End table makeover. . . . . and more

So I know I have mentioned that we are currently renting a house that is not really my favorite. I enjoy decorating and it has been challenging for me to feel motivated when I cant knock out a wall or something! But I came across this little end table at the Goodwill down the street and got inspired to give my little family room a lift. So above is my 10 dollar find, I will admit, I was pretty excited.
These are the supplies
A piece of furniture
spray primer
spray paint in desired color
spray gloss (if desired)
faux glaze (just get a pint, you will have leftovers for a future project!)
black acrylic paint
an old towel or cloth you can ruin
an old sheet or tarp for under your furniture.


I started out by priming it with good ole spray paint, I thought I might have to sand it a bit, but I was pleasantly surprised, it was really smooth and the coat of primer went on so well I didn't bother. I then went over that with a Home Depot Lagoon Blue spray paint. I really usually like Krylon but they didn't have a color I liked. I can now say I really recommend the Home Depot stuff too. It worked just as well. I decided to finish it off with a faux antique finish. It is so so so so super easy, if you have never done it, please try it, I did it to my kitchen in my old house in one night and it made a huge difference. You really can't mess it up. After your bottom coat is dry, get your faux glaze, mix in some regular black acrylic paint and mix it up. Then take a old cloth rag and literally wipe it all over your piece. Make sure to really get it in the details so they will pop. as you go wipe off the excess until you are happy with it. If you mess up, take a clean part of you rag immediately wipe it off and start over. As you can see in the picture below it is done on the left and not the right. Big difference!!











I also got the lamp below at goodwill for five bucks! I am lame and didn't take a before picture but it was just a dark nasty brown. I threw a coat of primer on it and a high gloss white spray paint. My sister Jayde, found me the awesome lamp shade at TJ Maxx for seven dollars.

So since it was going well and I had paint leftover, I decided to spray paint my old table, it was brown wood around the edges, had a ceramic middle and wrought iron legs. I primed it and then sprayed it glossy black, I don't think its exceptional, but it gave it a lift and just changed it up. I do seriously love my old black lamp with its glossy teal! I used the same paint as the table but put a layer of clear gloss on top. The lamp shade was 4 dollars at goodwill! If you look on the couch, the teal and white geometric pillows are some pillows I already had that were looking rough, I just got 1 yard of fabric and hot glued it inside out where you would normally sew seams, I was feeling really lazy and as hard as my kids are on pillows I figured it wouldn't matter anyway. Then I stuffed the pillow in and folded the seam over and glued that. The best part is that when they are trashed, I will rip it off, get another yard of fabric and do the same thing. Someday I will maybe have gorgeous pillows with beading etc. . . . . .right? Anyway, I am still in my rental, but it was a super cheap and easy pick me up and I feel like when we move I can still use it all somewhere or spray paint it again! Up next? My girls room, Bramli is ready for a big girl bed!! And a ridiculously cute rocking chair that I got at goodwill for five dollars!!

Charming

Having 2 kids with autism has changed my life in a lot of ways. Before we started all of our many therapies, I never knew that a lot of the people that would be helping us would come into our home. Truthfully, it's a little intimidating to have people that you don't know come into your home to talk about the problems your child has and what needs to be done. I am pretty outgoing and knew that my kids needed a lot of help, but I was a little nervous. I guess I always thought of therapy as something that happens at a clinic, but I have realized that really all aspects of life are hard for my littles and so we need therapy in every setting. I do not feel like I even have the words to describe how amazing our therapists are. I literally feel their love for my children. Keep in mind that these kids do not willingly do any of this!! And yet, here they are, tirelessly motivated and upbeat. Bramli's therapist, Mara, always greets us at home or school with a new idea to help Bramli and her victories are just as special to Mara as they are to me. I can't tell you how many times I have gotten a text on the weekend or in the evening from Mara following up to see how she is doing or to offer advice. She is priceless!!!
I found out that it is Mara's birthday tomorrow and so I really wanted to make her something that was meaningful. A puzzle piece is the symbol for autism and Mara started working at the program she is at in 2001. So with this as my inspiration, I decided to make a charm necklace.

I had a gift certificate from Christmas and I have been wanting a few charm making supplies so I went with my 40% off to Michaels and got metal cutting craft shears. Some metal sheets, the alphabet stamps, and the thing that drills holes, sorry can't remember what they called it. It is the silver thing up top. Then I found a 2001 penny for the year she started and a 2011 dime to mark her 10 year anniversary there. I also got a chain and some jump rings to attach the charms.

The puzzle piece was a bit tricky, the far right was my first attempt and it was pretty rough, I tried scratching it up so it looked distressed, but I knew that a second attempt would be better. I also got 30 gage metal and then found a site that recommends 22-24 for charms so that could have been part of it. I cut out the second one and then, of course, decided hers needed to be gold. I cut the last one out of gold and then stamped it with letter O's to make it more textured and not so plain.

It was a fun little project, didn't take very long and I think its something a lot of moms, teachers etc would like!

Here is our sweet Mara and Bramli today at school!! Notice she is wearing her necklace! Happy Birthday Mara!!!!

Love Letters

So I came across these darling little mailboxes at Michaels the other day (I am sure you have all seen them) and thought they would be so cute on the candlesticks like the jars in heels. So I just used the exact same directions, a couple of posts below and added a paper doily with modge podge, a wooden circle and coke bottle cap. I also talked my husband into hanging a shelf above our TV, we are renting a small house at the moment and my lack of decorating space is making me cranky! I think he was amazed at what a difference in my mood a shelf made! I still need something for my teal vase, but I love that it is all up high and no kiddie hands can get anything. Now to get Cody to write me a love letter. . . . . . . . .

Lala Chez Nuit

So here is the DOLLHOUSE! It is called Lala Chez Nuit (Lala Night House in French) which may sound slightly risque, until you realize that it is full of Lalaloopsy dolls, I made it entirely and night and french just sounds more exciting. I think it's probably one of the only houses in the world to be completely constructed at night, and yes, I am including real houses. The fact that this house has no plumbing, electricity or is on a 1 inch scale does not make it any less a house to me. I ordered the kit below off of Amazon for 30 dollars. It came completely in sheets of plywood perferated where the pieces could pop out. Let me tell you that I think that happened about 25% of the time. The rest I used an exacto knife for. I had to sand and prime all the pieces and paint them before they could be assembled. It wasn't hard it was SUPER time consuming. I was also again, doing all of this at night to try to keep it a surprise. I did sand some while waiting for Bramli at therapy.

The roof pieces came in sheets and then I just kept them in strips, I went through and just randomly painted with one color at a time until I thought I had a good mix.

If you are a crafter or scrapbooker and you do this, you are in serious luck!! The only thing I bought was paint!! Below I used a tin that some scrapbooking supplies had come in and just felt and fabric to make a couch and chair. You will see in the pictures below that one of the fun things about the lalaloopsy dolls is that they are really funky and crazy so I didn't feel like everything needed to be perfectly to scale. I thought it made it more whimsical and fun.

For pillows I just made different fabric flowers that I have done for hair accesories for my girls. and then stretchy ruffle ribbon and buttons and bows for around the tin.

You will need to do several coats of paint, make sure you don't paint where the shingles are going to go! Haha! Also if there was one tip I could give, please please please, shingle the house before you build it!!!! You can always go back and fill in a bit but honestly this part took forever and would have been so much easier if I had shingled these pieces and then stuck them together! I also recommend using hot glue to put the whole thing together and to shingle with.

This is the finished upstairs, I just used scrapbooking paper and modge-podge to paper the walls, paint on the floor and I modge-podged a paper doily on the floor for a rug. I also used a spare piece of wood to cover the hole where the stairs would have gone and made that the vanity area. I used pink and white striped paper and stretchy ribbon to finish it. I decided not to do stairs because the house was small and they looked pretty fragile. I used fabric scraps for curtains and, well, the baby Jesus mangers that my kids got from church for the two wooden benches. I glued pearls to the bottom for feet. Is that bad? We got 4! Anyway, I decided to come clean because I just knew if I didn't someone would ask!!! The little coffee table box is just a paper mache one I had with scrapbook paper and ribbon. I topped it with a little bell. My favorite part is the curtains to close off the bed area, Londyn loves them, and what girl wouldn't love to have that in their room!?

The bottom is pretty much the same scrapbook paper and paint and doily floor. Oh! I also got hardwood floor strips from Hobby Lobby and painted and used them for the baseboard. The hutch was a dollar at Michaels, I painted it. And the L wall hanging was a eyelet tin lid with a flower and letter glued to it. The rest of the furniture upstairs and down came with the dolls in little sets.

You will notice the kit had some topper type decorations at the tips of the gables and roof, I opted not to do them because they looked so fragile and I knew they would end up broken so fast. Along the seam of the front porch and big center gable I glued pearls. There was a little gap there and it looked funny. I also cut a doily in half and used it as a front mat. The little pot was in the unfinished wood stuff at Michaels and the flower was a scrapbooking thing.

So even though I lost waaaayyyy too much sleep the week before Christmas, I am happy with how it turned out and my girls were thrilled! Even Bramli plays with it tons!! But, um, never again. Please remind me of that!!!!

Christmas Dresses!

FINALLY! Christmas dresses! So it has been forever since I posted anything and it was because I was really tired of my camera situation (mine had a serious accident awhile back) and I knew that Santa was probably going to bring me a new one! The top picture is of my girls on the Sunday before Christmas and it is just with my iphone and then the lower one is with my new camera which I am still figuring out but is so much better!!! I got the basic idea and pattern for these dresses from simplesimonandco and their tutorial for their awesome bustle skirt is here http://www.simplesimonandco.com/2011/02/bustle-skirt-tutorial.html I am in the process of making a couple of the skirts now and they are too cute. I really wanted to make the girls dresses for Christmas and so I just made the basic skirt pattern longer, from about armpit to knee, doubled the amount of circles I needed and then gathered the top, added a strip of green and red and straps. I also cut out a bunch of circles out of cream netting and covered every two rows of red with the cream. I really should have used the red underneath the circles, but as the pattern evolved in my head I didn't really think that through. The top couple of rows were just netting and I literally eyeballed the green and red strips on top. The girls were happy and they reminded me of little Christmas trees with tree skirts or something. I will post the skirts as soon as I am done. I was thinking this would be a super cute ruffly summer top too!

Jars in Heels

I was trying to decide why I love apothecary jars and cake stands and I realized it has everything to do with my love of fashion and high heels. Don't get me wrong, I love a pair of ballet flats as much as the next girl, but there are times when you have to have a seriously killer pair of heels. It's like how mason jars are so warm, homey and can totally strike the right tone. For special occasions, however, your mason jars need some heels! Enter these totally easy jars. My friend Leanna, did some awhile back and I did some plain black, but thought they needed a Christmas makeover! You will need the following

Unfinished wooden candlesticks (in different heights if desired)

4x4 square or round plaques

3 inch wooden disks

jars (mine were 6 inches)

E-6000 glue

acrylic paint in base color and one metallic

sponge brush

butter knife

Before you paint your pieces you will need to either bend in or remove the metal shell in the candlestick. Sometimes they pop out and sometimes they won't budge, its fine either way as long as the metal is bent in and the top of your jar can sit evenly. Then go ahead and paint all your pieces (candlesticks, disks, plaques) and let them dry, it may take a couple of coats. I took a gold acrylic paint and dipped a paper towel in it and rubbed it all over, wiping it off as I went. It created a really subtle glazed look.

Then apply E-6000 to the bottom of your candlestick and place it in the middle of your plaque. Let it set for an hour, it may still move so be careful. The great thing about this glue if you haven't used it is that once it is set it is like cement! Then glue a disk to the top of your candlestick and finally add your jar. I flipped mine over and let them dry overnight.

I found the cute reindeer bells at Walmart and thought they would be cute toppers. I glued around the edge and centered them. You are done! My other jars were ones I had done for a church Christmas Party last week. I cut out cardboard stars and ripped some so the bumpy part showed and just painted them gold and silver. Then tied them with twine or ribbon. They were cheap and easy. I am now thinking of all the other things that would be cute on the top of these jars. . . .. . . and oh yeah. . . . . . the dollhouse is sort of an issue. . . . . . . . . . .

Faux Boot Socks

So I am so late posting this, but the flu made it's rounds at my house last week and nothing productive happened! I am finally posting my faux boot socks, please excuse my ghetto photography and also the Blair Witch-esque one at the bottom. I can't photograph my own legs real well and my husband doesn't get home until it's dark. I finally decided that it was better to post it with sort of lame pictures that not at all!

These are so so easy. I wanted to make sure that I didn't use a sewing machine at all because I know a lot of people don't have one or sometimes might not feel like getting it out. I used the above sweater, dress and jersey to make the 3 pairs below.

This was definitely the easiest. Cut the arms off of my old sweater dress, made some quick yarn bows, stitched them on and BAM! Super cute right??

I used the back of my sweater to make these and just measured my leg, cut them to the right width and put buttons on. Then I just stretched the gaps in the sweater until I could get the buttons through. I love how rustic and cozy they look.

These were probably the trickiest (still not hard), I measured the jersey, and then folded it over the same width as my widest button and then stitched the button on through both layers. I used all different shapes and sizes and the buttons are the only thing that is holding them together so make sure to sew them on well. I am loving how these are not really for warmth, it just is not that cold in Southern California.

These are a super easy, super quick project and I think they would be perfect for girlfriends. I am thinking that I will make them for our cute babysitters.

Sadly, I put the Vintage Press Flower on the back burner for now. There are just too many fun holiday things to do right now and the flower could really be for anytime. Up next is some fun holiday wall art, apothecary jars, and of course the dollhouse!! I have been tracking it and it is coming tomorrow, I seriously am so excited. Please remind me how excited I am when I start complaining about it!!