The Blue Screen of Death and the Difference That Spray Paint Can Make

Well, I am reporting to you live from Anchorage, Alaska. I am so glad to finally be here and to get into a new schedule with the kiddos and hubby!

My kids and I spotted our first live moose yesterday!

It was on the median in the middle of the road, just nibbling some grass, and not even noticing the cars going 40 mph on each side of it.

My kiddos were so excited but my oldest keeps asking me when he is going to see a bear..... Ummm hopefully never. I am more interested in spotting Ana White.

We have been spending the last few days in an extended stay. Now that is really an adventure with 3 little ones. Hopefully we will get to move into our apartments on Monday. That would be so nice!

Some of you who follow me on facebook or twitter know that when I turned my laptop on after we got here I got the "blue screen of death." Luckily, I have a computer tech on speed dial (my little bro). He walked me through some things I could try .... but nothing worked. Booo!

Anyway, I just left it sitting out and went and ran errands yesterday. I said some serious prayers while I was out. I use my computer to budget, pay bills, keep my fam up to date with a personal blog and of course to blog here. I really don't have or want to spend the money to take it to someone to fix.

When I got home I turned the computer on again and it booted up.

Hooray for answered prayers!

Well here is my first tutorial/before and after in Alaska.

Do you remember when I told you that I must have been obsessed with red?

Well I cleaned out and donated a lot of things over the last few weeks and I can't believe all the red in my house. My kitchen had mostly red accesories, the living room had red in the pillows, chair and curtains, the family room had red pillows and accesories, the boys room had red in the blankets and pillow shams and red bed skirts and red curtains, our master had red pillows and both bathrooms had red towels. Wow.

A lot of this red stuff was in good condition and I decided to try and re-purpose some of it instead of buying all new stuff.

The first thing on my re-purpose list was my paper towel holder and cookbook holder for my kitchen. I really like them but they no longer went with the kitchen. Unless you ask my 4-year-old, he thought the matched perfectly.

I actually got these for my wedding. I just took them outside and primed them with spray paint and then used two coats of a glossy navy spray paint.

Ahhh, much better.

And here they are in use.

I actually got that cookbook for my wedding, too.  It is a cookbook dedicated to nothing but chocolate.

I. Love. It. 

I had to laugh a little when I opened it because the hubby hates chocolate.

So what about you guys? Have you ever gone through a color obsession? Either in your house or your wardrobe? Did you chuck it all or did you try to work with it?

It is great to back and can't wait to blog some more!

Felt Cupcake Pincushion Tutorial: Two Delicious Options

I think I was really lucky because after I got married because my mom gave me ALL of her sewing stuff including her sewing machine. It was so nice to have everything from the get-go and even nicer to not have to pay for it all myself.

One of the things in my hand-me-down pack of treasures was the classic tomato pincushion.

You know the one I am talking about.

I remember playing with this particular pincushion as a child. I don't know why kids get so much enjoyment out of playing with pins but I know I loved it. Now I have kiddos of my own and they surely enjoy playing with them, too. Well I decided to upgrade my pincushion. Mostly because I already had the supplies so it would be FREE for me.

Yeah, I'm cheap like that.

Since I was upgrading I decided it needed to be something cute. Delicious even.

So I made myself a yummy cupcake pincushion and it turned out so cute but as I admired my creation I realized there was an even easier way to do it. So... I am going to show you both ways and you can decide which option works for you.

You will need:
2 sheets of felt in the same or coordinating colors

and

about a 8"x12" rectangle of fabric and about 8"x12" of quilt batting
or
about a 5"x12" rectangle of knit fabric

hot glue gun
sewing machine or needle and thread
and pins of course

Option 1: Fabric and Batting 
Cut strips from your two pieces of felt about 1/2"-3/4" lengthwise

Cut each of your felt pieces in half lengthwise and use your iron to press them in half.

Take two pieces of your felt (I used a dark brown and a light brown) and lay them on top of each other with just a small amount of the bottom fabric showing.

Beginning at one end roll your fabric tightly. Roll it to create a cone shape. You can tap the top or the bottom of the cone to adjust it. Here is how mine looked.

Add your second pieces of felt. Use a small dot of hot glue to secure it.

Continue to wrap until you have your cupcake top.

Turn your "cupcake" over and trim the excess off.

Now you need to create your liner. Using your "cupcake" as a guide, trace a circle about 1/2" bigger then the bottom. Cut the circle out and cut a matching circle from the batting. Use a basting stitch to secure the batting to the fabric.

Take the rest of your fabric and cut a rectangle. You want it to be able to wrap all the way around the cupcake with about 1" overlap. You also want it to be about 1/2" longer.

Match the fabric up with the batting and cut a matching rectangle. Using a sewing machine stitch lines about 1/4"-1/2" apart. This will create that ribbed look of a cupcake liner. Trim off any excess.

Press one long side of your rectangle over about 1/2" and one short side over 1/2". Wrap it around your cupcake. Mark with pins or disappearing ink where the liner needs to be sewn together.

Remove it from the cupcake and pin.

Turn the cuff you made inside-out and match right sides together with your circle piece. Stitch together and turn right side out.

Pull your liner onto your cupcake (this is when it occurred to me that using a stretchy fabric for the liner would be way easier)

Now find those two skinny strips of felt you cut earlier. Glue the ends on top of one another and glue it to the "cupcake" right above the liner.

Twist them and wrap it around your cupcake. Use hot glue in a few places to secure it in place. Trim off any extra and glue the end down. Place your sprinkle pins in it. DO NOT EAT :)

While I was taking pictures my 4-year-old came in and said, "Mom, that looks like a yummy cupcake." He picked it up and pulled the pins out. "COOL! The pins look like big sprinkles!"

pause pause pause

"Can I eat it?"

Nothing like a little guys comments to make you feel like you did your job.

Option 2: Stretchy Knit Fabric

I created my cupcake top the same way.

This time I used a piece of brown ribbed stretch knit. I rolled it to see how long I needed it. I also cut it to be about an inch wider than the cupcake.

I sewed the two short sides together to create a cuff. I then used a gathering stitch to gather one long side. After I had it gathered as tight as I wanted I ran a tighter stitch over my gathers to hold it tightly together.

Trim and turn right side out. Pull it onto your "cupcake".

Use the same technique to create the frosting edge by taking two skinny pieces and twisting them. This one was much easier. It took maybe 10 minutes.

I think it turned out so cute!

You can see that they are two different sizes. It just depended on how tight I wrapped them and how tall I made the cone shape.

 Yummy and oh-so-cute.

These would also be darling for a cupcake themed room or for play food.

What about you guys? Did you have to buy all your sewing supplies or do you not sew because of how expensive it would be to start up?

I am really grateful for all my mom's stuff. Having it in my home is actually the reason I became interested in sewing. Thanks mom!

Oh and Happy St. Patrick's Day. Yes, I know my post has nothing to do with it but myself and all my kiddos are currently in green but more importantly today is the first day of March Madness! Yep, we are one of "those" families. 

Kitchen Shelves, Milk Glass and a Vintage Grocery Sign Tutorial

I only have 3 more smallish sized projects to go and my kitchen will be officially finished, for now.

We tackled the last big one yesterday which was lighting. I have new recessed and pendant lighting. I can't wait to show you guys. I really am so lucky that my hubby has some serious handyman skills. My kitchen was an absolute mess though. Insulation and dust EVERYWHERE. I am still finding it.

My small starter home has 4 bedrooms. Not big bedrooms mind you but bedrooms all the same. There is our master, of course, and then 3 "kid" rooms. Each of these rooms can hold one child and could easily hold two. So theoretically my kitchen should be able to fit 5-8 people.

HA!

I remember when we first moved in, the space seemed so large. How would we ever fill it?

Well it isn't that hard to fill up empty space. What is difficult is using space efficiently to fit everything.

Especially in a starter home.

While scanning the web for inspiration on storage solutions that took zero to no floor space I found some awesome pictures.

Thus the idea for shelves was born.

www.kitchenbacksplashes.blogspot.com

www.kitchenbacksplashes.blogspot.com

I also fell in the love with the stacks of white dishes. I wanted to use the shelves to store my white serving/cooking dishes but I knew I wouldn't have enough to fill the shelves just yet. So I went to my local thrift store and searched for white. Well there wasn't that much and I only found 3 white pieces. I was NOT patient enough to keep coming back and searching so I just bought any piece I liked and knew I could bust out the trusty dusty spray paint.

I ended up doing about 4 coats to get the coverage I needed.

We purchased the shelving and brackets at Home Depot. We screwed the brackets into the studs and cut the shelving down to size. The shelves look great but the sides were not finished.

We bought veneer edging at Home Depot.

www.homedepot.com

 Hold the edging up and cut it about 1/2 inch- 1 inch longer than you need.

Iron it on.

Use a utility knife to cut off any excess.

I was also inspired by this grocery sign. This is actually a real-life vintage grocery sign. Awesome antiques are few and far between in my neighborhood.

www.countryliving.com

So I decided to make my own. I had some left over MDF from a bookcase my hubby built. I primed it with a few coats of white paint. I then printed and cut out the letters for my sign. I used the font Franklin Gothic Medium in case you want one, too. I used my sewing ruler to give me a straight edge.

I traced the letters and I filled them in with paint.

I then used my orbital sander to age it up a bit. I also used a little bit of light stain around the edges and on a few random spots. I wiped on the stain and then immediately wiped it off. I did this until it built up to the color I wanted.

Here she is all vintage and what not.

And here are my beautiful shelves. I just Love them. All the things on the top shelf are thrift store finds that were either white to start with or spray painted. The bottom shelf is devoted to my actual cooking and serving wear. So it is a little empty right now. It will cost a little more than my $1 thrift store finds to fill it.

I am really happy with it.

What about you guys? Have you found some awesome creative ways to increase storage in your own starter home?

A New Years Resolution and a Fabric Covered Journal

The hubster and I were talking a few days ago about New Years resolutions. The entire idea drives my hubby nuts. People make the same resolutions year after year but never actually follow through. Sometimes people even put off good resolutions until the beginning of the year so they don't have to work on them now.

So can resolutions begin at anytime? I sure hope so because I almost never start resolutions on the very first of the year.

Now don't get my man wrong. We set goals for our family at the beginning of the year. On the first family night of the year we all set goals. Even the littles. Some of Baby V's goals this year are to learn to crawl and walk. Mr. P wants to start learning to read and Mr. U wants to get potty trained.

Okay mommy wants him potty trained.

My hubby and I set goals for our family. Financial, spiritual etc but we also set individual goals.

This year one of my goals is to keep a journal.

Ugh.

I have been told all my life the importance of keeping a journal. Leaving your story for future generations, keeping a record of your thoughts.

I am just not convinced that anyone would find my grocery shopping trip or changing diapers a good read.

So I decided to have a theme this year. I am not going to write about day to day happenings but I am going to record something funny or happy that each of my child did or said that day.

I want to remember those moments.

In order to help me keep my resolution I need something fabulous to keep those memories in.

The fabric is from Amy Butler's awesome Love collection. Cypress Paisley in Lime, Sun Spot in Olive and Tumble Roses in Tangerine.

It's just begging for me to fill it with thoughts.


Want to make one, too?

Gather your supplies. Fabric scraps, ribbon, hot glue gun, mod podge, composition book, paint brush, solid color cardstock, scissors and a pen.


First you need to take your cardstock and place it inside your journal. Line it up with the black band and trace around the journal. Cut two pieces of that same shape.


Glue those pieces on the front and the back with hot glue. Glue down the edges and run a bead of glue down the middle. This will make it so you can't see the cover through the fabric

Take another piece of cardstock and do the same thing but this time push it flush to the inside. When you cut this one out you want to cut inside your line about 1/4 inch on the top, one side and bottom. Cut two of these.

You then need to cut two rectangles from your fabric for the front and back. Make sure to cut them about 1/4-1/2 inch bigger on all sides. Use your mod podge to glue the fabric down.

Open your cover and run thin strips of it on the edges and push your fabric down. Fold the corners and pull the fabric slightly. Repeat the same process on the back cover also.

Next I cut a strip of fabric to cover the black binding (you could also use really wide ribbon). Cut it about an extra 1 1/2 inches wider and longer. I pressed the fabric in half and then pressed the long sides over with an iron about 1/4-1/2 inch. Glue it using mod podge to the front of your journal.


Make sure you cover the raw edge of the other fabric. DO NOT glue it to the spine or back yet. Turn your journal over.

You are going to make two cuts on each side of the strip like in the picture. You want to make the cuts so the middle piece is the width of the spine of the journal. Glue down the middle piece with hot glue or mod podge.


Cut a piece of coordinating ribbon a about 3-4 inches longer than the journal. Use a lighter, candle or match to heat seal the ends by melting the ribbon slightly. Glue the ribbon to the upper spine with hot glue. Fold over your strip of fabric and use mod podge to glue in place on the spine andback cover. Make sure you fold the long edge under.

Open your journal and glue the strip of fabric on the inside using mod podge.

Take the two pieces of cardstock you cut for the inside. Cut fabric a little bigger on all four sides than the cardstock. Glue it to the cardstock and turn it over. Glue all four sides down. Glue this piece to the inside of your journal. I used mod podge to glue it down but then I went back with hot glue and glued the edges down with that.

I can't wait to start using it! This would be cute for a journal, to do list, planner, anything. You could also use cute paper instead of fabric.



What about you? Do you have New Years resolutions? Do you keep them? Do you have anything that helps you accomplish them?

Well I am off to write down today's adventures.