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.