Monday, October 31, 2011

Happy Halloween!

From Cold Weather Dora and Hunter Man.

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I used Handmade Mommy’s 15-minute jammy pants tutorial for the Dora pants (I had a ton of orange fleece leftover from the goldfish I did NOT turn T into for Halloween last year.  I needed to use it.  ;-).  I bought a witches wig at Wal-Mart and gave it a bad haircut - just like Dora.  (PS – those pants were so easy.  I’m going to buy a bunch of fleece and flannel to make us all a huge stack of “comfy pants” for winter).

Little Man was supposed to be Boots the Monkey (Dora’s sidekick) but had a change of heart two days ago.  He decided he wanted to be a hunter.  Pretty easy, what with everything already in his closet - but I didn’t have a vest for him.  Enter more of the orange fleece and I threw this vest together this morning flying by the seat of my pants.  We borrowed the toy gun and he was complete.

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Dora isn’t complete without Backpack, of course.  I made Backpack loosely following At Second Street’s tutorial. (I drew out my own pattern, own dimensions, added a pocket for Map and didn’t make the straps adjustable – I wasn’t joking when I said loosely followed).  Map is just a piece of rolled cardstock I quickly drew a face on with Sharpies.

Notice the animal in Backpack?  Yeah – that would be our back up Boots the Monkey.  I took a stuffed animal and quickly made some red felt booties for him – but he rode in Backpack all night.

My kids both loved their costumes – and helping make them!

Hope you had a Happy Halloween!

 

BOO!

Saturday, October 29, 2011

Want to See Something Truly Inspiring?

You’ve come to the wrong place.

This was my office/craft space this morning.

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I’ve been working on reorganizing and emptying out the last boxes I’ve had since the move.  (These boxes were miscellaneous decorating, craft and office supplies I had no need to pull out of boxes yet.)

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For the past 9 months, I’ve worked in this space. 

NO MORE!

I can say it doesn’t look nearly as bad now after spending the afternoon in here but it’s nowhere near a showcase.  Not to mention, I haven’t even dealt with paint – I’m waiting until next summer for that at this point. 

I’m hoping to have an inspiring space soon.  Very very soon.  Or, at the very least, a clean one.

Just keeping it real, folks!

Sunday, October 23, 2011

My New Coffee Table

Remember this red beauty?

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Ok.  Not really a beauty but she’s got great bones and is super sturdy.

Look at her now.

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Say what?  You’re distracted by the big red lump on the couch?

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It’s ok.  The cuteness is pretty distracting.  (They were tuckered out from partridge hunting).

Back to my coffee table.  I stripped the top, sanded it down and gave it some love with Kona by Rust-Oleum (stain).  The base got a coat of primer and 2 coats of Sea Salt by Behr.  I then distressed and gave the entire piece a polycrylic top coat.

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The new handles are an Oil Rubbed Bronzed finish.  I got them on Ebay.  (The Knob Shop – I use them a lot.  Great prices and a great selection.)

When I finally put the table in place, I realized I should have checked the height FIRST.  It was about 6 inches too tall.  T hacked the legs down for me and now we have perfection.

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It’s great to finally have a place to put up our feet!  The drawers are an added bonus to hide coloring books and crayons for the kids.

One more project completed.  A gazillion left to go!

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Saturday, October 22, 2011

Little Man’s Bedroom

I’ve been working on getting Little Man’s BIG BOY room finished.  It’s been such slow going, what with all of the projects I have going at any given time – not to mention life in general.  ;-)

This was Little Man’s bedroom when we bought the house last January:

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We painted the walls and trim immediately but that’s about as far as we got.  He was still in his crib and had my old hand me down particle board dresser.

Piece by piece, I’ve been putting his room together over the past few months.  It all started with his new bed.  One of T’s friends had this old trundle bed in need of a new home.  She knew we were going to be putting LM in a bed soon so offered it to us.

Bed before (It’s on sawhorses waiting for a makeover):

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I also got this great dresser at a yard sale:

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And let’s not forget the bookshelf my dad built for him:

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We’ve had this bedside table for years (it was most recently white and being used in Monkey’s old bedroom – I also just found out my mother-in-law built it!):

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I also had this framed poster from T’s childhood bedroom:

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Now we have this:

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and this:

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The details:

The bed is painted Chianti by Behr and outfitted with a quilt I’ve had for years and years. 

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The nightstand received a 3rd makeover, getting a quick coat of Chianti and then painted with a premixed Rust-Oleum semi-gloss black.  I then distressed the edges to show the layers of white and red beneath.  I also used an old tow rope from camp to make a new handle.

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The lamp was from KMart for $17 and the fan I picked up at a yard sale for 50 cents.

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My $15 dresser didn’t need much work.  It had a Formica top I ripped off.  The glue required far more scraping than I could handle so I used a stripping agent to get it down to bare wood.  The same Rust-Oleum semi-gloss black, some light distressing and a top coat of polycrylic and it was done.  The tractor and piggy were gifts – the old rail lamp was $2.50 at an antiques store.

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The bookshelf received the same treatment as the top of the dresser. 

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Most of our books were either gifted or from my large box of books from childhood.  The trophies are a couple of T’s hockey trophies from middle school.  I got the truck for $2 at an antiques store.

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Lastly, we have T’s old poster.  I spray painted the frame black with some random generic black paint I had on hand (I had done this at the old house and even had the poster up but I only just put it up here last week).  There was a tiny bit of overspray on the inside that I could easily have wiped off but I like the added character it gives.

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The total so far in his bedroom is $71.

  • $25 wall paint           
  • $10 bed paint           
  • $17 lamp                    
  • $15 dresser                                          
  • $5 wood truck, fan and rail lamp
  • $15 for new sheets
  • All other paints were from my paint stash

Left to do:

  • Finish shades (he has 1 – needs a 2nd)- fabric already purchased for $15 – will also have plenty extra for throw pillows
  • T needs to put new window trim in (just replaced those windows) – not counting towards room cost as we’re doing this throughout the house
  • My grandmother has an old dresser mirror I plan to put in there
  • Random art – I have most everything here just haven’t gotten to those projects yet

I love love LOVE how his room is turning out.  I love the history of the pieces and the stories they tell.  I also love how rugged the pieces are – they’re very able to survive a growing boy.

The best part?  I do believe the total cost will remain just around $100!

I hope you enjoyed the tour!

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Monday, October 17, 2011

Dinner is Served….

We had a busy week last week.  T had been pulled in the moose lottery this summer for the October hunt.  This was his second go around after having tagged his first moose back in 2005.

My man knows how to provide:

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He wasn’t going to be picky.  First cow he saw was coming home.

Sure enough - on Monday morning, down she went.

She weighed in at 694 pounds.

We split the meat with his buddy (sub-permitee).

What ended up in our freezer and on our shelves:

  • 20 canned quarts of stew meat (21 – I broke one)
  • 8 packs garlic & cheese sausage
  • 8 packs sweet sausage
  • 7 packs hamburg
  • 18 various cuts of steak
  • 3 roasts

We had our first stew this weekend.  The meat is fantastic - and canned, it is so wonderfully tender.  You just dump your jar in a pot and add veggies and a bit of water and you.are.done.

Nom.

We’re heading out to target shoot today because I’ve yet to bag my first partridge.  I made nuggets with a few last week and the kids DEVOURED them.  We need some more for the freezer – I need to get on my game and stop missing the birds.

:-)

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Hair Clip Organizer

We’ve had this frame for quite some time:

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This summer, while I was refinishing a coffee table (I’ll share that soon – it’s been done for months but I haven’t taken any pictures yet!) I needed something to entertain the kids with.  They wanted to help paint – I was NOT letting them touch the coffee table.  So I pulled out an old quart of paint, grabbed a couple of foam brushes and dug this frame out of my heap of a craft room.  Monkey wanted it in her room but I had no inspiration, so it’s been sitting pink ever since.

Until now.

I found this adorable organizer on pintrest a few weeks ago.

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We’ve seen them done over and over again so what stood out with this one?

The hooks for the headbands!

Brilliance.

And ridiculously easy to recreate.

I had a couple packs of cup hooks I never used in my kitchen remodel at the old house (you can get them at any hardware store – I’m sure you can even find them at Walmart in the hardware section).  I grabbed my trusty spray paint and gave them some love (Eden by Rustoleum).  After they’d dried, I just screwed them into the bottom of the frame.

Then I grabbed some strips of fabric leftover from the shades I made for Monkey’s room and stapled them to the back of the frame with my heavy duty stapler.

The frame was missing a hanger hook on the back.  I’m too cheap to buy them for such a light weight project so I hot glued the tab from a soda can (meh – who am I kidding?  It was probably a beer can. ;-) ) to the back of the frame to hang it.

Voila!

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The inspiration photo looks like the hooks were attached and then the entire piece was spray painted at once.  (I’m assuming – I never went looking for the link because it’s not linked properly on the pin).  Ribbon was used rather than my scrap strips of fabric.  Use what you have!

While we were at it, we had this old mirror we got at a yard sale this summer for $1:

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I taped up the mirror to protect, hit it with some Heirloom White (Rustoleum) spray paint, lightly distressed it and…..

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She wanted it down low so she can admire herself after she puts clips in her hair, of course.  How did I end up with such a girly girl?  lol

Total for both projects = $1.  Yup.  I had everything on hand.

I love when that happens.

 

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