Craft Night::The Yarn Wreath

So our first craft night was a major success.  The simplicity of getting great gals together around a table full of inspiration and spiked yuminess is just so darn beautiful.  And can I just point out before we go any further that I have the best neighbors ever!

We kicked off our group gatherings with a craft that all quickly fell in love with…the yarn wreath.  It’s addicting once you’ve done one.  And that my friends is a proven fact.  If you need proof just walk around my neighborhood.  And with that I leave you some fun snapshots of the night…

Apparently I open champagne movie style.  You know, how the cork goes flying through the air and champagne spews everywhere!  Thanks to Amber I now know the "twist and pull" method!

Our special guest :)

And by request, here is a quick tip on how to wrap the yarn wreath!

The Headboard: Everything's Better Upholstered

Rickey and I met in December of 2006, two days before my birthday.  We were married close to six months to the day later.  I immediately fell in love with him.  His sense of style for home decor however was another thing.  Over time and one by one pieces were sold and replaced.  It's been almost five years and we still have the bedroom set...I just didn't have the heart to take that away from him too. 

I recently have been thinking about doing our bedroom and the headboard has always bothered me.  It's just so...big...and manly.  Soooooah, I'll comprimise.  Rick gets to keep his bedroom set and I can tweak it a little!  I have always LOVED the tuffted upholstered headboards but you will come to know that I am a instant gratification kinda crafter.  So thinking of dealing with covering all the covered buttons and sewing and all that jazz, I settled for the tacks.  It turned out so great!

I was fortunate to have a great headboeard to start with.  I just had to cover it.  For those of you who do not have one to start with there are a dozen bloggers who have tutuorials guiding you through how to build one out of plywood and mdf...super easy.  $60 and three hours later, I had a gorgeous headboard!  Let me just apologize for the photos.  I did not feel like taking my camera out.  These are mobile shots :)

Materials:

• Fabric of Choice (mine is from JoAnns taking full advantage of a 50% off coupon of course!)
• Foam
• Batting
• Decorative Nailhead Trim

Tools:

• Staple Gun
• Hammer
• Scissors
• Spray Glue (I use Aleene's)

I stole the hammer from my son's toolbox :) It was much easier since Rickey wasn't home to pull out the massive bed away from the wall.  I pulled it away enough but it was still pretty confined back there.  Oh...and that reminds me.  It was much easier for me to leave the bed assembled while I did all this.  Alot of do-it-yourselfers will disassemble.  That was not an option for me!

 Finished Project

The corners were the hardest part of the trim and it was not hard at all.  I started at the leg and went ahead and stopped at the opposite leg but you could continue with the stip along the bottom if you wanted.

The Original

Cover with Foam

I placed a staple on each piece to hold in place so that I could trim (I used an exacto knife at some places).  I then sprayed some adhesive to help adhere.  Please don't go crazy with the glue.  Peeps get outta control with the stuff.  You only need a little and allow it to air for about 30 seconds before sandwiching them together! 

Cover with batting and staple to the back.

Cover with fabric and staple to the back. 

 

Nail in Trim.

The trim I picked up at JoAnns and it is soooo awesome because it comes in a strip of 5 yards with every 5th hole allowing you to nail in a tack.  I makes it uber easy because you don't have to worry about spacing and it saves so much time!

Voila!  All done!


Living. Loving. Crafting.

Chris

The Mum: A Texas Tradition

As a crafter I have never felt discomfort at any craft store, anywhere, that is until I set out to fill an order for a homecoming mum.  As I set out on my journey I walked into Hobby Lobby feeling really confident and extremely creative!  Then, I turned the corner into the homecoming aisle.  **Gulp**  I fully expected to be surrounded by Moms filling their son's request for the biggest, best and most ridiculous homecoming mum they could create so that they could get that one girl to go to the dance with them.  Yeah, not so much anymore.  It was full of young teen and even tween girls whining to their mothers that they just need more bling!  Taking a deep breath couldn't cut it.  I didn't even know why I was in that aisle.  Inspiration maybe??  That's not my style.  All that you find is a lower quality, more expensive product. 

Feeling a tad bit overwhelmed I set out to the fabric section, got focused and regained my excitement.  An hour and some change and a phone call later I was home bound to put it all together!

One thing that I remember about the mum is that after that noisy day at school (waaay to much cow bell for one day) I always put it up on my wall.  So essentially a mum could make it's way onto a wall for up to four years!  With that in mind, I knew this had to be good.  It turned out to be a ton more fun than I could have thought up.  I can't wait to make more.  So I guess you wanna see how it turned out right?  Well, here jah go!

Can I just mention how much I love, love, love this military braid!

And the feathers...don't foreget about the feathers!

So anywho...I think next year I am going to market more cause I'm in love!  Want one??!  Click Right Here Then...

living. loving. crafting.

Chris

The Message Board: My DIY Must

It’s 5 o’clock.  I am sitting in traffic.  It’s my quiet time to myself.  Time to spend on addressing those random tidbits that randomly enter my mind and leave just as quickly because there is another one that has been waiting in line.  But the most pressing question is one that I can always count on recurring. 

What’s for dinner?  Ugh.  I hate that question. 

I wouldn’t say that I am indecisive.  It’s more that I strongly dislike making a decision.  And it won't help to ask my husband what he wants because all he will say is he doesn’t care.  And if I asked my son, he will say “Cow” which is code for Chick-fil-A.  It's his fave because he can socialize in the play area and get a balloon to take home. 

I refuse to spend my “Me” time in the car thinking about it.  I will address it when I get home where I will alternate between the fridge and pantry for 30 minutes trying to decide.  I have become all too comfortable calling hubby and asking him to pick up something on the way home.  I will not do that to my family anymore.  Bad wifey/mommy! 

**Insert foot stomp**  Not gonna happen anymore.  So what now?! 

Enter:  The Weekly Menu Board

Mun-ah!!  Problem solved.  Now I don’t have to make the daily decision about dinner.  I also don’t have to spend four hours at the grocery store with my toddler wandering up and down each aisle trying to figure out what we want, need, etc.  It’ll all be right there on my menu list!  I’m so excited!

Mothers have been using this trick for a very long time.  This is definitely nothing new.  But it’s new to my family.  Okay, so, let’s go buy a whiteboard right??  Uhhh, no.  I definitely was not putting one of those in my house unless it’s inside my pantry.  And that’s not happening because my pantry is the size of my freezer.  Why would a 2400 sq. ft. home have a pantry that size??  Makes no sense. 

I had come across an incredibly easy solution.  Take a frame, insert your fave patterned paper or fabric and voila!  Instant message board!  So off I went to Hobby Lobby in search of the perfect frame.  Easy right?

Wrong…

I do this thing where I don’t know exactly what I want until it I see it.  It will give me this “that’s perfect” feeling!  Well, I didn’t see it or feel it in the frame section that day.  Hmpf.  It’s okay.  I’ll figure this out.  I always do.

And I did!  So, without further hesitation…

living. loving. crafting.

Chris

A Boy In The Kitchen: The Great Debate

The Topic: Is it okay for a boy to have a play kitchen?

Well, in my opinion, definitely! Can you guess what my husband thinks? But that doesn’t come as surprise to a lot of you, I’d imagine. You see, it wasn’t that he was against him "cooking" per se. It was that it was going to be in a kitchen and not a BBQ grill. We had a similar debate about the vacuum cleaner versus lawn mower. What is it with dads and kitchens?  Geez.

Any who, I ended up winning this one after multiple rounds of random pics of Dylan with a grin from ear to ear playing with a play kitchen. It was really weird because we were constantly exposed to them. They just appeared! Everywhere we went!

Excited that I had gotten the green light, I started the search. Okay, well I continued the search…I was already looking. **smirk** I knew what I wanted. I just hadn’t found it yet! The search went on for weeks and I finally stumbled upon the perfect one!

It was done by a VERY talented mother of four (who were all under six at the time. Yikes!) in her free time. I know.  Is there “free time” when you’re a mother of four?! She was so sweet to share her amazing talent with the world and I was fortunate to stumble upon it. You can find her tutorial over at Crafting Chicks here.

And here is our version. (My sister helped me with the whole thing.  Luh her!)

We are very proud of it because we did it while there were zero men around. Just me, my sister, my grandma and lots of man tools! Yeah, we are big-headed like that…

I have put off putting in a rack for the oven...one day...maybe.

Oh yeah, and that felt food was fun to make too! Marina and I sat at the table for hours but it was well worth it.  My fave is the banana with the removable peel!

The original drawings I had included an ice maker and microwave, but those got nixed pretty quick once we got started. So it was all pretty simple but just took time. Lots of time.

Oh!! And can I just say to all you amateur do-it-yourselfers that a 1(by) IS NOT a 1(by)! It’s a ¾ (by)!! It’s actually only a 1(by) when it’s cut from the tree. The milling process shaves it down a bit. Not good news when your drawings are done on a 1x1 scale. Thanks to the Lowes guy for that explanation!!

Thankfully my sister and I are awesome and made it work (with a teeny help from Daddy of course) The fridge door was the only tragedy in it all. No matter what we did there was no making it work. So it took a trip to my Daddy’s garage. It came back perfect! With the exception of the hinges. I sent him the hinges I wanted (very simple and modern) and it came back with some schmancy ones (not ones that I would pick for sure) but Daddy was excited and thought I would be too because he “upgraded” them. Oh well. At least the fridge had doors
now!

This cute little microwave was purchased at Sears during Christmas. It beeps and lights up and even has a working turn table. I had a matching coffee maker that lit up and percolated water but it met its demise one day when I smelled a rotten odor coming from Dylan's room. I swore he had pooped in a corner somewhere. I finally found the rotting pasta that was now mush dripping onto my hands. YUCK!!! It quickly went into a bath of scorching soapy water in an attempt to sanitize. And while I was scraping off my skin I heard a sound coming from the bubbles…

Hmpf!

What was I thinking?! His battery-operated coffee maker was screaming at me from the kitchen sink. Mommy found the hammer before the screwdriver to remove the batteries and that was the end of that.

living. loving. crafting.

Chris

Laundry Room: Bleak to Chic

I am not sure about your house but at ours our "front door" may as well be the garage door.  And like many homes our laundry room is the passage way.  Finally after two years of passing through that room at least twice a day I had had enough!  It was so uninspiring and was definitely not a reflection of our family.  And to be honest I needed to get inspired to do the laundry again. 

**A little background about me.  I am 100% spoiled by my husband.  We have been together just over four years now and he has been doing my laundry for me for, well, just over four years!  I always seem to defend myself with the tragic memories of doing laundry for half my childhood and not being able to play until we found the "other" sock.  And let's face it...how many of us ever find it!**

So getting back to it.  Getting inspired again...right.  The room was just so white and drab.  So I told my husband that I would assign myself to a room and focus on it until it was done.  I tend to get distracted really easily so it was important to focus on one room at a time! 

It's not quite done yet.  What you will come to realize is that I lack patience.  I work on it everyday.  But when it comes to crafting I tend to try and find as many short cuts as I can because who doesn't love admiring your final product. 

I only had a chance to get a quick mobile shot of the before because I was so anxious to get started!

BEFORE:

AFTER: 

I purchased these wine crates at Twin Liquors for $2.50/piece.  Some scrapbook paper, my cricut and Modge Podge finished them up.

I am continuously inspired by items on Etsy.  And every time I find something I want to buy I always convince myself I can make it.  I am very much like a guy in that way!  Anyway, I came across some "lost socks" signs and I went crazy for the idea.  Here is my version...

Scrap board from our garage, matching scrapbook paper, Modge Podge, matching Jelly Roll fabric, yarn, twine, hot glue and a $.50 wire basket from Goodwill (one of my fave vintage shops) was all it took to get this on the wall.

The darling ironing board cover was done by CompelledToCraft on Etsy.  I wasn't even gonna take a stab at that one.  I am still quite a newby at the sewing machine.  On one of my daily trips to JoAnns I came across the matching Alexander Henry's Juicy Fabric and thought I would take a stab at a mini curtain.  Came out a little short but I fixed that real quick with some scrap ribbon.  You can see it went to my head a bit.  I went for a larger version with a tablecloth, sale fabric and a jelly roll for some faux piping.  I am still not done with it though.  It isn't quite "done" to me.  I bought some spray fabric paint and am going to paint a thick yellow stripe on the white.  I am pretty sure I am going to use my cricut to create a stencil that says "Laundry: Open 24 hours".

Oh!  And I found a spot for my bird mobile!  I had made this a few weeks before.  I guess the color combo is on the brain.  I have been attracted to yellow lately.  It makes me smile.  I'll leave the details from the mobile on my next post! 

living, loving, crafting

Chris