Valentine's Gift Idea

Last year I saw this on Pinterest and decided I needed to make one for my husband for Valentine's Day.  This is so simple to make.  I bought a picture frame at the Dollar Tree and painted it silver.  Then I printed out the words "I Love You Because..." on grey paper and framed it.  The glass works like a dry erase board, so I just change it up every so often with a dry erase marker.  He LOVES it.  Who doesn't like hearing nice things about their self? 

I've also seen these done with plain scrapbook paper in them and a cute fabric flower or two glued on to make a cute, girly dry erase board for menu planning, scripture of the day, favorite quotes, to do list, etc.  Another idea would be to print a blank calendar and change the month and dates each month.

Wishing you lots of love this Valentine's Day!

Molly

Fabric "Plates"

People have decorated with plates for years, so why not make some fabric "plates" for your walls?  I found this idea on pinterest and thought I'd give it a try for my dining room.  I used some leftover fabric that I had from some shades I made for our kitchen. 

It's so simple.  Just pick up some embroidery hoops at a craft store.  These were about $1.50 each at JoAnn's Fabrics.  Stick your fabric in them and cut around the hoop, tape the extra fabric to the backside and hang up on a nail. Done. Boom!

Pretty sweet aren't they.  I have to get back to the store and buy a few more hoops.  I like them so much that I'm going to add a few to this section and make more for the other side of our dining room mirror. 

Adding a little color to the day!

Molly

Makeover Mondays: Bi Fold-Shutter Doors Turn Sofa Table

Do you see the Bi-Fold Shutter Door behind the china cabinet?  They were there when we moved in to separate the dining room from the family room.  What you may not notice is that underneath the 70s shades in the family room there is a huge window that, when uncovered, brings in a lot of light and makes the house look so much bigger as you can see out to the back yard when you walk in our front door.  This is one of my favorite features of our house and I certainly didn't want to block it off with bi-fold doors - maybe french doors at some point, but for now I love it just being open. So we had these shutters and I thought surely there is a project we can make with these doors. 

I remembered that Nate Berkus said that if you have the back of a sofa to the part of a room you walk into, you should have a sofa table behind it so that the first thing you see when you enter the room isn't the back of a couch.  Well, not only is my sofa back exposed when you walk in the room, it's the first room when you walk in the front door, so it definitely needed my attention. 

I searched pinterest for projects with shutters and found this fabulous sofa table made out of shutters! Awesome, I'm going to get a sofa table and use the shutters at the same time and spend $0! Love it.  I'm not a woodworker, but my husband and father in law are, so they cut the shutter down to size added a little trim to the bottom and 4 legs added a little paint, and look what we have...

 In the future, I might have a piece of glass cut to sit in the insert where the slats are to make it a completely flat surface, but for now it works great.

Opening Doorways!

Molly

Initial Frames

I've always loved those wooden initials that you can purchase at craft stores and nearly any home decor store.  However, I'm on a tight budget and free sounded a lot better.  So, I came up with this idea. 

I took an old frame, sanded it, painted it white, and sanded it to distress it slightly.  Then I found a font I liked and printed out a big "O" for my oldest daughter and a big "L" for my youngest daughter. I cut out the letters and traced them onto scrapbook paper that I had laying around from a previous project.  After cutting them out, I outlined them with a black sharpie - I did it this quickly and not evenly.  Then I simply picked a contrasting paper to tape the letter onto.  I used green and pink because those are the colors of their room.  Then I hung them up over their beds.  I couldn't get a clear picture of the "L" so you only see the "O" but the "L" was made with green paper and backed with pink. 

Pretty cute for a quick afternoon project.

Initialing our Walls,

Molly

Makeover Mondays: Jazzing up an old brass chandelier

When we moved into our new home, we didn't have a big light fixture budget so we replaced the fixtures that just plain needed replacing and worked with others.  Here is a picture of the dining room as it was when we did our walk through.  Notice the brass chandelier...not my favorite.  In fact, I pride myself in seeing an item's potential, but this I really didn't see, it was my husband who said, "Aren't we just going to paint this black?" And I still questioned whether I'd like it, but he was absolutely right.

Here it is when we were in the process of ripping up carpet and painting. 

And here it is redone.  A quick coat of black spray paint and some new shades and it is as good as new.

At first my husband's sister loaned us some black lamp shades, but since the dining room is the only room in our house without windows it gets pretty dark.  I checked out the little shades at Home Depot and Lowes and decided I didn't want to spend that much money unless I got a new light fixture all together.  So, I kept my eyes open and one day while I was out yard saling, I found this fantastic, like new set of golden tan lamp shades for $4 (for the set)! Big score.  Now our dining room is much brighter than it was with the black shades and much prettier than it was with the brass and glass fixture!

Turns out I really like this chandelier after all!

Lighting the Dark Corners!

Molly

Get Horizontal!

Isn't that every mother's dream? To get horizontal, even for a few minutes.  Boy I love power naps :)  However, we're not discussing naps today, actually I wanted to share how I made over my entry way.  We have a very small entryway in our house, there's not enough room for an accent table or anything, it's simply room to open the front door and a door to the coat closet. 

When we moved in, I painted an accent wall in our living room chocolate brown.  It's such a deep brown that many people think it's black until they hold something black up to it.  I love it, it's dramatic and pretty and really brings your eye to the focal point of the room, our fireplace.  When we were deciding what to paint the entryway, I was toying around with hot pink! I know, crazy but it's our accent color in the living room (the room directly off our entry) and the entry is so small I thought maybe it could handle the bright color.  Well, I was nervous and several people convinced me to paint it the same color as our accent wall (chocolate brown). 

I lived with it from August to April and then I just couldn't stand it anymore.  The look and feel I was going for in my entry was/is fun and upbeat and this chocolate brown seemed really formal and it was so dark that it felt (to me) like I was entering a cave - definitely not how I wanted people to feel when walking into my home.  So, while my husband was away on a mission trip my parents came for a visit and I talked my dad (who is a professional painter) into painting these horizontal stripes.  I've seen horizontal stripes on Nate Burkus and Pinterest and have loved them every time I see them.  I love how it turned out, every time I look into the entryway it makes me happy.  What do you think?

I would love to hang a round mirror with a really ornate frame in the place where this little picture frame/mirror/key hook thing is, but that will wait until I find a used one somewhere :)

Didn't my dad do a fantastic job? Love it.

Making a statement with stripes!

Molly

Makeover Mondays: Window's Aren't Just for Looking Through

When we got new windows a few years back, I asked them to save the old windows because I had some projects in mind. When I returned home I found, to my dismay, that they saved all the exterior aluminum windows and took the nice wooden frame windows. Ugh. Do you hear my excited heart deflating? I sure did. Thankfully my mother-in-law  was able to salvage one window for me. 

For this project, I cut 8 pieces of paper 4"x6" and taped them onto the window panes where I wanted the pictures to be.  I then sprayed the window with a glass frosting spray paint.  This allowed the window to still be translucent but not 100% transparent. I did this so that I could use tiny pieces of tape to attach the pictures and the frost would cover enough so you don't see the tape. 

 

Then I opened up the pictures on the computer and played with the contrast and color saturation to make them fun, playful colors and had them printed at Walgreens. 

To hang the window I had my husband or his father (can't remember who did it) drill holes in the back.  They have a jig that makes that keyhole type hole so that the screw or nail fits in the bottom of the hole and slides up to the top (not sure what that's called).

We used this method to make sure it was securely fastened to the wall because we hung it over the crib and it is heavy.  We didn't want her to be able to pull on it enough to get it to fall on her.  We also pre-drilled our holes and used plastic anchors to help make it super sturdy. 

Not too long ago as I was driving home, I saw this little window sitting by the curb...score! I think it looks pretty just hanging there and would look nice painted an accent color as well.  However I have another idea that I will share in a future post. 

Turning Trash into Treasure,

Molly



Makeover Mondays: Office Chair turned Side Chair

I love how Nate Berkus can take something hideous and turn it into something beautifully modern and fresh.  This project was inspired by his show.  He's always talking about getting chairs at a yard sale and painting and reupholstering them.  So, I thought I needed to give it a try. 

We just moved into our home last summer and it's nearly 50% larger than our first home.  At any rate, we went from one sitting room to two and our budget doesn't accommodate buying new furniture.  So, I combed craigslist for weeks waiting to find the right set of chairs for our living room.  And, wouldn't you know it, some wonderful woman posted these ugly office chairs for free. 

Convincing my husband to drive across town to pick them up and that they would actually be comfortable and nice looking when I was done was the hardest part of this project :)  But, he's smart, so he finally agreed to go get them. 

Here's what we picked up.

Not so bad, two of these office chairs, a little dirty, a little ugly, but they have potential. 

I immediately started taking out staples and screws. While I did this, I wrote down what I did so that I could redo it in reverse order.  It's also a great idea to take pictures of each step to help if you get stuck on a particular step. When I had all the fabric off, I gave the wooden frames to my husband to sand and paint.  I went to the fabric store and purchased fabric and 1" foam to make the seat a little more cushy. 

I sewed the part that needed sewing and then my husband and I stapled and screwed them back together.  Here's what the finished product turned out like. 

Pretty nice set of side chairs for $15 a piece!

Decorating on a Dime,

Molly

Makeover Mondays: Baby Swing!

Welcome, once again to Makeover Mondays where I focus on upcycling.  Today I want to share one of my favorite makeovers...drum roll please...an upcycled baby swing.

We were so generously given a baby swing from some dear friends when we had our first daughter.  They had purchased it for their first son who is at least 13 now...so as you can imagine it's slightly outdated.  It works fantastic and being the frugal person that I am, I didn't want to buy a new one. 

As I was thumbing through some pins on pinterest, I found what is now one of my all time favorite blogs, Make It - Love It.  On this site I found an amazingly detailed tutorial on recovering a car seat and a high chair.  I used the concept to recover my swing - I actually did a car seat and am in process of recovering my high chair as well.  It looks so amazingly better and it was super simple...much more simple than it looks.  My swing is now much more up-to-date and girly! 

Check out these before pictures

This is the original cover for the swing.

Here's a picture of my first daughter in the swing 4 1/2 years ago.

And, after 2 naps, the swing was transformed into this...

 This is my second daughter in the swing a month or two ago. 

And the sweet girl happens to be sleeping in the swing (her favorite place on the planet) right now so I can't get a great picture of the swing until later...I'll post a better picture of the finished product when the swing is available for a photo-op :)

Making the world prettier one swing at a time,

Molly

What Do You Do with Your Kid(s) Artwork?

I have piles and piles of my daughter's artwork that I hate to throw away, but I'm not sure what to do with. There are a few art projects that I have actually done something with and I'm so glad I did. 

I made a binder with all the art projects she did for preschool this year (we homeschool, but you can do this with what she/he bring home too - I included some of her Sunday school pictures too).  I just slipped the projects into sheet protectors and into a 3 ring binder.  This works great for things made on an 8 1/2x11 sheet or smaller.  Construction paper (I discovered) is too large for a binder.  So, all her construction paper projects are stuck in the folder part in the back.

Once I realized construction paper is too large for a binder and that it fades over time, I decided to buy a large package of scrapbook paper at Hobby Lobby.  It's almost as big as a ream of copy paper and it's about $10 (so a little more than construction paper) but it's also more like card stock weight. Nice thing is it doesn't fade and fits nicely into the binder - so it's worth the extra few dollars to me. 

Some of the special pieces I framed.  We have two pieces hanging on my daughter's bedroom wall.  They are her first painting and her second drawing (first drawing went to the grandparents).  I love seeing these all the time.  It's a reminder of how far she's come in her artistic ability and it adds color to her walls. 

If they weren't her "firsts" I would probably change them out every month or so to change it up, but since these are firsts, they are staying. 

A friend of mine staples or tapes large pieces of construction paper together and tapes the projects into her "books" so that she can fit all different sizes of artwork into the books. She said her daughter enjoys going through her books and looking at all her artwork. 

What do you do?  I'd love to hear your comments and get a few more ideas...I currently have a basket on a bookshelf and a drawer in a dresser packed and these projects need an organized, new home :)

Busting at the Seams with Art,
Molly

Makeover Mondays: Painted Vases

This project was definitely inspired by Pinterest.  I found this great tutorial on painting vases here.  This is especially great if you want to use the vases for flowers or want to wash them. 

I needed something for my fireplace mantel and have no plans to use them for flowers or to wash them (besides a quick dust or rinse).  I am also on a tight budget and this project fit the budget.  I purchased some of the vases at the Dollar Tree and some were vases I already had.  Rather than go through all the steps in the tutorial on Sugar and Charm I simply poured a small amount of paint (which I had leftover from other projects) into each vase and rolled them until they were coated (on the inside) with paint.  I poured the excess paint back into the paint can and then set them upright to dry. 

As the vases dried, some paint pooled at the bottom, but it's not very noticable and since I'm not using them for anything other than decorations I'm okay with think paint on the bottom.  If you want to use your vases for flowers, don't paint them the way I did, look at the tutorial on Sugar and Charm. 

So quick and easy!

Paint it new!

Molly

Makeover Monday: Plastic Bag Container & Snack Container (Recycled)

Do you ever feel like you have plastic bags coming out of your ears?  I certainly do.  We use reusable shopping bags but even so, there are times we forget them and those little plastic bags accumulate quickly.  I use them for our small trash cans in the bedrooms and bathroom.  The only issue is that they are so bulky that I keep them in the basement which isn't very conducive to actually getting the bags in the trash cans before something gets thrown in them. 

In addition, I go through a lot of creamer and recycle the containers, but I wondered how I might reuse them. 

I saw something similar to this on Pinterest and thought I'd give it a try.  I wanted to make them pretty, so I used an idea from Little Birdie Secrets when she made labels for soap dispensers. 

Here are the original containers...

I took the label off the coffee creamer container and then printed up some new labels.

I attached the labels with mailing tape to make the labels waterproof for washing. I like that the snack container has my girls' names on it so that I can bring it to the nursery at church and they won't wonder who it belongs to.

I like the black and white with the red Folgers can.

Cut a + in the top of the coffee can.

Here's the +

And, see how bulky these bags are?

Guess what, all neatly stored in this container.  Cute and Space Saving...win, win. 

Now I have bags right in the bathroom vanity so it's super quick and easy to change the "trash bag" on trash days :)

Another use for the creamer container, wash one out and use it to store homemade salad dressing - nice easy pour spout. 

Note: I just emptied a Tum's container (actually my husband did - anyone know how to cure heartburn naturally?) and decided it would make a great snack container as well.  It's a bit smaller in size, so it's a good snack size and it has a larger mouth so the square pretzels that I buy will pour out of the lid easily.

Reusing Containers!

Molly

Makeover Monday: A Jeweled-up Onesie

I buy all my older daughter's clothes second hand from a woman I met at a yard sale who has fabulous taste and has a very stylish daughter who is a year older than mine.  This summer, one of her "new" outfits came with an adorable Gap tank covered in printed-on necklaces.  It is my favorite of her summer shirts. 

I've seen many little onsies out there for boys with bow ties and regular ties and wondered what their girly counterpart might be.  When I saw my daughter's new tank top, I knew I wanted to make a similar onsie for my baby girl.  So, I went to Target, bought a pack of fabric markers ($5) which can be used for several projects and started drawing on one of her many plain white onsies.  Here's the finished product.  Not as spectacular as I would like it to look but she's received many compliments, so I guess it can't be that bad :)  I might try another one in a bigger size and see if I can do better next time. 

Without further ado, the Jeweled-up Onsie:

And, here they are in their matching outfits.  My older daughter loves to be "twins!"

Getting Fancy,
Molly

PVC Pipe Soccer Goal

One year our niece wanted a soccer goal for Christmas, so my husband came up with this PVC pipe soccer goal. He purchased the PVC at Home Depot and bought some netting (he can't remember where he bought it or what kind of netting it was...sorry).  This really wasn't cheaper than what you can buy at the store, I think it cost $30 to make - but, if you make it yourself, you can make it whatever size you want.  Ours is bigger than its $30 store-bought counterpart.

He built the goal with the PVC, then cut the netting to fit and sewed cylinders to fit over the pipes.  One thing we discovered is that the netting should be longer in the back to give it plenty of slack...there should be a good amount of netting just laying on the ground to "catch" the ball.

The way we made it, the back responded like a spring board when the ball hit it which works well for kids who want to practice their aim alone as it returns the ball to them, but not so great for practicing with a goalie.

Enjoy your Wednesday!

Molly

Makeover Mondays: Pillowcase Halter and Doo Rag

Happy Monday! This upcycle project was inspired, again, by a trip to Goodwill.  I promise I don't spend all my time there, but it's a great place to buy inexpensive fabric.  This time I came across these sweet vintage pillowcases.  I decided they would someday make something great, but didn't know what at the time.
After looking at them for some time at home, I decided they had to turn into little girl halter tops and I had the perfect ribbon for the project. 

My daughter (pictured here) is now 4 1/2, so this obviously was created years ago...which means there is no tutorial, but again, if you like to figure things out on your own, hopefully this will inspire you to make a halter top (or perhaps something you dream up) out of a pillowcase :)

At this age, her hair was always getting in her face, but it wasn't quite long enough to pull back.  I would put these little clips in her hair, but as fine as it was, it was always falling out.  So, I decided to make a doo rag with some of the pillowcase fabric I had leftover.  It worked like a charm and I think it was absolutely adorable.

I decided to make it double sided to get more use out of it and so I didn't have to be so careful with the hems.  The green side is an old sheet.

Here are a few more pictures of the hems/seams to give you an idea of what I did.  For the neckline, I'm pretty sure I sewed a few stitches in the center that went through the ribbon to keep it from falling out when it got washed or pulled on.  I sewed some elastic on the top of the back to help it hug her (even though I got it a little too big). 

Happy Sewing!

Molly