Forever Felt Ball Flowers

I have been keeping busy lately making a few odds and ends items for Charlotte's nursery. Here is just one of the little projects that I have finished.

Felt Ball Flowers

I have seen the felt ball flower idea in a few different nurseries on Pinterest and loved the idea! I find them very simple, sweet, and kind of whimsical. You can buy felt ball flowers already made on Etsy, but I am more of a diy girl, so I made a quick run to Hobby Lobby. I found a package of premade felt balls for just a few dollars on clearance and picked up the green pipe cleaners to be the stems. I used a needle to put a small hole in one end of the felt ball, squirted in a dab of hot glue and stuck the pipe cleaner to it. Tada! All done.

Now, if you want to really diy, you can make the felt balls yourself! Jump on over to Lil Blue Boo for her tutorial on how to make your own felt balls. It is surprisingly easy! Plus you can make them in any color or size you want.

These flowers would be a beautiful addition to really any room in your home. Mix and match colors like I did or go with a single color. You can use pipe cleaners or even colored wire. Make small or large balls. Get creative and add some beautiful color to you home!

oh and...we are now 27 Weeks! Ah! 3rd Trimester!

A House is not a Home with out...Drapes!

There is just something about drapes that make a house feel so much more like a home! They can transform a room and bring warmth to any space.

So my big project for the last month has been making drapes for some one's house! It was such a fun and challenging project all at the same time.

Here are the rooms that got a new look...

(the pictures below are not the greatest...very difficult to photograph a window when the sun is setting! hahaha)

Living Room Drapes & Sheers...

These sheers are called "eye lash" curtains because they have this fringe that rolls up like an eye lash. (FYI...cutting into this fabric makes quite the mess! Do not vacuum your living room first and then cut out the fabric...hahaha)



Dining Room Drapes & Sheers...



You can kind of see in the picture below...that this cream fabric (looks yellow in the lighting below but it is cream I promise!) has a very subtle animal print to it...super cute!




Playroom Drapes & Sheers...




I loved loved loved this fabric! So fun and bright...and that lime green trim is awesome!






Kitchen Relaxed Roman Shades...

My biggest challenge by far was the kitchen! This was my very first attempt ever to make relaxed roman shades. They are exactly like roman shades minus the rods. This gives the curtains more of a balloon effect.



I am very very happy with they way they turned out! It is hard to see in the pictures but there is even some beautiful trim that hangs from the bottom.



These curtains even pull up and down...



I was so nervous when we were installing them! But I am so happy with they way they turned out!

Now on to the other ten projects that are cluttering up my sewing desk!

What have you been up to lately?

Making A Mess With Some Paint!

Wow, it has been a while since I last blogged. Now, tt's not that I have been doing any thing that is not worth posting, but rather, I can't seem to find the time to finish even one of the five or six projects I am currently in the middle of.

Lets see...

I am currently working on a few birthday presents for my littlest sister Emma...she is going to get two special homemade books (details to come).

I am making a bean bag toss game for Jack.

I found two small wooden baskets...crates...I cannot think of what to call them....at the thrift store the other day that I am going to repaint for Jack's toys.

I am making a homemade "I Spy" book for Jack, and also have an awesome new quiet book that I finally finished the pages of and now just need to assemble it.

There are a few more odds and ends things I have been working on as well that I will hopefully be able to post soon.

The last two weeks have basically been non stop... we had our VBS Sports blast, then our church revival, then went to visit hubby's parents for a few days. So now that things have slowed down a lot, I will hopefully been able to finish most of the projects.

Tonight however, instead of using my free time after little man went to sleep to finish up one of the many projects listed above, I decided to paint.

I am not sure why, but I seem to go through these phases of wanting to paint a lot, and then I don't paint again for a few months.

But since I am my mother's daughter I have become a little bored with the pictures I have had up for the last four years and need a change!

So after just 3 hours here is the finished product...





I just love projects that only take a few hours to complete!!!! It is already framed and hanging on my wall :-) (I wish the picture quality was better, but picnik is not working (UGH!) and that is what you get when you take pictures with an iphone!)

This kind of painting technique is called under painting (my friends from Mrs. Beuchley's class will remember this)...and it is so much fun!

To make your own under painting you will need...

Watercolor paper
Wipe off board, cardboard, or anything to paint on that can get messy (VERY messy)
Pencil/Crayon
Acrylic Paints
Paint Brush
Spray Bottle
Damp Paper towel
Inspiration Picture

Okay so here is how you can paint your own Under Painting

1. Grab your inspiration picture and get to drawing on your watercolor paper. Use a pencil or crayon to do this since it will disappear a little better when you get to the real painting part (pen is harder to cover up)

2. Now Take your damp paper towel or wash cloth and thoroughly dampen both sides of your water color paper then lay your paper on your wipe off board (card board, etc)

3. Next choose three colors of paint (I usually go with primary colors-red, blue, and yellow but for this one I did red, blue, and green since my flowers were going to be yellow)

4. Take your paint brush, dip it into one of the colors and then very messy like make about three "blobs" of color randomly on your picture slightly rubbing them in with your paint brush. Do the same thing with your other two colors.

5. Now comes the fun part- fill your spray bottle with water and get to spraying your picture. Try to use the mist setting...it works better. You can spray as much or as little as you want...
I like for my picture to still look a little "globby" (probably not a word). But if you want the under painting to not be so harsh use lots of water. Spray up, down, sideways.
Warning- This part is messy!!!! You might want to put an old towels under the board to catch the dripping paint water.

5. Next let your picture dry standing up.

6. Once it is dry you can start painting. The key to an under painting is to not completely cover up the first layer of paint but to let it show through in different areas.

7. Let it dry, frame it, hang it up, and then brag to all your friends that 'yah, you made it'!

That is it!

What is great about an under painting is that you really can't go wrong with it! It doesn't have to be perfect since you make a mess of it to begin with.

So GO!...get a little messy and make your own under painting! Don't worry about making it just right... have fun, relax, and in the words of my wise mother, go for
'Completion Not Perfection'.

Like Mother Like Daughter

I am definitely my mother's daughter!

My mom loves to fix up her home. She loves to make it feel cozy, comfortable, happy, full of sunshine, and color. Growing up, our home was constantly re-decorated, re-organized, and re-arranged. Every few months at least one room, if not more, in the house would get a bit of a revamp. Whether it was moving furniture, re-arranging pictures on the wall, or actually painting the walls something was being done to our house.

I love that about my mom!
and I do have to say that I did inherit that need for change...or maybe it is just an ability to see how something would look better if I just painted it...added new pillows...or re-arranged it...

either way I have definitely been in that mood lately! My home desperately needs a little spring brought to it! I am tired of dark winter colors and am craving some bright, sunny, and springy (maybe it is a word?) colors!

Well that fabulous mother of mine was shopping the other day and spotted some beautiful springy fabric...and better yet...it was on sale. So being the fabulous mom she is...she picked it up and brought it to me when she visited a few weeks ago.

My kitchen is mostly red...but I have been feeling lately like it would benefit greatly from a little bit of yellow. So when my mom showed me the fabric she bought I was thrilled! It was absolutely PERFECT! One was yellow and white striped and the other was a yellow floral print.

So with my mom by my side...power tools in hand...and sewing machine ready to go...we gave my kitchen just a quick little face lift...


Here is the Before pic...


and here is the AFTER...



What a difference a little color makes right?!?! I am so thrilled!

I recovered the chairs, made a table runner, added some candles, and made a cover for the microwave stand.

My previous red chairs...


...are now bringing some spring into my kitchen!


a new table runner and some awesome candle holders that I found at the thrift store...all three for only $5!!! Oh YEAH!


Next on my to do list...find some beautiful fabric to make pillows that will take my dark green leather couches from feeling cozy winteryish (definitely NOT a word) to light and springy!


P.S. A special thank you to my mom- Thank you for always making our house a home! You are such an amazing mother and godly woman. You truly are one of my best friends and my hero! I love you mom!

A New Shower Curtain

My new shower curtain! My poor bathroom has been desperately needing a little bit of color in it...it has only had a very sad plastic curtain on for the last eight months!

So after finding this fabulous blog , I looked back through her posts and found this tutorial on how to make a patchwork shower curtain. I immediately fell in love with her curtain! Her fabric choices are gorgeous!

So I began to dig though my stash to make one for my self. I love how she even gives you advice on how to choose different fabrics for the patchwork style.

I ended up picking mostly purples and yellows...figuring it would bring a little Spring to my bathroom :-) Then to break it up a little I added some blue and a tiny bit of black.




(You can't really tell in the pic...but the almost white looking fabric is really purple and white stripes)

The best thing about this curtain...

...it cost me $0!

Yup that's right!

All of the fabric I used was GIVEN to me!
(So a special thanks to my mom and Lisa Key for being so wonderful to give me the fabric that made my shower curtain possible!)

In her tutorial she even gives you the exact measurements for each block...which made it oh so easy to cut out and assemble!

So check out the tutorial and try it for yourself :-)