Changing Table -Turned Dog Bed

A couple of weeks ago, I ran across a beat up, run down changing table on the side of the road. It was no longer safe to put a baby on. It was missing two shelves, and was super rickety. Because it was made of real wood and had interesting spindles, I felt the need to bring it home and make something out of it.

The hubs was obviously unhappy that I was bringing more junk home;o) Story of our lives, right?

Anyway, I thought it would make a perfect pet bed.

 This is how it started out. 

I used an electric hand saw and chopped the legs off. That was definitely an experience. Note to self...use a sharp blade next time. I was literally shaking so hard that I had blurred vision while cutting this piece because the blade wouldn't cut through the wood:o) 

I sanded down the feet to get a nice edge.

I then ripped the safety buckles off of the bottom.

And then spray painted it.

The cushion is made from painters' canvas and two large pillows from my couch in the bonus room.

I made the cover removable by adding a zipper to the back. That way when it gets dirty, I can just throw it in the wash.

Not bad for a roadside rescue?

New Chore Charts

Now that summer break is here, I decided it was time to reinstate the chore responsibilities for the kiddos. Last year, I made a chore list, and my intentions were to teach E and S.R. responsibility and the value of hard work, but my system was truly broken and our excitement for it lasted all of one week. 

Expecting my kids to do the same things over and over again day after day was just expecting too much. I certainly don't do the same things day after day. We all need a little variety, right?

So to fix my broken system, I searched on line for age appropriate chores. 

It's truly amazing what little ones can do...we really don't give them enough credit. If you check my Pinterest board, you can visit the sites where I found my ideas...

This particular idea came from the Martha Stewart website.

 Thankfully this little project was mostly free to me. I had one sheet of magnet paper left. I printed the kids' pictures and the chores with the money value on them(in 25 cent increments). I had blue card stock, and cut it down to size and put the kids' pictures on top and made little button magnets to hold the bottom in place. 

The paycheck pad is something made on publisher. I used Vistaprint to print the notepad. Once it arrived in the mail, I attached magnets to the back.

We are now on week three and still going strong. The kids get to pick some of the chores to do and I delegate some as well. Saturdays are for make up work because sometimes we are gone and they don't get the chance to really make any money those days.

It is amazing how much cleaner my house is now. If you haven't started making your kids do chores, you are truly missing out....and so are they!

Cottage Style Kids' Bathroom

Last Saturday, while the hubs was hard at work in the backyard, I was wasting the day away indoors. It dawned on me that I have started SEVERAL projects over the last few months, and haven't finished ANY of them. 

I decided that since hubs was working so hard, I probably should get with it, and do something myself:o) So, I finally finished the kids' bathroom.

Our kids' wipe their little paws all over the walls, and leave the paw prints behind. We needed a solution where we wouldn't be using a Magic Eraser on our walls every other day.

I had noticed a lot of magazines using horizontal boards as a wall treatment, and I knew that would be the perfect solution to our dilemma. 

I happened to be in Lowes one day, and these boards were marked down significantly...and in my van they went!

 I have gotten the hubs do so many wood working projects over the last 10 years, that he has gotten really proficient at it;o) Mad skills I tell ya.

He's not a fan of miter cuts, but he did a fantastic job in this bathroom!

There is a lot of storage space in this Jack and Jill bath. This closet was only holding towels, so I decided to make it into a little nook for taking shoes off. 

 It was full of wire shelving, so we had to rip those out and patch a lot of holes. I really like how cute it turned out. The fabric for the seat cushion and curtain came from Hobby Lobby. The basket was a Marshall's purchase.

I found this cute little hook at Hobby Lobby. They were 50% off this week, so it was around $4. This is where the kids hang their towel while taking a shower. Notice that awesome mitered corner?...mad skills..I'm telling ya, mad skills;o)

 I spray painted this coat rack a metallic silver, and now it serves as a towel rack.

The art work is something I came up with. I'll share how I did it in my next post, so stay tuned!

I'm so glad to be able to check this bathroom off the list. Now to finish S.R.'s quilt, and the playroom!!

$4 Console Table

I told you a few weeks back that the hubs was working on some built-ins...well, he has been doing a great job on them!  Since he was in the building mood, he decided to make a console table with all the scrap MDF he had laying around to hold extra toys. We found our inspiration Here..there were plans, but we didn't have enough MDF to make the exact same table, so there was some improv building. The reason it's a $4 table is because I had to make a quick trip to Lowes to get one 1x3 board. 

I helped a little(held things in place, painted, moral support), but he was definitely the brains behind the job:o) I'm so proud of my little handy man:o)

The canvas baskets came from T.J. Maxx. 

The rug is from Marshalls.

I found this cute little owl and the sign at Marshall's too.

 Lamps and lamp shades(clearance find) from Walmart.

 And here are the beginnings of the built-ins. We recycled our entertainment center, and attached it to the wall. Then the hubs made the window seats. He finished it out with trim across the bottom. Eventually there will be more added on, and the whole thing painted white, but right now he needs to focus on his thesis.

 Hasn't he done a fantastic job?!? 

 I hope that you all have a wonderful holiday weekend. We have ours filled with food, football, friends and family...it doesn't get much better than that!

Participating here:

Baby Pool Converted to Sand Tub

First off, I want to congratulate Cayce again for being the winner of the ruffle wallet give away. Speaking of which, I have a few fabrics I purchased yesterday, and if you are interested in any of these prints, I will be making wallets and selling them for $20. All proceeds will be given to the American Red Cross for the Nashville, TN flood victims. Just shoot me an email if you are interested. If not, I'll sell them on Etsy.

Also, here's an interesting tidbit I read in the Lowes mag. the other day. Flies hate the smell of Basil. We live out in the country with the cows. And where there's cows, there are a ton of flies. So I purchased some basil and I'm looking forward to it growing big, and hopefully warding off those little pests. I'll let you know if it works:o)

Now for the actual post. I have been very interested in getting a sand table for the kids to play with. They aren't exactly cheap, though. I was ready to purchase one, got to Walmart, and they said I would have to order online and have it shipped to the store...fat chance. They saved me 70 bucks by not having it in the store. So then it hit me, I have a cheap-o baby pool, you know the kind you get from Babies R Us for $5? I decided to fill it with leveling sand...cuz it's cheap, and have a ready made sand tub. Total cost for this sand contraption: $3.50. The kids love it. And I really love it, since I saved so much money. I plan on buying one of those pool covers, the kind that are made of tarp and elastic, they're pretty cheap, so I can keep the elements out.

 The great thing about this is that it's so small, if it does rain before I get the pool cover, I can pull it under our covered patio without any trouble. So that's my tip for the weekend:o)

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I hope that you all have a wonderful Mother's Day!

Pencil Art

Our anniversary was at the beginning of this month, so a gift was in order. The hubs is a HUGE 'Bama fan. He has his own office in our new home, and has started with the Alabama theme. (It isn't tacky...yet;o)) He has one of those stained glass lamps with a Bama emblem on it(which was very expensive, thank you in-store credit). I plan on buying some hounds tooth fabric and making him some curtains. Anywho, I really wanted to get him an Alabama print for our anniversary.... have you seen how much those puppies cost? Outrageous! So anyway, I thought that I would try to draw something for him, since I used to be a fairly good artist. I have always been able to copy cartoon art, but had never been able to draw living objects. I couldn't ever get the shading right..

I decided I would try to draw an elephant. I wanted the ears to be flared, so I hopped on the internet and typed in Elephant. The first elephant I came to had his ears flared, so boom there ya go, off to the printer Mr. Elephant...our printer was out of yellow ink, so the printer informed me that we can only print in black...that was the best thing that could have happened. Since the picture was in black and white, I was able to pick up all the high lights and low lights. In about 2 hours I had the picture drawn, and was SO EXCITED about it. My little precious monkeys kept jabbing at it with their little paws and moma was about to go ape on 'em. I had to hide it for a few days until I could figure out what I was going to do about a frame. Square frames are a lot more expensive, and I am too cheap to have it framed. One night, while laying in bed, I remembered that I had a print that I wasn't going to use since it no longer matched my decor. And guess what, it was in a square frame..SCORE! I had to physically rip that sucker out b/c someone got a little glue crazy at the picture factory. After all of that, I was able to get the elephant in his final resting place. When anniversary time came, I couldn't wait and gave it to the hubs before he headed into work. He was so impressed that he had to hang it immediately:o)

Super Cape...for S.R.

About a year ago, I made E a Super Man cape. He wouldn't touch it. He didn't like anything on his back or neck...we're just now getting him to wear clothes at home:o) (I say that, and I just saw both of my children run upstairs in their skivvies) Anyway, when little sister started showing some interest in the cape, he began to wear it. You know that little thing called sharing? Well it happens on rare occasions in  this house, so S.R. needed her own cape. All the fabric that I used was on hand. Like the left over fabric from her curtains(yeah, I know, it seems like I have used that fabric in SOOOO MANY projects..I'm trying to get rid of it!) I used another coordinating fabric as well. I used E's cape as the pattern b/c somewhere along the way I lost the other pattern I made. I cut out the emblem using the white fabric, and I embroidered her name on it. That was almost a pain....my machine only embroiders in a 4x4 square and I wanted her name big. Let's just say that I ALMOST have the lining up of letters mastered. Anyway, after appliqueing the Super Man emblem onto the top fabric, I joined the front and back together, leaving the shoulders open, flipped and sewed on some quilt binding with a little velcro on the ends to make it easy to get on and off. She was in love with it. She has been showing it off to E which makes him want to go grab his...I have two little super heroes running around in true super hero form...in their undies;o)

Easy Pillow Sham Tutorial

A few weeks back I made an extremely lame attempt to make shams for S.R.'s bed. I had some left over fabric from her curtains, and thought I new what I was doing. I was gettin' all crafty thinking I was going to put a ruffle on it...it turned out terrible. So for that amount of time, I have been trying to tuck and disguise my terrible sewing job...

 

I had some white fabric lying around, and thought...why not give the shams a try...again...now that I have had ample time to figure out how to really make them. I had some pillows stuffed in a closet that weren't fluffy anymore, so I figured I would just cut open a few and use those to stuff the shams.

 

I wanted to put her initials on them so that they wouldn't be just plain Jane shams...no offense to any of you Jane's out there;o) Anyway, I went to the computer, found a font that I liked (Elephant), blew it up to like 400 or so. I made the W slightly bigger. I ran out of fusible stabilizer, so I had to use what was on hand. The thick stuff that doesn't stick...oh well. I had to be extra careful. I used some more of the pink and white gingham and cut out the initials...just a reminder...if you have 2 pillows, you need to do this twice;o) I always forget to double up;oP....

Next pin the letters on the white fabric...making sure to keep them somewhat centered.  Sew, using a zig zag stitch.

After that is complete, put right sides together and sew around edges. I used a 1/2"-ish  inseam. Make sure to leave a whole to stuff the stuffing in. 

Clip corners and turn right side out. Press all seams flat. Stitch a line 2" from the outside edge, making sure to keep that hole open. Now it's time to stuff the sham. 

 

Put in as much or as little as you desire.  Take the sham back to your machine and close her up. You could hand sew these together, but I was feeling lazy:o)

 

And there ya have it....well, not yet...they seem a little nekked....

 

That's much better. I just tacked on some bows, and voila...lurve it! Wait a minute, one more thing...

 
 

There we go...Gotta have the full effect;o) I hope that this has inspired you to make some quick and easy pillow shams...have fun!

Wallet for me:o)

I love making things for my children, and absolutely love it when I think I have an original idea that makes life easier... after saying that I am reminded of the verse in the Bible that says there is nothing new under the sun...;o) Anyway, sometimes I like to make a lil something for myself and when I ran across this tutorial for a wallet at The Rubber Punkin, I knew that it was for me. It is super simple and I already had the supplies here which was even better. Nuttin' like f-a-ree:o) One thing I would change, (speaking of change..there isn't anywhere to put it, so you need a change purse), I would make a spot for my drivers license at the top..it just looks empty up there. I did monogram my initials on the front... the hubs was quick to point out that my spacing was a little off...still working on that:o) Just adds more character..HA! I plan on making a coordinating purse for it later on. I got a great book in the mail the other day, and I found a bag I want for myself. 

 

 

Next week I have a baby shower that I will be attending, so in honor of that special day, I will be posting baby items that I am making for the mommy-to-be(this will be round 2 for her). Hope you all have a great weekend! Peace out....

Bo Peep Skirt

My sweet S.R. is turning 2 next month...sniff, sniff...she's growing up so fast! So pictures are in order. I always take the kids pictures, and if I say so myself, I think I do a fairly good job without any formal training:o) Anyway, I had some left over fabric from a baby bag that I am making(more on that next week), so I thought why not use the extras for lil sis? The pattern I used is absolutely A-dorable. The name of it is the Bo Peep skirt from the book It Seams to Me. It took a little over an hour to make, and I  L-O-V-E it!!! It is so sweet on little britches and she can even twirl in it if her lil heart desires. Pictures will commence this weekend, so that I can get her b-day invites out with her precious little mug in them:o) I also made a head band with the scraps...she loves it and I love that she loves it:o)

Yummy Chicken Tortilla Soup

I have been dying for some Chicken Tortilla soup from McCallister's Deli for the longest, but have been super lazy and super cheap here lately to actually go and get some. Yesterday the hubs came home sick from work with the yuck that the kids and I passed on to him...aren't we sooooo sweet?:o) I knew that this was the perfect time for some soup, and why not try to make some chicken tortilla soup. I hopped online to see if I could find a version of McCallister's, and I did here. Here is my version, since I didn't have all the ingredients...go figure:o)

2 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves(I had 1 lb. of chkn. cutlets)
1 1/2 teaspoons olive oil(regular canola oil)
1/2 medium onion, minced(1/4 of a red onion)
2 tablespoons minced garlic(I had the kind in a jar)
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 (14.5-ounce) can crushed tomatoes(diced tomatoes with onions)
1 (28-ounce) can low-sodium chicken broth(a 32 oz. box of chkn. broth)
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons water, divided(didn't use water since I used the whole box of broth)
1/4 cup cornstarch(didn't have any, used 1 c of heavy cream & 1/4 c of flour to thicken)
1 (4-ounce) can chopped green chiles(didn't have this, so I used grandmother's jalapeno relish, 2 T)
4 ounces shredded Cheddar cheese (about 1 cup)
1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro(didn't have it)
2 cups tortilla chips
1 bunch green onions, sliced(didn't have it)

Bring about 1 inch of water to a boil in a skillet large enough to hold the chicken in a single layer. Add chicken, reduce heat to a simmer and cook until chicken is done, about 15 minutes. Drain chicken; cut into 1/2-inch cubes.

In a medium stockpot, heat oil over medium heat. Add onion and garlic; saute until soft.

Stir in chili powder, oregano, tomatoes and their liquid, chicken broth and 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons water.

Stir together cornstarch and remaining 1/4 cup water; heavy cream and flour, stir into stockpot. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 5 to 10 minutes, until broth is slightly thickened.

Stir in chiles grandmother's relish, cheese, cilantro and cooked chicken. Stir until cheese melts, then let simmer for 10 minutes.

Ladle soup into bowls; serve chips on the side (or crumble a few chips over each bowl of soup). Garnish with chopped green onions.

Yield: 4 servings

And there you have it...DELISH!...So good that poor sickly hubs went back for seconds:o)

Use Whatcha Got Week-Children's Placemats

We have a problem in our household when it comes to sitting down at the table. Spilled Milk. And yes, there is usually crying involved afterward.  My lil man is drinking out of regular cups, and has been doing great....but here lately he has had the dropsies or the knock-it-overs. While sitting at dinner the other night, I had a light bulb go off...amazing, I know... His cups are always sitting at the edge of the table just asking to be knocked in the floor. He needs a target spot for his cup, fork, spoon and plate. Place mats go on tables, so I must make place mats. And of course lil miss needs one too. A while back mother gave me about 50 orange place mats and I think she paid a buck for all of them because the store was goin' outta biz-nass. They have been sitting in my pantry fo-EVUH. Now, I have a perfect project to use them in(only 48 left:o)). Anyway, here's a tutorial on how to make your own place mats:o)
Supplies:
-Vinyl place mat (base)
-Fabric of your choosing(2 coordinating colors/patterns)
-Iron-on Stabilizer
-Scissors
-Rotary cutter
-Patterns for plate, cup, spoon, and fork.(I will post these when I can figure out how to;o))
-Clear plastic Vinyl(top)
-Double wide bias tape

 

How to assemble:

Lay your base fabric on the place mat. With your rotary cutter, carefully cut around the place mat. 

 

Make sure that all the edges are even. Next you will need to pin your base fabric to the stabilizer. Cut it out and iron in place. 

 

Grab your patterns(I actually made the circles on Word, and looked on clip art for a fork and spoon that I thought would work). Lay the patterns out on your secondary fabric for a dry run, just to see how much fabric you will need. Cut the fabric to size, cut stabilizer to fit that size and iron. Pin the patterns to the fabric and cut. It's easier to do it this way, especially when it comes to cutting out the fork. 

Now it's time to applique. When I applique, I always use a tight stitch because I don't like to see any gaps. However, in this particular case, I went with a looser zig-zag to keep everything flat. Pin the cut out patterns into place. Make sure that everything is even. Start stitching. I  kept the place mat rolled up so that it would be easier to maneuver while stitching.

Here's what you have after it's all sewn in place.... Something seemed to be missing, so I added "Let's Eat" at the top left with my embroidery machine.

Sew the base fabric to the vinyl place mat. There is usually a textured side and a smooth side. Make sure that the textured side is facing down. Line up all edges and start sewing.

After making it all the way around, it's time to apply the clear vinyl. When purchasing vinyl, it is usually rolled up in tissue paper with printing. Use this while sewing on top of the vinyl so that it will actually make it thru the machine. Cut the vinyl just a little bit larger than the actual place mat just in case there is any slipping. It's really no use in trying to pin this stuff together because it's thick and it will buckle up. The vinyl goes on top of the base fabric, but I turned it upside down, so that I could see exactly where the place mat was...kinda hard to see thru the tissue paper:o)   Once that is done, rip the tissue paper off and trim the edges.

 

Last but not least, add the bias tape around the edges. This gives it a finished look. 

Now my babies have a target spot for everything when eating, and the clear vinyl on top makes clean-up a breeze:o)