut 3 different sizes in 3 different shades of yellow.


 2. Then i punched a small hole (i used a needle) in the top and bottom of each circle




 



3. Then i laid out the circles in 9 rows and slightly varied the lengths

 4. Then i thread fishing line through the top and bottom holes of each circle in each row

 5. Here's where Handy Andy came in: i had already spray-painted this dowel that was probably 2 ft long? (bought at hobby lobby for less than a $1) He cut the dowel into 3 pieces and then glued them. This part looked pretty tricky to me. I don't know exactly what he did but i do know he used a strong white glue, crossed the rods atop a plate, taped them and let them dry overnight.

 5. then i tied 1 strand on each of the 6 ends and then tied 3 more strands in the middle triangle area to give it some depth. *TIP- leave extra fishing line to the bottoms of each strand so you can move the circles up and down or add/remove circles to make it look right.

 6. This step also required handy andy's help. to make it hang evenly, he tied fishing line to every other rod(3 ties) and then tied a knot at the top, then tied it to a long piece of line to tie around a screw that was put into the ceiling. **Wow, i used the words "tie" and "tied" 5 times in that run-on sentence...

 Here you can see  how i left the fishing line long so i could adjust them once it was hung.

"God's Blue" :)

here's the after of the paint color!

Nursery Update- PAINT

When Andrew came home from his 4-day trip last week and looked in the baby's room he wondered if i had decided to do some kind of patch work quilt technique on the walls. I think i counted 10 different colors i tried and about 7 of those were variations on blue. i had bought several samples of colors i had seen in magazines or on blogs or just from paint swatches, my mom and sis had lent me some colors they had tried or had left-overs from and i even mixed 2 different shades of blue myself. Let me tell you, i was HATING paint by the time he got home. Finally i decided on one of my personally mixed colors, painted it on a piece of cardstock and took it to Lowes to color match. Andrew had very definitely warned against mixing my own color but as i didn't have any other ones i liked i took the risk and bought a gallon. Sure enough, Andrew was right to mistrust the whole process because the color in the can was a COMPLETELY different color from what i had mixed myself. We decided to use it anyway and....I LOVE it! So, I'm calling it "God's Blue" because evidently He knew He needed to stop the madness and just give me the color i needed before i went crazy. :)

Sorry i don't have an after picture of the paint color. Andrew took the camera to an airshow today...
But, here are a few more recent buys:

1. 1 gallon of paint w/ $5 rebate! - -------------------------------$20.00
2. curtain rod/ rings/ hooks from BBB w/ a $10 off coupon-------------- $30.00
3. lamp shade (the one i recovered) from Target------------------------$12.00
4. velcro, duckcloth, fusible interfacing for various projects-------------$9.00
5. Red polka dot fabric used partly for the lamp shade -----------------$8.00

Total: $ 79.00

Baby Room begins...

Well, now that august is almost over, i've finally begun the baby's room. Thanks to andrew, who, on the night of july 30th said, " well, meagan, is there anything else you're going to do in the girls' room? because if there is you have 24 hours to do it and then you have to MOVE on!" i did (mostly) meet my july goal of finishing the girls' room but haven't taken any good pictures yet.

But here's a "before" of the baby's room which also happens to be a fairly accurate "current" photo:

Anyway, i have several goals for the baby's room but the 2 biggest are:
1. complete it by the end of August (HA!)
2. complete it within  my baby room budget that i earned from the garage sale this summer.  Andrew put up with his garage stuffed with junk for almost 9 months because i kept telling him that if we kept it all to sell i'd try my very hardest to decorate the baby's room with our earnings! yay for a goal (no matter how unrealistic they might be!)

So, i might be really bummed and a little embarrassed if it doesn't work out but I'm going to try and keep track of everything on this handy dandy blog. I'm not counting things that i already bought before the goal was set or that were given to me or that i just decide to leave out because its messing with my goal! :) ha.

This is what came in the mail last week. It took me FOREVER to decide on which fabrics to order but then i discovered that on fabric.com shipping is free if its over $35.00 as well as return shipping so i ended up ordering everything that caught my eye and will return the left-overs. These fabrics are among the finalists.

And here's what i need fabric for:
Crib skirt
Curtains
Pillow
Foot stool cover
Quilt?
Decor accessory related things

The next 4 days while andrew is on a trip, i'm going to work on wall paint colors, fabric elimination, spray paint projects, and clearing out the rest of the junk out of the room....or, i'll just get caught up on a couple of movies i've been wanting to see...

ta-da!

well, here they are...i'm sure you could hardly wait. :)

On one of the sewing websites i gleaned some info from the gal remarked that in her opinion there was nothing more satisfying than looking at curtains you have made yourself. i must agree- no matter that it took 3 weeks to complete and more brain confusion than i'm used to AND that both panels have completely different dimensions or that my husband had more innate knowledge about the project than i did, i still feel very happy each time i open and close these thick, cheery, light-proof,  ruffled curtains. :)

and a big thanks to Andrew for hanging the curtain rod...that job definitely would've put me over the edge.

Madeline enjoying the view...

happy sophie

A. and i are going to try and hang some stuff on the wall tomorrow...progress!

living room gets a make-over

before

This was definitely a bigger project than we anticipated but since this room has been bugging me for the last 2 years, we decided it was now or never to do something about it.

what i liked about the room: having built-in shelves, and a fireplace/mantel area.
what bugged me: the dark wood, dingy-colored brick and the over-all drab and dated look the 2 created

So, bless Andrew's heart  for jumping on board with my vision while we both tried to ignore the feeling that we were committing a major crime by painting so much solid wood and brick
But all the other woodwork in our house had been painted white by the previous owners, including the kitchen cabinets which made us feel a little more justified.

The BEFORE:

And the AFTER:

- For the shelves, we took them down, sanded and primed them with at least 2 coats of Zinsser 123 primer, then painted at least 3 or more coats of Behr's Ultra White in Satin. It seemed to take forever to get a good cover...wondering if i should have used a different kind of paint- anyone know?
Here's a great tip i got off of  just a girl - she uses a small foam roller when she paints furniture to get a nice, even finish. We used a brush to cut in around the shelving and mantel but other wise we used the roller and it really did make the finish smooth and more uniform looking.

 BEFORE of the brick

 AFTER

 For the brick we pretty much did the same thing except instead of sanding (ha!) andrew cleaned it with TSP cleaner. (another great tip from JAG) Then we put 2 coats of the primer using a regular roller and then painted it the same color as our walls. I had a really hard time deciding whether to paint the brick white or the wall color. We already had a bunch of the wall color paint on hand so we decided to try it, figuring i could easily change it at another time.
however, here's a pic right after i started painting the color on. i meant to take one before i began so i could get a feel for what it would look like just white but i forgot.
Any opinions??

 Oh, also A. spray-painted the fireplace cover using Rustoleum's High Heat spray paint and it worked great.

Well, there you go- probably way more info than you wanted to know but you got it anyway :)

p.s. just as i was finishing this post my sweet little 5 yr.old design star informed me that he "actually really misses the old brick color AND the old cabinet color. Mom, did you hear that? i really miss the old color- the brown AND the old brick"  gotcha man- I'm taking note.

Slip Cover Reveal

I am a total scatterbrain. Our 2yr old twin girls room has been on the top of my "to-do" list for the last year. However, when we found out we were having a baby boy, my brain switched to thinking of everything nursery and boy-related. But then i couldn't make up my mind on fabrics and paints etc. so i started working on the girls' room again. Shortly after, 2 sweet friends from Texas came to visit and offered to help me get something completed. So i decided to have them help me make a white slip cover for an upholstered rocker that my grandma gave me. That was one thing that i knew for certain that i wanted for the baby's room and i figured that between the 3 of us we could surely follow some "easy" directions and give me a jump-start in that room.
We followed the "lazy guide to slipcovers" found here at this very talented gal's blog: http://pinkandpolkadot.blogspot.com/ 

so, here's the "before"

 the "After"

Now back to the scatterbrain bit. Somewhere in between working on the girls room, leaving it for the baby's room only to return to working on the girls room again, to having my friends from tx visit, Andrew and i got super excited about completely changing the look of our living room. This was the project that involved tons of sanding, mess and painting. (Pictures to come) Anyway, we were nearly done with this project when my friends finished this slipcover. Seeing how beautiful and white it was, i stole it from my nursery and planted it in my living room. I'm very, very happy with it there but it does leave me a little discouraged at my progress with my other projects...
I'm considering using this blog as an accountability partner...we'll see. My new goal is to have the girls' room presentable by the end of july. This means, curtains, things on the wall, painting projects completed, and their stuff organized.

But even as i write this, my brain can hardly focus and all i want to do is get my sewing machine out and make some cute burp cloths i saw online! :)

hair clip project

 Both girls have hit the glamor stage- they love necklaces, bracelets, sunglasses, tutus, pigtails, and clips in their hair. We go through many clips a day as they'll fall out or the girls will want them changed out with outfits... :) Anyway, i saw some adorable felt hair clips at a super cute children's boutique in  ft.collins the other week and fell in love with their simplicity....unfortunately, i couldn't fall in love with paying $12 for 2 clips... So, for a little friend's birthday i experimented with making some of my own. They were pretty easy and lots of fun.

 

i bought 2 sizes of regular ole metal clips. (the blue circle clip used the small size)

 i made the little fabric flower first. (just a small strip of fabric, folded over length wise and then basted, pulled tight into a flower and then stitched to secure) Then cut a small strip of felt close to the shape of the clip, folded it over the top of the clip, sewed the flower onto felt, put a small amount of hot glue on the clip, pressed the felt down, and then sewed it to the clip in a couple spots. It's especially important to secure it at the bottom. there are small holes in the metal clip that i used to anchor the felt onto. You can see where i sewed a little better in the picture of the back of the circle clip. Then i just sewed a bit around the edges to make it look a little more finished.

Ta-da! :)

Projects...

here are a few sneak peaks at the projects we've been working on lately. I say "we" a little loosely as i've  also been doing quite a lot of this ;)

first project: lots of sanding, dust and more coats of paint than we expected

2nd project: giving a comfy old chair a lovely new look

wouldn't have been possible without the help of 2 great friends!

 

 Stay tuned for the "after" pictures

rocking chair

I found this rocking chair last summer at goodwill for $5 and just finally gave it a new look for my nephew's birthday. It had several coats of paint and since i really, really didn't want to strip it and i also really didn't want to do a lot of sanding it just sat in our garage until last week.

Here's the before:

A few days before my nephew's bday party i decided to call my dad and get his advice. Sure enough he told me i should strip it which i then told him was out of the question. Luckily for me, he figured out that i was really only interested in getting the job done as quickly and with as little work/time as possible and that all i wanted to hear was, "sand it a tiny bit, spray paint it and you should be good to go". As a bonus he also said he'd drop by an electric sander to make the job go even more quickly.

 So, i figured out how to use the sander ALL BY MYSELF, even trimmed and changed the paper w/o help, and sanded it for just a tiny bit. Maybe went through 4 pieces of paper and called it good. Then...

i sprayed it with a primer, let it completely dry and sprayed it with several coats of this semi-gloss paint. (i used a can and 1/2 to get a good cover)

 Here's the "after": 

 

I noticed a few spots on the bottom rungs that should have been sanded a bit more, they look kind of rough and like they might decide to bubble up. At least i have a 1/2 bottle of spray paint left over and can just keep covering it up as many times as needed. ;)

bedroom re-do

First of all, this post is dedicated to Ash J. and my sis who have persistently kept me accountable ever since i mentioned last spring that i was hoping to re-do our master bedroom. I happened to have picked 2 people to randomly mention my idea  that didn't forget...even when my project took months and months to begin and finish and then when it was done it took a few more months to actually take a couple of decent pictures.
the reality is our room doesn't usually look like the pictures on the bottom. If you could insert an ironing board in the corner, a few sippy cups on the floor, baby socks by the door, baby doll accessories scattered about, legos on our bed, and then dump over my jewelry box (favorite activity of one of the 3 kiddos- i still haven't discovered who...) you would get a more accurate idea of  what our room typically looks like. But, i thought i needed at least one nice picture to get a sense of completion....


So....here's the "before". I hope you all appreciate my honesty in posting these very real pictures. We were in the process of destroying our room so we could paint when i remembered i wanted some before pics.

lovely

And the "after".....

this corner still feels a little undone. we used to have another chair up here but i stole it for the living room. now it makes a good home for the unused humidifier and an old red gap bag behind the chair.

this is a shelf that my dad and i made together when i was about 14. We made it especially for my cabbage patch dolls. Yes, all 8 of them needed a place of honor in my room. i was such a cool teenager.

 Now, it holds pictures. And f.y.i- i didn't want to go buy black frames so i rounded up as many different kinds of frames as i had around the house and then spray painted them all black. worked wonderfully!

i'm hoping to post re-do pictures of the girls room soon. They just turned 2 so we thought it was about time to decorate their room and paint over the horrible pepto bismal paint mistake from 1 1/2 years ago. We'll see how long it takes...maybe check back next spring!