creative little daisy

Easy-peasy thread rack

I knew I'd seen someone use pegboard to make a thread rack. Maybe, no probably on pinterest. I had some pegboard and I wanted a thread rack, so I googled Pegboard Thread Rack, found this tutorial and did exactly what she said. Except her dowels were placed in straight rows, using every other hole. Mine ended up being staggered, not intentional, it just happened that way. 

I bought 1/4" dowels like she said, and even tried the dowel in a piece of pegboard at Lowe's. Fit perfectly. When I got home, the dowels didn't want to fit in my pegboard.

I was going to sand the ends to make them a little smaller, but that was a lot of dowels.

So I just dabbed a little wood glue on the end,

and forced it in with a hammer.

Worked like a charm and they aren't going anywhere.

Glued some trim around the edges (forgot to get a pix) and spray painted it all glossy white.

I loved the aqua blue frame Mandy used for hers, and I considered painting my frame, but I decided the thread was going to be plenty of color. Also, I had a full can of white paint, so that really made my decision easy.

I love this project because it was cheap, I didn't buy a thing. Even if you didn't have the supplies on hand, it would still be cheap to make, and you can customize it to any size or color you want.

I used wire to hang it. Just two pieces run through a couple of the holes. If you look closely between the pink and gold thread on top, the wire is there. There is another on the other side but it's under the white thread. I used plastic drywall anchors and screws in the wall. I didn't know how heavy it would get with all the spools on, so I wanted to be safe.

It's kinda like functional art, isn't it?

I lined my bamboo roman shades

I tried to share a few of the changes I've made in the masterbedroom, but Willie stole the show. That's the honest truth. I went in there to snap a few pictures, and suddenly I was taking pictures of him. Just him.

If you did happent to get a glimpse of what was going on in the backgound, you were probably thinking to yourself, hmph, nothing special there. And you'd be right. I don't have any show stopping before and after pictures. I've just made a few small changes over several months. That goes completely against my typical method. I'm a vicitm of the trading spaces mindset. You know, you get the urge to redecorate and want it done now, but I've had to change that way of thinking. 

I've been pinning ideas, mulling over the feel I want the room to have, and implementing changes gradually.  One of those changes was the window treatements.  My color palate is going to be blue, white and some light sand/linen tones. 

The room is void of architectural details. The ceilings are not high, there is no crown molding. A pretty boring box of a room. To add some interest I stencilled the wall behind the bed.

It gave the room so much interest. Stenciling gives you so much bang for your buck. Even without a headboard, the room looks so much better.

The stencil I used is the Anna Damask stencil from Cutting Edge Stencils. I'll talk more about that later this week.

Today I wanted to share what I did with the windows, hence the post title. Sometimes I get sidetracked.

Pay no attention to the ginormous used to be in the bathroom mirror leaning against the wall. (Unless you happen to need a ginormous mirror, then look closely at it and email me. It's yours if you want it and live close by.) Also ignore the comforter draped futon at the end of the bed. Like I said, no stunning after photos here, it's a work in progress.

Where was I? Oh yea, the windows. The curtains are simple white panels from Target. I doubled them up because they aren't very wide and look a bit wimpy with just two per window. So for these two windows there are actually six panels. Good thing they were on clearance when I decided to double up.

What I'm here to talk about are the bamboo shades. I love the look of bamboo shades, but they provide no privacy and let in lots of light. Not really great for a bedroom. Especially when someone who sleeps here sometimes works nights. If you've ever worked nights and tried to sleep during the day, you know light blockage is essential. Even a sliver of light peaking through can seem like a spotlight. I'm telling you, we go to great lengths to block light. Not only did we have room darkening roller shades, but over that I made from black-out lining a panel that is removable and covers the whole window. It has grommets and velcro and completely covers the window and blocks all light.

But again, that's not what I'm here to talk about. Those roman shades. Remember I said I had room darkening roller blinds? Well, my friend Kelli recently hung roman shades in her daughter's room in a front facing window. She wanted to keep visual uniformity from the outside of the house, so she left the white roler shades she had and hung the bamboo shade outside the roller shade. You can't see the roller shade from inside the room and you can't see the bamboo shade from outside the house. Sneaky and smart huh?

Well, my widows aren't deep enough for that to work so I had to come up with a different privacy/light blocking solution. I googled how to line roman shades and found this tutorial. Woohoo. So, I proceeded to do just that. I decided to reuse the roller shades for the lining.

I opened the bamboo shade out completely, laid it on the living room floor, placed the shade over top and followed the tutorial. I was quite pleased with myself. It's easy-peasy. Just glue the liner to the shade at the top and cut slits for the metal rings, oh wait, back up. You have to untie the strings from the rings first and pull those out of the way. After that you glue the liner to the top and cut slits for the rings. Then run the string back through the rings and you're done. Be sure to follow Jane's tut at the Borrowed Abode. She goes into more details and has good pictures.

All was good. It was easy. I hung my lined bamboo shades and was quite pleased with myself. It should be noted I did this at night. It was dark when I hung the newly lined shades.

I woke up to the strangest sight.

In the photo it's dots of light. In real life it was as if rays of sunshine had pierced the shades and were invading the room.

Well, that had to be remedied ASAP.

Think, think, think...what to do. I pulled the shades back down and tried to think of what I could do. I thought to myself, I need something like those stickers that reinforce the holes in notebook paper.

So, I got myself some white silhouette vinyl from the craft room, which by the way looks like a war zone right now, but that's a post for another day. I used a circle punch to cut circles from the vinyl then punched a hole in the center with a regular hole punch.

Then I cut a slit in my little vinyl donut and covered the slit in the liner.

 

As usual, being supervised every step of the way by the foreman.

And his less hands paws snout-on sidekick.

Some of the slits were larger and required a little extra vinyl to completely cover over, but once it was all on, the shades went back up and all was good. No more darkness piercing beams of light shooting through my shades.

*This photo was taken before I doubled up the curtains.

 

Is it possible to make just one?

Maybe for some, but not me.

Once I start, I can't seem to stop.

At least it's a cheap addiction.

And they're pretty.

This was yesterday, as the sun was going down.

And my view this morning as I had my coffee.

I love that each one is a surprise.

Unfolding  is like opening a little present.

I never know what they are going to look like,

although, now that I've made a few dozen,

I've learned where to cut to get diferent effects.

Go get yourself some white paper and scissors. 

If you need help with the folding and cutting,

here are a few different tutorials.

Just know, making paper snowflakes is like eating potato chips,

you can't stop at just one.

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!

 

Inspired by Pinterest

The plate wall in the kitchen... well it just never grew on me. Too messy, too haphazard. So I pulled them down, patched about 47 holes and went about coming up with something else to fill the empty space.

I fell in love with this when I saw it on Pinterest. Everything about it. The colors, the words, the clean simple design.  Love. I sang you are my sunshine to my children and to Bayleigh when I rocked them to sleep.  I knew I wanted to make my own version and this wall would be the perfect spot for it.

A while back I picked up a few cabinet doors at the habitat re-store for 1.99. They were new doors, with no hardware holes to patch. Perfect for making signs.

I primed and painted the door white, then painted on a rectangle of yellow where I knew Happy was going to go. At the bottom I let Bayleigh paint an aqua square.

Then I cut out the words and heart using my silhouette.

Next  I sprayed the whole thing with gloss gray spray paint. It looked pretty good, but I thought it needed a little roughening up. I gave it some age with sand paper, a little dry brushing,  and dark tinted finishing wax.

I hung it on the wall and meh... was underwhelmed. Does anyone else do that? This is just a small little section of wall in my kitchen, but it's highly visible, so I want to hang something special there. Something with a bit of wow factor. Not to say I don't love the sign, I do. I just don't think it works here.

Take 2. Another take on one of my favorite pins. (yes I'm a pinterest addict) A little side tangent here, OK when a photo has been pinned from Tumblr, does anyone know how to then find the original site? I would like to give proper credit, but clicking on the photo only takes you to Tumblr's home page. Side tangent over.

Take 2s inspiration was also pinned from Tumblr, but this time I was able to find its origin.

I LOVE take 2. Love. It.

It is made from old fence pickets. We replaced the fence in our backyard with low maintenance vinyl and now I have lots of old pickets to work with. I didn't take any photos of the process but it was super easy. Mitch cut the pickets down,  I sanded most of the white paint off and stained three of the pickets with dark walnut stain. After it dried I sanded and stained them again. I used the silhouette to make vinyl stencils and just brused on some bluish gray craft paint. Once it was dry I scuffed the letters with sandpaper.

For the HAPPY section, I mod-podged a sweet, old fashioned looking gray floral fabric onto a board and then stenciled the letters on. This time I started with white craft paint, followed by several coats of yellow to completely cover the print on the fabric. 

The pickets are held together in back with 1/4 inch boards glued and screwed in place.

The skies are gray here today, but looking at this sweet sign makes me very happy.

 

 You can find me hanging out at some of these great parties. Join me!!

...the greatest of these is LOVE

Wooden eggs, tea stained and stamped. Clearly, I do not excel in stamping. Lets just say the crooked placement was intentional and adds that done by hand charm, shall we?

What I was doing a few days before Thanksgiving

We had about 20 people here for Thanksgiving. What do you think I was doing the Monday and Tuesday before? If you guessed cooking, you'd be wrong. Cleaning? Nope. Painting and hanging bead board wallpaper? BINGO!

On Wednesday I was making curtains and a coffee filter wreath.

Somewhere in there I also painted a thrift store light fixture, dressed it up with a pretty shade, installed it and hung some plates on the wall. 

On Thursday, I was a cooking, cleaning fool. Thank goodness we didn't eat until 6.

I still need to come up with a Christmas Centerpiece for the table.

Cause I love a good before/after, here's the before.

Don't forget to link up your Silhouette and Cricut projects here, beginning Sunday at 8pm.

I'll be linking up at some of these parties.

A fireplace makeover

Just in time for Christmas.

This is how it looked last Christmas

And now.

I painted the brick a couple of months ago and last week with a little help from Mitch, I added some molding detail above the mantel.  When trying to come up with something special but cheap to hang up there, I remembered seeing several versions of book page wreaths around blogland.  After studdying a few tutorials I fired up the glue gun and got to work.   I think what I came up with is a combination of the tutorials I read. It's made up of several layers like the ones beautifully detailed on  Jones Design Company  and Living With Lindsay, but instead of folding the pages, I rolled them into cones, as shown on Primp.

It's huge! I stared with a 14 inch wreath and used most of a 400+ page novel. It took about four hours and seven hundred glue sticks. OK, seven hundred may be a slight exaggeration, it was probably more like 600. Really, no less than 20, but that's a lot of glue.

I'll be linking up at these parties.

 

 

 

My fabric flower making frenzy

I'm having an extreme case of writer's block this morning as I sit here trying to produce some witty or at least interesting sentences about fabric flowers. Not happening. Witty conversation escapes me this Monday morning, but photos do not. I have photographic evidence of how I wasted the day away on Friday, happily making fabric flowers.

Some were fluffy and sweet for a pink loving toddler, while others were more grown-up and sophisticated.

Experimenting with different techniques...

Once I started, I couldn't stop.

A few action shots, a couple of pretties wearing the pretties.

They are almost instant gratification crafting, the kind I like best. I could do a tutorial,  but they have been done. And done again. Just google singed fabric flower tutorial, that's what I did. I studied several different methods then combined them. For Bayleighs's headband, I tore and twisted and glued narrow strips of fabric to make frayed rosettes, again the method has been tuted to death. I just made up that word tuted, meaning made tutorial of, not to be confused with tooted which means something all together different.

I finished the back in a way that allows the flower to be worn in your hair using an alligator clip or slid onto a headband or worn on your clothes with a pin. I could show you that if you like. I don't think I've seen a tut on how to finish the back, although I haven't googled that one.

OK, so I'm off to do something other than make fabric flowers. Mitch had to dry off with two hand towels last night. Oops! Somebody was so busy playing in the sewing room, she forgot to do laundry.

You get what you pay for

That's how the saying goes, but I like to think sometimes you get more than what you pay for.

I picked up an artificial flower arrangement last week at goodwill for a couple dollars. It was pretty sad, but I knew I could work with it. What caught my eye was how realistic the flowers (dried hydrangeas) looked.  It was a large, ugly basket with dusty hydrangeas haphazardly sticking out from here and there. At one time I'm sure it was really pretty. Something you might see on a hearth in a home with country decor, but now it looked like it had been stored  in a dusty attic under some boxes.  Why didn't I take a before photo? Don't I know the after is more impressive when you can see how bad the before was??  One day I'll learn. Just imagine a dark toned basket with some gold painted accents holding an arrangement of dusty, nearly falling out hydrangeas with spanish moss, artificial ferns, and raffia. Got a mental image? OK good.  Let's just say no one was fighting me for it at the goodwill. Their loss.

I pulled out all the hydrangeas and the florist foam and threw  the rest of the filler stuff away.

After a good cleaning, the basket got some spray paint action, with paint from my stash. It'll go perfectly in Alyssa's living room to hold Bayleigh's books or toys.

There were enough hydrangeas to make two arrangements. One for the dining room table,

.

and one for the living room. I love how the flowers add some softness in contrast to the mercury glass. I'm not usually a fan of the fake flower, but I think these come pretty close to the real thing. I'll keep 'em around a while.

Two pretty arrangements and a big basket for holding books, not bad for $2.00.  Getting more than what I paid for, that's what I love about thrifting.