#craftingfail

Here is my latest creation that I was so proud of. I think it turned out beautifully. My son had taken an extremely long nap one day and I had time to roll up all the rosettes and pin them on (I had previously wrapped the wreath and it took me three nights to do it because I double-wrapped it) and get it hung up. Isn't it lovely? Yeah, I'm pretty humble. :-/

I hung it on our front door temporarily with a shower suction-cup hook thingie. I don't have a real wreath hanger and just wanted to see what it looked like for the time-being. I kept it up and called my mom and dad to come over to look at it and play with LMW.

We were playing outside and Dad said, "Something just fell in the house and broke." I thought, "Oh, the wreath fell but it couldn't have broken. It's styrofoam protected by yarn." I looked inside and sure enough, it was in the floor broken in three places.

Talk about heart-broken. I haven't had the gumption to tape it up/glue it back together and re-wrap it. I don't know if my heart can take it.

My First Yarn Wreath

Yarn wreaths are all the rage these days so I just had to try my hand at one. Because I live in a small town, I have had the hardest time finding wreath forms. I was able to go to Hobby Lobby one day after a doctor's appointment in North Little Rock so I convinced the husband to let me stop and see what I could find. I picked up a styrofoam form as well as a very large vine wreath that was 50% off. I picked out some felt, since our Walmart only carries variety packs and I needed some specific colors. They also had patterned felt and I got some in houndstooth (I've ALWAYS loved houndstooth) and black and white damask.

I already had the grey yarn that I got for $2.33 at Walmart. So, I went to work wrapping--it took me a LONG time because I'm a perfectionist and it took awhile to get into the groove. I don't think it will take me as long the next time. If you're interested in a tutorial, just hang out on Pinterest for 5 minutes and you'll see one. If you don't have Pinterest (what are you waiting for? Go!), this is probably the best tutorial I've seen, although it uses a straw wreath wrapped in plastic as the form.

Here are some felt rosettes and ruffles I made whilst watching TV last weekend...

I made these sitting on the couch a week ago before I even had the wreath form.

I also made a peony with a variety of felt using yoonie-at-home's tutorial

Finished product. Took me probably 4 hours total which includes wrapping, creating the flowers, and getting it put together (I didn't do it all at once). I still need some sort of ribbon to hang it, but it's for a friend, whom I hope doesn't read this blog! and I'll get added before I give it to her. And like I said earlier, once I've done this a few times, it probably won't take quite as long but that will depend on the size of the wreath.

grey yarn wreath with black, grey, red, and white accents

And the cost was CHEAP:

12" Styrofoam beveled wreath form: $3.59 with 40% off coupon (originally $5.99)
Red Heart Super Saver Yarn in Light Grey: $2.33 for a full skein and I only used about half
Various sheets of felt: 25-50 cents a sheet (I used two full sheets and small pieces of four others)
Pearlized pins: around $2 for a box (you can use as many or as few as you like) or you can just hot glue the flowers to the yarn
---
Less than $10 for everything!

I Was Featured Y'all!

I'm thrilled to be featured on Better After. I LOVE this blog and get awesome ideas from it frequently. Go check it out!

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PB Inspired Pillows

We found out pretty quick that the deck chairs were nice to look at, but not quite as comfortable as we would have hoped. We've decided to continue the search for other chairs, but in the meantime, I made a couple of pillows to help with the comfort.

I saw some really cool pillows last spring in the Pottery Barn catalog, and wanted to create something similar ever since. These are made out of simple canvas duck cloth, and they are actually pillow shams. A lightweight pillow is tucked inside.

 

I got out my trusty craft paints, and free handed the designs, based on pillows in the catalog. Sprayed with Scotchguard, they should repel water and be fine under the porch.

Now we won't sit quite so far back in the chair. 

Desk Re-Do

One day when the husband and I were flea marketing in Jacksonville, I came across this desk.

I was in the market for one, to use as a sewing table. This one was good and solid, and was only $30.00, so it came home with us that day.  I knew I wanted to change it up in a big way, but had to mull it over in my mind for a couple of weeks. And the hardware definitely needed changing.

It must have been in a girl's room. And it was obviously a child's desk due to the height and all the writing in the drawers. *grin* The hubs would have liked me to strip it and stain it as he is a big fan of wood grain, and I have to admit, I have a love for it myself. But...just about every piece of furniture in my house is brown. I just realized that yesterday. (I'm going to have to do something about that)

I decided I wanted to paint it black. And so I did. Then I decided I wanted to do something creative to the drawer fronts, like I've seen on so many other blogs. This is what I wound up with....drum roll please.......

I am in love.  It turned out just like I'd hoped it would. My only problem was that the paint wanted to scratch off. So, it took several coats of paint, plus a spray sealer, which made it blotchy, and I painted one more coat over that. I adhered the fabric with modge podge. And I replaced the hardware with simple silver circles.

Before

After

Now, I need to figure out if there is anything in the house that I can paint....

Bluebird

Remember this tray?

The one I bought for $18.00? (Ouch) I planned to use it on this table, but didn't like how it looked.

This is what it looks like now....

I plan to somehow hang it on the backporch. I don't know how I'm going to do that yet.

First, I painted the entire thing blue, and then blocked in the areas I wanted to paint.

I began with the leaves and branch, then moved on to the dogwood blooms.

Finally, I worked on the bird.

So, here is a photo that shows how large this tray actually is. It's sitting in SR's large recliner.

I want to coat it with a sealer, simply to make sure it weathers well. It will be under the porch roof, but you can't be too careful. After all the work, I sure wouldn't want it to peel off.

I'm lovin' this a lot. And since it had been a while since I painted anything, I enjoyed the process.

Old to New

Last week, SR and I went to a flea market in Jacksonville. We found some pretty good things, one being a solid wood high chair in excellent condition. SR had wanted to buy LMW a wooden one, and all the antique ones were either wayyy over priced, or in terrible condition. This one wasn't antique, but it is solid.

We brought it home and cleaned it up. The tray needed a new coat of sealer, so we did that, and I made cushions for it.

$20.00 for the chair, about $6.00 of fabric and accessories and Ta-Da!

Tummy Time Mat

Doctors these days suggest laying infants on their back while sleeping, to prevent SIDS. When I was raising my children, the norm was to lay them on their stomach, to keep them from choking if they spit up. Times change. But, doctors also want little ones to spend waking time on their tummy, to strengthen their neck muscles, and this is very important to Little Man with his torticollis.

                                    

There are cute little Tummy Time Mats at the local Walmart and such and LeLe purchased one for our W. I looked at it and figured I could make one for Nanna’s house and got to work.

Step 1: Making the patterns

I used my trusty leftover wrapping paper to create two patterns. One for the mat itself and one for the little pillow that raises LMW up. The mat is shaped like a very fat hot dog and is approximately 25 x 35. In this photo, the pattern is halved, and you cut on the fold.

The pillow is shaped more like a thin kidney bean. It is approximately 21 x 8.
(I have food on my mind….)

Step 2: Cutting out

I used one yard of printed flannel for the top and one yard of coordinating fabric for the bottom of the mat. I intended using the same fabric, but miscalculated and just used something I already had in my stash for the bottom. I cut one each out of the two fabrics.
I used two layers of batting, because I wanted it to be cushy. You could use one and it would probably be fine and probably easier to deal with as well. One of the packages of crib sized batting was the perfect size for two layers. I also used the pattern to cut that to size.

Taking a solid color coordinating fabric, different than the bottom fabric, I cut two pillow shapes out. It will be stuffed with fiberfill.

Step 3: Assembling the mat

I layered first the bottom fabric right side down, the batting, then the top fabric right side up and pinned them all together, smoothing everything as much as possible and making sure there were no folds or wrinkles.

I stitched all three layers about ¾ of an inch from the edge, all the way around. I then took the pattern and using a water soluble pencil (watercolor) I traced another line about 2 ½ inches or more inside the original stitching line. I stitched that all the way around as well, to secure the batting a bit more. You could quilt it, if you wanted, but I wanted to leave it as soft and cushy as possible.

I trimmed the excess batting from the edge to the stitch line, and then made cuts all the way around the edge for fraying. This is much much easier than trying to bind it and it looks great.

I wanted to be able to roll it up to go, so I decided to use more of the bottom fabric to create ties. I created them by cutting a long strip of fabric about 3 inches wide, folded it wrong side out, and stitching down the open side creating a tube.

I turned the tube right side out by attaching a safety pin to the end, and running it back through on the inside. I pressed it, then cut it in the middle making two ties.

I placed them together, right side down onto the second stitching line, on the bottom of the mat, and sewed across, then folded them back over and stitched again hiding the raw edge.

I finished the edges by turning the raw edge inside and stitching across. Now your mat is finished.

Step 4: Assembling the pillow

Lay the two kidney shaped pieces right sides together and pin. Starting on the outside edge, stitch around the edge with a normal seam allowance. Leave a 4 inch opening to turn it right side out. After turning, press, and stuff with fiberfill. Don’t overstuff, as you want it soft and comfortable for baby. Turn the raw edges inside, pin and sew a small seam close to the edge to close the pillow up.

The store purchased pillows have rattles and teething rings attached to them, but I didn’t have any available for this first endeavor. Still I believe it turned out great and I’m happy with it. I can roll the pillow up inside the mat, tied it and put it away when LMW is not here.

Finished:

All ready for Tummy Time!

Rolled up to put away for his next visit to Nanna's.

I hope I've explained everything clearly. If you have any questions, please post them and I'll edit the tutorial as much as possible to clear things up.

Table Redo

I finally finished the "remodeling"of my little table.

                     Before

The process:

I removed the slats from the top, and kept the original screws for future use.

I then spray painted the base with this lovely Ocean Blue color. This is what I wanted my chairs to be, but decided to just keep the green. And in the end, it would have been too much blue anyway.

Next, SR and I took the board and trim we purchased at Home Depot, cut it, and assembled the trim around the edges using wood glue and finishing nails.

Staining came next, then I gave it three coats of oil based sealer in a gloss finish. Why the gloss? Because that's what I already had.

We took those original screws, and attached the top to the base, and then I roughed it up just a little to allow the black to peek through.

                        After