Persia Lou

Installing Penny Tile Floors Part One

2013-06-17T21:20:00.001-07:00

This is what my bathroom/bedroom looks like right now. That's real life, folks. Real, messy life.

We've been slowly remodeling our Master bathroom over the past couple months. Yay! I wasn't being a good blogger when we started this project, so I don't have an excellent before picture, but I did scrape up this realtor photo from when we bought the house:

Yes, ladies and gents, that's carpet in the bathroom. Why, oh, why do they do this? Next to the bath tub? Why?! So, nearly four years later the carpet (and the lovely linoleum in the WC) are no more.

(You may notice that the cabinets are looking a bit different from that before photo too. I'll have to do a post on that project soon.)

We chose a white porcelain penny tile for the bathroom floors. I have always loved that kind of tile. It is definitely a bit retro, but I think it's a classic too. The tile comes attached to a mesh backing in 12x12 sheets, like so:

One of the great things about this tile (in my opinion) is that you don't need a tile saw to cut it. These are the only tools we've been using to lay the tile:

Scissors and tile nippers. The scissors cut the mesh, and when we need a half or quarter tile, we use the nippers. It's a bit tedious, perhaps, but definitely easy.

So far we have put down the adhesive and the tile. Here's what it looks like pre-grout:

Yay! So excited for it to be all finished.

Nursery in Progress

2013-06-17T13:49:00.001-07:00

Here's a little nursery sneak peek. The walls are still bare, but I finished up three sewing projects this weekend!

Hopefully it will all be done by the time out little man arrives!

Small World Decoupage Globe (Vintage Disneyland Room)

2013-06-12T11:46:00.000-07:00

You all have seen the amazing decoupage globes created by Wendy Gold, right? They are so inspirational, and I would love to own one. This is one of my favorites, and one that I thought would fit into my kids' Vintage Disneyland Room pretty well:

ImagineNations by Wendy Gold

It reminds me of the Pixar movie UP. Carl and Ellie would have it in their house. Don't you think? The more I thought about a vintage globe in the vintage Disneyland room, the more I thought that I needed to make a small world globe that reflected the artistic style of one of my favorite Disney artists, Mary Blair.

I found artwork online that I printed out and decoupaged onto the globe.

I found the different sun artwork at the Disneyland California Report, and the children from around the world were created by Greg Maletic for Hong Kong Disneyland. After decoupaging the images to my globe, I hand painted yellow and pink triangles to create a path around the world and connect all the images.

I am really happy with the way it came out.

What do you all think? I hope to be able to show off the completed Disneyland room soon!

Linking up at Whimsy Wednesday, 36th Avenue, Today's Creative Blog, Lil Luna Link Party, Clean and Scentsible, Tatertots and Jello, Whipperberry, Liz Marie Blog, Flamingo Toes, A Night Owl Blog, 30 Handmade Days, Shaken Together, and Lolly Jane.

Make a Simple Pleated Crib Skirt

2013-06-10T09:59:00.000-07:00

Work on baby boy's nursery is progressing! Last week I sewed up some simple crib bedding. Have you made a crib sheet before? It is SO SO easy. You can whip one up in 30 minutes easy and make them in whatever fun fabrics or patterns your little heart desires. Check out Made's tutorial here. If you want a simple crib skirt to go with your simple crib sheet, lemme show you how to throw one together.

Basically, you need five panels to make a crib skirt: the rectangular base of the crib skirt and one panel to drape off of each side. Start off by determining the dimensions of the five rectangles you need to cut.

First, you will need to cut a piece of fabric for the base. This fabric will not be visible, so feel free to use some piece of fabric that has been sitting in your stash for years. The base will be the size of your mattress plus seam allowances. My base piece was 28x53 inches.

Next, determine the dimensions of the panels--two long sides and two short sides. The side panels will be the length of the crib mattress + pleat + hem allowances. I allowed three inches for the pleat and one inch for hems on each side, which gave me a 56 inch length for the long panels and 31 inches for the short panels

I wanted my crib skirt to have an 11 inch drape (When the crib mattress is lowered, the skirt will be the exact distance from the floor. I decided to go with a shorter drape since the mattress will be in the lowered position longer.), so the other dimension of my side panels was 12 inches (11 inches plus 1 inch for hem/seam allowances).

Once you have done all your maths, cut out your five rectangles.

For my skirt, I cut:

1 base (28x53)

2 long side panels (12x56)

2 short side panels (12x31)

Next, I zig zag stitched around the edges of my panels to finish and prevent fraying (use a serger if you have it or a rolled hem if you prefer). Then hemmed up three sides of each panel a half inch.

Once all the panels are hemmed on three sides (don't hem the top where the panel will be attached to the base fabric), its time to make your pleat. I folded my panels in half and pressed the seam to mark the center of each panel. Then I measured an inch and a half on either side of that center mark (because I had allowed three inches for the pleat. If you wanted a bigger pleat, you could allow four inches and then mark two inches on either side of the center, for example).

Bring your marks (I just used pins) to the center mark and press. Pin your pleat in place.

Stitch your pleat in place with a basting stitch a quarter inch from the edge of your fabric. This stitching will keep the pleat in place when you attach it to the base, but it will not show when the crib skirt is complete.

Finally, sew the panels to the base fabric! Center the panels on each side of the base fabric (right sides together!) and pin in place. Sew each panel leaving a half inch seam allowance. If you want, you can finish your seam allowance with a zig zag stitch or serger.

Viola! Crib skirt!

When baby is bigger and the mattress is lowered, the pleat will drape below the crib and look like this:

Maybe the best thing about this crib skirt is that it cost me about six dollars. SIX. Woot!

Linking up at Ready, Set, Pin Party; Craft-O-Maniac Monday; Made by You Monday; Monday Funday; Sundae Scoop; Nifty Thrifty Sunday; Tatertots and Jello; Whipperberry; Liz Marie Blog; Flamingo Toes; A Night Owl Blog; 30 Handmade Days; and That DIY Party.

Treat Million Card Giveaway

2013-06-05T07:00:00.000-07:00

We like free stuff, right? Right.

So, check it: From now through June 17, any new customer to Treat can get a free card for any occasion absolutely free.

Treat sells personalized cards you can ship directly from their site. Totally convenient. You can change the message, fonts, and add your own photos.

I'm thinking this is just in time for Father's Day. My kids have four grandpas, so this may be the perfect way to send each one a little love. This card is cute:

And, next year, when we have three kiddos in our house, I'm totally coming back for this one:

Anyway, to get your FREE card:

1. Check out the selection and choose your favorite card (It doesn't have to be a Father's Day card!).
2. Upload pictures, choose your font and message, and preview the card to make sure it's right..
3. Use promo code TREAT1MA when you checkout.
4. Enjoy the response!

NOTE: To get the card totally free, have it shipped to you. For the cost of a stamp, Treat can mail it directly to the recipient.

See my disclosure policy here.

I Tried It Tuesday: Strawberry Cheesecake Cupcakes

2013-06-04T08:00:00.000-07:00

Almost every Sunday, my family and I go over to my mom's house for dinner. And pretty much every single one of those Sundays, my mom makes some delicious variety of cupcake--peach cupcakes, Oreo cupcakes, S'more cupcakes--good stuff, people, good stuff. What I'm trying to tell you folks is that I have a decent amount of cupcake eating experience. And, guys, in my expert opinion, these little strawberry cheesecake cupcakes might actually be the VERY BEST.

I actually made these back in February for Valentine's Day, but they are a perfect summer BBQ treat too. Get the recipe here at Dollhouse Bake Shoppe.

Here are my tips:

Feel free to substitute your favorite cream cheese frosting.
Don't be tempted to replace the cake batter with some other white cake recipe. Seriously, this cake is SO good.
I used store bought strawberry jam rather than making my own filling. It's okay. Give yourself a break. It's still going to be delicious. Trust.
It's no big deal if you don't have a bismark tip for filling the cupcakes. I cut a little cone out of each cupcake, and it actually created an adorable heart-shaped strawberry filling in the middle of each cupcake (Really! Check out the picture below).
Prepare yourself for compliments. I may be overselling these, but really. So. Good.

Linking up at Monday Funday, Made by You Monday, Take a Look Tuesday, The Scoop Link Party, Market Yourself Monday, and Craft-o-Maniac.

Baby Boy Nursery Chair Roundup

2013-05-30T17:55:00.001-07:00

The one thing I would like to most buy for our new little guy's nursery is a new rocker or glider. Unfortunately, the budget is getting low, and I'm just not sure its going to happen right away. Here are some of my top choices for (mostly) affordable nursery chairs. Which is your favorite?

1. Target 2. Target 3. Thrive Furniture 4. Ikea 5. West Elm 6. Ikea

Linking up at Someday Crafts, The Weekly Creative, and Live, Laugh, Rowe.

Herringbone Quilts Part Two

2013-05-25T21:56:00.000-07:00

Be sure to check out my first post on my herringbone quilts here.

Guys. Making two twin-size quilts is a lot of work. A lot. Especially for newbie like me. But I think it was worth it. Check em:

I just... Ah! I am SO happy with them. And I think their new owners are too.

Yeah. I like that.

And I like the being done part too. Because sometimes when I was wrestling those big guys around my little Singer I was thinking maybe I'd rather be doing something else. Just sometimes though.

So to get from cut, pieced, and basted to cuddling, I had to do my quilting and binding, which were the two scariest parts of the whole thing for an inexperienced quilter like myself. I had done machine quilting before, but not on this scale.

When I went into the quilting, I didn't have a real plan. I knew that I wanted to follow the lines of the pattern but that I also wanted to give the quilt some texture. Here's what I came up with:

First, I did my stitch in the ditch (really it was more like stitch near the ditch) quilting in the vertical seams. Next, I quilted a quarter inch on either side of each zig-zag. Next, I played up the chevron pattern by stitching at different distances on one side of each zig-zag. My machine came with something called a quilting bar that helps you to make lines of stitches at a certain distance from a line of stitches previously quilted. All you do is set the bar to the distance you want and then line the bar up with the previous row of stitches:

And here's what it looked like when all the quilting was finished:

Which brought me to binding. Ah, binding. Is this super scary to anyone else? I wanted to use a contrasting fabric for the binding, but I had never done a real binding on a quilt before. I had always just folded the backing over onto the front. I followed my friend Christa's very useful machine quilting binding tutorial.

First, I cut my fabric into 2 1/4 inch crosswise strips. I needed 8 strips to go all the way around the border of my quilt, which was about 3/4 yard of fabric.

After the strips were all pieced together and pressed in half lengthwise (Christa's tutorial explains exactly how to do this), I had a nice LONG piece of binding.

I had no trouble with the first step of attaching the binding strip to the front of the quilt, but when I folded it over to finish the binding, I had a bit of trouble. At least with my first quilt. I learned my lesson, and the second one turned out MUCH better. Here's my tips.

One quick (maybe obvious) tip, is to make sure you put right sides of fabric together when you are joining your binding. In Christa's tutorial, she uses a solid fabric, so it can be a little confusing if you are using a print. Here's how my final pieces of binding pieced together:

Most importantly, make sure you are attaching your binding with exactly a 1/4 inch seam. I don't know about you all, but I am not normally a super precise sewer. I think most of my trouble with the first quilt was that my seam attaching the binding was actually a bit wider than 1/4 inch, so I had to really stretch the binding to make it wrap around to the back of the quilt. To avoid this problem on the second quilt, I actually busted out my tape measure, adjusted my needle, and made sure my needle was exactly 1/4 inch from the edge of my foot, so I could ensure an accurate seam allowance.

Finishing the binding on the second quilt was so much easier than the first, and it looks better too. You can see the difference:

Not so nice

Much better

Welp... That's about it! How about a few beauty shots for the road?

Check back soon for the full Vintage Disneyland Room Reveal! (ooh... in all caps!!)

Linking up at Whipperberry, Tatertots and Jello, Thirty Handmade Days, A Night Owl Blog, Flamingo Toes, Nifty Thrifty Things, Ready, Set, Pin Party, Monday Funday, The Scoop, and I Heart Naptime.

New Nursery Mood Board

2013-05-22T11:23:00.000-07:00

We are getting close to welcoming a new little man to our family, which means it is time to redo the nursery. Here is what we started with:

There are a lot of things I still liked about this room, but I was ready for a change and a new color scheme. I didn't hate the bright apple green color, but it was feeling awfully bright and I wasn't coming up with any good ideas for incorporating it into a new, more masculine plan for the room. Plus, what's better than a new coat of paint, right?

Here's my favorite part of the old nursery:

We removed the closet doors, which opened up the room by pushing the changing area into the closet space. I used a paint marker to draw the pattern on the wall in the closet (you can read about a similar project here), and I still really like it. So I worked on coming up with a design that I felt would mesh well with the existing changing/dressing space.

Here's the mood board I created for our new little guy's room:

Sources: lamp and shade, Target; rug, RugsUSA; Hollie Chastain print; paint color Ocean Storm Valspar

I'm SO excited to see it all finished. I picked a dark gray to replace the apple green walls and decided to add navy blue, yellow, and white to the palette. You can see some of my inspiration for the room on my pinterest board here. It's starting to come together; we painted on Monday and ordered the rug yesterday. And look what came in the mail recently(!):

I am so excited for the print I ordered from Hollie Chastain (who I discovered through the Jealous Curator, one of my favorite blogs). AND she even added a little collaged element to the envelope the print shipped in. I love details like that.

Now I've just got a whole bunch of sewing to do, so look for lots more nursery projects to come!

Linking up at the Ready, Set, Pin Party; The Creative Spark at Clean and Scentsible; 36th Avenue; I Gotta Create, Live, Laugh, Rowe; Domestic Superhero; Someday Crafts; and The Scoop Link Party.

Ikea Tarva Hack: Vintage Disneyland Room Dresser

2013-05-16T14:12:00.001-07:00

The Vintage Disneyland Room is slowly coming together, and this is probably my favorite completed project so far. The kids' room's design is inspired by the Disneyland attraction posters of the 50s and 60s. To keep with that theme, I decided I wanted to give the furnishings a mid-century modern feel.

We bought this inexpensive (but real wood!) Tarva dresser from Ikea with the idea of sprucing it up a bit:

I searched pinterest for mid-century dressers to inspire me, and here are a couple that I found:

Dream Green DIY

Wood Bird Design

I loved the dressers I found that painted the tops and sides of the dressers while leaving the drawer fronts stained wood, so I decided to attempt to recreate the same kind of look with my cheap-o Ikea dresser. (See more inspiration on my Disneyland Room Pin Board)

We started out by building the entire dresser. In some Ikea hack tutorials, they paint or stain before assembling. It is probably easier to paint a bunch of flat boards rather than an assembled dresser, but we thought the dresser might go together better and more easily before it was painted. The plan was to paint everything a chartreuse semi-gloss, except for the drawers that would be stained, and then add brass pulls.

Here's the dresser all assembled in our living room corner before we got to staining and painting:

Annnnnd there's the after. Have I mentioned I really like it?

To get this result, we first needed to fill the pre-drilled knob holes in the drawer fronts. Use a little bit of wood filler in each hole. Use just enough to fill in the hole, and try not to spread it around the hole too much because the filler may not take the stain the same way the wood does. You can see what the filled hole looks like here:

It's really not too noticeable. After filling and sanding to remove any excess wood filler, we applied two coats of a medium tone stain and two coats of a gloss polyurethane.

Finally, we drilled new holes for the brass pulls we had selected, and then she was all done! Whaddya'll think?

I can't wait to show off the completed room! It's coming along. Just a few more projects to finish up (like those dang quilts...)

Linking up at The Weekly Creative, Live Laugh Linky, Inspire Me Wednesday at MamaBuzz, Suburbs Mama, Whipperberry, Liz Marie Blog, Chase the Star, Thirty Handmade Days, and I Gotta Create!

Herringbone Quilts Part One

2013-05-08T23:09:00.001-07:00

One of the big projects I have been working on as part of the larger new kids' room project is making two twin-sized quilts. I knew that I wanted to make two quilts in the same pattern but different colors - one for my son and one for my daughter. I wanted to do something simple and graphic.

Originally, I was thinking I would do chevron or zig-zag quilts, until I saw this quilt by Craftyblossom (who makes and sells the MOST amazing quilts. Seriously, check her out.):

And I immediately knew I was switching to a herringbone pattern. I had already bought fabric, but it was no big deal, because the herringbone pattern uses half-triangle squares just like a chevron pattern, but just twisted a different way.

It just so happened that my real-life friend and jogging buddy, Christa over at ChristaQuilts, did a whole awesome chevron quilt-a-long on her blog last year, and I used her tutorials to help me get going.

I knew I wanted twin-sized quilts, so I took out my grid paper (wait - is that a thing?) and math brain and tried to figure out how big my squares were going to be and how many I needed to get the finished size I wanted. Christa's tutorial has you use charm packs of pre-cut squares, which would be totally nice, but I wanted specific colors and I'm cheap so I bought fabric by the yard and cut my own squares. That also meant that I could use larger squares, which equals fewer squares to piece in the end. I used five yards of white fabric and three yards each of coral and teal for both quilt tops. I cut my fabric into 8" squares - 54 each of the teal and coral and 108 of the white.

Christa's blog has a super smart tip for how to get half-triangle squares, without actually cutting triangles. By marking the diagonal on one square, sewing two squares together 1/4" on either side of the diagonal line, and then cutting along the diagonal you marked previously, you will end up with two half-triangle squares. Viola! Hopefully you can see what I mean here:

Here, I have sewn a coral and white square together on either side of the diagonal line that I had previously marked on my white square. Now, I am going to cut along the diagonal which gives me two magically pieced triangle squares. Pretty soon you will have nice big piles of squares ready to be pressed open and pieced together.

I totally recommend having a buddy hang out with you while you work. You can each work on your own project.

To get my finished quilt of 63"x84", I needed 12 rows of 9 squares each pieced together with a 1/4" seam. I used the pattern I had drawn out on my grid paper (no - graph paper?) to help me piece my squares together correctly. I tried to be careful to get the orientation right before I stitched, and only had to unpick one! :) Pretty soon, I had two completed quilt tops.

This is about the point where I started to think that maybe I should have just bought some comforters at Target and called it good. The piecing I can do, but the quilting is what intimidates me. But, I sucked it up and got down to work. Next step: Basting!

I made my quilt sandwich: fabric backing, batting (I used cotton), and quilt top. Then pinned them together with safety pins. They have fancy curved quilting safety pins, but I just used regular old safety pins, and I think they worked fine.

Roll her up, and you are ready to start quilting that beast. I've never quilted anything this big, and while it is not the easiest thing I've done, it is doable.

So, this is where I am spending my spare time right now:

I am about halfway done quilting the teal guy and my dear, dear mother is working on quilting the coral one at her place. Hopefully they will be all quilted, bound, and ready to show off soon!

Update: See the rest of the process and the finished quilts here!

Linking up at I Gotta Create, The Crafty Blog Stalker, Live Laugh Rowe, and Bloom Designs.

I Tried it Tuesday: Pixel Painting

2013-05-07T10:49:00.000-07:00

Two Christmases ago, I was really focused on making a handmade Christmas. I had come up with lots of fun handmade gift ideas for my kids, my mom, my sisters, but I was getting a little stuck on what to make for my husband. Until I saw Wit & Whistle's pixel painting. I liked that it was simple, meaningful, and something that I thought he would like.

The idea is to take an image, pixelize it, and then recreate it in watercolors. The result is a beautiful, abstract image. I started with an image of the famous arch in Cabo San Lucas, which is were we honeymooned. Since I knew I wanted to frame the finished painting, I set up my grid so I would end up with an 8"x10" painting that would be easy (i.e., inexpensive) to frame. To accomplish that, I scaled my image down to 20 pixels by 15 pixels using GIMP, a free photo editing program similar to photoshop. Here's what the photo looked like when scaled to 20x15:

Next, I created a grid of 20x15 half inch squares on my paper, and when to work filling in my grid. It took a little bit of time to fill in all those squares, but I really love the way it turned out. It's not a faithful recreation of the original image, but if that's what I wanted I guess I would have just printed the thing out.

Now, it hangs in our room, and I like it so much I've often thought of doing more paintings of other meaningful places to add to the display. What do you all think? I would definitely recommend giving this project a go. Be sure to stop by Wit & Whistle to see her inspirational painting.

Linking up at I Heart Naptime, Nifty Thrifty Things, Homemaker on a Dime, Monday Funday, The Inspiration Board, You're Gonna Love It, BeBetsy, Inspire Me Wednesday at MamaBuzz, and The Scoop at Lolly Jane.

See previous "I Tried It Tuesday" posts here.

A Simple Lego Party

2013-05-01T16:55:00.002-07:00

For my son's 5th birthday party, we decided on a Lego theme. He has really been getting into Legos lately, and there are so many great resources for Lego parties out there that I knew a Lego theme could produce a party that was fun and special for my son, but also easy to put together for me. I got a lot of "Wow, you really went all out," when it was honestly one of the easiest parties I have ever put together.

So, want my best-number-one-pro tip on throwing a fun, easy Lego party? Here it is: Have a super nice friend who just threw her kid a Lego party give you all her leftover stuff. Seriously, it's the way to go.

My friend loaned me her green bubble wrap for a cool Lego looking runner, her leftover Lego-shaped candies for cupcake toppers, her Lego mold that she used to make crayons (which I didn't even get to), some already printed construction paper lego bricks, and some mini-figure die cuts for the kids to make and decorate their own mini-figures.

If you don't have a friend who has recently thrown a Lego party, don't fret! You have something almost as good, my friends: the Internet! Yes! SO much good stuff out there. Like, maybe you want to download some awesome, free mini-figure masks?

The little lady mini-figure is pretty dang cute.

Or, you can find instructions for my favorite project of the party, the Lego head marshmallow pops. Living Locurto has a nice, simple tutorial for making them that I followed. I used a Americolor Gourmet Writer pen to draw the faces and google image search for some inspiration.

These were so easy I don't know if I will ever make cake pops again. We may only have marshmallow pops from here on out.

And don't forget all the graphics and font type resources available to help you design your invites:

You can download the Lego Thick font for free, and the image of the two minifigures holding the sign came from Cleo Livin Life. (I am thinking I will work up a quick tutorial on how to make the Lego Thick font look just like the Lego logo. Its not too difficult, but does take just a bit of computer savvy. Watch for that to come soon.)

And there are TONS of great ideas, tips, tutorials, and free downloads I didn't use. Check out my Party Hearty Pinterest board for more ideas.

The main event at the party was Lego car building and racing. My husband built a quick ramp out of some leftover two by fours and a piece of something that we think was called drawer liner from the home improvement store (it's the stuff used for the bottoms of cheap drawers). It's strong but flexible, which gave the ramp a nice curve. I painted on a few lanes and a start and finish line.

For favors, I bought the little Lego kits you can get on the endcaps of the toy section at Target or Wal-Mart for 3-4 bucks. I stapled on a little paper topper and called it good.

If you want to print off your own favor toppers, click on the image below, then right click and copy image or save it to your computer. Print 'em off, cut 'em out, and glue 'em onto some yellow cardstock.

Linking up at Whatever Goes Wednesday at Someday Crafts, Whip It Up Wednesday at Naptime is My Time, I Gotta Create!, Keep Calm and Link Up, Dear Creatives, Friday Flair at Whipperberry, and Inspire Me Wednesday at MamaBuzz.

Refinishing Mom's Hutch

2013-04-30T01:18:00.001-07:00

Last year for Christmas, my dear husband asked me for gift ideas, and I told him that what I really wanted was for him to paint a hutch that we had inherited from my mom. It took up quite a bit of space in our garage for a few months, but eventually I got my gift, and here it is all finished up:

I don't have a before picture. I know - total blogger fail - but imagine a medium tone wood. Sorry! Step one was to cover that up with some paint. After sanding and priming, it took a couple coats of a soft black paint with a purple undertone, which I think works well in our little dining area.

I knew that I wanted a graphic design in the back of the hutch, but it took me a long time to decide exactly what I wanted to do. Initially, I thought I would choose some wallpaper, but never found one (that wasn't 200 dollars a roll) that I really liked. For a while I considered a thick gift wrap like this one, but could only get a few rolls in the store.

So, what was the solution? A cotton shower curtain! Seriously! And, I think it was actually the perfect solution. It cost about 20 bucks AND since the fabric was wide enough to fit the entire back of the hutch, I didn't have to do any piecing. Score! I simple cut the fabric to size, and used mod podge to stick it to the back of the hutch.

I am very happy with it. I think it adds a lot to our kitchen/dining area, and - best of all - I have some place to put grandma's china now. Good job, honey!

Linking up at Skip to My Lou, I Heart Naptime, Nifty Thrifty Things, Wow Us Wednesday at Savvy Southern Style, Someday Crafts, Dear Creatives, Friday Flair at Whipperberry, and Funky Polkadot Giraffe.

Origami Bow Decor

2012-08-30T17:03:00.002-07:00

I saw some awesome origami bows over at HowAbout Orange (one of the best blogs out there in my opinion) recently. They are not too difficult or fussy and you can find detailed, easy-to-follow instructions at Let's Create. I've been wanting to make some and when I was throwing together a last minute birthday get-together for my baby girl the other day, I decided to fold some up.

I really liked the way the magazine pages folded up into pretty bows. I combined them with a few watercolor words for a banner and then stuck others on serving dishes and other places around the house for some quick, free, last minute decor.

I should probably mention that you can get the recipe for that delicious icebox cake at Smitten Kitchen (I made my own wafers using the recipe on the site as well). It's the kind of cake you will dream about for weeks after eating it. You should probably make it.

Linking up at Someday Crafts and Sugar and Dots.

Breaking Up the Green Box

2012-07-26T17:35:00.000-07:00

In our home we have a tiny little powder room. It's only about three feet by six feet (most of which is taken up by the toilet and sink), so you can imagine that it gets pretty crowded when both of my children inevitably follow me in there (boo). Anyway. For the longest time we did absolutely nothing with it. Builder off-white paint, boring mirror, etc.

I got sick of it about a month ago and just bought a gallon of mint green paint on impulse. We threw the paint on the walls, put up a new mirror and light fixture, and it wasn't as boring anymore. But it. was. green.

The room has no natural light and ten foot ceilings, so it's like a dim, tall, green box. It really needed something on the walls to break up the green, so I decided to make a big colorful piece of artwork.

This project was patterned after a cool print by Nancy Ramirez that I originally discovered through Pinterest. She has some beautiful work there that you should definitely go check out. My version is not as precise or beautiful as the original, but I'm happy with it.

What do y'all think? It feels slightly less overwhelmingly green in there - so, success!

I'm linking up at Momnivore's Dilemma and So You Think You're Crafty.

Happy Fourth!

2012-07-09T11:35:00.000-07:00

Just got back from a nice trip to Utah to celebrate the Fourth of July with family, so instead of tackling my laundry mountains, I'm posting pictures.

Of course.

Hope you all had a great holiday too!

Vintage Disneyland Room

2012-06-26T23:00:00.000-07:00

In the next year or so we are planning on moving my son and daughter into the same room, and I've started thinking about how I want to decorate the room to make it fun and cute for a boy and a girl. I also happen to be a slightly insane Disneyland fanatic, and I especially love vintage Disneyland stuff. So, I came up with the idea of using reproductions of vintage Disneyland posters for art, and here's the color scheme/theme board I have come up with so far.

What do you think? I am getting super excited about it!

Finished Crochet Along Afghan

2012-06-18T21:32:00.000-07:00

Last May, I joined the "Square a Day in May" crochet along put together by Hooked on Handmade. The idea was that you would crochet one 12 inch square every day for a month, put them together, and--Voila!--a finished afghan in just a little over a month.

Well.

That was the plan.

What really happened was I did a few squares in May, got totally behind, and then forgot about it for ten months. In the end, I only finished 20 squares, but decided I didn't need a huge 5 foot by 6 foot afghan. So I crocheted the squares together and added a border to the ends to give it a bit more length.

It took me over a year to finish, but I am very happy with the results.

It's the first pieced afghan I have done, and I really like it. It is so much fun to take this:

and end up with this:

Happy Valentine's Day!

2012-02-14T16:53:00.000-08:00

This is what I did yesterday. I mean, all that I did yesterday. I always forget how long sugar cookies can take. But. I do love them.

This is maybe the third time I have decorated with royal icing. I am still getting my technique down. See how my "flood" is a bit lumpy up there? But it is getting better. There are so many amazing people out there who make beautiful cookies, but one of my favorites is Bake at 350. I used her recipe/tutorial for royal icing.

I had some leftover bags from my kid's valentines and some lollipop sticks, so I decided to do some small heart cookie lollipops. I love the way they turned out!

Hope your day is full of love, smiles, and sweets!

Colorful Valentines (Free Printable!)

2012-02-07T19:37:00.000-08:00

I've been wanting to make crayons with my kids for a while now, and Valentine's Day seemed like the perfect excuse to do it! I bought a couple of silicone heart-shaped muffin pans from the dollar section at Target about a month or so ago, and we put them to use!

Rather than give out candy, I thought these colorful hearts would be a fun V-Day gift. I made up a simple topper you can download below, print off, and let your kids color.

This is a simple project that the kids can really take control of. The hardest part is this:

Peeling off all those papers is not so much fun. My son was not so into it, although he did really enjoy breaking the crayons into pieces. My smart husband thought of using an Xacto knife to slice through the wrapper, which worked really well (that would be an adult job, of course).

Once you have all the paper peeled off, break your crayons into pieces.

And then fill up your muffin tin with your color selections. (This is the fun part!)

When you have your color combinations perfected, put the pans into a 200 degree oven. It should take about 20 minutes to melt the crayons down.

Something I Learned: Those cheap crayons they give you at restaurants and the like are no good for this project. Our first batch had some of those mixed in, and they never, ever, ever melted.

Anyway, when your crayons are all liquified, let them cool for 20-30 minutes, pop them out of the molds, and Viola!

Aren't they purty? And fun to color with too!

We were making them for our friends, but my kids have already picked out their favorites to keep for themselves.

If they go too fast, you may need to make an extra batch or two! And if you want to give them away as valentine's for all your buddies, all you need is some flat cello bags (I used 3" x 4" like these) and some of my toppers!

Let your kids color them up, write their names on the back, staple the toppers on, and you are good to go!

Download the free topper printable here!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Linking up at Passionately Artistic, Michelle Paige, Blue Cricket Design, Tutus and Tea Parties, and Sarahndipities.

I'm Back!

2012-02-06T22:36:00.000-08:00

Or on my way at least.

Around the end of November, I went back to work part time, and between that, Christmas, and life, I got behind on my posting and emails. And then I started feeling anxious about being behind. And then I just had to shut that part of my life off for my sanity. But. I'm ready to get back to it!

So. If you have emailed me or left me a comment in the last couple of months, I am sorry that I haven't responded! I will try to get back to you in the next couple of weeks.

I have lots of fun projects to share with you, and I'm hoping to have a couple of Valentine's projects to show off in the next day or two. See you soon!

Pumpkin Blender Pancakes

2011-11-13T21:26:00.000-08:00

I el-oh-vee-ee (that's LOVE) blender pancakes. That's right, blender pancakes. Do you know what I'm talking about? I'm talking about the number one way I use the many boxes of wheat I have stacked up in my closet. [Side Note: Why do I have boxes of wheat stacked in my closet? Because it is healthy, has a super long shelf life, and helps my family be self-reliant. You can read more about that here, if you want.] The basic idea is you throw whole wheat berries into your blender with some other ingredients, and whip up some pancake batter. Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy.

Some of my favorite things about blender pancakes:

They are WHOLE wheat. Like, seriously. The whole wheat berry.
They are quick.
I only have to wash the blender and one skillet.
The blender is perfect for pouring pancakes.
My kids love em.

So, its that time of year when I think basically everything should have some pumpkin thrown into it, and over the past few weeks, I have perfected my pumpkin blender pancake recipe. Here's how you do this.

First, take your wheat (see the recipe below), and put it in your blender.

Hello there, wheat.

Introduce your wheat to some milk. I use skim to keep down the fat and calories, but you could use whatever you have in your fridge.

And start blending! It will take about five minutes (or faster, if you have a fancy shmancy blender) to blend up your wheat and milk to a nice creamy batter like this:

Then, add the rest of the ingredients (this is when the pumpkin comes in) and blend until everything is combined.

Finally, pour your batter onto a hot griddle or skillet right from the blender. I usually sprinkle a few mini chocolate chips onto the batter after I pour it into the skillet.

I like a bit of maple syrup on mine, but really, you don't need it. Yummm.

Pumpkin Blender Pancakes

Ingredients

1 cup whole wheat berries (I use Hard White Wheat, but Red Wheat should work well too)

1 1/2 cups skim milk

2 large eggs

2/3 cup pureed pumpkin

3 Tbsp sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1/8 tsp ground cloves

1/8 tsp ground ginger

1/8 tsp ground allspice

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 Tbsp mini chocolate chips (optional - do not blend!)

Blend milk and wheat in blender for five minutes or until smooth.
Add pumpkin, eggs, vanilla, sugar, baking powder, salt, and spices. Blend until combined.
Pour onto a greased griddle over medium heat. Sprinkle with chocolate chips, if desired. Cook until bubbles begin to pop. Flip pancake and cook for 1-2 minutes longer.
Enjoy!

Linking up at The Girl Creative and Nifty Thrifty Sunday at Nifty Thrifty Things.

Littlest Helper

2011-11-11T08:38:00.000-08:00

I already shared this on facebook, but I couldn't help putting it here too. Do I not have the cutest little helper?

Handmade Gift Guide 2: Firefighter Dress-up

2011-11-10T08:14:00.000-08:00

This gift idea is a lot like the Nightmare Before Christmas.

Well...

It is in the sense that it is kind of a mash-up of Halloween and Christmas. As soon as I finished my son's Halloween costume, I realized that this costume was going to outlast the Trick or Treating candy. He wanted to wear it ALL the time, which didn't always coincide with my plans.

Dress-up clothes are fun gifts for kids, and as I perused the aisles of clearance Halloween costumes in the past week or so, I saw several that would make fun gifts.

This firefighter dress up cost me only a few dollars and a couple hours to put together. To make the jacket, I started with some black cotton I had in my scrap stash. I used one of my sons t-shirts as a guide to make a loose pattern, and sewed the shoulders, sleeves, and side seams, leaving the cuffs, collar, and hem unfinished.

Apparently, this is a firefighter face.

I used yellow duct tape to finish off the edges of the jacket and form the collar. Adding the duct tape gave my flimsy cotton fabric more substance and helped the jacket maintain its shape. It also saved me some stitching and added the look of reflective strips used on firefighter uniforms. Finally, I added velcro closures and a felt patch.

I made over a cheap, plastic firefighter hat (you can get one for free at Firehouse Subs!) by adding a felt number to cover the original logo.

And what is every firefighter's most important accessory?

An adorable dalmatian, of course! :)

Linking up at Thrifty Thursday at Saved by Love Creations, Get Your Brag On Link Party at Gluesticks, and 20 Below Thursdays at Christina's Adventures.