Spring Wreath

I bought the supplies to make a spring wreath almost a month ago. I started working on it immediately and then it came to a halt. When I would get a chance to work on the wreath it would be about 9pm and by that time I was completely exhausted from the day and just wanted to relax and hang out with my hubby. Yesterday Mia took an unexpected nap so I had about an hour and a half to finish up the wreath. So glad I did because I still had my St. Patrick's day wreath hanging up (oops). I used mustard color yarn, a few cream felt flowers I had lying around, turquoise felt, and some patterned felt I found at Hobby Lobby. I had not seen patterned felt before and as soon as I saw it I just HAD to buy some.

It feels so much better to have this wreath hanging up and now I can leave it on the door any time of the year. Now I just need to put my Easter decorations away and put some Spring decorations up....just maybe.

New Room

Shortly after Christmas we bought Mia a big girl bed. It is a Pottery Barn white sleigh bed and she loves it! Now that she has a big girl bed her room needs a new makeover. So tomorrow I am painting her room this color:

After going through about 30 different paint swatches I decided that was the perfect one to compliment her new quilt currently being finished up by my mom. It will look just like this:

 

Picture Via

Then I will just need to buy her a new dresser, (I've been searching for the right one) and put some decor up on the walls. Any ideas on wall decor friends? My brain is feeling fried right now. Can't wait for the finished product!

Unfinished

I have a confession to make... I have a problem with starting projects and then never finishing them. And it is really starting to bother me.

1. Roman Shades for My Kitchen. Yep, started this project last APRIL. It has almost been a year, such a slacker. So I started working on them again last night. I want to get them finished within the next two weeks. If I work on them a little bit each night that should be feasible.

2. Hand Made Necklace. Not even sure when I started on this, probably sometime last summer. I semi put it together, brought it home to finish and well, it just got stashed in my craft organizer never to be touched again. It obviously needs to be put together again....

3. Fourth Of July Felt Wreath. Started working on this at the very end of June and barely finished cutting out the felt circles by the time the 4th of July rolled around. It came and went so I guess I decided to just put it away to work on for the next year. Definitely need to finish this before it passes me again this year!

 

I have about 3 upcoming projects that I really want to work on so I need to finish at least one or two of these before I start them. I will be making a spring wreath, pillows for Mia's new big girl bed, and wall art/pictures to hang up above baby boy's crib. Does anyone else proscratinate and then end up not finishing their projects like me? Please tell me I'm not the only one!

 

 

Vuezz. take 2

Seriously you guys go check out VUEZZ . The product is anything you want it to be. Buy it now before the prices go up, you have until Monday December 17. So go to Kickstarter and back this project. Here is a simple animation of what and how diy vuezz works!
 

 

Here are few ideas of how Vuezz can look.

 

 

 

{Images via}

 



 

 

Vuezz

{images via}

 

VUEZZ!

Is this totally awesome knew product that I am loving! Vuezz makes picking a picture to hang on your wall a not so daunting task that it always seems to be. I love that you can always add a photo, always change a photo, and replace the photo for various items such as a cork board or chalkboard. How functional, yet totally hip is this product. It's genius and makes switching photos fun. Vuezz makes me want to take my photos and hang them up on the wall. And how awesome would this product be to use for all the instagram photos we are taking these days. As well as make for great Xmas gifts this year!

Check out Vuezz at Kick Start and at their website diyvuezz.com

 

 

 

 

DIY Maxi Dress

Mia's favorite thing to do right now is build towers with lego blocks. When she puts them together she is so proud of herself and starts dancing and singing "I did it, I did it, I did it." Pretty much the cutest thing in the world. Right now I feel like doing the "I did it!" dance. Why? Because I pinned something and I actually made it. How often does that happen? I have been wanting to make a maxi dress and a few months ago I pinned this tutorial to my sewing board. It seemed pretty easy for a newbie seamstress, plus I would be able to re-purpose and old shirt. In the tutorial it has you use elastic thread. My friends, I tried EVERYTHING to get my sewing machine to shir. I read tutorials after tutorials to get it to work without success. So instead I just decided to use a small elastic band for the waist. Here is what I used:

Tutorial from A Small Snippet
Thread
1 1/2 yd fabric for skirt
Old shirt
1/4" elastic for waist
Fabric for a sash (if you wish)

If you aren't able to shir with your machine I would suggest just using an elastic for the waist. I just made a quick casing for the elastic, wasn't hard at all.

And here is how mine turned out:

I was pretty excited with how it turned out. Not bad for my first dress. What do you think?

XO,
Whitney

Linking up with Sugar & Dots and

Reverence Box

For primary last week the kids learned about reverence. The Lesson had strips of paper to cut out and give to the kids to pick one and work on it each week. We spiced up the idea by using our silhouette and vinyl lettering machine. We used the silhouette to cut a box out of a piece of a paper, it was the kind where you fold on the dotted line super easy and quick love that silhouette Next we used the vinyl lettering to put their names on each box in color, as well as put the instructions on the box below their name in clear vinyl. Inside were the pieces of paper with something about reverence to work on for them to pull out. We finished it off with tying each box in bakers twine and voila you have a reverence box.

nicole

DIY Canvas Photo Wall Art

A few weeks ago I was working on adding a few home decor items to my house. I bought some really cute couch toss pillows and curtains for my living room. Next I wanted to find something to put on the wall above my couch. I searched and searched for some ideas and just couldn't make a decision. Then I asked my friend Katie {who is amazing/creative/designer/good at everything} and she suggested that I do canvas photos on my wall. I started looking into places where I could order such prints and couldn't believe the prices. I wanted three 24x32 canvas photos and that was not going to be cheap by any means. Surprisingly the cheapest place I found to do it was Costco (even cheaper than Walmart!). But I still wasn't willing to pay almost $300 for that. So of course I started googling and pinteresting ways to DIY (do it yourself) my own Canvas photos. I found a few tutorials and decided to go with this one.

Linked this post up to Sugar&Dots for What I Whipped Up Wednesday. (I know, its only Tuesday!)
Here are the supplies I used:
2 16 oz bottles of Mod Podge (matte)
3- 24x32 canvas @ $16ea (after coupon) From Hobby Lobby. I went back 3 separate times so that I was able to use a 40% off coupon. This saved me ALOT. And it was worth it since Hobby Lobby is just down the street.
3- 24x32 poster prints. I had a hard time trying to find somewhere that printed this size at a decent price. I got mine at costco for only $7/$8ea. However, you have to go in the store to get this size, they do not offer it online. They were worried about my photos turning out blurry but they didn't, they turned out gorgeous!
Scrapbook paper
Foam brushes
Wax paper

I really like the tutorial that I used however, if I were to do it again I would do it a little differently. Rather than putting my scrapbook paper on the sides and then painting, I would paint the sides first and then lay the scrapbook down. Or just not use scrapbook paper for the sides at all. Overall, I am pretty happy with how mine turned out and I have had many compliments on them. I only paid about 1/3 of the cost to make my own which was totally worth it for my sanity and my pocket book.



XOXO,
Whitney

Easy Re-Do: Magnet/Chalk Board

For a while now I have really wanted to put up a chalkboard in my home. I see so many cute ideas on Pinterest with how I could use it. I thought it would be a cute way to make a grocery list, tell someone you love them, announce the weekly dinner menu, {when the time cames} take weekly pregnancy pictures, etc, etc. Nicole and I also wanted to make a Summer Bucket List, write it on a chalkboard and each time we completed a list item we would cross it off. So of course we went searching to make our own chalkboard. Our efforts were unsuccessful. Until one evening I was down in my basement looking for some pictures to hang up on my walls when I came across this lovely magnet board:

My mom gave this magnet board to me about 4 years ago. All I needed to do to it was paint it. Well, 4 years later and here it still sits. (Sorry Mom) But once I saw this I just knew that it was the perfect size that I wanted my chalkboard to be. So that is when I decided to re-do this magnet board and turn it into a chalkboard. So I bought some white paint and painted the frame.

I took the metal piece and sanded it down just to give it a smoother texture and so that the chalkboard paint would stick better. Well, actually, the hubby sanded it for me, using a 220 grit. After sanding it I used a tack cloth to remove all dust. Then I sprayed the metal piece. The chalkboard requires two coats of paint and to paint in opposite directions each time. So I started by spraying it horizontally, then for the second coat I sprayed vertically.

I let it dry for a day or two before putting it back in its frame.

I am so giddy with how it turned out. I absolutely cannot wait to use it. This was by far one of the simplest projects I have ever done. Plus it is multi-functional. It can be used as a chalkboard now but it can still also be used as a magnet board. THANKS MOM for giving this to me 4 years ago, it just took me this long to finally figure out what I wanted to do with it and now I'm in love with it. Mom's always know best!

XOXO,
Whitney

Tray {DIY}

This is kind of a DIY post but it wasn't really difficult nor did it take much effort. I found this tray in my grandmas basement, she was going to throw it out. I stopped her from doing such an awful thing. It was all the color of the bottom as shown below { I forgot to take before pics because I got so excited to start on it... sorry}

I sanded the tray down the tray at first with medium course sand paper. Then I painted on my first layer of paint. With the first coat of paint comes lots of unevenness and not perfection. Don't worry though. I let the paint dry. And next I sanded the one coat painted serving tray with very fine sand paper. Then I painted it again and this time the paint went on smoothly. I was liking where it was at, but I've heard that you at least want to paint with three coats. So I let that layer of paint dry. After it was dry I took the fine sandpaper to the tray yet again. As a side note you don't want to sand off all the paint with the fine sand paper. I just sanded the tray so that it was smooth. Anyways I then added my third layer of paint and I love how it turned out. It has been great for pictures and serving! Love this find from grandmas house.


nicole

Project Roman Shades

Ever since I got a sewing maching for my birthday I have been dying to start a new sewing project. I knew right away what the first thing was that I wanted make: Roman Shades for my kitchen. I have been studying up and reading several different tutorials. I found a tutorial that seems easy enough for a newbie like me. The last 2 days I have been gathering my fabric and supplies so the next few days I will be hard at work sewing and putting them together. I found some fabric that I absolutely love:

Loving Gray & Yellow right now and loving this fabric. It's going to look great once it is made into roman shades. Wish me luck.

XOXO,
Whitney