A-deer-able Leggings

I have been getting into sewing clothes for my girls lately.  These deer leggings were one of my first kids patterns that I did for all three girls.  I used fabric from Girl Charlee and the Lollipop Leggings pattern from Peek-A-Boo Pattern Shop.  The deer fabric was not the ideal fabric for leggings, since it didn't have any stretch to it, but the print was too cute, so I had to use it anyway.  They have held up pretty well, and kids grow so fast that they will grow out of them before they wear out.  The fit on the pattern was great, and they were way easier than I expected.  Definitely a great beginner pattern!

Fabric Pom Pom Headbands

I made some of these fabric pom pom headbands in anticipation of the newest member of our family-- our third baby girl!  Her big sister was slightly willing to model them for me, since we haven't met our little bundle yet.  We are not hurting for girly stuff around here, but it's always fun to make something new.  This project is great for using fabric scraps, and these didn't take too long using this tutorial from Little Miss Momma.

I got the fancy elastic a while ago from Pick Your Plum, and it's perfect for these headbands.  After googling headband sizes, I varied all the lengths between 12" and 15" for newborn head sizes and up.  Obviously some of them are big enough for a two-year-old, but I also made a couple of smaller baby sizes.

Can't wait to meet our little girl!

Curvy Pleated Pouch & New Mom Hospital Survival Kit

I discovered this curvy pleated pouch tutorial on Pinterest from Charm Stitch months ago, but I only thought to make some a couple of weeks ago for Christmas gifts.  I made two, and they both turned out super cute, although I didn't get any photos of the second one.  I would have made another one for myself, but I ran out of zippers (and time).  I loved that I was able to use some of my cute fabric scraps for these, too.

My sister-in-law is pregnant and due with her first baby soon, and I had her name for the gift exchange, so I thought it might be fun to do a little "Hospital Survival Kit" to go inside the pouch.  It's kind of hard to tell in these first pictures, but these pouches end up as a pretty good sized clutch, so there is a bit of room in there.  Having had two kids myself, I was able to think of a few little luxuries that are nice to have in the hospital.  Here's what I included:

Socks, lip balm, mints, and nail polish may seem like silly things to send, but when you are sitting in a hospital room wearing an ugly gown and not quite feeling yourself, it's the little things that cheer you up and make you feel like a normal person again.  Lip balm is great for when you aren't allowed to eat anything, mints for when you can't get up and brush your teeth, nail polish for if you get some downtime, and socks are the only clothes of your own you can wear all the time.

I had so much fun putting this together, that I may have to start taking these to baby showers.  Hopefully I get around to making one for myself, as I'll be wanting it come March!

ETA: You can buy this Cabbage Rose fabric by Heather Bailey online from The Cloth Parcel!

DIY Spidergirl Costume

My oldest daughter decided that she wanted to be Spiderman for Halloween a long time ago, like months.  For a three-year-old, that is a very long time.  Luckily, she hasn't changed her mind about it either.  I don't know why she is so into Spiderman, except for maybe some fatherly influences, but she is, and so we are going with it.

We tried on a cousin's old costume with built-in muscles, and it just looked weird on a little girl with long, blonde hair.  Then, I saw this on Pinterest:

Problem solved!  Just add a tutu to a boy costume and you're set.  (I don't know the original source of this photo, because the link is broken on my pin.)  This week, I found a muscle-less Spiderman costume at Target for $10, and work on the tutu began.

I used an elastic waist and made the elastic band 4" shorter than my daughter's waist.  Even then, it ended up slightly looser than I wanted, but it still fits well enough.  The tulle was cut in 15" strips, so it ends up around 7" sticking out.  Here's a full-length "in character" shot:

I don't know where she gets it.  We still need some accessories, like maybe a felt eye mask and some cute hair things.  I have some leftover red tulle, so I could even just tie that around pigtails or something.

And no, the pink flip flops aren't part of the costume.  It's way too cold around here for that.  Once I finish the felt eye mask, it's going to be a very happy Halloween around here for this little girl!

What Have I Been Up To?

What have I been up to?  It's been a while since I finished a project start to finish, but rest assured the wheels have been turning over here.  Progress on finishing our basement is slow but steady, one of the results of doing nearly everything yourselves.  At this point, we are finished framing and ready to start the electrical and plumbing.  This does eat up a lot of our spare time (ha! what's that?), but I have been able to sneak in a little side home improvement project upstairs.  Remember this bathroom?

This is the main bathroom of our house.   It's right by the kids' bedrooms, but it is also right off the front room area, so it's the one that gets the most use.  Right now, I wouldn't say that this room is complete by any means, but we have made some real progress.  Ready to see?

Yep, we painted!  And did board and batten!  Well, you know, faux board and batten.  It was an easy, yet time-consuming and detail-oriented project, but this was a much needed transformation for this room.  It just had no heart, ya know?

We still need to frame that mirror, hang some hooks, and get some new decor going on in there.  The hair clip tree and hair clip frame, both fun and easy DIY tutorials if you need the storage, are both things I would like to hang onto in some form or another.

As far as decor goes, I'd like to add some river rock grey or toned-down cool hues to the room.  There isn't a defined theme for the room, but I'd like to have a New England lake house feel going on.  I have also considered spray painting some or all of the metal hardware in the room with oil rubbed bronze spray paint.  I'm not sure how those two ideas go together, though, so we'll see how this all plays out.  The shower curtain will probably have to go as well, although it still kind of matches.

What do you think?  Any ideas?  I'm glad to be back at blogging and excited to share some more fun things in the near future.

DIY Hair Clip or Earring Frame

Today, I'm going to share a simple and fun tutorial for keeping all your girly things organized.  If your house is anything like mine, every little bit helps!  We already have the hair clip tree in the girls' bathroom, but as our collection of bows has grown, the tree has been all filled up and we need more storage.  This follows the same sort of method as my reclaimed barnwood earring holder, so if you don't need hair clip storage, you could make this for your earrings instead.

 For this project, you will need four basic items:

• Large empty frame
• Welded wire fencing
• Staple gun
• Tin snips or wire cutters

I had the frame already, but any frame will work.  Just take the glass and backing out and you are ready to go.  The welded wire fencing is from Lowe's.  At our store it is located in the garden area next to the chicken wire, and it comes in rolls.  I just picked the one with the size of square I wanted-- not so big that I wouldn't be able to hang much, but not so small that I couldn't get the clips to go in the holes.  It's really up to you.

Okay, to get started, flip your empty frame over onto your workspace so the back is facing you.  Without doing any cutting yet, lay your wire mesh in the frame where the glass sits and fit two of the sides in.  At this point you can either secure it with a staple, or if your frame has metal tabs to hold the back in, just bend those down over the top of the mesh, like so.

Now, grab those tin snips or wire cutters and cut the other two sides to size, making sure that the mesh stays put while you cut.

If the wire is poking your hands or otherwise bothering you, just roll it up as you go.  For me, it makes it that much easier to cut.

Once all the wire is cut and fitted into your frame, get your staple gun and get to work.  If you can staple your mesh into the wood without the staples coming out of the front of the frame, do that.  My frame wasn't thick enough, so I used my staples in a different way.

My handheld staple gun never seems to get the staple all the way in, so I just stapled above the mesh all the way around and bent the staples down with a hammer to hold the mesh in.  It seems to work just fine.   Like I said, if you can figure out a way to staple your wire in better, definitely do that.  Your other option is to cut the mesh bigger than your frame opening and staple it on the back of the frame.  I didn't like the look of that, and because the mesh will sit against the wall when the frame is hung, I don't think you could hang anything on it.

We hung it in the kids' bathroom above the towel rack.  I think it looks great, and I'm so glad to have more storage that is cute and accessible.  Plus, the kids can't reach it yet, so it stays just how I left it.

All in all, I'd say you could easily do this in under an hour once you have all the supplies and tools ready.  The My Memories digital scrapbooking software giveaway ends Sunday night, and the winner will be announced on Monday.  Have a great weekend!

Linked: Six Sisters' Stuff, Classy Clutter, Tatertots and Jello

DIY Looking Glass Spray Paint Mirror

Our master bedroom decor takes one more step toward being complete.  A couple of months ago, I decided that I wanted to get a big round mirror or something new for above our new farmhouse headboard, besides the faux weathered metal letters.  I was ready for something besides the wrought iron fence piece, so I started to look into circular mirrors.  Well, long story short, they are expensive, and we were apprehensive about putting real glass above our sleeping heads.  We had the round wooden frame, from a broken Pottery Barn clock that I, unsuccessfully, tried to repair.  The mirror is actually clear acrylic plastic, bought in a sheet from the Home Depot, and spray painted with Krylon's Looking Glass spray paint.

Here's the process:
-Cut the plastic into a circle on a scroll saw.  I don't recommend cutting this by hand with a hacksaw, because the plastic is quite brittle and will snap easily.  Learn from my experience on that one.  We had to borrow the saw from a friend.
-Spray paint one side of the plastic with the Looking Glass paint, making sure to get complete coverage.  This is actually the back side of the mirror.
-Caulk the plastic into the frame so that the painted side will face the wall when hung.  Let it dry, and hang it on the wall.  That's it.

I love the smoky look the mirror has.  It feels like you are looking into a dream world.  Much more interesting than a plain old mirror!  I wasn't sure if the spray paint would work on plastic, since it only talks about painting glass, but I think as long as what you are painting is clear, it works just fine.

Linked up: Sugar Bee Crafts

Faux Weathered Metal Letters

As part of my master bedroom revival, I revamped my little A and C letters.  Here's what they looked like before:

I had painted the sides black and decoupaged cute black and white scrapbook paper on the front.  It was cute, but we were overdue on an update.  I was able to get most of the paper off, but some of the paper didn't come off.  Due to the nature of the letters, I could have just flipped them around and painted them.  Since I would be able to flip them over if I didn't like it, I decided to try an experiment and see if I liked it.  (Story of my life.)

 

Pin It

I sanded the rest of the paper off with low grit sandpaper (very coarse).  I sanded in the direction of the lines, meaning I sanded the direction that I would write the letter.

After I sanded the front of the letters, all I had to do was hit them with a few coats of Rust-Oleum's Hammered Metal spray paint in silver.  So easy!  I am in the process of hanging these with a new focal piece above the headboard, plus I have a couple of new spring projects to work on.  I also finished a couple more decorative pieces for the master bedroom that I am really excited about.

Linked up: The CSI Project

DIY Farmhouse Headboard

 

We finished our new headboard!  Well, I should say that Chris finished our new headboard.  Aside from me helping him hold things tight during assembly, he did all the work.

It was an easy build, with plans from Ana White.  We adapted the plans to make the headboard a few inches wider, and we didn't make the whole bed with footboard and side rails.  Since we already had a bed frame, we just attached the headboard to that.

I love how it turned out.  We used a black stain instead of solid black paint.  The difference is subtle, but it adds another dimension to the piece.  After staining, we did a clear coat of polyurethane.  We only did one coat since this is more for show than actual use, but for a table or chairs, I would do at least two coats and maybe three for extra durability. 

As you can see in the photos, I've redone our letters to resemble Anthropologie's Oversized Zinc Letters.  I'll share the easy fix in another post next week.  They will eventually hang on the wall above the headboard, but right now I am working on a new central piece to replace the fencing.  Once that is done, I will be able to hang everything above the bed.

Felt Flower Grapevine Wreath

As some of you know, I have this grapevine wreath that I got with a plan to reincarnate it all the time.  It's been a fall wreath and a winter wreath chandelier, then it took a break in my closet for about a year.  During that time, I tried out some other kinds of wreaths and door decor, like the tulle wreath, candy corn hanger, and red feather wreath.

Here it is again!  It's about time I busted this thing out.  This go-round, I was going for a more season-neutral theme, to a point.  I didn't want something that I would necessarily have to take down because a certain season just ended, but I also don't plan to leave it up all year.

While I was making these felt flowers, I thought that some of them would make really cute hair clips for my girls.  So, in the spirit of interchangeable wreath, I just put each flower on its own clip, so now I can rearrange the flowers and use them as hair clips when we're ready to switch things out again.  I can also switch out the color scheme very easily.

I found a bunch of super easy tutorials for the flowers from Craftiness is not Optional.  I used the rolled felt flowers, scalloped mini flowers, and the layered felt flowers.  I also threw in a simple spiral flower, similar to the ones I did on the modern baby shoes.

Another thing that I added to the wreath that you can't see in the photo is a felt lining on the back.  This is the only wreath I have that scratches my front door's paint, so I cut one-inch strips of black felt and hot glued them all the way around the wreath on the back, so they created a big circle.  It's great, because now I don't wince every time someone opens the door!

I was pleasantly surprised at the easiness of this project.  Seriously, felt is so forgiving, and I was able to do all of these in one day.  I recommend using wool felt.  It is much thicker, looks higher-end, and comes in so many cool colors.  I found mine at a quilt shop.  All I needed was about four sheets of felt, a glue gun, and some hair clips to make these (all of which I had on-hand).  These flowers would make great accents to girls' headbands or even as a gift bow.

Linked up: Tatertots & Jello 

Red Feather Valentine's Wreath Tutorial

 

Ready to glam up your Valentine's Day decor?  I've got the perfect project for you.  It's fancy, easy, fairly inexpensive, and a little bit unusual-- the Red Feather Wreath.  This was a project that my mom did first, then I followed her creative lead (and used her leftover feathers).  I ended up having everything else I needed for this wreath, so it cost me nothing!  

Here's what you will need, besides a few hours and a little bit of patience.

-Wreath form.  You can really use any kind, since you will be covering it up.  I had an extra styrofoam form in my closet.
-Red fabric.  I used five 2-3" strips, so you should be good with about 1/2 a yard.
-Red feathers.  Mine are from Hobby Lobby, and I used two packages.
-Glue gun
-Ribbon for hanging.

First step, cut your fabric into 2-3" strips if you haven't already.  Plug your glue gun in, and get wrapping those strips around the wreath form, gluing as you go.

You don't have to do a perfect job, as you will be covering it up anyway, but you do want to make sure that everything is glued down tight so you have a solid base to work with.

Now comes the fun part!  Starting on the inside, glue your feathers down in a staggered row, like this:

*This part is very important!!  Glue each feather along the bottom half of the stem only.  This will allow you to finish the wreath when you have glued feathers all the way around the form.  Following your first staggered feather line, glue feathers overlapping the stems about halfway.

When you get all the way around (you will get there faster on the inside of the wreath), slide the stems underneath the feathers that are already there and glue in place.  Since each feather has only been glued down halfway, you should easily be able to fill any other holes you might have where you can see the fabric underneath.

I just love the feather texture!  If you don't want to hang this, you can just stop at this point and be done.  This wreath would make a great centerpiece with a big glass jar of Valentine's candy in the middle, or with whatever else you have that is round.

If you do want to hang it, grab your ribbon.  I just did a giant loop of ribbon and tied it in a knot.  Since I have a hook on the inside of my pantry door, I put the ribbon over the top of the door and hooked it around the loop, like so:

If you don't have a setup like this, just do the ribbon loop smaller and tie a knot where you want it to hang on the wall, like I did with my Halloween tulle wreath.

I'm loving this wreath so much that I am tempted to make another one in brown for the fall!  I also thought that a couple of little white doves would be a cute addition, but I haven't found any yet.  I probably won't change it, though, because I like the simplicity of the feathers, and the texture is already so interesting.

Also, here's a little announcement that I already made on Facebook:  Since I received such an overwhelming response on my Valentine's Subway Art Printable, I will be doing at least one free printable on the blog per month.  If you have any requests for themes, quotes, art, etc. that you would like to see in a printable, leave me a comment or send me an email.  Most of the printables will probably be seasonal, but I'd love to hear what trends you would like to see.

Linked up: Tatertots and Jello, Michelle Paige