I've been loving all the cute little Christmas trees that are all over blogland this year, so I had to make some of my own. Most of the tutorials you find involve sewing, but for whatever reason I've been feeling very anti sewing lately. Also, I don't have ruffler foot for my machine, so I would have to sew by hand....blah. I was however feeling very pro glue gun, so here is my hot glue ruffle tree forest!
I had a whole picture tutorial set up for you guys, but somehow my brand new camera …
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The Stars at Night, Are Big and Bright….
I'm finally getting around to posting the tutorial on the nursery star. I'm afraid blogging and projects are going to be a little slow going around here until we get a handle on this two under two thing...This project started with an old copper star I had gotten years ago. I bought it for $3 back when we lived in New York and I was dying for something Texas-y in our apartment. It's been sitting in Elijah's room all lonely and forgotten, so I decided to spruce it up. I had some leftover …
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Ceiling Fan Lampshades – Second Time’s the Charm
A few days ago I posted about the lampshades I made for our ceiling fans. I also mentioned how much the husband hated the (very girly) fabric I choose to cover them with. Despite hating them, he did say "If you like them that's all that matters". Awwww, so sweet. Now I really had to change them.
As a refresher, here is a before picture of the fan...
(there's two actually, but a picture that includes both is kinda hard to see)
And here is the after picture with my girly fabric...
I …
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Ceiling Fan Lampshades
For the longest time now I have wanted to change out the boring glass fixtures on our ceiling fans. Not because they're ugly, just because they're...regular. Not interesting. In this house, things that are totally functional and not ugly obviously need to be changed.
So here they are, in all their normalcy:
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Now in order to put a lampshade on the ceiling fan I needed a very special lampshade. They had to have and uno attachment instead of the regular spider attachment (there's a …
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My Big Fat Nursery Chair
My nursery list is dwindling! Good thing, cause so is my time to complete it. Here is a picture of my nursery chair as of last week. It was given to me by my mom, who got it from a garage sale a looong time ago. (Update: After posting this my mom called to let me know that she actually didn't get this at a garage sale, but rather found it on the side of the road while on a walk. Just the chair - the ottoman she made. Looks like trash chairs are a recurring theme around here!) She recovered and …
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Triple Book Slings
Do y'all remember the list I posted about all the things I wanted to finish in the nursery before the baby comes? Well, I've completed my first task...book slings! I first came across the idea on Pinterest and then found a tutorial here. It's a really simple project...if you just make one. I of course had to jazz it up a bit and make three. Still a simple project, just a little more time consuming. Here is a picture of the finished product, just in case you have no idea what the heck a book …
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Installing Butcher Block Countertops
(Update: to read how it holding up after two years, go HERE)
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When reading this post you might be under the impression that we installed our counters in one really long day. Oh, how wrong you would be. This post covers an almost two week time frame...starting with removing the sink on day two, and replacing it with a new one on day twelve. What did we do for eleven days without a kitchen sink? Well, you will just have to read on to find out.
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(FYI, this is a really old post and the …
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A Chalkboard For The Kitchen
For awhile now I've wanted a message board for the kitchen. Mostly because the Husband gets up before me to go to work, and he is always saying that he doesn't know what to eat for breakfast. So I needed a place to list all his breakfast options for him. I know that sounds silly and kinda weird, but its the truth!
My mom was cleaning out her attic and asked me if I wanted this old frame she found. It was big enough that I instantly though of my much needed "what the heck am I gonna eat for …
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Stenciled Toy Box
For a very long time now we have needed a toy box. Our current "tiny toy basket" just wasn't working for us anymore. I could show you a picture of it all stuffed neatly in there, but lets face it ... 90% of the time, this is what our toy situation looks like.
The first step to building a toy box was to nag proposition the husband to do all the manly labor. I gave him the dimensions and my best "helpless pregnant woman" look and to work he went. That helpless pregnant look is …
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The BEST Homemade Play Dough
I've done it, I've found the perfect play dough recipe. The other times I've tried to make play dough it turned out too gritty, too slimy, or too dry. This one is smooth, moldable, and stores great. Here is what you will need...
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1 cup white flour
1/2 cup salt
2 tablespoons cream of tartar
1 tablespoon oil
1 cup water
food coloring
First, mix together flour, salt, tartar and oil.
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Next, add the water and mix well.
Cook over medium heat for 3-5 minutes, stirring the …
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Let The Renovations Begin!
This past weekend we started our kitchen renovation with the most fun part...painting cabinets! (Thats sarcasm, by the way). Despite that fact that painting cabinets is sucky, I was stoked to get started. So here is a photo bomb post covering the process. It mostly consists of a SUPER messy kitchen, me looking less than awesome, and my husbands back. And now that I have you all on the edge of your seat, lets begin.
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Saturday morning - bright and early - the destruction begins. We started …
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Guest Bedroom Frame Wall
A couple of months ago I posted before and after pictures of my
guest bedroom. Though I'm happy with the main wall, the other side of the room is a bit boring. So now, my after picture becomes my before picture.
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I wanted to make a frame wall, so I started collecting frames. Really random ones.
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Then, while shopping at HomeGoods, I found these place mats. They're felt-ish and I started thinking about all the things I could do with them and my random frames.
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I didn't …
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Dumpster Rocker
So, my aunt rescued this old rocking chair from a dumpster. She said she found a toddler rocker and asked if I wanted it. I of course said yes....who turns down a free dumpster rocker? Anyway, when I got it I noticed that it not really toddler sized, it's way too big. It's not really adult sized either though, its pretty small. It's like a 3/4 sized rocker. We're kinda small people though, so I decided to make it a front porch rocker. As soon as my husband saw it sitting on the front porch he …
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How To Make an Envelope Closure Pillow
I'm not great at sewing. In fact, I pretty much stick to sewing square things like pillows, curtains, book slings, tablecloths, and handkerchiefs. Okay, not handkerchiefs (do people actually use those anymore?), but you get the picture. Luckily sewing an envelope closure pillow is super simple and a great place to start if you're new to sewing.
So here is the process...
First pick your fabric. This is the best part! Don't be afraid to go with something bold, its just a throw pillow …
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Quick Chair Redo
So, I found this chair at Target on clearence for $8....marked down from $40. $40!! It doesn't exactly match what we got going on 'round here, but for eight bucks I figured I'd take it home and make it a front porch chair.
Of course, I couldn't leave it as is though - its light wood and chrome and way too modern. While I can't chage the modern part, I can certainy change the rest! I picked one of my rejected paint samples from the kitchen cabinets and got to work. I removed the legs and …
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Broken Blinds Picture Frame
So back when the little man was a couple months old, I got a friend to take some pictures of him. He was being super fussy that day (of course), and it was hard to get any pictures of him NOT grimacing. But then, by total fluke, we managed to capture the most epic baby picture of all time...
Epic, I know. So of course I had to order a giant print. The problem was, I didn't want to pay for a giant frame...giant frames are expensive. It sat round for awhile and I forgot about it while we …
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Dead Tree + Fake Flower Awesomeness
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Pottery Barn had some beautiful blooming branches in their spring catalog. I love how they look, but dang...they're expensive! If I lived somewhere else I could have gone outside, snipped some perfect branches, thrown them in a vase and called it a day, but I live in south Texas and where trees consist mostly of scraggly cedar bushes. While looking online for a cheaper version if the PB branches, an idea started to form. I planted a live oak in the backyard a little while back and it totally …
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Guest Room Before and After
Since the guest room was a pre-blog project I don't have any pictures of it in progress. Trust me when I say that every item in this room could be its own post! Here are the before and after pictures...I wanted this room to have a totally different color scheme and design than the rest of my house, and it certainly does!
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The before..
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and the after!
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Update - CLICK HERE to see my entire house tour! …
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Curb Appeal
Our house has zero curb appeal. Zero, zilch, none... it pretty much looks like an abandon house surrounded by a gravel pit. Here is a pic from the MLS back in 2008 as proof that I am telling the truth...
Whomever built this house basically dumped white, dusty, limestone gravel over nearly half of our half acre plot. Why, I don't know. Probably laziness or a lack of funds (there were a lot of other corners cut in the house building process. But that's another post.) Anyway, the Husband and …
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DIY Bay Window Curtain Rod & Back Tab Curtains
Bay windows, though beautiful, can be a problem when it comes to adding window treatments. The main problem is that hardware can be crazy expensive, if you can even find any to work for your particular window. But I found a way to my windows go from the bare before to the much better after for only $100 (including the curtains!).
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Here is what you will need to make the bay window hardware -
Materials
Electrical conduit (one for each window …
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Laundry Room Before and After
I love (LOVE!) before and after pictures. Our laundry room is the only room that is pretty much complete and I feel good about posting an 'after' picture. First, the before...
The first thing to go was that awful paint color. I painted it a muted green, same as in our living room and guest/kids bath. Next, the cabinets. This isn't our forever house so everything has to be done as cheaply as possible...Which means no new cabinets. I wanted them to look custom and unique so I painted …
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