Sunday, September 30, 2012

DIY Sunday: Scrap Wood Tutu Holder

Hi there!

I did this little project the past weekend with my daughter. We had a piece of scrap wood sitting around. We painted it together, picked out the hooks together and my daughter even helped me drill the holes for the hooks! (Lots of help...drilling is quite hard for a 2 year old)

I was sick of having my daughter's tutu's sitting around...they didn't quite fit in with all the stuff in the toy box, but we don't have other dress up things otherwise. Down the line, we might replace this with a dress up closet, but for now it does the trick.

If you're wondering, I did the owl art (available here) and the growth chart. Both are a mixed medium..paint and scrapbook paper. 

 Helping me paint the board...also her pants..and face...and arms.



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Thursday, September 20, 2012

Before & After: From Drab Paint to Fab Paint!

Hello There!

As I said earlier this week, I was busy all weekend with projects. The big project was painting the bedroom/nursery. We have an abnormally large bedroom (a little larger than 24 feet by 12 feet). It used to be two different rooms (there's two doors to the room as a result). When we found out we were expecting, we had decisions to make. We have a guest room/man room we could convert to the nursery. I found two problems with this. We get quite a few out of town guests, and I did not want to find alternative homes for all my husband's hunting decor.

The other option was taking half of our bedroom (which we weren't even using except one lonely dresser) and turning it into a nursery. That option seemed to make the most sense to us. We have decided that once baby starts to sleep through the night/is in crib, we are going to build a divider between the two rooms (which should work just fine since there are two doors). We rent, so closing in the space permanently isn't an option.

Even though we rent, we do get to paint if we want. I have lived and complained about the purple walls in our bedroom since we moved in. (often on this blog). I couldn't stand the thought of having the nursery also purple mostly because I'd be forced to look at it the entire time I was on maternity leave. So, it was time to paint! I chose "Grey Frost" and Olympic ONE paint and primer in one (available at Lowes). The color isn't exactly what I want (although I still like it). The paint on the other hand was AWESOME. I have used paint from Walmart (terrible), Ace (fairly good) and even painted a room with the ultra expensive Benjamin Moore Aura (not worth the money). Click on the links for the projects that correlate with each paint. The room I painted with the BM took four coats. The Olympic paint only took 2 on the dark purple. And the Olympic is half the cost of the BM.

Enjoy my "before" and "after" for the nursery and bedroom side. I think the grey works great with the unusual flooring. I still have work on both sides, but the color made a pretty significant difference. Click on the pictures to bring up the larger picture.



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Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Show & Tell: My daughter's first project!

Hello!

This last weekend my daughter and I had some time alone since my husband was on a studying binge before a big test. I was trying to sew some burp clothes I've had pinned (actually pinned...not Pinterest pinned) forever. I tried, unsuccessfully, to bribe her to watch some tv in the adjacent room while I finished up. She wanted to see what I was doing. I decided she was big enough to have her first sewing lesson.

I picked her up and put her on my lap. I explained everything I was doing just so she wouldn't try to grab everything in sight. (I have noticed that if I'm explaining something to her, even if she can't completely understand, she's more likely to sit still.) So, I moved the fabric through the machine slowly. I let her hit the reverse button when it was time to back stitch (the only button that was safely away from the moving parts of the machine). The reverse button is now called "Lila's Button"

After finishing up the burp cloths, I thought it would be fun to do a quick project together since she was still very interested in the machine. I had her come over to a fabric drawer, pick a fabric (no surprised she picked the new mermaid flannel I had found in a scrap bin).  Once she had picked the mermaid fabric, I asked her what she wanted to make. She exclaimed "Barbie blanket!!" I'm sure "Barbie" since she thinks all mermaids are called Barbie (she has a mermaid Barbie that has caused this confusion) and "blanket" because a piece of flannel fabric does look like a blanket. So, I had her pick a back flannel fabric (pink won over purple) and thread (once again, pink won over purple). I cut the two squares for her and we started sewing. I eventually got her her own chair to sit on since she kept exclaiming "Lap hurts!" (I'd think my over abundance of padding in my lap would make it comfy...apparently not)

Once we were done, Lila carried the blanket around for the rest of the day. Barbie even got to use it in a make shift crib in a box. I'm sure we'll have many more crafty lessons to come!




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Monday, September 17, 2012

Before & After: Grandpa's Desk Revival

Hello There!

I do believe some of my pre-pregnancy energy is coming back. I had a super busy weekend. I painted our nursery/master bedroom. (A huge room to paint, but the dark purple just wasn't cutting it.) I did a bit of sewing...as in I finally worked on my t-shirt quilt I've been working on for several years. I even finished up the burp clothes for Baby B and did a mini sewing lesson to my daughter which resulted in a Barbie blanket. We also painted some scrap wood that is going to be a tutu holder for my daughter. I finished up my craft marathon on Sunday with cutting some vinyl for nursery art and my iPad. Whew. I'm pretty sure from all that moving around, but it was nice to get some stuff done!

This "before" and "after" has been a long time coming. Earlier this year, I got this a-ma-zing desk from my in-laws. It came out of my husband's grandfather's house. It wasn't a really substaintual piece. The wood isn't particularly nice and it had quite a few dings and water rings. It wasn't going to be worth staining since the wood wasn't anything to write home about. What I loved about it was the "lines"...I loved how the drawers curved. I was smitten the first time I saw it. 

Now, I have a bit of an obsession with desks. I don't mean to. I don't go searching for desks, but some how they seem to find me. We have a beautiful desk that my husband's other grandfather made. That desk used to be in the living room (where this new desk now is). Now it's not that I don't love the desk, but it was a bit big for the space and the color of the wood looked terrible against the brown walls (oh, how I can't wait for the day I don't have dark brown walls...) And this beautiful desk is not the type of desk you paint. I'm pretty sure my husband would hang me. So, it's now in the guest room/study room/Our daughter's TV fort.

I also have a desk in our daughter's room (currently used as a changing table/dresser) that was my great great grandmas. I have a desk on the porch that's a planter/outdoor toy storage. So, as you can see, I'm no longer allowed to obtain desks.There is an official desk ban in our home.

I didn't get a proper "before" picture of this desk. I was too eager to start sanding it. But here's the desk and drawers during the sanding process.



I finished painting my desk white and was faced with a problem I often have. I didn't know what to do about the drawer pulls. This desk has particularly difficult pulls since they curved with the desk. I didn't think replacing them would be worth it. So, I decided to Pinterest to find ideas.

That's when I saw one of a thousand pins about "Looking Glass" spray paint. In my head this was a beautiful exciting idea. I would turn the knobs into little mirrors. How nice would that look? Give the desk a bit of glam.

Hmmmm. One should most definately read the label prior to buying $8.00 a can spray paint. Looking Glass spray paint only works on the reverse of a glass surface. So you would have to spray the other side of the knob and have it show through...which doesn't work for solid wood. I still have no idea how the people do the fancy lamps they have pinned. Do they have holes in the bottom so they can spray the inside?!? 

I decided since I had already bought expensive spray paint, I would try it anyways.

BLEH. It created a dull nickel/silver/magic marker finish. Of course it also showed every single nick in the wood EVER. I left the knobs like this for a month or so trying to convince myself that they were okay. (I didn't want to spend the money to replace them).


After a month or so of noticing how ugly they were every single day, I decided it was time for action.

I decided I still wanted a girly glam look since nothing in my house is really like that. I thought it would also look nice with the curves of the desk. So, I decided to go with glass knobs. Since a knob is cheaper than a pull, I had to fill in the holes from the pull. 

My daughter and I went to Lowes, picked up some knobs and some white wood filler and got to work. She helped by "microwaving" the old pulls and I spent an hour or so filling in holes, drilling new ones and repainting the surface of the drawers.



Much much better! So now it's finally time to show off the "before" and "after"!

Before:


After:
I'm thinking that white chair might need a splash of color...what do you think? Or maybe a fun cushion?



Want to know how to make art just like my piece? I did a tutorial here.

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