Check It

Everyday I ask myself the same question, “should we leave the house today?” and everyday the answer is “yes, we definitely need to get OUT!” and then everyday I chicken out and we end up staying home because I’d rather come down with a hearty case of cabin fever than brave the public with all three kids in tow (plus, Sebastian has something against his car seat which makes even two minute drives so much fun, as you can imagine).  So, because we don’t leave the premises I’ve succeeded (most days) in getting all three chicks to nap at the same time which means that this mom’s been busy which also means that there are lots of fun posts coming your way in the next few weeks as soon as I can lick up what’s on the plate at the moment and get it all into words.  Until then, feast on these:

In only a few short paragraphs, Tracy at Making the Trek put the most emotion, truth, and profound meaning into one post.    

If you love Target (who doesn’t?), then you have to read this.  If you love Target and you go there just to “get away for a little bit”, then you have to read this.  If you love Target and your wallet cringes every time you walk in, then you have to read this.  Just read it, man or woman, read it and relate.  (Thanks Callie!)

My friend Jesse just finished painting her kitchen countertops and, seriously, she did thee most amazing job I’ve ever seen of all the painted countertops in the world.  She doesn’t have a blog to share all her excellent DIY-ventures but I coerced her into letting me post pictures of them here:

Ummm, like, she totally painted those streaks and striations by hand!!!  Impressive or what?

She’s in the middle of a kitchen reno, as you can probably tell from the pictures, but how amazing do her counters look?!  I also coerced her into letting me write all about them, the what’s, why’s, where’s, and how-to’s when she’s all done with the reno so stay tuned!

My friends Lauren and Ana have a series called “Belly Buds” going on at their web homes.  They’re both pregnant and due close to each other and they talk all things pregnancy so if you can’t get enough of pregnancy and allllll that goes with it, you should follow along with them.

It’s Lent, a time to give (and give up) until it’s uncomfortable.  If you’re looking for a worthy cause to give to, please consider donating to our friends Jessi and Matt.  I’ve mentioned their situation before but their sweet two-year old daughter Madison was diagnosed with a cancerous tumor and is currently undergoing chemo.  As you can imagine, this costs money.  Donate here and keep updated on Madison’s progress.

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P.S.  We finished constructing and hanging a new chandelier in our entry way!  I posted a sneak photo of it on our Facebook page especially for our sweet fans!  Head on over and ‘like’ us if you’d like to see it!  Spoiler alert:  It’s freaking amazing!!

P.P.S.  These are my five favorites for the week!  I’m linking up with Hallie at Moxie Wife to share them.  Click over there to read more favorites!

Entry Way Mirror

There’s been more progress in the entry way…a drop in the bucket but progress is progress and I’ll take it.  We hung a mirror.  Woop de doo, I know.  It’s a vintage mirror I bought at a thrift store a few weeks after we moved here for $15 and it’s been taking up residence in different closets and until recently, in the girls room behind their door. 

The only ones not impressed with the progress are the girls, who have been using the mirror since they’ve been able to crawl.

The reason I’m writing about hanging the mirror is because it’s not your typical pop-a-nail-in-and-call-it-a-day type of job.  You see, the small expanse of wall I wanted this mirror on (the wall across from the hook wall) had a couple of studs behind it, none of them dab smack in the middle of the wall.  Great, well use a drywall plug then, right?  Riiiight…except that this mirror is super heavy and with the girls running past this spot a thousand times a day, I didn’t trust one little dry wall plug (as super duty as it might be) to keep the mirror mirror on the wall and not crashing into the fairest of them all.  Got it?

So, what we did was install two screws – one in the closest stud and one in a heavy-duty drywall plug about six inches away.  The tiny crosses in the picture below indicate where the screws would be placed.
The mirror is hung by a thick string strung along the back so to hang it all I did was make sure it was tethered over both screws which allowed it to hang centered.  Does that make sense?  If we had hung it solely on the screw that caught the stud, it’d be off center but by putting in another screw, we could utilize both and get the mirror centered.  It’s a fairly simple solution to get something hung where you want it when the studs behind the wall aren’t in the spots you want them to be.

Silly me didn’t talk a picture showing how centered it was on the little wall but once I get the rest of the entry way done, I’ll give ya a nice big ‘reveal’ picture and you’ll be able to see it.  Isn’t it pretty though?  I’ve been on the fence about whether or not to paint it but for now I’m going to live with it as is.  I like the gold but I wish it was a little brighter.  Whatever becomes of it, you know I’ll blog it.  :)

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So now that that’s up and done, we’re moving on to installing a new light fixture.  It involves this… 

…but it’s probably not what you’re thinking.  Stay tuned.

Oh and yesterday I peeked into Goodwill on the way to buy groceries and laid my eyes on these chairs:
I had to have them, two of them to be exact.  However, they were sold as a set of four so I bought all four for a total of $40.  I’m going to sell the extra two after I gussy them up and the other two are going…well, you’ll have to just wait and see.  :)

Have a great Monday!

No-Sew Changing Liner

When it comes to changing diapers in this casa, we ran into a minor problemo after we added another kid to the mix.  That is, there’s only one changing table/pad to serve all diaper-wearing folk and it’s in the girls’ room so when the girls are sleeping it become inconvenient to change Sebastian. 

Of course I could go find the diaper bag and pull out the diaper changing liner, bring it into our/his room where most of his diaper paraphernalia is anyway (aside from the few diapers in the girls’ room), and change him there, making sure to remember to put the liner back into the diaper bag for when we decide to venture out of the house.  However, the easiest thing to do would be to change Seb where most of his diapers are without having to have a small treasure hunt first and that happens to be on his co-sleeper.  But, and if you have boys or have ever changed a boy you know this, baby males have this thing not unlike a small, powerful fire hose attached to them that can release at any given time, dousing anything and everything around with pee.  It creates many an opportunity for patience...and more laundry.  Therefore, so that I could change Sebastian on his bed without having to worry about his bedding getting sprayed, I whipped up a quick and easy changing liner just for his space using some laminated fabric I found at Hobby Lobby.
 

All I did was cut it to fit perfectly inside his co-sleeper and that’s it.  (When I first cut the liner, I had planned to hem the ends but realized there’d be no point since they didn’t fray at all, not even when I pulled on them.) 

It gets folded up and placed in the basket underneath his co-sleeper with his diapers and wipes when done, unless it needs to be wiped off quickly.  Quick and easy, perfect for any mom with more than zero kids because we all know quick and easy are key words in those kinds of households.  Of course it would also work to use on couches, floors, tables, the gross changing stations you find in public outhouses where it protects the surroundings from overspray and the babe from germs.  #winwin

The fabric itself is really lightweight so it can shift a little with little bare-footed kicking so to eliminate that you could glue or sew a heavier fabric to the back.  If I ever get a few thumb-twiddling moments of time in the future I might do that…read: I’ll never get around to that.  But, just sayin’. 

Speaking of diapering, there’s three wet ones waiting for me.  Sayonara!

From Mini-Blind to Roman Shade

A very long time ago when the world was a little younger, I pinned Jenny’s (from Little Green Notebook) genius idea of making a roman shade out of mini-blinds.  (Since then she’s revised the process and so I’ve updated my pin to lead me to the new tutorial.)  As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I finally got around to executing it for our front door.

I followed her instructions by the book blog all the way until the last step and so if you’re hankering to make one for yourself (which you totally should be), you can get all the details from her.  There were a few parts that I was a little confused on and since I’m the tutorial nerd I am, here’s the very detailed way I made our newest roman shade.

First of all, the supplies.  You’ll need a mini-blind (I got mine at Target), fabric of your choice, either a sewing machine or some iron-on tape for a no-sew version, a needle and thread, craft glue, and some plastic rings.

Measure the window or door or whatever it is you’re covering with your shade before you start.  That way you’ll know what size mini-blind to purchase and how much fabric to buy.  I used one of these Room Essentials curtain panels for my shade:

It was originally from Target but I found it at a local discount store, Dirt Cheap, for $3.

I cut and hemmed it according to Jenny’s instructions.  If you’re doing a no-sew version of this shade, you’ll only have to fold the edges once as you iron on your tape so you’ll really only need to cut your fabric to be two inches longer and two inches wider than the size you want your finished shade to be (here’s a great tutorial on how to use iron-on tape for hemming).  That way you’ll have a one-inch hem on all four sides of the fabric rectangle that will soon be your finished shade.

After you’ve hemmed your fabric to size, lay out your mini blind.  (P.S. You won’t need the tilt wand that you turn to open and close the blind.  Toss it or use it to stir your grande latte…whatever makes your boat float people.)       

Completely cut off the bottomrail by snipping through all the strings attaching it.

Then cut all the strings holding the slats on but don’t cut the string that controls the raising and lowering of the blind, aka the lift cords.  In other words, cut the vertical strings that run down the front and back of the slats and all of the horizontal, ladder-like strings, but don’t cut the vertical strings that run down the middle/through the holes in each slat. 

On the mini-blind I bought, the strings holding the slats on were thinner than the thick ones that controlled the blind.

To completely remove the slat strings you can cut them off where they loop around the inside top of the headrail.

Next, pull off all the slats.

Give a couple of slats to your kids to buy a few extra minutes of time to work on this project uninhibited.  Don’t worry, they’re too flimsy to do any real damage.  :)

So, the slats are all off and you’re left with the headrail, the lift cords, and the bottomrail (not pictured but keep it!)  Side note:  Depending on the width of your blind, you may have three lift cords vs. two like mine.  Make sure you don’t cut any of them off!

Now grab your hemmed fabric and line it up along the headrail (where it’ll soon be permanently glued).  I lined mine up so that I had about 1/4 of an inch of fabric above the very top of the headrail.  Next, pull the lift cords down so they’re nice and straight and parallel to the sides of the fabric and, starting from the bottom of the fabric, measure up eight inches along each string and make a small pencil mark.  This is where the bottom set of rings will go.  After that, continue to measure up each cord, placing marks every 10 inches.  (You can make the spaces between rings shorter or longer depending on whatever you think looks best.  I followed Jenny’s recommended measurements.)

Here’s a pixlr’d image showing where I placed my marks:
(I realized after I was finished with the entire shade that I didn’t need the two topmost marks/rings.  If there’s less than four inches between where your topmost marks are and the headrail, you probably don’t need to place rings at those top marks.)  Note the little feet…somebody wouldn’t nap while both her sis and bro were so an audience she became.  :)

After you’ve marked where all of your rings will go, measure the distance between where the cord comes out of the headrail and the end of your shade on each side.
Then, using that measurement, double check to make sure all of your marks are that distance in from the edge of your fabric all the way down.  If you laid your cords out nice and straight before you started marking, you should be spot on if not pretty close but I did this just to double check.

Next, grab your plastic rings (I used the ones in the photo below), a needle, and coordinating thread.  Jenny used clear thread and I would recommend that as well only I didn’t have any and you know this mom ain’t running out “quick” for clear thread.  I’ll settle for white in exchange for less stress, thankyouverymuch.  

Now simply sew a ring onto your shade at each mark you made, except for the very bottom set of marks.  The bottomrail of the mini-blind will go there.

After you’ve attached all of the plastic rings, grab your craft glue and glue your fabric along the headrail.  Hot glue would probably work too though it might be more ‘bumpy’ under your fabric.

Once I had the fabric glued on straight, I made sure it was flat along the headrail and then I propped some books on top of it to hold it down while it dried.  I left it this way for 24 hours, giving the glue lots of time to dry completely. 

While the glue is drying, grab the bottomrail of the mini-blind.  In her tutorial, Jenny used a thin slat of wood and eye screws as the bottom part of her shade, but once again, I didn’t have either of these things.  So, I improvised.  First, I cut about six inches of string off the bottom of each of my lift cords.  Using the existing workings of the bottomrail of the mini-blind, I popped off the small round plug that holds in the all the string, threaded my six inch piece through the hole, strung a plastic ring onto the string, tied a knot, stuffed the string into the rail, and stuck the plastic plug back on.  Get all that?  In case you didn’t…

Now the only thing left to do is to glue that bottomrail along where you made the bottommost (Word?  Not a word?) marks.

Just make sure when you glue it down that your rings are at the top of the rail/closest to the top of the shade.

Once all the glue is dry, the last step is to thread the lift cords down through each plastic ring and tie each onto the bottom rings that are attached to the bottomrail like so:

And that’s it!  Hang your completed shade with the hardware that came with the mini-blind and you’re done! 

Here’s what ours looks like down:

[Excuse the toddler litter.]
Anthony’s not a fan because he thinks it looks like there’s a painting on our front door but I love it.  It’s a far cry from boring and that’s exactly what this previously hum-drum space needed.  (Speaking of painting though, as I was mid-project I couldn’t help but think how cool this curtain panel would’ve looked stretched over a wood frame and mounted as artwork.  So cool, no?)  Hopefully once I get the new lighting up and add some other details, Anthony’s mind will be forever changed…or at least until I decide to redecorate.

The only negative part about this shade idea is that, because the fabric I used is more silky than stiff, I have to adjust its layers after I raise it.  The ends fall and it looks like this: 
I could change that by somehow placing some long dowels horizontally along each set of rings but the few seconds it takes me to straighten things out isn’t a big deal so I’ll probably just take it as a lesson learned and use a thicker, stiffer fabric next time.

Cost?  Well, let’s see:
Mini-blind:  $3 (Target)
Fabric:  $3 (Target curtain panel via Dirt Cheap)
Plastic rings:  $1.50 (JoAnn Fabrics with a 50% off coupon)
Thread and craft glue:  $0 (already had but both but they’re from JoAnn Fabrics and Michaels, respectively)
Project total:  $7.50

As long as mini-blinds are being manufactured and I have windows and doors to cover with roman shades, I’ll be going this route again and again because, not only it is a lot cheaper and less difficult than making ‘real’ roman shades, but they also look almost if not exactly the same.

So, is there any shade-making in your future?  I know it seems like it might be a tedious task but really it was pretty easy and if I’d had an hour to devote to making it, it would’ve taken me just that hour plus drying time to finish it vs. the weeks I had it laying around half-finished because my life be like kids, kids, kids.  Either way, I love our new shade and I’m so very grateful for those kids, kids, kids.

Happy Hump Day!  :) 

Shut the Front Door…

…and let’s focus on the entry way, shall we?  After I finished the gallery walls in our hallway a few weeks ago and then gave the light in there a little pick-me-up with some paint, I felt so great to gaze down it and see the cohesiveness that “completing” the space gave (even though no space is ever really “complete”, right?)  To a visitor, it looks finished and put together.  None of the rooms in our house feel/look like that except the hallway now.  Why?  It’s because I jump around from project to project, room to room, never staying in one space long enough to complete the 48 projects I have in store for it. 

Well, it’s 2014 and while I’m not one for New Years’ resolutions, I am making a resolution to work on one room at a time.  You see, what happens when you’re like me and you’re constantly jumping from one room to the next is that you have supplies for a few projects for this room squirreled away while you work on the project in this other room over here.  Eventually there are supplies stored everywhere.  You check one project off your list and keep moving to the next.  Meanwhile, you’ve found an amazing deal on something for another project and have had some awesome luck thrifting so you get all excited and work on something new and things get back-burnered and then clutter arrives at your house and settles in.  You get the gist, right? 

So, no more scattered projects.  One space at a time for me.  After the hallway, the next space I’m putting my energy into is the entry way.  I’ve had plans and materials for projects in here for a long time.  Here’s what it looked like shortly after we moved in:

This is after I replaced the mini-blinds that were there when we purchased with a rattan roman shade I found on clearance at Target that I later deemed too narrow (not to mention too long at almost six feet).  It’s also after we painted all the off-white trim and the door a crisp white and the walls with Valspar’s Hopsack.

Last January we installed a hook system by the door and since then, nada.  It’s not been touched.  Until now.  I just finished making a roman shade (tutorial tomorrow!) to replace the boring brown shade and have plans for a new rug, a new light fixture (a chandelier!!), a mirror, and some other things.  Stay tuned. 

While I’m (slowly) plugging away at the entry way, I’ll still be doing some little projects here and there – alterations and such – so those will be sprinkled in the mix of posts along with a few love stories.  I’m not a fool to think I can pound out one space/project every week like I once could (read ‘like before I had kids’), so I have to keep you entertained and coming back somehow, right?  ;)

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So, tell me.  Am I the only one that creates to the tune of House of Pain’s “Jump Around” or is there a support group to be had?  Maybe you’re a Mission {insert a room} person and you have some words of wisdom to give?  I’ll take any and all!