Fairy Garden Fail

I'm not a big fantasy creature fan but I saw a ton of adorable fairy garden ideas floating around the web this year and was inspired to try my own.

I had a big planter that a friend had gifted me before their out-of-state move. I usually just put some annuals in it every year but knew it would be a good start for my fairy garden.
I had ideas. I sketched them out. But like so many of my projects, it didn't turn out nearly as cute as I had imagined it would.

I found a few pieces at various craft stores (the fairy door - JoAnn's; the arch and yellow chair - A.C. Moore; the plants and mini hedgehog at a local nursery).

I broke a terra cotta pot to make a tiered space with a little beach pebble path up to my fairy house. So... the fairy house was a little craft project to fill in until I can afford to buy something. I hot glued shells all over a small, plastic flower pot (turned upside down) and it's tray (set on top of the inverted pot). It looks like a 1st grader did it. Sad. But it was all stuff I had on hand. :)

 

I need to get a fairy house and a little pond (or seal up the bottom of that mini plant pot), and I'll plan my plants better next year and give it another try. But for now, here's my fairy garden fail.

Gray Ombre Dresser

Soprano's room re-do is now 98% done due to some new furniture! Huzzah! :)

We fixed some issues with the paint and repainted the whole room, made an art gallery, got new curtains and bed linens, created embroidery hoop art, and repurposed an old drawer into a photo display. With the room re-do, we started considering replacing her bedroom furniture. The dresser was only 3-drawers and becoming to small for a tweenager's wardrobe. It matched the desk so we ended up selling the whole set to help pay for some new pieces.

I found the dresser at our local Habitat Re-Store. (Well, they posted it on their Facebook page and drove over there almost immediately to snag it.)

It had a weird, wood-look faux paint finish. Bass sanded it down so I could prime and paint it.

It took two coats of primer and four coats of paint to cover. The dresser frame is Olympic Crumb Cookie, the color of the trim in our house. For the drawers, I decided to do a gray ombre. I thought about mixing the paint myself but went with (the much easier) paint samples from Lowe's. I would have preferred a semi-gloss, not a satin, finish but for $5, it was worth it.
The drawer colors from top to bottom are: Seashell Gray, Filtered Shade (the same color as Soprano's walls), Rocky Bluffs, Cathedral Stone, and Rugged Suede. (All Valspar.)

 To make the insides just as pretty, I lined them with decorative paper. ($2 from Michael's).

 

The finishing touches were a silver spray paint over the original brass hardware and a new mirror (Hobby Lobby) and dresser scarf (my fabric stash.)

And yes, this photo is staged. As of right now, there's a bunch of tween "treasures" sitting on top. :)

Linking up to some or all of these great blog parties:

Sunday: It's Overflowing; Sunday Showcase at Under the Table and Dreaming;
Monday: Inspire Me Monday at Sand and Sisal; Tutorials and Tips at Home Stories A to Z; Monthly Before and After at Thrifty Decor Chick
Wednesday: Wicked Awesome Wednesday at Handy Man, Crafty Woman; Whatever Goes Wednesday at Someday Crafts; 
Friday: Frugal Friday at The Shabby Nest; Flaunt it Friday at Chic on a Shoestring;

Featured at 24 Cottonwood Lane
and at 
 

Cleaning Up the Cleaning Up Stuff

In our laundry room, I have an extra closet. Yay for storage! We keep our crates of bottled water, the vacuum, the steam vacuum, and out-of-season coats in there. I had all of my larger cleaning tools in there too but it was kind of a mess. I needed the shelf of the closet to hold our pool bag which was okay because the cleaning tools were just hanging up out there and they'd get pushed to the back where I couldn't reach them. The swiffer and broom were standing in the corner which meant they'd fall over all the time.
Ikea to the rescue. We added a Bygel rail to this piece of wood that was on the back of the closet door.

I added a few Bygel hooks and a few other, plastic Ikea hooks that don't seem to be available anymore.

With a cheap and fast fix, I have a place for cleaning tools, my clothespins, and some room to grow! Now if I could just get Bass to downsize all of his coats!

Linking up to some or all of these great blog parties:

Sunday: It's Overflowing; Sunday Showcase at Under the Table and Dreaming;
Monday: Inspire Me Monday at Sand and Sisal; Tutorials and Tips at Home Stories A to Z; Monthly Before and After at Thrifty Decor Chick
Wednesday: Wicked Awesome Wednesday at Handy Man, Crafty Woman; Whatever Goes Wednesday at Someday Crafts; 
Friday: Frugal Friday at The Shabby Nest; Flaunt it Friday at Chic on a Shoestring;

Old Drawer Turned Photo Display

Soprano's room redo is coming along. We created art gallery shelves and artwork, hung embroidery hoops, added a cushy rug, and made artwork for above her bed out of an old pallet.

The latest decor project was to create a display for her memorabilia and keepsake things that she likes to look at. She likes to get postcards when we travel and enjoys receiving them from family members. She used to have a French memo board but it didn't work with her new color scheme. I went digging on Pinterest for ideas and merged a few together to come up with this.

We got a drawer from our local Habitat Re-Store for only $3. I painted the sides and top with the same paint we used on her trim. To dress up the back, I covered a piece of foam core (from Michael's) with a thin layer of craft batting. Then I took this French Script fabric (from JoAnn's) and layered it over the batting. I wrapped it around the edges and taped it on to the back. It fit snugly so I didn't tape or glue the fabric board at all; just stuffed it in. This way we can change it out down the road if we want.

 

Then Bass took some little eye hooks and screwed them into the sides so he could attach metal wire to them. I spray painted mini clothespins with yellow spray paint (that I used on her picture frames) which clip all her memories to the wires.

Now it hangs above her desk.One more project done!

Linking up to some or all of these great blog parties:

Sunday: It's Overflowing; Sunday Showcase at Under the Table and Dreaming;
Monday: Inspire Me Monday at Sand and Sisal; Tutorials and Tips at Home Stories A to Z; Monthly Before and After at Thrifty Decor Chick
Wednesday: Wicked Awesome Wednesday at Handy Man, Crafty Woman; Whatever Goes Wednesday at Someday Crafts; 
Friday: Frugal Friday at The Shabby Nest; Flaunt it Friday at Chic on a Shoestring;

This project was featured at Handy Man, Crafty Woman!

There's a Cuff in My Boot! - DIY Boot Cuffs

Did you read the title using Woody's (from Toy Story) voice? I sure did, pard'ner!

I'm not a fashion blogger by any means but I saw this idea on Pinterest and wanted to share my take on it. I have a few pairs of boots that I like to wear, especially when it's cold out because they keep my legs warm. Sometimes though, it's fun to pretend that I'm actually a cool person and dress those boots up with boot socks or cuffs.

Have you seen how expensive some of them can be? Yikes!

Following that pin's advice, I decided to make my own. First up, a trip to the local Goodwill. I found three sweaters in the bargain section (aka about $2.00 for all of them) that I didn't mind cutting up. (Bonus: I have extra brown and white pieces that I can use to dress-up candles next fall!)

I trimmed the sleeves to the length I thought I wanted (Hint: make them longer than I did or you'll be constantly worried that they're poking their way out of your boot.) After trimming, I ran a zig-zag stitch around the raw edge a couple times just so they wouldn't fray into pieces.

For the white cuffs, I salvaged the buttons off the cardigan and attached them to the top of my cuffs for additional interest. I had just enough to put three buttons on each cuff.

I'm cool now, right?

Well... now I just need to get some mitten clips so the knees of my jeans don't get so baggy.

Linking up to some or all of these great blog parties:

Sunday: Sunday Showcase at Under the Table and Dreaming;
Monday: Inspire Me Monday at Sand and Sisal; Tutorials and Tips at Home Stories A to Z; It's Overflowing; Monthly Before and After at Thrifty Decor Chick
Wednesday: Wicked Awesome Wednesday at Handy Man, Crafty Woman; Whatever Goes Wednesday at Someday Crafts; 
Friday: Frugal Friday at The Shabby Nest; Flaunt it Friday at Chic on a Shoestring;

Horse Pallet Art

Soprano's room re-do is coming along. After painting, we decorated with some loaded up picture gallery shelves and with embroidery hoops. Our next project was to upcycle an old pallet into more art for this horse-themed room. I liked this version via Pinterest and wanted to create my own.

Bass got an old pallet from our local Habitat Re-Store. He dismantled it and cut the boards to the length I wanted. After attaching the boards together with some thin wood boards, he also added a metal hanger.

 The hanger thing is cool and all but the front is the pretty part. :) I cut a horse shape (from Cricut's Old West cartridge) out of vinyl and put it on the boards. Then I dry-brushed over the vinyl with the same color paint as her trim (Olympic Crumb Cookie). When it was dry, I peeled the vinyl off and voila. Bass sanded a few parts where I got a little heavy-handed with the paint for this final result.

Now it's the feature piece that hangs above her bed. (We're looking to get her a different bed this spring which is why it's hanging a little high at the moment.)

Just a few more projects to go before the room reveal!

Linking up to some or all of these great blog parties:

Sunday: Sunday Showcase at Under the Table and Dreaming;
Monday: Inspire Me Monday at Sand and Sisal; Tutorials and Tips at Home Stories A to Z; It's Overflowing; Monthly Before and After at Thrifty Decor Chick
Wednesday: Wicked Awesome Wednesday at Handy Man, Crafty Woman; Whatever Goes Wednesday at Someday Crafts; 
Friday: Frugal Friday at The Shabby Nest; Flaunt it Friday at Chic on a Shoestring;

Love is Valentine's Day Branch Display

I don't usually do much Valentine's Day decorating...mostly because I'm lazy. It comes too close on the heels of having decorated for Christmas then winter. It would be up for such a short amount of time that it doesn't really feel worth the effort. (This makes me a bad home/DIY blogger, doesn't it?)
This year I was inspired by a couple ideas that I saw (this banner and this centerpiece) and decided to clear the dining room of my winter and snowman decor and put this up instead.

Braving the cold, I went tromping in my backyard and cut branches from a forsythia bush and added some other random twigs that fallen in the yard after some recent wind. I cut the hearts from various scraps of cardstock I had on-hand using Cricut's Cricut Classic Font cartridge and then stamped the words ('God is...', 'love', and the words from 1 Corinthians 13's "love" passage) with Faith (TAC), Mini-Bet (TAC), Simple Bet (TAC), Nurture Your Soul (TAC), and Rummage (Making Memories).

I added baker's twine from Queen and Co. to the hearts and hung them all on the branches.

I used several Bible versions for my hearts but here is the passage in the NLT.
⁴ Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant ⁵ or rude. 
It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; ⁶ it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. ⁸ Love never ends...
¹³ So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

1 Corinthians 13:4-8, 13

Linking up to some or all of these great blog parties:

Sunday: Sunday Showcase at Under the Table and Dreaming;
Monday: Inspire Me Monday at Sand and Sisal; Tutorials and Tips at Home Stories A to Z; It's Overflowing; Monthly Before and After at Thrifty Decor Chick
Wednesday: Wicked Awesome Wednesday at Handy Man, Crafty Woman; Whatever Goes Wednesday at Someday Crafts; 
Friday: Frugal Friday at The Shabby Nest; Flaunt it Friday at Chic on a Shoestring;

Creating Inexpensive Art for Gallery Shelves

Over Christmas and New Year's, Bass had time off so I figured it might be time for a house project. After debating on a few possibilities, it seemed that working on Soprano's room would be the easiest and cheapest project. It didn't quite turn out as expected but the end results were worth it.

When we moved in four years ago, we painted everything in the house. For some reason, the paint never stuck to the trim and doors in Soprano's room. We've been battling peeling paint this whole time. I thought we had sanded and primed for the original paint job but maybe we missed her room. Whatever the reason, we needed to scrape all of her trim, including her door and the radiator, then sand and prime it. Bass and Tenor tackled most of the grunt work, and I took over for the painting.

Soprano's old 'little girl' room

All the trim in our house is the same color, Olympic's Crumb Cookie, and I had a quarter gallon left from previous jobs so that was easy. But we thought that if we were going to pull everything out of Soprano's room to scrape, sand, and paint trim, we should probably consider repainting her walls at the same time. I didn't want to pick new wall paint unless we were sure what the decor scheme would be which caused a trip to Christmas Tree Shops where we found a new bedspread set.

We went from a very pink little girl room to a gray, horse-themed  tween space. To make the change happen, I wanted to hang some gallery shelves and fill them with new artwork. I figure the art will be easy to change out down the road and keep us from putting a million holes in the walls.

I repainted a bunch of frames we had on hand and filled them free printables.

Find this printable in multiple colors here

I used a page from an old calendar for this one:

I found an idea to use paper strips cut from magazines on Pinterest. Rather than cut the silhouette first and piece the strips, I glued the strips down onto cardstock first, then took my horse shape (from Cricut's Old West cartridge) and traced it on the back. I cut it out and then attached it some patterned paper (DCWV "Green Stack").

I made a monogram (from Cricut's Everyday Fonts cartridge) with buttons and framed it in a shadowbox frame. *Helpful tip: trace your monogram or shape onto your base (fabric or cardstock) and then use small buttons to fill the bottom layer. It's easier to fill the shape or letter with small buttons and then layer larger ones on top. If you start with big buttons on the bottom, it's harder to fill in small gaps. *This tip may be offered because of user experience.

I also redid this letter monogram that used to hang in Soprano's toddler room at our old house. The red, ladybug look didn't fit the new horse theme. It wasn't hard to peel off the old paper and recover it.

We found this piece at Goodwill. It was in a really chunky (really ugly) dark wood frame-thing. It was all built-in and very strange looking. Bass demo-ed it for me and cut a piece of thin wood from his stash and added the clips.

Because I felt crafty, I painted two canvases. I did a fingerprint one of pussywillow branches. To get the dimension in the catkins, I dipped my finger in a bit of yellow, then green, then gray.

and I used this stencil to paint a dahlia.

I made this one from some fabrics I had left-over from the embroidery hoop art that I framed like this:

I used silver Liquid Pearls to outline the flower.

 Here's the finished look:

Underneath the shelves you can see the first of two shadowboxes for Soprano's TaeKwonDo belts. We're trying to flatten out her other belts to make them fit into the frame. I just got a second one to hang on the other side of her birthday party canvas for additional belts.

I obviously didn't have any trouble filling those shelves up. Perhaps we should have made them longer!

Cheap art costs:

3 frames from Salvation Army $1

Small shadowbox frame $5

Buttons for monogram $3

Belt shadowboxes 2 @ $15 each

Horse oil painting from Goodwill $3

Clipboard $1.50

3 cans of spray paint (yellow, gray, white) $15

3 12x12 frames, 3 4x4 frames, 5 8x10 frames, 2 canvases, acrylic paint, scrapbook paper - on hand

Total: $58.50 

Not bad for all that art and a way to showcase her TKD belts!

Linking up to some or all of these great blog parties:

Sunday: Sunday Showcase at Under the Table and Dreaming;
Monday: Inspire Me Monday at Sand and Sisal; Tutorials and Tips at Home Stories A to Z; It's Overflowing; Monthly Before and After at Thrifty Decor Chick
Wednesday: Wicked Awesome Wednesday at Handy Man, Crafty Woman; Whatever Goes Wednesday at Someday Crafts; 
Friday: Frugal Friday at The Shabby Nest; Flaunt it Friday at Chic on a Shoestring;