Wall Stenciling

Right when we moved into the house we got the nursery painted right away.  My mom is here visiting so I'm finally able to get the stenciling done while she spends time cuddling the baby ....

Nursery Projects to Sew

6 more weeks to go until Baby Dennis arrives!  5 weeks to go until we're into the house!  I've got everything in my head for how I'd like to set up the nursery and it's killing me that I can't be setting everything up.  But at the same time, if we were in the house, I'd have everything done already and just sitting around driving myself crazy waiting.  Today I'm working on some things that to add to the boxes of ready to move baby items.

  

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 Crib Sheets

     

Looking at the options for crib sheets most are around $10 for one fitted sheet.  And they are not my style or very plain.  So I hit up Joann's for fabric to make my own and followed a tutorial from Dana Made It.  Each sheet requires 2 yards of fabric.  The stuff I got was around $6/yd but on sale was $4/yd, so it's even less to make them than buy them.  Plus there's a little bit of extra fabric left over to use for other projects.

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Curtains

 

This is what I bought to make curtains with.  Bought enough to make crib bumpers for later on too.
 

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Room Decor

 

 

The extra fabric from all my bigger projects is getting used to fill embroidery hoops that I painted dark grey and to make a bird mobile like this one.  Haven't picked them out yet, but also going to hang up some prints by Charley Harper.

 

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Play Blanket

  

  
Even though the carpet is pretty cushy, I'm working on a nice extra padded blanket to throw down on the floor to let her play (and spit up) on.

Nursery Projects

I am sooooooooooo excited!! I have been looking at nursery furniture and designing this baby's room in my head for the last 10 weeks and things are finally starting to come together.  The crib I've had my eye on is a Jenny Lind piece that you're able to buy new but has a little bit of that dated look to it.  After searching for dressers on craiglist it crossed my mind to see what was out there as far as cribs go and by sheer luck someone is selling the exact crib I want just miles away.  Hoping I'm not jinxing myself by posting about it early but we're going tomorrow to just make sure it's in okay shape and pay for/pick it up.

  

Also had an idea in mind for the kind of dresser/changing table I wanted to put in the room and have been browsing all outlets I could think of to find just the right thing.  I kept seeing an identical dresser to this one being posted and the price on it finally dropped but someone beat me to it.  Was pretty bummed and started to research and see what my other options are or if I could wait another month to see what else might get posted.  I ended up looking at another dresser on craiglist, which had a link to the guy's facebook page with the rest of the furniture he's got for sale and there's the same dresser and in much better shape (so also a little more, but no drawers or anything to repair!).

 

The plan for both is to refinish them.  I'll be painting them to bring some fun color into the room.  Right now thinking a darker aqua/teal on the dresser with bright or mustard yellow on the hardware and a dark peach/coral for the crib.  Definitely have some sanding to do the next week or two.  Will possibly have to enlist some help to paint if it gets too smelly.  

Yay for first major baby purchases and getting a great deal on both!!

turquoise toes!!

As always I'm pinning more than actually doing, but these were a quick and easy DIY originally posted on one my favorite wedding blogs -- Green Wedding Shoes -- that I found on Pinterest.

 

(source: pinterest)

I found my shoes at Payless, they are wedges instead of pumps but I think they're more supportive anyways.  They also had some flats but sadly they didn't fit well enough.  And then off to Home Depot for some color -- I wasn't as bold to go with the fluorescent pink but picked out another color called "lagoon".  I don't think it too me more than 20 minutes from start to finish.  Haven't gotten a chance to wear them yet but if they hold up well I'm gonna try experiment with some other spray painting ideas!

(source: sarah christine design)

SUMMER BOTANICALS

My second set of paintings! Here's the Pottery Barn inspiration for $49 a print. My knock offs cost whatever the canvas and paint was. I think it would have been fun to paint the background instead of leaving the canvas white, but I wanted to sketch out my flowers first and the walls in the room they're going into are blue, so I thought the white might look nice against it.

I had a super fun time painting them! I've been perusing websites for other ideas I can try imitate and thinking of places I could put them : )

SURE, I CAN PAINT?

I don't remember being super into art class in school growing up. There's a few projects here or there that I remember that turned out well but not many of them were paintings.

My last big attempt to paint art work was inspired by Color Splash on HGTV. I was pretty confident that I could make something for our living room and we had the perfect size piece of plywood. I'm pretty sure what happened is that I bought the wrong kind of paint and went a little crazy spraying it with a water bottle, along with not being patient enough to let paint dry and the colors started mixing together in a bad way.

So instead of painting works of art I had Chad built me a wood frame and then wrapped fabric around it. It works great. And it's easy to change when you want something new.

One of the families I sit for has a little girl and are wanting to do some decorating in her room since she's not a baby anymore. I was super excited to help. Her mom bought some canvases and paint and has given me the freedom to paint whatever.

I looked googled things like art for girls room and what not to get some ideas. Pottery Barn Kids had some cute stuff that I'm gonna do my best at imitating. Right now those are just sketched out to paint this weekend. Two I already have done. Check them out!

She was born in New Orleans and the fleur de lis is a big symbol there. And a whimsical owl (that still needs the bee painted in)

AN OLD PROJECT: PERLER BEAD EARRINGS

Remember those awesome little beads you used to make the best little fridge magnets ever?! Maybe you just threw them onto the peg boards and didn't care ... or you (like myself) were super meticulous about creating the perfect pattern. They're called Perler Beads, and they are still super awesome.

It was quite awhile ago that I saw this idea on another blog. I'd really like to give the credit, so if you've ever stumbled across it anywhere, please let me know. They used Perler Beads to make earrings. Take 1 jumbo container of beads, a couple peg boards and some earring hooks and tada - fun earrings!

I made these with my friend Angie on some crafty afternoon. Still very particular about keeping things in some kind of pattern : )

FINISHED: WIPE OFF BOARD

Found this idea here. Got this frame for a couple bucks and put a piece of paper in rather than a picture. Had dry erase markers from Pictionary. Put in the entry way for Chad and I to write notes as we're both coming and going. Now to just remember to leave and check for messages!

OWL SHOPPING TRIP

Went on a little shopping excursion to find pieces for my owl outfit. There's not a Michael's or JoAnn's real nearby, but there's Hobby Lobby - which was kind of slim for fabric options but has great selection for all kinds of other crafts (and for some reason, lots of home decor).

Here's what I got:
- 5 different fabrics, 1/4 each (5.91 total)
- Various felt (2.80)
- Felt glue (3.99)
- Elastic (1.29)
- Pillowcase (1.50 ... from Ross)

Total Costume: $15.49!! Plus my time : )

DIY: REFINISHED COFFEE TABLES

BEFORE:Here's the story.

Chad's mom was moving to Bozeman and we went out to look for furniture for her new place. He found an ad in the paper for a loveseat for $100 so we went to take a look. It was pretty much brand new and gorgeous and our style. The older woman selling it said she liked us so much that she'd give it to use for $75. We bought it, for us!, thinking we could get the matching sofa and give his mom our old furniture.

I was able to track down the store where she bought it from, but the series had been discontinued. After a little looking, I found the same exact style set in leather (the loveseat we bought is a suede-microfiber kinda fabric). About a year ago, along with buying the sofa, we got a matching chair. . .and about a month ago decided to buy the small ottoman to go with the chair. .it's here, just have to go back to Great Falls to pick it up!

Nice, new furniture of course spurred a whole redecorating of the living room. Kept the same lamps, found a new rug. .. and still had the coffee tables, which we really liked but the finish of the bases were a little bit industrial for the warmer feeling that was starting to happen. Chad is great at coming up with ideas for my decorating and craft dilemmas and suggested painting the bases - perfect!

Rust-Oleum makes a spray paint that has is brown with a hammered look when it's done drying. It took about $20 for 3 cans and tada - new tables. They came apart super easy, the paint was easy to use, it dried quickly and they look great.

AFTER:

PERFECT RECIPE BOX

I have many cookbooks. How often do I use them? Rarely.

Every now and then when I'm looking to make something for the first time, but so often it's a cookie recipe I got from my mom or something I tore from a magazine or something scrawled on the back of an envelope. All these lonely and random recipes needed a home. I was not having much luck finding a recipe box and figured it wouldn't be that difficult to make my own.

I decided that I did not want it to have a top and that it would be something to keep out. I found a 5x5?? box at Micheal's . . painted the inside. . .mod podged some paper to the outside . . .created some dividers for different types of recipes . .. and ta da! . . .perfect recipe box : )

And it looks great next to my pear colored Kitchen-Aid . . .

BABY SHOWER THANK YOU'S

Have you ever needed something for a baby or bridal shower, but the mothers and brides to be insist that they really don't need anything (or they do and you don't want to shell out a bunch of cash)?? I think a perfect gift is thank you cards. It's not something that everyone always has on their mind after such an event. This way they are on-hand for them to use and is one less thing for them to worry about during a busy time.

I just attended a baby shower and brought these. The baby is unknown, but I found out the nursery is yellow and green. Each set that I made contains 10 cards and envelopes. I packaged them in clear vinyl boxes (from U-line) that I use when I make card sets to sell and tied ribbon around to keep the package together.

Another great idea is to make a couple extra for yourself to keep in your ready to go collection!

Halloween Costumes

I've had my eskimo costume done since last year - it was made and then something came up that we weren't able to go out for Halloween. This year I also made a Harry Potter robe and a clown suit for my roommates.