I'm a little bit country, I'm a little bit.....Grandma's couch?

I raided the furniture at the Goodwill Warehouse about a week ago again. When you can buy something perfect for .99 cents....why not? This one took a little bit longer than the others and was a pain in my big ol' ass. I took a Before picture, but I can't seem to find it on my phone. Oops.

To give you an idea of what it looked like before, it was light colored wood with just a gloss over it. The top had a design with that wood vaneer crap so it looked like the wood grain was going in different directions. It looked like it had been in a basement or garage because the vaneer had started to bubble. When I sanded it down it wasnt helping so I just ripped it off and sanded the wood underneath.

I started with sanding this whole thing. You will see why it was such a pain to paint and sand in the pictures below. With all the ridges in the legs I couldn't use the palm sander or block sander anywhere but the top. I had to go at it with a single piece of sand paper so I could get in to all the nooks. It took three or four sittings to get this all done because my hand kept cramping, it was horrible. Painting it was just as bad. Ugh. Totally worth it....but what a NIGHTMARE.

I decided to go a little fancier on this one than I do most of the time. Mr. SP&NP has been spreading out my Christmas presents over the whole month, which is frigging awesome. He knows I like crafts so he bought me a craft book (The Big Ass Book of Crafts by Mark Montano) for some ideas and as I decide which ones I want to do, he will get me a few of the supplies. In the book the author uses fun fabrics instead of paint to cover tables. I thought that was a good idea, but didn't want to spend a bunch of money on enough fabric to use on only one table. I went to AC Moore with, again, Mr. SP&NP where he got me a big ol' book of scrapbooking cardstock. The bigger ones are a little more expenisve ($19.99 comes with 48 sheets) but there is enough paper in there to do countless things with. I also bought myself a smaller book ($8.99) for smaller projects.

These are the ones I got:

So after I sanded down and painted the first coat on to the table it looked like this:

Blurry, I know.Not sure why. But I hope you enjoy my Spongebob drop cloth.

For the top of it, I chose similar paper from the book. This is where the Grandma's couch part comes in, but I really like it. To get the top pieces just right it took a very long time to get them all lined up perfectly so I could mark where to cut and glue them on.

There is a little ridge that goes around the top of the table. To mark where to cut I just took my finger and pressed all along where the paper would hit the side. This is thick paper so you have to use some pressure to make the indintations, but way better than marking with a pencil. To avoid confusion after I took them off the table to cut, I did mark the back of the paper as well as the table so I would know where each piece went.

Next I cut along the lines I had made, glued the back and then stuck them on. I am not going to lie to you using anything but spray adhesive here is maddness. Don't do it. I thought I would just use up the rest of my school glue and do it. Bad idea. From the wetness of the glue it made the paper curl so it was additionally diffiult to line up the paper.

Here is what the top looks like all finished!!!

I plan on using this one for more than just a plant stand because I REALLY like the way it came out.For the top I'm going to find a really heavy duty clear coat to put on the top. Because I really like it, I would probably freak out if something got spilled on it, so I will stop that from happening now and spend a little extra to coat it.  I thnk I'm going to put framed pictures or something on it. Not really sure, but its going somewhere people will see it because I'm proud of it!!

Christmas Presents!!!

Christmas is getting closer and closer. What that usually entails for me is waiting untill the last possible second to get gifts for 10 people. This includes stressing out about what to get, hopping from store to store and having an anxiety attack because there are always 3,000 other people in every store doing the exact same thing I am. After a few years of that, needless to say I. am. over. it. I'm just going to make stuff this year. I can make it while I'm working or while I'm watching TV.

Because its so simple and relativley cheap to make (the one I've made so far cost me $15) I decided I would help you out with another stupid easy home made project that takes very little time and anyone who lives in a cold climate will love as a gift. I got this idea from my friend Amy who started with making blankets but has adapted this idea for a number of other things. She now makes dog beds, pillows, scarves, etc.

Tie Blankets!!! I'm sure you've heard of them or seen one somewhere. I decided to put this up because everyone seems to think that making a blanket just sounds super difficult. Its really not. The hardest part is getting the fabric to line up correctly. Well, its not hard....its just more annoying and frustrating which is why I make them do it for me wherever I buy my fabric.

What you will need:

• Fleece fabric in any print/color and size you  would like
• Sharp scissors

You can also get kits like this one . It comes with the fabric already cut to the same size and directions on how to make it.

As far as the fabric goes, you can get this fleece pretty much anywhere. They have solid colors at Walmart, but not a great selection. I get mine at Marden's and sometimes Jo Anne's Fabrics. For adults you can just buy the regular fleece, for kids I reccomend getting the no-pill stuff. It costs a little more but with children's blankets getting washed more often, its a beter idea so it will stay soft and last much longer.

As for sizes you can use your own judgement. I made one of these bad boys for my queen sized bed and got 4 yards of two different kinds of fabric and its the perfect size. For kids, obviously go smaller. If you're making a throw for the couch or something 1.5 yards is perfect. Keep in mind also, that you will be losing 4-5 inches on every side, you'll see why in a minute. 

As I said before, the hardest part of the project is lining up both pieces of fleece and cutting them so they are the same size. When you buy fabric they have that huge table they can slide the fabric around on. This fleece sticks to itself SO BAD which is why it is incredibly frustrating to line them up. If you ask them to put them together and cut them so they are the same size, they usually don't have a problem with it. If you have a line 6 deep behind you, be polite and do it yourself at home. Otherwise, you're paying for the fabric, just ask them to take one extra minute and utilize their table.

 As for colors, I usually put a print on one side and a solid color on the other that matches the print. Its totally up to you. At fabric stores like Jo Anne's they have about 100 different prints and colors to choose from.  If I make a big one for somone's bedroom I try to make it so it will match the walls or their other bedding.

Okay. Step one: Once you get your fabric all cut to the same size, you want to cut a square out of the corner. This is going to allow you to evenly do everything and not end up with weirdly shaped corners. The square you cut out is going to be about 4.5" x 4.5".  Then go down one of the sides the square you just cut out and start cutting flaps through both layers of fabric. You'll have to double knot them or they'll all just come untied, so cut the flaps about 5-6 inchest long.  This is what it will look like once you get started:

(I had to fold it in on itself to get the picture so it doesn't look right. You would cut the square out of BOTH pieces of fabric, then cut the flaps through both as well.)

Just continue making those cuts untill you have the flaps all the way down one side. Then get to tyin'! Try not to pull too tight when you're tying them up. This can cause it to make the fabric uneven, then when you're all done there will be a big wrinnkle in the middle from the pulling. When you get to the end of that side, cut another square out of the corner like you did before, cut the flaps down the side, tie, rinse, repeat. Pretty simple.

Don't worry if you cut the flaps too short or too long. If you cut them too short and you can't tie the flaps up all the way, just make an extra snip on both sides and make it longer (you won't even notice that kind of thing when its all done, I promise). If you cut the flaps too long and they're flapping in the breeze when you're done just go through with scissors and cut them shorter.

This is the one I made a few days ago (1.5 yards of each):

Really great Christmas presents, everyone loves them. Don't tell them it took about an hour to make, let them think it was a labor of love that took you days.

Take a look, its in a book, Its Maggies newest bloooooogggggg!!!

I know, I know. Its been FOREVER since I've been on here. I've been pretty busy lazy and haven't really been doing a whole lot of crafty stuff. Then I discovered .99cent furniture at the Goodwill warehouse! For those of you that live in Maine, you need to go over there. Its in the Gorham industrial park. You can get a friggin couch for .99 cents. Also, they have tons of bins of clothes and everything is priced by the pound. I got an LL Bean winter coat there yesterday for $1.49. I can't even bring myself to go in to a regular Goodwill now becasue its pretty much a waste of money.

Anyway, on to my new project. Super easy. Anyone can do it and its almost impossible to mess up. I did this over 4 days for a few hours at a time while I had a Homeland marathon.  If you have kids, this would be a really fun project to do with them. Keep in mind, it is a little messy so be prepared to have glue covered little chillins' running around your house if you do this with them. Also, if you're like me and have pets who get hair all over everything, you may want to sweep/vaccuum the room you're going to do this in and then keep them out untill you're all done.

What you will need:

• About 2 bottles of school glue (you could use Elmer's, but they all do the same thing, so any generic brand will work as well)
• An old book you don't mind cutting the pages out of . This can be a novel or a kids book with pictures, any book will do.
• A sharp knife (an Exacto knife or razor blad would work well, but I just used a super shark paring knife)
• A cheap small paintbrush
• A super thin tipped paintbrush (optional)
• A piece of furniture that needs a sweet and artsy face lift
• A mask for when you are sanding (you can buy one, but I just use a bandana
• Plastic gloves (optional)
• A thick marker or a short dowel. Anything round that you can roll over the pages once you glue them.
• Clear spray paint, sealer or a hardening resin (which you use is up to you)

Step one: Sand down your shit. If it has a gloss over it, the glue won't stick properly. You don't have to go crazy (unless there is a thick varnish on it, then it will have to all come off), just rough it up everywhere you will be gluing pages to. It goes without saying, but please do this outside and with a mask on. Wipe it down with a damp cloth after to get rid of all the dust. Then bring it inside.

(This is my before picture. I had already sanded down the top and got all the nasty yellow varnish off of it)

Step Two: Take your book and your knife and cut the pages out. Start as close to the binding on the inside of the book as you can get. Then if you want to cut the pages up in to smaller sections, you can do this now. I cut each page up in to three or four pieces width wise. I did them random sizes because I wanted them to be kind of funky. If you would rather leave them whole and glue them on, you can do that too, it just depends on how you want it to look when its done. If you are covering the whole piece or you have a large area to cover, its a good idea to use a longer book like a novel so all the pages match. If you're doing this on a kids piece of furniture with pictures, you could probably just use a number of books from the same author/illistrator and they will match. I used about 150 pages to do this, so you need a whole bunch if you're doing the layering effect. Its all about personal prefrence, really. I don't have a picture of this step, but I'm sure you can figure it out.

Step Three: Make your glue mixture. This is basically just home made Modge Podge. You could use the real stuff, but I'm cheap and would rather spent $2 on a thing of school glue than $8 on the real stuff. If you have Modge Podge, then skip these next steps. Dump a bunch of glue in to a bowl (I used a plastic one so I could just throw it out) and add some water until its thin. There are measurements out there for this if you want to be exact, but the world won't end if you just eyeball it. Add the water a little at a time, mixing it really well after each addition untill you get it a little runny. I added water untill it was still thick, but it would stream of of my paintbrush when I picked it up out of the bowl.

Step Four: Get to gluin'!! This is where the cheap-o paintbrush (I used one of the Crayola little kid brushes) and the gloves come in. The gloves aren't really necessary because the glue washes off with warm water, but if you're not in to getting your hands all gluey then the gloves are the way to go.  All you need to do is paint a coat of glue on the back of a page and place it where you want it. Then take that marker/dowel and roll it over the piece/page to get out the air bubbles and excess glue. Again, you can place the paper however you would like. I did overlapping pieces all over. It took a long time, about 45 minutes to an hour to do a single side, but I think it came out well and was totally worth it.

Here is a picture of the top once I was all done:

Now just keep doing that to the spots you want covered. I think it would be cool if you just did the top and then put a resin coating over it, but as we talked before its totally all personal preference. Since I was doing it all over I waited in between doing the top and the sides. I just flipped it around on the floor to do it because I did it while I was watching television ha ha. I did the top one day, then did two sides the next, then flipped it to do the other two sides.If your table has a drawer/cubbord door on it like mine, you should take those off to do this, its much easier, I promise.

Sorry its a little blurry, but you get the idea.

  After everything is all dried you can add some finishing touches. New hardware, painted details, etc. I used some cheap acrylic paint (your going to seal it after, so you don't have to worry about it chipping so its okay to use the cheap stuff. Why buy expensive paint when you can buy acrylic for $1.50? Again, I'm cheap so I would rather spend the money where it really counts) to do the trim. If you do this, that's where the super thin art brush comes in. Seriously, if you're going to do this please don't be like me and think you can do it without the right tool. Its a big ol' headache to try to get thin lines with a cheap ass paint brush. I messed mine up and it looked like Michael J. Fox did it in most places. It wasn't cute. The thin paintbrush will allow you to get thin lines without a ton of effort. .

Here is how it looked after painting the trim and proof as to why you need the proper tools. After the paint dried I cut some black pluming wrap and glued it over the black lines and fixed it so they were straight.

 

Step Five:  After everything is completely dried (since I did a TON of over lapping, I gave it a few days to make sure it was dried completely) TAKE IT OUTSIDE and spray over it with your clear spray paint, sealer or put resin on it. As always, if you're going to use any aerosol spray, DO THIN COATS!! We're talking MISTING it. Its going to take longer, but its going to look better in the end. If you overload it, you're going to get drips and that's not cute.  

I opted for just a paper sealer. The sealer is available at any craft store, I got mine at AC Moore for $5. You can get any brand, I've used three different ones in the past and they all came out the same. The sealer is going to simply seal everything together and make it stain resistant and keep it from yellowing. I didn't want mine to be all shiny so thats another reason I chose the sealer. If you want it to be shiny, go for the clear spray paint. If you want to be really fancy and use the resin on the top you can. This would be really nice if you were doing this to a table you use a lot (like a kitchen table or coffee table). The resin is the super thick clear coating they put on bars. It looks really nice, the only thing is that it is very, very expensive. It comes in two parts to mix together, the last time I looked it was $30 for a can of each part. It would be totally worth it and look really nice, again, all personal preference. If you use the clear spray paint or sealer you will still be able to set glasses on it and avoid the ring and it won't get stained if you are looking for a cheaper option.

Do you believe me now? Super easy and impossible to eff up. Also, super cheap. This whole project cost me $8.77. The most expensive thing I had to buy was the sealer and that was $5. The fun thing about this is that you most likely have most of the stuff laying around your house!

Now just place your awesome new refurbed piece of furniture where you would like it and enjoy!

Annndddddd here is a cute picture of my dog:

Spray Painting!!

Now that my bathroom is blue beyond belief the storage racks in there don't match. One was black and the other is a forest green color. I didn't want to go through the hassle of finding other matching ones as useful as these two. And by "hassle" I really mean I didn't want to spend money. So I went to the store and spent $5 on a can of Rust-Oleum white spray paint.

Before:

Spray painting something metal is fairly simple. First, just take some sandpaper and rough up the surface. You don't have to go crazy with it and sand off all the paint, just take off the gloss so the new paint will have something to adhere to.Then wipe it down with warm water.  Please take this outside when spray painting. I know that is blatantly obvious, but when I was looking up ideas online there were TONS of people that said "I did this inside, I would recommend you do it outside because of fumes blah blah blah". Really? Please take a ride on the Common Sense Train.

I first consulted my DIY Mentors at Young House Love . They, of course, don't know they are my mentors, but they certainly know their stuff. They seem to spray paint just about anything from coat racks to decorative Ram's heads. Their #1 Tip: Super thin coats. We're talking a mist of paint. This avoids drips. So off I went. I took the rack OUTSIDE and laid it on some cardboard (it overlapped a little bit, as you can see in the pictures, but the wood underneath has been sitting outside for a number of years and I don't think a little spray paint it really going to make a difference). Then I got to it!

I used:

I love Rust-Oleum. Love it, love it, love it. Although, the amount of paint in this can left somethign to be desired. To get a really solid coat of paint on the rack pictured above, I would have needed at least 1.5 cans.

First Coat!!!!

See what I mean about a super fine mist? It took about 5 coats all together to get this puppy looking fresh and new.

After!

One down, one to go!



Royal Blue Madness

So I painted my bathroom this past weekend. I am obsessed with the color and how vibrant and uplifting it is!!

Here is a quick picture of the before and after colors:



In the pictures, it looks like the color would be too dark for this room, but there is so much sunlight, its just right! I got my paint on sale at Lowe's. Its called "Magical Merlin" haha. I got the 2 in 1 Olympia Paint and Primer. I didn't want to fool with buying a seperate primer because I'm an instant gratification kind of girl. With the 2 in 1, they suggest two coats (the first one acts as the primer, the second acts as the actual paint). Also, instead of paying $24 for a can of paint plus the price of whatever primer is, I paid $26 for one can of the 2 in 1.

I washed the walls and woodwork with Mr. Clean. Then I edged out everything with this little tool from heaven:

That is the best thing that has ever happened to me. Before I found it, I trimmed out the edge of the bathroom door with a paint brush and it took me almost 25 minutes. Then I cracked open this bad boy and edged out the whole room in about 15 minutes. It has a felt pad on the back of it, and those little wheels allow you to keep a safe distance away from the woodwork while it glides like a fantastic magical painting tool. Then from there I just went to it with a roller.

After pictures!!!

Now I'm just working on spray painting the metal towel racks. Blog on that later!

Lets talk about Salt Water

Summer is coming! And me being the Pinterest addict I am, I keep seeing all kinds of tutorials about "Beach Hair" where they use the expensive Salt Spray. This stuff is great, I used to use it when I had long hair because it gives you volume and gives your hair that texture you need for a good style. You know how a lot of styles require that non washed hair? Not gross unwashed hair, but the day after you took a shower kind. If that made sense... ANYWAY. The Salt Spray product you buy at the store is about $8-$10. Thats expensive for something you can just make at home. I've found recipes to make your own. Its just a spray bottle filled with warm water, a tablespoon of sea salt, 5 sprays of spray gel and a little bit of perfume. From everything I've read it works really well. But I found an easier way.

Salt water can be used for EVERYTHING. I had a horrific case of poison ivy last summer. When I say horrific, I truly mean it. I had it for almost two months and it was honestly the worst thing that has ever happened to me. I had it all over my me. From my toes to my hands. I tried everything. I probably spent $75 on all kinds of different products to get rid of it. Finally, one of my mom's hippie friends gave me a bottle of sea water. She told me all about how she swears by it and uses it for everything. I've heard of people using it on tattoos/piercings after they get them and it cleans it out and helps it heal. I sprayed this salt water all over the poison ivy bumps on my hands before I went to bed and when I woke up in the morning it was almost all gone. I literally sprayed it all over my body to get rid of the rest of it and it worked like a charm. After about three days, I was poison ivy free!  Since then I am a hippie believer in the salt water cure all. I use it on my face when its breaking out, I put it on sun burns, scrapes/cuts. I  even spray it in my dogs mouth to help get ride of his garbage breath.

Getting back to the original point..An easier (and almost free) way to make beach hair - Grab a water bottle filled of salt water the next time you're at the beach. Before you go to bed French braid your  hair when its dry. I put mine in two, but its up to you how waivy you want your hair. Poke a hole in the cover of your water bottle so you make a little squirt bottle type deal (or you could buy an empty spray bottle, but I'm kindof a cheap skate). Squirt the salt water all over your hair. You don't have to soak it, but just make it damp enough so it will come out waivy when it dries. After you get it damp, spritz some hair spray over it. I used Aussie Flexible Hold (I swear by it). Go to sleep, when you wake up take out the braids. Voila! Waivy hair that has piecey texture and looks like you have gorgeous waivy summer hair!!

Then, after you've had it in for a while and it starts to lose its volume. You can throw in a poof and a side pony tail and it looks just as awesome!

Lighting Fixtures!

I went to Lowe's today just to look around. Is that normal for a 23 year old girl? Just to go to Lowe's so see whats going down in hardware this week? I don't care if its not. I LOVE hardware stores. You always need something. Turns out that today that was true. I went into the lighting section and found a really cute vanity light for $12. Say what? $12? Yes, please. Whose your bargain shopper?

Here is the old one in the bathroom above the medicine cabinet:

 

Ew. It was all rusted on the outside edges, and it was starting to gross me out. I've wanted to replace it for a while, but when I happened to remember to look for them online or at Walmart they were always so damn expensive. Also, I figured I would electrocute myself when I tried to put it up. 

Here is the new one!!!

 

 

Woop Woop! It looks awesome! It was also super easy to install. 

Step one: FLIP THE BREAKER TO YOUR WHOLE HOUSE!!!! I didn't know if I could just flip the switch to the bathroom and be safe, so I looked on the internet. When I couldn't find anything, I read the directions that came with the fixture. It said you MIGHT be safe if you flip the switch for the one room, but bad things can still happen. It suggested turning off the power to the whole house. So, I decided that having to reset all the digital clocks in the house was more fun than being fried by some wires. Safety first.

Step Two: Take down the old fixture. Mine was up there with just a few screws. I had to pry it off the wall a little because the edges were sealed on there from when the room was painted. 

Step Three: Follow the directions. Yep. Pretty simple. To put mine up, all I had to do was connect the black wire from the fixture to the black wire coming out of the wall. Then do the same with a white wire. It was like paint by numbers....except no paint...and more electricity.. It comes with those little caps to put over them so they stay together, you want to make sure those go on there nice and tight too.

Then you screw it to the wall. Then (if you have poor planning skills like I do) you walk around your house unscrewing light bulbs from lights you don't use because you forgot to buy the bulbs when you purchased said lighting fixture.

Then go flip the breaker back on and you are golden!!! This fixture is SO much better than the old one. Not only does it look better, but it is brighter than the sun. I wasn't expecting it when I flipped on the light switch and I was blind for about a minute.

Tiny Shelves

I don't think I am the first person to ever say this, but I have the dreaded Storage Blues. We have a pretty large bathroom, but there is no where to put anything new. There is a towel rack, a shelving unit next to the sink and a bunch of shelves behind the door. That's it. I suppose I could keep all my makeup and things on the shelf behind the door, but I hated having to turn around every 2 minutes to get something. Annoying, much? Yes. 

So yesterday while I was working I decided to put some very small shelves up. Then I remembered these tiny plant pots that have been laying around the house for years and years. They're too small to put an actual plant in so they were always just hanging out. One of them was a catch-all in the bathroom for earrings, tweezers, nail files, etc. I took that and ran with it. I found a board in the garage that looked like it had seen better days. I got Mr. Sandpaperandnailpolish to cut it into 4.5" squares.  I grabbed some brackets at the hardware store. It was something silly like $1.78 for two brackets and all the screws, so I grabbed three packages. So this project officially cost $5.34. Everything else was either found in the house or in the garage. 

Here is a quick picture of everything before it was painted and finished:

I sanded down the wood quite a bit. I think it was just some scrap left over from the porch that was just outside for what looked like a very long time, so it took some elbow grease to get it looking fresh. For this I had to don what Tim refers to as my "Gay Robber Look". (The elastics on all of my face masks broke so this is all I have!)

 Once I got the edges all smooth and the wood was looking good, I painted them the same color as the medicine cabinet. I went lighter on the ends so the wood grain would show through (you'll be able to see that later. I think it looks pretty cool). Please, please, please don't make the same mistake I did and leave things to dry on newspaper. What a nightmare! The newspaper was all stuck to the paint when I woke up this morning and it took about 20 minutes to pick and peel all the newspaper off. I felt like a big idiot. But they came out nicely. After I finished picking off all the newspaper (ugh) I attached the brackets. It was super simple. Put the bracket where you want it, put in a screw. Rinse. Repeat.

Then attach to the wall. I used sheet rock screws, to make sure they really stayed in there. The little plant pots are hand made from clay, so they're pretty heavy for their size. Where they were right over the toilet I wanted to make sure they weren't going to fall on anyone while they were..umm..using the bathroom..

Here is the final product!! I really like it!

 

Also, a handy storage tip for necklaces and rings that I did a few weeks ago. I found some little hooks. I don't know what their called, I think it something like "S hooks" or "Eye hooks". They look like this:

Typically you'll see these in peoples cabinets to hang coffee mugs. I found a few in the junk drawer in the kitchen and decided to plug them into the wall in the bathroom to hang my necklaces on. They never get all tangled up and knotted anymore! 

All in all, two insanely useful projects, that take no time at all. Happy  DIY'ing!

Valentine's Day Gift Extravaganza!!!

I LOVE making girfts for people! It's so much more fun than going from store to store for days trying to find something perfect. This year for Valentine's Day I sent my mom (who recently moved to North Carolina from Maine) a care package filled with all things Maine/New England. Fun Fact: Did you know they don't sell Marshmallow Fluff outside of New England? I did not know that untill about two weeks ago. I made sure to write things on the outside of the box like "WICKED FRAGILE, BUB" and "A WICKED GOOD MAINE CARE PACKAGE".

I also made my friend Amy a really cute framed print that I embelished a little bit. She sent me this from Pinterest:

Obviously thats the cutest thing ever. To be honest , I teared up a little when I read it because I miss her a shit ton.

So I had a stroke of brillance and Staples helped me out with it. They will let you email them any attachment and they will print if off for you. Seriously? Ahmazingly conveniant. I had them print the picture off on 8.5"x11" cardstock in color. It cost something like $1.98. I love me some cheap deals on some sweet stuff. I made my way over to AC Moore and bought a floater frame (one of the frames where you sandwich the picture in between two panes of glass and has a border of wood), some rhinestones, little pink scrapbooking flowers, pink glitter glue and the smallest paint brush I could find.

There is a quck picture (minus the frame). I forgot to take a picture of the supplies before it was all done and shipped out. I had used all the pink flowers so they aren't in that picture.

Seriously, folks, if you are going to do anythign with little tiny rhinestones, you NEED tweezers. These were so small I couldn't even use my fingers to pick them up from the sides. The tweezers also made it much easier to put them exactly where I wanted them without getting the glitter glue all over everything.

All I did was take the pink glitter glue and trace along the letters of some of the words to make it look a little more fun. Then I took the pink flowers and glued them onto the corners. I dotted all the I's with rhinestones, and also put them in the center of the flowers. All together this probably took about 15-20 minutes to do, and about an hour to dry. Then I just popped it into the frame. It came out so cute, honestly, I was proud of myself. Here are some pictures!

You can't see the glitter on the letters at all in these pictures, but its there. It was my favorite gift I've ever made so far and it cost all of $15 to make.

Open the pod bay door, Hal.

I got my Ipod touch! I'm like a giddy small child with this thing, I swear. This thing is frigging awesome. I am having so much fun figuring it out and using  it. I feel all high tech and futuristic. I have not stopped taking pictures and downloading apps since I got it on Friday. I have recommended it to almost everyone I have talked to in the last three days. I'm a little obsessed. I originally set out to get a refurbished one, but I stopped at Wal Mart first (even though I knew they don't have any refurbs in the store) and the guy said they only had one left so I snatched it up! I just couldn't wait. I wanted a white one, but they only had black.

I am SO on the weight loss band wagon now. Since last Sunday (when I had the plague and couldn't eat anything for two days) I have been taking it easy with food. I have lost 13 lbs! I'm setting my goal to lose no less than 2 lbs a week (more is obviously preferable). My favorite app so far that is helping me with this is called "MyFitnessPal". which is essentially a calorie counting app. Its pretty helpful. You put in how much you weigh and what your goal weight is and it tells you how many calories you need to eat daily to get to your goal weight. Then you chart your food/calorie intake for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. The good thing about this is you're not actually figuring out all the calories on your own. They have almost every food stored in a database .All you do is type in what you ate and 99.9% of the time it pulls it up and tells you how many calories are in it. I find it makes the whole calorie counting thing much easier. I just feel like a freak when I'm staring at the label on the side of the box trying to do math and writing it down, all that is annoying and frustrating. When I go on these counting binges I usually just end up eating the prepackaged 100 calorie snacks and those Weight Watchers frozen meals. Not fun. This tells you how many you are alloted for the day (Mine is 1200). As you add food it subtracts it from the total and lets you know how many you have left. It is incredibly handy. Also, there are charts and graphs to track your progress.

I have been annoyingly flitting around the house taking pictures with the ol' Ipod. If the dogs could talk they would be swearing at me. I got a sweet camera app called "Instant110". You can change the lense, developer and film. This is the.best.thing.ever. I am a huge fan of the way pictures looked on old cameras in the 60s and 70s. They are just more soulful than digital pictures. For example:

That is Mr. Sandpaperandnailpolish. This was the first night I had the gadget and, as you can see, he is already annoyed with the picture taking.

Other than taking pictures and dowloading things, I decided to paint all the woodwork in the house. The paint was just old and yellowing. Things that are meant to be white...should look white. When that is not the case it grosses me out. So I washed all the trim and baseboards really well. I was SO glad I didn't have to sand them down becaue that would have taken A LOT of work. After it dried I cracked open a gallon of primer I found in the basement and went. to. town.

This is the primer I used. I've never used it before, but it seemed to work fairly well.

I didn't think it looked all that bad before, it was just bugging me. Once I started and was able to compare the before and after colors I just couldn't stop.

So far I have the windows and doors done in the mudroom and one side of the bathroom door. I can't believe how much it brighter the rooms look, even with just the primer. I can't wait to actually put a top coat on.

And, yet again. We have our daily Pinterest gem. This is probably my favorite thing EVER.

Bow Tie -A- Rama!

I found this really cute idea on (you guess it!) Pinterest for making your own bow tie! They had so many super fancy ones they made for weddings and headbands. This is the page I liked the best. They were making a supah fly one for a little boy in a wedding. I wanted to try it and the only fabric I had laying around was one of those free handkerchiefs you can get at the pet store during some kind of promotion, so the dog got a new bow tie! She was pretty pumped.

You can really make this any way you want (I made it for a dog, people...so its pretty easily customizable). I decided to make a slightly bigger one because it was my first time, I figured I would leave as little room for error as possible.

You'll need a ruler, some fabric, scissors, a needle and some thread. I suppose you could use a sewing machine if you were striving for perfection, but honestly, its going to take you longer to set up the machine than to just sew it by hand. Ironing it after you're all done wouldn't be a bad idea either if you were looking to wear this out to a formal party or glue it to a headband.

This is my set up.

I chose to cut mine 5.5" x 4.5" to make a bigger bow tie.

Fold it in half width wise (iron if you would like to) and then sew up the sides. Make sure you leave an unsewn 1/2" - 1" gap on the longest side so you will be able to flip it right side out.

You can just barely see the pink thread on the left hand side, but you get the idea.

Flip it inside out through the gap you left in the longer side. Really make sure you push out the corners from the inside out, otherwise you'll have a weird oval shape. (You would iron after this step)

Next, you'll want to cut a strip of fabric you can use to keep the rectangle shaped like your bow tie. If you are making a fancier one than I am, take a 2" x 4" in strip. Fold it the long way and then sew it at the end. I simply cut out the border of the handkerchief like so:

Take the rectangular piece you sewed before and pucker it around the middle so it resembles a bow tie.

Take the strip of fabric and wrap it around the middle so it stays puckered. Pop a few stitches into the strip to keep it tight enough to hold the shape and you are done!! If you were going to make this into an actual bow tie, you would then stitch this onto a longer strip to go around the shirt collar. If you want to make it much fancier, add another smaller rectangle piece and layer the two. Where I made it for the dog, I just slipped it on over her collar.

This whole thing probably took about 10-15 minutes. That was honestly the easiest craft project I have ever done. I think I'm going to buy a little bit of fabric and make a really nice one to stick onto a headband. The great thing about this is it uses such a small amount of fabric.You could even buy the most expensive kind and it would cost no more than $5 to make the version pictured above.

Now Riley will model her new digs.