Recovering a chair!

If you haven't tried it and you want to do it... Go for it! It is a fun adventure.
 The Blue chair in the picture is what we recovered. I didn't get a before picture. But that is the chair!

And this is the beautiful chair after. Yes... it is lime green. It has green piping because we bought a chocolate brown sofa!

Challenge

I am challenging all our readers to plant something this spring.  Plants, flower, tree, vegetables, anything you want, but learn how to grow something in your area.  A few years ago I did a small little garden.  I loved doing it and the kids enjoyed watching the stuff grow.  We learned a lot and it was fun. I put off doing the garden the next few years after that, because I felt like I didn't have a "garden" spot.   This year we are going to try a different method.  I am going to use pots.  This method is great for people who feel they don't have the perfect "garden" spot or those who don't have a yard.  I bought 6 pots at Wal-mart for 3 dollars each and picked out six different veggies, which were 50 cents on average. We got some really good potting soil,  and I enlisted my "helpers" again.

 We mixed the soil with a "starter" soil I also got, and then filled up the buckets.  The kids help me plant the plants.  I read the back of the packages to know how many I could put in each pot.  The squash for example I made four little holes and put two seeds in each hole, once they start growing I can thin it out.

We have a little cement patch right outside our side garage door, it gets about 5 hours of morning sun, so I felt like this would be a perfect spot for them.  This is all trial and error for me, I am not gardener, but I think this is something we all need to know, its a talent that we all can achieve.  If 6 buckets seems overwhelming or even costly, then start with three or even just one.  

So are you up for the Challenge??!!

Revamping

I have this shirt that I just LOVE, I have worn it so much it now has sweat marks under the arms (I know gross,but true), and a bleach spot on the front of it.

  I've had it hanging in my closet for a year now, I just couldn't get rid of it.  I was going to throw it out this last time I went through, but then I remember a technique I saw on TV and I knew this would be PERFECT for this shirt.

What you'll need:
An old cotton T-shirt
spray bottle (preferably 2 but if you only have one that will work)
Objects, such as buttons, cut up paper, coins, whistles, keys, fingernail clippers, just dig through your junk drawer :) anything you want to use that won't mind getting bleached
Vinegar (any kind)
Cardboard

Take you cardboard, and fit it in the shirt, so the bleach doesn't leek through, unless you want that look. . . Then take all your "objects" and scatter them wherever you want them, just depends on the look you are going for.  I needed to make sure I bleached the armpits so I did mine at a slant.  You could just do the top of the shirt or the bottom, or just around the collar. . .the possibilities are endless!!  Then you will want to take your spray bottle that has bleach in it and spray where the objects are, remember wherever you spray it will lighten!   You then watch as it changes colors, when it gets to the color you are wanting then either spray on the vinegar(this will cause the bleach to stop working) or just dunk it in a vinegar bath. . .like I did.

Just let the vinegar sit for a min or two and then rinse. Make sure you get a good rinse on it.  Then throw it in the dryer and your ready to wear.  If you want to do the back just proceed by following the same steps. . .make sure you have dried it!  I had a little bit of bleach leak through the back, so I loved how it all turned out, and didn't bother with doing the back.

Isn't that so cool.  It looks really cool when you do a black shirt and only bleach it to that "orangey" stage!

It felt so nice to put this t-shirt back on again, I forgot how much I loved how it fit!

Check ups!

So I have this great friend that I had to leave behind in Arizona, but before I left she gave me this wonderful entertainment center... for freeeee! So here it is...

So what had to be improved on this wonderful entertainment center is.... Paint, a back, and a little bit of poly. So here I am working on the back... Notice my husband scroll saw setting on the back. I am using his pocket knife to saw it because his battery went dead, and I was too impatient to wait for it to be charged. So the next time I post it will be all done and in my living room. Though we are still in need of furniture.

Coming Back

You know I have to say that I have the most wonderful sister! She has been keeping up with the blog while I have been rerouting my family to Idaho. So I am coming back to the bloggin world! So moving in includes boxes, and a lot of re-organizing. So here was the current state of toys at our house... A mess.

Well... Imagine all the toys on the floor of the closet. I didn't a picture of it before I pulled all the toys out. This is what our living room looked like after I pulled out all the toys in the closet.

This is what the closet look liked after I organized it! I LOVE TO BE ORGANIZED. So let me tell you a little about our toy closet. We live in a gorgeous little town house, and under the stairs is this decent closet that I decided all of the toys were going to reside in there. The kids love this little cave of funness, and I love that it is in one area.

Funky Scarf

I made this the other day to wear to a Church "birthday Celebration"  The fabric was the cupcake fabric I had left over from the pillow cases.

You will need strips of fabric cut 5 inches wide, and then either one long piece of 38-42 inches (depending on how long you want the scarf and how you are going to tie it.) I was using my scraps like I said so I had to sew mine together to make it 38 inches long.  I didn't want to worry about seams, so I just laid the fabric together and zigzaged the two pieces together.  

So what you should ended up with is 2 lengths of 5x38 inches.  I used the same color for the back and on the front alternated a white on white dot, and the cupcake fabric.  You will then take those two strips and putting them wrong sides together, sew two strips down the middle.  I made mine about an inch apart, so I basically sewed 1/2 inch from the middle on both sides.  Then take your scissors and cut into the fabric on both sides.  This doesn't need to be exact, because after this step you will be washing it and it will create a shaggy look and no one will notice the space between each cut.

After I had washed it and dried it, it still wasn't looking quite as "scrunchy" as I had envisioned, so I took some really thin elastic and threaded it up the two ends until it was the look I wanted.  

Broken Glass??

My first experience in playing with Mosaic stuff.  My sister in law asked me to help her with this project.  It was a first time for both of us, so we learned a little, and had a lot of fun! She had a broken vase she wanted to use, so she broke them up into fingertips size pieces.  I had a piece of framed canvas that we decided to use.

We mixed up some white grout and applied a thick layer to the whole thing. We then laid the glass in a heart shaped and filled it in.   We later decided to scrape the rest of the grout off.

We then let it dry for a while and then cleaned off the glass with a sponge. She took it home to let it dry and then she was going to spray paint the canvas white and tie a ribbon around it with a saying. 

I am excited that it really worked and actually turned out since neither one of us knew what we were doing!!  So next time you break a vase, don't worry we have a project for you!

Quilting

My mom is an amazing quilter, and I got this technique from her.  I probably didn't do it exactly right, but it was still fun!  First you will want to make a 9 block square.  My squares didn't match, and I am not sure if it matters or not, but I was just doing a little pillow, so I figured it would work out okay!  I cut my blocks 5x5 inches.

After sewing your blocks together, take them and cut down the middle both ways, so you will now have 4 blocks from one. 

You then take those blocks and turn rearrange them so they look something like this.  The only rule is you don't want two big blocks or two little blocks right next to each other. I only did two blocks which was plenty for this pillow. So I am thinking for a baby blanket around 8 blocks. You'll have to do the calculation for the rest :) 



Bows

A lady was telling me about this bow technique, so I had to try it out to go with my girls Easter dresses.  You will need the ribbon that has wire in it, I used a 2 inch ribbon, if you want a smaller flower then don't use such a wide ribbon.  I had 9 feet of ribbon and needed to make 4 bows, so I ended up with about 28 inches for each flower,and I felt like that was a good amount, if you want the flower to be fuller then do more, if you don't want it as full as mine, then do less.

You'll want to find the wires on one side and pull them both out a little bit and tie them together as tight as you can, then from the other side you will pull both wires until the ribbon is gathered.  So when you're all done you should have 4 wires sticking out, two on each side.  Tie off the wires and clip them down. 

Then you'll want to vertically twist it, until it's bunched up to look like a flower. After you glue that down add a little button or sparkle gem in the middle. 

I then took some green ribbon and folded like this, to use as the leaf. 

Here are the flowers that I made. The first ones I twisted a little tighter then the second ones, and you can tell that they are different sizes.  I think my favorites are the littler ones!! 

Down Feather Pillows

My father in law kept all the feathers from his goose hunting this past season and asked me to make some pillows, since I was using feather, I ended up using this fabric I had from some curtains someone gave me.  They are super thick and has a lining on the back, which I figured would help the feathers from poking through.  I was making nine little travel pillows, so I cut them 12x18

This just shows what the backing looked like.  If you are to make some I would suggest using a thick heavy decor fabric.

I sewed up three sides, and left one of the short sides open so I would have enough room to stuff the feathers.

I enlisted my stuffers to help!

The kids had a blast stuffing with feathers everywhere, in our hair up our noses, we all took turns sneezing!  If you haven't ever seen down feathers, they are a little different then feathers you buy at the store, most of them didn't have a "shaft",and are just a ball of fluff, so they would easy fly in the air. Think baby geese, how they are just a ball of fluff at first, that's what we were using!!

After we stuffed them, I just turned the edges in about a half an inch and sewed it together. Here they are all done, I ended up having enough to do a standard size for grandpa. Don't they look so fluffy!!  They were amazing how you would push down on them and move your hand, and they would bounce right back, not like the store ones at all!! 100% better!!

We went to the fabric store and let the kids pick out what fabric they wanted. I love how they look with the pillow cases.  A really good tutorial here for the pillowcases. That is for a standard pillowcase, but really easy to size it down or up.

Date Idea

Ever seen the game show "Lets Make a Deal". . .(if not goggle it, and you can probably watch an episode on hulu)  I took that idea and turned it into a date night.

My Husband first had to pick from the two big boxes, after he found out what date it was he could either choose to keep that date, or pick a date from the 1.2.3 little boxes, once again he could keep that date or choose from the 1.2.3.4.envelope dates. so. . . .

"Let's Make a Date!"

(Someone asked for the Date Ideas)

Date Ideas I used:

1.  I want your body-Tonight we are focusing on our bodies.  We will go swimming at your Health Club and then eat Dinner at Subway

2.  Disney on Ice- Okay maybe on Disney, but we can make our own motion picture while trying to stay on our feet at the Ice skating Rink!

3.  Where a kid can be a Kid- Hope you feel like being a kid, cause tonight we are joining Chuck-e-Cheese for pizza and games!

4.  James Bond- Ready to practice your moves, because I know you have the looks.  we will be shooting it up at the Gun Range!

5.  Night on the town- Tonight is two tickets to "(movie that is playing)" and dessert at "(your favorite restaurant)"

6.  Stress Relief- Tonight is all about relieving stress, while you will be receiving a 1 hour massage, and relaxing in bliss I will be out getting what you want for dinner, then we will be having a picnic in the back of the van. (I had taken all the seats out and laid blankets down, cause it was to cold and windy to have a real picnic)

7.  Night on the town- Tonight we will be dinning at cheesecake factory and "talking about our feeling until the breath is sucked out our bodies" (2 weeks notice)

8.  Drive in Movie- Tonight is your favorite fast food restaurant and a movie in the back seat!  (again I had the blankets ready with our laptop-we would of picked a movie at Redbox, or just watched one we had.)

9. Good ole' days- Get ready to show me your skills, because tonight we are going bowling. . .loser pays for dinner!  (we used to take a bag of m&m's and make a throw for each color, and then whatever color of m&m we picked out we would have to throw it that way. for example say yellow was a left handed throw, and red was a through the legs throw, blue was a kick throw, ect)