Macrame plant holder

Quite a while back I came across this tutorial on how to make a simple macramé plant hanger so I decided to take a stab at it. I found some rope at Hobby Lobby in their fabric clearance bin and also found the little pot on clearance there.  You know who else has an awesome clearance section?  Lowe's plant section.  The little plant I got was $1.00!!!  It was droopy when I brought it home and perked right up after I watered it.  But the plant hanger was super easy to make  and I can see why people have little colonies of macramé plant hangers in their house. And excuse the horrible phone pics.  I was not going to bring my big camera into work... 

 

 

I hadn't measured the pot my plant came in before and of course it didn't fit into the blue pot so I had to transplant it into the green one that I got for $1.50 at Wal-Mart. I picked green since it kind of blends in with the plant.  It's a self watering pot so it can just pull it up to add water to the bottom of the tray.   

I used some scrap fabric to bind the top near the hanging ring and around the bottom to support the pot. 

 

 

My little plant is doing great there by the window.  I did the painting in the center and the one to the right.  I really don't like the one on the right and I am trying to think of something different to paint. 

Kitchen Redo - Part 1

For the past eight years since we bought our house the kitchen has looked like this.  

Those are the original red walls that and valances that previous owners left to us. Now I loved those walls for a very long time but that time has ended, like 2 years ago. I have been thinking for a long time of ways I could change the kitchen up without having to redo the whole thing. Something that wouldn't require ripping out cabinets and getting new countertops. Oh the green countertops. They have been the biggest obstacle when it comes to picking a color palette and finding something to coordinate with them. Psh, I thought it would be nearly impossible. That is until I came across this tile at Lowe's.
  

I.fell.in.love. Love the colors, love the shape, love that it was on sale! Funny story about that. When I found the tile I made sure Jimmy liked it, which he did, and then decided to let it simmer in my mind for a week. I used that picture up against my counters and cabinets to get a general idea about how it would look in our kitchen. It looked lovely. So the next week I went back to buy the tile and noticed that the price tag had moved to the bottom of the rack it was on. Suspicious if you ask me. So I loaded up my 36 sheets along with some tiling materials (float, trowel, spacers, buckets, etc.) and happily made my way to the counter (oh and this was my birthday present). The girl rang me up and the total came out to $200 more than it should have been based on my previous calculations. "Uh, the price on the tile said it was $7.98 a sheet. It was on the bottom of the rack." So she calls to do a price check and tried to tell me it was for a different tile. Whatever, the barcode on the back of the tile sheet say has the same dang name on it as that yellow sticker (I didn't say this but thought it). Then the way she said "Ok" to the person on the phone told me she had to change the price!  Woo woo!

So I brought it all home and has been sitting in my entry way for over a month. Ha! I first had to do my first ever demo job and rip out the existing 6x6 tiles.  It was a little scary yet exciting at the same time.

 
This side came down much easier than the other side but was a little more difficult to do at the same time. 

 

 A couple of those suckers were really stuck and I ended up ripping out the drywall. Oops, there was another first for me to replace drywall. I used the California Patch method Lowe's You tube channel. Another funny story, when I had a lady at Lowe's help me locate the 2x2 drywall piece I asked her about that method and she had never heard of it. I patched the two drywall places and then spackled over it all. Now after all the researching I did online everyone said that this isn't necessary, that you can just tile straight over drywall. I just don't feel comfortable with that. I also primed it to help with moisture.  And that is where we are with the tile. 

I primed the walls on a Sunday and could only take it a couple days like that before I painted it.  It was bright!!   I am so freaking happy to be done with the painting.  We are still getting used to the light color (Olympic's Tightrope matched to Valspar Ultra Paint and Primer in one).  I even painted the ceilings (which is totally for the birds), spray painted the can light rings because the were yellow, and I caulked around the windows. Stuff just kept popping up that I needed to fix!  Now we just need to rent a saw, buy thin stet and grout, make cornice boards for the window, and buy new placemats. I think that should be it???  

You can kind of see it in the last picture but here is a close up of the fabric for the cornice boards.  It is heavy duty upholstery fabric and the brown pattern is velvety.  2.5 yards at $5.00 a yard at Hancock Fabric with a 40% off coupon came out to $7.88!!!  Man I love finding a good deal like that!

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

Ninja valentines

One day I was perusing around Pinterest looking at valentines to make for Kiera's class and asking her which ones she liked best.  She actually settled on these and I decided I would alter them slightly so I could send fruit snacks instead of candy bars. 

 

So first I started out by wrapping a scrap piece of paper around a fruit snack package and trimmed it to a size I liked.  I marked the size of the scrap paper on the 12x12 cardstock at first but then I decide to just measure it with a ruler and then marked my edges on the cardstock from then on out.  Each piece that I cut was 6"x5".

I was able to get 4 squares out of each piece of paper.

I folded each square to where the backs overlapped so I could glue them together.  I cut little rectangles of some flesh colored cardstock and glued the square faces to the inside that you see here.  The only tricky part is not letting the glue seep around the edges of the face to the front. 

 

Then I glued the bottom of the flaps together and then up the seam.  I was on a roll and totally forgot to take pictures of that part.  Gotta work fast with hot glue too. 

 

 

Now I get to the point I ask myself what I was thinking.  I had to individually cut out 34 little hand and arms since I don't have a fancy machine that does it for me.  The arms are easy, and the hands were just annoying.  I didn't measure any of it, just cut everything to a size that I liked.  I glued all of the hands to the arms so attaching them to the bodies would be quick and easy.

I placed one arm where I wanted and folded it around the back side and glued it down in the back and where the hand is.  After I put the first arm on I positioned the other one where I wanted.  I wanted them to look like they were posing with their arms or hands up in a ready or defense position.  I don't know the technical term for it but that is what I am going with!

 

After that I glued little hearts (that I also cut out individually by hand) on the front of each one.  Maybe one day I will get smart and buy heart shaped stickers instead of cutting them out.  I also had Kiera sign her name on the back of each one. 

 

Stuff those ninja's with some fruit snacks and you are done!!

 

I think they turned out super cute.  Kiera picked out blue paper for the boys and "magenta" as she calls it for the girls.  I haven't glued the tops shut and not sure if I will since the fruit snacks aren't moving around at all. 

I only had to make 17 of these and I think it took me a 2-2.5 hours.  I wasn't keeping track.  One of these days I won't get to make little Valentines for her so I am enjoying it, even if I have to cut out  by hand what feels like a bazillion little pieces.

The other valentines I have made are cat bag valentines and paper tube owl valentines.

Bow and garland

In Kiera's bedroom I have been racking my brain about what I wanted to do above/around her name that is hanging on the wall across from her bed.  I saw a few different things I liked and decided to mesh them all together after consulting with her first.  

I found this bow tutorial from The Alison Show.

The shape of it from Young House Love.

And the swaggy pom pom garland idea from Under the Sycamore.

 

So we ran to Hobby Lobby to grab an embroidery hoop (I just bought one and separated the pieces), some ribbon (Kiera picked it out), pom poms, and fabric (Kiera picked it out too because of course she didn't want the one I liked).  I haven't found any pom pom yarn at JoAnn's or Hobby Lobby so I had to improvise and make them on my own.  I just threaded some thick string through the middle of the pom poms with a needle.  200 little pom poms later and I had some garland and it might be my favorite thing ever!  Her little book shelf/knick knack area is my least favorite thing ever.  Clutter central.

 

Sorry for the blurry pic, I have no idea what happened there.

 

It definitely needs some other colors added but I don't have anything else on hand to throw up there right now.

I just popped 3 small nails in the wall to hang the ribbons on.

To hang the bow I just added some double sided sticky tape to the top back corners.  It fell down once so I just stuck it back up there and really pounded on it to get it to stick!  Ha!

 

I really love that bow and it was so stinking easy to make.  I see more in my future.  Not sure what for yet but I want to make more!!!

 

Kiera's bedroom

Well I feel it is safe to say I am done with Kiera's room.  I shared a few things here before and finally picked a wall color.  I am not sure if I mentioned before but Kiera wanted a rainbow room so that's what she got, within reason of course.  Some of it I chose and some of it she chose.  None of the colors here are really reading true to life, but I guess this one is the closest, and the wall color has some green in it not so baby blue like you see here. 

You can't tell in this picture (since I hadn't fixed it yet) but I added red flannel backing to the curtains because the light shone through from the window.  I didn't even think about that happening when I made them.  Kiera wanted pink curtains and I was having a hard time finding a pink that matcher her quilt.  I think this is from the same fabric line, just a different pattern.   I am pretty proud of myself for making that quilt too, especially since it was my first ever!

 Ohhh her desk and bookshelf.  It only looks this tidy because I cleaned it by trashing all the bazillion happy meal toys and organizing the books while she wasn't around.  She has plenty of toys  they are just hidden in bins under her bed.  She has a few little nick knacks that she likes to keep on the bookshelf which is fine.  This is her room after all and I will respect some of her little treasures.  I mean, the girl brings home rocks and shells and little sticks in her jean pockets every single day.  The desk and lamp I brought home because it was going to be trashed and she loves them.  She loves the desk and we constantly find her sitting there and drawing.  I would like to eventually spray paint the lamp and add a cute little canopy of ribbons above her name 'cause it looks a little bare up there.

She had a hand in helping with a couple things on the wall above her bed.  I found the butterflies and mirror at a yard sale for like $1.  They were an ugly brown color so I gave them a coat of white primer and I let Kiera go to town on the butterflies while I painted the mirror.  I let her loose on the "K" also and I did everything else.  I think I mentioned before the "Summer Girl" is a Katie Daisy painting that I modified.

 Oh and I really like the envelope pillow cases I made too (they are super easy and addicting).  I love houndstooth (almost as much as plaid) and jumped at buying it when I saw it in JoAnn's (it was new).  Do you know how hard it is to find a cute purple fabric?  This is actually flannel!  I didn't have enough for the length so I had to use some from the width of the fabric to make it a little longer.  I kept staring at it wondering why it looked different in the middle and then I realized the fabric is upside down.  Luckily I did that on both pillow which was a happy accident. I think it adds a little extra somethin' somethin'. 

This is one of my favorite things in her room.  I found this rock in the Illinois River (where we always go swimming and camping) and kept it since it is in the shape of Oklahoma, and the rose rock (our state rock) my dad gave Kiera.  I slapped some scrapbook paper in the shadow box and used this thick double sided tape to hold the rocks in place.

 And I love the dream catcher I made her too, since she is Cherokee and all (so is Jimmy, I am not).

 

She is happy with her room now and that is all that matters. 

Happy Camper hoop art

I don't know if this classifies as "art" but I didn't really know what else to call it.  After I made the little bunting hoop "art" for Kiera's room, I found adorable this picture online.  Luckily I had another hoop hanging around so I made my own little version. 

It is just made with fabric and hot glue and I used a sharpie to write "happy camper".  Oh and the blue lace was actually white that I painted with acrylic paint and a sponge brush.  Can you say ghetto?  A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do when her sewing machine is in the shop.  But I don't care, it's freaking cute and is already hanging in the perfect spot in our camper!  

K's Bedroom Redo - in process

I have been in the process of redoing Kiera's bedroom since she no longer likes the pink and tan and brown and have kinda been working on it for months. I totally planned on having it done for her birthday at the beginning of August and when that didn't happen I then hoped to have it done by the end of August. Here we are in September and all I have to show for it is a partially done quilt (my sewing machine copped an attitude one night a month ago which is ending up to be a $150 attitude), a bunch of random stuff to hang on the walls (which aren't hung yet) and a ton of blue squares on the wall since I can't find the perfect color. Hopefully by the end of September it will be done.  I figured I would share a few pics of things I have done and what a hot mess things are. 

 

A dream catcher made out of fabric scraps, embroidery hoop and doily.  There are also some feathers and turquoise beads hanging from the sides and the top there.

Here is the quilt I am in the process of making.  Super simple. A lot of straight lines.  Sim.ple.

I recovered the letters of her name hanging on the wall. 

This little hoop art was super easy to do.  Google it.

I also did my own twist on this Katie Daisy print.  Kiera is a summer girl all the way, when I showed it to her she said "Yep, that's me".   I think it needs more of something...or not.

 

There is more but they are stuffed in a bag...just waiting.  Gah I can't wait to get my machine back and finish that dang quilt!  I guess I will just have to do the rest of her room first!  Eventually!

Scarf Rack

I have a new found love for scarves. OK it started about a year ago but whatever. I can't believe I haven't bought more but dang they can be expensive for a piece o fabric! Maybe I should make my own ya think?   So for the past year I have been hanging them on this lovely piece.

Yes they are draped over a pants hanger that is hanging from a nail. I had been looking for a certain type of peg thing like my father-in-law has to hang his yard tools on but couldn't find one. Then when Jimmy and I were taking inventory in the camper before our Robbers Cave trip he found a spare peg thingy!

It was plain wood but I stained it with Dark Walnut and sealed it with Mod Podge. That was a total ghetto move to use Mod Podge but it I didn't really care, it works. After a gentle reminder the other day Jimmy hung it up for me.

I have to double up some scarves and once I get more some will be tripled but that is OK.  I totally love it and it was free! Woo woo!