creative little daisy

One where the before is better than the after

But lets don't call this an after, rather, an in between.

That works.

There was a time I was happy with my bedroom.

Not in the recent past, but once...

We changed beds, that's a long story in itself.

About a year ago, I got the bright idea to put our queen size (and very comfy) bed in the guest room,

so that when we had guests, they didn't have to sleep in a little twin bed.

The bright idea didn't end there. Nope. I read somewhere that a king size bed is just two twins.

{don't believe everything you read}

You can even buy a bridge sort of contraption that goes between two twins

to well, bridge them.

I took that idea a little farther and bought a big thick mattress pad

in a king to put over the two twins.

Well, it worked to join the two mattresses as one seamless bed. It wasn't a total fail.

We slept with it that way for quite a while. A little more that a year.

A year of hot miserable nights.

Memory foam, my friends, is very hot.

It is soft and cushy and you sink right in.

That would seem like a good thing.

It isn't.

The sheets never stayed tight. I woke up sore every morning.

I hated it.

I've been whining and complaining for months, but king size mattresses aren't cheap.

With two dogs and a toddler in bed with us many nights,

Mitch became attached to the size of the bed,

and didn't want to switch back to our comfy queen.

I guess he'd heard enough of the whining and we went mattress shopping.

I won't go into the boring details of that,

but I will say, if you have plans to buy a mattress

and are in the Fayetteville, NC area,

email me, I will tell you about a great palce.

Now we have a comfortable bed, but the bedroom is

far from being a sanctuary.

Where do I begin...

Perhaps by apologizing for the lighting in these photos.

Then we can talk about that big blank wall behind the bed.

It could use some lovin',

don't you agree?

I'm thinking some board and batten 3/4 of the way up.

A rustic head board,

something like this.

The furniture will be painted white.

I started by filling in the very dated flower carving detail.

The dried spackle adds a little something special, wouldn't you say?

Those lamps.

I had high hopes for those lamps.

I can't go into detail all the techniques I've tried, it is a post in itself. 

for another day.

I'm waiting to see if they will look better against a white wall.

Bedding, I do have a dust ruffle, gray linen.

It didn't make it back on

before the mattress was delivered.

I have a white comforter I plan to use instead of this quilt.

I wanted to do gray and yellow, but the walls are blue,

so instead of having so much going on, 

I'm going to stick with a palate of blue, gray, and white.

This bench is going somewhere else.

Mitch and I made it from a head and foot board.

I really do like it, but it ends up being a dumping ground.

It needs to go.

Those harlequin boxes need to go. 

Curtains may or may not go. I'll decide later. Beside the banch is a big mirror,

removed from the bathroom.

What do you do with such a monstrosity?

It's huge and heavy.

Anyone want it?

This side of the room. This awful side of the room needs some serious editing.

The dresser will be white.

The TV will go in the attic when it's finished.

That shelf needs better placement.

My car loving husband doesn't get much say in the decorating around here.

None really, and he doesn't complain.

Much.

I felt like I had to give hime a spot for his toys.

Most of them are models he put together.

They don't bring much to the aesthetics of the room, but it is his house too.

Right?

I don't imagine I'll  being back here anytime soon with a makeover reveal.

Too may other things need completing.

For now I'm pinning and dreaming.

And I'm sleeping on a comfortable mattress.

That will do for now.

 

The winner of the headband.

I cheated and picked two, using the random number generator.

and the winners are # 2 Ashley and  #4 DeDe.

I'll be emailing  you ladies to see what colors you'd like.

 

Attic Progress

I promised to share the work on the attic apartment,

and I haven't been holding out,

there just hasn't been much to share.

We were super excited when the stairs went in.

A small powder room was framed in.

And then everything got covered with sheetrock.

And then.... nothing. Nothing has gone on for at least a couple of weeks.

Today Mitch got started putting the flooring down.

This is standing in the doorway that goes into my dining room, looking into the tiny powder room.

This view is from the stairs, looking down into the powder room.

To the left is a door leading into the house through the dining room.

To the right is a door into the garage.

This is standing on the steps, looking into the actual attic.

Obviously still storing junk.

It's 11' x 22'. Not very big, but we plan to make every square inch count.

There will be a small kitchen area at this end of the room,

just off the stairs,  with a sink, mini fridge, and microwave.

We plan to do some built-ins that will be between the studs in the wall,

so as to not use valuable floor space for clothes storage.

At the far end there will be a window seat flanked by built ins for more storage.

A friend is giving Alyssa a futon that will be seating during the day and a bed at night.

With the floor going down, I can visualize it. It's beginning to take shape.

I hope they can be in before Christmas.

 

The flooring is Allure vinyl planks from Home Depot in Hickory.

A little Pinterest inspiration

In the form of wreaths.

I made three this weekend, all inspired by pinterest.

Wreath numero uno.

And can I just say, the only thing harder than curtains to photograph,

is a wreath.

Especially when it is hanging on a window.

I don't know why I have a wreath in my kitchen window.

I think it started when I put one there for Christmas.

It seemed naked when I took it down, so now I keep one up year round.

Here's a shot with it on the floor, so you can see the details a little better.

I wrapped a straw wreath with strips of burlap

and hot glued on one or two of nearly every kind of flower I know how to make.

I even crocheted one.

Call it a sampler wreath.

It was inspired by several different wreaths.

Not exactly like any one.

The next two are pretty much copy cats.

As soon as I saw this lovely, I knew I had to make one.

I made my own foam wreath form using pipe insulation from Lowes, 

using this method. If I do this again,

I will add some wire or something inside of the foam

to help it keep its shape. You can see it's

a little elongated instead of being perfectly round.

I covered the foam with strips of fabric

as a base for gluing on the moss.

I just used hot glue and only singed off

half my fingerprints.

Love it!

The last one was heavily inspired by this cutie pie of a wreath.

I love every little thing about it. The bright colors, the cute little bunting,

the fact that its an empty frame and not a wreath at all.

I wanted mine to go on the door from my garage into the kitchen-

which kind of makes me snicker every time I think about it.

What's that fancy word designers like to use...

juxtaposition. Yea, that word is appropriate.

I love the cuteness of the frame, juxtaposed against the

junk hole that is my garage.

I'm sure folks will see it and think, she should spend less time hot gluing

and  more time cleaning.

Anyhoo, if you make it through the garage

to the kitchen door without tripping over something,

you will be rewarded with this cute greeting.

Once again, nearly impossible to photograph.

I hung it on the dining room wall hoping it would show up better,

so I could snap a picture or two.

I cut the pennants from fabric backed with fusible interfacing to make it stiffer,

and  the letters were made using my silhouette.

Now I'm thinking the pennants should have been a little larger.

And I wish I'd used a different font for each letter,

like the inspiration.

I may have to change that.

I finished off any fingerprints I had left making and attaching these flowers.

I made all three of these this weekend with materials I had on hand,

making them pretty much free.

Not bad for three new wreaths is it?

 

What has pinterest inspired you to do?

I'll be sharing at some of these fun parties. Check em out!

 

Anyone care to join and impromptu linky party?

I'd love to see your quick crafts.

With a busy three year old keeping me company, my projects have to be fast.

Alyssa was getting ready to go to lunch today.

I told her she looked really cute but was missing one thing.

A big lacey, flowery headband.

Don't you think it completes the look?

 
I made it while she put on her makeup.

I think making the headband was quicker and easier than getting a picture of it.

Bayleigh has entered the let me see how uncooperative I can be while getting my picture taken stage.

Lots of silly faces!

I made Bayleigh's skirt and flower too, but not today.

The skirt took about 15 minutes to make. No lie.

Front and back sewn together.

Hem the bottom. Serge the top.

Then go around the top with five or six rows of stitches using elastic thread in the bobbin.

She's not here now for me to look, and I don't remember, but I may have just cut one width of fabric,

selvedge to selvedge, and sewed the ends together-

making one seam in the back.

Either way, it was super easy and took very little fabric.

Don't you just love fast projects?

Got any you want to share?

.

Link em up!

Please, nothing that's for sale. Just projects that are fast. 

Hey, what the heck, while were at it, lets make it a giveaway too.

You want a big lacey flowery headband or a flower pin of your own?

Colors up to you.

Leave a comment.

I'll pick one comment at random Sunday night.

Since it's an unplanned party, spread the word for me, tell your friends

and tell me you did and I'll give you two chances to win.

Mark one off

One of my half-done projects is finished.

I think she's pretty hot if I do say so myself, with her sexy curves. 

This was my Granny's chair. I have no idea how old she is,but I'm guessing at least sixty.

I had her professionally reupholstered a couple of years ago for Alyssa.

See her there in the background? Only before shot I could find.

I really debated on whether or not to paint the wood.

I usually have no qualms about painting wood, but since she was my Granny's I went back and forth before deciding that in order for her to really shine, she should be white.

The wood just blends in with my floor and it was not in the best shape anyway.

I was a little disappointed by the job the upholsterer had done. I mean the work itself was fine, but instead of using cording made from the upholstery fabric to trim the edges, he used matching gimp.

It looked OK, just not what I expected, for what I paid.

I made double welt cording and think it looks a little more finished this way.

I took a few photos of the process, but I am in no way qualified to write a tutorial on upholstery.

Every piece of furniture is different. For this particular gal, the worst part was removing the old fabric. Holy staples Batman. To say I removed ten billion staples is no exaggeration. Well, maybe a tad, but no less than several hundred.

Can you see all those staples?  They were in deep too. I couldn't get a flat head screwdriver under there to pry them out.

I have this pointy, poke-your-eye-out-if-you-aren't-careful thingy.

That did the trick.

I wrapped some tape around all but the tip so it didn't dent the wood.

 

Once all those staples were out, I just cleaned and sprayed the wood.

I kept the batting underneath, because it was only a couple of years old. I just taped the edges to keep it away from the frame.

The rest was pretty easy in comparison to pulling out all those staples.

Just staple on fabric in the reverse order it came off.

There are a variety of methods for making double welt cording.

I don't have a special double cording foot or even double cording. I use my zipper foot and regular cording.

Measure what you need for your project and cut strips of fabric 2 inches wide.

 For this, I cut the fabric straight across the width from selvedge to selvedge instead of cutting the fabric on the bias.

I sewed the strips from end to end, at an angle- sorry, no photo of that step.
Now that you have a long strip of fabric, take it to the machine. Wrap it around far enough to cover the cording and using  your zipper foot sew very close to the cording.

Sew to the end or your fabric.

Lay a second piece of cording up next to the first one. Snuggle it in close, but not too close. You want enough room to sew down the center. Not too much room. Just a little. How technical is that?

Sew down the center of the little valley between the two pieces of cording.

 Trim away any excess fabric from the seam, so that it doesn't show from the front.

Glue that baby down with hot glue and your friends will be very impressed.

Glad to have one thing marked off my list. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got some pillows to make.

Here's one more look at my sexy girl. You can stare at her curves if you want. She doesn't mind.

 

 

I'll be sharing this at the following link parties. Check them out for some great inspiration.

 

Found the camera!

The day I decided to organize my spices, Alyssa had my camera, so I used my old point and shoot to capture the mess- hence the grainy photos. 

Any good organization project begins has to start out with a big ol' mess right?

I had been keeping spices in several different cabinets, none of which was very well organized.

Over the years I've tried and failed at coming up with a well organized workable system.

This lazy susan was ok, but didn't hold much.

I had a unit that attached to the cabinet door once, but bottles would fall out and onto my head about every third time I opened  the cabinet.

Somehow over time I ended up using four different cabinets to hold what should have been together in one cabinet. Definitely not an efficient use of space.

Pinterest came to my rescue. I do love pinterest. I googled spice stack to check the reviews and they were almost all positive, so I bought one.

Now what was taking up parts of four different cabinets is tucked away neatly in just one.

Even though it's up high, I can still access all the spices without needing a stool. Each drawer pulls out and pivots downward. Cool huh? 

What doesn't fit in the spice stack, I have on a tiered shelf so everything is visable.

Diane, if you're reading this, see the steak seasoning? I love it!

All my spices, oils and even cooking wines are in one cabinet and nothing is hidden from view to be lost and forgotten.

It isn't flashy and beautiful, but it's efficient and doesn't fall on my head. I'm a happy girl.

Ever feel like a dog chasing its tail?

That's how I'm feeling lately. Like I'm going round and round in circles and getting nowhere. My mind is spinning with things I want to be doing but for one reason or another things just aren't happening. I never used to be one to have lots of half-done projects floating around. Just the opposite. I was very one track minded, focusing on one thing and only that thing until it was done. Right now I have more projects started than I can count. Maybe if I try counting a few it will shame me into gear.

• I've got a half naked chair on my back porch I'm in the process of reupholstering.

• I drug and old ottoman out of the attic I want to make a slipcover for and use in the living room. It's sitting in the living room in all its ugly dirty green gingham glory in my gray living room. Not very cute. 
• The dressers in my bedroom have been in the early stages of a redo for about a month now. I spackled the ugly 80s carved  flowers in preparation for  painting them and that's as far as I got. White spackle on black dressers,  really not cute. You know how when you are happy with a room, the way it looks, you tend to keep it cleaner. Keep the bed made, keep clothes from piling up. Yea, lets just say, it's quite apparent I have fallen out of love with my bedroom. I have plans, but you know where they are, right? Yea, spinning around between my ears.
• I did get one project completed that delights me to no end. I organized my spices. I even took before and after photos and everything, but guess what? I can't find the camera I took them with. (long story) I've looked all morning. I finally gave up on the before photos and decided just to take more afters with my big camera. Battery's dead. I have one interesting thing I could blog about, but can't find or take photos. Is this a conspiracy?
• I'm sitting in my sewing room that looks like a small bomb exploded and dropped things everywhere including new fabric for making pillows for the living room. Before any sewing can happen some cleaning has to occur. Chasing my tail! All I can do is chase my tail.
• I did manage to clean the shower in my bathroom last night. Scrubbed and scrubbed till it shines, and it still smells like mildew. What the? Chasing my tail. 
• My laundry room... I can't even talk about the state of my laundry room.

OK, enough public humiliation. There is still time in the day to get something accomplished and Alyssa has taken Bayleigh to the movies. I declare I'm stepping away from the computer and getting at least one project finished. I'll be back with something to report tomorrow. Promise. If you don't see me here, please send me stern emails with words like young lady and what do you have to say for yourself?

 

**One more thing before you go. We are having outdoor movie night on Sunday. Like we did for Bayleigh's birthday. The last time it all centered around the movie Tangled. It was beautiful and magical and all had a wonderful time. All but Bayleigh. She fell asleep before the movie started and woke up midway through to throw up. Turns out she had strep. So to make it up to her we're doing the movie part again. We haven't decided upon a movie yet. Any suggestions for a good family friendly movie that adults and kids would enjoy?

Ducks and sand and shells... the stuff memories are made of.

As soon as Irene blew through our neck of the woods, we loaded the camper and truck and headed south.

Bayliegh, Mitch the dogs and I.

I know Bayleigh is still young when it comes to life long memories. She may not remember a bit of this trip, but it is etched in my heart forever.

To be able to enjoy life alongside a three-year-old is a wonderful thing, a gift.

We had a great site, right across from the duck pond. Let's just say, it's a good thing it was only for a few days. Many more days with us as neighbors, those poor duckies would be so fat they wouldn't be able to swim.

We fed them.

And watched them.

Some of us shared their food.

Some of us weren't all that impressed with all the quacking and waddling about.

We loved feeding the ducks, and they loved being fed.

They would literally eat right out of your hand.

When we weren't feeding the ducks, we were likely splashing around in the kiddie pool.

And although she preferred the pool, we did manage to get in some fun beach time too.

We crammed a lot of fun into those four days. Not planned out or scheduled fun. Cheese fries by the pool fun, evening golf cart rides fun,

 
Just hanging out at the camper fun. (photo taken by Bayleigh)

I know you're wondering about the camper. Have I painted and recovered every inch of it?

Nope! It's ug-leeee. Who designs these things anyway? My theory is they make them so ugly you can only stand to look at them for a few years then have to trade up.  I'd love to get in there and paint and recover, but that would be one big undertaking and would likely not be good for resale value. Ugly as it is, I have to admit, it is durable and doesn't show dirt.  We really just sleep in there anyway. We don't go to the beach to sit inside a camper.

We go to play in the sand, splash in the pool, feed the ducks, ride the golf cart, eats lots of ice cream and make happy memories. I'd say this was one successful trip.