A Friend's Nursery - ooh la la!

Oooh - pretty baby stuff. Who can resist?! Here is my latest sewing project. I know many of the blogs I read and a lot of what I've been doing right now focuses home decor and thrifty decorating and reusing of old items. However - one of my loves is sewing! Last year I spent a lot of time sewing and selling on Etsy... but it began to feel like a chore and let's face it - the dollar per hour is not too alluring in the sewing business. So, now I have been enjoying projects that present themselves with no stress or payment involved.

The latest project is one I mentioned here. This delightful fabric choice by my friend is for her upcoming (soon!) arrival's nursery. I made the bed skirt, bumper, basket liners and valences for her. It was a lot of fun and turned out super cute! So - the finished project... ta da!

Here are the little baskets packed with her goodies for the shower.

I couldn't resist this picture - check out the homemade cupcakes...they were scrumptious if I do say so myself and coordinated with the bedding!

Chocolate with mint buttercream icing and pumpkin with cinnamon cream cheese icing were both topped with little mod-podged owls from her fabric on sticks trimmed with coordinating ribbon. Fun stuff!

This is her finished crib - lovely! I love the colors with the dark wood - I think she did an awesome job picking out the fabric!

DIY Tie-Dye Shirts!

This past weekend we attended a "Celebration of Cultures" festival - and there was a booth there selling tie-dye t-shirts. My five your old son was drawn to them and really wanted one. I - of course - told him... "we don't need to buy a tie-dye we can make our own". Some days I should think before I say that phrase. However, the next day my husband actually went and bought the supplies (two t-shirts and a tie-dye kit) and supervised the activity and they turned out great. Anyone who hasn't done this for awhile... give it a whirl with your kids! It's a lot of fun, they get to plan, be creative and then be surprised the next day when they see their finished product. Plus, the kit comes with plenty of dye... you could actually do some bandanas, napkins, an apron, a table cloth... the possibilities are endless! We stuck to t-shirts though. ;)

The KIT

Clothing optional during the process

Gloves not optional - this dye is serious business

The kids picked different banding techniques - but each turned out cool
Such concentration...
And yes, this is my daughter modeling her finished product in all her glory. No idea why goggles were necessary here - but hey - I'm liking it. You can also catch a glimpse of my son off to the side... but he isn't wearing his goggles so I couldn't let him in the photo.

Linking up to DIY day at Kimba's!! :)

Transitioning to Fall

It's that time of year - the air is getting crisper and pumpkins are showing up everywhere! I love it. Spring is usually my favorite - but fall is a close second. My projects have been minimal lately unless it involves cleaning out a closet or toy chest because we've just put our house on the market. However, I did make time to do a fun fall table scape on our dining room table and add a touch of fall to our front porch. And being as broke thrifty as I am... I think all supplies were found at Walmart (I know, I cringe a little too but you do what you have to do) and they worked great!

So - our table looked like this a lot of the summer...


And is now transformed to this:


I used a mixture of real and plastic pumpkins and squash... the leaves were actually cut off a strand of leaf garland that I had from a long time ago. The brown charger that they are all sitting on was like $2 on clearance... cheap project but it gives the table a fun look for visitors.


The other area that had a little metamorphosis is our front porch. The summer re-do had it looking like this:
The addition of a fall bouquet from above mentioned super-cheapo store added a fall "pop" that I love to come home to!

The little nest and eggs in the bowl were actually free. The kids found the nest in the front yard... and the little eggs are small wooden ones from my daughter's play kitchen (which is currently in storage as part of our de-cluttering attempt while our house is on the market). So - voila, there you have it. Quick, inexpensive and minimal... but it does feel a bit more like fall now!

Check out tons of cool ideas at BNOTP!

A Fun Family Craft - Family Flags!

This post is brought to you by my five year old son. He has an imagination and a sense of creativity that I like to think I have something to do with...although his Daddy is no dummy...so who knows where he actually gets it. Anyway - he asked me to take him to Michael's last weekend. He had a list of what he needed - below is the list. It turns out it was all just different colors of felt, but he had it very well planned out and even though he's just now in Kindergarten and learning to read - he wrote the first and last letter of each color so that he'd remember what he wanted. I thought that was pretty resourceful!
So, here it is part way through the project. There was a lot of planning, cutting and gluing going on. He worked for at least an hour (which, you know, in kids years is like 4 hours).


Have I mentioned I got him his own hot glue gun for his birthday last year. Sniff - my little boy makes me so proud. ;) Look at him wielding that dangerous tool. (BTW - Steelers jammies made by yours truly).

Here's the finished product! It is a Team T family flag. He planned it out with one T in the corner for each family member. The middle is a tiger - his current favorite animal. Not too shabby, huh? He plans to take it up and hang it at our summer get-away in Pennsylvania next year where the "T" side of our family gathers. I love it.

AND - this is one that my three year old and I made together. She - of course - had to pick out some felt too when her brother was doing his shopping. She's not quite as skilled with the hot glue and scissors as her brother (yet) - so she did the planning and I did the cutting for her. She did most of the placement and gluing though. Pretty cool, huh? I'm sure any of you who have young kids recognize this guy.

All in all a fun and successful family craft time that didn't end in tears or cost a lot of money... can't ask for much more than that. I can also see doing these with a theme for holidays, etc.

A Place for My Dog Toys

My little furry dude was feeling blue because both kids have fancy toy boxes and his was just so plain. Look at that face - he obviously felt like he got the short end of the stick. Even though he does have his own little recliner... I mean - really... the galvanized metal bowl (score for like 6 bucks at Home Depot) is nice... but it needed something more. And because I am a good mom - be it to kids or dogs - I obliged. I used some sponges from the dollar store, cut little letters out to spell his name, glued toothpicks as holders (not necessary, but made them cool looking) and fancied it up a little by sponge painting his name to his toy bowl!

TA DA! Now - every one knows that these toys are for MIGHTY! His full name is Mighty Boy - but this works. ;)

Hope Mighty Boy doesn't mind I'm linking up to Creative Cats. ha ha ha.

Wow! The power of a pressure washer!

Today - may be very boring for some - or for all ... but for some reason I LOVED watching my husband pressure wash our patio this weekend! As I mentioned last week, we're considering trying to sell our house soon. So, we're doing all the little things that one does when they want someone to buy their house; decluttering, sprucing up the landscaping, cleaning windows, touching up paint... and pressure washing! Check out this transformation! The lower right square is the completed one (duh). I love this before and after. The stuff on the patio wasn't just loose dirt or anything it was stained, discolored - way more than we even realized. Anyone wanting to do something to get a lot of bang for their buck - try this out. This was one rented from Home Depot for a few hours and it worked great.

This isn't pretty like the other stuff you'll find here... but it is a metamorphasis! ;) Check out a bunch of other cool projects at Between Naps on the Porch!

The making of a beautiful nursery!

Phew - long time no post. I think that is the first time that's happened to that extent since I started blogging here. I was out of town for work and have also been undertaking some big things around my home. First, I have been asked by a good friend to sew some of her decor for her nursery for her upcoming baby! She has chosen a very cute owl print and coordinating patterns. I'm very excited about seeing it all come together and getting to be a part of the project. So - that is where the artistic piece of my brain is going to be for a bit. I hope to get some before and after pictures of the nursery and will share soon!

Here are the fabric choices:

Purdy, huh?!

In other BIG undertakings... I'm toying with the idea of putting our house on the market and renting a house closer to our kids school. I say "I" because my husband seems luke warm to the idea as he is ear-deep in dissertation writing. However, the move would also benefit him (we'd be very close to campus) - once we actually completed it. The tricky part is the selling of the house and moving of the stuff. The part that makes this decision difficult is that we will, undoubtedly, be moving at some point in the next 2 years. If we knew we had 2 years left here - I'd jump in and move in a second... but what if we only have 9 months left? That's a lot of work for 9 months. Our location has become increasingly inconvenient since our son started kindergarten on the other side of town and I'm just looking for some relief. Plus, the idea of not having to sell a house when we do get ready to leave town is very appealing.

I'm blogging about this here because I know some of my readers have experience with moving AND with making rental spaces look lovely... both of which I'm going to solicit ideas on when the time comes. Perhaps even a give-away involved. Stay tuned!