Claire's lamp

Finally got Claire's lamp done. It would have been done a long time ago but when I bought the crystal accent's it got lost in our move and I was hoping it would re appear so I wouldn't have to buy more. But sadly it never showed up.

BEFORE

AFTER

I spray painted the lamp shade, wasn't sure how it would turn out or if it would. But I like it, and I like that you can still see some of the pink when the lamp is on. Then I just hot glued the trim to the underside of the shade and it was done!

These have a light pink tint (the other one I had bought was a dark pink crystal)

I'm happy with it and it only cost me about $5.00

This picture is hanging in her room also. She loves wearing my high heels, so one day I thought I would try taking her picture in them. So I am not a professional and trying to get a picture of your 3 year old daughters feet and have it look good was hard. But I think I finally got one. Did some adjusting in photoshop then had it printed at Costco. I love looking at it and most of the time people think I purchased the picture from the store. Nope, that's my little Claire's feet in my high heels.

Laundry Room Complete... okay ALMOST complete

My laundry room is mostly done! A special thanks to my hubby's friend for helping us hang my (steal of a deal) cabinets, because the studs were in some random places on the back wall. I was going to buy some curtains to close off this area but I love walking by it right now, so those will have to wait. I bought some door pulls at Hobby Lobby (still not sure if I love the 4 doors not being the same, but we'll see) $1.50 each!

There will be a shelf that will go across the top of the cabinets and over to the right wall, but that will have to happen hopefully next weekend.
I lined the inside with gray and white polka dot fabric and found some yellow and gray totes on clearance at Lowe's which now hold some tools.
I found this at Goodwill last week and spray painted in white, it now holds my laundry soap. (I love opening that cabinet it smells so good!)
So here's my BEFORE shot
AFTER
I still have a few plans for some decor and a little more storage but I was just so excited to get the cabinets up that I had to share.

more project updates

And here is the mirror I got for $12.00

BEFOREI just used some black craft paint and some small brushes to get down inside all the grooves (there was a lot!) I hung it on the wall above my little table then decided the table top needed to be black too so I painted it black (then later realized it was to bulky for the entry way) So I swapped it out for a thin black bookshelf.

And here it is today!

AFTER

update on projects...

Remember this table from a previous post? Well here it is finished. Sorry it took so long. I love the pop of color in the room, and I was tired of painting everything black. I just used spray paint and I will fill in the name tomorrow if I still have the can.

Laundry room Re-do

My laundry "closet" is horrible and needs some love. I have big plans and hope to be able to accomplish it soon.The wire shelf is so not working for me and when we first moved in the right bi- fold door was broken so I removed it so soon the left one will be coming down
I finally visited my local Habitat for Humanity store in hopes of finding some cabinets to hang up on that back wall. And I scored! I got these two cabinets for $16.00 total. (regular price was $32.00 EACH!)
I will clean, paint, add new hardware, organize, and hang up a new curtains in place of the broken doors
And here's a quick mock up that I did on photoshop (don't judge please) Wall color- gray, then accented with white, some black and yellow. Wish me luck!

Wall decor for boys

I found this darling idea here.

As soon as I saw it, I knew my boys would love it.

It ended up being the gift that the boys made for each other.

My 4 year old painted this canvas black and sprayed it with white paint to make the stars.

I printed out the images and cut them out.  Then I mod podge-ed them on and sprayed it with a final clear coat of spay paint.

My 2 year old loves it!  

Buzz!  Buzz!  That's what I hear every time he looks at it.

I did the same thing on this one.  But I used some red, yellow and white paint to make the laser coming out of the Death Star.

A perfect gift for a Star Wars fan. 
And so easy to make.

Pillowcases and a blanket

I made pillowcases for my boys this Christmas.

They both sleep with their soft blankets laid out on top of their pillows.

So I made them super soft pillow cases!

They LOVE them!

And I made a Buzz Lightyear blanket for my youngest. 

(the oldest already has a Mickey Mouse blanket)

Luggage tags and camera straps

A few more christmas gifts from this past year...

Luggage tags for one of my sisters.  She is going to India in a month. 

And she will be there for 4 whole weeks!

I wanted to make sure she knew that she HAS to come back home!

So I put a little note in her luggage tags.

Camera straps.  

I should have taken a picture with them on the camera... oops!

What to do with your old jeans? Aprons!

I had some old jeans lying around, (let's be honest, who doesn't have old jeans lying around?) so I decided to make myself an apron.  

Yes, I made it in the middle of making Christmas gifts for everyone else.  

Very selfish, I know.  Oh well.

So easy to make.  One pair of jeans will make 2 aprons.  Each leg makes one apron.

I folded and ironed material to make my edging.  But if you found some cute wide ribbon, it would be even easier to put your edging on.

I think I will be making more of these soon.

I made this half apron for my sister. 

She owns a bakery and hopefully she can get some use out of it.

While I was making my apron, my son wanted one too.

So I tried to make it look manly.  It's longer than a normal apron would be and it has boy print around the edges.  He loves it.  (even if he won't look at the camera)

Happy New Year everyone!!

Halloween ideas

A few more Halloween ideas for you...

 Our fun pumpkins this year.  A star cruiser... from Buzz Lightyear.  And the Death Star... from Star Wars.

We made 'ghosts in the graveyard' for dessert.  (pudding/cool whip mix with crushed oreos and 'tombstones' for decorations)  Google it... you'll find several recipes to choose from.

The kids love it!

We also do this every year... but I don't have a picture. 

We buy dry ice from the grocery store (get there early... it sells out fast)

and put it in colored water (or just water).

The boys love playing with the 'fog' that comes off of it.

They call it secret potion.

We also use the dry ice to make homemade rootbeer.

Yummy!

Halloween Bags

I'm either a tad late for Halloween 2010,

or I'm really early for Halloween 2011... you pick.  

I made this fun halloween treat bags this year.  

The boys loved taking them trick or treating with them.

They were a lot of fun to make and pretty simple.

I just found a simple bag tutorial online and then added my picture cut outs on the front.

Display your child's schoolwork

I have been taking pictures of my recent projects... but they haven't been making it on here yet.  Over the next few days, hopefully I'll get some of them posted.

I was quickly getting a mound of papers from my son's preschool class.  He was so proud of them, I had to display them. 

So I put them up in his room with a simple wire, a few nails and some clothes line clips.

I plan to take digital pictures of my favorite pieces.  Then I can toss the actual paperwork and always have the artwork in my digital files.

Less clutter for the New Year!

A couple projects

I've been working on some fun projects this Fall. Here are a couple. I'm sorry I don't have step by step pictures. I'll link you to the sites where I got the ideas from. They'll have any pictures you may want to guide you along. But, neither were very hard. I got the basic idea from the websites and created my own little crafts.

#1: Pumpkin blocks inspired by this blog

• I got 2x6's, had them cut to my desired lengths (the big pumpkin was two 6 inch blocks, two 8 inch blocks, and one 10 inch block for the middle)
  
• I found some scrap wood and cute it for my pumpkin stem
• Sand blocks
• Paint blocks
• Cut paper to fit the sides of the blocks. Modge podge them onto the wood.
• Sand the edges of the paper to create a smooth finish to the wood.
• Modge podge over the paper to create a nice finished look.
• Stack your blocks and add any embellishments you want (I added some twine to the stem).

I think they turned our very cute! I'm currently working on Christmas trees using the same idea.

And, just because Halloween is past doesn't mean you can't still make some. Mine are still out as Fall decor. Some cute brown papers could be really cute for the Fall too!

#2: Acorn Wreath, inspired by this blog

• Gather Acorns
• Wash them and bake for about 15 mins @350
• Hot glue acorns around a straw wreath (I made two wreaths and discovered that it's much faster to glue the acorns starting on the face of the wreath and going around in a big circle instead of across the wreath from the center to the outside in lines--does that even make sense?)
• Spray paint acorns whatever color you want--I plan to change the color throughout the year.
• Add a ribbon to hang!

I love how mine turned out! The picture doesn't do a great job of showing it off! It was a fun, easy, quick, super cheap project and I love seeing it hang on my front door!

New chairs (project #1)

Here's my first completed project. Our dining room chairs were covered in a white fabric (not the ideal color with a 3 year old in your house)
My mom and I found some fabric on clearance at Jo Ann's, and decided to recover them. It was a pretty easy project, just needed to unscrew the back then staple gun the new fabric on and screw it back together and it's done.

Projects... Projects... PROJECTS!!

We have just moved into a new house (that's why there has been a lack of posts from me) This move was CRAZY but we are so glad to be in our own home. Here's some picture's of some things I have been working on in the house, these are all before pictures.


This is half of a bi-fold door that was on our laundry room and it broke off so I have a new plan for it, you can see what color it is going to be since I forgot to take a picture before I started painting. (this was just started yesterday so it may be a while for the final product)
This table was found on my way to work one morning last week, someone had put it out for trash! So I put it in the back of my car! All it needs is a good sanding, tighten the screws and some new paint!
Crazy good deal for this mirror at Lowe's, Regular price $59.88, we got it on clearance for $12.47, it was the floor model so it needed a good cleaning
This was my find at Goodwill a few months ago. It was $12.00... good price, but even better as I walked around the store I heard that all furniture items were now 50% off! What!! I took her home for $6.00 . She needed A LOT of sanding
Lamp at Goodwill for $3.00
A footstool that my mom had got at a garage sale
And finally my white dining room chairs needed an uplift.
Hopefully I will be back soon with some finished products!