Home Sweet Chicago

We were back home in Chicago last week for some R&R! We went boating, fishing, visiting friends and family, swimming, and even ran a 5K which was neither resting or relaxing! While I was there I was left alone in the house. Ut-Oh. I decided to take this lamp which was fine and give it a spin much like this lamp from Lemon Tree Creations.



I sprayed in bright red over the raffia let it dry. I was already thinking it was a bit too red and when my sister came home she agreed. (It was for her bedroom which has dark gray walls and a cream and red duvet.) So I took off all the raffia and sprayed the whole thing red hoping to switch the stripes and main color. Stripes red and the body Rustoleums Heirloom White. Well, we never made it back to the store to get the Heirloom White so this is how the lamp looks right now in the garage.

Now the tutorial on how to do this lamp is right here. So it would be pretty easy for my sister to finish this lamp right? I wonder if she will do it? I think she should. I know you are reading this STOP reading and go finish it. Please take a picture too so I can put it up on this here blog! Thanks much!

In other projects, I did manage to start and finish recovering this glider for my mom. She had bought fabric when she in was Denver on New Years Day, at a huge sale where I bought quite a few good yards myself! When I saw it folded nicely, untouched I decided to 1. find the sewing machine 2. use it! 3. recover the glider for my dear, sweet mommy!

I did this glider exactly how I did the glider in our nursery... like pillow cases. The bottom/back of each cushion is not closed. I made a finished edge for each but didn't worry about velcro, buttons, or snaps. With each cushion pushed back you can't tell and it made recovering the glider a breeze easy, sleazy!

So we aren't even unpacked yet which is a good thing and on purpose because we leave for Washington DC and NYC on Saturday! I have been reading Fodor's NYC with kids and I am pretty nervous about "gypsy" cabs! Look for the medallion, look for the medallion, don't get into a cab with out the medallion.

Week 21: Front Entry Light

That's right folks after many months of looking, 5-6 months I think. We have a new front entry light!!!

Isn't she beautiful? And what made her 'can't pass it up' worthy was the price tag... only $30.00!!! 

 

As you may remember we sold all three of our matching light fixture (that were with the house when we bought it) to a nice lady on craigslist back in January. We have successfully replaced the dining room light and the kitchen light and were looking and looking and looking for a new entry light. We had brainstormed various options... pendant lighting, chandelier, flush mount, semi-flush mount, anything and everything. Price was a big factor and the size. Lots of the lights we found were just a smidge too big for the doors or hung a bit to low for forehead safety. Then one day we took a car ride to Buds Warehouse. We walked in and right there on the counter were two identical light fixtures. I knew we needed one. I quickly asked about the price and was relieved, shocked, and exited that it was only $30! I picked it up like a hot cake and Andy hung it up the next morning. I love it!!! And what do you think? Do you love it too?

June Hutch

I am on a roll with the hutch this month! It is done and I think it looks great. Now I can enjoy it for the rest of the month and focus on finishing this months projects and posting them all! Can you guess what color this month was?

Yup you are right... YELLOW!

I saw somewhere in blogland (sorry I don't remember who to give credit to, I made these in March) how to make yarn balls. I dig the look so I made three to go on my two tiered stand for the month. They are super simple to make.

Quick Tutorial: Get some balloons, mine were 7in, and blow them up. Make a water and glue mixture (same consistency as soup). Unroll A LOT of yarn (one per balloon) and soak in the glue/water mixture. Find one end of yarn and wrap around the balloon. Wrap it all over, however you want. Let it dry over night and it worked better when I had it sitting on a plastic cup so that the extra glue could drip down. When it is dry take a needle and pop the balloon. Beautiful! **I have to admit that on two of the balls the side kinda collapsed I am wonder if using a fabric glue would work better than Elmer's glue.**

The tree branch Max found for me outside and I pulled a few flowers off the Dollar Tree "arrangement" and hot glued them to the branch. I used hanging wiring (that is what I had on hand) to hold it on an angle on the tier stand.

These beauties I got at a garage sale and sprayed them yellow. Looking good, looking real good! And that is the hutch for June.

May Hutch

This month was a bit better than last month which was a complete illustration of lack of motivation. I went with fuchsia/purple and although there isn't a whole lot to the hutch I think the purples all go together well. Watch out because June in yellow and it is almost complete!

Free Subscription...

Now you can sign up on the right -------------------->

for a FREE subscription to my blog!!! Yes I know how generous of me to give everyone a FREE year subscription! 

*wink wink*

Week 20: Chalkboard Tags

A few weeks back over at My Repurposed Life Gail had a guest blogger, MeganDVD from Beauty in the Attempt. She showed us how to make Chalkboard Tags and immediately my dresser problems were solved.



Now my dresser is fine. I have it organized just right and unfortunately my clothes sizes don't change that often so it makes it pretty easy to memorize my own drawers. *Insert laughter from my witty joke*
Not the case for my adorable, growing like weeds children. I get so confused how I have each drawer organized and it seems like I am adding new clothes and taking out clothes not only because of growing needs but with the seasons as well. And in Colorado it could be 40 degrees one day and 85 the next! I know you moms out there feel my pain.

I had been thinking about it for a while how I want to remind Andy myself what is in which drawer. I thought about using tape and although the dressers are not in the best shape and missing pulls (which I don't mind because one was a freebie and both dressers are in the closet). I was worried that tape might pull off some of the finished and I don't want to commit to painting them right now. The contents of the drawers are always changing so I would be adding and removing tape, a lot. That was really my only idea. Then came MeganDVD she solved my problem in one blog posting! I followed her directions pretty well except one thing....

When I was at Michaels I couldn't find chalkboard paint but I did find something which I think might be even better. Chalkboard contact paper! It gave this project instant gratification since I didn't have to wait for paint to dry and my completion time was about 8 1/2 minutes for 8 tags. I strung some cute masculine (I have two boys remember) through the hole and used a staple gun to staple the ribbon to the inside of each dresser drawer.

I love the wet erase chalk pen. It eliminates all most of my fears of Max wiping off each drawers contents. I just need to remember not to let him watch me erase each tag or my fears will be back with a vengeance.

Thank you MyRepurposed Life for introducing me to MeganDVD at Beauty in the Attempt she is a problem solver!

Week 19: Dinner Calendar

"What are we having for dinner?" is a constant question in our household. In January, we decided to switch off nights (I am lucky enough to have a husband that enjoys cooking!) for dinner. Our system worked well then spring vacations happened and it was hard getting back into the swing of things. I saw some really cute dinner calendars online, which are adorable and cute. But, I wasn't sure if we were going to stick with the whole idea of writing our meals down each month. I wanted a simpler calendar to start on this new organizing adventure.

When I was at Target recently they had calendar wall decals on clearance. So I picked one up and I think that the purple goes quite well as an accent color. Remember: This is a trial. I also grabbed some poster board. (That was Step 1). Step 2: Unroll the decal and peel the paper backing off. Step 3: Smooth out any air bubbles with a Baby Symphony CD0, this is will only work with a Baby Symphony CD... just kidding. Step 4 (not pictured): Cut off excess poster board. That is it so simple. The decal even came with a dry eraser marker for my convince.  

I put our calendar on a picture frame easel that I had from something else, I am not even sure why I had it. I wrote on the top who was cooking each day and what we had going one that would keep up from eating at home. It is working fine but the best part is that it is a guide and I don't have to follow it to a T. Flexibility is the key in our house.

Week 18: Front Porch Chairs

I am totally over "matchy matchy" and our front porch chairs were exactly that. The perfect beige to match the beige trim on our house. This winter I decided that I wanted to spray paint the chair to add some color. But then I was thinking that I should just make a slipcover for the chairs to add some BOLD color to our curb appeal.



I was all over the place at Joanns trying to pick a good outdoor fabric. I didn't want to regret my decision and pick a "safe" color scheme. I had some bright blues in my cart for a while but ultimately choose these two fabrics. I love the branches and the birds. The pillow in the contrasting color I love it. It seems to calm down the bright coral a bit. I did lay each of the fabrics over my two chairs and was leaning toward the circle fabric in the slipcover but in the end went with my original plan and as of right now I have no regrets. Until the HOA says something to us!!!

So here is the chair in all her glory. The best part is that I have them attached with ties so I can take them off and wash them as needed. There is a second chair and it is on the front porch as well but I am too embarrassed to show a full picture of the front of our house until I get some flowers planted. Look at our grass, thank goodness we got the sprinklers turned on last week! A full curb appeal picture will be coming soon!

Garage Sale Season

We are in the thick of garage sale season and last weekend we made it out for our first shopping trip. We stopped for breakfast and coffee (Max and I needed our strength) and headed around the neighborhoods. What I love best is how much Max digs the garage sales and picks up my lingo. If I drive by one and don't stop Max will say, "That's not a good one." Which I do agree with seeing as how I just kept on driving. Last Saturday Max was on the hunt for anything Play-Doh, he remembered buying something Play-Doh last year at a blue house and was hoping to find more at the same house. Sorry buddy I have no idea what house you are talking about. So we looked high and low for Play-Doh and one house did have it but the young owner was not willing to part ways with his Play-Doh at this time and we didn't get the sale. But Max was happy with his bucket and sandbox shovel for a total of 20 cents! He is excited to look some more this weekend, if we can fit it in.

But everything here we got for $19.00!!! Stop cleaning your glasses that is not a typing mistake it was all $19.00 including 3T pants, Janet Evanovich book, white ceramic pot and stand, two circular planters, two glass jars with cork lid, Home Alone movie (on VHS), blue lamp, carpet sample, bunny bowl, bucket and shovel for sand box, purple vase, beaker, and the wooden toy chest. Not bad for our first sale out of the gate!

P.S. I do have an adorable picture of Max standing behind all of the treasures but, um, hm, he is not wearing pants so I will not be posting it on the World Wide Web. *Note* Make sure Max wears pants!

Week 17: Kitchen Chairs

I found some extremely retro 70s chairs at Goodwill (for $4.99 each) a while back when Andy had just finished making the new kitchen table. Now I have to admit that the chairs were pretty 'cool' in there own right but they just didn't go with our house. Bummer. I had been looking for oilcloth for the chairs for a long time, in the stores and online. Nothing really screamed out at me. So in a last ditch effort, because I wanted to use the chairs, I bought some white picnic table fabric from Hobby Lobby. I think a yard was under $4.00 and I thought 'whatever it works for now especially for the price.' I only bought a yard and didn't cover both chairs so I headed back to Hobby Lobby to buy an additional 1/2 yard of the white fabric to finish the chairs and found this black and white damask outdoor fabric. The tag said it was soap and water washable so I decided to give it a try instead of the white fabric that I didn't even care about.

And I gotta tell you am diggin' the last minute change!

The chair with the booster seat on it still has the white table cloth fabric because I thought it would work out a bit better and clean easier for me with the really messy, I throw food on the floor and wipe food every where including these nicely recovered chairs because I don't know the difference between your hard work to recover these chairs and the cool original retro look. When we are done with booster chairs I will finish that chair with the matching fabric.

I spray painted the legs black and first used Zinsser spray primer. It seems to be sticking I am guessing that I will eventually have to do some touch up but to me that is not a big deal. I took off the seat and just used a staple gun to attach the fabric. And for the seat back I sewed the fabric to essentially make a pillow case. It is not permanently attached so I can take it off when we are doing something extremely messy like eating spaghetti or finger painting. I do have to go back and check to see if the fabric is machine washable too or just soapy water washable.

Here are the chairs pushed in with the gray table which are a perfect height for each other and push in so close to the table it doesn't mess up the walkway we were aiming for when we Andy built the table.

Our Royal Wedding Party

Well I am a big sucker for all things "love story" and what was better that Kate Middleton marrying Prince William? Nothing really except maybe a HUGE chocolate covered strawberry. I had made the decision early on that I was not going to be getting up at 2am to watch the wedding. I have a very trusty friend, the DVR, and she has not failed me yet and I didn't think that she would on this occasion, she didn't. I had been talking about the Royal Wedding to the kids for days and told them that Kate was going to "turn" into a princess. The first time I told Max, he gasped!

So the night before while watching one of my many William and Kate stories that were being aired on BBCA or TLC I made fascinator for myself and the girls. They were so cute and fun to make besides the whole burning my foot on the hot glue gun. They ended up being really light weight so the kids kept them on, I think without even realizing they had something on their heads.

I also made the boys crowns to wear out of cereal boxes. As you can see I didn't spend too much time on them because, well, they are boys and as it happens the crowns were ripped soon after wearing them. Everyone got purple flowers to wear on their shirts.

After the wedding we had an apple juice toast, look at that smile on Max's face, he was so excited for The Wedding!

And finally, we ended the morning with our wedding cake snack. (We made it the day before for an activity.) It was delicious!

Not pictured are two things:
1. William and Kate coloring pages
2. One of my daycare kids from last year meeting Prince William aka Duke of Cambridge the night before the wedding outside of Cambridge House!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Is it wrong to be jealous of a 3 year old?

April Hutch...

Well this month's hutch was a big failure! I am embarrassed to even show it but hopefully the embarrassment will help me get my act together for next April. I had originally planned on doing the hutch in pastels, for Easter of course, but then I started getting excited about yellow. So I made a last minute switch and couldn't get it together. I knew that we were not hosting Easter so I didn't put any pressure on myself to compete it. I did however manage to make the yellow balls out of yarn, a balloon, and Elmer's glue. They look cute and will resurface when I attempt yellow again. Sorry April.

Week 16: Home for Dress Up Clothes

These are our dress up clothes. But as I look at the picture I am realizing that not all the clothes are hanging up, I wonder where they were for this picture? I digress. We have a good amount of dress up clothes and for a long time we had them stored on the floor in a pile or in a blue storage box. It made me crazy! So we had some wood we had gotten for another project in the $.51 bin at Home Depot that we ended up not using. And wouldn't you know that it already had some holes drilled into it! And I already had wood glue, wooden rods, and spray paint! So this project didn't cost me any trips to the store. Just about 20 minutes total in time!



The wooden piece just after I drilled the holes a bit larger to fit the wooden rods.

The wooden rods drying with the wood glue.

A close up of the wooden piece finished and spray painted white.