creative little daisy

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.

 

 

 

Closer

I'm sure I'll never be done with my kitchen, but I do believe I've moved into a more classic direction that I will not tire of as soon. It's beginning to feel settled and comfortable. Just like it is supposed to be this way, not like it's decorated. Does that make sense? It's like me in jeans and a tee as opposed to a dress and heels. I can put on a dress and heels and look nice, but it feels temporary, like I can't wait to get home and be me. The real me in jeans and a tee. I feel like my kitchen has finally found a comfy pair of jeans and a clean tee. Jeans that fit and make her butt look good.

I finished painting the front side of the bar.

I love the added details.

For my birthday, I got two school house style light fixtures.

 
Notice anything else new in this picture??

Bar stools!! I love these bar stools!! I've been dreaming of stools like these, coveting stools like these. Pinning every similar stool I saw. Wishing for these stools. But the thing is, they were way out of my budget. I could in no way justify or afford spending over three hundred dollars for something I didn't need. Yes, I wanted them bunches, but didn't need them one bit. So I decided if I could sell something I no longer needed, something that was just taking up space, I could get the stools. Long story short, I sold a commercial sewing machine I had in the garage and had not used in more than a year for almost exactly what the stools cost. Win, win! More space in the garage, and NEW STOOLS!! I also sold the old stools on craigslist. Triple win.

Did I mention I love these stools?

They are heavy and sturdy and lovely and I.... well  you know.

While I was busy tweaking, I roped Mitch in, as I always do, and we installed some under-cabinet lighting. We purchased it at least 5 years ago, probably more like 10 and just never put it up.

Now if I could find something in the garage to sell that would bring a couple grand I'd get new appliances. Yea, I don't think that's too likely.

I guess she's wearing her comfy jeans with a clean tee and old worn in shoes.

{Dough bowl made my Mitch's grandfather}

I hope it works

I'm not a spanker. I'm not firmly against a swat on the bottom to get attention when nothing else is working, but how can you expect a child to understand hitting is wrong if you use hitting as discipline. We use time out with Bayleigh. Or I should say we try to use time out. She's a very strong willed child. Very strong willed and if it isn't her will to sit down, you are going to have to sit on her to keep her in the chair.

The terrible twos seem to have waited to attack full on at three. We definitely notice a strong correlation between food and her behavior and are trying to greatly limit artificial coloring, especially brightly colored candies and fruit punch. Fruit punch + Bayleigh = wildfire out of control. Out. Of. Control. And just you try putting her in time out. She had one of these episodes this past weekend. We tried everything to reign her in. Alyssa put her in the tub and it worked for a few minutes, until she decided to sling with both hands water out of the tub and onto the floor. Bath time over. Fit throwing resumes.

We finally got her to settle down by getting her to use my peak flow meter.  It was really just a distraction, but taking deep breaths helped her to calm down to a reasonable level and wind down for bedtime.

Boy, that was a wordy bunch jibber-jabber to get to the meat of this post. I had this pinned on pinterest. Yes, again with the pinterest. I'm a junkie folks,. but in a good way. She calls it a mind jar and made hers with glitter glue, water, food coloring and glitter.

I made one for Bayleigh today. I didn't have any glitter glue on hand so I just used some gel tacky glue.

 
I filled a jar with water. I think this jar holds about 2 cups.

Then I added a few drops of food dye,

about 2/3 of the container of glue,

and several shakes of glitter.

I started out with a large flake glitter, but it sank too quickly.

This very fine Martha Stewart glitter floated slowly to the bottom.

The idea is you give it a good shake and let the child hold the jar while in time out, watching the glitter fall to the bottom is soothing and calming and also a timer of sorts.

I kept adding glue and glitter until it took about 2 minutes for the glitter to settle to the bottom.

Long enough for a screaming banshee to settle back into a sweet toddler. I hope. We shall see.

 

Just call me Tim the Tool Man...

I've been power toolin' around here all week and I like it! My bar got a make-over. No plans, just flying by the seat of my pants. Ya'll should know me well enough by now, to know that's just how I roll. I have all these ideas floating around in my head, and I never know when they will decide to materialize.

Last week, or was it the week before... anyway, one day I was walking through the kitchen and I don't know what came over me. I just started tearing the beadboard wall paper off the bar. It just happened, really it did.

Pretty, no? This ended up being a bigger job than I imagined and took me a few hours.

Once the old wallpaper was all scraped off, I put up more. The same wallpaper friends. I wanted to start fresh. I figured too may coats of paint and you start to loose the beading effect.

Next came the fun part. Molding! Mitch cut the first few pieces of baseboard for me and I did the rest. It took me a long time. A long time. I made many, many trips to the garage to cut and re-cut, but my my thighs and kitchen are the better for it. I used muscles I forgot I had with all that bending and squatting. If I did this for a living I'd have buns of steel.  I cut, nailed, caulked, and painted it all. by. my. self!

This photo shows where things got complicated. I replaced the baseboard with a taller board and brought it around to the side of the cabinet, where there had been none before. Figuring out how to tie it in with the cabinets nearly fried my brain. I do not kid when I say I sat on the floor for hours, at that very spot pictured, scratching my head and playing with molding. I looked at countless photos on the internet, consulted Mitch, scratched my head some more. Finally I rigged up something that seemed like it was going to work.

Kinda crude looking, but nothing some caulk can't fix.

Caulk? My new bff. We're tight, me and some caulk, cause my seams aren't always so tight.

I found these brackets at the Salvation Army several months ago. I didn't know what I'd use them for at the time, but for a dollar a piece, I knew I'd find something.

I actually enjoyed the priming and painting.

I love it, and now I want to put molding on everything.

The front is still black. I hope I can get that painted this week. 

Want to see the many faces of my kitchen through the years? Sure you do.

Now brace yourself for the original, 90s version. Be warned, it's a little scary.

I know, right? What was I thinking?  Man, there's a lot going on there. Sorry I exposed you to that. I hope it doesn't cause any bad dreams.

I'll be sharing this project at some of these fun linkie parties.

 

Forty-three

That's me, 43. How about 43 bits of random useless info, shall we?

1. I'm delighted to be getting older. Beats the heck out of the alternative. I do not however delight in some of the joys associated with getting older. Hot flashes can go back where they came from thankyouverymuch.
2. I'm not digging summer too much this year. Too dang hot for me. May have something to do with the aforementioned hot flashes.
3. Do you remember a while back I may have complained a bit about being skinny. Having trouble gaining weight? Well forget everything I said. Not an issue anymore. Maybe I'm not that delighted with getting older after all.... I kid. About the delighted part. Not the weight part. I've had to buy all new pants. Lets talk about something else.
4. I ripped the bead board wall paper off my bar last week only to put more right back up. What I took down was black. I wanted it white. I also pulled off the baseboard.
5. I bought new chunkier baseboard. In my mind I would cut and install it myself. I just needed Mitch to explain the miter saw to me. Yesterday he cut it for me. No griping was involved.
6. I love that man. He puts up with a lot. 
7. The chunkier baseboard has created a bit of a dilemma. I may be coming to you my friends for some advice. You never fail me.
8. I love being a nana. Bayleigh is the cheese to my crackers, the peanut butter to my jelly. She's my girl. Sometimes she drives me just to the edge of crazy and I tell her I'm running away.
9. I wouldn't get very far before I missed her terribly.
10. Both of my kids are adults. How did that happen?
11. I'm so very glad my kids aren't teens anymore.
12. They drove me well past the edge of crazy, but they are pretty great young adults.
13. I love my kids.
14. I'm very proud of them. 
15. I've developed an unhealthy pinterest addiction. Seriously. Somebody organize an intervention.
16. I seem to enjoy cooking more these days. (See #3)
17. I blame pinterest.
18. I do not enjoy cleaning up after cooking. I blame my family.
19. I think I'll declare this the year of if I cook it, you clean it. Sounds good to me.
20. I should be doing laundry right now instead of making silly lists.
21. Oh well, if it weren't lists, it would probably be pinterest.
22. I remember when 43 seemed old.  Not so much anymore.
23. I'm going to paint part of my lower cabinets white. See #4. Bought the paint last weekend at the Sherwin Williams sale.
24. I have no new progress to report on the attic.
25. I'm very happy with the stairs.
26. When I was a child, I dreamed of living in a house with an upstairs. When you live in a trailer, a house with stairs seems like a big deal.
27. It tickles that kid in me to see those stairs.
28. My favorite desert is tiramisu.
29. I started getting xolair injections. I've only had one shot. Anyone else on it?
30. For a long time I felt sure I was going to die young. That my only hope was to get a lung transplant and that prospect scared the bajeebers out of me. I don't really feel that way any more. 
31. I've decied not to put so much stock in what the doctors say. When you have an unnamed disease, how can they know what your prognosis is?
32. I'm getting the xolair because I researched and asked about it, not because it was offered. You have to be your own advocate. Look out for yourself.
33. A childhood friend wished me happy birthday on facebook and told me I was her first kindergarten memory. I had no idea. I wonder what it was.
34. I have mixed feelings about facebook. I like the ease in which you can connect with friends and loved ones. Share pictures, say hello. But, I don't think it's the place to air all your problems. I wish there was a TMI button next to the like button. Some folks share TMI. 
35. Sometimes I don't wish people happy birthday on facebook because I feel like so many have already done so, mine won't matter. I feel differently now. Every single birthday wish I've received today had made me smile and I've been grateful for each one.
36. Clutter makes me crazy. Messiness makes me crazy. I've been feeling very crazy lately.
37. I blame my family.
38. I blame pinterest.
39. I blame that darn clean house fairy whose GPS must be broken.  Come on sister. Sprinkle your magic pixie dust already!
40. I wish I was the dog whisperer. Man, these dogs and their barking drive me crazy. I've tried that anti-bark thing that emits a high-pitched sound- worked for about a day. I've tried squirting them with water- worked for about a week. Any tips?
41. I'm not a fan of the Fresh Beat Band on Nick jr.  
42. I love to dine alfresco. Not so much at home, but when we go out, I love to eat outside if possible. Not in this 100+ degree weather though.  Something about eating a good meal and sipping a glass of wine outside that makes it seem more special.
43. I made it to 43. Even though I may not post here as often as I used to, I still love this little corner of my world and I hope to keep hanging out here for many years to come!