It’s A Shlaque!

A what?  A Shlaque!  A what?  A Shhllaaque!  Oh!  A shelf plaque.

 
That’s the only way I could think to describe this combo of shelf-and-plaque-in-one.  It used to hang in my grandparent’s “house in town” (that’s what we called their home while we resided on the farm) and once Christmas a couple of years ago, I spotted some decor potential in it and asked if I could have it.  I had some flowers painted on it but I had a different sort of paint job in mind, so I sanded them off right after I got it home.  And then it sat until the past week when I thought I’d hang it to the left of the off-center angel in the girls’ room:

And then I changed my mind, but not until after I took some tape and spray paint to it.  Here’s what I did:

I wanted the entire thing to be white, except an outline design close to the edge of the plaque.  So, I taped off the area I didn’t want painted: (Side note:  The shelf broke off in transport from Nebraska to here and so that’s why it’s missing some of these pictures.  A little Liquid Nail will come in handy to reattach it, which we still haven’t done.)

Then I drew a design mimicking the curves of the top and bottom of the plaque right over the tape:

Next I whipped out the craft knife I bought at Target this week ($5.50)…

…and cut around my penciled lines on each end.

Outside I went where I propped up my good ‘ole spray painting plywood, popped a nail in, and hung up the shlaque.  (I hung it because I’ve been getting annoyed with bugs jumping from grass to newly spray painted surfaces while my board is on the ground.  So, prop-and-hang equals no bugs, no sanding bugs off, and no post-bug touch-ups.)

I sprayed on one coat of white primer followed by three thin and even coats of white spray paint, doing the same thing to the unattached shelf. 

Then, after letting it sit outside for the remainder of the day lest it smell up my house, I carefully peeled off the tape and:

it went from old school to new and cool real quick like.

Except when I held it up next to the painted window it didn’t quite jive.  I’m not sure if it’s the color (maybe I should’ve gone a light coral or add a little distress or…) or adding more lines to an already striped wall but I’m not in love and so I’ve got another plan for that space.  For now, the shlaque is patiently waiting another wall home.

By the way, I’ve seen gobs of these things in thrift stores.  Go snatch up a shlaque for yourself and show me what you can do!

Have a great weekend!

Borderline Gluttonous?

One of my good friends took a picture of Anthony feeding Cecilia this past weekend while we were visiting him at the youth conference he was happily tied to.  I loved how well she captured her insatiable appetite and how much this kid of mine loooves food.  Where all of it goes, nobody knows…well, I do actually.  I’ve seen her diapers.  Anyway, I could go on but I guess the more appropriate thing would be to show you the picture so you can see for yourself.

Hope that brings you a smile today!!!

What I Wore Sunday ~2/24/13~

Once again, putting aside the sweatpants and tees for Sunday Mass along with all of the lovely link-up ladies at Fine Linen and Purple.

I could write so much about this particular Sunday.  It was a jam-packed day fo sho.  For starters, I was once again home alone with the infants going on teenagers this weekend while my husband, their father, was out causing Christian chaos with a bunch of teens at a youth conference.  So, being the brave madre that I am, I decided to go to Mass alone with the girls for real this time (last time I was solo I made sure some friends were going to be there with extra arms).  If you happened to be there, you probably didn’t miss me.  I was the spectacle with a baby strapped to her front side, a nothing-short-of-a-suitcase diaper bag slung over my left, and a car seat laden babe swinging on my right arm, carefully taking each step as if it were my last (because it just could’ve been with one tiny misstep) and breathing a hurricane-force wind every two seconds.  And people wonder why I’m “so little” after having twins…
Well, my first and last stop was the cry room and as soon as I sat down I said a little prayer that God protect me from melt-downs, outbursts, and big, bad diapers when who walked in but my friend Kerstin, her mom, sister, niece and nephew.  Praise the Lord for extra arms and for answering my prayers!  I hadn’t yet worked out a plan for how I was going to get to Communion but God had – Kerstin.  She carried Cecilia while I toted her sis.  And all was well with the Tobin women.  We walked out of that church alive in more ways than one.  :)

After Mass I fielded multiple “how do you do it?” questions from the masses, to which I always respond “I have no clue”, and headed on over to my equally-husbandless-for-the-weekend friend Lauren’s house for Emma’s birthday party.  It was five-year-old princesses and princes all up in there and a darn good time.  (She’ll be sure to write up a good hundred words or two about it that you should definitely check out, especially to see the cardboard castle we whipped up while our five cumulative kids vied for our attention.)  After the celebratory medieval fest, I ran a few errands and moved up the age ladder to hanging out with teenagers for the remainder of the day.  Needless to say, neither of my girls got in a real nap today so I’m crossing my fingers and pre-counting my sheep that I’ll be able to sleep over half the night before being awoken by a cranky, hungry twin or two.

And now I sit, writing it all out for you and yours when I should be showering, doing dishes, or washing diapers.  On to the point:
 
What I wore.

Blazer:  Target (altered – see below)
Tee:  Target
Tank:  Forever 21
Mints:  Target
Peep-toes:  Wal-Mart
Necklace:  a b-day present from my friend Linsey (I’m not really a jewelry wearer per say, but I LOVE this necklace!  It comes with different colors of stones you can switch out (pearl white today) AND it’s simple…so perfect.)

Moving right along, I’m just going to go ahead and make this a smorgasbord of a post and tell you about my blazer.  I found it at Target a few weeks ago for $8.  The fit was okay, the price cheap – just like my diy lovin’ heart likes it.  My sis pinned it for me while it was on and I sewed through each side, lining and all, to get a tailored new blazer.  Straight stitch, zig zag in lieu of serging, and pinking shears and that’s all she wrote…about that.
  

Last, words that struck me during the homily this morn that I’ll pass on to you.  “What are you holding on to in this life that you’re risking the Kingdom of heaven for?”  I was trying to keep Seraphia’s baby ADD at bay for most of the homily, but she did let me pay attention enough to hear that.  It made me think of heaven and how I’m really not willing to risk my chances of getting there one day yet I repeatedly do.  Oh humanity, why must you be so fickle!  Thank God for Lent, the ultimate time to take a hammer to those stubborn habits and faults!  I don’t know about you, but this one is kicking my butt and we’re not even half-way through.  Keep on keepin’ on, the rise of the Son is on it’s way!

DIY Changing Pad Cover

As my less-than-clever title suggests, this is a story about a changing pad and it’s desire…umm, my desire…for it to be covered.   The existing plastic doesn’t scream warm and cozy to me and the thought of four little warm buns repeatedly being shocked by it’s chill at every diaper change is haunting and insensitive so I set out to change that.  When searching the web for a good tutorial on how to make my own cover, I came across this one at Prudent Baby.  It seemed like the one with the greatest detail for someone like me who’s a little freakish at the thought of sewing from scratch.  It was also the simplest I could find.  I followed the tutorial word-for-word for the most part (opting to not use two different fabrics), but made a few adjustments and added an extra couple of steps at the end to get the custom changing pad cover of my day dreams.  I’ll lay it all out for ya in case you’re in the market to give some baby buns a warm landing spot as well.  Oh, I forgot to mention the best part of this whole undertaking - you’re making a changing pad cover out of ONE piece of fabric!  No sewing lots of different pieces and sections together which can get overwhelming and way too involved, especially since if you’re making this, chances are you’ve got a babe or two (or three, four, five…) of your own that’s vying for attention too.

So, first things first – fabric.  You’ll need a little under a yard of 54” wide fabric, a 48 x 32 inch piece to be exact.  I used an 84” long, Target curtain panel I found at Dirt Cheap for $3.  I only used half so the plan is to make a spare cover with the other half lest one get stained with excrement…which we all know never happens…  Also, make sure you wash your fabric beforehand…unwashed might mean shrinkage later along with a few choice words.  Second, this tutorial is for a standard, contoured changing pad measuring 34” x 16”.  We own this one.  Third, this is what you’ll need:

To start, cut a 48” x 32” piece of fabric.  I used a plastic quilting square I picked up at JoAnn’s to get straight edges and perfect corners.

Once you have your 48” x 32” piece, fold it in half length-wise with the right sides facing each other and then in half width-wise.  Draw an 7.5” x 7.5” square on the corner where there are no folds.  (I followed Prudent Baby’s instructions and drew an 8” x 8” square however, now that the cover is finished, I’ve realized I could use an extra half inch at each corner, so next time I’m going with a 7.5 inch square.) 
Again, my quilting square comes in handy.

Next, cut out the square making sure you cut through all four layers of fabric.

When you unfold your fabric, it should now look like this:

Now, sew the two sides of each square cut-out together, making sure the right sides are facing each other.

After you’ve sewn your square sides together, you’re former piece o’ fabric will look like this:
Got it so far?  Good!  Let’s move on!

Next up, fold over the bottom, raw edge of your future cover one inch and iron it down. 

And then fold it over one inch again, ironing and pinning in place this time.
 
  The elastic will run through this seam. 

Once you’re done ironing and pinning, sew your hem, keeping as close to the folded side as you can and making sure to leave a couple of inches unhemmed where you’ll insert the elastic.  Also, make sure you backstitch at each end of your hem to make sure it doesn’t come undone!

Now, grab your elastic and cut a 52 inch piece.  (Prudent Baby instructs to cut a 36 inch piece, but I found that my cover was way too tight, pressing and pulling on the corners of my changing pad.  So, after a few indignant huffs and puffs, I pulled out my seam ripper and veered from her path.)   Thread it through your new hem by pinning one end to your cover and sticking a safety pin through the other end. 

Simply guide the safety pin end through your seam, sew the two elastic ends together, and stitch up the hole you left for the elastic.  (Never mind that mine is as crooked as Pisa’s tower.  It does the job.) 

(At this point, I thought I was done.  But after putting the cover over the pad, it was a little too loose and a lot too frumpy in some areas than I liked.  So, I customized it.)

Next, put your newly sewn cover over your pad inside-out and gather the loose fabric near the ends, pinning it in place right over the contoured edges like so:

Make sure you do this to both ends.

To make my life easier, I drew a line across my pins along which to sew. 

Take your cover back off and, while it’s still inside out, sew a straight stitch along the pin line, making sure to backstitch at each end.
(You can cut the excess fabric off with a pinking shears, but I found that it’s not at all noticeable after you put your cover on.)

After all is said and done, your cover should now look like this:

Now go ahead and change some diapers in style!
  

 

 

Whew!  Talk about a lot of pictures!  All in all, this project took me about an hour and a half to complete and that’s with correcting the inadequacies mentioned above.  I promise you it’s easier than it looks and much more budget-friendly (and way more chic) than buying a cover!  This cover cost me $5 to make - $2 for elastic and $3 for the curtain panel I used half of.  The twins’ bums will never again be subjected to a cold mat while I clean up their acts and I will be forever smug in the fact that I won’t have an ugly plastic pad ruining my decor vibe.

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If you take on a changing pad of your own using this tutorial, let me know how it turns out!  I’d love to see your “buttiful” creations!  Ha!  Butt seriously, post pictures on Bean In Love’s facebook page or leave a link in the comments section below! 

Have a great weekend everyone!

You Know I Love Stripes

And so it shouldn’t be much of a surprise that I did this:
  to the other side of our newly stamped kitchen rug.

I debated a few other options – diagonal stripes, chevron, etc… – but in the end I loved the idea of the horizontal stripes not to mention that it was the easiest option because all it involved was laying down tape and painting…no cutting, trimming, or measuring.

All I used this two-inch wide masking tape (from Target) to create the stripes:

Before I started I ripped off a small piece of tape and stuck it to my rug to make sure that when removed, it wouldn’t ruin the rug.  Lucky for me, it came off as clean as can be.

So, starting at one end, I laid strips of tape about two inches apart… 
giving me lots of even stripes all the way down the rug.(I actually started laying two pieces of tape together for thicker stripes, but then changed my mind and went with the thin stripes.)

I made sure to wrap the tape around the sides and under the rug so that, if any paint got on the sides, it’d still be where it was supposed to be – part of a stripe. 
Then I carefully took the rug outside and gave it a couple of coats of spray paint, letting the first coat dry (about 30 minutes) before I sprayed the second coat.  After a few hours of leaving it outside to rid it of the paint smell, I brought it in, carefully removed the tape, and laid it in our guest room for 24 hours before bringing it into the kitchen to be walked all over.

We love it!  It seriously looks like it was bought this way.  I noticed that the spray paint preserved the texture of the rug much more than the sponged on latex paint did.

[Update:  Read about how the rug is holding up here!] 

Budget breakdown for this side:
Tape:  $4 (used only about 1/8 of the roll)
Spray Paint:  $4 (used one leftover can and half of another)
Total:  $8
…which brings the Grand Total of the entire project to:  $34
Thirty-four beans for a reversible rug that we can flip and reverse depending on our mood, that can be easily washed, that adds some much need pattern and color into our kitchen, and that gives our dish-washin’ footsies a soft place to land.  Not bad, I’d say!

So, the only question that remains is, which side do you like better?      stripes                                                  or                                             patterned   

.           .           .

I’ve been busy in the nursery and I’ve got a good read/tutorial coming your way this weekend!  Hope to see you then!

P.S.  It’s party time!  Linking up at A Bowl Full of Lemons, Ginger Snap Crafts, and Gingerly Made!