Hannah’s Room & A Little Christmas Cheer

If you ask Hannah about her favorite thing at our new house, she’ll tell you that it’s her room.  Over the last couple of months, I’ve been collecting inexpensive little things to make her room comfortable and something that will grow with her.
It’s hard to believe that she will be 7 when we return to the US!

The deets:
Kid bed and mattress: Hand-me-down from a friend
Comforter, duvet and pillow: IKEA 
Curtains: IKEA
Wall art: Target, on clearance 
Rugs: Wal-Mart
Bow holder: made by me
Tissue pom-poms: recycled from her 3rd birthday party

Houses in Europe are build differently than in the US.
This has taken some getting used to. 
There are no closets, so we have armoires and wardrobes.
There is also no carpeting.  I’ve not seen or heard of a house here that has carpet.
Every room in our house has ceramic tile.
Which makes for chilly mornings.
So we have rugs.  Lots and lots of rugs.

One of the things I wanted to do was create a little reading nook.  When I was a kid, I loved to read and Hannah is no different.  I found the purple chair at a little furniture store here in Luxembourg and we’ve already gotten our money’s worth.  It’s like a bean bag chair, but much sturdier.  It’s hard to see, but there’s a basket of favorite books next to the chair.  Many days, “nap time” turns out to be “quiet reading time.”

(And yes, I shipped all six of those tissue paper pom-poms across the ocean. I wish you could have seen the look on the mover’s face when he opened the box containing them.  He didn’t speak English, but he didn’t have to say a thing.  Really, lady?  You brought these things with you? Yes.  I did.)

You probably noticed Hannah's Christmas tree on the little desk.
It was in her room last year.
This year, she decorated it completely by herself.

There’s her favorite – a cowgirl boot.

But wait a minute - what’s that ornament?
Oh, that’s just a little plastic dog from the basket of bathtub toys, of course.

And look.  There’s Ariel. 
But she lost her seashell top and her tail, so she’s covering up with a scrap of fabric left over from this project.

And this one makes my mama heart all warm and melty.  It’s a little foil star that she made in Sunday school last week.  She told us all about how the wise men followed a star like this to Bethlehem.

We also put up our little trees in the living room.
We’ll be home for Christmas, so we didn’t want to put up a big tree here, but we didn’t want to not have one, either.  I brought these three pencil trees from home, along with a few special ornaments.

In just over a week, we will be leaving for the US to celebrate the holidays with those that we love most.  We can’t wait!

At the Last Minute, A Furniture Makeover

About six years ago, my grandma gave me a set of dining room furniture.
It has a table, four chairs, a buffet, an armoire and three leaves to make the table really big.

For six years, Shawn and I have been saying that we were going to give it a makeover.
Well, we finally did.

Wanna know when?

FOUR DAYS before the movers were coming to load up our stuff to ship to Europe.
Nothing like adding a 30 hour project to the most hectic time of our lives, right?

I mean, really.  Who does stuff like this?

We hauled all the pieces out to the garage.
(We had some help.  Ok, lots of help.)
We sanded and painted.  Sanded and painted.
Wash, rinse, repeat.

Then I reupholstered the chairs.
It was way easier than I thought.
Good thing because it was a solo project.
I wasn’t sure about the fabric and to be honest, what I selected wasn’t my first choice.
But then I realized that if I selected a fabric with a pattern, I’d never get all the chairs to match and it would be impossible to properly line up the print.  And I’d never be able to enjoy a meal at a table if the pattern on each of the chairs was all wonky and misaligned. 
I’m kidding.  Kind of.
Then I started getting all dizzy and high maintenance because WE CAN’T MOVE TO EUROPE UNTIL THESE CHAIRS ARE REUPHOLSTERED.

So I went with a whimsy and nonspecific print. 
The fabric was on sale.
Which is good because I’m cheap.  And picky.  
 

 

 

I wish we had taken pictures of the process, but we were moving at such a FRANTIC PACE that there just wasn’t time.  The paint was barely dry on the day the movers loaded all of it up into the oversea container.  In fact, I wrapped every single piece in waxed paper so that the paint wouldn’t be damaged by the bubble wrap and cardboard.

And I may or may not have bolted upright in bed, awoken by a dream about the table floating in the middle of the Atlantic.
 
In the end, every piece made it unscathed, unscratched and unchipped.
And I’m digging my new dining room.

Top Projects of 2010

I started this blog in conjunction with my Etsy shop back in March.  After a few orders, I realized that I wanted to spend my time sewing for my daughter, family and friends. 
However, I really liked my little blog.  
It’s been fun sharing tutorials and documenting projects, along with tidbits about the everyday goings on of my family.

So, without further ado, here are my favorite projects of 2010:

This was my first attempt at shirring.  I love this dress that I made for Hannah in the spring.

Then I did this one.  I repurposed a shirt from my closet to make a toddler shirt.

It took me a while, but I finally finished this sleeping bag.

I had a ton of fun on the decorations and favors for Hannah’s Cowgirl Birthday Party.

I think that my favorite project that I did this year was surprising my husband with a bedroom mini makeover.  Besides fresh paint and a new ceiling fan, I repurposed a lot of things that we already had in our home. 

I’ve got a lot more projects on my list for 2011. 
Check out other bloggers and their favorite projects here.

Happy New Year, friends!

Easy-Peasy Handmade Gift Idea

A few years ago, my family cut back on the amount of Christmas gifts we gave each other.  Rather, each individual decides on a charity and makes a donation in place of the gifts we would have given each other.  And honestly, it has been such a blessing.  Last year, Shawn and I chose an organization through our church that supplies sewing machines to women in underdeveloped countries so that they can learn to not only make clothing for their families,  but items to sell to earn an income.  As you can imagine, I fell in love with this idea as soon as I learned about it. 
I sew because I love to do it. 
These women sew out of necessity.

So, while my family shopping list is pretty minimal, we love to find little ways to bless those that have blessed us during the year. 

Here’s an idea for a simple gift with a handmade touch that will show someone how much you appreciate them.

Homemade bath salts
You’ll need:
1 clear jar
(I run mine through the sanitize cycle in my dishwasher, or you can submerge them in boiling water for a few minutes)
1 scrap of fabric
Ribbon or string
Cardstock paper
Epsom salt
Baking soda
Essential Oil in any fragrance
(lavender and peppermint are my favorites)
You can also use lemon juice or vanilla extract

Mix 3 cups of Epsom salt (regular table salt won’t work – it is extremely drying to the skin) and 1 or 2 teaspoons of baking soda in a bowl.  Add 10-12 drops (more or less depending on how strong you prefer your fragrance) of essential oil and mix well.  You can also use lemon juice or vanilla extract in place of essential oil. 

Pour mixture into glass jar.  Make sure that you use a jar that seals well.  You want to keep this as dry as possible because moisture can cause the mixture to clump together.
Cover the jar with fabric and tie a ribbon on.  Attach a note with instructions to add 1/2 cup to a warm bath and relax!

 OR! If you want to make this even simpler, I found this bag of lavender bath salts at WalMart for less than $5.  You could simply pour this into jars and top it off with some festive fabric, ribbon and a note! 

 
Hannah’s Sunday School teachers will each be getting one of these tomorrow.  And on Tuesday, we’ll be stopping by our favorite doctor’s office to drop some of these off to some special nurses who take such good care of us all year!

 

 

How do I know it’s fall?

There are pumpkins that are as big as toddlers.

Flip flops are being replaced by Ugg boots.

It’s still nice outside but the sun is going down way too early.  I’ve changed up my evening routine of tucking Hannah into bed and going for a run to tucking Hannah into bed and going to the living room to meet Jillian.

The Pumpkin Spice Latte is back at Starbucks.  Honestly, this is the only time this mama ever goes to Starbucks.  I’m much more of a sweet tea girl, but the Pumpkin Spice Latte just tastes like fall.

The Browns are already 0-3.  Sigh. 

My crockpot is getting revved up.  I definitely to use it more in the fall and winter.  Starting in October, I use it at least twice per week.  “Crock Pot Sunday” is popular in our house.

 

Decorating for fall is my favorite. 

 I decorated our front door by simply using a plain twine wreath that I had on hand.  I added some faux fall leaves and personalized it.  I bought the wooden “P” at JoAnn Fabrics, traced it onto fall print paper and Mod Podged the paper on.  I then tied it to the top of the wreath using a yellowish ribbon from a previous Amazon purchase. 
In total, I spent about $2 for this project. 

  Happy Fall!

Table of Contents

Since discovering this recipe I haven’t bought a jar of spaghetti sauce.  Until now. 

I saw these beauties in the grocery store I picked them up not for what was inside, but for what I could do with them after they were empty. 

We recently did a make-over to our back deck and I knew that the coffee table needed a little somethin’. 

I had a tray that was supposed to hold photos, so I removed the photos and sanded her down a bit to give an aged look.  I added some personalization, thanks to my husband’s cousin and her Cricut.  Um, yea.  Totally. Want. One. 

 I could have gotten away with using generic old glue for the letters, but I didn’t have any on hand. 
So I used my new best friend – Mod Podge. 

I soaked the spaghetti jars in warm soapy water so that the labels would peel off.  I gave one of the jars a coat of my other best friend – Valspar Glass Etch.

 I took a few scoops of sand right out of my daughter’s sandbox and planted a candle in it. 
The flowers? Directly from my backyard. 
The hubs is responsible for those. 
Me?
The only thing I am good at planting is a candle into a jar of sand. 

I bought just two jars of spaghetti sauce for this project.  Everything else I already had.  And here’s the finished project, in all of her $6 glory.

 

I’m linking up with these parties.

Gimme a D!

Our little girl makes me smile.  And she makes her daddy smile, too.  That’s why I knew that her sweet little face had to be incorporated into his Father’s Day gift this year.

Here’s what I did:

I bought 12 inch “D” and “A” paper mache letters at JoAnn Fabrics and spray painted them aqua.  Easy, right?

Then we held a little photo shoot in our yard.  Actually, we held two photo shoots because it took two tries to get three shots that I liked.  I printed the pictures and put them into a three opening photo frame. 

Photographing a two year old for a project like this ain’t easy. 

But, Daddy will love it!  Outtakes and all.

Blog Swap: A Little Knick Knack

Welcome to my first ever blog swap!  Meg has an awesome blog - you must check it out.  She's crafty and witty and has some great projects, especially for kids.  We decided to swap blogs for the day and it has been ever so much fun.  Check out this project she came up with to frame photos.  Is she creative or what?  When you're finished, hop on over to her blog and check out my tutorial for a little summer dress.
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First, let me introduce myself. I am Meg from A Little Knick Knack. I've had my little blog since the beginning of the year and can I just say, it is the most fun ever! I have had a blast sharing projects, meeting new people in the blog world and just generally being amazed by all the wonderful talent I see when I have time to peruse online. Right now, I'm a stay-at-home-mom with my three kids, ages 4, 3, and 2! My daughter is in preschool and the other two kids just stay at home and play with me. It's a busy life, but I wouldn't trade it for anything!

Along those lines, I wanted to share this fun way to share your pictures of your family and loved ones.

First, find an old piece of wood, size is really not important. I used some old wood from a project my husband was doing outside.


Next, I spray painted a coat with my heirloom white, by Rustoleum. That stuff's great! I didn't worry about getting a good solid coat on, because I knew I was going to sand it down for a worn finish.


After the paint dries, use a rough-grained sand paper to sand the edges until the original wood shows through. I like to do the edges and corners really well and then do a light sand over the surface of the wood.

After that is done, and you've wiped off the excess for a smooth finish, find some material. I used these awesome cocktail napkins I won from a give away on Finding Fabulous (which is an amazing blog, by the way--check it out!). Since I'm not a drinker and the napkins were just too fancy for my everyday use, I decided to use them for this project.


Now, grab your Mod Podge and glue those suckers on your board. I used a liberal amount of glue and used my fingers to smooth out the bubbles. After that layer dries (it doesn't take very long, about an hour), apply another layer of Mod Podge to the top of the material, again using your fingers to smooth over the top.


While that is drying, pick out some lovely pics from your printer (I like my tones in sepia, but you can do color or black and white, whatever you love!) and print them on regular printer paper.

I used some of my distressing ink to distress the pictures and then...


.I crumpled them up into tiny little balls! I know, I know! But, trust me, it's a fun look after you un-crumple and smooth them out. I wanted a kind of worn, distressed look.


Once the fabric is dry, position your pictures on your board and use the Mod Podge to glue them on the fabric. Again, wait for it to dry and apply another layer of the glue to the top of the picture.

Once all the glue is dry, use any technique you enjoy to add a more aged look to your wood. I like to use the Ralph Lauren Faux Technique Glaze in smoke. A lot of things will get you this same look, though....wood stain, watered-down acrylic paint....don't be afraid to use your imagination!


I simply used a dry towel to rub the glaze over the edges an across the fabric (I avoided the pictures) and then used another towel to wipe off the excess. The resulting look is a great way to age the wood!


I added a little leather tie to the middle of the board for some interest. Now, my board is very thick, so I simply set it up on its side to display. But, if my board were thin, I would definitely use a picture hook to display on the wall.



My lovely picture board is currently displayed on our mantle. It was a fun and cheap project and I hope you enjoyed it!


Thanks for checking out our blog swap and I hope to see you over at A Little Knick Knack soon! Thanks again, Tina, for this opportunity and I'm so happy we found each other to host this little swap!