I love Lamp

I needed some more light in my front room and my living room and I needed it to be CHEAP.
So I did what every self respecting person would do and I pasted a request on facebook to see if any of my friends had a lamp they wanted to part with.

I ended up with these beauties. (Thank you LIndsay!)

Ok there's this on-going joke between me and my close friends.  I tend to gravitate towards doing projects the quickest and easiest way possible.  I LOVE to cut corners.  Honestly it's probably because I'm still a little kid inside and as soon as I dream up a project I just want to see the finished product RIGHT NOW.  

SO, I've become a little bit addicted to spray paint.  The joke is that if I had my own redesign show it would include a segment each time where I would lead the crowd into yelling my slogan "JUST SPRAY IT!"  Of course it would be said in a super cheesy way.  So we have limited time and resources, what should we do with this lamp? . . . 

say it with me now - "JUST SPRAY IT!"

 I spray painted the first lamp with a fun bright red and then found a shade at Target for $14.  I love how it brings out the character in the lamp. 

The 2nd lamp had some ceramic on it's base.  I didn't know if it needed a primer so I bought a can of spray paint primer and applied that first, then a plain white.  

I've been looking for some fabric to possibly cover the shade in.  
That will be for a later post. 

Then to tie the white lamp in with the rest of the room 

I painted this one white  

and found some friends to hang out on my mantle.

My lil sis and I hunted all over to find these 2 lil owl guys.  We find their eyes a bit creepy.  We finally found them in a Goodwill.  It was a good day.

Wreaths by Readers!

Here are a couple wreaths made by friends who read my blog. Didn't they do a great job?  

    

        

Red and Pink

So February has practically come and gone.  I can't believe I had time to do anything Valentines related but here's a brief overview.  Wish I would have posted these earlier but MY LIFE IS SO CRAZY.

Remember my Christmas wreath? I took the decorations off it leaving the red and white ties.

Found some red and pink fleece and cut heart shapes, sewed them around the edges with cross-stitch thread leaving and opening, filled them with pillow stuffing and then stitched them closed

sewed a small loop on the back of the heart and used a twist tie to attach to wreath.













Isn't my little helper getting so big?









I ended up having work on Valentines day but still wanted to make it special for my husband.  AJ and I put a lasagna in the oven and decorated the dining room table.  We used twin bed pink sheet for a tablecloth.

We made flowers out of pipe cleaners, tissue paper, and an izze soda bottle. 

Then we peeled the labels off baby E's food jars and put fake rose pedals in them.  Top with tea light candle and they make for pretty little lights!

We found a Pandora radio station on my laptop set to romantic french music and sprinkled some rose petals and heart doilies to fancy the tablecloth. 

My husband came home to a pretty lil 4 year old in a fancy dress who escorted him to a table for 2.

"We love because He first loved us" 1 John 4:19

Dilapidated Memory Quilt

I like to get into projects that are way over my head.  I have been wanting to make my husband a memory quilt for a long time.  We each have a giant tote in the basement labeled 'Keepsake clothes' Which I find humorous.  I had his Mom find me some shirts from when he was a little guy and for the backing I chose his skateboarding pants, shorts, and a thick long underwear shirt he always wore.  Then the rush began to get it done before Christmas.  Why I didn't buy him a new video game or a new book or something I have no idea. This took me forEVER. I didn't intend on blogging this so my pictures aren't the best.

 Here's my supply list:

-shirts

-backing (this can be whatever you want, more shirts or heavier material or even just some sort of backing you like from the fabric store)

-iron on backing (to make the tshirt squares more sturdy)

-batting

-hand quilting thread

-regular heavy duty thread

-sewing machine

-hand quilting needle

Additional things I should have gotten:

-A fabric measuring board to cut on 

-Rotary cutter

-An earlier start

1st Mistake:

I decided I wanted to use mismatched sized squares. I do not recommend this to anyone ever. :)

front

back

   

Everything started out smooth sailing but once squares weren't matching up correctly the seams started pulling and bunching.  I ended up having to take fabric pieces in some areas and sew them on the top of empty spots.  Once I got the front done I learned from my mistakes a little.  I made sure I lined up a row at a time and then connected the rows. 

After the front and back were complete:

-Cut and baste batting onto the back of the front of the quilt. 

-Put the right sides together of the front and the back of the quilt and sewed around the whole quilt like a pillowcase, leaving an 8 inch opening.  

-Flip right side out and stitch opening shut. 

-Using hand quilting needle and thread quilt tie stitches about 4 or 5 inches apart wherever you think looks good.  

Next Time:

I think next time I will cut fabric squares all identical in size and then overlay t-shirt logos onto the squares.  That way everything will line up from the beginning. 

My hubby loved it, wrinkled and all.  Maybe we can move the keepsake clothes to a smaller bin. yaay.

 

Gift Idea

My friend is having a baby.  I always want to give a gift to the baby AND the mommy.  Pregnancy can get kind of rough towards the end! :)  Got this idea from one of my clients and thought it was so cute.  You can use pop bottles too but I chose Izze soda since my friend is staying away from caffeine!








Take ribbon and tie gifts onto the bottles, can stick a card in between.  It was a big hit!









You can do different themes for different occasions.




For this particular gift I used Socks,2 Pacifiers, Bottle Nipples, and play rings.


Annnnd I got to use up some old ribbon that was probably about 10 years old. Yaay.

Christmas Wreath

DECEMBER! AHHHHH!  I don't know why I let this happen.  Every darn year I'm nose deep in holiday anxiety and stress.  It's just ridiculous.  Last year I thought I'd focused more on what was important.  Baked and did crafts with my girl.  Went sledding with my family and drove around to see Cmas lights.  I spent hours downloading and creating the perfect Christmas playlist for my Ipod.  This year, granted I had a baby 4 mo. ago, just snuck up on me like an evil elf ninja.  NEWS-FLASH , Christmas is the same time EVERY year.  It's not like I don't know it's coming.  And still. . .

I've been telling AJ that we'd make a wreath for the door for probably 2 mo. straight.  I have been crafting like crazy but mostly to fill baby hat orders (I make crochet hats) and I've been working on a present for my husband.  I will definitely be doing a post on that project in the near future.  I've got to let you all in on the disaster that t-shirt quilting can be. 

Anyway I've totally lost sight of everything that's important during this season.  So yesterday I decided I was taking Christmas back! We made a gingerbread house and some fudge.  mmmm fudge.

I reminded AJ about Jesus's Birthday and how much fun it is to celebrate.  We talked about Santa and how much we're anticipating Christmas morning.  She wants to leave a cake for him.  I told her that his tummy might be too full for a cake and how we should probably just stick to cookies. 

Daddy: "AJ finished your dinner please"

AJ: "But Daddy I'm too full!  I cant fit anymore in!"

Daddy: "ok sweetie. . .do you want some candy?"

AJ:  "YA!!!!! I WANT SOME CANDY"

Daddy: "I thought you said your tummy was SO FULL you can't fit anythign else in it"

AJ: (with an ornery look on her face)  "well. . .God made a little place in my tummy for the candy to fit in"

Ok so we made this wreath the same way as the Fall wreath that we made in Oct.  It takes about 1/2hr.  If you spend any more time on it then that you're over-trying.  The sloppier the better it turns out, honest.

Start with a hanger and bend into a circle leaving the hangy part at the top.

I used an old hand-towel and ripped it into strips.  

Wrap them onto the hanger and tie in place with thread or yarn or bread/garbage ties. 

(you can also use an old tshirt or any other disposable fabric lying around the house) 

I ripped fabric into strips and let AJ tie them onto the towel covered hanger.

She was twice as fast as last time we made a wreath.  She's getting great at tying.  Next stop: shoes!

 (it works best if you tie them on all different directions.)

You can use anything Christmacy to decorate.  I used trimmings I had in my decorations box and just stuck them into the ties.  The nice thing about these wreaths is you can change them later.  The flowers just clipped on.  I found a strip of garland and wrapped it around the wreath and tied it at the bottom.  You could use pine cones, evergreen garland, popcorn and cranberry garland (this is fun to make and also eat- this year we made it for our tree and used craisins instead!) You could even use Cmas bows/ribbon.

The final touch was the sleigh bell we hung around the hanger.  Now every time the door opens it sounds like Christmas.  

Behold...I bring you good tidings of great joy. Luke 2:10

And suddenly there was the angel, a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying: "Glory to God in the highest." Luke 2:13

Chalkboard

I needed a chalkboard for my salon.
So I made an exciting trip to Goodwill and bought a hideous tray for about $1. (if you own one like this I'm not sorry I'm making fun of it but I AM sorry if I hurt your feelings. But it IS hideous)
I taped off everything but the bottom of the tray.

Spray with chalkboard spray paint

I had the 'brilliant' idea of using MOD PODGE and tissue paper to cover the 'frame'

Took forever, looked stupid, got mad.

2 wks later I started cleaning my house for a party and  came back to my project because it was taking up too much space. I HAD to finish this thing.

Taped off the bottom and spray painted the frame with silver paint.

Apply hardware for hanging on the back.

Done.