The world for a pen!

I'm sure all of you can understand this next scenario. You get a phone call. The person on the other end has some information to give you, that needs to be written down before you forget. Oh crap! Where, where, WHERE is a pen???  I grew tired of the hide and seek game that all the pens in our house was playing. When coming across a pen randomly laid out on our counter, or table, or floor, or laundry room, I would then walk it over to the side table in our living room. We have our couches in an L shape with a large square table in the corner. After a while I had gotten quite the collection. So much so that it was taking over and looking way too cluttered. But what to do with them all? I still wanted them to be accessible, but not neccesarily in the large heap pile they were in at the time.

The solution came to me in the kitchen. I was at the sink, cleaning out several items intended for the recycling bin. For supper the night before we had opened two cans of peas. And the cans looked like a perfect container for all the pens I had accumulated. So once the insides of the cans were clean, I then tore the labels off.

But they still needed a little something else. Don't you agree?

And yes, that is one HUGE pen there in the middle. My daughter bought it from a Mother's Day fundraiser at her school. What's that? You'd like to see it? I knew you'd ask ;)

All together now...awwww! I'm so loved

So I'd love to say that I covered the metal cans right away. My original thought was to cover them in scrapbooking paper, and scrapbooking embellishments. Lord knows I have enough laying around. But for some reason the task of measuring and cutting the paper was more than I felt I wanted to take on at the time. So there they say..in the metal cans for about a week.

Just as I was about to give in to the measuring and cutting of paper, another idea hit me. I still had some burlap leftover from my table runner for my tv stand that I could use, as well as some leftover fabric from another art piece.

I don't have pictures of the process of putting the cans together. Sorry, bad blogger! But I do have the after shots.

The first one is covered with some brown fabric, a little piece of webbing leftover from the same table runner, and a set aside piece from an old necklace.

I used my handy dandy glue gun to attach each of the fabrics to the can, with the seams lining up in the back. It still needed a little more embellishment. And what's better than using something you already have? I had bought a necklace a couple years ago, but never liked the tassel the hung from it. I had removed it before wearing the necklace, but didn't want to part with it.

I ran a piece of embroidery thread around the can to hang it from.

As for the second can, I wanted to go with something a little "frillier". I felt like the one above felt a little structured, so I wanted to soften the other one a little. It got covered with the burlap, white ribbon, and some white felt.

After seeing these felt pom pom flower type things all over blogland, I had been wanting to make one. I just hadn't had the right place or reason. It was perfect for this situation. Opposite of the first can, I left the unfinished seam in the front. I wanted to be able to see the fringe left on the top and seam. I then ran some white ribbon around the can with the seam also in the front so that it could be covered by the felt.

And there you have it. Recycled vegetable cans into functional but pretty pen and cord organization.

Pay no attention to the layer of dust on the lamp. Geez, what was I thinking??

But you get the idea. Now when I get those phone calls, I know exactly where to go for something to write with. No more hide and seek playing with the pens. Now just if the paper would come out of it's hiding, I'd be golden. It never ends!

DIY table runner, on a budget

After putting away Christmas decorations, it always feels so bare in the house. At least at mine anyway. While decorating for the holidays, I came across a festive table runner that I had forgotten all about. Yes.....had forgotten all about when I had just purchased and used it last year. I know, pathetic...but what can I say? Moving will do that to ya.

Remember this?

The placement of the runner sort of was an accident, but I loved having something under the tv so that it wasn't just a bare cabinet underneath.

So I set out in search of an everyday option. I looked at several stores and just wasn't finding anything that appealed to me. There were lacy numbers...bleh. Stripes...again.bleh. Florals..uh uh. I'm not quite sure why it took me so long to get to my next conclusion. Why not just make my own? Oh that's right...cause

I DON'T SEW!

So what is a non-sew-er (it looked strange w/o the dash) to do in times like this? Turn to blogland for inspiration of course.

I've seen so many neat projects others bloggers have done using burlap, and even seen Nate Burkus endorse it on his show.That's it!

Today I set out in search of the burlap. Not knowing my way around the fabric section, I had to ask for help finding it. They had light brown, tan, white, black, sage, and hunter green. I had given thought to some green to add a little color, but really liked the natural raw look of the natural brown. But oh crap! I forgot to measure the cabinet top before I left. So I got 2 yards just in case. And thank goodness!

I had more than I needed, but 1 yard would have some up short. That just means I'll have some leftover to use on other things...yippee!

I then eyeballed about how long I wanted the sides to hang off..

And then made a cut. Of course as soon as the scissors made the first cut, I realized that I was cutting into the unwrinkled end of the burlap. Crap. I could have easily cut off the other end so that I didn't have to iron it. Oh well...ya live and learn. It was too late at that point.

After cutting off one end, I folded the material in half lengthwise to cut the width to the correct size. I'm horrible at cutting a straight line, so I wanted to lessen the length I'd have to cut. The burlap was a little hard for my scissors to cut through since it was 4 layers thick, but they also have a hard time with paper..lol. So I cut 2 layers at a time up to a point, and then followed with the same cut on the remaining layers, making sure to follow the same line as the first cut. (That made sense in my head. Hope the picture helps)

It was than time to fray the edges. Here is where I'd like to give first time users of burlap a little piece of advice. Do not sit on the floor, in dark jeans while fraying the edges of burlap. Don't say I didn't warn ya.

It gets messy. Just sayin.

But it's worth it. It has the natural look I was going for and has just enough color to be a good backdrop for other decor. Oh and it's CHEAP! At only $3.99/yard, you can't go wrong.

Oh yea, and I also bought a couple yards of burlap webbing. I had originally planned to wrap it around a few vases, but the burlap needed something a little more to go along with it. But at 79cents/yard, I can easily go back for more.

I've had this frame for only a whole year and a half, and just now filling it with pictures. I love when projects motivate me to finish others. It's sat in a box, unfilled until now. (Bought from Michael's some time last year cause I HAD to have it....yep)

On the left are 2 of 3 whiffle balls from the 99cent store covered in hot glue and jute string. I love all the ideas you can find for cheap. Decor balls can get so pricey!

On top of this thrift store book find, is a glass piece that belonged to my grandmother. On our most recent trip to Indiana for Thanksgiving, my dad got some of her things out of their storage. I didn't see a lot that I could envision using in our house, but this way too cute to pass up. In person it looks almost like lace. I had originally thought it would make a great landing place for jewelry while doing dishes.

Not bad for a little over $10 right?

The tv doesn't look so bare anymore :)

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

I love this time of year! Family, the big dinner, eating anything and everything that makes you feel good, oooh eggnog!!!, seeing the faces of family as they open their gifts that Santa brought..........but one other things stands out to me as well. Decorating for Christmas!

The tradition starts off with my daughter and I assembling the tree. Yes, we have a fake tree every year. I don't think that I've ever had a real tree. And while a lot of people prefer them and can't imagine Christmas without them, it's just not what I was raised with. And let's be totally honest....

I'm way too OCD about our tree to not have the ability to mold the limbs in just the right way!! Yes it does mean fluffing, fluffing, fluffing...but it's all worth it when you can move the pieces around to hold that special ornament in just the right way.

Once we get the tree up and fluffed to perfection...it's my husband's job to string up the lights. Just as he has no patience to assemble and fluff...I have NO patience whatsoever to put on the lights.

And once he gets the lights just so, my daughter and I jump in and decorate with all the ornaments that we've collected over time. Although most of them are store bought simple colorful balls, we do have a select few that have special meaning. And to me, that makes them stand out even more. But the best part of the whole tradition, is to complete a task with my daughter year after year that she loves. I love seeing the plastered smile on her face the whole time we work together. This year I got a little choked up and had to pause for a second just to give her a great big hug. I stopped to let her know how much I enjoy decorating the tree with her every year, as well as making sure to let her know that I know she will have her own wonderfully decorate tree of her own someday.

Some people may not share this tradition with their children, and that is completely fine. But for me, as long as she's in my house, she will always decorate the tree with me. And as long as that happens, I will love it forever.



A friend once told me that this blanket reminded her
of Freddy Kruger.
I can't help but to think of that every time I take it
out of storage. But it's one of my favorite things to
see in the house around Christmas.
Plus it's oh so soft and comfy!



This wreath was a happy accident.
I had a plain greenery wreath, box of candy canes,
leftover ribbon, and poinsettia flowers leftover
from years' past decorations. Combined together
they became a fun, whimsical holiday wreath.



Here is another self-made wreath. It's simply a wreath form from Dollar Tree,
 2 packages of red garland (50 feet each), newspaper, tape, and ribbon to hang on.
a $4 price tag...sweet!!

Second only to the tree, the bow above our tv is one of
my favorite parts of all the decorations. The fabric covered
canvases are everyday decor, but needed a little "Tjuzs"
as Carson Kressley would say. Using a thumbtack, I pinned
the ribbon directly to the canvas. LOVE!!!!!!!!!



Not sure if you noticed, but I did not include a picture of the tree I was gushing over at the beginning of the post. You know that OCD I mentioned....well it applies to pictures of it as well. I took all the above pictures during the day today, but really want to wait til it's dark enough to use only the lights on the tree as light for the picture. It seems to make the tree look more magical and pretty. So that'll be a post for another day.

How WILL you stand the wait? ;)



A softer place to land

Once upon a time (mid 2006), my husband, daughter and I were living on the Kitsap Peninsula of Washington State. We had been there for a little over 3 and a half years. So naturally it was just about time to move again. But before we were set to move, I begged my husband to buy a new dining room set. The one we had at the time was our first set that was bought at the Navy Exchange and annoyed the bejesus out of me! It was a tile top table with rubber like "grout". Every piece of crumbs or dirt stuck to said "grout".


 Anyway....while doing a little window shopping we came across a table that I instantly fell in love with. It was a pub height table, with a fold out leaf that makes it a 52" square. And it had a 50% sale ticket on it! It was a little more than we had expected to spend, but I knew I just HAD to have it.


Fast forward 4 years and it would be the first piece of furniture that I would sell in a heart beat. It didn't take long after assembling the tall beauty in our home to realize that the chair seats weren't deep enough to comfortably sit in for an extended amount of time. Eating dinner as a family each night wasn't an issue. But when having friends over to play cards.....let's just say that everyone left wishing we hadn't sat in our chairs the whole time.

And because of that I have loathed that table for some time. But I couldn't dare tell my husband that! No way! I had begged him to buy it.

Then my friend Andrea over at Walking in my Socks posted  pictures on Facebook about reupholstering her dining room chairs. Why didn't I think of that? That would be perfect. Almost.

There was still the issue of the seats not being deep enough for comfort. So as luck would have it, one night while playing Phase 10 with friends with our butts killing us, I mentioned that I would love to know how to make new seats for said chairs. And that's when it happened. My great friend, Nick, nonchalantly said that such a task would be easy and that he'd help me. Woah! what?? Awesome!!!!!

So I was on am mission to gather the supplies:

-a sheet of plywood
-batting
-and my chosen material to cover them

We used several tools as well. I had a couple and he brought what we didn't have.
- a jigsaw
- belt sander
- staple gun
- various cutting tools (scissors, scalpel , and trauma shears) *hubby is a corpsman that likes to have various tools of the trade around. I'm sure fabric scissors would have done the job just as well

So let's start with the pictorial tutorial. Ready? (Forgive me, but I didn't get to take any pics of the very beginning. I was being the helpful assistant)

It all started with the piece of plywood my husband picked out at Lowe's that I shared here.
Nick used the current seat as a template to trace onto the plywood. Then together we talked about how much larger we should go with the new seats. Keeping in mind that we shouldn't go too big because the chair bases were made to support the current size and shouldn't push the envelope too far. I believe we agreed on 2 and a half inches for the depth. And we added about 1 inch to each side.

So we used this high tech working station to begin working on.

Bet you're jealous of our ultra fancy work table right about now. We even sat it on top of another table so that we weren't breaking our backs as we worked. But it was also used so that if we accidentally nicked it, I wouldn't mind :)

So we had the seat traced out, and Nick got to work on cutting it out with his jigsaw. Then using the sander in the picture above, sanded the edges smooth. I could start to see that this was going to work!! Yay!!

To show you how much bigger the new seats are ......


 Oh yea, baby! I can't believe that this is actually coming true...lol. And only after 4 years of totally hating these chairs.




















So after we had them all cut.

It took us a little longer than we had expected to get them all cut out and sanded. And Nick still had to go to work that night. So we hurriedly took one of the sanded seats inside to work on upholstering them. Knowing my husband's knack for hording collecting medical supplies, he asked him if he had any scalpels. Yes those kinds of scalpels. The ones surgeons cut human flesh open with. I was actually shocked when he came out of the garage with some. I guess he had them left over from his "stay" in Iraq. We used them to cut the fabric to get it to lay as flat as possible.

Together we stumbled through the process. Almost literally. I watched him first to see if he had any simple solutions to all the rounded corners. As to which he admitted he was just as clueless as I was.

See?

If those aren't hospital corners, I don't know what is....HA!

Once we had gotten to this point, I was pretty sure that I could finish up on my own. I appreciated Nick's help and didn't need to keep any longer than I already had.

Before I go on,  I want to stop to say Thank You Nick for all your help! I would have never been able to come up with this fix. You have saved our butts....literally!! :)

Before going to bed, I came up with the grand idea to paint the bottom of each seat black so that when I did a hack job on the upholstering, that maybe it wouldn't stand out so much. So I painted them and let them dry overnight.

Hey look at that! My fancy work table also doubles as a painting chair. Who knew??


So today I worked on the other million chairs. Ok you got me...I don't REALLY have a million chairs. But isn't 8 pretty dang close? I certainly think so.








The hammer was to pound in any staples that were stubborn

I had to keep reassuring myself that this side normally wouldn't be seen




Ready for install

If you're still with me, you're a real trooper! You deserve that cookie calling your name! Oh wait, those calls are from MY kitchen. Well at least I'll have some comfy seats to sit on while enjoying them ;)

Missing the beach

After having lived within 15 minutes of the beach, living in southern Texas has made me miss it terribly. Not that we went too frequently while we were still in North Carolina, but we had the option. Having it taken away sucks!

So when I saw some bags of shells at my local Goodwill I knew that I wanted to finally have a piece of the beach in my house. You see....I've always liked beach themed decor. The clean modern kind of course (sorry no lighthouses for me), but never thought it would fit in with the rest of my decor. So ironically never tried it when I could find anything my heart desired close by. I waited until Texas. And as I was walking around, I came across a couple glass pieces that I thought together would make a nice place to display the shells I had just found.

You see, a while back I came across a genius party planner, Michelle from Maddycakes Muse. And one neat trick that she had shared for easy party food displays was to use gorilla glue to adhere various glass objects together to create stands. I don't normally have a need for food displays, but knew that some day I would find an opportunity to use the same technique.

Start with these materials:

*large glass vase
*glass candle holder
*gorilla glue
and something heavy to hold the glass pieces together (in my case it was a couple books)

Once putting the glue onto the wider part of the candle holder, I turned the vase upside down on the table and placed the candle holder glue side down in the center of the vase bottom. Then placed a couple heavy books on top to help strengthen the glue's hold.

Let that sit for a couple hours to really get a good bond. To me that's the hardest part. I am SO the type of person that wants instant results. INSTANT I say! But I was good and left it alone.

I have to say that this glue is the bomb-diggity! (Yes, I know no one really says that anymore, but it was the first thing that came to mind) It has a very strong bond and isn't hard to use.

So here's a quick after shot, after filling it with the shells. It isn't quite complete just yet, as I would like to fancy it up just a little more. Just don't know with what just yet. But for now, I am in love!

Something to write about

Or actually I should something to write ON, not about.

I found this odd sized frame at Goodwill. (Boy I've typed that store name a lot in my recent posts) Since I didn't have a tape measure with me at the store, I hoped that it would be a size that would fit a print that I could order online. But of course, not so. It's only 9 3/4" tall and 27 1/4" long.

It didn't even have anything in the frame besides a cardboard backing. Oh and the paint was chipped in several spots.

It sat in my bedroom for a couple weeks, waiting for me to find it's purpose. It's reason for being. And I think I've done just that.

Instead of getting out the big can of black paint that I used to paint our dresser, I simply used a jar of black acrylic paint. Worked like a charm!

As for the contents of the frame. I thought it would make a good size for a custom dry erase board. I did a search for a blank calendar sheet. I found this one......blank calendar. Using photoshop I replaced the days of the week with a different font that I liked a little more. I couldn't really just use it as is right? Oh and added little boxes to write in the dates.

And then using scraps from my canvas wall art that would hanging across the hall from it, I decorated the rest of the background.

I hung it on the wall and then had the idea to attach some $1 wired ribbon from Michael's bargain ribbon bin to make the appearance of it being hung from it.

So what do you think?

In case you are wondering, the letters represent us....Stephen, Amber, and Brianna. My husband couldn't figure out what they were for. No clue! I might go back in and put miniature pics of us beside them. I haven't decided yet.

But for now, I have a fully function dry erase board that is customized to our needs. And can be changed if ever those needs change. I love things that aren't permanent. I have an addiction to changing and tweaking..lol.

With the completion of this project, my hallway isn't a blank slate anymore. Yay!

Something old, something new

While I was driving one day....when we lived in NC.....I spotted an antique store with some old windows propped against the building. On my way home, I envisioned having a couple of them hanging on my bedroom as wall art. Of course I had it all mapped out in my head.

Almost a year passed by, and I still hadn't gone back to get the windows. I kept telling myself that they had a ton of them, and that they'd still be there when I was ready to get them. Even though I thought about them ALL the time.

I really loved the idea of having something unexpected on the wall. And to reuse something that had been overlooked by a lot of people.

And out of no where, my husband got orders here to Texas.  WHAT?? And leave the store that has the cool old windows???? What if I can't find a place that has them in Texas? I would be crushed! So 2 days before the moving company came to pack up our house I finally went back to that store. Looking at them up close, I fell even more in love. Although I had misjudged how big they were. From the road they looked small enough to have 2 on the wall. But in reality one was enough.

So it got packed up and moved here with us. I hadn't found the right place for it just yet. But I unearthed it from the landfill I call our garage, and saved it from the cobwebs that would have eventually found it.

And it just so happens that I had a wall decal that I hadn't used yet, that would fit perfectly in our room. But didn't want to put on the wall. And then it hit me......put the decal on the window and then hang it in our bedroom!! That works for me. While working on it , I got more and more excited. My vision of having an old window frame hanging on one of my walls was coming closer to being true.

I hammered on some picture hanging saw tooth thingys ( I don't really know the name of them and am being too lazy to google it...lol), adhered the decal after cutting it to fit each pane of the window, and hung it on the wall. 

I love the chipped paint, the random rope hanging from the left side, and the rusty metal closure. All of which give the piece it's character.

To finish off the look, I added a couple 99 cent store frames with pictures of the husband and I. They started off as "framed art". I measured the opening of the mat and printed out 2 pictures of us that my friend had taken of us. I then disassembled the cardboard back and masking tape to remove their art, and replaced it with our lovely faces. And re-taped the back on.  In my opinion, they don't look like $1 frames.

                                                                   Before and After:

And on top, I added my recent silhouette frame of us as well. I can't wait for the hubby to see it when he gets home from work. When he left this morning, only the window was up.

Lesson? Stop to see the beauty in things.....w/o having to refinish them. Sometimes leaving things as they are helps you to find the true beauty and appreciate them for what they are. An old, cool, discarded window art piece.



Linking up to Hooking up to HOH #17

What I call lazy

Don't worry, this post is not about you. It's about me. But it's lazy in a good way.

I'm gonna try something a little different this post. I'll start with the finished product.

Cute, right? It's my husband and I in silhouette form. In April of 2009, I got the idea to make silhouettes for all three of us. I was working at a portrait studio at the time and was having our family pictures taken. My boss was taking them for us and I told him that I wanted him to take a profile shot of each of us for me to use. I then used the pen tool in Photoshop to outline our features and made some cool artwork for the wall.

Here they are framed in one of our old houses.

They have prominently hung in each home since then. Here at this house, they greet you at the front door. I love the colors I chose. Green and teal for me, pink and green for my daughter, and orange and navy blue for the hubby. (He's a Chicago Bears fan)

So knowing that I would most likely like to use them again, I saved the silhouettes in a .psd file so that I could still have the layers to play with later.

So on to the project at hand. The frame was found at Goodwill for $1.99. Where else? I bought quite a few things that day....lol.

So I knew I wanted to add scrapbooking paper as the background, and that I wanted our silhouettes facing each other. But what I also knew was that I DID NOT want to cut them out by hand!! Uh uh..no way. Remember the lazy part? Yep! I also didn't want to chance messing something up by printing on the scrapbooking paper. And just then...a lightbulb moment. What about printing on a transparency? That would work right?

I was hoping that I would get a glare to show the transparency, but of course it came out crystal clear. I added the red outline in Photoshop just to show the edges.

Using the glass from the frame, I cut the paper and transparency to fit. Once the frame was reassembled, you couldn't even tell the transparency was there! Just one more small project that worked out in my favor. Meaning that I didn't spend a lot of money, or time...and it turned out right the very first time.

The only draw back of this project is that I wouldn't be able to use the transparency idea very well with frames larger than 8x10, since they are printed on 8.5" x11" sheets. Ahh well....hakuna matata.