BAD NEWS

So on the last post how I was fighting with the computer. . .the reason was that is wasn't letting me download anymore pictures. . .telling me I had used up my storage and I needed to update it.  Come to find out if I want to update I have to pay for it. . .My sister and I decided that it just wasn't worth paying the money especially since about 90% of our followers are family and can just read our other blogs :)-  So we will leave this blog up for ideas. . .but there most likely won't be anymore postings. . .well not with pictures at least .

New Table

I have been fighting with the computer for the last hour, so this post is going to be as is. . .your going to have to figure out the order of the story LOL. Anyway. . .I took on a big project this past week. Our table was in need of re-staining. I put it off until my littlest was old enough to sit on the chair without the booster (which was wearing the stain off on all the chairs-hence the need for re-staining). The same week I told myself that, she refused to sit on the booster. . .the table was ready for a makeover I guess :). . . I used stain striper for the top of the table since it was flat, but in my own opinion, having an electric sander would be much faster. Just for the fact that after you used the stripper you have to wait like a DAY!! I don't have that much patience! Just an opinion. Our table was a counter height table so I actually cut 9 inches off the chairs and 10 inches off the table. I took a little more off the table because I felt like our table had a lot of space between the table and wear you sit. I also painted the top of the table orange, and then lightly stained over top of it. This experience was really challenging, but fun.

Things I learned: Always go the direction of the wood, even when your doing your sealer.

Make sure you have enough paintbrushes, and paint thinner.

Having enough light in the garage makes a big difference

Don't let anyone tell you this is to big of a project, because the savings for a new looking table, and the experience is priceless.

I love how it turned out and the table wipes off so nice, and I bought new bottom gliders for the chairs and they move so nice!! I fill like I have a new table.

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)

Preschool

This weeks Lesson is "I have a body like Heavenly Father" -this one can be really fun!!

Mon- Sing songs and Discuss the lesson for the week.  Songs:  Head, shoulders, knees and toes, Do as I'm doing, I have two little hands, Stand up, Two little eyes. . .

Tues- Library Day. . .any books about the body or body parts, shouldn't be hard to find!

Wed- Body Part Dice. . .make a large die and draw pictures of six different body parts, have the kids roll the dice and find the body part!

Thurs- Get a large piece of butcher paper and trace your child's body, let them draw the details in!

Fri- Show your children how the heart pumps!  Get a clear balloon and fill it with water that has been colored red with food coloring.  Put a straw into the balloon, and tape it really well.  Have the kids squeeze the balloon while you hold it over the sink, this give the kids an idea of how the heart pumps blood.

BeadBoard

So I finally did something I have been wanting to do in my house for a long time!  I wanted to do it in our last house, but by the time I got enought guts to do it myself, we put the house up for sale, so when we moved into this house, I knew I wanted to put beadboard somewhere. . .at first I thought the kitchen, but then some chain of events changed my mind about what I wanted to do in the entry way and so I decided that the entry way would be a perfect place to do beadboard. . . 

We love how it looks!  I got about half way done and realized I didn't take a before picture. . oops! I put a picture of the hallway in to give you kindof an idea of what it looked like before.

If you want to do beadboard in your house, go here she does a great job at explaining how to do it, and she is fun to read :)  Also don't feel like you have to have a bunch of tools to do this project.  I did this with an exacto knife, a hand saw, hammer, nails, and a caulk gun. It took probably longer then if I had all the tools, but I still was able to get it done.  I did about 15 feet of beadboard, and spent about 90.00 .  (I bought the pre-cut wood slates)You probably can't tell, but I made a mistake when I bought the beadboard, and bought 2 packages of beadboard and 4 packages paneling.  I didn't notice until I had stained everything, and couldn't take it back, so I just aternated the beadboard with the paneling.  I love how it makes the beadboard look subtle.

Kitchen Tip

Not sure if this is a well know tip, but no one has ever told me, so I thought there might be a few of you out there that might not know!
I am not a huge meat eater, and I really really don't like chunky ground beef.  I like my ground beef to be soft and small pieces, so what I do to get this is make sure my meat is completely thawed, then I break it up with a wooden spoon and then add about a cup of water per pound.  I don't know scientifically what it does, but every time I do this my meat comes out soft, moist and small, usually the water just cooks out, but if you have some leftover after cooking then just drain it off.



Chenille Blanket

A few months ago I was searching for a tutorial to do a rag quilt, when I came across this site.  I wanted to try the technique out, so I did it on my daughters place mats for her birthday. . .

I then used it yesterday to make this one. . . .I am in love with how this one turned out!! It looks so boy!!

A few things I want to add to the tutorial is: she says to use 1/2 inch as a guide for the width of the stitches, which is what I used on my first project but I used more like 3/4 of an inch and it was much easier to cut-I could cut the length of the scissors, instead of just doing a bunch of tiny little snips, and the other thing is make sure you use the fabric she suggests.  For the place mats I used flannel, which frayed, but frayed so much that there are just a bunch of strings hanging off of it, which isn't that big of a deal for what she uses them for, but for a blanket you won't a million strings hanging everywhere.

What's nice about this quilt is that I used a bunch of scraps, and one of the fabric was a really dark blue with flowers on it, you can't even tell!! 

Skipping Preschool

I am skipping the preschool posting this week, we have been trying to play "catch-up" after all the snow days we had, and I feel like I was bombarded with things to do this week. . .  One of those things was that my husband and daughter went to the broadway Beauty and the Beast.  I wanted to make her a little Belle outfit for the night, because she was so excited to go on a date with her Dad, so I made these for the girls!

 I forgot to take pictures to give you a nice tutorial, but I found one here (this is basicly how I made it, but I used a lot more fabric to make it fuller, and didn't do two layers.  It's hard to tell in the picture, but I glued on the word BELLE with little gems.  As you can tell the girls were really excited to go!

Preschool

This week is Lesson #5 Jesus Christ showed us how to love others!- this is a perfect one for right before Valentines Day!!

Mon- Discuss and sings Songs- I'll walk with you, I'm trying to be like Jesus, Love one another, Jesus said Love everyone

Tues- Library Day. . .We are just going to use the books from last week, but if you want to take a trip to the library that is always fun!

Wed- Go through closets and take clothes you don't wear to a donation center.

Thurs- Bake some heart shaped cookies and take them to a couple of special people.

Fri- Write thank you/I love you notes to family that lives far away or if they live close, mail is always fun to get.

Organizing the Bathroom drawers. . .

Look at these drawers!!! Can you believe I have been living with this for months. . .I finally decided today was the day it needed to be clean.  I thought I would share my organizing tips along the way.

 1.  Dump everything out of the drawers
2.  This would be a perfect time to wipe the drawers out, I love to use the Clorox wipes!
3.  Start putting stuff in piles.  Group things together that you want to go in each basket. for example I put my toothbrushes and toothpaste in a pile, I put my flossers and floss in a pile, I put my makeup in a pile-things like that, and make a trash pile-get rid of stuff you don't use or need, and a pile of stuff that doesn't belong in the drawers.
4. Make a list of what kind of baskets you will need to get.  Stick with square or rectangle ones, using round ones just takes up to much room
5. Make sure you measure the depth of the drawers so you don't get a basket to big.
6.  Leave your mess sitting on the floor and head to the store to get baskets. . .I like to shop at Wal-mart or the dollar store for things like this-you don't need expensive ones, just functional ones.
7. When you get back home all you will have to do is put the "group" of stuff all into one basket.
8. Then organize the baskets. Put things you use more up front, try different ways and see which one works best for you and your stuff.

Look at what a difference that makes. . .aaaaahhhhhhh!!  So nice.  I ended up having extra baskets so I did my Husbands drawers too!  Won't he be surprised!