A Milestone...

Just a quick minute out of my crazy day to wish my better half a Happy Anniversary! 11 years ago today I married my best friend and have never looked back. Thanks to the love of my life for our three beautiful kiddos and for every minute that I get to spend with you. I love you with all my heart and look forward to the next 50 years by your side!

Have Sack, Will Travel.

Anyone who has traveled with children knows they don't travel lightly! Kids have a lot of stuff, and there isn't much of a way to get around that. Thankfully, mine are all old enough that the plethora of baby gear no longer needs to go with us, but they still want to take some of their treasures with them when we go somewhere. We travel a LOT, especially in the summer. We often take off for a weekend at the beach or a day trip to a museum somewhere that involves an hour or more in the car. I came up with the best solution to curbing all the stuff in the car on the trip...hobo sacks! Each of the kids has one sack, and anything they want to take with them on a car trip has to fit in their sack. It is also up to them to keep track of their possessions on the trip, as Mom has other things to worry about. :)

Using the tutorial as a jumping off point, I altered Dana's instructions to meet my own needs. (Or rather, the kids' needs!) I enlarged the bag to 14 wide and 18 tall and used grosgrain ribbon instead of sewing my own straps. I also tied the ends in loops so that the bag could be hung up. On the bag for Mistress, I made the casing a little larger and added a second row of stitching to make a ruffly effect. And there you go! For about 30 minutes each bag and a little over 1/2 yard of fabric each, the kids have a traveling sack that will limit the amount of stuff that comes with us on a trip. And each is made with love from Mommy!

Nautical Buoys

I've been trying to decide what to do with our guest room lately. I picked a great blue color that I loved called 'Robin's Nest' from the Pottery Barn line up to paint the walls, and we had dark stained wood furniture and a white bedspread. The bones are there, but there isn't much in the way of personality to the room. A while back I found these buoys in the Pottery Barn catalog, and my creative side sparked into high gear.

I just knew that I could make a set of these for much less than the $64 they wanted for the set of them, plus I didn't really love those colors for the guest room. First off, I asked my brother if he could cut me some wooden buoy shapes that I could finish. He did, and for a mere $8 in wood, I had my project off and running!

Next, the inspiration piece for the colors. I found this great frame at Hobby Lobby and LOVED it! It was just the right amount of kitsch and the perfect colors for the room. It was also half off, so I had to have it. My plan is to put a black and white pic of the kiddos at the beach in it. I'll get around to that eventually...

Next came the paint. Luckily I had a lot of the right colors to choose from. I ended up grabbing the leftover paints from: (in no particular order)

The Guest Room

Mistress Monstress' Bathroom

The Boys' Bathroom

The Master Bedroom

and

The leftover paint from Mistress's furniture

I started off by painting the wood shapes with the leftover white paint from the furniture. I gave them all a complete coat, that way if anything showed through it would be white.

Then I started taping and painting the different colors using the Pottery Barn buoys for inspiration.

Once they were painted and the tape was off I dry brushed over all of them with a grey/blue to give them an aged look.

Add some twine and voila! Three nautical buoys for the guest room. I opted not to add the numbers for now, I may change my mind later but at this point I just really liked them as is. Someday, I'll finish the guest room and show it all off, but for now here is the jumping off point for a nautical, beachy, retreat for anyone who comes to visit!

Summer Happens...

We headed off to the beach again last weekend since DH had an entire weekend off. (Miracles DO happen!) Living this close to the shore is definitely a perk we can get used to! The next project is lined up and waiting for me to finish it, hope to get it up in the next couple of days!

Pinkalicious!

Mistress Monstress was invited to her BFF's Pinkalicious Birthday Party this weekend, and since I can't do anything the easy way, (like going to Target and buying something pre-made off the shelf) I set out to create something for this special little girl without any sort of pattern to work from. What can I say, I like a challenge!

For those of you who don't know, Pinkalicious is a little girl who loves everything pink, so much so that she actually turns pink from head to toe (a diagnosis of Pinkatitis) after eating too many pink cupcakes. In order to turn back to her normal color, she has to eat a steady diet of green foods. There is an entire series of these books, Pinkalicious is followed by Purplicious, Goldalicious, and most recently, Silverlicious just to name a few. They are a must read for any self respecting toddler girl. There's even a musical on Broadway of this book. I just found this out today. But I digress, back to the birthday present...

...I had the crazy idea to make a Pinkalicious doll for Miss K. Did I mention that there was no pattern for such a thing? I made things a little easier for myself by starting with a doll that I am very familiar with making, the Mae doll from Bit of Whimsy Dolls. (One of my all time favorites!!!) I cannot say enough good about these patterns, they are SO much fun to make! Anyway, I freehanded the face using the Mae face for placement reference and the Pinkalicious book for design reference and combined a little embroidery with a little real life blush. Then I set off for the store and wandered the aisles with the book in hand to find fabric close to the story. Here's the end result!

For the big test, I held the finished doll up and asked MM who it was. When she promptly replied "Pinkawicious!" I knew I had hit the nail on the proverbial head! She was also instantly recognized by Miss K, so I'm going to mark this one down on the success column. Happy Stitching!

A Teeny Tiny Re-Work

Ok, we've lived in our home now for about 11 months. I think we've come a long way, but I still wasn't happy with our great room. I liked the framework I had set up, LOVED our furniture, cabinetry, fixtures, and wall color, but I felt a little like something was missing...what was it?

Oh yeah. COLOR!!! We had a cranberry colored rug in the living area and a few cranberry colored throw pillows on the sofa and chairs, but other than that we had this:

Beige, Brown, Neutral...

I kind of felt like Knit Knots would live here. If you are a parent, you know this guy. If not, Google 'Imagination Movers' on Disney Junior.

Anyway, I really liked the cranberry colored accents we had going on, so I decided to run with it. We had the kitchen area of our great room accented with a great cranberry colored paint, (Caliente from Pottery Barn's color deck) to start with. Check out how my green pottery collection pops out now! Before, it just blended in with the wall.

Even the clock seems happier! :)

Next, we added some color in the dining area. DH wasn't all that excited about spending money on a rug for under our dining table what with us having three kiddos under the age of eight. We solved that problem in one of those ways that is so obvious many people miss it. We got an indoor/outdoor rug! They are more durable than indoor rugs, so if the kids spill it should come right up. Even better, outdoor rugs are usually significantly cheaper than their indoor buddies. This one came from Ballard Designs. (Love them, BTW.) I also added some red picture frames, a red vase I got on clearance at Hobby Lobby...

...and my plaque!

Overall I am loving the re-work, and for not a lot of cash I got a lot more warmth in the room. What do you think?

A Family Plaque

I've always loved personalized things and objects that have meaning to them. In the past I've noticed really adorable family plaques and wanted one for our house, but didn't love some of the price tags that came with them. This one is listed for $80 and I didn't even like it that much! Anyway, I knew that I could do it cheaper and more in the style I was looking for. Follow along to make one for yourself for under $10...

First off, I got an unfinished wooden plaque at Hobby Lobby for $7.99. You can also use a 40% off coupon to make this project even cheaper, but I was feeling guilty for not posting a tutorial in a while. :) Paint the plaque your base color and let it dry completely. I did three coats with some leftover paint from Mistress Monstress's furniture. I would go with white or off white. You will see why in a minute...

Next, cut tissue paper to the size of a piece of printer paper and tape it at the top. Load up the number of sheets you will need in your printer. In my case it was three.

On your computer, type out The and Family in whatever font you want. Make it slightly smaller than your last name. Also type out est. and your year in the same font, even smaller than The and Family. Choose a second font for your last name, this will be the largest word on your plaque.

Cut out the words from your tissue paper as close to the edge as possible. Arrange them on your plaque.

CAREFULLY mod podge them down to the plaque. The tissue edges will mostly disappear when they are applied, leaving only the wording. Coat the entire top with mod podge for an even finish and let it dry thoroughly.

Once it is completely dry, attack your plaque with some sandpaper. You can sand over the wording, just not as hard as the wood. Make sure to expose some bare wood in places so the distressing will show up well.

Next take some scrapbooking ink, (I prefer brown) and cover all your exposed wood with the ink. If you find you have gotten too much on you can wipe it off with a baby wipe or damp paper towel as long as the ink hasn't dried completely.

On mine, some of the mod podge rubbed off which gave it even more texture. I loved the way it turned out! I also then took some chain, nails, and a hammer and distressed the entire front. It's a great way to take out aggression!

And here it is! I added a hanger to the back and hung it up in our newly freshened up great room (which will be in a future post.) I am completely thrilled with how it turned out, and am already looking forward to the next project!