Modern Thanksgiving Mantle

In preparation for Thanksgiving, I decided my mantle needed a makeover and since I had zero Thanksgiving decorations I had to start from scratch.

That's always where the dollar store comes in right? I bought white candles and glass holders from the dollar store and spray painted the candles with gold spray paint.

 In all my pinterest browsing I came across this awesome gold platter from West Elm last year but since it is no longer available, I had to improvise again. I bought a plate from the dollar store and used my silhouette to cut gold vinyl for the plate.

Then I used my silhouette once again to cut some feathers (purchased from the silhouette store) out of cardstock in the colors I wanted to use and just sewed straight through them on my sewing machine.

I found an awesome jar at Target on clearance but I knew I wanted something cool inside it. Fall makes me think about knitted sweaters so I decided to make yarn balls using yarn ($2.50 at Walmart) aluminum foil and hot glue.

You get the idea right? Pretty cheap and simple!

Anyone else been noticing decorative arrows around the internet lately? I've fallen in love with them! So I picked up some wooden dowls, feathers and paints and made some in my colors! It's pretty addicting and I imagine I'll be doing it again in other colors.

All in all it came together pretty fast and I'm so excited about the way it looks! Although now that it's done i'm tempted to move on to Christmas.....

Have a great week and thanks for stopping by!!

Potions and Spell Books

Is anybody else getting into a Halloween crafting mood?

This is the first of several projects I'm working on but they were so quick and cheap that I wanted to post it right away!

Now credit where credit is due, I got the idea from Lil Luna on this link. So I picked up a few hardback books from Goodwill, a bottle of Mod Podge and a few sheets of scrapbook paper from Hobby Lobby and got to work!

I love how they look on the mantle and now I'm thinking I may need a few more!

I'm linking up to Skip to my Lou's Made By You Mondays. 

Thanks so much for stopping by! Have a fantastic week!

XOXO Taylor

IKEA Dresser To Ombre Dresser

I can't believe how long it's been since I've last blogged! I am not great at time management so I'm finding it harder and harder to get projects in lately! Anyone else have this problem?!?

So I've been (slowly!) working on my sewing space and I've been working on more storage for all my craft supplies. I was inspired by this picture:

http://pinterest.com/pin/205617539206628088/

I knew I wanted to do something similar in the sewing room and while I was walking through IKEA one day my answer came in the form of the RAST Dresser.

It's solid pine and $35!

Like all other IKEA items it requires a bit of assembly but it wasn't difficult and because it's pine I didn't have to sand it which was super exciting for me!

So I popped over to Home Depot and grabbed a color sample card that had a gradient I liked and got the small samples of each.

I can't remember exactly how much each sample costs but I think it was about $2 each.

I took the drawers out and painted the outside white first with a little help from my special painter.

Ta-dah!

I'm already loving it in the room and having the extra storage is definitely a plus too!

Thanks for stopping by! Have an awesome weekend!!
XOXO
Taylor

A Modern Teepee

Are any of you guys pinning kid's rooms with teepees in them like crazy?


I got it in my head that my oldest needed a teepee to read and play in so I read through a few tutorials, recruited my husband and got to work!

I found a pack of XL Twin sheet on clearance at Target for $4 so I sewed those together. A King sheet would have been best but I didn't feel like spending the money and I didn't have any around the house.

I wanted a modern tribal look so I freezer paper stenciled some triangles onto the sheets.

I'm working on putting the tutorial together so that will follow soon!

Thanks for stopping by!
XOXO

Sewing Cabinet Makeover

So I've been spending too much time on pinterest lately specifically looking at gorgeously organized craft rooms (my craft rooms pinboard is here) and I decided my fabric needed a beautiful and organized home.

So I scoured thrift stores and craigslist looking for the perfect thing. I finally found a china cabinet on craigslist for $140. It was missing the glass out of the shelves and one knob but I wanted to redo the shelves and knobs anyway.

So I set to work sanding and taking it apart. My wonderful and handy husband helped me pull out the shelves and cut new ones. I did lots more sanding. Then painted it a couple times.

I love the end result!

It was missing one knob and the existing knobs weren't my taste so I ordered these knobs from Walmart for $2.98 a piece.

I think they give them the perfect vintage look!

I lined the backing with this cute wrapping paper I got from World Market using spray adhesive.  I would definitely recommend having another person help you to avoid getting wrinkles and lumps!

I'm still working on organizing it cute but I'll have to post more pictures of my fabric inside. Now to work on the rest of that room! Is it bad that after 9 months of being in our house there are STILL boxes in this room?!?

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you're having a lovely week!
XOXO

DIY Drum Shade

Hello!

Our house has a few of those cheap light fixture covers throughout the house and I wanted to change the one in our living room.

 
I figured a drum shade would be perfect but I wanted one nice and big. I started looking for one and then discovered that an 18 inch drum shade is like $60! So I made one!

I used this tutorial with a few changes. She used a plastic lightening panel to make her diffuser and I just stapled white canvas fabric around the inside of the bottom ring. So far it's holding up very well.

 In the tutorial, she uses 's' hooks to attach it to her light fixture, but my light fixture didn't have that same set up so I had to buy a light kit from Home Depot. It was about $15 but it came with the cap (or "canopy" as I learned it's officially called) and a cord. 

I figured out it cost around $30 to make so it wasn't dirt cheap but it makes a big impact in the room and I got to choose a fabric I loved!

 The fabric on the bottom keeps you from having to look right up into the light bulb and it gives off a nice soft glow. Overall I felt like it was a fairly simple and fun project that makes my living room look a little more finished! So go make over one of your light fixtures!

Thanks so much for stopping by and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
XOXO

Confetti Dino: A Festive Printable

Hello dear readers!

I'm in the process of adding artwork to Evie's room and there's tons of adorable prints out there! Unfortunately I can't buy every single print I've found I like so I'm mixing in some of my purchased prints with free printables and ones I've made too. 

I bought some plastic dinosaurs from the dollar store for a future project coming up and Evie was instantly in love with the plastic Brontosaurus. I thought it would be cute for her to have a Brontosaurus print but they are often very masculine so I decided to make her a girly Brontosaurus print.

If you would like the digital file leave me your email address and I will send it to you. Let me know if you put it somewhere! I only ask that you only use it for your personal use.

Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope you have a lovely memorial weekend!

XOXO

Controlling the remote controls

So we have a horrible remote epidemic at my house. It's called "can't put the remotes back on the table-itis". We have like 20 components hooked up to our tv so naturally we must have 45 remote controls (yes I am exaggerating slightly) so it seems like I can never find the one I need to get me back to cable or the dvd player remote.

I figured if they had an actual set place or holder, they would get put back more often. It's not 100% effective but we're doing a lot better than before.

I went to Hobby Lobby and picked up 2 wooden trays from the unfinished wood section. I got 2 different sizes and I think it totaled to about $3 with my coupon.

I gave them 2 coats of white spray paint and then found an eye chart I liked and printed it on cardstock on my home printer.  

 For the glasses, I knew I wanted to incoporate some yellow in my living room and felt that this was the perfect opportunity so I made a yellow chevron pattern in Adobe Illustrator and pulled in some glasses I liked.

I printed the glasses out on cardstock too and then did a layer of mod podge on the tray and laid the prints down inside.

Note: I learned the hard way that it's best to do the layer of mod podge on the bottom first, lay down the print and then let it dry before doing another layer of mod podge. Otherwise, your print will wrinkle and you'll have to strip it, sand it and try again.  It's frustrating. Believe me!

Once they had dried I did 2 more layers of mod podge over the top and they are ready to go! They also double as a water proof drink tray for the couch which has been VERY helpful!

This is such a easy, cheap and customizable project! You can do whatever you want inside and paint it whatever color you'd like!

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you're having a wonderful week!
XOXO

Subway Art and doormat

We have a wall with a pass through so there's an empty chuck of wall in our living room. I am loving the subway art trend right now so I decided it would be cool to make one for all the places that we have lived since we got married.

 

Cheri at I am momma hear me roar has a great tutorial for creating subway art so I won't do a tutorial for you. I created a 24x36 inch document in Adobe Illustrator and filled it with the cities and states we've lived in. I saved it as a pdf and then took it on a flashdrive to Office Depot and had it printed as an "engineer blueprint". It was the perfect size for our wall!

We also needed a new doormat for our entryway but I couldn't find anything I liked. I turned to Artscow.comhttp://www.artscow.com/ and created a doormat by creating the image in Illustrator and uploading it to their site. It ended up being $29 shipped and arrived pretty quickly! The quality seems good and it says it's machine washable. I haven't tested that out yet so we'll have to see but I LOVE it!

I just thought I'd pop in and show you some of the non-sewing crafts I've been up to lately! Hope you are having a wonderful Easter week! Thanks for stopping by!
XOXO

Manly Man Bag

Whew! That was a long and unexpected break from blogging! But I've got a project to share!

My husband mentioned he needed to keep floss, gum, aspirin and a few other things in his drawer at work a while back. I got him some of those things and then fought the temptation to toss them in a Ziplock and instead used Prudent Baby's toiletry bag tutorial and made him a manly man bag to put it all in.

Please excuse the poor photo quality. At the time we were moving and my camera was all packed up so these are from my phone! 

I got the houndstooth fabric from Walmart for $1.50 a yard! Although I would recommend using either heavy interfacing or upholstery weight fabric because it's a little flimsier than I would have liked. This was also my first attempt at a zipper and it wasn't as scary as I thought (for this anyway!) so get out there and try those zippers!

I would definitely recommend their tutorial. It worked well and the bag comes together pretty fast honestly! I only wish there weren't raw edges inside but I'm sure there are tutorials for fully lined ones out there.

We bought our first house and are all moved in and getting settled so there will probably be some home decor crafts popping up around here too. Now that things are getting calmer i'm hoping to pop in a little more often! If you make a tolietry bag let me know!

Hope you're having a wonderful week! XOXO

Carseat Cover Tutorial

So as you guys probably know I was expecting baby #2 very soon so I decided I needed to hurry up and get my carseat cover finished. I know there are a ton of tutorials for these out there, but I needed to make one anyway so I figured I'd document the process.

You need:

1 and 1/4 yard of fabric
1 and 1/4 yard coordinating fabric for opposite side
Sew able Velcro (I got mine from Walmart)
Thread
Scissors
Disappearing marker (optional but always helpful)

First you'll want to lay your fabric over your carseat and determine how much extra fabric you want over the top and bottom of the carrier. I ended up cutting off about a 1/4 of a yard off the bottom to use for handles so my actual cover was about a yard.

Determine where you want to place your handles on the top fabric and place pins.

Now lay your fabric down with the right sides together so the pattern is facing each other.

Next you'll want to cut any excess and even out your top and bottom. They aren't usually super precise at the fabric store so one side will usually be bigger than the other.

I find that the easiest way to even them up is to pin across one of the top ends and then pin along the side end too to hold it in place. Then use your straight edge or ruler to mark and cut so the top and bottom fabric are the same size.

Now pin around the other 2 sides as well so all 4 sides are pinned together and iron it down. This will help it lay flat and be even as we get ready to sew around the edges.

Now sew around all 4 edges, making sure you leave a hole around 3 inches or so to turn it right side out again. If you find that the weight of your fabric is pulling down on what you're sewing, grab an ironing board and use it to help hold the weight of the fabric as you sew around.

Now turn it right side out through your hole so your wrong sides are now together. Iron again and stitch around the edges again. This will close up the hole you left and help the sides to lay flatter. You basically have a 2 sided blanket right now.

Now we're going to make straps. Measure around the handles of your carrier to find out how long your straps need to be. I figured mine needed to be about 6.5 inches long and I made them about 4 inches wide. The width is totally your preference.

Cut out 4 pieces in the size you have determined (2 of the top side fabric, 2 of the bottom side fabric) and pin them together with right sides facing.

I found it was easiest to mark about a 1.5 inch gap on each strap so I knew where to leave my hole to turn it right side out again.

 Sew around the outside of the strap making sure you leave your 1.5 inch gap. Repeat with the other strap.

Now turn them both right side out through the gap you left.

 And iron them down.

 Now topstitch around the outside of the straps. Again this will help close the gap you left and make them lay flatter.

 Now take your velcro and lay the soft side up on your bottom fabric side and pin. Then lay the rough velcro side on your top side and pin. Sew around the edges of the velcro.

*Remember that they will be on opposite sides because your strap will wrap around the carrier handle.

Now grab your blanket portion and find where your pins are. Pin the middle section of your strap down. Repeat with the other strap, making sure it's even with the first. 

 Now sew a square in the middle of each strap. I sewed an X inside the square to strengthen it.

 You're done! Wrap those straps around the handles and you're ready to keep coughers and strange breathers at Walmart away from your new baby!

It even looks cute turned up!

And in case you guys were wondering...

 We had another girl! It was a wonderful delivery and we were elated to find out we have another beautiful baby girl!

Her name is Rosalia Georgia and she was 9 lbs. 5 oz! Crazy huh?!?

So hopefully ya'll aren't sick of ruffles and ruffly projects because it looks like there's a lot more in my future! Thanks for stopping by! Hope you are having a wonderful October!
XOXO