Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Big Girl Bed!

Paige now has a big girl bed! It's not in use right now, (we tried it out and decided that she still needs to be contained) but it's ready for her when she's ready! A month or so ago I saw this bed on Trey & Lucy that her husband built HERE, and I was so excited! I called my husband over to the computer and asked him if he could please please PLEASE build this for me! He said "Sure, no problem" Isn't he the best? So off to Lowes we went and about an hour later the bed was done! It was that easy!


It took me awhile to paint it because its been a little chilly here and I was having a hard time deciding what color to paint it (I'm a terrible decision maker!) I finally chose a color, I used Valspar paint in Swim at Lowes and after it dried I brushed on some of the Ralph Lauren glaze in Smoke and wiped off. I think it gives it a little distressed look! :)


So what do you think?? I personally love it and so does Paige (and Bryce too!) She just doesn't like to go to sleep in it, it's not fun to stay in bed when you see all of your toys just begging you to play and theres no rail keeping you in! And its also sooo much fun to jump on! We'll try the bed again in a month or so!

(You'll have to excuse the underwear! My son is the nudist in the house, as soon as we get home he immediately takes off all his clothes! Lol!)

Thanks Trey & Lucy for the awesome bed inspiration and thanks to my hubs for building it!

Monday, February 15, 2010

Sewing the Spring Wardrobe!

I have really been into sewing little clothes for Paige lately, so I thought "Why not make a lot of her clothes for spring/summer?" She'll look so cute and everything will be original! And not to mention it'll save us some moola! I've found a bunch of really cute, easy to follow patterns at You Can Make This.

Here's my first one, I loved this Double Layer Dress Top by Faith! And it has this big bow you tie in the back that is just too cute! And it was so easy to make and the directions with the pattern were great!


(It's so much cuter on!)

Next I did the Sweet Dress by Leila & Ben! Another great and easy pattern!


And for last I made another Sienna Dress from Lil Blue Boo pattern! My husband loves Star Wars so I figured I'd make him proud and make Paigey a Star Wars dress!


(This is her new "cheese!!" face...she's such a ham! My kids keep me laughing all day!)

It turned out really cute! I plan on making a lot of these for the summer! They're cool and lightweight which is perfect for these HOT Texas summers!

Now my little stinker has not liked being very cooperative with the camera lately so the only one I could get her in and take a halfway decent picture of her was the Star Wars dress!

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Happy Valentine's Day!!

I know that today is Valentine's Day so its a little too late for this post, but there's always next year right? I did this a week or so ago but I've just been having a hard time finding the time to post new stuff on my blog lately! So here it is... I made these heart shaped crayons for Bryce's preschool class for Valentine's Day. It's a great way to use all those broken pieces of crayons. I actually had to go out and buy a couple boxes of crayons because I needed to make a bunch. I also got a little heart shaped silicone pan from WalMart. You can use a metal pan as well but I think its easier to get the crayons out once they're cool from the silicone pan.


So just get your crayons and take off the wrappers (it goes a lot faster if you use an exacto knife to cut the wrapper down the middle and then peel it off!) Then break or cut the crayons into pieces and put in the pan. I grouped the like colors together because I'm ocd about a lot of stuff but I've seen a lot of them done with the colors all mixed together and they looked great!



Have your oven preheated to around 250 and place the crayons in there for about 15 min or until they're all melted. Also another hint of advice, if use the silicone pan make sure you have a cookie sheet or something under it while its on the oven because when you get them it will be much easier...trust me, I didn't have a cookie sheet under the first batch and I barely got it out without spilling melted crayon everywhere!


I let it cool for awhile and you can even put them in the freezer to speed up the cooling process. Once they're cool just pop them out and you're ready to color!! Aren't they so cute! My son loved them!


Wednesday, February 10, 2010

I've lost my MOJO!

I've been feeling very unmotivated lately! I've been slacking on my crafts and blog! I need my crafting mojo back!! My sister-in-law and I tried to make some wall art last week and that was a big craft fail! I'm not even going to post about it, it turned out that bad! Hopefully we can try again sometime soon with a successful outcome! :) I've made Paige a little shirt that is just too cute but thats about it lately! (I'll show the shirt in the next post, if Paige will ever let me get her pic in it!) I got this really cute monster flannel fabric but I just don't know what to make with it yet! There is good news though! I will be trying my first furniture refinishing project! I found an old china cabinet/hutch on craigslist and hopefully we can pick it up Friday! Wish me luck! Maybe that cabinet will bring my crafting mojo back! ;)

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

I Can't Decide!!

I need HELP! In the next few months I plan on redoing Paige's room! The only thing I know for sure is that I want to use the color turquoise in the room. I've spray painted a mirror with Valspar spray paint in Mediterranean (I'll show that in a post soon, its not quite finished yet). So I've been looking online at some fabrics for inspiration and I think I've narrowed it down to three fabric lines. But I am the most indecisive person (it drives my husband crazy!!) so I figured I would ask you guys for your opinion! So here are the chooses...let me know which one is your fave and would be cute for a little girls room! Thanks so much!!


#1. Blush by Basic Grey



#2. Hunky Dory by Chez Moi



#3. Soiree by Lila Tueller


They are all so beautiful and I love all the colors! I'm sure you can see why I'm having such a hard time deciding! Thanks for your help!! :)

Hair Bow Holder

I have a bunch of little hair bows for Miss Paige (even though she doesn't have any hair!) and I always just threw them in a little drawer and I was always misplacing them! I've seen a few of these ideas here and there. I got just a plain unfinished wooden frame from Michaels (50% off--always buy stuff on sale ladies!) some pink spray paint and ribbon.
Spray paint the frame, when that was dry I hot glued the ribbon on the frame making sure it was pulled tight so the bows won't be flopping around. And then it's ready for some bows!
I also sanded the edges of the frame a little bit and added some glaze to it but you could just leave it plain too! So easy... and inexpensive! Only cost me $6.00! $4 for the frame and $2 for the spray paint, I already had the ribbon at home. I know that most everyone already knows this but if you go to Hobby Lobby, Michaels or Joann's websites and sign up to receive their emails they'll send you 40% coupons every week!

Friday, January 29, 2010

Another Great Pattern

Here is another great and very easy to follow pattern! This is for the Bubble Skirt from Trey & Lucy! This was the easiest thing I have made so far and it turned out beautiful! It was also the very first sewing project that I didn't mess up on and have to go back a million times to fix! :) Yay! I'm getting better! And the best part about this skirt is its reversible! So head on over to Trey & Lucy HERE and get this pattern!



I tried to get a picture of Paige wearing it but she would not let me take her picture!! She's being a little stinker with the picture taking lately!

Great way to use some old t-shirts!

If you have a little girl you have to go over to Lil Blue Boo and buy the Sienna Dress Pattern!! It is the cutest little dress and whats best of all is you make them out of old t-shirts! I bought the pattern about a month ago and got straight to work. I finished all of it except for the neck... for some reason I was terrified of doing the neck, I was certain that I was going to mess up the entire dress I had worked so hard on. Well I finally finished the neck a couple of nights ago and it wasn't as hard as I thought it was! Here are my first 2 dresses! I will definitely be making a bunch of these for spring and summer for Paige!


I could make a million of these!!

As I was browsing around I saw a great tutorial for these super cute flowers from Heather Bailey! You can get the tutorial HERE. They would be perfect to attach shirts, purses, headbands, etc...
I made a small one yesterday and you can whip up a bunch of these in no time!

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Paigey's new dress!

I've been wanting to make little clothes and dresses for Paige ever since I got my sewing machine for Christmas but I have been so nervous! I am a very beginner sewer and I can barely sew a straight line. But I saw this cute dress on Ruffles and Stuff and it looked simple and I thought "I can do that!" I found a plain shirt of Paige's and some fabric that matched. Well, the dress is completed. Is it perfect? Absolutely not...but I still love it! It's something that I made and I feel proud of myself! Did it take me a lot longer than it should have? Oh ya! I cannot count how many times I had to stop and fix something that I messed up! :) But I guess this is how you get better... you just have to keep trying and learn along the way. Paige will look cute in anything I put her in anyways! You can check out the tutorial from Ruffles and Stuff HERE
I love making these fabric yo-yo's! They're easy, fun and perfect for adding a little something extra!

Oh how I love Burlap!!

I'm totally in love with burlap now! I've seen all these great ideas everywhere for all kinds of burlap projects and it's so cheap too! I had a bunch of it for awhile that I got in the fabric remnant area at Hobby Lobby that was on clearance and I finally started using some of it! I had this old canvas lying around that my husband kept bugging me to throw away (so happy I didn't!) and I covered it with the burlap.
I wanted to stencil on a fleur de lis but I couldn't find a stencil large enough so I just made my own. I just found one on the internet that I liked, printed it out and traced it on cardstock and cut it out with an exacto knife. Then I stenciled it on the burlap. I just used craft paint in burnt umber.
It looked kind of plain so I took some decorative tacks and hammered them in around the edges. It turned out great! So easy and it didn't take long at all!
(Paige decided that it needed a little something extra so she took a pencil and gave it a few good markings in the bottom left corner! I think that was just what it needed! Thanks Paige!)

Next I want to make some of those really cute burlap placemats!!

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Sunday, January 24, 2010

"Bear Hugs"

When I saw this idea on Trey & Lucy I knew thats what I wanted to give to grandparents and Bryce's teachers for Valentine's Day! It is so cute and simple...just fill up half the jar with teddy grahams and the other half with Hershey Hugs and you have a jar of bear hugs! And decorating the jar always makes it cuter! My husband even wanted me to make some for the ladies in his office, isn't he so sweet?



Thursday, January 21, 2010

Easy Placemat Pillow

This has got to be one of the easiest projects ever!! Just find a placemat that you like and open up a piece of it... stuff it with the polyfill... sew it closed and Voila! You have a pillow! I found a little cowboy/western one on clearance at Kohls and it was perfect for my sons room! We have a little western theme for his bedroom. It turned out great and he loves it! He thinks that its a pillow to sleep on though! He insists on sleeping on it every night and he says it his favorite pillow cause Mommy made it for him! :) How sweet is that? He's such a momma's boy...I love it!

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Thrift store canisters

I've been wanting to find some canisters for my kitchen counter but I just couldn't make myself spend the money on some at the store. Yes, Im cheap! But I'm not working anymore so we have to save money where we can! I was at the thrift store last week and I saw this set of canisters for $4.00!

These didn't really go with my decor but I figured my new best friend, spray paint, could help me out! When I told the sweet old lady checking me out that I was going to spray paint them she was horrified! She did not understand why I would do that to these beautiful canisters!
I used a color I already had, Rustoleum Claret Wine. The red matched my kitchen perfectly. And here they are... Not too bad for $4.00!
I think they need a little something extra to them though, I just can't figure out what to do! Any suggestions??