Girl's Night

About once a month I get together with a group of women to hang out, munch tasty treats, and play bunco. I  don't know how Bunco is played in the rest of the world, but the way we do it is to determine who gets to chose a present first. We all bring something to the exchange, and all go home with a prize. It basically is an excuse to craft. Usually, I am rushing at the last minute to come up with something to take, and I fail to get a picture. This time, I managed to take a picture first. The inspiration came from here. The theme this month was just "home decor" and since I have been taking a marriage and family class, this is what came to mind. 

Halloween Countdown Calender (still a work-in-progress)

I know, October is long over. I am a slacker like that (I have been cleaning instead of crafting lately. That and the usual round of illnesses that seem to pop up this time of year). In case you were wondering- this is how far I made it on my Halloween Countdown. (Insert sheepish grin)

 I still need to attach hooks to my board to hang the ghosts and goblins from.

 I actually painted this board twice. It is still not my favorite, but I was ready to be done with it. 

For next year, I just need to make about 24 more things to hang. I am getting closer. And who knows, maybe after sitting in storage till then I will decide I like it better.

There is a monster in my toilet

I promise, I really do clean in there.

 I guess just not often enough.

Actually, I gave that toilet a thorough scrubbing before I attached my monster. I cut my monster out of vinyl and just stuck him on there. Hopefully it doesn't scare the just-potty-trained munchkins too much. The inspiration for it came from this pin.

Work in Progress:

Day 2 of my countdown calendar (that I shall make someday).

Boo-tiful Bow Canvas

I admit, I wasn't able to wait until October 1st to start pulling out the Halloween decorations. I tried. Maybe next year (but I doubt it). Last night I pulled out all the Halloween clothes (yes, my children and I wear orange and black for a whole month. The husband still has some sense of decorum and is normal, but the rest of us enjoy the month to its fullest). With cute clothing, the girls need cute ribbons and bows. Cute ribbons and bows need a proper place to be displayed. Fortunately I recognized this a few months back and made this display. I took a 12x12 canvas that I had lying around (I don't remember why I originally purchased it. I am sure there was a reason), and painted it black. Then I modge podged a sheet of Halloween scrapbooking paper on it. Then I took ribbon and wrapped around in a random pattern (and secured them just to the back). Now I can keep the Halloween hair clips and bows separate from the rest (with plenty of room to grow).

Work in Progress:

I want to make a countdown calendar (inspiration from a friend, pattern here). How do you like my first attempt?

Whooo'm Shall I Serve?

 I have a confession to make. Actually it isn't much of a secret, because many people are well aware of the fact that I am a LOUSY visiting teacher. I happen to have two very amazing women who visit me religiously every month, so it isn't from lack of example (those same two women have watched my children for me on numerous occasions and frequently bring me gifts and are always there for me. Love them). It isn't because I don't like the women I am suppose to visit- they are also amazing women who have probably done more for me than I have ever done for them. I am just lazy.

So this month I am attempting to repent. I googled Visiting Teaching handouts and saw an adorable owl one (that can be found here). Since I didn't have any wooden owl cutouts I decided to make a felt owl. A quick google search came up with this adorable guy (tutorial here). I just took up embroidery to make him and I am afraid it could be a very bad thing- I already have too many other things to do to take up another hobby, but he was so fun and cute.

The colors reminded me of M&M's so I picked up a little bag to add to the pile. Now I need to go make myself a whole tree full of the little owls. It might be addicting.

Monster Clock

Tiger starts kindergarten in a few days. To help him get up on time, I got him a clock (I know he can't read it yet, but hopefully sometime in the next year). Because my son loves monsters (scary monsters none the less),  when I saw this clock in the Disney Family Fun magazine I thought of him.

 The instructions are here. I just used things that I already had around the house, so if you happen to have some fun fur lying around, some googly eyes, some cardboard, (I added felt), and a glue stick you too could have a scary monster clock.

I decided that I wanted to cover the back of my cardboard with felt so that it didn't look like a cheap cardboard project. I did the felt first, and then did the fur. Tiger likes it. Hopefully he doesn't mind it waking him up too much.

Pirate Extravaganza- The Decorations

I didn't do a very good job of documenting everything for the pirate party, so I shall try to do my best to show you some of the decorations with what pictures I do have.

 Real pirates wear shades. And scowls. Behind them, you can see the treasure chest where the guests put the loot for Tiger.

 I quite liked how my serving counter backdrop turned out (inspiration came from here). Basically it is just dowels set in plaster of paris in cans spray painted black with some fabric hung from other dowels.

 Coincidentally, the week before the party, Tiger and Kitty had a pirate section at the preschool they attend. I mounted some of their artwork on some matching colored paper and laminated it.

 This anchor was inspired by a smaller version that came home in the kids' backpacks from preschool as well. I just made a bigger one (and laminated it because I could).

 I wanted to get some port holes so that it would look a little like being on a ship. This is where I was reminded once again of how technical my husband is. I asked his opinion on which waves to use and he started analyzing how water actually looks- even to the point of checking out google image searches. The backdrop is just a roll of the wrapping paper stuff from the dollar store. I took a sharpie and drew lines to make it look a little more like ship planks.

I liked how my wall treasure map lines turned out. They were super cheap- it is just red paper cut into 1"x2" rectangles (you know me- I laminated mine just because) and taped on the wall. It was time consuming, but I like how it looked.

I wrapped the line around the wall and ended it with a paper cross. The treasure chest on top there is just a cardboard box that I shaped like a chest and covered with some fabric.

It doesn't really show in the pictures that I took, but I ordered one set of these banners from Amazon and had them strung around the house. 100' went a long way and added a lot of decoration for less than $6.

Gone to the Dogs

My decorating has come full circle again. Once upon a time, when I had two little girls in separate rooms, I decided that Monkey could have a nice jungle themed room, and Kitty was in love with puppies so she got the dog themed room. Kitty and I picked out some fabric and I even made her a sheet and pillowcase. But then I took over one of the rooms for a craft room (yes, I am a selfish mother like that) and the two girls got put together. For the longest time, I thought that I was going to decorate their room with the jungle print, but as I was sketching out a window valance, I realized that Monkey was in love with puppies too, and so we are back to the dogs. Since I had only made one sheet before with the puppy print (it has a bunch of sayings relating to dogs like WOOF), and I had a bunch left over, yesterday I made the second sheet so the girls could have matching mattresses.

I used the McCall's M4328 pattern basically. It is pretty easy, just cut some fabric 69" long. If your fabric is more than 45" wide, you would need to trim it, but otherwise there is your base. You fold each corner to a point (45 degree angle) and measure in 9". That is your sew line- 9" up to the top of the triangle. I cut my fabric at the 8 1/2" line and sew with a 1/2" seam allowance. After sewing your corners, hem your bottom edge, leaving a gap to run 3 yards of 1/4" elastic through. Sew elastic together and close hem, Finished. Not difficult, but it does take a little time to hem the whole bottom edge and then to tread the elastic all that way. I am sure there must be tutorials out there with pictures of every step. Mostly, I just wanted to post the measurements that I used so that if I make more I can find it quickly. :)

I already have an idea for the window valance. Unfortunately, it involves a trip to the fabric store, so we shall see how long that takes to get done. Taking children to Jo-Ann's is NOT my favorite activity.

Stuffed Animal Zoo Cage

 Inspired by this pin, I finally got around to making a storage area for all of the many stuffed animals that my children have collected over the years. And I confess, it probably still wouldn't be done, except all of my laundry baskets had been stolen to hold their stuffed animals and my clothes pile was starting to rival Mount Everest.

I had some help.  They went with me to Home Depot to pick up the boards. They helped me screw them together, and they had fun playing in it until I evicted them all so I could stain it (I wanted it to match the girls' bunk bed cause I am like that). I think I am going to like it. Now, off to do some laundry.

*UPDATE*

or "How I Built My Stuffed Animal Cage"

Materials:

2:2x2x8- cut in half, for a total of 4 2x2x4 (actual measurements of a 2x2 are more like 1.5x1.5. Lumber is silly like that)

3:1x2x8 furring strips- cut 6@1', 6@2'

Wood screws (as soon as I find the package, I will tell you what size they were. They were probably around 1 5/8"". I got them in a pack of 100 at Walmart for just under $5. They just need to be long enough to securely attach the furring strips to the 2x2 supports without going all the way through.

50' of rope (will have left over but that was the size the package came in. I bought a 1' nylon rope that was a pain to tie off, but it was the least expensive way to go- it was also the most expensive part of the project at around $13 at Home Depot).

at least 24- 1" cup hooks (this would have been better if I could have found full rings to run my rope through, but all the full rings I saw would have run clear through my furring strip. Because they are not, the ropes can come out. If it bugs me too much I may take some twist ties to it, but so far it hasn't been a huge deal)

sanding paper, wood filler, paint of stain, etc.

The guy at Home Depot was nice enough to cut my boards for me. I brought them home and screwed them together (I predrilled my holes to make sure they wouldn't split out on me). I started with the sides. For each side, I took two of the support posts (the 4x2x2's) and three of the 1' boards. The bottom and top I lined up with the support post, the middle one I measured 2' up from the bottom and then measured .75" down from that so that my board was centered. After I had my sides screwed together, I then attached my front and back boards, this time lining them up not with the support posts, but with the side boards (you can sort of see how in the pictures above- sorry, I didn't take pictures while I was doing it). Make sure to off-set your screws so that they don't run into each other. After I was all done with this part, I ended up putting in a second screw on the front and back going into the side boards (as pictured in the unfinished photo).

Then I started sanding. And did some more sanding. And then some more. This is where I wish I had invested in one of those little hand sanders. I think I have heard they are only like $20 for a cheap one. It might have been worth it. I rounded all the corners a little so that if a child bonked their head it wouldn't be quite as painful. I also filled in my screw holes and any other knots and dents with some stainable wood filler.

After it was all sanded down yet again (and my arms were good and sore), I stained it. Let it dry. Stained it again. Let it dry. Touched up some spots. Let it dry. Varnished it. Let it Dry. Varnished it again. Let it dry. Decided that was good enough.

The next step was to put the cup holder hooks in. Using a highly technical measuring method (I took my flexible sewing tape measure because that was the only one I could find at the moment, measured the distance on the inside between my boards, and folded my tape measure in half to get my center point) I found the center of all the boards and screwed the cup holders. Using that same measuring method on the front and back boards, I put in another cup holder centered between the center and the edge (that was a confusing sentence. Basically, it means I had three hooks in each board on the front and back, evenly spaced, and only one in the center on the sides).

The last step was stringing the rope. Because I didn't want to deal with cutting and tying my rope, I just ran it in a continuous loop (I started so that my knot would be on the bottom). At the top, I used some more hooks to tack the rope in the corners so that it would be open, but didn't bother doing the same for the bottom (see picture below). Then the only thing left was to toss all the stuffed animals in. 

It has been nice, because even the littlest one understands how to put the animals back. Sure they still get strewn around the room, but I can say "put the stuffed animals back" and they do. Now if I could only get them to do the same with the rest of their toys...

Handy Towel

This project was inspired by a niece who was forever driving her mother batty by dropping the hand towels on the floor and in the sink. My children were having a similar problem, so I decided to do something about it. I simply took my hand towel and some heavy duty snaps (notions section at Walmart or Jo-Ann's) and (following instructions on snaps) attached three snaps across the top of my towel. I confess, I didn't even really measure and just eyeballed where I thought they should go.

I was a little iffy on if the snaps would stand up to the abuse of my children, but it has been several months and several washes and the towel is still going strong. .

PVC Kids Chair

Today my little Tiger was saying something about needing a chair. I remembered a picture I had seen on pinterest (one of those uploaded by user things with no post to follow up on). I also remembered that I had a bunch of PVC leftover from the chicken coop (not to worry, I washed all the pieces). I made it up as I went along, but kept notes so I could repeat it later. So, here is how I made Tiger a Thomas the Train chair so he can have something to sit in while playing at his train table.

PARTS

1: 10' length PVC Pipe ($3.39) cut into several pieces-

7@ 10"

6@ 6"

4@ 1 1/2" (could be a little shorter- just need to join tees and elbows without a gap)

8: PVC 1" Elbows ($.53 each)

6: PVC 1" Tees ($.64 each)

Fabric (can use one color cut twice or two contrasting ones for front and back)

2@ 9 3/4"x31 1/4"

2@ 6 1/4"x9 3/4"
*(I might even go up to 6 1/2" on the one piece- it fits at 6 1/4 but could be a little longer)*

Interfacing (same measurements as fabric, just to make it a little more sturdy)

Velcro (Sew On)- 3 strips cut 8 1'2" each

Spray Paint (if desired)

(The prices I pulled from Homedepot.com. Just the PVC adds up to $11.47, unless you happen to already have it on hand. I made my chair with things I already had around the house.)

1. Assemble chair like so. The small pieces are what hold the elbow and tee together in front and two tees at back with no gap.

2. Spray paint if desired. I used the blue leftover from the train table, and put a coat of clear on top of that. There were a couple spots on the armrests that got a little tacky- not sure if it was the paint or sticky fingers. 

 3. I made my seat cover so that it could be easily removed for washing. For the seat, take the two strips of fabric 9 3/4x31 1/4" and interfacing (the interfacing I had on hand was the heavy duty stuff that doesn't iron on. If you have the iron on stuff, just iron it on to one of your strips). With right sides together, sew down the two long sides and across one short side (1/2" seams). Clip corners, turn rightside out, and iron.

 4. With the short strips of fabric, do the same thing, except sew the two short sides and one long side. Clip corners, and turn. (And iron, as you can tell I hadn't yet in this picture).

 5. On the short piece, turn under and tuck in open end 1/2". Sew one side of a strip of velcro to close opening. Sew other half of velcro on opposite side as pictured.

 6. On the long piece, do the same thing, except the other half of the velcro should be sew 5 1/4" from the end (both pieces should be sewn on the back side of the fabric).

 7.  Repeat on other end of fabric (back side as well).

 8. Sew short strip to long strip 14 1/4" from bottom edge (it is almost in the center. It might even work if sewn in the center, but this is the way I did it). I used a fabric marking pen to draw a line in the center of the short piece, and at the 14 1/4" line on the big piece, lined them up, and sewed along my line.

 9. Attach seat cover to chair and enjoy. Monkey might have come along and stolen Tiger's chair (and Elephant). The chair ended up being the perfect size for my four year old (almost five), three year old, and even the 18 month old. 

My biggest problem with making this chair is that I only made one today. That means that Kitty and Monkey have spent the day trying to steal Tiger's chair. I have a bunch more pipe, and tees, but now I have to go pick up some more elbows before World War III breaks out in my living room.

NOTE:
The velcro on the front can come undone if the child is standing on the chair or putting a lot of weight in the seat. Next time, I think I will use some of those heavy duty snaps- just along the front. The velcro works perfectly fine in the other locations.


UPDATE:
After putting in snaps, I ended up just sewing along that front edge. The snaps held up the light-weight girls, but not my son. Fortunately, I was able to slide it on the chair without him seeing. I really didn't want him to discover that his chair can come apart.

Valentine Decor

I know, I am a little behind the times. But in this case, I figured "better late than never" would be acceptable. Now you can have a few ideas to think about for next year.

 It doesn't get much easier than this. Print and frame. Unless of course, your computer is out of color ink, like mine was, in which case it is print, color in with sharpie, frame. I got the art here.

 This one I saw in the background of another picture (here) and thought "I can do that". I took a frame and removed the glass, strung some ribbon, and taped on hearts. (In all honesty, I should have gone with the wider hearts or strung four rows, but oh well).

This was another fairly simple project- I cut out strips of cardstock 2" wide (11.5" long), folded them in half, and stapled the tops together like hearts, then stapled the hearts together to form the wreath. Add a ribbon to hang in one of the hearts and you are done. That idea came from here. The instructions say to use glue dots, but the glue dots weren't working out so well, so I ended up just stapling everything.

Reading Nook

This is a project I was quite pleased with how it turned out. I have been wanting to create a nice little reading nook for a while. I have all sorts of grandiose ideas of how I want it to be. Two problems- space and money. The ideas in my head were not working with my current house floor plan, and I am saving up for a fence. Extraneous home items just were not in the budget.

The other morning I was feeling a little impatient and decided that I wanted my reading corner NOW. I cleared out a corner in my living room and went to work. To make the area more distinct, I brought in a rug that has been in the garage for the past couple of years. I took the doors off a cabinet and brought in all the children books I could find. While I was putting them on the shelf I came across some Sesame Street flashcards that had been mailed as a sample. I stuck those in some clearance frames that have been lying around since at least last October. Instant wall art. For seating I grabbed the deflated beanbag chairs, and stuffed in some worn pillows to give them a little more life. I also brought in some ottoman storage things I had picked up at least three years ago from Target.

 I had wanted some wood letters that spelled "READ" but wood letters get a little pricey. Then I saw (on Pinterest of course) that you could iron letters onto your walls (here). Perfect. So for a grand total of $0, I was able to get my reading nook from things I already had around the house. It took a lot more ingenuity then if I had been able to do what I originally had planned, but it has completely been worth it. The kids have been spending a lot more time with their books. (When I get around to it, I have every intention of covering the cardboard box that is actually hiding the power cords to the TV and DVD player under my puzzle tote. It could happen.)

Along the same lines, while I was re-doing my living room I made a storage tote to put all the kid's illustrated scriptures in. Also free. I took a box, cut it to the size I wanted, and hot glued fabric on it. I then ironed on some letters to make it a little more exciting. It helps make things look a little more organized.

For All the Clips and Bows

This was another birthday present. Tis the season for birthday parties I guess. For this one, I decided to make a frame for hair clips and bows.

 It took me a while to find a frame that would work. I finally located this one at Michaels in the wood section- it is a 12x12 scrapbooking frame.

 First I painted it. If I hadn't forgotten that I had used up all of my sandpaper on the kitchen project and hadn't restocked, I would have sanded first.

 Next I hotglued ribbon from the back of the frame. I went with two different sizes, because hair clips come in many different sizes.

 Purely because I could, I covered up my lose ends with more ribbon. This step is entirely unnecessary, but gave the project a more finished look.

 This is how it looked from the front.

Finally I added embellishments and a couple of simple flower clips. Like my editing? I did that in Paint. Someday I shall get Photoshop. You can put whatever name you want on the frame, or just add more (or less) embellishments to suit your tastes or decorating scheme.

Valentine Garland

Oh the things you can do with a little felt and some wood beads. I found the template on Pinterest here. I confess, I didn't use the serious felt for this project, just the cheapo stuff. It would have been a little nicer in the thicker felt, but they didn't have that in the color I wanted. It also turned out a lot smaller than I expected, but still cute.