Namely Original

Etsy Shop Opened-WillownIvy

noreply@blogger.com (Namely Original) — Tue, 06 Jan 2015 19:39:00 +0000

I've officially opened up a new prop shop, WillownIvy! I had been selling on Facebook for quit some time, but wanted to take it a step further. By having my new shop I can customize my props in which ever way I want! I am so excited, and can't wait for you to check it out!!

Check it out Here!

Painted Kitchen And Remodel Reveal

noreply@blogger.com (Namely Original) — Wed, 03 Dec 2014 16:13:00 +0000

I am happy to say my kitchen is finally finished! Mostly. Just some walls that need to be painted, but major renovations are out of the way. It has been done for a little while but finding the time to clean it for pictures has taken me a while.

I hope you realize my kitchen is NEVER this clean. We use it a LOT with ten kids in the house. It seems like the only time I can clean is after they go to bed or when they are off at school. I spent two or three hours cleaning and organizing in here today. I like it clean but it just does not last here.

Here's what it looked like before. You can see the whole post about our kitchen before here and here.

When we began renovating our kitchen we wanted to paint the cabinets and change the range hood. If you want to see how we painted our cabinets check out this post.

We got an idea that raising the cabinets to the ceiling would really change the look of our whole kitchen.

We debated if we should build an inclosure on top of the cabinets so that it looks like the cabinets go to the ceiling or add a shelf under them.

If we added the enclosure it would be for decorative purposes only. I liked the idea of a shelf under the cabinets but worried it would not be functional.

We decided to go with a shelf under the cabinets and asked my brother who owns Intelligent Design Woodwork for his help. He drew it for us so that we could visualize it better, then we took the cabinets to him. I would recommend him to anyone. He did a super job and you would think this is the way our cabinets were built from the beginning! Check out his website, he's awesome and does really unique stuff.

He also removed the appliance garage from the corner. I love how this opens up the counter space and just looks so much better! I don't know what we were thinking when we put that there!

It's nice to have family that help each other out! My brother-in-law installed our back splash and he did a super job. I've never had a back splash and I love how it gives our kitchen a complete look. It just looks finished! Changing the hardware on the cabinets had a big impact too. I'm glad we didn't just change their color like we contemplated doing.

Our stools really needed to be repainted and I thought they would look cute in the accent color. Some people in the family liked them some didn't. Right now they are staying this color because painting stools is quite time consuming.

My husband painted the cabinets and installed the range hood, he also installed the lights under the cabinets. He is handy with just about anything and if he doesn't know how to do something he will look it up and learn how. He does everything with perfection and it has saved us a lot of money doing it ourselves. I feel so blessed to have such a great husband, and I sure am enjoying my New kitchen!

Lacqure Painted Kitchen Cabinets

noreply@blogger.com (Namely Original) — Thu, 09 Oct 2014 13:48:00 +0000

I'm so excited to have my kitchen cabinets painted! It has been on my to do list for a long time. The finish was wearing off and they were looking pretty bad. I researched and read how the paint held up for other people. Most people said the acrylic paint was starting to chip a little after about a year. We needed something stronger with the use our kitchen gets.

With the help of my brother who is an awesome cabinet maker we decided to paint with lacquer paint. My husband has experience using a paint gun(on cars) so we decided to do it ourselves. We learned a lot on the way and it was not easy, but definitely worth it in the long run. It took us two weeks to complete because we also glazed the cabinets.We are still waiting to install the counter-tops, back splash and range-hood, so here's a little before and after just of the cabinets.

Here's a close up from two years ago. They looked even worse now. You can see the post on our kitchen before here.

We removed the top cabinets and took them to my brother's shop.

All the doors were removed and painted in the garage.

Everything was taped up and painted with a spray gun.

And here's what it looked like on the other side for two long weeks.

We made other changes to the cabinets while we were at it. With help from my brother at Inteligent Design Woodwork we raised the cabinets to the sealing and added a shelf to the lower part. We also removed the breadbox in the corner. He did a great job and you can't even tell the shelves were added on. If you get a chance check out his website, he does some really unique things and everything he builds is made well to last a looong time. He said we now have custom cabinets and I'm so glad he could do them for us.

Glazing was kind of tricky with lacquer paint. With acrylic paint if it doesn't look right you have a lot of flexibility and it's pretty easy to fix mess ups, lacquer is different. On our first try the places where the paint was ruff from over spray soaked in more glaze than the rest. We tried sanding it but that left scratch marks and more dark spots. We repainted everything and were planing on leaving them white. We took all the tape and paper off and then stated researching how to glaze (smart:) We found that if you rub lacquer paint with a brown paper bag you can smooth it out. We tried it and it worked pretty well. Now we kept going back and forth for a couple days; should we do it, what if it was a disaster again?

After about three days of debating I finally decided I would try again. I'm glad I did it when everyone was out of the house because things didn't go smoothly the whole time and I could work better without the pressure of everyone watching while I fixed it up. I'm so glad we did it because it adds so much more character. I liked it white but I love it glazed! Our top reason we glazed was to hide some of the some of the mess and with a house full of kids I know we made the right choice! I can't wait to get the rest of the kitchen finished and show you all of it!

DIY Wedding Invitation Tutorial

noreply@blogger.com (Namely Original) — Fri, 25 Jul 2014 19:21:00 +0000

One of our cousins (Doris) is getting married in September, so Emily has been helping her come up with ideas. Doris is doing a rustic elegant wedding, and is trying to do as many things as she can DIY! Emily has been working on her invitations, the last couple of days. It took a little while to figure out because we probably did it the long way.

We started by writing the invitation out in Word using free fonts from different websites! She got almost all the free fonts from Dafonts. So, after Emily wrote the wording out how she liked ( in Word), she then went to PicMonkey. PicMonkey doesn't let you upload and edit PDF files, so don't make your word format in Word and then try to design it in PicMoney, because it won't work. If you decide to use PicMonkey they normally have a free week of Royal, which allows you to use all the cute stuff! Find all the extra designs that you want to add to your invitation, and one at a time add them to the white board and save them. Then, go to back to word, with your invitation open, and start adding your decorations.

This is the final invitation

Emily went off of this invitation that she found on Pintrest.

Start by having your invitation fully typed in Word.

Go to PicMonkey and pick which graphics you would like to use. Crop the graphic as much as you can, so the white doesn't show in Word. Then "save".

Do the same for all the other graphics.

Back in Word, click "insert", and then click the "picture" button.

"Insert" your graphic, and then right click. Scroll to "Wrap Text" and then "Behind Text". This way you can move the graphic without it getting in the way of the text.

Leave a 1/4 inch space on each of the edges, so nothing gets cut off when your print it out. When you have the look that you are going for, click "File" and then "Save As". Make sure you save the document as a "PDF File". You can do this by clicking the drop down menu titled "Save As Type". I had a hard time finding the PDF file after it was saved. You can save it in "Computer" to find it easier. If you don't save it as a PDF file, the invitation will not print clearly.

That's it! This is a great way to save money if you have a tight budget for your wedding.I will post the final print as soon as I can. If you have any questions I will be more than happy to answer them.

Cost of buying 150 invitations: $140- $200

Average cost of printing DIY: $60-$80 (depending on print shop)

Painted And Glazed China Cabinet

noreply@blogger.com (Namely Original) — Tue, 22 Jul 2014 19:36:00 +0000

We bought a dinning room set that came with a hutch when we first moved into our house. We have outgrown the table but still use the china cabinet. Except I no longer like the color. It was a blond/pink looking color that matched our cabinets, and we're planing on painting those soon.

I painted the hutch white then added a brown glaze so that fingerprints (we do have a lot of those)don't show up as well as it would on stark white.

Here's what it looked like before.

In the pictures it doesn't look like a big change but in real life it's huge.

Here's what this side of the kitchen looked like last year.

If you want to see my kitchen when I first started blogging you can check it out here.

I like the new arrangement on top but I'm not quite happy with how everything is arranged inside. I'll be shopping garage sales and be on the lookout for things in this spot.

I'm really happy with how this turned out, I think the cabinets are next!

Painted Wardrobe

noreply@blogger.com (Namely Original) — Mon, 14 Jul 2014 15:23:00 +0000

A few years back I bought a huge furniture set at a garage sale. It worked great for a while in a room without a closet. Then we had a closet built in that room and we found new homes for some of the pieces. We conveniently set the big wardrobe down the hall in our room, since it was so heavy. It did not match with the rest of our furniture but it became useful for storing baby clothes. So it sat there for a couple more years.
The other day I was thinking that I should clean up the top of this wardrobe, since it is the first thing I see in the morning when I open my eyes. I thought a collection of vintage stuff would look good up there, but not with the cherry color. So I decided to change that with a little paint. I am totally loving it and can't believe I didn't think about doing it earlier!

Before

Not the prettiest sight first thing in the morning, even the pictures on the wall are from before the wardrobe moved in. This is also where the Fabric Covered Boxes were stored (One of my first posts and most viewed too). Not looking so hot.

I made homemade caulk paint using Plaster of Paris and some Benjamen Moore paint in Antique White. I like the recipe Sharon from Elizabetha & Co uses.

I love that I can enjoy some things that were previously stored away in the basement.

I sure am enjoying the sight I wake up to every morning and I love how everything in the room looks now!

Hope I've inspired you to make some little changes to a room that's not working for you!

July Blooms And Gardens

noreply@blogger.com (Namely Original) — Mon, 07 Jul 2014 18:57:00 +0000

We have had beautiful weather here so far this summer! July is here and it's heating up. Today we're headed to the pool, because summer flies by so fast and we want to enjoy the heat while it's here!

Before we head out I want to show you what's blooming in my gardens.

The Flox is beautiful this year! Last year it had some kind of mold and didn't do so well.

Here's the view toward the back yard.

The sunflowers self-seeded themselves and I let them because they look so pretty from the house.

Everything is doing well despite how late I got it planted.

We planted tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, eggplants and squash.

I had an empty spot between the woods and the garden and I couldn't resist, I filled it in with flowers!

My flower bed over the septic tank has been expanded this year. I love the purple cone flowers and now I also planted Shasta daisies, I think they go well together. Did you notice my garden decor? I made them from the rings off old barrels.

I showed you this flower bed last month and I thought I'd show you how it looks later in the summer.

Earlier this spring, this bed of Irises were blooming, now the wildflowers are in bloom.

I love how it has a totally different look!

Last year I found some wildflowers on the side of the road and I trans-planted a couple of them next to the road at my house since that was where they were growing. This year this is what we have in that spot!

Purple cone flowers around the well in my front yard.

I bought this plant as a bulb and this is the first year it has bloomed.

On my front porch I have this house plant called "Moses in a Basket"

It is pretty hard to kill. It likes it dry and Hot.

My favorite plant for pots are the Sweet Potato Vines. I love how they fill in and you really get your money's worth with them. Plus if you dig out the potato in the fall and save them in a cool dry spot till spring you will never have to buy them again! If you want to propagate them even more you can bury part of the vine in dirt, keep it moist and it will take root! They do like s lot of water though.
Hope you can get out and enjoy the summer .

Bridal Shower

noreply@blogger.com (Namely Original) — Mon, 30 Jun 2014 13:45:00 +0000

It's wedding season, and I want to show you some pictures from a friend's bridal shower we attended a few weeks back. The ladies who put this together did an awesome job! The flowers were beautiful, the food was amazing and we all had a fun time.

Everyone loved the arrangements. The flowers were given(from friends' gardens) to the lady throwing the party.

The vases were actually ceramic but had a very authentic tree stump look.

Yum!

Traditional romanian salad, Salata de biof.

Lots of fruit!

This cake had chocolate on the inside, yummm.

I think this was my favorite dessert, refreshing!

Cute cake made of cupcakes!

Emily used some creativity when she wraped our gift.

Hope you enjoyed it have a great week!

Vintage Engagement/Wedding Decor

noreply@blogger.com (Namely Original) — Tue, 24 Jun 2014 15:20:00 +0000

This past week has been so busy for our family. We have been doing a lot of shopping in preparation for our daughters' trip overseas. Our church also held VBS and we all volunteered, and as soon as that was over we set up for my brother's engagement party. Monday morning we drove our girls to the airport and I'm ready to relax!
We actually had a lot of fun putting it all together and I want to show you the results. It was in the basement and there isn't much natural light so excuse the quality of photos.

All the wildflowers were in bloom here so we decided to use them in our arrangements.

We also used some flowers from my garden and bought the carnations. We only spent twenty dollars on flowers!

Emily and Julia made these heart garlands for the backdrop.

They bought a heart punch and glued three hearts together with a piece of twin in the middle. This was a lot of work, but they did it in advance.

They also made two banners using card-stock and burlap. I like that it was simple to do and filled in a large space fast. For the table runner we wanted to keep the price down so instead of using burlap we bought brown wrapping paper from Hobby Lobby. I cut the tube of paper in three and hot glued lace that we already had to edges.

I think that considering what we had to work with, which is a basement with cafeteria tables and a very small budget it turned out fabulous!

Emily even made use of the dry erase board that was hanging up.

The vintage suitcase and chalkboard were a last minute addition, but definitely added a nice touch.

The bride loved the chalk board so much that if we can fit it in a small car, it will be making it's way across the country to her this week.

It's great to know you don't have to spend a fortune to have a beautiful party. I'll leave you with a glimpse of the yummy(homemade) desserts that were enjoyed by all!

What's Blooming in June

noreply@blogger.com (Namely Original) — Wed, 04 Jun 2014 16:47:00 +0000

I've been taking a little break from blogging after the birth of our tenth child. I have actually accomplished lots of stuff around the house (just nothing blog worthy). I have cleaned the basement, garage, and under my porch. We also stained the porch with help from the girls. I've also done some gardening, so today I want to show you my flower beds.

This is my favorite time of the year in my garden.

You can see how my garden looked last year in the post "Spring Blooms"

This was earlier this spring after I mulched.

Here's the view off of my back porch and the flower bed below is just across this one.

This bed is getting ready to bloom with these purple cone flowers and daylilies.

My Daylily, Stella de ora is getting ready to bloom. I got a couple plants of this daylily from a neighbor ten years ago and I have divided it multiplied in two different beds.(I love that it spreads in nice round clumps)

When I started gardening I didn't like orange, funny how this color crept in and now I love it!

These have definitely multiplied this year.

I love how Gaillardia or Blanket Flower self seeds. I bought it five years ago and I take the seeds in the fall and spread them where I would like it to grow the next year. This is out by the road next to gravel.

Love the contrast of the purple and white.

My husband bought these on sale for a dollar at the end of the season five years ago. I can't wait for them to bloom every year!

The Iris have already bloomed, but I sure enjoyed them!

I have a few varieties of clematis that climb on our trellis in my back yard.

Here's another bed of bee balm on the side of the house. Hope you enjoyed the tour of my garden!

Crate Ottoman

noreply@blogger.com (Namely Original) — Thu, 10 Apr 2014 15:08:00 +0000

I had some milk crates that I made into ottomans a while back and I really liked how adding a lid to them made them so much cuter! Now I have some regular wooden crates I bought at an auction and I thought I would try the same thing with these.

I love the graphics in this one!

It is available here in our Etsy Shop.

They are a little different, but that's what makes them so unique.

I got the idea on how to do this lid from Angie at The Knick of Time. I couldn't find the exact post, but basically I upholstered the two pieces of boards and screwed them together. I love her blog and she's so creative in coming up with re-purposing old stuff!

This one is also available in our Etsy Shop,The Tattered Hanky.

I don't know if I'll be posting for a while since I am due to have our baby this coming week.

Hope you can get out and enjoy this spring weather that's finally here!

Painted Shelf

noreply@blogger.com (Namely Original) — Tue, 01 Apr 2014 17:36:00 +0000

A while back I showed you my{Laminate Bookshelf}that I re-purposed and am now using as a shelf in my kitchen to display my vintage collections. Not long after that I added an old shelf that I fixed up and painted to add over the shelf.

I added some hooks to give it some interest.

I love this little corner now!

Here's what it looked like before.

And the whole side with our ammunition crate that we re-purpose into a shelf. This was one of the first roadside finds since starting to blog.

Daffodils are finally blooming so I brought some in to brighten up our kitchen!

I got these little vintage flower pots from a gardening friend. I really like the color and design!

I love when I can do something around my home without spending much!

Antique Chairs

noreply@blogger.com (Namely Original) — Fri, 28 Mar 2014 21:43:00 +0000

A while back we bought a lot of vintage/antique stuff from a lady that was cleaning out her sister's basement and attic and we got a bunch of chairs. Some are not in good condition and I may have to re-purpose them, but here are a few that were easy fixes.

I love the farmhouse look of this one.

Emily loaded the chairs up in our truck and took them down the road to a neighbor's field to photograph them. I think they would make great photo props.

This one is available in our Etsy shop {here}.

We have two of these of these available {here}.

My Dad bought this one for us and it needed some work. It was very dry so I rubbed it with linseed oil and it really brought out it's natural beauty.

The Oak School Desk is available {here}.

Hope you enjoyed the photos, I think Emily did a great job with them.

Itsy Bitsy Seamstress on Facebook

noreply@blogger.com (Namely Original) — Thu, 20 Mar 2014 18:11:00 +0000

[Itys Bitys Seamstress] now has a Facebook page! Stay updated on all the new items arriving in my shop. I would love to custom make a headband for your little one! If you have any questions or comments, you can reach me through my Etsy shop, or my Facebook page.

Post by Itsy Bitsy Seamstress.

My Mannequin Head

noreply@blogger.com (Namely Original) — Tue, 11 Mar 2014 15:05:00 +0000

A while back I bought a Styrofoam mannequin head for Julia thinking she could use it as a prop when she photographs her headbands for Etsy. She didn't like it so I left it on a table in the basement. Sometime later I found it chewed up, no not the dog, our little four year old decided to chew the nose and poke some holes in it. So it sat down there until the other day I thought about covering it with dictionary pages using Mod Podge.

I used scrunched up paper dipped in mod podge to fill the holes that my son made, then put paper over that. The holes are no longer visible and I like the look of the dictionary pages much better. For the rest I ripped up the pages to get the look I wanted.

It was really easy and I like how it turned out.

Julia still doesn't want to use it as a prop but that's OK because I'll use it in my decor.

Painted Vintage Sewing Box

noreply@blogger.com (Namely Original) — Wed, 26 Feb 2014 16:05:00 +0000

I found an interesting item at an auction recently. It's an accordion style sewing box. I had never even seen anything like it, but I liked it and bought it thinking I would paint it.

I sanded, primed, painted, and then distressed. It took a lot longer to paint than I thought it would.

Here's how it looked when I bought it.

The inside definitely needed something done to it.

I added some cute paper using Mod Podge. I like it so much better. I almost thought about keeping it since my sewing box a quite a bit smaller.

It is available in our Etsy Shop.

I just love old sewing notions. I got it all with the vintage sewing drawers at a resale shop last year.

My favorite part of the box is the paper inside!

Laminate Bookshelf Repurposed

noreply@blogger.com (Namely Original) — Fri, 21 Feb 2014 17:32:00 +0000

I feel like I hit the jackpot last week, but I don't play the lottery so I know it was God's blessing. My husband listens to a radio show called Tradio and someone advertised that they were cleaning out a basement and were selling antiques. I went with Emily to check it out and they had a lot of cool stuff mostly from the Thirties and at supper good prices!

I really need a good place to photograph things for my Etsy Shop so I decided to paint an old laminate shelf for this purpose. I had one downstairs from my son's room that I thought would work. I added pallet wood to the top since it had some cardboard, and pallet wood to the bottom since it once sat on a dresser and now would sit on the ground.

Can you believe it's the same shelf? I just love how it turned out!
I first primed the shelf with Zinsser, and then I painted it with regular acrylic paint. I mixed my own paint colors to get a creamy white. Afterwards, I distressed to give it a vintage look.

Most of the stuff on the shelves came from this ladies basement, and I have lots more!

Now I want to keep the things on this shelf instead of selling. The scale is already listed and is available here.

At least I have plenty of other things to list until I have to decide about selling this stuff,and I'm glad I have somewhere to take pictures now!

Vintage Painted High Chairs

noreply@blogger.com (Namely Original) — Tue, 11 Feb 2014 14:28:00 +0000

It's weird how inspiration strikes me sometimes. I was leafing through an old BHG magazine and I noticed a high chair in the background of one of the photos. Then I thought I have two highchairs, I should do something with them! Funny they've been sitting there for quite some time.

This is the first one I painted. I chose a nice sunny color to brighten it up since it was so drab.

The distressing always brings out the details.

It looks more off white in this picture than it does in real life.

It Sold! And no longer available in our Etsy shop.

Here's the next one, I love the vintage look of it!

Emily painted this one. She did super job on the distressing.

I love her idea to paint on the place setting!

This high chair is much older than the first one, I love the shape of the tray.

This one is also available in our Etsy shop, The Tattered Hanky.

Leave a comment and let us know what you think, which one do you like best?

Milk Crate Ottoman

noreply@blogger.com (Namely Original) — Mon, 03 Feb 2014 15:16:00 +0000

I went to an auction a couple weeks ago and picked up two old milk crates, and thought about turning them into ottomans. I had already seen a tutorial on how to make these here , it looked easy and so cute.

I had all the supplies on hand. The canvas came from an auction too! I think the industrial canvas goes perfectly with the look of the crate.

I cut out a piece of plywood to make a bottom on the ottoman.

I had some wheels from a cabinet that I added to one of the crates.

The lid is removable so it can be used for storage.

The back looks nice too, so you can use it to set something on it. Only the one with wheels is still available in our Etsy shop.

And here's a rocking horse that we also found at an auction. I painted it and distressed it and now it looks much cuter than when we found it. This is also available in our shop.

Have a blessed week!

Two Chairs Get A New Life

noreply@blogger.com (Namely Original) — Wed, 29 Jan 2014 19:40:00 +0000

I love buying old chairs that need to be redone. I found this chair at a garage sale this summer. It was pretty sturdy and I liked the shape, but it was worn out. I re stained it and added new a new cushion and fabric. It is definitely improved! This is the chair that Julia snatched up for her room.

Her it was before, it actually looks better in the picture.

I took some pictures of the chair but Julia was not happy with them, so she took some of her own . I have to say her pictures were much better than mine!

The next chair my husband brought home for me from an auction. The finish on this one was good, so I left it the way it was. The fabric on the other hand definitely needed to go.

I added new cushions, fabric and upholstery pins. Pretty easy fix.

Much better, and more modern! Love the shape of the legs on it, I wish I knew how old it is.

DIY Ruffled Crib Skirt And Wall Art

noreply@blogger.com (Namely Original) — Wed, 22 Jan 2014 20:39:00 +0000

I am getting ready for our baby and it's fun to have something new even if it is our tenth. I was really getting tired of the bed skirt I had. It was kind of short and I could always see the stuff that got stored under the crib(box of diapers, clothes or toys ). I decided I would make my own skirt out of my old king sized sheets.

I started out by using an old crib skirt I didn't need anymore. That gave me the material I would need for under the mattress. I cut off all four sides of the skirt but probably only needed two of them cut off since I only made ruffles only for the two sides that were visible. I cut wide strips out of my king sized sheet, making enough for three ruffles on each side.

It took me a while to put it together since I don't sew that often. At the end I decided I would only put two ruffles on the front, but this morning I thought it over and added the other ruffle on. It was bothering me that both sides weren't the same. So glad I took the extra time to do it right!

Here's the new wall art I came up with. I added burlap to the mat and used scrapbook paper and some fabric for the inside. I glued it all in with Elmer's glue. I also painted the frame off white. Julia recently re-did some frames for her room you can see here.

Now I have a nice new space for our little one at no cost!

10 Valentine's Day Ideas

noreply@blogger.com (Namely Original) — Sat, 18 Jan 2014 15:56:00 +0000

These are just a few cute ideas for Valentine's Day!

New York Cheesecake

Strawberry Nutella Poptarts

Paint Chip Art

DIY Valentine's Box

Heart Shaped Carrots

Love Bug Valentine's Cards

Pallet Sign Ideas

Valentine’s Day Egg in the Basket

Valentine's Day Treat Bags

New York Cheesecake

noreply@blogger.com (Namely Original) — Tue, 14 Jan 2014 17:21:00 +0000

This is the best cheesecake ever! I love everything about it. We sometimes add fruit to the top, or a raspberry sauce, but you can also do chocolate. My aunt gave us this recipe and it has become a family favorite.

So here it is:

New York Cheesecake

Shortbread crust:

1 1/4 cup flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp lemon zest, optional
1/4 tsp salt
8 Tbs unsalted butter, softened and cut into 8 pieces
1 large egg yolk
1 egg white beaten

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Lightly grease a 9 inch spring form pan. Wisk the dry together. Mash in butter with a fork. Add egg yolk and mix just until the dough forms a ball. Press about 1/3 of the dough evenly over the bottom of the pan. Prick dough all over with a fork. Bake until crust is lightly golden brown, about 10-15 min. Cool completely on rack. Press remaining dough around the sides of the pan, making sure that the dough is attached to the bottom crust. Brush the bottom and sides of the crust with the egg white. Refrigerate the crust until ready to use.

Filling:

2 1/2 lbs. cream cheese ( 5 8oz packages)
1 3/4 cup sugar
3 Tbs flour ( optional)
1 tsp grated lemon zest
1/2 tsp vanilla
5 large eggs
2 large egg whites
1/2 cup heavy cream

Preheat oven to 500 degrees F. Have all ingredients at room temperature. Beat the cream cheese in a large bowl until creamy. Gradually add the sugar and flour; beat until smooth and creamy, scraping the beaters and sides of the bowl, about 1-2 min. Beat in the lemon zest and vanilla. Beat in the eggs and yolks one at a time, just until in corporates, scraping the sides of the bowl and the beaters after each addition. On low speed, beat in the cream. Scrap the batter into the crust. Bake for 15 min. at 500 degrees F. Reduce the temperature to 200 degrees F and bake for 1 hour. Turn oven off and prop oven door open for 30 min. Let cool. Cover and refrigerate.

And there you have it! This recipe is a little bit long, but trust me you won't regret making it one bit :)

Teen Girl Room Re-do

noreply@blogger.com (Namely Original) — Mon, 13 Jan 2014 15:16:00 +0000

Does anyone remember the teen's room we did last year? Well Julia has been talking about changing the decor in her room, so at Christmas she got a new bedspread. Her bedspread and some of her wall art went to her younger sister, who was happy to get it, and Julia started looking for ideas on decorating her room once more. I'm happy to say she came up with some really cute ideas that we could work with, and we didn't spend very much either!

One of the first things she said was that she wanted to lighten the room some. If you remember her walls were a dark brown. I suggested she paint the wall behind her bed a light beige ( I didn't feel like painting the whole room).

She went downstairs, mixed her own paint color and painted the wall all on her own! I think this brought the much needed light in her room!

After searching Pintrest, Julia came up with the idea of putting a shelf above her bed. I liked this idea because we could build it and she could change things around easily when she got tiered of things. Making the shelf was pretty easy. We already had a board I had picked up for free, my husband helped attach the molding(which came off of an antique dresser ) and we bought the supports to hang the shelf at Lowe's for about $7. Julia painted it white and her dad helped her hang it up. Then we went searching through our stuff to decorate it. She even made the round topiary herself.

She took some Mason jars and painted them blue then added hydrangeas and grass to them.

She found this cute basket that wasn't being used in her sister's room, and filled it with some pillows she had made.

Don't you just love the chair in the corner? I found it at a garage sale for $2 this fall and redid it. Julia snatched it up for her room.

The cork board got cleaned up a bit, and a new pallet sign hung above it.

If anyone wants to see how I revamped a cheep laminate shelf check it out here.

Julia re-did her pictures (once baby wall art) one more time. This time she wrapped the matting with burlap and added some scrapbook paper to the inside.

She added some doilies to her lamp shade to freshen it up a bit.

We found most of the pillows at Goodwill (they get them brand new from Target). The Front teal pillow was made by Julia.

I love that Julia came up with the ideas herself and put them into practice with just a little help! It's also a big plus that we didn't spend a fortune doing it!

Girls Room On A Budget

noreply@blogger.com (Namely Original) — Tue, 07 Jan 2014 17:31:00 +0000

It is cold here this week! Our kids are getting an extra long vacation and they are enjoying it along with the deep snow. My husband even got a day off work, which was nice since he was so busy before the holidays. We' re spending time playing, cooking up new things, decorating and moving things around in some of the girl's rooms.

I'm so glad to be done with the room I started re-doing for two of our girls a while back! If you have been following along we were shuffling some of the kids around to make room for our tenth baby who is due in April. We found out it's a girl! That makes eight girls and two boys.

I sold the bunk bed, and wanted to put a queen sized bed in this room. I didn't want to spend a lot of money so I shopped my favorite places. I started looking on Craig's List for furniture. Nothing. I tried re-sale shops and Goodwill. Nothing.Then I started thinking of the stuff I had in my basement from garage sales this past summer. First I painted the Gray Antique Dresser (which I got for $10!), then made my own headboard ( Free!).

Here's what the room looked like before. This is the only before picture I could find, sorry.

I had a sturdy bookshelf already, but it was a blond wood laminate. I painted it the same color as the antique dresser.

The shelves were made from old drawers that I painted and the plate was an old red wooden plate also painted. I purchased the drawers from a resale shop for $5.

I also had a little night stand that was perfect for this small room. I got it for 5 dollars! One corner was broken so I fixed it with Bondo and then painted it teal.

The lamp was a Goodwill find, and only cost $7.

While out shopping at the mall, I saw a very similar chair for $100. My husband got this chair for a couple bucks at an auction, but it was in really sad shape. The seat and back needed gluing together, and with some wood glue and clamps it was an easy fix. I painted and distressed it, now it's as good as new! Like my rag wreath? I made it out of scraps from old clothes I found around the house.

Does anyone remember the china cabinet doors I made for the Girl's Vintage Room? I had one left over,
and my daughter wanted a space for hanging her pictures. I added burlap to the back to add some contrast.

All my kids have coat racks behind their doors to help them keep their jackets and back packs organized. I painted this one to match their room. I got the rack for $2 at a yard sale!

The girls always come to my bathroom to do their hair in the morning so I definatly wanted then to have a mirror above their dresser. I found this super heavy mirror for $20 and repainted it.

We redid all the small decor pieces in the room. The owl picture had a country theme before, and the little box was a purple treasure chest.

When I made the headboard for this room, there was some wood left over, so they became decorative pieces.

So is any one keeping track of how much I spent? If you lost track...

Gray Dresser: $10

Nightstand : $5

Headboard: Free

Bookshelf : Already Had

Lamp: $7

Chair: $2

Wall Shelves: $5

Curtains and Bed Skirt: $8

Pillows: $6

Grand Total: $43!!