Because Super Heros need a place for their cape....

In case you don't know this, now is a great time to hit the thrift stores! Folks have donated to clear their closets for all of the new stuff from Santa. Plus it's a great way to beat cabin fever. It gets the kids out, it doesn't break the bank if I buy a $.50 plastic boat and it keeps an extremely busy 4 1/2 year old occupied for part of the day. (Plus I don't feel bad if I donate it right back a couple of weeks later!)

So thanks to these little escapes to the thrift stores, my project pile has grown! Fun and exciting things are coming your way!

Let's start with this little thing....

It was kind of a mess. It had bright, splotchy, pink paint. And whoever painted it must have done it on newspaper because there was paper stuck to it. But it was half off of $.69 and I had an idea!



I sanded the paint blobs and newspaper off. And then I gave it a coat of primer to try to hide some of the bright pink. And I used my paint pyramids. My brilliant husband got me these for Christmas! Are these perfect for my spray paint addiction or what?!



So after I primed it and sprayed it an off white.



I took it apart....



Modge Podged....



And look how pretty! Perfect for my daughter's room!



I used Command Adhesive strips to hang it. I didn't want to put holes in the door and with the strips I can move it up or down as much as I want.



Now my super hero child has a place to hang her cape and her ever-important purse, that has to go everywhere we go, has a peg as well!

Happy Friday!

Felt Topiary

Business trips always mess me up. Actually, 6 am flights mess me up. When scheduling my 6 am flight, I just thought, "6 am is not that early." Uh, yes it is when you have to drive an hour to the airport. Yikes! That was stupid. So that was just a long excuse for why I'm posting on Thursday instead of Wednesday...business trip - mess me up!

Anyway, for those of you who remember the swirly felt wreath from last month (click here) I used that same technique to make this cute felt topiary for my friend's birthday.

I got a tall vase (on sale at Michael's), green floral foam, mossy grass, dowel, round styrofoam ball, 1/2 yard of felt, pins, paint, glitter and ribbon....oh, and don't forget the glue gun.

First I used the technique I used for the swirly felt wreath and cut out 150  2.5 inch circles. I pinned all the pieces in. Then I took the foam and pushed it into the vase like this....

First I painted the dowel and sprinkled glitter all over it.

Then I stuck the dowel into the styrofoam ball with felt and glued it in place. I used a lot of glue. When that cooled and dried, I shoved the dowel into the foam and did the same thing with the glue....LOTS of GLUE!

Then I glued the moss over the foam and glue to cover the mess I had made with the glue in the first place.

If I could do it all over again, I would have wrapped the dowel in a pretty satin ribbon instead of the paint and glitter. It would have made it look more classy I think.

I'm going to make a few of these for me with different heights and different diameters of balls. I think that it will be cute!!

Check!

(FRONT)


(BACK)

Check that baby off the list! Finally!

I started this quilt last year. And when I say "last year" I don't mean the last half of 2010. I don't even mean the first half of 2010. I really mean last January, this quilt was started.

You see, a year and a half ago, I had a woman at church who offered to teach anyone interested how to quilt. I was two years into being a proud owner of a sewing machine, meant for the purpose of quilting, and I didn't know how to use it. I was suddenly feeling confident enough to take this "new talent" on. So I showed up for class.

This quilt was the first quilt assigned to us to work on. It's a "log cabin" block quilt. It was my first real experience at piecing together a quilt. I loved how the quilt came together for me. It was exciting and thrilling. I sent it off to be professionally quilted.



When I got the quilt back I quickly sewed the binding to the front of the quilt using this method. But because this quilt didn't have a purpose, it was in trouble.



And once I got the binding attached to my quilt, it just sat. It's been sitting for a long time. It's been sitting long enough that I don't even notice it sitting in my room, next to my chair, waiting for me to handstitch the backside while watching all those shows waiting for me on my DVR.

So with the new year beginning, I decided it was time. It was time to cross this off my list...mostly because my oldest daughter kept reminding me that it wasn't finished and it was really starting to ware on me.

But here's where I admit that I cheated. I decided if I was going to get this quilt checked off my list, it was going to have to be finished by my machine.

So this is what a did.

I pinned the other side of my binding to the back side of the quilt. I made sure that it was just on the other side of the stitching from attaching the binding to the front.



I then pulled out my blind hem foot. It has a metal bit that I used to have it run in the ditch between my binding and my quilt while I stitched on the front of the quilt using a thread that matched my pink binding.





Now, if I were an expert sewer, I could try to actually "stitch in the ditch" and have the thread just barely grab the material on the other side. But I am very aware of my skill, or lack thereof, and I decided to have my stitching show.

I am also able to create my mitered corners. I stitched from corner to corner (backstitching at both ends. I then would cut my thread. Fold my corners under, then begin again on the next side stitching from corner to corner.

I save that hand stitching on the backside for special quilts. But I'm beginning to learn that sometimes, you've got to take the easy route if you're going to get it finished.

Magnet Curtains

I know, I know...Magnet Curtains sounds like some new Infomercial product, but I promise I'm not trying to sell you anything. Although, this idea did come from necessity. Now I know this post won't apply to most of you, but for the few of you in my situation, it might be helpful.

Problem #1: Front door has a big window on it. People can just walk right up to our front door and observe our lives. See exhibit A.

Exhibit A

Problem #2: Door is a metal door and I don't want to screw in anything to the door to hold a window treatment.

Problem #3: We want to leave our kids home alone for a few hours while we do a little Christmas shopping. Our oldest is almost 10 and we think they can handle watching TV for two straight hours, but we don't want people peering into our door.

Hurried Solution #1: Husband wants to tape packing material in the window. (NOT SHOWN because I had a better idea...although still a little W.T.)

Hurried Solution Idea #2: Use magnets to hold said packing material to window so we don't get tape residue. See exhibit B.

Exhibit B

New Problem #1: It's weeks later and this is still on the the door. As you can see, the kids have been playing with the magnets.

New Solution #1: Made a curtain with Magnets in it. See Exhibit C.

Exhibit C

Here's how I did it.

First I tried to go to Joann's to buy some material, but they were closed. So, I sauntered over to Target next door and found this 42" wide x 84" long, brown window panel for $7.99 (which I think is actually cheaper than if I bought material at Joann's). Plus, there was already a big hem sewn in for me at the top so i could drop my magnets in it.

Sorry, I took it out of the package before I took a picture!

Then I measured how long I needed the panel and added 7 inches so I could make a big hem at the bottom to match the top (we need the magnets at the bottom, too). I cut the material and then pinned and sewed the bottom hem to match the top.

Pinned hem and then I sewed.

Then I tried to figure out how many magnets I would need to keep this weight of fabric up. I figured out it was 9 magnets. So then I measured out nine slots for the magnets evenly spaced.

Then I sewed the first side, dropped a magnet in and sewed the other side so the magnet stayed inside it's little pouch.

Can you see the little round heavy duty magnet? It's inside it's little pocket.

I sewed in all the magnets at the top and used that to guide my pockets for the bottom hem so they lined up.

On the top hem I even sewed a littler pouch for the magnet so it stayed at the bottom of the hem to give it the gathered look.

There you have it! A curtain for my metal door.

Notice my Christmas decorations still up...Saturday's project will be to pack up Christmas!

And when I'm feeling open and free and want more sunlight in, I just pull the curtain down. I think I'm going to make a few different colors or even find a patterned material.

NO-SEW VERSION: Decorate the magnets with buttons, or bling or flowers or anything you want. And then just magnet the material to the door folding over the hems. I might try that as an option, although then the kids start playing with the magnets....but you don't have to SEW!!!

Door Draft Blocker

So I totally missed last week, but we were Oh-so-busy. I figured you were all, too...so you'd forgive me. I actually had a very cute craft for last week, but just couldn't find the time to sit and blog about it, so I'm saving it for next year. :)

Today's idea came out of necessity. While we love the new house, we don't love the little draft that comes through the front door. This is how the husband has taken care of it:

Kind of creative...right? Yeah, so he asked me to come up with a nicer solution. So I looked around. There were some really creative door draft blockers (or whatever the name of this contraption is), there were dogs and snakes and other fun animals, but I'm a simple gal that likes the look of simplicity and also likes to make simple things so I just made this...

There's a perfectly good explanation for the white at the end of this door draft blocker thingy...but I'll explain later.

So, you will need fabric that is about 2-3 inches longer than the width of the door and at least 8 inches wide (the one shown at the bottom of my door was a 12 inch wide piece because there is a riser on the bottom of the door frame and the draft comes in above that so I needed a pretty big draft blocker).
You'll also need a sewing machine, needle and thread, scissors, a chopstick or pencil and a bag (or more) of kitty litter.

I've done it before with rice, but I read somewhere that if you did it with rice or beans, it would attract "pests" so one suggestion was kitty litter and it was cheap. It was $1.50 for this bag.

Cut your piece and then pin right sides together to form a long tube. You will sew down the long side and down one short side (you have to leave a side open to turn the tube around and fill it up). Please note that these pictures are of the first one I made where the fabric was 7 inches wide. After filling it up, I realized that it wasn't tall enough for the raised bottom of the door frame, so I had to cut a different tube that was from a piece of fabric 12 inches wide. So that's why these pictures the tube looks so skinny and the final one looks so fat!

I sewed a double stitch because in case one of the stitches came loose, I wanted a back up stitch so I didn't have kitty litter all over the place.

I used the chopstick to turn the tube right-side-out and also to poke out the corners so they are crisp.

Now it's time to fill it up. If you are like me, you didn't want to use your kitchen funnel to fill the tube up with kitty litter, so I cut the top off of a 2-liter bottle and used it to funnel the kitty litter in. I cut the bottom of the 2-liter bottle to use as the scooper as well.

When it's full you tuck in the edges and hand-sew it shut. I don't have a picture of this because I haven't hand-sewed mine yet. For my large and in charge draft blocker, one bag of kitty litter wasn't enough, so I just knotted the end until I can run to the store.

But for now, our rug is folded up and there is no drafty air coming in. And now that my sewing machine is out, I can fix all the clothing items that I said I would "get to" sometime.

And for those of you who were interested in what our christmas card display described in this post looked like this year, here it is:

Happy New Year!

The Most Wonderful Time...

It is the most WoNdeRFuL time of the year: it's mid day. My kids are running around the house still in pajamas. Each room has marked territory that children actually live in this home. And my meals today have consisted of the treats people drop off. Dark Chocolate Peppermint Moose Munch anyone?

There is no room on my tables to craft today. Last night the Elf (on the kitchen chandelier instead of "the shelf") brought the kids sun catchers to paint. Today, the goal is to put together the gingerbread houses for decorating with the cousins tomorrow. I'm trying hot glue this year because no one ever eats the house and the hardest part of assembling the houses is holding it straight while the frosting dries. So I'm trying something new.

Today I thought I'd share some of my favorite things around the house during this time of year.

*** The first idea is the Santa picture display.

When my oldest was only six months old, we took her for her first experience of sitting on Santa's lap. I was hooked. Look at this picture. I adore this moment and had to make it a tradition.

As I decorate for Christmas, I take down all the family pictures that are framed and around the house and I replace them with the Santa pictures throughout the years. One of my favorite things to do is to stare at the pictures at night, after the munchkins are asleep, and wonder where the time has gone.

And I don't shy away from the crying pictures. In fact, they're my favorite.

I think I jinxed myself this year. My 13 month old daughter is a mommy only kind of girl. During our visit with Santa this year, I held her while the kids where letting Santa know what was on their most wanted list. When it was time for the picture, I told Santa, I don't mind crying pictures. She will probably cry. So don't stress about trying to make her happy. I think the crying pictures are sweet memories. So I placed my baby on his sleigh for the picture. Not only did she not cry, she smiled. I admit. I was a little disappointed. I assume this will be my last opportunity to have one of those moments.

*** My second idea to share is my Christmas Card display.

I have tried many different ways to share the great cards that fill our mailbox this time of year. I've tried attaching them to the garland on the stairs. I've tried attaching them to the garland around the room. I've tried taping them to the back of the door. The problem is, I start with good intentions and then fail at keeping up. So I came up with a different idea.



As the cards arrive, we place them in a Christmas tin on the dining room table. We are able to sort through them and look at all the pictures. At the end of the holiday, I then place them into a book. I buy an art pad at Michaels and cover the front in holiday paper. I make sure the year is on the cover. I always start the year's collection with our own Christmas card. I then glue the cards on the pages. We keep the books sitting on the dining room table. The kids love to look through them and see their friends and family and how they have changed throughout the years.




*** My third idea for the day are our Christmas books.

I shared during Halloween that I like to keep my Halloween stories packed up with my decorations. I do the same thing for my Christmas books. It is one of the boxes that the children are most eager for when we are setting up Christmas (and it usually keeps them entertained so I can focus on decking the halls "my way". ;) So when the books come out, we place them in a large basket by the fireplace in the family room. I keep a CD player there because we have a few stories that are on CD with the book. There are also a couple Santa hats in the back of the basket if one chooses to read with a Santa hat on. And I have a child friendly nativity that I keep in the basket. The kids love to choose Christmas stories to read for bedtime, but I also find them during the day sitting around the fireplace reading the Christmas stories.



Here's to a Wonderful Holiday Season!