Baby Overload!

Apparently I have some extremely fertile friends... or they were all getting it on the at the same time last year.  Ugh, bad mental picture.

Spring is the time of year that I make the most Peepskeeps baby capsules.  It's my trademark gift for my friends.  I like to try and incorporate who I think these little ones are going to be based on their parents. Or if I know specifically what theme the parents are going with, I use that.  Here's a couple from the last baby showers.

Harrison is due any day now.  Mommy is from England and already had the bedding picked out.  I call this the snicker doodle box.  It matches his room pretty well.

Lilah is due in June.  Her parents are rockers. I felt that she could pull off bold colors and something a little more crazy.

I started making these for the simple fact that not everything fits into a baby book. Not everybody is as lazy as I am, but I also don't get around to putting things in my sons baby book.  I wanted to have a cute place to catch these items. My son's box has his first shoes, hospital bracelet, a rattle, and a balloon from his first birthday.

I have another friend due in July.  She will be getting something very special and a little different. She already has a bunch of items that I've created. It's kind of like walking into a museum to myself.  I made my very first box for her daughter who turned 5 today. Yikes she's old. Yikes that means I'm old!

Doh! Valentines is coming!

Thank you Pinterest for being my Pinspiration.  I pinned several non-candy Valentine options.  Lucky for me, there are only 7 kids in Liam's class.  So I went for the Playdoh option.

The pin I had was just a sticker on the lid of a playdoh container.  I punched out some scalloped red paper, printed up the "DOH YOU WANT TO BE MY VALENTINE?"  and glued them together.  Punched holes and then used a red ribbon to tie them on in the back.

Super easy!

Who would say no to this Valentine?

Happy Birthday Aunt Woo!

My best friend's birthday was yesterday so I made her a dry erase board out of whatever I had at the house.  We picked up a couple of small glass cabinet doors at ReStore months ago.  The idea was that we would do the project together.... I had the door sitting at the house, so I decided to do it as a surprise.

Just a small cabinet door with the door handle removed and sanded.  Leftover paint from my front door+unsanded grout = chalk paint.

Layered some other color in between coats so that there was some variation when sanded.

Sanded and distressed... added a scrap piece of fabric to the back.

The yellow leather rosettes came from a purse I carried around for a while.  The straps started ripping so I cut the appliques off to save for later... I finally had a moment to use them.

I added rhinestones in the center of the leather roses and topped it of with a silver butterfly.

Final product, looks like something from Anthropologie....not to toot my own horn or anything.  The best part is that Aunt Woo just bought her first home and she has her first memo board to hang.

Link parties:
 

SEW What's new with you?

Short and sweet.

I finally took over my moms sewing machine.  Best way to learn to sew.... pick a project that you will get immediate gratification.

I made myself a new tote bag.  I'm starting a new job and wanted to look kinda cool.  LOVE these fabrics!
The one on the actually has a sea turtle if you look closely. Or if I take a close up picture of it.

LINEN CABINET

I small step for the family one giant leap for me.  I have professed before that I am the queen of starting projects, and finishing them at a snails pace.  The bathroom is going though changes still.  My latest accomplishment includes creating a linen cabinet, over the john storage, and new light fixture.

A lifetime ago I worked for  Expo Design Center.  I was a kitchen and bath designer for them for a couple of years.  Expo had an entire decorative area and sold a lot of pieces...way over priced.  A friend and I would hope and wait for items to clearance out and try and get a deal, because, well we didn't get an employee discount.  Thank you Home Depot.  While my friend famously picked up a bidet for a couple of dollars, I picked up a couple of pieces of furniture.

I have 2 of the above map tables.  They are about 24" high and 18" deep.  For the last 6 years we have used them as night stands.  During our bathroom redo I decided to change them into a linen cabinet.  I leave the price tag on it still so I remember what kind of deal I got on them.

Original price $299 marked down to $127.77, I got them for $60 a piece. Umm... there not in business anymore....sidenote.

I know my before and after pictures are crap.  But, at least I remembered pictures at all.

Painted the entire thing black.  Then I used a quarterfoil stencil with metallic paint.  Also, I changed out the hardware.

I took the bun feet off of one of the tables and stacked it on top of the other.  It ended up being extremely sturdy.  It kind of looks like luggage to me.

All of our medicines, lotions, that kind of thing are in the top and towels are in the lower one.  Sooooo much better than having the towels on a shelf over the toilet.

One of my better ideas, but wait until you see the other things I've done in here.  

Ornamental Awesomeness.

A couple of months ago I made this for my mother.  It's my own take on Breast Cancer Awareness. 

I keep my eye out for anything that might cause "rackspiration".  Yeah, I just made that word up and it's Awesome!

Anywho, I was looking for some gifts for friends and sister-in-laws this year (I was going to make coasters, but that was a fail.) when I stumbled upon some ornaments.  Enter "rackspiration":

Pink, glittery, rack. Perfect! I put the " Keep Track of Your Rack 2011". I had a ribbon puncher and pink paper, so I added the ribbon on to the top.  

This is the one I kept for myself.  As you can see, it is not the best one.  The writing is a tad crooked.  Personally, I think that this is an awesome reminder to my friends and family.  Every year they get the tree out, I hope they remember to check themselves out.

I LOVE YOU MOM!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!

Or in our families case Merry Chaosmas!!

From: The Rutledges

Jelly face boy trying to remove his shirt on his own,

underwear on head,

and toddlers first concert.

From our house to yours have a great holiday!

Army of Owls

I know, you thought I disappeared didn't you.  Well, the last couple of months have been up and down.

No excuse, right. 

My mother's cancer has become a bigger battle that we thought it would be.  Leave it to her to make something complicated.  Some of you might cringe at me saying that, but that's how we deal.  My family are a bunch of jokesters.  It's not that we aren't sypathetic, it's just that somebody needs to make the patient laugh.  When telling her story, my mother would say "Hey, at least they found I had a brain."  She's hanging in there right now.  We won't know if her brain tumors have shrunk until mid January.

In the shadow of all this, I've completed very few projects. However, I have been pinning many projects that I want to attempt on Pinterest! One of which was a gift for my son't teachers.  Only after the fact did I realize it wasn't very holiday like. But, he's teachers still liked them.



It says "Thank you for making me wiser."

 Brown paper bag, glue and scrapbook paper.  We traced my son's hands to use as the feet.  My owls didn't look near as mean as some of the one's I saw on Pinterest.  In fact, mine have a look of bewilderment in their eyes.  It reflects Liam's personality much better. 

Behind the blue door... it's not what you think.

The road of not so fun construction is really long and abnormally bumpy.  There are few bright spots when you are fixing things people don't see.  But, then you get one thing.... just one little bright spot in all the doom in gloom of rotten sub floor and beams... A new painted door!  Yes, it's a small thing.  One quart of paint to be exact.  But, it makes me happy.

Now you can see where I was going with the wreath color selections.  Hubby is a visual person, so I had to start warming him up to the color pallet.  Hmmm.. looks like the welcome mat that we got for a wedding gift is showing it's age.  Maybe 5 years old is the senior status for straw.  Time for a new one.

I tried not to get the over grown tree/bush, or the dead bushes in the picture.  You can see they had different ideas.  I'm blaming the loss of 3 bushes on the drought we had.  It is most definitely not a reflection of my distaste for taking care of vegetation.

I'm in love with the door color.  I tried to explain it to my mother.  My description made no sense to her...see if you get it.  "The color is aqua, but not 80's bridesmaids aqua.  More blue than green... more like nautical or Hampton's even."  It make total sense to me.  The actual color is peacock plume or something birdie like that.

I'm still alive, I promise!!

I know it's been a while.... a long while and I apologize.  Complete chaos has been swirling through my household.  For once, it doesn't have anything to do with my 2 year old, well not really anyway.

My house has been under construction.  It's not even the fun kind of construction.  It's just stupid old, "you were going to fall through the floor, but now you're not", kind of construction.  "The winter wind used to blow through the1/2" gap around your front and back door, but now it doesn't", "sitting on your toilet was like riding a bucking bronco, but now it doesn't move" kind of construction.

Did I mention that my house was built in the early 50's?  Some people by old houses because they love to fix them up.  I married into this house and should have made the hubby sell it.  Here I am, nearly 9 years later and I still hate this house.  It has a ton of potential, but I don't have the money to put into it.  Oh, and the other thing....no storage.  This place has 2 closets, well 3 if you include where the water heater is.

I'm ready for a little less maintenance! Like a place that just needs some paint you know!

Here's a little peek at what's been happening.

This is the laundry room.  New subfloor, new beams, and new door.  There was a hole straight through the subfloor by the door.  I'm going to miss the old sheet vinyl.  I always thought it looked like tile.

New subloor in the bathroom.  The house is pier and beam, because of the horrible drought the foundation is sinking causing all kinds of problem.

They installed the old toilet.... see all the wetness on the plywood.  That's how much water had been leaking causing some of the problems.  Sigh... why would you install it again? Boys!  Anyhoo, I made them get a new toilet and that problem was solved.

Stay tuned and you will get to see a picture of another toilet really soon.  Betcha can't wait.

Can you feel my heart beep?

TERRIBLE "TWO"SDAYS


Yeah I know it's not Tuesday.  My regular 7-5 job is kicking my a**.  I've been down and out for a week or so.  


So, today's "TWO"sday is not your typical 'pull your hair out, what did you do' story.  Prepare for your heart to be warmed by the thoughts of my little monster.


This month Liam is learning about service people in school (firemen, policemen, doctors).  Yesterday, they learned about doctors and used doctor kits.  When asked what he did in school he responded, "I put them in my ears, and I whistened to Major's heart beep. I whistened to Sopia's (Sophia)heart beep and my heart beep."


It cracked me up.  All the rest of the night he was talking about his heart beep.

Terrible "TWOsday"

My 2 year old miniature monster has at least one blog worthy moment a week.  So, I think he should have it out there for everyone to enjoy.  I'm not a selfish person and feel like everyone should hear what it's like to live with a 2 year old.

This week in lil' monster land (I mean that in the sweetest way possible) he figured out how to open the child gate.  We have one gate to keep him in the living room.  Before I realized that he was gone, I heard silence.  That's the sign of something gone a rye. 

I found him in the bathroom looking like this.

He must be worried about pre-mature wrinkles.  As you can see it's hard to be mad at that little face.  ESPECIALLY, because he knows how to say he's sorry.  He pats you on the arm and looks lovingly into your eyes and says,"I sorry". 

Not more than and hour later I found him covered in self tanner!  It's ok, he did not end up looking like Snookie.  He was just preparing to be and Umpa Lumpa for Halloween.

Flashback Thursday??

How's this name for the old projects section? Yeah I think it's kinda stolen from a local radio station, I guess that's why it sounds so good.



Let's take a look at an oldie but a goodie...  My first media room conversion.  I'll keep this simple and just put some before and after pictures up.  It was a loooonnng process.

Design concept

Before looking towards where the screen will go

Before looking the opposite direction where the bar will go

As you can see, this was a bowling alley of a space.  The owner wanted to have as many seating options as possible.

After

We ended up putting a velvet fabric valance and panels on the screen.  There's 3 rows of love seats and granite bars on either side.  I think that's a total 16.



After bar area

2 more bar seats at the kitchen area.  Above the kitchen area there was an LED night scene painted like a night sky. I loved the leather tufted door!

After another view

Probably the biggest project and overhaul that I've ever done.  I wish I had better after pictures.  I still love the faux finish in this room.  If the main goal wasn't to get as many people as possible in the theater, I would have eliminated one row of seating.  What do you think?

Freakin' Fall Wreath!

I call this Freakin' Fall Wreath because I'm a little disturbed that I have headed down the seasonal decoration path.  But, if all you people in Blog land would stop being so darn inspiring, maybe I'd be happy with my plain front door.  However everything you guys make is cool and I too would like to be cool.  It's a slight problem I have....it's been going on since I was a kid lol!

I was inspired by this post that I saw on Tater Tots and Jello of 25 Fall Wreaths.  The one from Home Stories A to Z really caught my attention, and she had a tutorial to make the flowers. So I made my own version of it.

I started with the green Styrofoam form, charcoal yarn, and several colors of felt.  I wrapped the yarn around the form.  By the way, no one tells you that it takes a while to accomplish the yarn wrapping....also wears your arms out. I made the felt flowers using the Home Stories A to Z tutorial, you can find it here.  It's totally easy.

 Here's the yarn covered form and the flowers.  I also found some pre-cut foam leaves in my colors so I threw those in the mix.

I hot glued some orange rhinestones and teeny tiny pearls inside a couple of the flowers. I did this with out burning my fingers which is amazing.

I found some old ribbon from last years stock and used that to hang it.  Please try to ignore the fact that my door is pink.  It was one of those color cards you pick up and thing "yes, I'll paint my house, trim, and door exactly what the pre-picked color says."  It will be replaced and painted soon! Anyway the wreath looked pretty decent, but I didn't think it was quite there.

So, I found a wooden initial and mod podged some cute paper on it.  Then sanded it a little and used my favorite distress ink on the edges.  I also painted some turquoise on the copper ribbon, just to add a punch at the top.

Final product much better.  It will look even better on my new door!  Happy Crapping everyone!

Linking up to:
The Shabby Creek Cottage
The DIY Showoff Fall Festival

PREVIOUS LIFE....

Let's call this a working title for this new series.  I was thinking that maybe readers might want to know where the heck I came from.  Not where I was born or anything, I wouldn't want you guys to fall asleep, but where I came from design wise...

Previous life... because it feels like forever ago.
Trip down memory lane...

Whatever I decide to call it, it will be a look at some projects I've done.  Mainly a peek into who I am as designer and artist. I'm kind of interested to see how much my taste has changed and if it's gotten better or worse. Eek!!! Shine the light baby... let see some awesomeness or some ugliness lol!

I think a good place to start is with my son's room. So, I wanted something more generic than the usual sports theme room.  I'm anti blue or pink FYI.  I painted the leaves and bird in the alcove where his crib was going.

Graphic Mural

Anybody else see that weird ghost like thing in every picture.... Not a ghost. It took me forever to figure out that there was still something on the camera lense... probably pancake. I was OBSESSED with pancakes while I was pregnant.

 Anyway, I reused a curtain that used to be a pair for the window treatment.  Take notice of the dresser in the left corner. Dang I wish I had a better picture of it! I had painted it and used wallpaper that looked like maps on the drawer fronts.

Old Dresser

Lucky for me, my parents helped me sand and re-paint this dresser.  I think I was nearly going to pop when I made the final decision on how I wanted it to look. Used the wall color on the drawer fronts.  Then, I did the one thing I said I would never do.  I used appliques that came with the bedding.  I know horrific right! The only way I justified using them was because

a) I didn't put them on the wall b) They are not clustered together over the bed c) I didn't use them all


This is the third paint job that this dresser has had.  Just goes to show you that one staple piece can go a long way!

New Dresser