K E N I D I

Accessorizing Kenidi's room has been kind of slow but I did get her name made and put up above her crib. It has been amazing how hard it is to get things designed around the house... not necessarily because of my girls (but that is part of it), but I can't really leave the house to easily and so I can't get items that I need to get to make things.

But here is her name that I finally got put up. It isn't anything original or that you probably haven't seen before, but I really wanted to put her name up on the wall. Her spelling is so different from the original spelling of Kennedy that I wanted to highlight it in here. Her spelling is actually after my spelling, Lindsi instead of Lindsay or Lindsey.

Now Here is how I made it.

I went to our local craft store and purchased the letters for $3 each and painted them with

this brown paint from Home Depot. (Did you know that Home Depot now offers a sample size paint! I so wish they had these when I painted murals!)

Then I purchased 2 spools of ribbon, green and red, and staple gunned them to the back and tied bows on top.

Now hanging this is something that I had to think about for a minute (and of course I forgot to take pictures while I was doing it).

First - I found the center of the wall and marked it

Second - I laid a ruler on the floor and starting with the "K", I laid in on the edge of the ruler, where it ended I measured 2" from that and placed the "E" and continued through the whole name. When I was done, I saw that it ended at 27 1/2". I took half of 27 1/2 which is 13 3/4 and placed that point where the center of the wall is. By doing this, I knew that I was going to be centered on the wall.

Third - I had my husband hold the level with the ruler on it while I placed each letter in it's spot and nailed it in the wall.

I hope that makes sense if you decide to do one of these on how to hang it centered. I had every intention of taking pictures through the process but as I got started on it, I totally forgot.

We are building a beadboard cornice box for the window, so I hope that I can have that posted next week. Things just don't get done as quickly as I would like with 2 babies now.

Making Of - Block FAMILY sign

When I was in Colorado for Thanksgiving, my mother-in-law gave me a kit to make this Block FAMILY sign.

All it is is some 2x4 blocks cut, painted and then some vinyl lettering stuck on. Such a super simple project and can be done for very inexpensive.

I actually worked on this up at my cabin about a month ago. I can't stand just sitting and not getting things done so I decided to take this project up there so I felt like I was accomplishing something.

Here is how I did it.

There are 2 different sizes of blocks that were cut out already. I sanded them down and then I just grabbed some green craft paint that I had already in my stash.

I painted all of the blocks green like I show here on the left block and then I took my sand paper and sanded the edges down like I show on the right.

After they were sanded down, I took an old rag and some leftover wood stain (that was used to satin my walls) and loosely rubbed on the edges and over some main areas of the blocks (I didn't want it to look to uniform, kind of messy if you want to use that term).

After it was all dried (I let it sit a few days) I put the vinyl lettering on that was already cut out when my mother-in-law gave it to me.

I was originally going to put it in my office since I already had my Family framed sign down in the main living area but when we went to set it out, my daughter ran right for it.

We decided to put it down in the family room anyway on the console table where my daughter can't reach it (yet!)

I really like the extra step of the stain over the paint but you don't have to do that step... it would look good without it, but I am very happy with the way that it turned out...

I hope my mother-in-law likes it too since she could have kept it and put in her own home somewhere....

Thanks Judy!

Making Of - Living Room Throw Pillow

Last week I decided to make this throw pillow for my living room chair.

I am very happy with the way that it turned & it didn't cost me a thing!

This pillow in all reality would have cost anywhere from $50-$100 with how expensive this stuff is individually, but I have my ways :)

Here is the stuff that I started with: I had a pillow insert that I had purchased years ago for another project and never used. This pillow is a down filled pillow and is a great pillow. The gold fabric was a sample fabric from my old work at Bassett that I had in my fabric stash and would have been probably $20-$30 a yard if purchased. The peachy, gold fabric was a fabric memo that I purchased back when I was in design school. I had a project that I wanted some nice fabrics for, I went to a local designer fabric place and purchased this memo (a fabric sample about 3'x3') for $10. I hate to admit this but that was probably 7 years ago. This fabric is probably anywhere between $50-$100+ a yard!!!! It is such high end silk and is a Beacon Hill brand which is one of the most expensive! Anyway, I got it for the $10 and just had to use a small corner of it for my project so I had a large section of it left over. The red trim was left over from some pillows that I sewed for my family cabin and I believe that it was around $20 a yard.

Here is how I made the pillow:

I took some printer paper and created my own pattern to cut from.

I cut the 2 sides in the peach fabric and then I sewed them to the gold fabric.

I wanted a pleated center so I needed to make the gold fabric larger than what the measurement was.

*I found the center of the gold fabric on the back side and marked it with a pin.

*I measured 2" from each side and ironed it over with wrong sides facing each other.

*Then I measured 3/4" from the ironed edge and ironed it with right sides facing each other.

*From that last ironed edge, I measured 1 1/4" and ironed wrong sides facing together.

You can see a pattern here. Basically you are making an accordion fold but making them overlap a bit so that you can see each individual fold.

Here is what it looks like all finished on both sides pinned down.

After the front was all pleated and pinned, I pinned the front to the back which was 2 pieces overlapping each other to create a pocket.

In each corner, I cut a tassel from the red trim I had and pinned it in each corner.

Now I hope I am not the only one who does this!.... but I pinned the wrong side of the fabric to the back and when I turned it right side out, the wrong side was facing forward!.... So I had to unstitch the whole thing a resew it!

Here is the back side. You can see that I didn't make my flap big enough but I honestly don't care when it is the back!

And here is the close up of the tassel and the pleating.

I love that I was able to create this with stuff that I already had and it didn't cost me a dime (recently). When I get other things done in my living room, I will show a picture of it on the chair with the full affect of everything else. (whenever that happens). Until then, I will enjoy my one pillow in that room :)

Making Of - Fall Table Centerpiece

I am not one to really decorate for the Fall or Halloween, I would much rather spend my money on something that is more permanent in my home year round. But I really do love it when people do the seasonal decorating.

I did decide that I wanted to do a centerpiece on my kitchen table that can be used for the Fall and then switch a few things and it can be used for Christmas also ( I do LOVE Christmas decorating).

I had seen this idea back years ago and had wanted to do it, but I am not much of a glass vase type person so I couldn't picture it in my house..... Well, I was on another girl's design blog a little ago and she had this idea on there that she did for her dining table and covered the vases with fabric. BRILLIANT! Why didn't I think of that?

This whole thing cost me less than $25 and I love that I can just switch things out and have new centerpiece for Christmas and I already have the stuff for the Christmas one.

How to Make it-

Start off with any mirror. I bought this one at the DI thrift store for $2.00.

I didn't like the gold frame on it so I spray painted it black with the leftover spray paint from my Family frame project. (Make sure that you tape it off completely before you spray paint so you don't ruin the actual mirror)

After it dried, I took some metallic copper paint I had (I bought at Walmart for $1 something) and rubbed my finger over the raised ornamentation to highlight it. (In this picture, the corner and the side had been done but the top had not)

Then I took 3 vases. I had the large one for the center just sitting around, but I had to buy the two side ones and I got them at Walmart for $2.00 a piece. I also bought the fabric at Walmart for $1.50 a yard. ( I bought 2 yards and I don't even think I used half a yard for these 3 vases but I wanted extra just in case.) Line the edges up and cut it to size

Get some double stick tape and tape it down, roll the fabric around, fold the edge in and tape down and then tape the folded edge over the first edge that was taped down.

I bought some little pumpkins and gourds at Walmart for $.78 a piece (bought 5), 3 beaded candle rings which were $2.99 a piece from Back Home Decor (I am going to do a whole post on Back Home Decor in an upcoming post. These 2 have awesome home accessories for inexpensive that they sell out of their home, that means they can save you money compared to the retailers!), and some fall leaves from the dollar store ( I bought 1 bunch and then just cut it apart with a wire cutter and placed it all around).

I put glass votive holders in each one and purchased 3 votives from the dollar store and lit it all up. Of course the picture doesn't do it justice, it really is a cool little piece and you can see the reflection in the mirror underneath.

So this is my one little thing that is fall that I have in my house. If you would like some other ideas for Halloween or Fall decorating, check out this girl's blog

http://thriftydecorchick.blogspot.com/

She has actually made me want to start decorating for Halloween and Fall and I have never really cared about that before.

Making Of - Brooklyn's Ribbon Picture Frames

In Brooklyn's nursery I have 3 picture frames hanging above her crib and here is how I made those.

First I bought these picture frames unfinished at Roberts Crafts. I actually went in there 3 separate times with a 50% off coupon so I could get the discount on each frame. With the discount, they cost me about $4.00 a piece.

The ribbon I purchased at Joann's Fabrics for $3.99 a roll and I needed 2 (with quite a bit left over).

The first step is to paint the base coat which was a red brown color with cheap acrylic paint. Let that dry, then paint over it with top color which was a pink color that I created with a pink, grey, and white acrylic paint.

After that has dried, take a very fine sand paper and lightly rub on the edges and in various spots on the front to wear the pink off and show the bottom layer of the brown through.

When those have dried, take the ribbon and measure in your desired spot on the back of the frame, angle each side inward and staple in place.

To do the 2nd and 3rd frames, I laid them over the first frame so that I could get the angle exactly the same on each one.

I tied the bows, making sure they were the same length, and hung them up on nails. Once again, this was such a cheap way to make a big impact and focal point in this nursery and I love how it turned out!

Making Of - FAMILY Sign

Remember the small wall from my glazing video? Remember how I said that eventually something would be hanging on that wall? Well I finally put something together and I am so excited to show it to you because of how incredibly INEXPENSIVE it was!!!!

Well Here is what I made!

How to Make:

The first thing I did was go to our local thrift store, Deseret Industries (the DI) and purchase this picture frame for $2.00!

You can see from this picture that it was a bit beat up.... Nothing some spray paint couldn't cover!

I sprayed the frame with this black spray paint.... This kind I got at Walmart for $.97! And I was able to use it for other projects also.

first I printed out the letters on the computer and cut them out...

then I went over them with a black marker on the front and sides..... Spent all of this time getting it all cut out and finished.... Then my husband told me that you can still print on big paper if you create a custom size!

So, after spending all of this time on it, he PRINTED it out for me straight on my paper and saved me the hassle of having to spray glue it down! Wish I would have known that before I spent all the time cutting those things out!

Because my picture frame opening was 16"x6", I needed to go buy some special paper that was big enough. This is art paper and it cost me approximately $2.50. I took the glass out and with my exact o-knife, cut around it.

I took some chalks and a little cotton ball and colored around the edges to add something to the paper.

I used a light brown, dark brown, red brown, and a red layered on top of each other to create the edges to look like this.

And here it is finished on my wall. This project cost me approximately $5.00 and it is a good size, not a small dinky picture. I am so glad to have something on that wall now and that the empty void isn't staring at me every time I walk into the kitchen.

The nice thing is, you have left over paper and spray paint to use for another project!

Making Of - Brooklyn's Balloon Shade

I have been asked how I made Brooklyn's balloon shade in her nursery, so I hope I can explain it well enough for everyone to understand. This is such a simple window treatment to make and I think it is such a cute alternative to the standard nursery valance that usually comes with the crib bedding sets.

I did not have my blog started when I made this so I don't have step-by-step pictures.

*The first thing that you need to do is measure your window. My window was pretty much a perfect square window I believe at 47". Since my fabric was only 45" wide, I had to purchase more fabric and lay it lengthwise to fit. I cut 2 separate pieces, one that is on the top above the ribbons, and the main full piece. I wanted it to hang about 2" over on the sides and the bottom to make sure that is blocked out sunlight, so I measured an extra 2" on each side plus an additional 1 1/2" - 2" for the hem on the back. The top piece needs to be an additional 4" for the rod pocket on the very top. The fabric I used was a flannel type fabric, I wanted something that didn't wrinkle terribly when tied it up.

*I wanted my shade lined for black out purposes for naps so I measured the liner 1/2"-1" shorter on each side so that the hem wasn't to bulky when folded back and sewn.

*I bought 2 spools of 12' ribbon and just used one roll for each side.

SEWING

*Take the large bottom piece and lay the liner on the back side of the fabric.

*Take the ribbon off of the spool and fold in half, mark with a pin. Do this to both spools of ribbon.

*On your main fabric, measure in about 12"-14" from the sides and pin the ribbon on the top of fabric at the center point where you pinned earlier.

*Place the smaller fabric (that is the top section) on top of the main fabric and ribbon. (Half of your ribbon should be hanging out the back side.

*Sew straight across.

* Hem the 2 sides and the bottom, folding over about a half an inch and then folding over again so give it a cleaner look. Sew

*After the sides and bottom are sewn, fold the top down a half an inch and then approximately 3"-4" and sew straight across, this will create the pocket for the rod to go through.

*I bought a cheap $5 rod at Walmart, this is just a real skinny one. I knew it would be covered by the cornice box.

This is such a simple project, it probably sounds more difficult than it really is. I hope I explained it alright. In the future when I make treatments, I will either take pictures of the steps, or I will make a video of what I do.