Up-cycled DIY Project

Kara, over at Sunshine Cupcakes, blogged about her very crafty Christmas present for her girlfriends {and herself}. She asked about her readers latest DIY project..so I thought I'd share mine.

I posted about our finished guest room makeover and we have slowly been putting the very finishing touches on the room. You know, the things that you can't really plan out unless you are Candice Olson. I recently revamped the living room bookcase with all new photo frames. Most of the old ones went in the donation pile but one of them...had potential to become something new.

It started out as one of those frames with the built in divider for multiple pictures. I had the husband tear out the divider part of leave me with a plain ol' frame. I ALSO had the husband spray paint it yellow. We already had the spray paint from other projects in the guest room.

Then I went to the local craft store and bought a sheet of 12x12 scrap booking paper in a coordinating color. There were a lot of different colors and patterns, but I kept it simple for the purpose of my finished product. And I also picked up some decorative ribbon and a package of command hooks. I used a staple gun to staple the ribbon to the back of the frame (they didn't go in all the way, so I called in the muscle..i.e..the husband..to hammer them down into place).

Once I had it all put together, this is what I ended up with:

The hardest "easiest" home project ever

*big sigh*

You know how you think you can do something, and it will be so easy, and take no time at all? And then you do it and it never, ever is that easy and ends up taking days and lots more money than you ever thought?

Yeah...me too. It happens all the time which makes me think on home improvement projects (even the seemingly simplest) with fear and trepidation.

But, given enough time, the pain and frustration of the last disaster seems to fade and all the sudden I'm trolling Pinterest looking for ideas for my next project. I give myself pep talks. 'You can do that' and 'It looks simple enough' or 'How hard can it be'.

Let me tell you, pretty freakin' hard. It always is.

Anyways, my Mom gave me her cedar storage chest some time ago. It makes the perfect spot for our animals to sun bath and for Lola to patrol the hood.

But all the animal activity was taking its toll on the navy blue seat cushion. It was starting to show its age. So I got the BRIGHT idea to recover it. Easy, right? Quick, right?

Yeah, that's what I thought too.

After buying new fabric and new padding. The first thing was to remove the seat cushion. No problem.

And then it was time to get rid of the old fabric. Demo is ALWAYS the easiest part.

Then I ripped off the old padding and set down the new stuff so I could trim it down to size.

I bought spray adhesive, because that's what I have always seen the pro's do on HGTV but of course it didn't work. But whatever, I pressed on. Laying the fabric out on the floor, I put the bench on top and got ready to staple it in place.

And this, my friends, is where the project went down hill fast. We were out of staples for our staple gun. So Jeremy runs to the hardware store around the corner and buys a new box. But the staples don't fit. We both head back up there and decide to just buy a new staple gun, and surely the box of staples we just bought will fit. But they don't. Jeremy goes back AGAIN and buys another box of staples....and they still don't fit.

By this time, Jeremy is a little....frustrated and has sworn off stepping foot outside of the house for the rest of the night. My "easy" makeover had to be put on hold for the evening.

The next morning Jeremy goes to the big box handy man store and buys yet another box of staples...that do not fit. This totally pushed him over the edge and he washed his hands of my silly little redecorating job. So I take the directions to the new staple gun up to the hardware store and speak with someone that works there. He is adamant that the staples we bought should work even though I tell him they don't. He asks me to bring in the staple gun and we would find the right fit. So after another trip back home and back to the hardware store, with staple gun in hand, I find the staples I need...with no help from anyone since my oh-so helpful store employee was no where to be found. I head to the register just to find out that my debit card was left at home *groan* so I had to use a credit card...for staples. When I got out to the car, I opened the box of staples and made sure those *bleepity bleepers* fit before I left the parking lot.

To recap, that was six trips to the hardware store.

By this time, I'm just about over this stupid project so you get no pictures of me stapling the fabric into place. It was a frenzy of cursing and maniac laughter.

After that I recruited Jeremy to help me put the bench back on the top of the chest. He came willingly...which surprised me after the last two days frustration.

After a little unscrewing and re-screwing, the stupid thing is recovered and back in place. Which is good, because I was about ready to chuck the thing out the window. And I'm never doing another "easy", "simple" home project ever again.

Fall Wreath

At the beginning of the month I went on a mini-shopping spree at the Hobby Lobby. I bought the makings for a fall wreath. Grapevine wreath, a fall-ish floral spray, and some fabric remnants. I've seen so many pins on pinterest of these fabric rosettes that I had to try my hand at them.

I spent all of a Sunday on the couch with scissors and my glue gun making a dozen fabric rosettes.

Youtube.com is so great. I just did a search for fabric rosettes and found several how-to videos to get the general idea of how these cuties are made.

I stuck the floral spray into the grapevine wreath and sort of twisted it into the position I liked. I took some leftover fabric to tie the spray exactly where I wanted it. Floral wiring would have worked great..but I didn't have any. I'm a resourceful girl.

Speaking of being resourceful. I bought a sheet of fall themed scrapbook paper to cover my 'S'. I started gluing the paper on the letter just to realize the 'S' was backwards. DOH! That's why the naked 'S' up there is looking a little ragged. Instead of buying another piece of paper (a whole $.54 I saved myself) I used more of the left over fabric to wrap the 'S'.

This is what the finished product looks like on my front door. My Mom says its shabby chic.

Extreme Vanity Seat Makeover - Just Jinny Edition

I need a makeover!

My Mom bought me this cute little dainty vanity seat at an estate sale. It fit perfectly but needed just a little TLC to become a happy addition to our bedroom. So I got out the spray paint and staple gun.

It took me a try or two to find the right screwdriver. Handygirl I am not.

A nice coat of polished copper spray paint.

One yard of pretty fabric.

Time for a face lift.

I admit I youtubed how to recover a "bar stool" just to get an idea of how to go about this.

It ended up being pretty easy.

Face lift complete.

I'm ready for my close up.

My Vision Board

The girls over at Tone It Up have challenged their readers to make a vision board. So, I started thinking about what I wanted more of in my life and then headed over to Pinterest to search for the perfect images to make my vision board.

Here is what I came up with. If I could have squeezed more images on there I would have, but this helped me pinpoint what I REALLY wanted to focus on.



I want to be less afraid of failure. I want more love, more passion, more kisses, more smoldering looks, more flirting. I want a LOT more laughter. I want to feel inspired. I want to spend more time with friends. I want a tighter body. I want creativity to STRIKE, I want it to flow into me and through me. I want to always feel that I can do anything, at any time..its never too late, never.

What would be on your vision board?


P.S. Don't think for a second I've forgotten about my 100 follower giveaway. It's coming, my lovelies!

What makes a house a home

"Home is a shelter from storms - all sorts of storms." ~ William J. Bennett

Over on Shutter Sisters the question was asked "Do you surround yourself with the magic reminders that make your heart sing?"

I started thinking about my home and our decorating 'style'. I can admire rooms out of Better Homes & Garden or Martha Stewart Living all day long, I can appriciate the design and the beauty. But, my home will never look like that because its not really my style. My home is very lived in. There is very little that was specifically bought to just fill up space on a shelf. There are very few vague floral prints framed and hanging on my wall just to take up wall space.

No, I enjoy surrounding myself with things that mean something to me. Things with sentimental value, things that mark special moments in my life. First, we have filled our home with art work from special places or that we have created ourselves. We aren't "professional artist" by any means, but we do have fun with our art.

Art work my sister brought back for me from San Francisco.
Another piece of art my sister gave me when she went to Paris.
My husbands artistic talent combined with his love for comic books.
Another of my husbands work..this one is from his high school years.
And this is one of MY paintings. It's fun..but you can probably guess who the better artist is.


We collect things that we enjoy. I don't have a thing for cows in general, but I do love the Cow Parade cows and have quite a few of them spread out through my house. Other items are from places that my husband and I have been together. Maybe a very special gift that someone gave me. I know these things are very personal and might not appeal to everyone, they don't all fit a certain 'theme'. But, when someone comes to my house they can truely see me..us..the REAL us.

Note cards that we picked up in Colorado. We just tore the back pieces off and hung them in frames.
Just a small peek into Jeremy's Metallica collection.
This is the turtle that Jeremy gave me for my birthday..my 17th birthday. It was the first gift he ever gave me.A poem my sister wrote for a school assignment.
A set of nesting dolls we bought in Fredericksburg.


But mostly, we surround ourselves with things that make us happy..things that make us smile..a mix and match of postcards, drawings, fortunes from fortune cookies, little reminders of our hopes and dreams and wants, and family photos.

I take pictures

"Buying a Nikon doesn't make you a photographer. It makes you a Nikon owner." ~ Author Unknown

When I was in high school I signed up for a photography class. I wouldn't say I was exceptional at it. I wasn't the star student. I was ok, but just ok. It didn't matter to me though, that I wasn't automatically an excellent photographer. I just wanted to take pictures. There was something about lugging your camera around and looking for that perfect shot that just got to me. And, in this class, we developed our own film. It was wonderful. I loved everything about the process.

I loved being in the dark room, trying desperatly to roll your film onto the reel without getting fingerprints all over it, or having the layers touching.

I loved setting the timer and swiching the reel around in the canister with all the special chemicals that would bring the pictures to life.

I loved the moment of truth, holding your breath as you take a look at your negatives in the light to see what you ended up with.

I loved spending hours in the processing room, taking time to line up your picture just right, getting the proper exposure of light onto your photo paper.

I loved how you took a blank piece of photo paper and swished it around in chemicals and watched your picture appear...like magic.

I just loved it all.

As I've mentioned on this blog before, I just bought a fancy-shmancy digital camera. I love it, and use it all the stinkin' time. My technique isn't perfect or professional. Honestly, I don't really know what I'm doing. As much as I loved the process of developing the film in my photography class, I didn't take with me the knowledge about F-stops, or ISO speeds, or any of that technical stuff.

My husband says he can't take pictures like I can. He swears I do a much better job. I don't really see how. I point and click. That's it. How is it that not EVERYONE can do that? It's beyond me. But, there are people out there just like my husband who think they couldn't take a good picture to save their lives. And that's where I come in.

I have placed some of my photos up for sell on Etsy.com. I know there is only like one or two people that ever read this blog (Hi Mom!) but I would appriciate it if you went and had a look. And please feel free to forward on the link to anyone else you think might be interested.

My Etsy Shop

December View: Day 1

“Joy is the true gift of Christmas, not expensive gifts that cost time and money, but joy.” ~ Pope Benedict XVI

My crafting project coming to fruitation. Not bad for having never hand sewn anything before. lol.

Susie Homemaker...that's me.

“We are seeing a lot of people who don't know how to sew are starting to learn.” ~ Donna Smith

When I had this idea to make a few stockings from felt for my girlfriends at Christmas I thought it would be an easy, simple project. Darn you Martha Stewart Living for making everything look so easy and simple! I would just cut them out, take them to my Mother-in-law and she would whiz them through the machine and TA-DA...stockings!!

That's not how it's turned out however. I did cut out the stocking from the super cute pink felt and I did take them to my Mother-in-law and tell her what I needed. Instead of taking me back to her sewing room to do that whizzing..she brought me a needle and thread.

'What am I suppose to do with this?', I ask as she hands me the needle and thread.

'I'm going to teach you the blanket stitch' she says.

Now, I don't sew. I don't know how to sew. Hand or machine. I can't hem pants, or mend tears. I might be able to put a button back on if I was in a pinch but even that I usually just take to my Mother-in-law. She is determined to domisticate me, I think. Anyway, she demonstrated the stich on a stocking. Talking as she deftly sewed up one side. I don't even think she was looking at it. Without even completing one she handed it over to me. So, there I sat...sewing...me...hand-sewing a stocking.

I am half way done with my project. And even though I have enjoyed learning the stich I can't say when I will pick up a needle and thread after this is done. I don't know how women did it..or do it. Making whole garments and blankets. It boggles my very un-domisticated mind.

"Fatigue is the best pillow" ~ Benjamin Franklin

I am worn out. My feet hurt, my knees hurt...my eyelids hurt. Going to bed too late, getting up too early, and standing on a hard floor for hours will do that to you. The big yearly craft show is this weekend. I was in line at 4:30 yesterday and it took two hours to even get parked at the location. You see, this craft show is held at our government base. So, they must be very careful about letting all these vendors with their trailers full of 'stuff' onto the base. We were brought in by batches, then we had to get out of the cars, open all the doors and hoods and stand back. They let the dogs sniff them out and then we were allowed to move along to the actual building.

At least today is over with. Just another four hours for tomorrow and it will be all over with. We did ok today. No one bought any of the wreaths I made (see below posts for more details about those wreaths). Lots of people stopped and looked at them, noted how cute and clever they were..but no takers. I wish I would have sold just one..maybe then the sore feet would be worth it.

Ah well. I'm off to bed. My eyelids are drooping as I type.

As promised

“Focus on things that are ... unique to the local area, especially hand-crafted type items” ~ Ron Krannich

The first totally finished wreath. I wrapped about 40 boxes last night and have 40 more to do today. Ugh! Why do I do this to myself?

These are all going towards the two craft shows that I am part of, they are both coming up with in the next two weeks. It's always a little hectic, frenzied, crazy the week or so before craft show weekend. My mother-in-law is in full blown crafting mode. We have purses, baby blankets, wood signes with clever sayings on them, wire crosses, cowboy boot birdhouses, soaps and lotions, and of course wreaths.