Shelf Time

We have an awkwardly long wall in our family room.  Like really awkward.  Like when you're reading someone's graphic T-shirt and realize it looks like you're staring at their boobs.  The wall is awkward.  It's too big to put any art on and too small to make into two different areas. 

One day while wasting time researching on Pinterest, I came across this project from Ana White. 

Aren't these shelves great?  And they're SOOOO easy!  Each shelf is 2 1x4s and 1 1x2.  Throw on some white paint and screw in a few screws and you have yourself some fantastic shelves. 

True Confession:  From the date of pinning to the date of completion?  About 10 months...  Nothing like a one-year-old's birthday party to kick my buns into gear...

Here's how it went down.  I used blue painter's tape to mark where I wanted the shelves.  I lived with the tape on the wall for a couple days to make sure I liked where the were.  (I ended up moving them a little farther apart than I had originally planned.)

My amazing husband made the shelves for me - which means I don't have any pictures of the shelf construction.  But Ana does a great job and her pictures and instructions are WAY better than mine would have been anyway.

Here's my man hanging the bottom shelf.

Starting to fill up!

And here are my beautiful shelves all filled!

I love my shelves.  A lot.  I told them I love them.  More than once.  They're the mac to my cheese, the spice to my girls.

See those curtains in that picture?  I love them as well.  My mom made them for us.  She asked if I needed help with anything for Drew's party.  I think she was offering to bring a fruit platter.  But I asked her to make curtains.  And she did.  She's awesome like that.

So now it's looking like we actually like our house and like living in it.  Oh, and everything on those shelves?  Yeah, I already had all of it.  Holla for free accessories!

Stationery card

Sweet Little Chick Easter Card

Modern shower invitations and holiday cards by Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

Spring Wreath

I've been seeing so many cute spring wreaths on Pinterest.  They're just so bright and cheerful!  I decided that I wanted needed one.  I also decided that I had to make it with things I had on hand (aka - for free). 

I have a ton of fabric, so I knew I'd use that.  But what to use for the form of the wreath was a little trickier.  And, low and behold, I saw a wire hanger from my husband's dry cleaning that told me it wanted to become a wreath.  Well, it didn't acutally say that.  But if it could talk, I'm sure that's what it would have said.

So after some bending and re-shaping, I had an almost-circular hanger like this:

It's a game - find the hanger on the ironing board.  Oh, you haven't heard of that game?  It's all the rage in Europe.

Then I cut strips of fabric 1 1/2" wide and 4", 5" and 5" inches long.  And then I tied, tied and tied some more.  Here it is in progress.  Tip: make sure you tie the same way every time so your fabric "tails" all point the same way.  It took me about forty minutes to tie them all on.

And then voila!  I had a cheerful spring wreath!  And for free!  And it was easy!  I love anything cute, cheap and easy!  (Uhhhh, I mean I love any craft that's cute, cheap and easy...)

Happy spring!

I'm baaack

Well hello again, Blog World.  It's been awhile (4+ months to be exact), but I'm done being lazy and will put more effort into our relationship.  :)

Anyway, the babe turned one at the end of February.  Crazy!  He's now a walking machine.  Within about a week and a half he became a full-fledged walker, learned to wave, learned to dance, learned to point and perfected his clapping.  It's been so much fun to watch!

My amazing cousin, Jill, took some great birthday photos of Drew.  Enjoy! 

PS - Thanks to Emily for kicking my blog-writing butt into gear!

Halloween

Here are some pictures from Drew's first Halloween.  He was a lumber jack.  :)

 With the beard...



 ...which didn't last long

Hope you had a fun Halloween!

Cook Top Cleaning

So my cook top gets gross.  Like really gross.  Like if you're looking at this picture you'll probably never want to eat at my house again gross. 

And no matter how much I scrubbed I could never get it very clean.  Especially those spots where something had boiled over and then burned onto the burner.  Those are the worst.  OK, I'll admit I didn't really try very many things to get it clean.  Basically I've tried an all-purpose cleaner, vinegar and water and soap.  So, maybe it doesn't bother me as much as I think it does (or as much as it should...).

Anyway, I came across this method while wasting time exploring on Pinterest and thought I'd give it a shot.  And it was super easy. 

Step 1: Generously sprinkle baking soda on your cook top.  (I put extra on the really nasty spots.)

Step 2: Fill a bowl or your sink with hot, soapy water.  Get some rags wet, wring them out so they're saturated but not dripping and lay them over the baking soda.

Step 3:  Wait 15 minutes.  Then use the rags to wipe off the baking soda - and baked on gunk. 

This is after one swipe, without any scrubbing.  Yuck.

Step 4: Use a clean rag with water to get the residue off the cook top.  Then enjoy your cleanliness!

There were still some spots left on my cook top after going through the process once, so I think I might do a little "spot treatment" to get them off.

Ahhh, the beauty of a clean cook top.  It's the little things, right?  And I'm pretty sure when my husband got home he thought I'd been scrubbing all day.  I didn't correct him.  :) 

Happy cleaning!

Homemade Crinkle Paper

The Drew-meister is loving things that make noise.  He has a few toys that have parts made out of that crinkley-paper-fabric stuff.  You know what I'm talking about. 

The other day I finished off a box of cereal and as I was going to throw away the bag from inside the box I thought, "This sounds just like that crinkle paper stuff."  And an idea was born.

Why not make the cereal bag into a baby toy?  I then evaluated this idea to see if it was the sleep deprivation/need to get out of the house talking (because it kind of sounds like it) and decided it was worth a shot.  So here's what I did:

1. Take the cereal bag out of the box.  I definitely did not even rinse it off.  I figured I'd wash the finished project before I gave it to Drew and there's no need for extra work.  Ever.  You could also use the packaging from wipes, or whatever else sounds nice and crinkley.

2.  Gather the rest of the supplies: fabric, ribbon, cutting mat, rotary cutter, sewing machine

3. Cut the bag to the desired size and then cut two pieces of fabric to the same size.

4. Layer your fabric in this order and then pin
       - fabric, face up
       - fabric, face down
       - cereal bag

5. Fold the ribbon in half, put it between the fabric layers (folded side pointing to the center of the fabric) and pin it in place. 

6. Sew around the edges, leaving a hole to turn it inside out.  It will bunch and move while you're sewing.  No big deal.  It's not a perfection-necessary project.  Which is why I like it.  I don't believe in perfection.  Well, unless you're hanging a picture or some art on my walls.  Then I definitely believe in perfection.  And a level.  But other than that...

7.  Turn the project right-side-out through the hole and then sew a 1/4 seam around all of the edges.

8.  That's it!  You're done!  The babe LOVES it!  The ribbon loop is great for attaching it to the links on his car seat.  I've washed his in the washing machine a couple times, but I hang it to dry.  I figured a melted cereal bag would probably be less than fun to clean out of the dryer...

Total price of this project?  A big ol' NADA!  It was made with all stuff I had on hand - love projects like this!