Stairway Decor - Giant Frame

Anyone who knows me, knows that I am obsessed with frames. Especially empty frames. I just love the look. Some people don't understand it. Originally, I had my living room wall covered with empty frames. People just didn't understand it. Kept saying the dumbest things, like 'oh is that picture of your non-existent kids' or would keep asking what I was going to put in there. It became so annoying that I took them down and downsized to a small corner behind my tv. Now there are limited to zero questions, thankfully.

So naturally when I saw an example of this on Pinterest I fell in love. I had collected a bunch of  random things from the years from thrift stores and yard sales. This was the perfect opportunity to display all of my findings. I went to Home Depot and picked up a package of casing/molding for $17. I cut the pieces into two five foot and two four foot pieces. I cut the corners at 45 degrees.  Then painted it black. I put some of my favorite things it there and hung them on the wall.

I absolutely love it! So excited for others to see it!

Baby shower diaper motorcycle gift

I have seen so many different versions of a diaper cake including a big wheel, 4 wheeler and motorcycle. My boyfriend's brother is having a baby boy so I thought it'd be a perfect opportunity to make a motorcycle just like the baby's father has.

I used this blog tutorial here, http://www.sweetaprils.com/2011/08/diaper-motorcycle-tutorial-diy-how-to.html?m=1

It's a fantastic tutorial with a list of supplies needed also. I messed up and purchased burp clothes instead of receiving blankets but it worked out anyways!! I just had to use two burp clothes for the one receiving blanket that connected the wheels. It turned out pretty good! Very practical too!!

Sorry for the car picture!! I forgot to take some while I was making it! 

Easy quick cheap friend/coworker gift

My boyfriend is having a company holiday lunch and he wanted to give his coworkers a little holiday cheer. So we purchased some 6 packs of beer and decorated with some holiday cheer.

Indoor play tent

I loved having indoor play tents when I was a kid. My two favorites were my Popple round tent and my fisher price house tent. Loved them so much I made some tents for my nieces and nephews this year for Christmas. I posted earlier about the play tee pee for the older kids, but here are some tents for the younger ones.

Ella just turned 3 and I think she is goin to love this.

And Charlie just turned 1 and walking all around so I thought it would be fun for him too. His is green chevron. It's pretty simple to make. I purchases the fabric for Joann's and the wood from Lowes and Home Depot. 

Can't wait until they see them!!

Merry Christmas!!

Over sized gift tag door hangs

I found this amazing blog that made some over sized gift tag door decorations, http://thatsmyletter.blogspot.com/2012/11/w-is-for-wood-tags.html. They are amazing and the blog is super helpful with dimensions and cut lines. Jaime, the blogger, is way more talented then I am and she hand painted her tags. So my less than artistic self, used my Circut mini and purchased a Cursive font cartridge for $11 (digital cartridge because it was cheaper) and cut out some stencils to use for the gift tags.

My mom asked for these for Christmas but she wanted to be able to use them for an entire season not just the holiday times. So she wanted, 'The Drum's' instead of 'give thanks' as in the blog above. 

My boyfriend cut them for me and they turned out great. I cannot paint so I cut out some vinyl and added some craft glue because it would not stick to the wood. They look great. I just need to add some clear protective cover and tie the jute rope and viola!

Merry Christmas!!! 

Shabby Chic Picture Frame Wall Hanging

For Christmas my siblings and I pick names out for our gift exchange. This year we picked my brother and sister in-law's names. My brother is very hard to buy for but I got him a Google Chrome Cast because he is a techy kind of guy and I know that he will have fun playing around with that. Then I got them a gift card for dinner and a movie along with a night of babysitting from us. They rarely ever go out on dates and I know that my sister in-law would love that. So then I needed something small as a gift for my sister in-law. I saw something similar to what I made on the web and decided it was perfect. They had just gotten family photos professionally done for their Christmas cards so the picture was not difficult to find.

I went to Michael's and bought a shabby chic picture frame, a wooden letter 'D' and some burlap florets. I had some wood that I had been 'weathering' and found it to be absolutely perfect for this gift. I put it all together and this was the end result. I am in love with it. I hope that she liked it!

Shhhhh..... Christmas Gift, Play Teepee

If you live in the same house as Lyla and Jacy STOP READING!! 

Well, I'm not sure that is going to work but it's worth a shot. I cannot wait until after Christmas to post this project because it is that amazing. I have looked high and wide for a simple diy play teepee tutorial that makes sense to me, but none have tickled my fancy. So I am making one myself. Don't get me wrong there are so many amazing teepee tutorials out there. I read a ton and learned a ton but none of them were the size or consisted of the material that I was using.

Purchase List:

-6 - 1x2x6 Pine boards ( or really any type of wood. I purchased all of these at Home Depot for less than $12)

-1 - 6x9 painters canvas (about $10 from Home Depot)

-Rope

We used a 1/4" drill bit and drilled holes 1ft down one end of the pine boards. Then inserted the rope through the holes and tied it up for the teepee to stand. This is probably one of the hardest parts that should be the easiest, getting the teepee to stand on it's own. My tip- just get it to work somehow. 

I then created a pattern for the 6x9 ft painters canvas for the outside. This is where the other tutorials were lacking detail, in the detail. There are some patterns out there but they are for the smaller teepees. However, I wanted a 6ft teepee designed for a 3 & 5 year old to grow with, not outgrown in a month. So here is my pattern.

Be careful because you will need every last piece of that fabric. Measure twice and cut once. There are 2 pieces labeled A because you will need at least 4 sides for this teepee. My canvas was about an extra 1-2"

longer than normal but that ended up being perfectly ok.

We ended up just using 5 of the poles and wrapped the tee pee around and let the extra fabric hang and connected it with safety pins. Plan to give the kids some markers so they can decorate it as they see fit.

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays!!

P.s. More diy gifts to come :-)

Fall has arrived, wreath time!

Its officially fall in western New York and it's absolutely gorgeous outside!! That is, in the morning because by the time I get home from work it's pitch black outside!! But my drive into work is so pretty. 

We already did some canning, beef stew and a ton of casseroles now I just need to figure out how to make some good soup!

But in the meantime I made a bubble burlap wreath. Seriously the easiest thing to make which may be why I had such a hard time starting it!! But I purchased some chevron burlap ribbon from hobby lobby, which was sold out and took forever to restock and now it's out of stock again!! Ugh! But all you do is take a metal wreath frame and bunch the burlap from the back of the frame all around the frame until it looks like this,

I used two rolls of the burlap which was a total of 10 yards.

Then I added some clip on flowers from Michaels, these will change as the seasons and holidays change :-)

I absolutely love it!! I have it on my basement door which is in the kitchen!! Such a cute addition!!

I have two more wreaths I plan to make but they are with a styrofoam wreath frame. More complicated but well worth it in the end!! If only etsy shops had tutorials on how to make them yourself!! I would pay money for that!! 

Happy Fall!!

Farmer's wife Part 2

OMG who ever thought making apple sauce was easy was so wrong!! We have an abundance of apples on our tree and I wanted to use them for something so I decided to make apple sauce with the help of my loving boyfriend that is! The apples were so small it took forever to peel and cut them. We definitely have some skills to work on but eventually we finished!!

And of course I forgot to take photos either that or I couldn't because of all of the apple goo on my hands!!

But we also made some spicy garlic pickles!! And boy don't they just look gorgeous!! I might even eat one when they are done pickling!! They are just so colorful and go well with my kitchen paint :-)

Birthday Party Day!!

Little Che finally had his party and turned 1!! A lot of time and effort went into making this party the success that it was!! I would have never guess my sister and I would be up late the night before make 'hedgehogs' and 'acorns' but it was a lot of fun!! 

Picture over load begins:

I'm extremely impressed with my first real Cricut experience. Finally understand all of those layers and the shift/lock options for my Cricut!! Ha!!

1st Birthday Bash Party!!

In a of couple weeks I will be traveling to Kentucky to celebrate my nephew's first birthday! To help out I have been making some decorations using my cricut mini and the birthday bash cricut cartridge. Here are some pictures of the decorations at my house. More pictures to follow of the actual party!

Tarnish Removal worked!- doesn't work on my blog though!!

I'm starting to become a slacker again! I am determined to over come this though! We are still renovating our camper. Yesterday I bought some rubber roof coating to fix the motorhome roof with but go figure we are expected to have rain for a week straight! But I figured this would be a good time to remove all of the hardware and start degreasing the cabinet doors. I will blog about that once I start/ finish it :-) pinkie promise!

In the meantime, I thought I'd try and clean up one of my favorite necklaces that became tarnish from my lack of life. I only had one necklace to clean so I took a tablespoon of salt (regular table salt) and a tablespoon of baking soda and put it in a small bowl lined with tin foil and filled it with hot water. I put the necklace in for about 30 mins and was impressed with the end result. 

Cheers!

Our first Glamping Trip!

I never thought of myself as the glamping type and I still don't but there is pink, lace and turquoise so yes it's now Glamping!

Here are some pictures of the motorhome after the paint job and during our glamping trip! Right after I installed the doors and hardware. Relax? Don't mind if I do now!

Pardon the mess :-) organization and decoration are last on my list!!

Happy Labor Day weekend!!

Bridal Shower DIY Gift

I thoroughly enjoy making handmade gifts for special occasions such as baby showers, bridal showers, and holidays. Our friends are getting married in October of this year and the bride's bridal shower is this weekend. So project diy began.

My original thought was to make a crate on wheels that could act as a floor storage for blankets or pillows or magazines, whatever. I had the idea to use some of my recycled pallets to create a rustic look of sort. I looked up online what the best way was to disassemble a pallet. Looked easy and so my first attempt ensued. Well it didn't take my look to realize this was not as easy as it looked. I could barely get the crowbar between the pieces and when I did the wood started to split. So out the window went this idea.

I still wanted a crate of sort so I went to Lowe's bought some wood and built my own box. I used their directions for the decorative herb box, you can find it here.

It was easy and fun to make. Extremely rewarding to see the finished product!

After the box I needed to add the applique to my blanket. Our friend loves his name and we usually only call him by his last name. I love making little lap blankets. I love personalizing them also. I am starting to get way better at them too so that is always rewarding.

To add a little fun to the gift I printed out some tags for wine bottles that I found online. Very cute and something they could look forward to with every milestone. I found the printables an idea here.

Here is the finished product. Love!

Called in the Recruits - Day 2!

What a weekend!! My mouth is still swollen from getting my wisdom teeth pulled however that did not stop our motorhome renovation weekend!  

The ceiling and moulding is done and our primer is on!! Hopefully within the next couple days we will get a coat or two of paint on and be rocking and rolling for the weekend!! We used Kilz primer and it worked amazingly!! It covered everything with one coat!

Dreams are becoming reality :-)

Called in the recruits!! We have a ceiling!

Oh what a crazy summer it's been! We have participated in 5 separate softball leagues with one still in progress. Yesterday, 10 yrs too late, I got my wisdoms teeth out and today I'm pretty much useless. However my boyfriend and father are not. My niece is really looking forward to camping with us and my father is taking it as his responsibility to make sure we don't let her down :-). 

Just in one day and we have a ceiling 

So as I lay here with a swollen face and a mouthful of grossness I send out a huge THANKS to those two. Couldn't have done it without them. 

I usually like to give cost estimates in case other people are looking to do the same thing. I purchased 4 sheets of luan plywood for about $50 then picked up the wrong moulding for about $20. Then with addition to some liquid nails I spent about $80. All-in-all I'd say it was a good investment.

Cheers!

Niece's Pre-school Graduation Gift

My niece graduated preschool this past week so I thought if make her a little something to celebrate. Her family recently bought a camper so they have been out and about with it this summer. I thought this little bag was the perfect addition to her camping accessories. I added a few extras to keep her busy with at the campground. Have I ever mentioned that she is the most girlish girl I know ? :-) 

I used this tutorial, 

http://www.somewhatsimple.com/my-little-adventure-pack/

It was my first time making a button hole it didn't turn out the best but I learned a lot!! Enjoy the pictures!!

Here is the fabric I used.

Here is the appliqué I created.

Appliqué on the fabric.

My terrible buttonhole.

Finished product.

And here is the last one with a few extras :-)