Lansdowne Life

Guest post at White House, Black Shutters

noreply@blogger.com (Erin @ Lansdowne Life) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 01:36:00 +0000

Today, I'm guest posting over at one of my favorite blogs, White House, Black Shutters!

Drop by to see these No-Cost Paper Grocery Bag Valentines!

Creatively repurposed gift #3: Rusty junk art

noreply@blogger.com (Erin @ Lansdowne Life) — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 13:00:00 +0000

Inside of my handmade gift challenge, I secretly challenged myself to make my brother a bunch of gifts re-purposing odd stuff I found in my basement. Fun, right? This is one of the gifts.

Find: I have a bad habit of picking up rusty pieces of metal and other random objects in parking lots, etc. and bringing them home thinking that I'm going to do something with them. After years of accumulation, I decided it was finally time to make something.

I started with a piece of plywood and mixed a deep blue with some artist acrylics. I painted over a bad painting from my college days. Plenty of those available.

Then I arranged my metal pieces and flipped them around until I liked the way they looked. Staring at them helps. In general, they move from rusty in the bottom left corner and progress to super shiny in the upper right. Once I was for sure truly happy with them, I used some strong E-6000 adhesive to stick them down and let them dry flat overnight.

I ended up finding a few more pieces in my stash after the rest were glued down, so I worked those in as well. And done! Not for all tastes, I'm sure, but I like the way it turned out. Part of me loves that rusty industrial decay look.

Do you have something you want to repurpose but don't quite know what to do? E-mail me at lansdownelifeblog (at) gmail.com. I'd love to help!

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This is part of my 2011 Handmade Gift Challenge.

Fabric wrapped photo frame

noreply@blogger.com (Erin @ Lansdowne Life) — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 13:00:00 +0000

I wanted to make an additional smallish last-minute gift for my sister-in-law Laura that didn't require a ton of time or money. I found an unfinished wood frame I had and a piece of fabric I thought she would like, so this gift fell together pretty easily.

I've made a few of these decoupaged frames with paper, but I've never used fabric before. But using Mod Podge with fabric is so easy and yields expensive-looking results.

This fabric was a printed linen-like fabric, but you can pretty much use any woven fabric. Just keep in mind that you will seal over top with a decoupage glue such as Mod Podge so a fabric like velvet or a fuzzy microfiber might not work as well.

I painted the back of the frame first and then decoupaged the fabric onto the frame with Mod Podge. I just wrapped it like a present. The cut edge folded around the back was uneven and ugly, so I hot glued on a length of ribbon to cover that up. A quick and easy solution.

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This is part of my 2011 Handmade Gift Challenge.

Featured at Houzz + Curbly

noreply@blogger.com (Erin @ Lansdowne Life) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 13:00:00 +0000

A couple of my really old projects were featured recently. Check them out!

My paint chip mosaic wall art was featured on Houzz!

And my nuts and bolts drawer pulls were featured on Curbly.

Baby Shower: Swaddled peg doll babies

noreply@blogger.com (Erin @ Lansdowne Life) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 13:00:00 +0000

This idea came to me like most good ideas do: in an instant and clear as can be.

For last week's baby shower, I knew I wanted simple vases of flowers for centerpieces, but needed a little something extra.These swaddled peg doll babies are cute and babyish, but still simple and modern. They were just the touch the flowers needed.

I started by painting peg dolls (the same ones like I used here). They are available at craft stores for just a dollar or two a pack. You could also leave them the natural or spray them with a clear sealer to bring out the woodgrain.

I left mine faceless. (Actually, I tried drawing some simple eyes and they looked pretty wacko, so I painted over the faces and left them blank.)

Then it was time to get those babies dressed! I cut some thin cotton fabric into squares approximately twice the height of the peg dolls. I folded all the edges in and pressed them with an iron. This is just so the raw edges of the fabric would be hidden.

Then I swaddled the peg doll just like you might swaddle a real baby. For those unfamiliar with the process, you:

1. Fold the top corner of the fabric down and put the baby in
2. Fold over one side
3. Fold up the bottom
4. Fold over the other side and tuck in.

Except instead of tucking, I used hot glue to tack every step in place. I used very very small dabs of glue, hardly pressing the hot glue gun trigger at all.

For the first one, I was very concerned about getting it swaddled tight and correct and when that was done, I reminded myself that this was, in fact, not a real baby and didn't need to be swaddled properly and granted myself some artistic license. I don't think any of them are exactly the same, but that was more by accident than by design.

These weren't difficult to make, but they didn't go as quick as I might have liked. I wouldn't sign myself to make hundreds of these or anything; a handful was enough for me.

Then it was time to create some sort of pick to stick these babies in the vases. I found this floral wire at the dollar store. (It's also available at craft stores, but this smaller package was all I needed.) This wire is very soft and easy to bend, but it holds its shape well.

I cut small lengths with a scissors, then I simply wrapped one end around the peg doll baby.

Yep, that's it! Stick in the flower arrangement and done!

Geeky tote bag makeover (It's a TARDIS now!)

noreply@blogger.com (Erin @ Lansdowne Life) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 13:00:00 +0000

I have to laugh every time my husband takes a trip to the library with a teetering stack of books, DVDs and CDs in his arms. I've been telling him for months that a bag would make things much easier, but, you know, still no bag. I decided to make things easier for him and just make him a dedicated library bag. And then the best idea of all came to me: I had to make him a TARDIS bag.

For the un-initiated, the TARDIS is the travelling time machine in the shape of an old school British Police Box from the geeky sci-fi show Dr. Who. We are fans.

I went rummaging through my fabric stash, but came up short on "manly" fabrics. I was determined not to spend any money to make this and forced myself to work with what I already had in the house. Then I remembered I had a giveaway tote bag buried in a closet.

I'm not fond of sporting large logos, so it never saw much use. But the thing about logos like this is that you can cover them up. So with the bag already "done," all I had to do was decorate it.

The TARDIS is tall and skinny, so I created a cropped design to ensure my logo was fully covered. I found a photo on the internet for reference on the general shape and dimensions, but in the end I sort of just sketched out the silhouette on my own. I tried my hardest not to make this bag look too cute, but it was hard. Tote bags by nature are not exactly masculine.

I created a giant applique with some blue plaid fabrics from a couple of Dan's old dress shirts. (He busted through the elbows Incredible Hulk-style on three different shirts in like a month's time. Weird but true.) Overall, the shirts themselves were in good condition (except for the sleeves, of course), so plenty of useable fabric.

I did a zig zag stitch around all the edges. I let go of the idea that this stitching had to be perfect, and I'm really happy I went ahead with it. The messy look goes with the design. I'm sure it would have been a lot easier to do on a single piece of flat fabric, rather than pushing and pulling the whole bag through the sewing machine.

For the lettering, I used the font Gill Sans (the closest match I could find to the original) and printed it on iron-on transfer paper. I've worked with these plenty of times in the past with no issues, but this time, the iron-ons weren't sticking and looked splotchy. I'm not sure what went wrong, maybe the transfers were old, maybe it was the linen fabric I used for the background, but things were not working well.

I had printed doubles of all the words (just in case something got screwed up... ha), so I decided to apply a second transfer on top of the first. I figured I couldn't make it look any worse. I was a little bit off of the alignment, at first on accident and then on purpose. I think the double impression ended up looking great, though. Even better than if they had come out perfectly the first time.

The TARDIS has a blue light on the top and I was lucky enough to find this old blue button in my button jar to represent that. It has a reflective quality that makes it look like it's lighting up, which is kind of cool.

On the reverse side of the tote, I went with a simpler design -- just a thin band of linen to cover up the logo.

I hope Dan can tolerate the extra layer of geekiness added onto his library trips. He told me he was becoming more comfortable publicly embracing his geeky side, so I think he'll be OK.

Are you sitting on a giveaway/logo-ed item that you'd rather not use as is? What are you waiting for? Give it a makeover!

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See also:
Quick applique tutorial

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This is part of my 2011 Handmade Gift Challenge.

Boxy fabric tote bags

noreply@blogger.com (Erin @ Lansdowne Life) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 13:00:00 +0000

Again, I'm back today with the practical gifts. I wanted to make Dan's mom a pretty tote bag, as she's always toting something. I found this lined boxy tote bag tutorial at Craft Buds, and it seemed like just the thing I needed. Super simple and adaptable to all sizes without any math or measuring!

Since the instructions called for squares of fabric, I thought it was the perfect opportunity to drag out some of my sample swatches I got for only 30 cents each. I had a pair of squares in the same pattern, but in different colorways, and I loved the thought of having them on opposite sides of the tote.

I used some dark brown corduroy fabric for the lining. The only thing I bought specifically for the project was a yard of cotton belting for the handles. I underestimated how much length you need for handles like this and probably should have bought a yard and a half, but at least they are long enough to slip over a shoulder.

After the first one turned out so well, I decided to make another as a gift bag for my niece's birthday present.

The purple fabric was leftover from this pillowcase dress I made for Elise, but I ended up buying the striped home dec weight fabric for the lining. The tutorial I linked above suggests that at least one of the layers should be a bit heavier, and I have to agree. Gives it structure. I used some extra fabric to make the straps, sewing long tubes and flattening them out.

I'm definitely going to be making one of these for myself soon and probably more to use as gift bags when the need arises. Love them!

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This is part of my 2011 Handmade Gift Challenge.

More U.S.A. map blankets + FREE printable tag

noreply@blogger.com (Erin @ Lansdowne Life) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 13:00:00 +0000

Remember this U.S.A. map blanket I made last year? Well, I made three more as gifts for my niece and two nephews. What kid doesn't need one of these? It's educational AND functional. It's a reference tool you can sleep with.

Like the first map blanket, I made these in the style of the simple baby blanket at Prudent Baby. Only now, I can pretty much do it from memory without referring back to the tutorial. Awesome.

The map panels and all of the backing fabrics were from Jo-Ann. Nothing fancy, but all of the patterns work well to balance the bold graphics of the map.

My niece loves purple, and I was so lucky to find this purple cloud fabric. Love it! I kind of want to use it on a thousand more things.

I printed up a tag explaining to sew a button on every state the kids visit.

Think you might make your own map blanket? Download the tag here free! (For personal use only.)

I also included little button pouches I made using paper cut from a shopping bag and sewing up the edges.

Really, these blankets were so much fun to make. And so satisfying! It only took about one to two hours to complete a whole blanket, start to finish.

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This is part of my 2011 Handmade Gift Challenge.

Photo A Day 2011: Emerging Themes

noreply@blogger.com (Erin @ Lansdowne Life) — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 13:00:00 +0000

A special Saturday post... because I just have too much good stuff to show you.

Looking over the 365 photos from my Photo A Day project, I noticed a few emerging themes.

Like the interesting door knobs in my house...

January 25

February 15

June 10

September 18

September 25

And toddler legs...

January 1

February 2

February 6

May 6

June 8

July 8

July 31

August 25

October 6

October 9

And self-portraits...

January 4

January 18

February 10

March 8

May 16

September 9

October 10

October 13

Creatively repurposed gift #2: Countertop sample wall art

noreply@blogger.com (Erin @ Lansdowne Life) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 13:00:00 +0000

Inside of my handmade gift challenge, I secretly challenged myself to make my brother a bunch of gifts re-purposing odd stuff I found in my basement. Fun, right? This is one of the gifts.

Find: Dan's mom gave me these countertop samples from (I'm guessing) the 70s or early 80s. She was (of course) totally correct in thinking I would be interested in junk like this. (p.s. Can you imagine an oil company putting their name on a consumer product like this now? Crazy.)

All that faux woodgrain was just begging to be showcased, so I decided to tile the samples on a piece of scrap wood and hot glued them all in place. I had more samples than I needed to fill the surface of the wood, so I will save them for a future project.

I had visions of a line drawing on top of the samples. My brother's a long-time fan of The Simpsons, so I sifted through the wide world of Simpsons characters before settling on Mr. Burns. But not just the regular "excellent" Mr. Burns. I wanted the Mr. Burns from that X-Files parody when everyone thought he was an alien. And he was nice and saying things like, "I bring you love." (I searched for a video to show you, but can you believe there's not one out there? Not in English, anyway. So hey, you either remember it, or it doesn't matter.)

I found an image online, printed it out at the dimensions I needed and did the pencil transfer method onto my countertop canvas. I did the whole thing in graphite and sprayed it with a clear sealer to protect it, but it was still a bit faint. So I went over the graphite with a fine-tip Sharpie to give it a little bit more presence.

It's still a bit hard to see, but I like how subtle it is. You really have to get close to see what's going on. From far away, it just looks like a bunch of squares.

Do you have something you want to repurpose but don't quite know what to do? E-mail me at lansdownelifeblog (at) gmail.com. I'd love to help!

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This is part of my 2011 Handmade Gift Challenge.

Back-painted mirrored year painting

noreply@blogger.com (Erin @ Lansdowne Life) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 13:00:00 +0000

Over the past couple of years, I've made many pieces of back-painted glass. The truth is, I never get tired of them. They almost always yield great results and leave people asking, "wait, you made this?" (especially when there's mirror paint involved).

My husband and I and his two siblings and their spouses all live in old houses. (Whew, that was a mouthful.) That's three old houses, each built in the 1930s. Kinda weird how it all turned out that way. (And no, we don't live down the street from one another.) Anyway, I love my old house. And I think they feel the same way about theirs, so I made these year paintings for my two brothers-in-law commemorating the years their houses were built.

First, I found a font I liked (this is Extra Ornamental No. 2) and printed out the year to my desired size IN REVERSE. As in mirror image. Any letters or numbers must be in reverse. Remember, you are painting the backs of the numbers. It also might help to print in a different color than the paint you intend to use, just to see things a little better. I knew I was going to use black paint, so I printed in red.

My print out was larger than one sheet of paper, so I tiled it and pieced it together with some masking tape.

I used a 8"x14" "float" frame from Michael's: the kind with two pieces of glass instead of the normal glass and backing. This is kind of a non-standard skinny size, but it works well to display four digits.

I cleaned one piece of the glass from the float frame really well with Windex until it was completely clean and streak free. Then I placed it on top of the print out and taped them together.

Then it was time to paint. I use acrylic craft paint for this. No special type. The new Martha Stewart line at Michael's is really good stuff and is made to paint on glass (totally unpaid endorsement), but I've used many different types and everything has worked fine. The paint will be protected in the frame and won't see a lot of wear.

Layer the paint very thinly. You will need multiple coats. After the initial coat, you may want to remove the paper from the glass and hold the glass up to the light to see if you missed any spots.

After the paint was dry, it's important to very carefully and very gently CLEAN THE GLASS again around your painting. There will almost certainly be loads of handprints to get rid of.

When that is done, it is time for the Looking Glass spray paint. This is awesome stuff that turns clear glass into mirror glass when you spray it on the backside. Follow the directions on the can and let it dry thoroughly. When it's fully dry, clean the back piece of glass, put the frame back together and admire your work!

Like I've noted before, the looking glass paint isn't super clear like a new piece of mirror might be. The finish is murky and the reflections are somewhat dull, but I think it lends itself to an antique look.

So what if you don't have an old house or don't really care about the year a house was built? Try painting a birth year or an anniversary. (Or anything really.) Back-painted glass is definitely one of those gifts that looks more difficult than it actually is.

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This is part of my 2011 Handmade Gift Challenge.

Modern green baby shower: Handmade details

noreply@blogger.com (Erin @ Lansdowne Life) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 13:00:00 +0000

Over the weekend, I helped host a baby shower for my friend and former college roommate, Kim. And you know me, I can't pass up an opportunity like this to create fun baby party stuff.

The shower was held at the Tavern of Fine Arts in St. Louis (Kim's husband is part-owner). It's an amazing gallery-like space, so I didn't have to do too much to dress it up. But I did try to incorporate things that could also do double duty as decorations for baby's nursery.

I will have additional posts about a couple of the details for some of these things up next week, but if there is anything you want to see specifically, please leave a note in the comments!

OK, I'm going to shut up now and let the pictures do the talking.

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Reusable cloth napkins for everyday use + FREE printable tag

noreply@blogger.com (Erin @ Lansdowne Life) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 13:00:00 +0000

Onto post #8 of my Handmade Gift Challenge: fancy napkins!

For my sisters-in-law, I made reusable cloth napkins. These are meant to be "everyday" napkins to replace using paper napkins or paper towels, thus reducing waste, etc. Plus they are way prettier than paper towels. Way.

I started with 15-inch squares of cotton fabric that turned into 14-inch napkins. About. In general. They are all slightly different, I'm sure. You can get four napkins this size from one yard of fabric with a sizeable remnant leftover. You could even go a little larger, but you need to pre-wash your fabrics before you get started and that might shrink your fabric a bit.

There are many napkin tutorials out there and anyone who has sewn for half a second knows how to hem, so I won't bother with a how-to.

This photo above shows how I did my corners. Not in a fancy mitered way, just in the basic fold-it-over way.

To emphasize the "everyday" aspect and to encourage my giftees not to spare them, I made a tag explaining such. Think you might make your own gifty napkins?

Download the tag here free! (For personal use only.)

I must say that while this is a very useful gift, they were not particularly exciting to make. The fun part was picking out fabrics, but after that, it was just cutting, ironing and a lot of hemming. It sounded like a great idea at first, but then it sort of felt like homework. (Could be because I ended up making 24 napkins in all = four of each print * six prints = two gifts of 12 napkins each.)

Don't get me wrong, I like the way they turned out, but not exactly a challenging project.

But don't let me discourage you! It's a practical and eco-friendly gift that is sure to be appreciated well into the new year.

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This is part of my 2011 Handmade Gift Challenge.

Mod Podged tile map coasters

noreply@blogger.com (Erin @ Lansdowne Life) — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 13:00:00 +0000

Mod Podged tile coasters are easy to make, and because they're so heavy, they feel more expensive than they actually are. When I came across a beat-up (and surely outdated) road atlas in my stash, this idea came together for my sister-in-law Jill.

But these aren't just random pages from the atlas. My brother- and sister-in-law have lived all over the country, so I made four coasters showing the four places they've lived. I thought that was kind of sweet, if I do say so myself.

The tiles are just 3.5" bathroom/kitchen tiles you can get from the hardware store. These were 30-something cents a piece and had a tumbled/textured surface, but most any tiles should work fine.

You can Mod Podge just about any paper (or fabric!) on them: scrapbook paper, pages from an old calendar, photos. If you are using an ink jet print, just be sure to spray it with a water-resistant clear sealer first. You don't want the ink to run!

After Mod Podging onto the tiles (and when all is dry), you must spray with a water-resistant clear sealer again. The one I use is just the house brand from Hobby Lobby, but I'm sure there are others out there. Read the label! You don't want a sweaty drink to ruin your work!

See more Mod Podge tile coasters >>

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This is part of my 2011 Handmade Gift Challenge.

Creatively repurposed gift #1: Personalized iron-on label pillow

noreply@blogger.com (Erin @ Lansdowne Life) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 13:00:00 +0000

Inside of my handmade gift challenge, I secretly challenged myself to make my brother a bunch of gifts re-purposing odd stuff I found in my basement. Fun, right? This is one of the gifts.

Find: I remember pretty clearly talking my mom into ordering these iron-on name labels like 20 years ago before the first time I went to sleep-away camp. I guess weirdo younger me just had to have them. I don't even remember if we used them or not.

A lot of my brother's friends call him by his last name, so when I re-discovered the labels, I knew I had to make him something.

I pulled a couple of squares of home dec weight fabric (again from my crazy clearance haul - I will be so sad when the pile is gone!) and ironed on the strips onto one of the squares for my pillow front.

But of course, that wasn't enough. I was a little worried the iron-on stickiness wouldn't hold up long-term, so I sewed straight along the edges, even when the strips overlapped.

After that, I cut down the fabric a bit to a rectangle shape and sewed a simple pillow. The whole thing didn't take more than an hour. Honest!

Do you have something you want to repurpose but don't quite know what to do? E-mail me at lansdownelifeblog (at) gmail.com. I'd love to help!

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This is part of my 2011 Handmade Gift Challenge.

Exterior updates complete: Roof, siding and soffiting

noreply@blogger.com (Erin @ Lansdowne Life) — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 13:00:00 +0000

Guess what I got for Christmas! Just a new roof. And siding. And soffiting. And fascia. And gutters. And gutter screens! The roofing company we hired finished up all the work a couple of days before Christmas and now our house is looking mighty fresh.

And strangely quiet now that all the birds and other wildlife can't get into the soffiting. I'll spare you all the disgusting details, but the workers found old bird nests around nearly the entire perimeter of the house. Many of the trim boards were rotted out and had holes for birds and squirrels to come and go (and stay). Our wild animal hotel is now closed for business.

And the sea of brown is no more! Now our house has some actual definition between the brick and the roof and the second story. It's all grown up!

The shingle color is Oxford Grey, which has a greenish tint to it. In the sunlight it looks... well, gray, but on cloudy days it takes on a mossy green hue that I love.

And you'd never know that weird boarded-up window was ever there. Everything looks so neat and tidy.

Yeah, this is still the ugly side of the house with all the utilities, satellite dish, a/c unit and trash cans. But now the siding on the dormers matches the siding on the back side of the house, making everything look a bit more cohesive.

I also had them put brown downspouts where they fell on the brick so they would blend in better. (The gutters and downspouts on the sided parts of the house are white.)

It's fun to see how our house has changed since we bought it in 2008. I didn't realize how shabby the outside really was until we polished it up this year. (Excuse the poor image quality above. That's actually from the real estate listing when we bought the house.)

We've got things left to tackle: the walkways, the landscaping, but we are so far beyond what what we purchased 3.5 years ago.

See more of this year's curb appeal improvements >>

Construction-themed birthday party!

noreply@blogger.com (Erin @ Lansdowne Life) — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 15:15:00 +0000

Today I am featuring a guest post from my real life friend and college roommate Jodi.

Jodi always jokes about how the second-born child gets the short end of the stick, but I don't think she's giving herself enough credit. She put together this fantastic construction-themed party for her son's second birthday with loads of creative handmade details. Everything was so cute I asked if I could share it with you.

Jodi doesn't have a public blog, so please leave your love or questions in the comments below!

Without further ado, let's get to the photos! I'll let Jodi do the talking from here.

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Thanks Erin! Being the second-born and having an early January birthday myself, I know how much it stinks to have your birthday and Christmas so close together. That is why I felt terrible when my own second-born child’s birthday ended up falling just five days after Christmas. My goal was to throw him a great party without a single Christmas decoration in sight!

Like most 2 year old boys, my son, Henry, loves anything with wheels, but he has a particular fondness of construction vehicles. So, that seemed like a logical party theme. I printed up the invites on white cardstock and them mounted on a heavier brown piece using some cute construction vehicle clip art I found online.

Unlike my daughter who has a summer birthday, we don’t typically spend much time outside during my son’s winter parties. Therefore, I like the idea of setting the theme at the front door using a few outside decorations.

I borrowed the large Tonka truck and the cones from a friend.

I came across this idea for the wreath, but wrapping the extension cord was a little trickier and more time consuming than I thought it would be. So, I only used one cord and let some of the straw wreath ($4 at Hobby Lobby) show through. I cut the number 2 from foam core board and then used Mod Podge to adhere scrapbooking paper to it. The painted dump truck came from Jo-Ann Fabrics and is hot glued onto the 2.

The decorations inside were much more fun! I followed Erin’s directions to make the streamers to hang above the table.

I really wanted to stick with the brown, yellow, orange and black colors as much as possible to tie the party together, and this made a big impact! I got a huge roll of caution tape from Home Depot for about $7 to use as the base streamer.

The birthday boy’s attire consisted of this appliquéd dump truck t-shirt found on Etsy ($13.50), a construction worker vest (Oriental Trading, $4), and borrowed safety goggles.

A few of the guests even came in construction attire as well!

I’m a sucker for Oreo Balls and thought they would look cute in one of my son’s dump trucks loaded in the back like rocks. I talked my husband into making some for the party, and they were gone in a flash.

The cake was made by my husband’s aunt and it turned out great! She was the one who originally shared this cake with me, and I knew I wanted to have something similar for Henry’s party.

She graciously offered to make it, and I was thrilled to pass on the task to her. She even created the black and yellow slanted striped inside!

I think this name banner may have been my favorite part of the party, although it got a little lost in the mix given its somewhat more muted colors. I used scrapbooking paper in the yellow, orange, brown, and black hues to cut out the triangles for the banner. The letters in his name were cut from white cardstock.

Then, I raided my dad’s stash of odds and ends and glued a variety of nuts, bolts, screws, washers and the like to the banner. The triangles are attached with washers and twine.

I was able to get some copies of old plans from a commercial real estate agent for free to use on some of the surfaces where I set out the food and where the guests ate. It was a great addition for no cost at all!

I was able to find little sticker sheets and construction scenes (Oriental Trading $10 per dozen) to use as favors and decided they would look great rolled up with the leftover plans and tied with raffia.

The little partygoers also received a personalized construction hat (Oriental Trading, $4 per dozen) and aprons from Home Depot (77 cents each).

See? I told you it was fantastic! Thanks for sharing it with us, Jodi!

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Lessons learned from my Photo A Day project

noreply@blogger.com (Erin @ Lansdowne Life) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 13:00:00 +0000

I did it! My daily photo project is complete. There were a couple of hiccups (more on that below), but overall, I accomplished my goal, which was to play with and learn more about my camera and photography. I still have a lot to learn about the technical aspects of the camera, but really the only way to learn is to take more photos. I can't say that I'm a master at my DSLR yet, but I have learned a lot about light this year.

When I first started this project, I really questioned what I had committed myself to. It seemed like such a chore to remember to take a photo. But eventually, I settled into a groove and taking a photo everyday became a habit. I learned a lot about tackling a daily project like this and thought I would pass along some of my experience for anyone looking to do their own Photo A Day / Photo 365 project.

March 23

1) Aim to take the photo early in the day (so you won't forget). The light is usually better in the morning anyway. If something awesome comes along later in the day, great. Take more photos. But don't wait for something awesome to come along before you pick up the camera.

February 14

2) Make it simple. My only self-imposed requirement was to take at least one photo (any photo of any thing) per day. I didn't put any other stipulations on it. No themes, no content requirements, no requirement to "capture the day's events." I'm an overthinker and anything like this would have turned this into a MAJOR time-sucking project for me. I guess just know yourself. If you need inspiration or prompts, great! But for me it would have over-complicated things.

March 19

3) People with pets and/or children will find a daily photo challenge easier than those without them. Having willing subjects close at hand makes things simple. Plus it always seems like my daughter is doing something strange and camera-worthy.

October 24

4) Have a mental list of things to take a photo of. This goes for everyone (even with those with pets or children). Have a short mental list of inanimate objects you would like to take photos of. For me, I always wanted to photograph the odd assortment of antique doorknobs in my house. (Man, that sounded weird and pretentious. But you get the point.)

For you, maybe it's flowers from your garden or a collection of milkglass plates or a particular building or bridge that always catches your eye. Just have something on the list for days when inspiration escapes you or nothing interesting comes along. Even with 365 opportunities, I still didn't get to that bridge. Maybe this spring.

May 5

5) Don't beat yourself up over a mistake. Small confession: I did forget to take a picture a couple of times. Is that scandalous? Not really. Honestly, I made it from January to September before I screwed up, and that's pretty good! Sorry if you feel deceived because my blog posts didn't make mention of this. I'm not perfect. I'm not a photojournalist. This project is for myself. I'm not going to think about it too much.

So what did I do to preserve the timeline? I took two photos the next day to fill the gap.

May 14

(And to answer a couple of questions that no one asked...)

What's with the voting?

When I started the voting, I had vague ideas about using the winner each week to somehow inform the design of the photobook I plan to make with all the photos. What I didn't anticipate is that each week's voting would result in so many ties making this data rather useless. I also didn't realize the response rate would be so poor (routinely less than ten percent of my readership! Ouch.). Mid-year, I thought about dropping the polls from the blog altogether, but my husband told me he liked them. And frankly, I liked seeing which photos everyone voted for each week, even if there weren't any real consequences.

November 1

Would I do it again?

Probably not. It was interesting and I love looking back at all the photos that never would have been taken without the pressure of a project like this. (And yes, there are some clunkers in there too.) I still need to put a photobook together of all 365 photos to make my project truly complete. But I can't see myself doing a daily photo project like this again (or really, any daily project other than brushing my teeth). Weekly or monthly, maybe, but not right now. The newness of a project really excites me, so I'm looking forward to using the time and mental energy on something else.

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So that's it! Thanks for following along with me this year and for voting. Part of me is going to miss these posts, but I won't miss the obligation.

Have you ever thought about tackling a daily photo assignment? Was any of this helpful?

More abstract kid art (Now trimmed with yard sticks!)

noreply@blogger.com (Erin @ Lansdowne Life) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 13:00:00 +0000

Here's another piece of abstract kid art Elise made for her uncle (my brother). He doesn't have any children of his own yet to make him sloppy paintings, so I thought he might appreciate one from us.

We started with a piece of scrap wood left over from making our DVD shelves. After priming it and painting it white...

I set Elise up and let her go for it. We layered one color at a time with drying time in between (just like we did in our earlier paintings here and here). And when all was done and dry, I gave it a coat of clear polyurethane.

I wanted to trim out the piece and remembered that I had a bunch of cut up yardsticks from the first failed version of my growth chart project. I used a hack saw and a miter box to cut the pieces to the dimensions of the painting. Really quick and easy. The wood is so soft, you could practically cut it with a butter knife.

I painted all the trim strips a dark gray and sealed them with polyurethane. Then to attach them, I drilled some pilot holes around the edges of the painting and nailed them in place.

Lookin' pretty sharp! I have some additional material, so I'm definitely going to use the yard stick trim trick again.

At 2.5 years old, Elise really does recognize that she made this painting. She still fully expects the paint to be wet when she touches it, but it's fun to see her be proud of something she made.

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This is part of my 2011 Handmade Gift Challenge.

A gift for me: A new work table

noreply@blogger.com (Erin @ Lansdowne Life) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 13:00:00 +0000

Before I get too deep into showing you what I made for Christmas gifts, I thought I would quickly show you one of the awesome handmade gifts I received.

My dad made me this gigantic counter-height work table. It's two feet deep and six feet long! That's some serious surface space. My small workbench has become so crowded with supplies it makes it hard to spread out. I need to reorganize all of the spaces, a project for another post, but I'm so glad to have a new huge clean surface. Even if it is in our grubby unfinished basement.

My second blogiversary (hooray!) + Time management tips

noreply@blogger.com (Erin @ Lansdowne Life) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 13:00:00 +0000

Today is my two year blogging anniversary!

Thank YOU so much for coming back day after day
and reading what I have to say.

I don't get a lot of comments or questions on this blog, but one question I get consistently is, quote-unquote:

How do you do it ALL?

Short answer: I don't.

Of course, everything I show you on this blog is my own work unless I note that it was someone else's.

But there are a lot of things I DON'T do right now. I don't work outside the house. I don't volunteer. I don't take care of an infant. I don't cook elaborate meals. I don't keep a spotless home.

Still, like everyone, I have limited free time. Over the past few years, I've become much more efficient and have developed a loose system to make the most of it. And I thought I'd use this occasion to share some of my time-management tips.

I keep a giant list of everything I plan to do, big or small, today, in the next two weeks, the next year. Some priorities, some not. This clears my brain.

I have multiple projects going at one time. If you start a project and don't work on anything else until it's finished, you're wasting a lot of time. I work on Project B while the paint on Project A is drying. It's simple coordination.

At any given time, I have four to six or more projects underway (and more in the early planning stages). I try to have some variety in my current load, keeping in mind what can be done indoors/outdoors, at night/during the day, while my daughter's playing/sleeping. If I have enough things going, there's always something available to work on. No matter when the free time appears, I can dive right in.

If I get stuck on something, I think about it while working on something else.

I don't wait around for a sizable chunk of uninterrupted time to work on a project. I carve out 5-15 minute intervals where I can to give something a coat of paint or take a few photos.

I try to have all the supplies in the house before I start on a project. This doesn't always happen, but I try. There's nothing that halts a project faster than missing something or running out of paint.

I stay motivated. This blog is what keeps me motivated. As much as I love creating things, there are times when I don't feel like doing anything. Of course, everyone has those. But sometimes, I kick myself off the couch and go down in the basement to my work areas. Even if I'm stumped for ideas, I start cleaning things up, putting things away. Sometimes ideas come and sometimes they don't. If they do, awesome. If they don't, I have a cleaner space to work in next time.

I cut out the procrastination. Obviously, this is easier said than done, but really, there's no point to procrastination. This is going to sound really dorky, but last year my husband and I had a mantra: No Messin' Around. Of course, we would laugh every time we said it, but it actually worked! We stopped procrastinating in many areas of our lives. If something needed to get done, we took care of it. (We didn't wait two weeks and then take care of it.) We got motivated and accomplished so much. It worked so well that I decided to re-dedicate the mantra for this year. NMA 2012, baby!

Despite all these efforts, I have to add this blog pretty much wouldn't exist without the support of my husband. He routinely spends time with our daughter so that I can work, especially when I have a huge project to do (painting, refinishing, etc.). Yay for supportive husbands!

How do you make time for yourself and the things you want to accomplish? I feel like it's one of those things that requires ongoing fine-tuning and I'm always looking for extra minutes (who isn't?)!

Record cabinet makeover: Scratched to basic black

noreply@blogger.com (Erin @ Lansdowne Life) — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 13:00:00 +0000

My brother found this old record cabinet at a thrift store for $10. I told him to drop it off for a makeover and decided to lump that in as a Christmas gift. It's about the size of an end table, so I knew it wouldn't take long.

It's solid wood and was in good structural shape, but the top was really scratched up. See how sad it was?

My brother didn't have any specific instructions about how he wanted it to look, so I just decided to go with basic black. Keep it simple.

This was my first time painting with latex enamel. I thought it might give me a smoother finish than regular latex wall paint and it did. It comes in a few colors (like black, white, navy maybe?) off the shelf at a similar price point to regular latex paint ($9/quart). I chose a satin finish, but it also comes in gloss. It takes longer to dry/cure than regular latex paint, but I think it's worth it for furniture. It feels smooth and durable and doesn't need a top coat. I hardly used a fourth of the quart on this cabinet, so I'll be using it again I'm sure.

I did not paint the inside. I know it's begging to be painted, but I resisted. With the dividers and all the angles, that just looked like a peculiar form of torture, even for this girl who likes to paint nearly anything. The finish inside was in pretty good shape, so I don't feel terrible about it.

But I did want to put some small surprise on the inside and if it wasn't going to be with a paint color, the insides of the doors needed something. Enter Mod Podging with fabric to the rescue. Seriously, this is like my new favorite thing to do (if you didn't know already).

I found a yard of this home dec fabric on the upholstery remnant pile at Hancock Fabrics. (The remnant pile recently went up from $4/yd. to $5/yd. Oh no!) Anyway, it looked sort of antiquey and modern at the same time. It's mostly traditional, but the parrots make it a little cuckoo bananas. And I like that. A quick google image search tells me it's regularly about $15-25/yd., so I'm happy with the price I paid.

I picked out these glass knobs at Hobby Lobby on sale 50% off, so $8 for the pair. I have to admit, it was unintentional, but the slightly yellowish tint coordinates well with the fabric on the inside.

And now the cabinet is ready for his record collection. And soooo much happier!

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This is part of my 2011 Handmade Gift Challenge.

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Kid-painted Christmas tree ornaments

noreply@blogger.com (Erin @ Lansdowne Life) — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 13:00:00 +0000

Like many people, I started a tradition of having my daughter make a Christmas ornament each year (plus a couple of extras for her grandmas). She's only two, so this was actually our first year, but I love the idea that she will have a huge collection of ornaments she made herself by the time she's grown up. (If I can part with them, that is.)

You've probably all seen these wood craft ornaments in stores for super cheap. I picked these up for something like 40 cents each. They have lines printed on them, I guess to suggest coloring them with markers, but obviously you can do whatever you want with them. And I decided we would paint them.

I was a little concerned about the craft paint not covering the printed lines, so before getting started, I removed the hanging ribbons and sprayed them with a white spray primer.

After that was dry, it was time for Elise to paint them. I gave her some pearly white craft paint, and she pretty much covered the entire trees. She did miss a couple of spots the first time around, so I coached her to fill those in, but all the brushstrokes were hers. We did one side at a time so that the fronts would have time to dry before the backs were painted. I love the gloppy texture dabbing on the paint created.

After the pearly paint was dry, I helped her add the red dots on the ornaments. I do have to admit I had a hand in getting them to land on target, but she was holding the brush.

I think she did pretty awesome! Simple and not overdone.

After all the paint was dry, I added her name and the year with a fine-tip sharpie marker. I'm excited to see what this collection looks like in 20 years.

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This is part of my 2011 Handmade Gift Challenge.

Photo A Day: December 24 - 31

noreply@blogger.com (Erin @ Lansdowne Life) — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 13:00:00 +0000

This is my last Photo A Day post cataloging my year's worth of photos from 2011! I will have another post next week about the lessons I learned from the daily project, but this is the last post of new photos. Thanks for following along!

Tomorrow I'll be back to start the parade of handmade gift posts. I made a lot this year, so get ready.

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December 24 - 31, 2011

Please vote for your favorite at the bottom of the post. The poll will be open until January 9. (And if you missed voting in last week's, that poll is still open until midnight tonight.)

December 24

December 25

December 26

December 27

December 28

December 29

December 30

December 31

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Which photo is your favorite?

(Voting is completely anonymous.)