FUNKY FRAME

 My sister-in-law gave me this big chunky frame for Christmas and I absolutely LOVE it!

 You've all seen the ones on pinterest floating around! I LOVE this gallery wall that Tatertots & Jello did...

Well, I FINALLY got around to painting it last week and swapped out a mirror I had hanging in the corner of our Family Room and I love it! It brings more green in to the room and I can't wait to get our family picture in it!

Happy new chair

This was honestly one of the quickest makeovers I have ever done! I bought this chair...actually 2 matching chairs at a garage sale last week for $10. I grabbed 1/2 yard of some fun fabric when grocery shopping at Walmart one day last week on a whim. I believe that cost me $2. Since I am the only girl in my household, I knew I wanted to incorporate PINK somewhere in my craft room...because, well just because it makes me happy! So when I saw this fabric, I had to have some:) Then...because I have 3 young boys and shopping with them is a nightmare, I sent my hubby to Lowes to buy a can of spray paint...$3 I sent him with a piece of the fabric and told him I wanted a blue that matched and {hoped} he would pick a good color and as it turns out, it was exactly what I had in mind!! I quickly staple gunned my new fabric on and gave the chair a coat of primer, followed by a coat of blue and tada...my new chair for around $10! I love that I finally have a chair at my desk and not only does it make me smile...it's also super comfy!

The Most Important Work

I made this sign for a friend recently...and ALMOST kept it for myself, because it fit just right on this wall in my kitchen;) I love this quote she chose and I have put together a little tutorial for you below!

I grabbed a piece of wood and cut it to the right size for the space I needed...

and painted it black...

Using my Cricut software, I cut vinyl and used the vinyl as a "stencil" and painted on the cream paint...

Then I pulled off the red vinyl and was left with a "hand painted" sign in the font of my choice...

I loved how the vinyl actually pulled up some of the black paint, distressing it without even sanding it...

After pulling the vinyl off the wood, this is what I was left with...

And then I took it outside for a sanding and ended up with this...

Hanging up in my kitchen, wishing it was mine;)

String Art

Have you seen this string art floating around pinterest??

My friend is redoing her master bedroom and we were trying to come up with something cute for above her bed.  She showed me this picture and I got to work! You can go to Que Linda for her tutorial, because I just followed that and she explains everything great!  I ran to Lowe's and found this wood with grooves so they fit together and thought that I would like the look and it might help hold everything together...I poured wood glue in the grooves and stuck them together and gave the a LIGHT COAT of white paint...

the only difference from her tutorial, I "free handed" the word, because I didn't feel like busting out my Cricut. You can tell I obviously just chicken scratched until I liked it:)

Then I cut it out, trying to keep the thickness the same for all of the letters. Then I started nailing and when I was done, I pulled the paper off and was left with a bunch of nails!

(my little helper's hands finishing his cereal in the background;)

I went to the store to buy yarn and then opted for crochet thread, since it was thinner. I'm glad I did, because I like the end result better. 

I secured the back by nailing 2 vertical boards  onto my original 4 planks of wood and hung a wire across the back...

It wasn't too hard and I'm excited to see it hanging above Mandy's bed!

If you try it, let me know! I'd love to post it on my blog!

LOVE sign

I whipped up a simple LOVE sign for Valentine's Day last week. I just grabbed a board I had on hand and painted it white. I cut a simple straight-edged heart with my jig saw and then free handed the word LOVE, using the width of my foam brush as my guide. Then I roughed it all up with a sander and was done!

Christmas Gift Idea Número Seis

Some people are put on this earth, solely to be an example to others. Our friends, the Hubers, are our earthly angels. Sure they spoil our kids rotten and my kids love it and think they are the greatest, but it isn't the spoiling that makes me want to be like them, it is their thoughtfulness. This Christmas, I could go on and on about the gifts they bought us...but there is one that made me the happiest. My daddy passed away a couple months ago and I didn't even want to experience Christmas without him. These friends brought over a small Christmas tree before Christmas. It wasn't just any Christmas tree, it was my daddy's tree. I have no clue how much time was put into this gift, but I have no doubt it was a LOT! Not only was there an ornament with a picture of all 8 children and their spouses, there was also a picture of each of the 12 grandchildren. Everywhere I looked there was something else that described my dad's hobbies, his work, his family, his church...they even had an ornament if his favorite candy!

It was incredible, we felt like our dad was around for the holidays and it meant so much to my mom! I am in awe of their thoughtfulness and will always appreciate this gift they gave. As you reach out to others, be thoughtful and they will be forever grateful to you!!! Thank you Hubers, we love you soooooo much!

Christmas Gift Idea Número Cinco

I helped my good friend refinish a toy box for her kids for Christmas. I love the idea of taking something old and making it "new" again. A couple coats of red paint, some vinyl lettering and you have a cute Christmas gift your kiddos will love!

Christmas Gift Idea Número Quatro

I got this from my friend and I thought it was super cute and she said they weren't too hard to make. I would love to do these for a future gift for someone! This is going in my nativity collection, I just love homemade, thoughtful gifts.

Christmas Gift Idea Número Tres

I got this from one of my preschool students! Her mom is my good friend and do creative...the card said, "Merry Christmas and a Happy Rootbeer!"

Christmas Gift Idea Número Dos

Same creative sis-in-law, made this for my older boys! Yet another genius pinterest find! She said she found the plastic holders at Office Max(I think) and bought the set of traceable letters off etsy! Buy a couple metal rings and a dry erase marker and it makes the perfect gift for a preschooler that they can use over and over again. I love it!

Christmas Gift Idea Número UNO

I hope everyone had a WONDERFUL Christmas Holiday! Before December ends I want to post some fun gift ideas that I came across this year...hopefully some of you can use some of the ideas in the future:)

The first is this adorable "wipe case" that my sis-in-law gave my baby boy for Christmas! She decked it out with his name and other cuteness and then tied random scraps of ribbon and material together and stuck inside...to make a fun little toy for him! He can pull and pull and pull and entertain himself...without wasting actual wipes(genius!)

***What a cute idea, which she said she found on pinterest:)

JINGLE ALL THE WAY

My husband and I went to a Christmas party this past weekend, thrown by my wonderful bro-in-law & sis-in-law(wish I had pictures of it...because it was SOOOOOO CUTE! Every single detail was AMAZING, her house looked like a boutique and the food was delicious!)

We were supposed to bring some gifts for a white elephant gift exchange. 

We brought one cheesy "white elephant" gift & then I decided to make a quick Christmas decor for our other gift. This honestly took me 10 minutes to whip up & I thought it turned out cute!

{I almost kept it for myself}

I scored some FREE cupboard doors awhile back that sit in my shed, until they are needed:)

I pulled one out and gave it a quick coat of RED CRAFT PAINT.

After it dried, I applied the vinyl

(which I actually already had cut out about a year ago & just never did the project)

Then I lightly brushed on a WHITE coat of paint on the edge, letting the red still show through to look make it look a bit aged...

I grabbed a door knob that I had & screwed it into the hole that was already there & pulled an ornament off my tree that I got at the dollar store last year & hung it on the knob...

ALL DONE! 

*I cut my vinyl with my Cricut Expression, using Make the Cut software...which unfortunately is no longer compatible with Cricut:(

Christmas Tree Skirt

I have been wanting a TREE SKIRT for the past...

oh 7 years or so, but they are SO EXPENSIVE and most aren't my style.

A few years ago I decided that it wouldn't be too hard to make one, 

but when Christmas rolls around & you pull out your tree & remember 

you still don't have one, you don't have the time & so you throw a red sheet around 

the base of your tree...year after year.

I have been wanting to do a "Peppermint Skirt" because my tree is all red & white, sort of like this one...

But have yet to find the time to sew one up.

Well the other day I pinned this gorgeous tree skirt to my pinterest account.
LOOK AT IT! It is beautiful & ruffly and I love it!!

The best part? NO SEW! She hot glued the whole thing & I decided that I could manage that!

The Crafted Sparrow gives an excellent tutorial, so hop on over there to check it out!

I did mine basically the same, except that I ended up doing my strips more than twice as wide(pure laziness on my part) & I didn't pleat my fabric as often(also pure laziness) & I ended up using pinking shears to cut the edges to avoid fraying.

-------------

My mom was giving away this red tablecloth years ago & I snatched it up, knowing that it was the perfect size to make a tree skirt. And here I am YEARS LATER, actually putting it to use!

Even though I decided against the "Peppermint Swirl", I still wanted to use REDS & WHITES to match my tree & these are the fabrics I found...

My favorite fabric to cut was the STRIPES! So easy, I could just cut right on the lines!:)

I bought 1 1/2 yards of each fabric & then cut 5 inch strips & used about 4 strips of each color...I'm guessing I used about 3/4 yard of each fabric in the end. You would use more if you did the entire skirt and pleated more often like the Crafted Sparrow!

So...my "PLAN" was to do several layers of each fabric, like the Crafted sparrow, but after doing one layer of each, I decided I wanted to leave the rest of it the RED fabric peeking out(ok, if I'm going to be honest, it was pure laziness, AGAIN) If you used an ugly scrap piece of fabric, you would probably want to cover the entire thing, but since my base fabric was red, it worked for me!

I LOVE my tree with it's new RUFFLY SKIRT & can't believe it took me 7 to sit down and whip it up!

If you don't have a skirt around your tree, you now know how EASY it can be, so get to it!