Domestic Imperfection

Fabric Scrap and Ric Rac Roses

2012-02-24T06:00:00.000-06:00

A couple weeks ago I made some gifts for a friends daughter. It was her second birthday and I decided to jazz up some accessories with fabric roses.

Try as I may, I just can't bring myself to do crafty things and not take pictures, so I'm here to share a tutorial with y'all.

I had first attempted these when I made my guest bedroom frame wall...

I looked up a few tutorials online, but none of them worked out quite the way I hoped they would. So I scraped the tutorials and just went with it. Here is the method I came up with. It's super simple...in fact, you can probably stop reading right now if you just remember these three words - Wrap, twist, glue... repeat. Okay, so four words.

If your the type that likes specific directions though, then your gonna love this...

1. Cut out a scrap piece of fabric. Size doesn't really matter, but for reference this one is about two inches wide and two feet long.

2. Fold in half, mainly just the first six inches or so.

3. Trim it down to make the first few inches narrower, like so....

4. Roll it up and glue into place. I used hot glue this time, last time I used needle and thread. Hot glue is WAY easier, as you might imagine. Also fabric glue takes way to long to dry, I tried that and it didn't work.

5. When you get to the end of your trimmed part, twist it once and keep wrapping.

6. Keep wrapping and twisting, gluing as you go. Please DO NOT over think this, whatever way you do it will turn out pretty darn good. It doesn't really matter how much you twist, or if it's folded in half, or not, or a little or both. Just go with it.

7. When you come to the end of your fabric, glue the end underneath the rose. Done. You should probably not be like me and pick off any hot glue that is showing. I was in a bit of a hurry because I procrastinated making these until about an hour before we had to leave for the party. Taking pictures along the way slowed me down a bit too, but I still had to do it!

The ric rac roses are seriously easy too, this is the first time I've made them. Here is what I did...
1. Take your ric rac and cut two pieces that are equal in length. Then wrap them around each other and sew them together. (I'm sure gluing would work as well).

Here is an example of what I mean - the one on the left I just placed together like a puzzle and sewed, and the one on the right is wrapped - kinda or like braiding with two pieces. I made successful roses out of both, but I liked the wrapped on better.

2. Here where it gets complicated, so pay attention.

Roll it up and glue as you go.

That's it.

To prove to you just how easy this is...

See this rose below? My husband made that one. It's actually better than mine...beginners luck is the only sensible explanation.

Now you add them to whatever you want! I put mine on a little toddler purse...

and a headband...

...and various other things that I didn't have time to take pictures of.But seriously, you can put them on anything - pillows, lampshades, frames, jewelry - it's all fair game.Happy Crafting!

Blogiversary Pillow Winners!

2012-02-20T09:32:00.001-06:00

Thank you all for your entries, I wish I could give everyone a set of pillows! Well, I guess technically I could, but that would be a whole helluva lot of sewing!
So the winners are....
#50 - Devon from Green House Good Life - Indoor/Outdoor pillows #30 -morrest1101 from Morris Moments - Green cross hatch pillows#41 - Katrina from Pear Shaped Thoughts - Grey & yellow pillows#6 - Katie from CRAPTASTIC - Houndstooth pillows
Congrats to the winners! Please e-mail your full name and mailing address to domesticimperfection@gmail.com and I will have your pillows covers in the mail!

Brought To You By The Letter M

2012-02-18T07:00:00.000-06:00

See this letter M?

It's been bugging me for awhile now, it just seems so dark and dreary. I originally made it out of a clearance letter M and some scraps from our first apartment's curtains, but it was time for a change up. (I of course took pictures for y'all along the way, because I seem to have this problem now where I can't do even the simplest DIY task without taking pictures of the process.).
So here is what I did, it literally took me 10 minutes to do this and is the same process I used the first time.

Here is a close-up of the M before.

I ripped off the fabric and this is what we had. When I originally bought it was green and white zebra striped. I felt judged by the cashier for buying it and I didn't blame her...it was that kinda ugly. I painted it white before I Mod Podged it last time, but you can still kinda see the zebra stripes.

I wanted to brighten it up, so in true No Spend style I used what I had - which in this case was leftover curtain fabric (again). I wanted to use a fabric that was already in the room since we're getting a little patterny in there. According to my husband at least, except that he called it "frou-frou". Don't feel bad for him, there IS a giant manly snakeskin on our wall that I'm sure you've noticed.

Anyway, I had juuuust enough left.

I traced the letter onto the fabric...

Then cut it out..

Mod Podged the letter...

Then I carefully placed the cutout on the glue and brushed more over top (to keep the frays in check).

Done. Easy Peasy.

Here it is before and after so you can see how the new fabric brightens up the shelf.

Funny how such a small change can balance out a whole display. I'm always moving things around on there so a few other things changed too...I feel like my before and after should be in a Highlights magazine. Does anyone else remember those, with the "spot five things that are different" photo games?

Linked to:Thrifty Decor Chick, Addicted 2 Decorating, A Bowl Full of Lemons, Savvy Southern Style, The Shabby Creek Cottage, The Shabby Nest, Tatertots & Jello, Under the Table and Dreaming, Someday Crafts, Chic on a Shoestring, Miss Mustard Seed, Southern Hospitality, Sugar Bee Crafts, Tip Junkie, The Thrifty Home, Beyond the Picket Fence, Oops I Craft My Pants, Between Naps on the Porch, Not Just A Housewife, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia, I Heart Nap Time, Serenity Now, French Country Cottage, Remodelaholic, Creations By Kara, Homework, The 36th Avenue, Freckled Laundry, Coastal Charm, Handy Man Crafty Woman, Keeping It Simple, Blue Cricket Design, Be Colorful, Craft O Maniac, Skip to my Lou, Fingerprints on the Fridge, Dittle Dattle, Polly Want A Crafter?, Whipperberry, Sassy Sites, DIY By Design, The Girl Creative, It's Overflowing, A Girl ans a Glue Gun, Delightful Order, Fireflies & Jellybeans, Southern Lovely, Sew Much Ado, Young & Crafty, Homemaker on a Dime, Be Different Act Normal, Primitive & Proper, Lolly Jane, DIY Home Sweet Home, Lines Across My Face, Making the World Cuter, Fun to Craft, Nifty Thrifty Things, The Crafty Nest, Running with Glitter, Designer Garden, Cherished Bliss, CRAFT, Lil Luna, All Thingz Related, House of Hepworths, Oopsy Daisy, Domestically Speaking, Ginger Snap Crafts, Home Stories A to Z, Vintage Wanna Bee,

One Year Blogiversary Giveaway!

2012-02-12T07:00:00.000-06:00

Today, ladies and gentlemen, is my one year blogiversary! I told my husband this and he totally didn't understand, he thinks I made it up. I had to set him straight and tell him that in blogland, a blogiversary is a real thing and needs to be recognized.February 12th of last year I started my Domestic Imperfection with this post. I really had no hopes or aspirations, I just started it on a whim halfway expecting it to die because I would lose interest and/or nobody would read it. I'm happy to say this has not been the case! I love doing projects and sharing them with you guys. I love my little 'ol blog, it's my escape from wiping noses and cleaning up cheerios. It's my me time. When I first started my blog, I didn't tell anyone about it. I didn't know anyone that blogged so it seemed like a weird thing to do. I didn't even tell my husband until after my curb appeal post at the end of June. Domestic Imperfection was my little secret for the first four months. I actually feel like I'm cheating a little bit by saying that today is my blogiversary, since I was the only reader for the first third of it's life, but whatever.
I'm so grateful and flattered that ya'll stick with me and read my ramblings. To show my appreciation I'm hosting my very first giveaway! Are you super curious to know what I'm giving away? Is it a Cameo? A Shabby Apple dress? Something from Cutting Edge Stencils? Nope, sorry to burst your bubble...this giveaway is sponsored by yours truly! And I made...pillows! Well, pillow covers. I'm not actually going to send you the pillow part. Aren't I generous? And since it's No Spend February, I used scrap fabric that I already had lying around. It just keeps getting better and better doesn't it?
So here is what I'm giving away...

Four sets of 16x16 pillow covers.So yes there will be FOUR winners. I have no idea how many people will enter, so chances are you'll have some pretty good odds!Here is a close up of each set...
Black and white hounds tooth I bought for who knows what and never used -

Grey and yellow swirlies (the yellow one is the pillow I made for my envelope pillow tutorial) -

Green Cross Section "leftover" from a project I never even started -

Indoor/outdoor fabric leftover from my nursery chair -

Here are the rules...
1. To enter, you must first be a follower (you can follow by GFC, Linky, E-mail or RSS) since this is a giveaway in appreciation of my readers and all.
2.Leave me a comment telling me what your TWO favorite pillows are.
3. For one extra entry, 'Like' Domestic Imperfection on Facebook.
4. Please leave me a separate comment for each entry. I want to keep this simple, so it's a max of two entries per person.
5. Giveaway remains open until 10pm (central time) on Saturday, February 18th. Winners will be announced Monday the 20th and be chosen via Random.org.
I think that's it! Good luck!

Linky Followers Blog Hop

2012-02-09T14:11:00.000-06:00

I'm not usually one to jump on the bandwagon and forward things or write up a special post for someones link party or what have you...however, this one feels kinda important. As many of you have heard Google Friend Connect will be going away for non Blogger blogs at the end of this month, and in the future they may discontinue it for everyone. This is pretty crappy...I follow all the blogs I read through GFC so I wasn't quite sure what I was going to do. Plus I really like seeing all 445 of your smiling faces on my sidebar and worked pretty hard to get ya'll there. I don't plan on being a Blogger blog forever, so even if GFC sticks around I'll eventually lose you. So thank goodness an alternative has come....LINKY FOLLOWERS. This widget has only been around for something like six days but already has almost 2400 blogs registered. So go HERE and sign up (no, you don't have to have a blog to use this service). Then click 'Follow Me' on the widget and your all set!

Do it now because I don't want to lose you...and let's face it, you need me too :)you can also keep up through RSS feed, e-mail, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest....I don't make it hard! The buttons for all these things are on my sidebar.
(Oh, also if you wouldn't mind heading over HERE and voting for my pantry (#91) and/or table (#92) that would be awesome...I'm totally losing!)
So if you have a blog and want to participate in the hop, here are the rules...(and if you don't have a blog, then it's just a fun list of new blogs to read!)
RULES:

1. you MUST have the LINKY FOLLOWERS tool on your site to participate.

{You can have both the LINKY FOLLOWERS & GFC on your site but you must have the LINKY FOLLOWERS to participate in this party hop.}

2. You MUST follow the person who has the party on their site as a thank you.

3.Just add your blog button to the LINKY PARTY below.

4.Then grab the BLOG HOP code

You will find the code right under the Linky Party where it says CLICK HERE TO ENTER–

just under that it says: WHAT IS A BLOG HOP? GET THE CODE HERE

Click on GET THE CODE HERE and enter it into a post on your site.

You can grab the party button code in the FOOTER at Its So Very Cheri

You can grab info from my post if it helps you with your post.

5. Then you follow other bloggers–(as many as you want)
–leave each one of the blogs that you follow a comment letting them know you are following them and ask them to follow you back.

If you want to add the BLOG HOP to your own site you will get lots of new followers–(see rule #2)

The Less Mess Project: Pantry Reveal!

2012-02-05T21:30:00.000-06:00

(If you missed the first part of this post you can read about it HERE and you can read about the Less Mess Project HERE).

My pantry is finished and I'm totally in love with it!

As a reminder as to how totally disorganized I am, here is my pantry before...

Nice right? It stressed me out just to look in there. I'm already not a fan of cooking and this made it even worse. It's too bad that I'm not one of those people that thinks cooking is the bees knees, since I have to do it everyday. Wouldn't it be awesome if your hobby was also something that you had to do? I don't need to have a creatively decorated house, but I do need to cook healthy meals for my family. And to add insult to injury, after you cook then you have to clean it all up. Double suck.

Anyway, rabbit trail. What I meant to say was that cooking it a little more fun now that my pantry is awesome.

So as a quick recap of the last post...

After emptying it out, painting it white, and stenciling, my pantry looked like this...

And here, ladies and gentleman, is my organized masterpeice!

It makes me smile just to look in there.

I even managed to take the rack off the back of my door. That was probably the hardest part, finding a new place for all that rack stuff. I plan on taking the door off completely and replacing it with old wooden screen door. I've gotta show off all that beautiful organization, you know? Plus it's a great way to add some personality to the kitchen. I plan on painting it the same color as the kitchen cabinets (which is the same color as the stencil...Sherwin Williams Harbor Grey). I just need to get my hands on a door first....and I don't care if its No Spend February or not, if I find the perfect door I WILL buy it.

Let's take a closer look shall we? On the top shelf we have baking supplies and a basket full of to go toddler snacks.

Below that we have more baking supplies in Tupperware canisters (that I've had forever). The labels are just cheapo scrap booking stickers from Hobby Lobby - I don't think a dollar has ever made me feel so fancy before!
Then we have crackers and pastas. The pasta is stacked two deep - we eat a lot of pasta.

The clear canisters are OXO POP Canisters. I originally wanted pretty circular glass ones, but I could't find any that were airtight. Plus my pantry isn't very big and circular canisters aren't the best use of space. I love these OXO ones though, they have a button on top that you press to take the lid off, then you press it again to seal it closed. Plus they're stackable and the seal matches my stencil color (very important!) I bought mine HERE on Amazon...

They're not the cheapest, but they're the nicest canisters I found by far. (If you want big ones to hold flour you'll have to buy the big 5.5 quart ones separately.) I also found a few randomly at HomeGoods, they were way cheaper but only had a few at a time.
(Update - A reader recommended these Lock and Lock containers, said they're awesome and they're WAY cheaper. Wishing I'd have seen them first...)

Next shelf down we have rice, beans, etc and cereals. The 'MIX' cereal is for me...I like my cereals mixed - the more the merrier! I used to just pull out every cereal in the morning and put a little of each in my bowl. Now the plan is to pour the cereal remnants from the other canisters onto mine so I only have to pour one cereal in the morning. I great idea if I may say so myself.

The lowest shelf is canned goods. I found some risers at Target and they work great - now I can see everything. Next to the risers is our supply of Costco tomato bisque soup. Have ya'll had this stuff? I don't recommend you try it unless you never want to be able to eat another brand of tomato soup ever again. It's that good.

On the floor we have some bins (from The Container Store- the shelf baskets are from there too) that holds unopened condiments on the top and onions and potatoes on the bottom. Next to that is my old onion and potato holder which now holds tea bags for sweet tea. It wasn't quite big enough for potatoes... plus I'm pretty sure it didn't get enough airflow because my potatoes grew sprouts like it was their job in there.

I didn't wan't to waste any valuable space, so I the sides of the pantry I put little wire baskets to hold my spices and whatnot. They're actually pencil holder drawer thingys - most normal sized ones were too long for this space so they took forever to find. Guess where I found these? Yup, The Container Store.

Hubby just screwed them into the wall like so...

The other side is a little deeper so I found wider ones to hold other (ugly) stuff). These side baskets are the only reason I was able to take the rack off the back of the door, otherwise my screen door dreams might have been squandered.

Here is a picture so you can see how many there are...

(Gosh it's hard to take pictures of the inside of a tiny pantry!)

That's the grand tour! Do you love it as much as I do? I'm pretty confident that I can keep it this organized for the long haul, everything we use is in there and it all has a place. Here is a side by side before and after shot, looking at that after makes me feel so calm and happy!

Next I'm moving on to organizing the craft closet, that ones going to be a doozy!

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Linked to:Thrifty Decor Chick, Addicted 2 Decorating, A Bowl Full of Lemons, Savvy Southern Style, The Shabby Creek Cottage, The Shabby Nest, Tatertots & Jello, Under the Table and Dreaming, Someday Crafts, Chic on a Shoestring, Miss Mustard Seed, Southern Hospitality, Sugar Bee Crafts, Tip Junkie, The Thrifty Home, Beyond the Picket Fence, Oops I Craft My Pants, Between Naps on the Porch, Not Just A Housewife, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia, I Heart Nap Time, Serenity Now, French Country Cottage, Remodelaholic, Creations By Kara, Homework, The 36th Avenue, Freckled Laundry, Coastal Charm, Handy Man Crafty Woman, Keeping It Simple, Blue Cricket Design, Be Colorful, Craft O Maniac, Skip to my Lou, Fingerprints on the Fridge, Dittle Dattle, Polly Want A Crafter?, Whipperberry, Sassy Sites, DIY By Design, The Girl Creative, It's Overflowing, A Girl ans a Glue Gun, Delightful Order, Fireflies & Jellybeans, Southern Lovely, Sew Much Ado, Young & Crafty, Homemaker on a Dime, Be Different Act Normal, Primitive & Proper, Lolly Jane, DIY Home Sweet Home, Lines Across My Face, Making the World Cuter, Fun to Craft, Nifty Thrifty Things, The Crafty Nest, Running with Glitter, Designer Garden, Cherished Bliss, CRAFT, Lil Luna, All Thingz Related, House of Hepworths, Oopsy Daisy, Domestically Speaking, Ginger Snap Crafts, Home Stories A to Z, Vintage Wanna Bee, It's So Very Cheri, Two Yellow Birds, A Turtles Life for Me, Along for the Ride, Crafty Texas Girls

Partial Pantry Reveal - Painting and Stenciling

2012-02-04T23:33:00.000-06:00

I'm moving right along on my Less Mess resolution. I tackled my junk drawers last month and have moved onto the pantry. As a reminder (and because I just love posting pics of my horrible looking spaces) here is the before shot of my pantry disaster.

The first step to organized bliss was to empty the whole thing out. I discovered something as well...when your pantry is a mess and you can't see everything you end up buying a lot of doubles. For example, I found four cans of pumpkin in there. I NEVER use pumpkin...why do I have four cans?

I chose to start this project on a week that my husband was out of town (that makes it sound like he went for work or something...not quite, he went skiing) because I figured it would be more fun without his gentle loving reminders that my project was destroying our dining room.

That was the mess it created right after I took everything out. Believe me when I tell you that after three days of toddler destruction it wasn't nearly that neat. A vast majority of didn't even stay in the dining room. But we'll get to that later.

I gave the shelves a good wipe down then lightly sanded to get the 'careless previous owner paint gloppies' off. Then I cleaned it again because sanding is dirty. Way to think things through Ashley.

Then I started painting. I used Kilz first because it dries super fast, covers well and is cheaper than regular paint. After one coat it looked like this and I knew I was in for it. That salmon pink just refuses to give up.

FOUR coats later (three Kilz and one regular eggshell - plus two gloss on the shelves). I called it a night.

Bright and early the next morning (oh toddlers...) it was time to start stenciling. Elijah was really excited, mostly because the stool is his new favorite thing. Well, standing on the stool yelling "tool" and pulling on me while I'm painting, that is.

I can't forget about little Levi...who sat happily in his assigned seat, sporting his chicken sleeping bag and soaking up the chaos.

Now I'm not going to give you a whole stencil tutorial, but if your interested you can read about it and print out the design here.

Though I'm not going to give you a tutorial, I do have a few stencil tips. Here they are, in no particular order.

1. You probably shouldn't stencil the inside of a pantry. It's pretty cramped and tight and the shelves really get in the way. Also doing a giant room (like the one in the tutorial link up above) will take you for-freakin-ever and you will hate yourself halfway through the first wall. Small areas are what you want. But probably not pantries.

2. While your painting you will think it looks all wonky and jacked up. It does. But take a step back and it will look fine.

3. Too much paint on the brush is better than too little and painting quickly produces smoother lines than going slowly. At least that's how it worked or me.
4. Trying to have a steady hand whist being pulled on by a toddler is not recommended.

Here is the pantry after I traced the stencil on. This part probably took me about two hours, thanks to all the stencil folding required.

While I was tracing away I suddenly heard a chorus of frantic spitting coming from the living room. I stop what I'm doing to go check it out and find Elijah sitting on the floor with an open bag of flour. He must of quietly stole it off the table thinking it was a snack... and after a few handfuls discovered that plain wheat flour isn't all that tasty.

After I cleaned up his flour mess (and gave him a real snack) I started paining.

(I used the same paint as our kitchen cabinets)

Slowly but surly it came along. Another painting tip...be very careful not to get your brush handle caught on the shelves and door frame when when going from paint can to wall. It WILL fly out of your hand and land who knows where. It may even happen six times.

And remember how I told you that it would look all wonky and jacked up? Yeah...

It may even drip a little...

But after some touch ups (and two days) it will look great!

That's it for now....tomorrow I'll show you the final reveal, organization and all!

How To Make Custom Curtains

2012-02-01T13:05:00.000-06:00

Yesterday I told you how to make your own curtain rods on the cheap, and today we are moving onto curtains!

Curtains are so supurbly easy to make. If you can sew a straight stitch on your sewing machine, than you can make curtains. If you don't own a sewing machine than you could sew it by hand, it would just take longer.

So the first step is to buy your fabric. I recommend using home decor fabric, but you can certainly use whatever fabric you like, including sheets or dropcloths. I'm working on debrowning my living room and this is the fabric I chose to dress up my naked windows.

link

The first step is to cut your fabric. Measure the length from the top of your curtain rod to the floor and then add 12 inches. My windows measured 92 inches, so I cut the fabric to 104 inches each.

Then your going to need to iron. First iron the edges of your curtain by folding the blank edge over until you can barely see the print.

Then fold them over one more time and press. This gives your curtains a finished edge.

Next iron the top and bottom by folding it over once and pressing.

Then fold over the top making sure your mindful of the way your pattern runs...you don't end up with upside down curtains! Make it about 3-4 inches wide...I just used my phone to measure.

Then stitch all your edges except the bottom.

Next your going to need to hang the curtains in order to hem them to the correct length.
I wanted my curtains to look like back tab curtains (which I show you how to make here) without actually having to sew back tabs. So I bought these rings

and clipped them to the back of the curtain instead if the top, like so...

Once your curtains are hung, fold up the bottoms so that the curtains barely grazes the floor and pin.

Then take it down, hem it, and hang it back up. Done! Cheap and easy custom curtains!

Here is my window before..

and after!

Linked to:

Thrifty Decor Chick, Addicted 2 Decorating, A Bowl Full of Lemons, Savvy Southern Style, The Shabby Creek Cottage, The Shabby Nest, Tatertots & Jello, Under the Table and Dreaming, Someday Crafts, Chic on a Shoestring, Miss Mustard Seed, Southern Hospitality, Sugar Bee Crafts, Tip Junkie, The Thrifty Home, Beyond the Picket Fence, Oops I Craft My Pants, Between Naps on the Porch, Not Just A Housewife, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia, I Heart Nap Time, Serenity Now, French Country Cottage, Remodelaholic, Creations By Kara, Homework, The 36th Avenue, Freckled Laundry, Coastal Charm, Handy Man Crafty Woman, Keeping It Simple, Blue Cricket Design, Be Colorful, Craft O Maniac, Skip to my Lou, Fingerprints on the Fridge, Dittle Dattle, Polly Want A Crafter?, Whipperberry, Sassy Sites, DIY By Design, The Girl Creative, It's Overflowing, A Girl ans a Glue Gun, Delightful Order, Fireflies & Jellybeans, Southern Lovely, Sew Much Ado, Young & Crafty, Homemaker on a Dime, Be Different Act Normal, Primitive & Proper, Lolly Jane, DIY Home Sweet Home, Lines Across My Face, Making the World Cuter, Fun to Craft, Nifty Thrifty Things, The Crafty Nest, Running with Glitter, Designer Garden, Cherished Bliss, CRAFT, Lil Luna, All Thingz Related, House of Hepworths, Oopsy Daisy, Domestically Speaking, Ginger Snap Crafts, Home Stories A to Z, Vintage Wanna Bee, The CSI Project, Newlyweds on a Budget

No Spend February

2012-02-01T06:51:00.000-06:00

I always have a list of about twenty or so projects that I want to do at any given time. So when I'm out and about, I buy supplies for all the projects in my head...and then I put (cram) all the supplies into my craft closet and forget about them (because I have about twelve other projects going at that time). I really need to finish all the things that I started. Plus it will make organizing my craft closet for the Less Mess Project so much easier (I'm soooo close to being done with the pantry!)So I am proposing No Spend February. I will not spend a single dime on new supplies or projects and work on finishing all the ones I already have all the stuff for. I'm pretty sure the blog will not suffer because of it...I could probably even do two months. Does anyone else have this problem? Feel free to join me in saving money and catching up on the to do list!
And since I can't have a blog post without a picture, here is a sneak peak of something that the husband has been working on...

Linked to:Serenity Now, Five Days 5 Ways

How To Make Your Own Curtain Rods On The Cheap

2012-01-31T14:39:00.000-06:00

Making your own curtain rods is super easy and super cheap.... it's a project you can do even if your not a DIY kinda person. Here is the rod I made for ten bucks, including all the hardware.

(I apologize beforehand for taking the WORST window pictures ever. I'm convinced it's impossible to get a good one unless you have a fancy schmancy camera, which I do not.)

The secret to the homemade curtain rod is electrical conduit, which you can find at any hardware store. I love this stuff and have used it all over my house. I used it to make my laundry room curtains...

My funky, uneven, dining room bay window curtains...

My master bedroom curtains (which I never blogged about)...

and now my living room ones.

Now if you read a lot of DIY blogs than electrical conduit doesn't seem very original idea, but when I was trying to make my three little bedroom windows look like a wall of windows I had never seen conduit used before. So it's an original idea that everyone else thought of too, lol.

Anyway, electrical conduit can be found in the electrical isle of your hardware store and is about $2-3 dollars for ten feet (depending on the thickness). I bought the 3/4 inch, but I think most people buy the 1/2 inch. I like mine beefy :)

The first step is to cut it down to size. I used a hacksaw, but if you know what length you want they will cut it for you in the store. You could also buy your own pipe cutter if you feel like spending some $, but since your reading this post I'm assuming you don't!

So here is my process....

First, cut it to length. Or if your feeling lazy, have your overzealous toddler do it for you.

I cut mine about two feet longer than my window is wide (I want the curtains to cover more wall than window, to make the window look bigger).

Then spray paint them whatever color your heart desires. I usually leave mine raw because I like the look, but this time I used rings on the curtains and wanted them to match. Here is the raw one and the one I painted pewter...

Then hang your brackets. Mine cost a little under $4 a set at Home Depot. I like to hang mine higher than the window...it's all about making those windows look big and bright!

Then add your finials to the end of your rod. This is where you can get creative! I used decorative wicker balls for mine, but I thought about using decorated leftover Christmas ornaments or light bulbs, old doorknobs, cabinet pulls, big silk flowers, river rocks...

I found these at Hobby Lobby for less than two dollars a pop.

(Also, in case you are unaware, you can always print out a 40% off coupon at Hobby Lobby.com)

I want to be able to easily take down the curtains for washing so I made one of my finials removable. I wanted to glue a wine cork to the ball and insert it that way, but my husband and I aren't drinkers and don't have any lying around. Sooo, I got a little creative - and a little bit ghetto - and came up with this...

It's a big 'ol drywall screw that I wrapped duct tape around and glued to my ball. Then I just inserted it into the conduit to hide my ~~ghettoness~~ creativity.

Lastly, put your rods in the brackets and TA DA...custom curtain rods for ten bucks!

Tomorrow I'll be back with a tutorial for making curtains...which are just as easy to make as the rod. Here's a sneak peak :)

Update: You can see the post on how to make curtains HERE.

Linked to:

Thrifty Decor Chick, Addicted 2 Decorating, A Bowl Full of Lemons, Savvy Southern Style, The Shabby Creek Cottage, The Shabby Nest, Tatertots & Jello, Under the Table and Dreaming, Someday Crafts, Chic on a Shoestring, Miss Mustard Seed, Southern Hospitality, Sugar Bee Crafts, Tip Junkie, The Thrifty Home, Beyond the Picket Fence, Oops I Craft My Pants, Between Naps on the Porch, Not Just A Housewife, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia, I Heart Nap Time, Serenity Now, French Country Cottage, Remodelaholic, Creations By Kara, Homework, The 36th Avenue, Freckled Laundry, Coastal Charm, Handy Man Crafty Woman, Keeping It Simple, Blue Cricket Design, Be Colorful, Craft O Maniac, Skip to my Lou, Fingerprints on the Fridge, Dittle Dattle, Polly Want A Crafter?, Whipperberry, Sassy Sites, DIY By Design, The Girl Creative, It's Overflowing, A Girl ans a Glue Gun, Delightful Order, Fireflies & Jellybeans, Southern Lovely, Sew Much Ado, Young & Crafty, Homemaker on a Dime, Be Different Act Normal, Primitive & Proper, Lolly Jane, DIY Home Sweet Home, Lines Across My Face, Making the World Cuter, Fun to Craft, Nifty Thrifty Things, The Crafty Nest, Running with Glitter, Designer Garden, Cherished Bliss, CRAFT, Lil Luna, All Thingz Related, House of Hepworths, Oopsy Daisy, Domestically Speaking, Ginger Snap Crafts, Home Stories A to Z, Vintage Wanna Bee, The CSI Project, Newlyweds on a Budget

Grounded

2012-01-24T13:01:00.000-06:00

Remember that kitchen remodel we claim to be working on? We really are still working on it, just very very slowly. We did a teeny bit of work on it last week, so I thought I would share so that you know that we know that it' not finished yet.

(If this is the first time your hearing about our kitchen, you can catch up on the main stuff here and here.)

So what did we do? Added toe kicks! And now the cabinets don't feel like they're floating anymore - they're grounded (hence the title - I hope you weren't expecting some deep personal post, lol).

So here is the before..

We didn't just want to paint the current toe kicks because we wanted to make the bottom of the dishwasher blend in.

So the husband used some scrap beadboard the make the skins and we just used the backs.

and I slapped a quick coat of paint on them...

Then Adam (my super sexy sock and sandal wearing husband) and Elijah (my tool wielding diaper clad toddler) nailed them in...

Done! Told ya it was a teeny little project.

I do have one more kitchen thing for y'all though. Above the microwave we took out the cabinet in hopes of doing some open shelving. As it turns out, if your taller than 5'3" there is a whole mess of stuff up there that is visible (who knew?).

We were brainstorming on how to hide it all, but didn't come up with anything fantastic and decided just to do the open shelving and figure it out later. Adam cut the beadboard for the back and when he went to install it, it got stuck halfway in.

And I think we like it. It kinda looks like a vent-a-hood AND takes care of the whole 'hiding the mess' problem. Now just to pry that piece out and do it for real. Perhaps on a hinge so we can get to the router if there's an internet problem (heaven forbid!).

Glazed Frame - Learning By Doing

2012-01-20T14:59:00.001-06:00

Have you ever noticed that the pricing of frames at Goodwill seems a little off? Old broken Wal-Mart frame with a 59 cent clearance sticker on it - $2.99. Awesome, chunky, carved oval frame - $2.99. So when I spotted this lil' lady lying amongst the heaps of crappy gold frames, I snached it up and felt like a won the (very tiny) frame lottery.

Now I know what your thinking - that it would be a crime paint a hand carved wooden frame. I agree, but rest assured... it's not real wood. It may look like it, but I'm pretty sure real wood doesn't peel apart in paper-like flakes to reveal a black mystery material underneath. So...out came the spray paint.

I thought it looked pretty good like that, but I wanted to try my glaze and this is the perfect piece. Remember when I wanted to glaze my crappy $5 table but couldn't because I bought the wrong glaze?

As it turns out I didn't buy the wrong glaze, your just supposed to mix it with paint. A reader pointed that out to me...and sure enough it says it right there on the back of the can. So Tim the Tool Man Taylor of me to not read the directions.

So I went to mix up my glaze and realized that I don't own any black paint. I also don't own any brown or grey paint...closest thing I had was the blue/grey that I used for the kitchen cabinets. I figured that was good enough and threw an unknown amount of paint into an unknown amount of glaze. Measure...who measures? Measurings for losers ...or people that have more than a few scared minutes of naptime to work with.

I mixed it up and rubbed it into all the nooks and crannies. BTW, I didn't read any tutorials on this process...I'm just winging it. Like I said, naptime is too short to spend it reading tutorials.

Anyway, I had to put it on pretty thick to get it all up in there.

Then I got my rag and started wiping it off, till it looked like this...

I was feeling like the contrast was a little much, so I had the brilliant idea to just put on a layer of plain glaze to dull it down a bit.

It was working great until it dried and looked the exact same. You know, cause the glaze is clear and all. Whatever, it was worth a shot.

I needed the instant gratification of putting a photo in it, so I went on the hunt for an 8X10 I already had. Then I spotted this...

That white envelope (on my super messy bedroom bookshelf) is a family photo from our church directly. It's been sitting there for about six months or so - which is a long time, though not as long as that container of bubbles has been sitting there.

So there we have it...two birds with one stone. Family photo off the shelf- check. Teach myself how to glaze by trial and error - check.

Funny story about that photo...Elijah and I had a bad day where he didn't nap at all (I think he was about 16 months in this picture). On the car ride to the church he passed out and we could NOT wake him up. He would open his eyes for a second, then they would roll back into his head and he would crash on Adams chest. So we went with it and I think the final product turned out pretty sweet & hilarious.

(Pre Blog) Living Room Floor & Shelves

2012-01-12T13:00:00.004-06:00

One the first projects we did after moving in (besides painting over all the pink) was ripping up the carpet in the living room and hallway replacing it with wood. We did this in December of 2010, so you will have to excuse the crapiness of the photos. I had no idea that anyone besides my family would see these, as it was a pre blog project. Anyway, here is what our floors look like.

I freakin love them.

Why?

Carpet is gross. When I clean these I know they're CLEAN (keyword is when).

They look amazing.

They're hand scraped and somewhat rustic and hold up beautifully. They've gotten a few scratches since we've put them in, but they were well deserved.

We got a really good deal on them.

They make my totally not fancy house feel custom and expensive, lol.

Oh, and no more carpet. That's worth mentioning twice.

So the terrible pictures I was telling you about? Here ya go.

The very before...

The just before

The during (they're glued down)

Now

They're handscraped Acacia from Skyline Floorscapes. I couldn't tell you what color or the exact price, but want to say they were around $4 a square foot (including glue). That's WAY cheap for nice engineered flooring. One of the best parts is that they come in a lot of different lengths (as opposed to the normal one length). You usually have to add about 10% for waste, however we had basically no wasted wood. The only leftovers we had were used to make the counter in our laundry room, and if you go check it out you'll see that its not much.

Also, along with replacing the floor we also replaced the trim...we're working on slowly replacing the trim throughout the entire house.

Before.

Now.

Next item up is the shelves in the living room (we did these not long after the floors.) I really really wish I had taken more pictures of the process, it would have made a great tutorial.

I designed these...we needed a solution for our huge empty living room wall and we also needed storage. (They are pretty substantial, the longest one is twelve feet.) My brother in law, Keith, did most of the actual building. (He's a woodworker and dang good at it.) They're designed to look like solid pieces of rustic wood, but in reality they're just made of plywood. Keith and Adam decided to use the "bad side" of the plywood so that there would be more variation and knots showing. We sanded the crud out of them, stained with our own concoction (so they would match the floors) and finished with tung oil.

Now, we could have just cut some plywood and put them together, but then the ends would have showed and you would know instantly that they are simply little plywood boxes. Instead, Keith decided to cut all the pieces at a 45 degree angle so that all seams would be hidden. Here is a close up shot...

Totally should have dusted before I took close up pics. Oh well, my secrets out...I have dusty shelves.

The shame!

I did take a couple pictures when they were being installed. Here is before, and if you look closely at the shelves on the floor you can see how they are hollow in the center.

To get them to stay on the wall, the boys hung a strip of wood the size of the opening and then slid the shelf on (actually they had to pound them on, those suckers aren't going anywhere).

To keep them from potentially drooping and to add an industrial look we secured the shelf front to the wall with wire cable.

(Oh the wires...we need to put them in the wall. Hubby nagging commences now.)

And there you have it, beautiful custom shelves. Consider yourself caught up on all of our living room projects. Now to move onto the new, fun, non brown ones :)

Linked to:Lines Across My Face, Between Naps on the Porch, Keeping It Simple, CraftOManiac, Homemaker on a Dime, The Girl Creative, DIY Home Sweet Home, Mad in Crafts, Polly Want A Crafter, Home Savvy, Sumo's Sweet Stuff, Cherished Bliss, Confessions, Strictly Homemade, Sugar Bee Crafts, Someday Crafts, The Shabby Creek Cottage, Serenity Now, Thirty Days, The Crafty Nest, Five Days 5 Ways, Simply Designing, French Country Cottage, 504 Main, Chic on a Shoestring, While He Was Napping, Whipperberry, Addicted 2 Decorating, Tatertots & Jello, Lolly Jane

Ugly Duckling Table

2012-01-09T14:13:00.015-06:00

The debrowning of my living room continues with another table redo. This ones a lot simpler than the last one and it's a table that's been sitting in our living room for awhile. And yes, its brown...how did you guess?

Here is the before picture...

Here is the conversation between me and my husband when he caught me starting to sand it..

Adam: "Still trying to save that table, eh?"

Me: "I just don't want to to be brown anymore"

Adam: "It doesn't matter what color it is, it'll still be an ugly table. Wait...you aren't going to put that on your blog are you?"

Me: "Of course, that's how it works. I do stuff and then I write about it."

Adam: "If post that you'll loose peoples respect and no one will read your blog anymore"

So to say the least, it's not my husbands favorite table :)

It was free to us though and it's the right size, so it stays. Plus I don't think it's that bad. The wheat tile on the top is a little funky, but I can make it work.

Besides, Elijah loves it. He thinks it's great for climbing.

Don't worry, I set him straight.

When I took over sanding (I kinda wanted to finish this decade) I realized that A LOT of people have tried to save this table..

I decided to sand the top down to the wood and stain it. Hmm, choices choices...Dark Walnut, English Chestnut or Red Chestnut? I went with English Chestnut (I didn't want it to be too dark or too red) and did three coats.

I though about possibly maybe leaving it like this...

but I really didn't like the red and decided that a crisp white would look better.
Here is the finished product...and I don't know, I think I saved it.

Here it is in it's rightful place. I forgot to take a before pic of it here, but I'm sure you can imagine.

So what say you? Is it the most horrific thing you've ever seen or do you think it's kinda cute?(It's okay to say it's the superbly ugly, you'll earn brownie points from the hubs.)

Linked to:My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia, At Home With K, Vintage Wanna Bee, Sassy Sites!, Coastal Charm, Sugar Bee Crafts, A Bowl Full of Lemons, Topsy, Homework, Funky Polkadot Giraffe, Not Just A Houdewife, Confessions, Primitive & Proper, Savvy Southern Style, Domestically Speaking, Blue Cricket Design, The Thrifty Home, Creations by Kara, Someday Crafts, Shabby Creek Cottage, Fireflies & Jellybeans, House of Hepworths, Beyond the Picket Fence, Delightful Order, 504 Main, Shabby Nest, Miss Mustard Seed, Blissful & Domestic, French Country Cottage, delicateCONSTRUCTION, Bacon Time, 30 Days, Chic on a Shoestring, Whipperberry, Addicted 2 Decorating, Tatertots & Jello, Lolly Jane, Along for the Ride, Be Different Act Normal, Nifty Thrifty Things, I Heart Nap Time, CRAFT

The Debrowning of the Living Room

2012-01-07T09:06:00.011-06:00

I love my living room. It's big, open and bright. I like the style (afterall, I did it) and the way it's coming along.

However, despite the fact that it looks a bazillion times better than before... it's still very brown. Sure it has green walls, but the overall feel is brown. Allow me to prove my point...
I have brown furniture

brown floors (you can read about them here)

brown coffee table

brown rug

brown shelves

brown chair complete with brown blanket rack and brown blanket

brown blinds

brown decorations (this is starting to get embarrassing)

brown fans

brown bar stools

brown table, magazine rack and even brown CD/movie holders

I'll stop there, but believe me, there's more.

This isn't another room project I'm going to start and and take forever to finish, moving to ten different things in the meantime. (I know, I have the worst project ADD ever). This is just a pledge.

I, Ashley, pledge not to add anything else brown to my living room. I will work to reverse some of the brown damage and bring some color into the space.

I've already started a bit, switching out this table

for this one.

I have a few other things planned (such as redoing the bar stools and adding brownless curtains), but overall I'm just going to let if come along naturally. I do think I'll start on the curtains now though, because picking out fabric is always fun!

Linked to:Sugar Bee Crafts, A bowl full of lemons, Confessions, Someday Crafts, Fireflies & Jellybeans, Shabby Creek Cottage, French Country Cottage, Sassy Sites, The Shabby Nest, Serenity Now, Bacon Time, Chic on a Shoestring, Tatertots & Jello, Lolly Jane, Along for the Ride, Be Different Act Normal, Nifty Thrifty Things, I Heart Nap Time, Craft, Skip to my Lou, Coastal Charm, Homework, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia, Lil Luna, delicateCONSTRUCTION

About

2012-01-06T06:00:00.001-06:00

See that little "about" tab up above? Ya, there's finally something in it. I know y'all want to get the nitty gritty on me, so I don't even have to tell you to go check it out. Up next is the house tour...though that ones a little harder since I have to keep an entire room clean long enough to take pictures and all.
And since you can't have a blog post without a picture, here one of my little guy from today. It's hard for him get much face time round these parts because his older brother steals all the glory, but he's stinkin adorable and totally deserves it.

Anyway, Happy Friday!

Less Mess - The Junk Drawers

2012-01-03T19:10:00.002-06:00

The Less Mess Project if off to a good start! I chose to begin with the junk drawers because they're the easiest...I could finish them in an hour or so and feel dang good about my day :)
The before shots..

See that plastic bag on the bottom shelf of the cabinet? Well, that it the contents of the junk drawer when we started the kitchen renovation... I just dumped the drawer into a bag, threw it in there and didn't touch it ever again. Bad, I know.

So junk drawer round one was going through the contents of the bag. I laid everything out and I'm pretty sure it's what is in most peoples drawers.... except for one weird item. Can you spot it?

If your wondering if that is a baggie full of pregnancy tests, then you would be correct. It's actually a bag of six (yes six) dated pregnancy tests from Elijah. Not Levi, the two month old...Elijah, the 21 month old. I took so many because they were so dang light I couldn't tell....I kept taking and scrutinizing them until I decided just to pony up the $47 dollars for a digital one. Adam was in Iraq when I was doing this (obviously he had just left) so I just kept taking pregnancy tests until be was able to call and I could tell him the good (scary!) news. Anyway, rabbit trail....Here are the contents from the rest of the cabinet...

Old router, vitamins, multimeter, bag full of unknown keys, phone book (who uses phone books anymore?) hose nozzle, part of a breast pump...

And of course Elijah was right there with me, snatching things off the counter and trying to hide them in his pajamas...

Junk drawers round two, here are the contents of the current junk drawers...

This pile is a bit more interesting...besides your normal stack of flashlights, pens and sandpaper, we have: A broken piece of our car, I heart USA shoelaces, a flosser, my Flip stand and rechargeable battery (and I was wondering why it wasn't charging..), a book on how to use the potty, motorcycle keys to a bike we already sold, handles to my $5 table, and the worst of all, that stack of paperwork and photos on the bottom left. See that picture of a baby on top? That is a birth announcement for one of my best friends babies...born in 2008. Which means that not only have I had it for over three years, it has also made it through two cross country moves.
About half of this stuff had a place somewhere else, and the rest I got rid of. Now there are only a few items left, but they should be there.

Now I need to find some legitimate things to store in there so that I'm not tempted to fill them with crap again. Shouldn't be a problem since I'm moving onto the pantry next!

Linked to:Sassy Sites

The Less Mess Project

2012-01-01T22:53:00.000-06:00

Happy 2012 y'all!A new year is here and I have a goal. Actually I have a lot of goals, but the one I'm going to talk about is one of simplification and organization. Ah, simplification and organization, I sound so eloquent. What I meant is that my house if full of crap. It's the in your face kind, I hide it away like a true professional. My closets are a mess. The pantry makes me cringe. If Google knew how many junk drawers I had they wouldn't have let me start a decorating blog. At least the name fits. So, I welcome you to the Less Mess Project. You get to read about me cleaning and purging my house.... I couldn't think of a better way for you to spend you time, lol. I've already started a bit, I donated about half of my wardrobe and gotten rid of most of my makeup. Let's be real here... I'm a stay at home mom of two, I wear yoga pants, a t-shit, a ponytail, and no makeup most of the time. Plus my closet consisted of a lot of stuff from high school, and in high school I shopped at Goodwill. So yeah.
So today I'm going to show you some embarrassing pictures. These are my least organized spaces....
The pantry:It's a total cramped mess and I can't find anything. Also, it's still pink from when we bought the house. I'm picturing a white wall with a stencil in the same color as the kitchen cabinets, glass jars, wicker and wire baskets, and a screen door (also in the cabinet color).

The linen closet:Also still pink, and also a disaster. It's a huge closet but the space isn't used wisely. Elijah loves to come in here and tear the closet apart, hence the floor mess. I used to coupon before I had kids and that's why there is a huge stash of body wash and feminine things...I don't have a clear view of what I want in here beyond painting and organizing. I'm sure I'll come up with something though.

Craft closet:Located in the guest room. I stuff everything in here....the pictures don't do it justice because the sliding doors get the way, but it's chock full of small thrifting finds and craft supplies. Hey, and least it's not pink, right?I'm wanting to take off the doors and turn it into a mini craft room. Maybe a little desk/workspace, lots of shelves and bins, and yellow and white fabric curtains to hide it all.

Kitchen junk drawers and cabinet:Pretty self explanatory, the single cabinet above it is also a junk cabinet. I really just need to clean them out and keep them clean.

Shelf that collects everything in the master bedroom:This shelf is really just our catch all. It's annoying because unlike all my other problem areas, its out in the open. I'd like to get rid of it all together (it's cheap and the back is glorified cardboard) and replace it with an uber organized thrifted piece that I refinish.

And there you have it.... if those pictures don't make you feel better about yourself and the state of your house than I don't know what will.
Here's to less mess in 2012!

2011 In Review - The Top 10 Projects

2011-12-28T15:08:00.030-06:00

February of this year I started Domestic Imperfection on a whim. I had been reading lots of craft blogs and thought "I do all this stuff, I should start a blog." And start a blog I did. I had no idea what I was doing, which was okay because I didn't really figure people would read it. And they didn't. In the month of May I got a whopping four pageviews. FOUR. Then in the month of June I figured out how to link up to parties and things started to take off. People commented and told me how awesome my stuff was and it felt great. I was hooked :) Soon after I started to notice that people made money blogging. I had no idea that was a thing. It makes sense though... doing projects, editing pictures, and writing posts takes a lot of time. I recently started working with some ad networks and making a bit of money myself. When I say a little, that's an exaggeration. Last month I made about four cents a day. I've spent some time tweaking my ads and this month and am up to about three or four dollars a day. It's not much, but I'm thrilled. Making money at something you love is the dream right? So I wanted to thank everyone for reading and supporting my little 'ol blog. I'm thoroughly enjoying myself, and the fact that you guys want to read about what I do around my house (usually still in my pajama's) is icing on the cake.
So here is a recap of the top projects of the year. I'm listing these in order of most views, not by what I think are my best projects. That list would be totally different.
1. Triple Book Slings This project wins by a long shot, it has twice the pageviews of the second place project at over 8,000. People pin the absolute crap out of it, and most all the traffic comes from Pinterest. I'm assuming that's because it such an simple and functional idea, easy to replicate in your own home. I wish I would have known how popular this post was going to be, I would have done it during the daytime so the pictures were be decent. I also would have made sure the dowels were pushed all the way into the curtain rods for the pictures. Never noticed that before did ya? Drives me nuts, but not enough to go take another picture.

2. Guest Room Before & AfterThis was a pre blog project, so the post is pretty much just a before and after picture. I really missed out on a lot of material by not starting a blog sooner, I could have written about the stripes, the pillows, the furniture, the artwork....

3. Dining Room Curtains and RodThis was the first project I did knowing that I was going to write about it. I'm actually pretty proud of this one because I feel it's the most original (well, this and my blinds frame). Usually I get ideas and inspiration from the internet or magazines, but the rod solution for my funky, uneven, four bay windows came completely from my own head. I also did it on the cheap and it looks really nice. Go me.

4. Laundry Room Before & After

Another pre blog project that doesn't have any pictures of the journey. It's a pretty great before and after though, and only cost 130 bucks.

5. Dumpster Rocker

I was amazed at how much people liked this project... it was featured on a ton of websites, including Apartment Therapy. It also wins for most comments at 98 super sweet ones.

6. Painting and Raising the Kitchen Cabinets

This post kicked off our kitchen renovation...the one we started in August and are still working on. Hopefully within the next few months we will finish it up...perhaps it will be my to project of 2012. Or perhaps a simple easy project will steal all it's glory, lol.

7. Butcher Block Countertops

Another kitchen post, this one about our DIY counters. And in case your wondering, they are holding up awesome and I have no complaints, love them!

8. No Sew Ruffle Trees

I just made these trees a few weeks ago, but once again Pinterest comes along and makes the easy projects popular!

9. Guest Bedroom Frame WallThis project was an update to the previous guest bedroom post. I enjoyed making these, there were no rules and I just went with it. I didn't have a plan and liked how they turned out..plus they only cost about 10 bucks.

10. Stenciled Toy Box

Not only is this toy box super cute, it has also saved my sanity... the toys now have a home and aren't all over the place. Actually, there are still toys all over the place but now they have a place to go at night. I'm surprised this isn't higher than number 10, it's a really simple DIY.

That concludes the Domestic Imperfection top ten of 2011. Here's to 2012 being even more productive!

(I can hear my husbands exhausted sigh from 30 miles away).

Linked to:Southern Hospitality, Saved By Love, The ArtsyGirl Connection, Yesterday On Tuesday, Momnivore's Dilemma, My Crazy Beautiful Life, Delightful Order, The CSI Project, The Terpblog, The 36th Avenue, French Country Cottage, Happy Hour Projects, Whipperberry, Chic on a Shoestring, Fingerprints on the Fridge, The Shabby Nest, Fun to Craft, Designer Garden, Fireflies & Jellybeans, Serenity Now, Someday Crafts, Bacon Time, Simply Designing, The Crafty Nest, delicateCONSTRUCTION, Tatertots & Jello, Young & Crafty, Lolly Jane, Be Different Act Normal, Keeping it Simple, The Southern Institute, DIY Home Sweet Home, Homemaker on a Dime, Between Naps on the Porch, CraftOManiac, Singing Three Little Birds, 1929 Charmer, CRAFT, Thrifty Decor Chick, Be Colorful, Sumo's Sweet Stuff, Home Savvy A to Z, Tip Junkie, Vintage Wannabe, Strictly Homemade, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia, Coastal Charm, Confessions, Sassy Sites, Sugar Bee Crafts, Homework, Topsy Turvy, Me and My Boys, Bowl Full of Lemons, Home Stories A 2 Z, Blue Cricket Design, Rea Gun Ramblings, Sew Much Ado, My Girlish Whims, Passionately Artistic, Ginger Snap Crafts, DIY by Design, Savvy Southern Style, Stuff Of Success, It's Overflowing, Raising 4 Princesses, Some Good Times, Handy Man Crafty Woman, Creations by Kara, Southern Lovely, Oopsy Daisy, The Thrifty Home, Junk in their Trunk, Five Days 5 Ways, Addicted 2 Decorating

Tale of the Crappy $5 Table

2011-12-27T11:25:00.032-06:00

This isn't one of those blog posts where I show a picture of a fugly piece of furniture and then a the beautiful after picture and say "ta-da, look what I did!" That's not my style, so this is a straight up illustrated story. It all began one day when I found a beat up end table at a estate sale for five bucks. I've been on the lookout for some tables for awhile, we need two for the living room and two for the master bedroom. Currently we are using extra chairs as nightstands in the bedroom. Classy, I know. Perhaps one day I'll show y'all a picture when I get around to decorating the master bedroom. Anyway, here's the table. It's in rough shape, but pretty sturdy.

I decided pretty early on that I wanted to put some paintable wallpaper in the insets for some subtle texture. I bought a pre-pasted roll for about $11 bucks from Home Depot (or you can buy some on Amazon, they have a way better selection). I made a template out of computer paper, then traced it onto the wallpaper.

Since it was prepasted, I just wet it thoroughly and smoothed onto my table. I let it sit overnight, and in the morning it did this...

Totally did not stick...Mod Podge to the rescue! You can use this stuff for anything.

Next I set out to prime the table. I used spray primer because it wasn't naptime and I had to be quick.
Also, if you don't have one of these spray paint trigger things, go and get one. There like $3 and save your fingers. Gone are the days of cramped and permanently indented pointer fingers (then trying to use your thumb...anyone else?).

Here it is all primed....

After priming I realized that the tiny gaps between the wallpaper and the table weren't filling in, so I caulked them to perfection.

Another one of my favorite products....these little tubes of caulk.

Also, I know y'all are wondering what my kids were up to while I was working. This is Elijah stealing his brothers blanket, laughing, then replacing it. Over and over and over...

The big tubes of caulk just don't cut it for little projects. They are messy and if you don't use the whole giant tube (you won't) then it always dries out and I end up having to throw them away. These little tubes are more expensive, but there clean and easy and never dry out. Which actually makes them cheaper, because you get to use the whole thing.

Back to my tale.

So I finished painting the table...

The top still looked wavy and dented and whatnot, so I knew I had to distresses it to make it look good crappy instead if bad crappy. Now I have never distressed anything before. Why would you want to? You taking something from looking terrible to awesome, and then ruin it? Actually I usually like the way other peoples distressing turns out, but I was way to scared to actually ruin something I worked so hard on. Free time is precious when you have small kids. I didn't have a choice with this piece though, so I got out my sandpaper and started lightly sanding the corners. And you know what? Damned if I wasn't enjoying myself.

Elijah too...

(look at that weather....gotta love late December in South Texas.)

I wanted to make it look even more distressed so I got out some glaze to bring out the dents and scratches. I popped that puppy open and CRAP...it was clear. Bought the wrong kind.

I live pretty far from...everything...so there was no way I was going back to the store. I decided to improvise and use stain. I rubbed it on and wiped it off with a damp rag as fast as possible.

Nope, didn't work. Ruined it.

So I repainted it and re-distressed the top. Blah....it's not quite as much fun the second time. Almost done though! All that was left was to add some knobs (picked them up for $2.50 a piece at Hobby Lobby) and slap a coat of polyurethane on.

Here it is all finished! I'm really liking the distressed look...I just might do it more often.

And some close up shots..

While taking these pictures Elijah was (as usual) all up in my business. I was doing my best to take photos around him, but he was being pretty hilarious so I gave up and snapped some photos of him....

You can probably tell by his face, but yes....he was grunting, lol.

Once he had the satisfaction of having his picture taken on the toilet, then it was off to play in his toy box..

(The toy box was also a project of mine, you can read about it here.)

I decided that this table would look best in the living room (too big for a nightstand) so the current end table got moved to the bedroom, so now only Adam has a chair as a nightstand.

So here is the previous table...

(it and the lamp were both pre blog projects)

And here is the new one! I really like it, it brightens up the room a bunch. Sometimes I feel like I'm drowning in a sea of brown and tan.

Total for the whole project was...

Table - $5

Wallpaper - used about a dollars worth

Spray primer - $3

Knobs - $5

Everything else I already had.

...and that is the tale of the crappy $5 table turned $14 awesome table.

The end.

PS...my husband doesn't see it, but I feel like the table is staring at me...anyone else?

Linked to:Oops I Craft My Pants, Funky Polkadot Giraffe, Cherished Bliss, Primitive & Proper, Savvy Southern Style, Ginger Snap Crafts, DIY By Design, The Stuff Of Success, The Thrifty Home, Blue Cricket Design, Domestically Speaking, Sew Much Ado, My Girlish Whims, Junk in their Trunk, Creations by Kara, Southern Lovely, Someday Crafts, Beyond The Picket Fence, Momnivore's Dilemma, Yesterday On Tuesday, The ArtsyGirl Connection, Saved By Love , Delightful Order, The 36th Avenue, Happy Hour Projects, French Country Cottage, Whipperberry, Chic on a Shoestring, Fingerprints on the Fridge, The Shabby Nest, Fun to Craft, Serenity Now, Bacon Time, Simply Designing, Crafty Nest, delicateCONSTRUCTION, Miss Mustard Seed, Tatertots & Jello, Lolly Jane, Young and Crafty, Be Different Act Normal, Keeping it Simple, The Southern Institute, DIY Home Sweet Home, Homemaker on a Dime, Between Naps on the Porch, CraftOManiac, Singing Three Little Birds, 1929 Charmer, CRAFT, Be Colorful, Sumo's Sweet Stuff, Home Savvy A to Z, Tip Junkie, Vintage Wannabe, Strictly Homemade, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia, Coastal Charm, Confessions, Sassy Sites, Sugar Bee Crafts, Homework, Topsy Turvy, Me and My Boys, Bowl Full of Lemons, Home Stories A2Z, It's Overflowing, Southern Lovely, Oopsey Daisy, Five Days 5 Ways, Fine Craft Guild

Merry Christmas

2011-12-23T17:29:00.000-06:00

I just wanted to take a moment (before the craziness begins) to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas!

I hope it's filled with loved ones and is a joyful celebration of the birth of our savior.

I leave you with a grainy scanned copy of our first ever Christmas card.

I now know that getting a good family photo when you have small children is nearly impossible. However, I love the honesty of the ones we got, it makes them all the better :)

Enjoy!

My Favorite Birthday Tradition: Mississippi Mud

2011-12-13T07:05:00.014-06:00

Today is my birthday! I'm 27, cause I know your wondering : )
So in celebration, I thought I would share my favorite birthday tradition...Mississippi Mud. Pie, that is...or cake...neither really. I don't know what you would call it. Desert. Birthday desert.
Ever since I can remember I have had Mississippi Mud on my birthday. I've never really liked cake so this was a welcome tradition. Hold the gasps of disbelief please...I don't hate cake. It's cake afterall, not bananas. But I don't like cake either, its just...whatever. Not worth it. And in case you didn't catch that, I really really hate bananas. I don't even like other people to eat them near me. That mushy, smacking, horrible banana sound makes my skin crawl...
Moving on.
My mom always made it for me, then when I got married and moved away, my husband did. Sweet, aren't they?So here is the super easy recipe...with pictures, of course, because pictures make everything better.
You will need...
2 cups crushed graham crackers (that's about half a box -I like the cinnamon)1 stick butter8oz cream cheese1 1/2 cups powdered sugar12oz container of whip cream (or be awesome and make your own)3 cups milk1 pkg instant vanilla pudding1 pkg instant chocolate pudding
Step one:Crush the graham crackers. Crush the crud out of them, you basically want graham cracker dust. I used my potato masher to do this, though I also thought about using my meat tenderizer. Crush them however you want, just make sure you have a good time doing it.

Step two:

Melt your stick of butter and mix it in with the graham cracker dust. Press it into the glass with a fork and bake at 350 degrees for ten minutes.

Step three:

take your 8oz cream cheese, 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar and 10oz of your whip cream container....

....and mix them up in your awesome new kitchenaid mixer that your parents got you as an early birthday gift.

(whoop whoop!)

Four:

Spread the mixture over your (cooled) crust.

Five:

Mix together one package pudding and 1 1/2 cups milk

(be careful, the box says 2 cups milk, but we want ours thicker).

Spread it over the previous layer, then mix up your next pudding. By the time your done with the second one, the first pudding will be set.

Six:

Spread remaining whip cream on top.

Seven:

Add some toothpicks and saran wrap and refrigerate overnight.

Eight:Enjoy...I know I will!

Now I'm off to a fabulous, kid free, all day date with the husband!

Linked to:A Bowl Full of Lemons, Homework, Oops I Craft My Pants, Not Just A Housewife, Handy Man Crafty Woman, Someday Crafts, Southern Lovely, House of Hepworths, Fireflies and Jellybeans, Remodelaholic, Kissed by a , Happy Hour Projects, 504 Main, Chic on a Shoestring, Fingerprints on the Fridge

Ruffle Tree Forest

2011-12-12T09:46:00.043-06:00

I've been loving all the cute little Christmas trees that are all over blogland this year, so I had to make some of my own. Most of the tutorials you find involve sewing (like at Tatertots & Jello and Shanty 2 Chic), but for whatever reason I've been feeling very anti sewing lately. Also, I don't have ruffler foot for my machine, so I would have to sew by hand....blah. I was however feeling very pro glue gun, so here is my hot glue ruffle tree forest!

I had a whole picture tutorial set up for you guys, but somehow my brand new camera (lost my other one at the zoo last month) and my pretty new laptop (other one took a dump a few months ago) have teamed up against me and started deleting random photos in the transfer process. So here are some pictures, and I'll just have to fill in the blanks with words. Shouldn't be too hard, the whole process is very simple.

First step is to gather your supplies. I used styrofoam cones, wooden finals, and mini wooden candlesticks for the bases (all found at Hobby Lobby). You will also need something to make the tree out of, I used leftover fabric, ribbon and some gold rope. My favorite is the ribbon, it was the easiest to do and I think turned out the prettiest.

For the fabric trees, I first cut some fabric strips (about 2 inches wide or so), ironed them in half, then added a bit of fabric glue to hold it together.

Actually, right after I took this picture I ran out of fabric glue (used it all for my lampshades), so i just used hot glue.

To make the tree, all you do is start wrapping it around the cone, gluing as you go. About every inch or so, fold it back over its self ( to form the ruffle) and keep going, like so...

This takes a bit, fortunately Elijah was pretty content playing with the glue sticks and bases.

I wanted a different look for the other fabric trees, so I cut a strip using my pinking shears and glued it on just like that, no folding or ironing required.

When we were decorating our Christmas tree I found a random piece of gold rope in the ornament box, so naturally I decided to make a tree out of it...

Your probably wondering if my toddler was still happily playing with glue sticks. Well no, no he wasn't....

However, Levi (seven weeks) was behaving himself very well. He's my favorite, lol.

I wanted the bases to be different heights, so I made some cuts and glued the pieces to each other (using hot glue! If only hot glue would clean my house...)

Then I painted those suckas white, glued them and the finals to the trees and suddenly it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

(if your wondering about that epic baby picture, you can read about it here)

I love them! I want to make like twenty more for all the other tables and shelves that are feeling unchristmasy. Perhaps that would be overkill, lol.

Linked to:My Crazy Beautiful Life, Cherished Bliss, Coastal Charm, Sassy Sites, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia, Sugar Bee Crafts, Tip Junkie, Strictly Homemade, A Bowl Full of Lemons, Oops I Craft My Pants, The Stuff Of Success, Savvy Southern Style, DIY by Design, Eisy Morgan, Ginger Snap Crafts, My Girlish Whims, Sew Much Ado, Blue Cricket Design, Handy Man Crafty Woman, Passionately Artistic, Someday Crafts, Southern Lovely, House of Hepworths, The Artsy Girl Connection, The 36th Avenue, Yesterday on Tuesday, Beyond the Picket fence, Saved By Love, Fireflies and Jellybeans, Katie's Nesting Spot, Delightful Order, Momnivore's Delimma, Kissed by a Frog, Happy Hour Projects, French Country Cottage, While He Was Napping, 504 Main, Whipperberry, Freckled Laundry, The Shabby Nest, Fun to Craft, Chic on a Shoestring, A little Knick Knack, Sassy Sites, Simply Designing, The Crafty Nest, Serenity Now, 30 Days, Fingerprints on the Fridge, delicateCONSTRUCTION, Junk in their Trunk, Bacon Time, Addicted 2 Decorating, Tatertots and Jello, Blissful and Domestic, Rustic Crafts, Lolly Jane, Be Different Act Normal, I Heart Naptime, Nifty Thrifty Things, craft, Singing Three Little Birds, My 1929 Charmer, Lines Across My Face, Homemaker on a Dime, Dittle Dattle, Craft-O-Maniac, Savvy Homemade, DIY Home Sweet Home, Under the Table and Dreaming, Between Naps on the Porch, Keeping It Simple, The Girl Creative, Making the World Cuter, The Southern Institute, Sumos Sweet Stuff, Be Colorful, Mad In Crafts

Extreme Makeover Blog Edition

2011-12-07T14:43:00.001-06:00

Domestic Imperfection has a new look! I love it! It was done by Kim at 733 who did an awesome job. She works very quickly and is great at picking up on your style, even when you describe what you want as "Texas Glam". If your looking for a blog makeover of your own I highly recommend her!

Also, Domestic Imperfection is now on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest....click on the stars in the top right hand corner to become a follower! Do it!
Lastly, I need y'alls opinion. With the new layout I'm able to post extra large photos, which I've been wanting to do for awhile. I was starting to go through some old posts and make the photos bigger when I realized that extra large photos are really really big. Perhaps to big. Or maybe they're perfect and I'm just not used to it. Anyway, let me know which one y'all like...
Large

Extra Large

Large (on a vertical photo)

Extra Large

I'm A Tan Van Fan

2011-12-07T09:00:00.021-06:00

Perhaps I'm uncool, or maybe I just appreciate function over form, but I'm super excited about my new minivan! We bought it last week after casually shopping for more months than I care to admit. It's a 2004 Honda Odyssey....tan leather interior, fully loaded and only 72,000 miles. Okay, perhaps that not considered "new" to most people, but it's pretty darn new for this family. Both the carseats fit, the radio works, and I can fill it full of Home Depot goodies...I'm in love :) And after sharing a car with my husband for a year it's nice not to have to plan around each others schedules.

Admiring my new fancy car made me think back on all of our past vehicles. Then I realized just how MANY we've owned. Between the two of us we've had eight cars and three motorcycles. That's just in the ten years we've been driving...and we've been together since car one, so it's not like one of us is more guilty than the other in the car exchanging department.

We've never owned particularly nice cars. We only pay cash for things, so that's why. Plus, when you buy cars that are already depreciated, you can drive them for awhile and sell them for the same amount...or more even. So, if you will, please join me for a trip down memory lane...car style.

Car number one: 1991 Honda Civic, bought in 2001.
(I know pictures of this my civic exist, but I can't seem to find one. Here's a stock photo...)

This was my first car. It cost me 2600 big ones and I paid for it by myself. My parents aren't the "buy you a car for your 16th birthday" kinda parents. Or the buy you a car at all kind. I was okay with that.... no really, I was. Not that I wasn't a little envious of all the kids in high school in their parent financed cars, but I knew in the long that knowing the value of a dollar would do me good. And it has. Anyway, it's a good thing I didn't buy a nicer car, because I wrecked the crap out of it. I slid out on a back country road going home after cheerleading practice one day. I wasn't speeding, I swear, but it was raining and I probably should have been going slower. I did a couple 360's, went through a barb wire fence and hit a tree.

Looking at that picture your probably thinking "oh man, that car's totaled!" Haha, not quite. Totaling a car is for people that can afford more than liability only insurance. The car still drove like a champ, so there was no reason to junk it. My family's pretty handy and resourceful (okay, we're cheap) so we welded the door back on, replaced the broken windows with plexiglass and caulked the whole thing so it wouldn't leak.

It still leaked.

Between the plexiglass windows and the broken motors on the other windows, none of them would roll down.

Did I mention that it didn't have an air conditioner?

In case you didn't know, I also live in South Texas.

I still loved my car. It ran like a champ and got great gas mileage. I never had to worry about door dings or washing it because it already looked like hell.

I'm going to move onto the next car now, but the story of the civic isn't over...

Car two (Adams car one) 1974 VW beetle. Yellow. Bought in 2002 for $1700.

(I don't know if any pictures of this car exist...but it looked like this, only less nice.)

This was Adams first car. My description of this car is going to be totally different than what he would write, because he thought it was awesome and I hated it. Why did I hate it? 1) It was rattly and tiny and I didn't feel safe in it. 2) It had a gaping hole in the floorboard where the passengers feet should go. 3) The starter didn't work, so anytime he would leave my house I had to push it down my parents driveway with him in it. I think I only rode in it twice the whole time we were dating. We always took my car when we went out, cause it was nicer. That should tell you something.

I remember the first time I saw this car. It was before Adam and I were dating...actually it was before I even knew Adam existed. I was sitting in traffic on my way off campus and in the nearby parking lot there was a yellow beetle doing donuts. Suddenly it came sliding out and cut me off, spraying my car with gravel. Not that it mattered, cause my car was held together with caulk....but I'm pretty sure I called him some choice words. It's a good thing I got to know him before I realized he was the guy that drove the beetle...

Car Three: 1990 Oldsmobile, bought in 2003 for $1000.

I have lots of pictures of this car, but they all look something like this...

This is where the car flipping gets tricky.

This was my Grandmas car. When she died I bought it from our family. Except that Adam paid the $1000, and I got the car. Then I gave Adam my Civic, and he gave his Beetle (that he was tired of fixing and push starting) to his cousin. Got it?

Anyway, we called this car Wanda, my Grandma's name. It's the only car we've ever named..not that we haven't tried to name other cars, but they never stuck. It was in great shape when we bought it and was super comfy. You know, like a grandma car. This was the car that got "Just Married" written across the back of it. It got driven across the country many many times with us living in being military in upstate New York and all of our family being in Texas. We generally didn't take great care of it and sold it in 2006 for $1200.

Car four: 1996 Ford Ranger, bought for $2500 in 2004.

Here comes some more car flipping.

After driving the Civic for awhile, Adam decided he need a truck and sold the civic for $500.

We actually didn't own this truck for very long, he bought it right before we got married and sold it just before he left for basic training, so less than a year. We sold it to my brother for $2000, it was his first car. We could of made money on it, but who wants to make money off their own brother? I do believe he made a profit when he sold it though. Anytime Adam or my brother talk about the Ranger they say how it was slow as poo and had zero pickup. I guess that means poo is really really slow.

Car Five: 2001 Subaru Forester, bought for $7900 in 2006.

So new...and expensive! Soon after arriving in New York, we decided that a four wheel drive car was needed. Why? Because this is frequently what we saw out of our windshield while going about our daily lives...

Also Wanda's heater didn't really work and it was a pain to defrost, so we spent an awful lot of time doing this...

I bought the Subaru from a dealership in San Antonio while Adam was in Afghanistan and drove it back to New York. Talked them down from $9000 and was pretty proud of that. It was a beast in the snow and everyting was heated...seats, mirrors, even the windshield wipers. Sooo nice. When Elijah was born we quickely discoverd that despite being a small SUV, the carseat didn't fit. we stuffed it in the middle row and it stuck throught the front seats. We sold it for $5500 the week before Adam got out of the Army, which was last year (2010).

Car six: 1993 Saturn SL2 bought for $1200 in 2006.

When Adam got back from Afghanistan we needed a second car and bought this from a friend. We really didn't expect too much from this car... it was old, tiny and made of plastic. Plus it was a Saturn...not that Saturn has a terrible reputation, but it doesn't have a good one either.
This car surpassed our expectations by a long shot. We never had to fix it and it never left us stranded. Even when we left it frozen in a military parking lot for a year while Adam was in Iraq, it started right up. And it got great gas mileage to boot, about 40 mpg, sometimes more. We sold it at the same time as the Subaru for $900.

That brings us to our most current car..
1999 VW Passat Wagon bought for $3400 in 2010.

After selling the Subaru and Saturn last year we moved back to Texas and needed a car ASAP. We bought the Passat and it has treated us well. It's our fourth standard (the Beetle, Ranger and Saturn were standard) but it is the first one that I had to drive. I've been fighting having to learn to drive standard since I was 16. People have tried to teach me on about 1,000 different occasions, but I never got it. Truth is it terrified me. Driving in general kinda makes me nervous...not that I'm weird about it, but I'm probably the slowest driving 26 year old out there. Anyway, I finally was forced to learn standard. My husband and family (standard enthusiasts) were thrilled. Me, not so much. Everyone has always told me "just drive it for a day and you'll feel totally at home in it." Nope, It took me nearly a month of driving around the neighborhood to get out on the highway. I've been driving it for over a year now and my heart still beats a little fast when I'm on a hill with a car behind me. I'm glad I learned how to drive it, and I'm glad I don't have to anymore.

Then comes the three motorcycles, though I'm not going to go into depth about them...

1970-something Honda CB 200, bought and sold for $900. S.L.O.W...and broken a lot.

2005 Yamaha FZ6, bought for $3100 and sold for $3600 (11,000 miles later!)

Current bike: 2005 Suzuki V-Strom 1000, bought for $4600.

Adam and Elijah share a passion of keeping it shiny...

(I can't seem to make the video any bigger, sorry!)

And that, my friends, is more than you ever wanted to know about the fleet of (mostly crappy) vehicles we've owned. Anyone else have crappy car stories? I know you do...please share!