Upcycle

Pinterest is an awesome bad habit. I haven't gotten too many good recipes off of it recently, but I have definitely been crossing off some of the projects I've been wanting to try in my "DI Why Not" board. The latest being hats made from old sweaters. In my case, I didn't use an old sweater, just one that my hubby got and decided he could do without it. So, I took it from him, made a few snips here and there and wah-la. Two hats for my kids.

It was really simple to do. You can follow the tutorial from the original pin here. Basically you're just going to cut the shape of the hat from both the front and back of the sweater at the very bottom. Then you're going to sew both pieces inside out along the edge that you cut. Turn it right side out. Done! Simple, right?! I should note that the thicker the sweater, the harder it will be to sew...I learned that the hard way, but I got it done and this is what I came up with.

Then, I added a couple of my own embellishments just to make them slightly more appealing and relative to each child.

So easy, right?! Hopefully these will help keep their heads nice and warm during the coming winter months...even though each have a head full of hair that cushions their precious little noggins from any hits. :P

Upcycle. Recycle.

Color Me Wonderful

I've been mentioning several projects that I've been wanting to work on lately. I have a whole list of things I want to do, try, finish. Well, last night I got out my sewing machine and got to work. It's been a minute since I've actually used it, but luckily it's kind of like riding a bike - once you get started it all comes back to you. I threaded the machine with the color I intended to use and got right down to it.

On a recent visit to a nearby flea market-esque shop, I found a couple of scarves that caught my eye. They were a pair of vintage Vera silk-blend scarves. They were very vibrant in color and in pretty good condition. Ever since I saw a particular episode of The Nate Berkus Show, I've been wanting to make a pillow of scarves. So here these two pieces of fragile material were and I just had to take it home with me. I'm pretty excited about this project seeing as we just bought a new couch. The living room is looking a little blah to me so in order to add some color as well as some character, I thought this would be just the right time to get started. Once I did, I realized that these are unique and awesome and that I needed to share it with others. So, I looked online and bought a couple more vintage scarves off of Etsy and have turned them all into pillows. :) I am keeping a couple for myself, but am also planning on selling some on my own Etsy page that has not yet been posted, but I will definitely be putting up a link once I do.

Here are the results of my recent sewing adventure.

Materials: scarves, white fabric, pins, and thread. Simplicity :)

The purple and pink pillows will be up for sale once I open my shop on Etsy. The black and white pillow to the far right is actually a pillow cover that I made for a toss pillow we already had and was getting tired of. :)

Another project I crossed of my list of projects to do are melty bead bowls. These are made from perler beads placed inside an oven-safe bowl and melted to take on its shape. Once cool it is its own little bowl. I am making my creations available on Etsy as well. They are fun and abstract and everyone needs some color in their homes. Color makes people happy.

Aren't these fun?! You can do them on your own or with your kids as well! Just take a bunch of perler beads you can find at your local craft store, spray some cooking spray in your oven-safe bowl and bake for 10-15 minutes at 400 degrees. Once it cools, they just fall right out.

Have a great night!

Simplicity

Unless you've been living under a rock, you know that the ombre look is everywhere. It's a trend people are applying to their hair color, furniture and nail color. Ombre is basically a term for one shade of color that fades. Well, I'm not really on the bandwagon for the ombre nails or hair...at least I haven't seen a particular look that would persuade me to pay the chunk of money it would take to color my length and thickness of hair. And I would love to do an ombre furniture piece but the house is currently not in need of any extra furniture...for now. So, seeing as I have yet to do a piece of art for my youngest child (which I have been meaning to do since before he was born) I decided why not throw some ombre on a canvas.

My daughter has painted wooden letters spelling out one of her names (all my kids have 4...I know, I know...I apologize to them now!) up on her wall and my older son has a canvas with his name and animals painted around them. I had previously purchased a pack of canvases and I have a stash of painting supplies. So I pulled out a paint brush and my acrylic paints. And this is what came of my trendy idea...it started out with the color shading. I put to canvases side by side so as to be consistent with the size of the shades and the shade of the color. I started out with the original teal-ish color and added a drop or so of white for each new shade.

Once it dried I added my son's given Japanese name in kanji.

I'm pretty pleased with the way it turned out. I was not trained in Japanese writing or calligraphy or anything so I do not necessarily know how to write, or in this case paint, the characters that great, but it is what it is.

Painting and these other projects have become a fun outlet for me. I don't claim to be super awesome and artistic and what have you, but if it's fun why not. It's the simple things in life. :)

Have a great Wednesday!

What's in the Mirror

This is a boring one, but I thought I'd put it out there anyway. After 3 kids I dont expect to look the same as I did before they were even thought of...ok, I'm a woman so of course they were thought of...but you know what I mean. Anyway, my husband has been on a health kick. I was right there with him for a while. And when I say right there with him I mean in spirit for the first couple of weeks and then I actually even worked out with him...that lasted a whole week! Haha.  But somehow at some point I fell off the wagon and now here I am.

I suppose I'm not the only one which is why America has the problems it does. So why is it that our society puts so much pressure on everyone to look their best yet motivation is fleeting and will power, in my case, is nonexistent. I look in the mirror and wish the excess away as if I have melt away vision. How do people do it? I'm not exactly comfortable with my reflection (though I try my best to maintain fabulosity because moms deserve it, too) but it doesn't seem like enough to get my butt moving. *shrug*

Anyway, on another note, I have such a long list of projects I want to do, but not enough time to do it!!! Ahh...stay posted for what's to come!

Curb Alert

So, I was once obsessed with the Nate Berkus show and all the style, decor, and DIY tips that came out of that handsome man's mouth. But I began itching to do EVERYTHING on his show and was wishing I had a house of my own...it didn't help that I became a mother of 3 instead of 2 demanding children. Now, I catch it whenever I can. Anyway, Nate used to have many a guests who transformed their spaces with a lil paint and elbow grease and I always wished I had a piece of furniture I loved enough to fix up, but quite frankly, we bought everything new and it's still holding up pretty well. So when I saw a cute little chest of drawers out on my neighbor's curb for disposal, I got excited. I debated back and fourth whether I wanted to snatch it up. I've never done anything like that and I was a little embarrassed. But one rainy day, I couldn't stand to see the wood get ruined and with no one watching (I hope), I carried it into my garage where it sat for months. In fact, the neighbor recently came over to chit chat as our kids played outside and I'm pretty sure she spotted it considering I don't have much in there. Though she didn't say anything. Haha. Well, I just recently found the time and motivation to get started on it. I didn't know what I wanted. I thought about keeping it a similar cream color and touching up the hardware and design to maintain it's vintage feel - I don't actually know if it is vintage. But instead I came across a silver leaf dresser on Pinterest. I decided to try something similar since I don't have a clue how to silver leaf and don't have the patience to learn how to do that on top of it being my first time refinishing a piece.

So I made my way to the Home Depot (the first of many trips) to look at their paint selection. I picked up a white Paint & Primer In One spray and some metallic glaze from Martha Stewart's collection in Mercury (as was advised by an associate) to get a similar look. I had already fallen in love with a pair of vintage inspired knobs from Urban Outfitters and was designing everything else around them. And lastly, I found 2 handles (also from Martha Stewart's collection at the Home Depot) that went really well with the knobs. I had to make sure the glaze color, which was silver, didn't wash out the silver handles.

Some of the supplies used.

Then I got home and got started. I cleaned out the drawer and "sanded" down parts of it with a wire brush where a few stickers were plastered on. I also took pieces of a lace curtain I picked up at the Goodwill and Mod Podged it to the front of the drawers - another idea off of Pinterest. I then took it out to my back patio and sprayed down each piece separately with the white primer. Once dried, it was time to paint the glaze on. I used a paint brush as well as a sponge brush. It took a couple of coats to cover it completely and even still I was so unhappy with it. I didn't like how obvious the brush strokes were and wished I had used a metallic spray paint instead. It wasn't until everything was put together with all the hardware that I accepted the way it looked. I began to see that the steaks gave it some wear and character and I couldn't wait to take it up to our bedroom. I can't forget to add that I also used self adhesive shelf liners I found on a recent trip to TJ Maxx for inside the drawers adding a little pizazz and preventing any snags.

Before and After pictures

 You can see the imperfect paint strokes in these detailed pictures. But I learned to love them.

As much as I wanted to display it, it didn't go well with the current decor so it had to go into my closet, which was the plan anyway. The piece isn't very large so I'm using it to store my more delicate laundry leaving an extra drawer in my dresser for my clothes. :)

You have to remember that Rome wasn't built in a day. This project wouldn't be done in a day even for the most experienced seeing as it takes quite some time for the paint to dry completely...especially if you are using multiple coats as I did. I should also note that my hubby had to help me plaster the old holes and drill new ones for the door handles as the original ones were made closer together than the new handles I bought. I had chosen all of my hardware very carefully and didn't want to give up the items I chose and therefore we opted for this approach. For a beginner like me, this project was rather time consuming and I couldn't wait for it to be over...especially since I had 3 other "projects" to attend to I will refer to as "the Diva," "Mommy's Bubby" and "Be-bo." But after all the time and work put in, I am pretty pleased with my first project of this kind. I would like to do more in the future. I hope you like it as well! :)

Hope you're having a great Sunday!

5 Minute DIY

I've put together a couple more projects. Not sure where I found the motivation though. Haha. A poster on Pinterest said it perfectly - "There is a lot of cool shit I found to make on Pinterest if I could just get the hell off Pinterest" - among other things. :)
I was really intrigued by a couple of pins to make a tiered cake stand from dollar store finds for bathroom counter storage here and here. I decided to take elements from each one to make my own.
The items I used included candlestick holders from the dollar store and plain white stove burners from Walmart (these were about $9 for a set of 4 which is more than the inspirations spent, but I avoided having to spray paint them plus my local dollar stores don't seem to carry them. I also used the E6000 adhesive recommended by the first pinner that I found at Michael's craft store. I opted for the easier of the 2 by gluing the tiers together and it seems to be holding up pretty well so far. I originally tried simple hot glue, but that was a disaster. It fell apart by morning.
The second of the projects was a bow holder for my daughter. She's been collecting her share of girly hair accessories including a set of 2 Rapunzel clips and a feathery flower she bought at a craft show just today. So I decided to put together a simple organizing solution.
It only requires an old frame, a few pieces of ribbon and a staple gun or short nails. I already had all of these at home. I removed the backing and glass from the frame and stapled 3 types of ribbons onto it. I had done sher ribbon so I overlapped a skinnier and a thicker piece together. I may add my daughter's name at the top with some foam or paper letters later on and you may opt to paint the frame as well. This project took all of 5 minutes. The inspiration for this came from a pin that originated from here.
Happy crafting!

Target in French is Target!

Alright, if I've heard it once, I've heard it a million times - you can't just walk into Target with a list or specific products and expect to come out with just those (that) item(s). You, the consumer, are the target of Target stores. Nonetheless, I don't hate them for it. :p Target has great-looking, practical products for usually a pretty good deal. I have a soft spot for Target (are you using a French accent to pronounce it like I am?).
I went in this afternoon only to pick up some pictures I had ordered online to be printed in store for a project my son is doing in preschool. I happened to have a mobile coupon for $5 off of 50 prints making it less than $5 total...even after tax. You can sign up for Target mobile coupons on their website. But of course, even though the photo service area is at the very front of the store, I decided to wander into the abyss like bugs to light.
I started off in the dollar section (also located at the front of the store). To my surprise, I found something I "needed". It's one of the fabric 6 shelf shoe storage thingys you can hang in your closet. I didn't see any at my last visit to the dollar store so I decided to pick it up since my daugher and I  pick out her clothes for the week and need a place to organize them. It was priced at $2.50 but to an even greater surprise, when I got to the register, it rang up for $.75. That's better than the dollar store and probably cuter than anything I could find there.
I began to walk around the rest of the store heading for the ends of the aisles where the clearance items are usually stocked. I love seeing those red stickers plastered onto products I want/need...often times it doesn't fall into any of those categories, but they somehow end up in my shopping cart anyway...oops! If you haven't been to your local Target store recently, it's worth a look see. Now that school has started and summer is coming to a close, school supplies and warm weather clothes are all on sale! I picked out 3 notebooks - 1 for my hubby who's taking a couple of classes ($.11), 1 for my daughter to draw in ($.50) and 1 for myself for organizational purposes ($.50). My daughter's school district provides all of her school supplies, but for those who aren't so lucky, you can stock up for next school year for your own children or to donate. I also picked up a pack of 3 highlighters for $.92. If I'm not mistaken, there was a coupon out for $1 off of 2 Bic products. If it's still valid, that means you can get 2 packs of 3 pens for $.42 ea! It's worth being said that these items will probably be reduced even further than the current 30% off, but knowing Target's shoppers I decided to get what I wanted before there was no more to get.
The next section I was drawn to was the children's clothes. Even though there are only a few warm days left, my youngest son doesn't have very many shorts to use in the meantime. Lucky for me, I found a couple of pairs that were stamped with that good ol' red sticker with a price that made them worth the few wears they are going to get ($2.50 and $2.70). I also found a very on-trend colorblock dress for my daughter for $3.88. And I can't forget the yellow bubble skirt I found for $1.50. I know a certain little girl we call our niece that would look absolutely adorable in it. And if course, I had to find a matching top, but unfortunately I didn't find one I cared for on the clearance rack. Then again, Target has great play clothes at affordable prices so I found one I liked. (To her mommy...if you are reading this, don't be offended! Cute clothes can be found at all price points and it's not all she'll be getting for her next birthday or Christmas.)
That was that for my clearance shopping. On my way to the registers I found a cheap kitchen timer seeing as my daughter needs a lesson in eating dinner with the family no matter what is on her plate within a reasonable amount of time. It shall get bedazzled in some way. :) And there were also a few jewelry items with a red sticky that I avoided. :( Anyway, here are my fun finds for the day.
Enjoy!

Update 9/10/2012: I actually dragged my husband and kids to Target the very same evening to stock up on some school supplies myself seeing as next year, we may be moving again to a district that does not provide school supplies. Therefore, I picked up a couple more spiral notebooks ($.11), composition books ($.35) and designer notebooks ($.50) as well as a couple more packs of the highlighters as I did indeed find my coupon for $1 off of 2 Bic products. Yay for sales!!!

The Family Raves

I reaaaally love my slow cooker! I just found a recipe for lasagna in my slow cooker on Pinterest. My hubby started off hating that I was constantly on Pinterest, but now he doesn't care much...in fact, just the other night, he said, "Thank you, Pinterest." He's getting the perks of having a wife who can cook a wider variety of recipes than I once did. What I love the most is that I realized I can find really hearty, yummy, and healthy meals that are super easy to make.  This past week I made 2 new recipes I found on Pinterest, both of which turned out rather delicious. The first was a recipe for Sweet and Sour Chicken. My child who hates chicken decided this was her favorite dish. I already had everything I needed for it in my kitchen so this is the perfect go to meal when I don't have a clue what to make and I don't want to run out to the grocery store to pick up random ingredients. Here it is:

Pinned from here

And my version via Instagram:

The other recipe was for the Crock Pot Lasagna. It was really yummy and faster and easier to make then typical lasagna as you don't have to precook the noodles and it's done in 4 hours on low heat. I put it in right after lunch and Ta-Daaaa, it was ready for dinner. The only thing I would change up is to use ricotta cheese instead of cottage cheese. Not everyone is a fan, but I kind of like it. The only problem I encountered is when I realized that I probably need to go back to Kindergarten to relearn what a pattern is. I definitely put the wrong layers in at the wrong time. There was no genuine pattern that went into the slow cooker on my part. Hahahaha. I also didn't think that the 2 repititions of layers would be enough for my family of 5...well, only 4 of us can actually eat yet...but it would have been. I definitely didn't need to add in the extra layers that I did. Here is the original:

Pinned from here.

And my finished product (beware it's not very pretty, but it doesn't have to be pretty to taste good):

Now what to make tomorrow seeing as it's Labor Day today and who doesn't do a bbq today??? :D

Minor Details

Ever since the Android Market released the Pinterest App, I have been going crazy pinning - mostly Fall looks, easy recipes, and birthday party ideas for kids. And I have been trying a few of them out as well and wanted to share how it worked for me here, but of course, the internet decided to check itself out and we're having issues getting any real help from the cable company...grrrrr! Nonetheless here I am amidst this issue borrowing internet from the nearby community center because I just couldn't wait any longer.

For me multi-use clothing is essential for this penny pinching momma. Don't get me wrong, I'm often a brand (excuse my language) whore, but I will also look for the best price on the item or work in some kind of discount to my advantage. So finding a look that could transition from Summer to Fall on Pinterest got me all kinds of hot and bothered! Hahaha. This look takes the bright colors of the warm weather months to comfy cozy chic of the briskier temperatures approaching. And I'll even share my secret to where I got my mock-up look. But first, here is the original pin:

Pinned from here.

And here is my version (please excuse the smudge on the mirror as my mini diva enjoys looking at herself as well):

Pocket Maxi Dress from a boutique I love here (used a $25 gift card promotion from Facebook)

Express cardigan - old and found on clearance, but cardis are currently everywhere so find one you love

Leopard infinity scarf here (used my 10% military discount and if you took the survey on the receipt after your last purchase, you can stack that on there too)

Black wedges here.

Enjoy!