Family | Love | Home

The Garden is Growing - 2013 Style

2013-06-03T17:02:00.001-04:00

This post brought to you by Miracle-Gro. All opinions are 100% mine.
Last year I spoke about some yard and garden work that we were busy with. We had had some trees taken down and grass planted in their places and for the first time, the kids and I planted a garden. The grass grew in nicely in most of the yard,

but there's still a patch that we will need to reseed in the fall.

The garden also did quite well so the kids and I decided to plant another one this year. Unfortunately, the garden started out looking like this:

My husband was kind enough to rip out all the weeds so we could start from scratch. The other area that I wanted to work on was right around this light pole in the front of our house:

Before I planted anything, my go to soil is always Miracle-Gro. It has never let me down and nourishes the plants for months at a time. They've got so many other great products besides soil, not to mention their plant food. You can even follow their fun garden projects on their Pinterest page where gardeners can swap ideas and projects and be sure to like The Gro Project on their Facebook page. They have so many great DIY projects that are simple to create.
Here's what the light pole is looking like today:

I just planted them and already they are blooming like crazy! (Disregard the over-grown grass, we are having some issues with our lawn mowing company...) Petunias do great in full sun and spread out nicely so I'm hoping that it'll soon wrap around the area more. I also planted some bulbs that I got from a fundraiser at my daughter's school, but I'm not sure if we'll have to wait until next spring for them to bloom.
The garden is also doing amazingly well! We've got cucumbers:

Snap peas:

And green peppers:

Too bad the MiracleGro also helps the weeds grow super strong! I need to get another bag of mulch to put around the plants to keep the weeds at bay. As you can see, it's a no brainer to use MiracleGro products because it works so well to nourish the plants and help them flourish.
Be sure to check out this video about MiraclGro's new Gro Project and join the millions of green thumbers!

Math Lover's Clock

2013-05-08T07:00:00.000-04:00

It took Sherry and Katie's Pinterest challenge to get me off my rear and finally post a new project! A friend of mine who is a math teacher showed me this adorable clock she got for her classroom. As soon as I saw it, I knew it was a great DIY project and pinned an image I found online. This project is actually very timely for this time of year - great for teacher gifts, graduation or simply any math lover that you know. I actually plan to give this to my dad for father's day so Dad, if you're reading this, now would be a good time to stop!

These are the supplies I bought for the project - 10" wooden circle, clock mechanism, black craft paint and a white paint marker. (FYI, the wooden circle is sold right below the clock mechanism in Michael's and it's perfect because there's already a circle drilled through the center.)

First thing is to paint the wooden circle. I used a 1" foam craft brush and did two coats.

While I painted the back and the edges, I stuck a pencil through the center hole to hold it up. You need to paint the back because the clock mechanism (where the battery goes) sticks out a little which prevents the clock from sitting flush against the wall.

The next step was the most time consuming and that was recreating the math problems in Illustrator. If anyone is interested in a pdf of the file, please feel free to drop me an email. I printed it out exactly to size and then then taped the papers together.

Before I taped it to the clock, I shaded the back of it over the areas I would want to transfer - think old school transfer paper!

Then I just traced over each number and it appeared lightly on the clock face.

I used the white paint marker to pretty much color in the lines and then followed the directions on the clock mechanism to put it all together.

I love that it has a chalkboard feel to it! This is also perfect for a home-school classroom.

Are there any math lovers in your life?

Felt Flower Centerpiece

2013-03-18T21:26:00.000-04:00

Although it's hard to feel it with temperatures still in the 30s some days, Spring is right around the corner. And with that comes the holiday of Passover (and Easter) - time to gather with family and celebrate. We are once again hosting a nice size crowd for the seder and I wanted to do something different from last year's centerpieces. I saw some tutorials of how to make a felt flower centerpiece (here and here) and decided to give them my own little spin.

Here's what you'll need (the sizes and amount will depend on how big and how many you want to make, I listed what I used): 2 4" clay flower pots, 2 4" foam balls, 12 pieces of 9x12" felt (6 per flower pot), pearl-head pins, and tacky glue (you could also use hot glue)

Start by tracing circles onto your felt (I got four circles per sheet). You can use the flower pot or any other small bowl or plate. After you cut them out, cut the circles into a sprial shape. They don't have to be perfect (as you can see), and in fact, the irregularities are what make each flower a little different so I didn't even try for perfection.

Starting from the inside of the spiral, twirl the felt around the center until you get to the end, keeping the flower fairly flat on the bottom. This is what it should look like:

Use just a small line of glue to seal it closed.

Make sure you're watching something good on TV while you're doing this, because it might get a little tedious after the first ~~two~~ 10. Repeat and repeat until you've created flowers out of all of your felt circles.

Next, take your pearl-head pins and push them through the center of each flower.

Place your foam ball in the flower pot and you can now start pinning the flowers right into it. No need for glue since the pins are long enough to keep the flowers in place.

Just put them in any random order. I tried to make sure no two of the same color were touching, but the truth is that it doesn't really matter if they are.

And now you've got two beautiful spring centerpieces. The great thing is that since you didn't glue anything together (besides the flowers), you can reuse the flower pots and foam balls for another project in the future!

Happy Passover or Happy Easter to you and yours. See you after spring break is over!

Upholstered Bench

2013-03-11T20:22:00.004-04:00

Hey all! I know I've sort of fell of the face of the blogosphere for a while, but that doesn't mean I've stopped DIYing. I have a bunch of projects to share with you, it's just taken me a while to get my act together. Here's one of the projects I recently completed for my sister.

My brother's next-door neighbor was giving away this bench from her grandmother for free and my sister quickly snatched it up. She wanted something to put at the foot of her bed in her new house and this was perfect because she knew she had ~~someone~~ me to fix it up.

As you can tell, it had definitely seen better days, but it has great lines and I love the little key hole detail.

I did a little research when I saw the manufacturer's label on the inside of the lid. It turns out that the company was started in 1907 and was the first company in the US to manufacture cedar chests. How cool!

My sister and I went to JoAnn and picked out this gorgeous fabric. (Unfortunately, I gave her the rest of what I didn't use so I don't know the name offhand.)

I took the lid off the chest and with some 2" foam and batting, I turned it into a comfortable spot to sit down and put your shoes on every morning.

There are a bazillion upholstery tutorials around so here's just a quick rundown: Lay the fabric upside down, then batting, then foam, then bench seat upside down. First staple the batting, pulling tight and then staple the fabric, making sure there are no wrinkles or too-tight areas.

Also, make sure to cut around where you need to screw the bench seat back into the base.

This is what it should look like when you're finished:

And flipped over:

The next step was to work on the base. I used my new orbital sander (thanks Dad!) and it was ah-ma-zing. Never will I go back to sanding by hand!

Then I used some tinted primer (left over from this project) and gave it two thin coats. I didn't want any of the wood to bleed through.

I brought the fabric to Home Depot and had them color match the gray in the fabric and they really did an amazing job. Two coats of paint later and it was done!

My sister really wanted their family initial on the front so I asked a friend of mine who does vinyl decals to whip something up for her. I measured the center of the bench and marked it off with Frog tape to make sure that I knew exactly where to place the letter.

It took a couple minutes for me to figure out the best way to apply it since I had never worked with vinyl before, but once I figured it out it went on very easily. (Hint: do not remove the entire thing from the backing at once - do it in sections!)

Here it is all finished:

I think it's a tie of who loves it more - I or my sister :-)

Tell me what you think! Have you ever had paint color matched to fabric before? This was my first time and I'm definitely going to do it again.

Stenciled Coffee Table

2013-01-28T09:27:00.002-05:00

I belong to a Facebook group of moms in my neighborhood where people post anything from suggestions for plumbers to advice on child raising. Not too long ago, someone asked if anyone was interested in redoing a coffee table for her. Of course I jumped at the chance! We don't know each other (though we have a few mutual friends) so I was surprised that she took me up on my offer.

Here's a sneak peek at the final product (I photoshopped the background out since I don't have a picture of it in its final spot, only in my junked up basement work area).

The coffee table was in pretty bad shape to start with. I'm not sure how much of it was original to the piece and how much was added on after the fact.

You can see from some of these close-ups that I had my work cut out for me!

I spent a loooong time sanding it down. It was not easy! The woman gave me a belt sander (which I have never used before) and man, are those things heavy! But it got the job done, that's for sure.

The next step was two coats of gray primer. Since she wanted black as the base coat, I figured that a tinted primer would make the job easier. I used a sample size of black paint (because it's a small surface) and did two coats of that also.

The woman bought this Indian Inlay stencil (from Cutting Edge Stencils) that she wanted me to use on the surface. Now, when she originally told me that she wanted it stenciled, I thought it was one of those sheets that you just use a roller across. You know what they say when you assume... This particular stencil comes with five separate pieces! Please don't believe it when it says that this is a beginner level stencil. Each strip has to be measured and centered so you don't end up with half a design when you get to a corner and want them to meet up.

Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed working on this project, but it took many, many hours.

Here's a close up where you can see some of the imperfections (that naturally go along with stenciling). I used the same foam stencil brushes that I used on my book crate, with different size brushes depending on the size of the stencil. As a final step, I put a few layers of a satin polycrylic to protect all my hard work.

And here it is in its finished state:

I think it came out great, even though not everything is perfect or exactly centered.

And my new facebook friend loved it so much, she asked me to do another project with her dining room table! Woohoo! Do you have any favorite stencil tips or tricks? Please share!

Organized Cabinet

2013-01-21T20:50:00.002-05:00

So you know how the old saying goes, "be careful what you wish for because you just might get it"? Yeah, that happened to me. Back in October (can't believe it was that long ago!) I posted about my wish for open shelving in my dream kitchen as part of the "50 Simple Things to Update Your Home" series. Not too long after that, a hinge broke on a cabinet door and it was just hanging by one. The local hardware stores didn't have a perfect fit, and as you can see, these cabinets use fancy European hinges and have a circle drilled into the interior of the cabinet.

I found a website that could potentially have had the proper hinge, but they required so many measurements that it was getting too complicated. The hubby and I decided we'd make the best of it and decided to keep the cabinet open.

The good part was that it was an end cabinet and so it doesn't look so random. The bad part was that it doesn't exactly have the most beautiful things to look at. I used this as a perfect opportunity to organize (i.e. purge) and change things up a bit.

The first step to organizing any space is to empty it completely and then scrub it down.

Step two is to sort everything into categories to keep, relocate or trash.

I got rid of all the expired vitamins, medicines and sunscreen, as well as things we no longer use or need. I decided to relocate the everyday paper goods - paper plates, plastic cups, etc. to our pantry since that just makes more sense. I moved the cookbooks here so they are easy to get to and decided that we could do without one of the shelves.

I picked up a few containers from the dollar store to organize the medicines and vitamins into two sections - one for stuff used daily, and the other only for when someone is sick. I put the other random, seldomly-used plastic ware on the top shelf. But it just wasn't doing it for me so I decided to splurge at Target and get some nice looking containers. After all, I'd be looking at them every day and I knew the dollar store containers could easily be repurposed elsewhere.

Lucky for me Target was having a storage sale and I got these white containers there. The basket on top is from the Nate Berkus line and I love how it adds a natural element to the space. So much better!

And no post would be complete without a good side by side before and after!

So much better looking, don't you think? Have you ever had a kitchen cabinet door fall off?

House Tour

2013-01-07T08:00:00.000-05:00

Back when I showed you a tutorial of how to easily create privacy in a window while still allowing in light, I promised you a tour of my sister's new house. Well, here you go! She bought a house in a new development from a couple who had lived there for about five years, but barely used the house. In fact, you can see from the photos (all taken with the previous owners' things) that several of the rooms were staged.

This is the exterior, with a nice, big two car garage.

I didn't get a shot of the formal living room, but that's the first room you see when you walk into the house. The bay window on the right is where the living room is. You then walk up about four steps onto the main level of the house which has the dining room...

Kitchen...

Family room...

And through the French doors on the left, is the office.

There's also a powder room on that level which I didn't take a picture of. Upstairs are three bedrooms, a bathroom, linen closet, laundry room and a master suite, which includes a sitting room and huge bathroom.

Guest room...

Bedroom...

Another bedroom staged as a music room...

Hall bathroom...

Laundry room...

Huge walk-in linen closet...

Master suite...

Sitting room, adjacent to the master bedroom...

As you can see, the house has good bones but my sister and her family definitely have their work cut out for them to make it their own. They are working on finishing the basement now to include a playroom, guest room and bathroom, plus lots of storage. You can be sure I'll be sharing with you all the little updates along the way!

Linking up:
A Bowl Full of Lemons | House on the Way |

Updated Bathroom Light Fixture

2013-01-03T08:00:00.000-05:00

Hey guys! Thanks so much for being patient with me for these past couple months while I've taken a little break. It's been so relaxing spending time with my family over the holidays and focusing my time on them instead of blogging. But just the same, it feels great to be back and having the chance to re-connect with all of my readers. My stats have surprisingly been pretty steady thanks to pinterest and other bloggers referring readers here so thank you so much - I've missed you all!

Here's a super easy project that I completed back in November. This was the light fixture in the hall bathroom that came with our house (minus one light bulb). Silly me thought those big globes were the light bulb coverings and that there was an actual bulb inside. Fast forward five years and one of them burnt out, only for us to discover the reality! Not your standard size to say the least... I didn't cry too hard about it and was happy to have an excuse to replace the fixture.

I picked out this fixture from Lowe's and my dad ~~helped me~~ installed it. It was definitely an upgrade but the brassy trim along the medicine cabinet mirrors was not working for me. I know there's all the talk now of mixed metals, but the proximity of the two made them clash.

Remember when I used this amazing little crafting invention back when I painted the front door? This time I got it in a silver leaf and rubbed and buffed away!

Here's an in-progress shot so you can see the difference:

And here's the finished mirror!

So much better! And for my favorite - a before and after picture:

The rub and buff part took about 10 minutes and it makes such a difference. What projects have you used rub and buff with?

MIA

2012-11-05T08:30:00.000-05:00

I've been a little quiet lately but don't worry, I haven't forgotten about you! Things have been busy here and I've been a little under the weather, not to mention ~~Hurricane~~ ~~Tropical Storm~~ Frankenstorm Sandy. My family comes first, without question and I know that this little blog will be waiting for me. I don't want this to feel like another obligation, but rather something that I use as a platform to share my ideas and hopefully inspire others. I was offline for two days straight and it felt so GOOD! Yes, it meant a ton of catch up, but it was totally worth it. I highly recommend unplugging every now and then. And my apologies for the delay in responding to comments and emails.

In the meantime, please check out and like my (very) new facebook page.

As you can see, there's not much on it now, but I'm going to try to be more active. Lots of love to those of you who already have. And if you don't want to miss a post, simply subscribe by RSS or email on the right of the page.

Be back soon!!

Privacy Window Film Tutorial

2012-10-29T08:30:00.000-04:00

My sister recently bought a new house (full tour to come soon) and they are slowly working on making it "theirs." The other day I drove up for a visit and noticed that you could see all the clothes hanging in her laundry room from outside the house. Uh, not what she wants the whole neighborhood to see! I told her that they make privacy window film that would still let light come in, but prevent her neighbors from seeing their laundry. She didn't hesitate to have me to work on this project for her.

She had already taken down her laundry before I took this shot, but you can get a little peek inside the arched window. (Sorry for all the phone pics, I forgot to bring my good camera.)

This is the view from inside the laundry room.

I pretty much followed Young House Love's directions from when they used a similar product on their first house's basement windows and door. My brother-in-law picked up a plain frosted film and a textured film. We decided to use the plain one on the window and we'll use the textured one on the sidelights of the front door at a later time.

First thing to do is trace around the window and cut out a piece of the film, about an inch or two wider all around.

Next, spray the window with a solution of water and a little dishwashing detergent. I had a GILA Window Film Kit from when I had done this to a window in my own home so that is what I used. Spray liberally!

I couldn't get a picture of the next step, but you just peel back the paper from the film and place it over the window. Because you cut it bigger, it doesn't need to be lined up perfectly, because you will trim the excess anyway. Just do your best to center it and you should be fine.

Use the "squeegie" from the kit or any old credit card will do, and starting from the center, smooth it across to the outer edges to get out all the air bubbles. Don't worry if the edges aren't completely flat yet.

After the film is smooth, use a razor blade (your own or from the kit), and get in real close to the window frame. Get in to the space right where the glass meets the frame and carefully slide your razor blade and slice off the excess.

After: privacy + light!

It's not totally opaque so you can see shadows when something is directly in front of the window, but all least her neighbors won't get a free show anymore!

And since we all love a good before and after:

Another quick and easy project with lots of impact!

p.s. I'll be linking up with Sherry, Katie, Sarah and Carmel as part of the Fall Pinterest Party.

Linking up:
Home Stories A to Z | House on the Way | House of Hepworths | At the Picket Fence |

Indian Summer

2012-10-25T08:30:00.000-04:00

We've been having an Indian Summer here and the kids are loving it! Temps were up in the 80s today - I can definitely get used to this! The other day I took the kids to a local arboretum and we took a little hike through some woods. It's kid-friendly and the path is a circle so you don't have to worry about walking all the way back to the beginning once you've reached the end.

I took a picture of them in a gazebo and told the kids to make each other laugh. The little guy started tickling his big sister - that's one way to do it! :-)

.
Here they are fascinated with a tiny bug. Actually, it may have been a caterpillar. Either way, I thought it was so cute!

Is anyone else not looking forward to the cold that's coming? Don't get me wrong, I love that we get all four seasons, but in the winter I like to snuggle up under a warm blanket with hot chocolate and avoid going outside when possible!!

Easiest DIY Hair Clip

2012-10-22T08:30:00.000-04:00

Okay guys, this is hands down the easiest hair clip you will ever make. You don't need to cut, sew, heck you don't even need glue!

Check out these organza beauties that I got at Michael's for less than $2.50 (with the 40% off coupon)! The only other thing you'll need is some plain clips. I got these at Michael's also, a while back, so I don't remember exactly how much they cost, but it wasn't more than a few dollars.

When you remove the backing from them, you'll see they are attached with a twist-tie that goes through two small slits in the felt.

Simply slide the clip through those same slits and you're done!

Find a cute girl to model them :-)

It doesn't get any easier than that, does it??

Simple Ways to Update Any Room (Part 6)

2012-10-18T08:30:00.000-04:00

We are back to part six of the the "Simple Ways to Update any Room" series, inspired by House Beautiful. If you've missed any of the previous posts, check them out (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5).

Please remember to pin the original source!

Create your own lantern: Fill a bamboo or wood birdcage with LED pillar candles of different heights.

These are all so beautiful and easy to implement. Birdcages are not too hard to find at thrift and antique stores and they make such a great statement centerpiece.

Family | Love | Home

The Garden is Growing - 2013 Style

Math Lover's Clock

Felt Flower Centerpiece

Upholstered Bench

Stenciled Coffee Table

Organized Cabinet

House Tour

Updated Bathroom Light Fixture

MIA

Privacy Window Film Tutorial

Indian Summer

Easiest DIY Hair Clip

Simple Ways to Update Any Room (Part 6)

Updated Exposed Wood Shelf

Pear Beehives

Autumn Garland

Flower Ball Tutorial

Chalk Bin Solution

Simple Ways to Update any Room (Part 5)

Sprucing Up Your Curb Appeal

DIY Wooden Book Crate

We will never forget...

Simple Ways to Update any Room (Part 4)

Bamboo Arrangement

Happy Labor Day!