Projects teaser...

 Here's a little sneak peak at some of my upcoming projects...

These are clearly all before pictures. I have big plans for them though and, of course, the plans include some spray paint love. :)

My list of projects for after I finish my test is growing quite long...sewing, these three projects, some organizing, some artwork, some decorating, some gifts, and lots more. Time to go study so I can actually work on all these projects sometime.

10marifet.org...

Yesterday my Google Analytics malfunctioned. I truly thought it had a glitch and was making things up because it said that 83 visitors had come from 10marifet.org. Let me put the confusion into perspective for you, but be prepared for some major jealousy due to these awesome stats. Or maybe not. :) Anyways, the most visitors I have ever had in a month was 425 visitors in January. That is an average of 14 visitors a day [if I round up...], so basically the amount of visitors coming from just one site yesterday was about six normal days worth of visitors. And actually was more than the total number of visitors for some months.

See why I thought Analytics had lost it?

Also, I had never heard of 10marifet.org...probably because it is in Turkish and I can't understand anything it says. A quick translation search told me that the blog slogan translates to "yaratici becerileri handmade and ideas hayatinizini will colour jinn". Uh...turns out that didn't help all too much. But I do understand [and like] the words "handmade" and "ideas". :)

A little more searching and site exploring told me that the site is full of awesome crafty and DIY projects. And somehow my bench makeover was selected to be featured. Woohoo! Check it out here.

Again, I had to do a translation search to see what the site said about my bench before and after. It came back as "is with roses empty beautifully but is blue has become very chic." Somehow I get the feeling this may not be a perfect translation, but I like the "very chic" part. :) Thanks so much to 10marifet.org for including my bench on the site - so fun!

Speaking of fun, check out these great posts I found via the site:

• A cute cocktail set from Martha Stewart
• Beautiful framed flowers from Abby's Garden
• A fun, statement-making belt from Etcetorize
• Adorable Valentine's Day treat ideas from Creature Comforts
• Valentine-inspired dinner party ideas from Little Things Bring Smiles 

Fabric delivery...

My big box of fabric has arrived!

Let me back up a second...For Christmas my wonderful parents gave me my first-ever sewing machine. I haven't mentioned it yet because I have forbid myself to even open the box until I finish my Certified Internal Auditor exam. I did not, however, forbid myself from buying fabric in the meantime. :)

After I take the last part of the exam in March, I will be all set to start sewing with these awesome fabrics [nevermind the fact that I don't really know how to sew yet]...

I ordered the five fabrics from www.fabric.com for a great deal with some coupon codes. And yes, I realize there are only four above, the fifth appears to be sold out. Here's what I got:

1. Sky blue stretch cotton
2. Golden sage dots
3. Blue and natural zig zag
4. Silver grey felt
5. White cotton with royal blue stripes

I have plans to make napkins, placemats, pillows and other things that only require limited sewing knowledge. The zig zag fabric may not ever make it to the sewing machine though, because once it got here I came up with a new idea for it. Stay tuned to see where they all end up. :)

Baseball gallery wall...

Baseball gallery wall = DONE! Yay! :)

In laying out the pattern for the wall, I had a pretty good methodology. I started in the middle with the biggest piece that we wanted to be the main focus. From there, I put the other pictures in order of largest to smallest. I started with the largest, picked a place for it, then moved to the next. I tried to somewhat keep in mind things like not having too many horizontal [or vertical] frames in a row, the colors, etc. But the main thing I kept in mind was not to over think it, since I generally tend to be super planned out and symmetrical [which is not what we were going for].

As far as actually hanging the frames, I couldn't really decide on a good method.

I've read a bunch of places about using wrapping paper to make cut-outs of each frame to arrange on the wall first. But I also had read that the wrapping paper rolls up and is annoying. So, I thought I would use the random stack of yellow paper we have. Well, you can see how long that lasted before I got bored of doing that...

Then, I decided to just make pencil marks on the wall of where the edges and middle of the arrangement should be. That was definitely helpful but didn't really give the same effect as seeing something on the wall [teensy-tiny, little pencil dashes don't count as seeing something on the wall in my book]. So, I decided to use tape to mark out some key parts of the arrangement to make sure it looked right. It looks pretty random, but was helpful. After seeing it on the wall, I knew I wanted to move the arrangement up some from what I originally thought.

Then, I was almost ready to start actually hanging things on the wall. Again, I knew I wanted to start by hanging the big piece in the middle to anchor the arrangement. I numbered each piece to know which should go next, which was very helpful. The sides of my arrangement are in a line, so I numbered in a way that I would do those and then space the frames in the middle so that they would fit in between. It was probably especially helpful since I didn't have any real measuring going on. Sure, I knew I wanted some things three fingers apart, but I don't think that counts as real measuring. I actually think my lack of real measuring helped make it easier though, since then I wasn't worried about hanging things so they were exactly two inches apart or something like that.

Okay, enough babbling. Here's how it turned out - first, the view as you walk up the stairs...

Next, as you round the corner into the upstairs area...

And then, the view from in the rec room...

And just for fun [and because I'm very proud of it :)], here is the before and after...

 

Frame "shopping"...

I showed you that we have been working on a gallery wall of pictures for our rec room. The rec room is also known as the baseball room. Yep, we are really cool [and obsessed with baseball], so we have an entire room dedicated to baseball. When I last updated you on the progress, I had just laid out all of the pictures for the baseball gallery wall. Most of the pictures were already framed, but there were five things that needed frames.

So I got busy shopping...our house.

All of the pictures and art already coordinated [since it is all baseball-related] but I wanted all of the frames to also be black to help tie it together even better. Here are the results of my frame "shopping"...

The first few were pretty easy. First, there were two frames that were in the guest bedroom at our old house but weren't currently being used.

This one was used for this picture...

And that one was used for this picture...

Then, I found this frame in our office with a picture from The Today Show during our service trip to New York in college...

I'll find a different frame for that picture, because this one was the perfect size for this...

The last two were the perfect size too, but not quite the perfect look. It was nothing that a couple quick coats of black spraypaint couldn't solve though. First, I took a brown document frame from scholarly to sporty...

Then, I changed a cute, pink and black frame to a cool, black frame...

All in all, I'd say it was a very successful "shopping" trip. :)

Twine vases...

I made these twine-wrapped vases over a year ago and still love them. The problem is...I just can't seem to find a good home for them in our new home. In our first house they had a happy little home on top of the bookshelf by the front door. Their contents changed, but they were always there:

First, they had plain sticks from our yard. Then, I gave the sticks a quick coat of silvery spraypaint to give them some winter-ish shimmer. Then, the sticks were replaced by some cheery, Spring-y flowers.

I actually think that the only time they moved from their spot by the door was when I filled them with clippings from our bushes to be used in the decor for the couples' shower we hosted last Spring. But in our new house, there is no bookcase by the door for them to live on. [In my dream world, I'm going to find an awesome - yet very inexpensive - console table to refinish for our new entryway, but that might be a while.]

Currently, the vases are on the built-in shelves in our sitting room. The problem is the shelves are too low to really put anything in the vases. Kind of awkward. I also tried them on a side table in the living room, but they looked too bare there. Also, kind of awkward. I'm thinking that next I am going to move them upstairs to the guest bedroom - oddly, they would probably go on the same bookcase they were on in our first house. I have some fun DIY ideas for that room that hopefully I'll be tackling in the next few months - and the twine vases will fit in perfectly. :)

Home goals | Progress update...

It’s hard to believe we are already [more than] a month into 2011. And perhaps even harder to believe, we have already made progress towards our 2011 home goals. Yay!

So, I thought I would give a little progress update:

Laundry – I am doing surprisingly well at keeping my closet picked up all the time. It is amazing how if you just hang things back up one at a time, it is a lot quicker than trying to deal with a giant pile of who knows what. :) I also have a new routine for “laundry Sundays” that is working out very well*. I do laundry throughout the day on Sunday while we hang out, do stuff around the house, work, whatever. And then I fold it all Sunday evening while I watch Desperate Housewives and Brothers & Sisters. I have even managed to plan ahead to still do laundry once a week if I won’t be home on Laundry Sunday. So far, so good.

Kitchen – I can’t take much any credit for this one, but Mr. W is doing awesome at keeping our kitchen looking great all the time. I can’t even explain how lucky, spoiled, blessed, and thankful I am for all he does. He does 99% of the grocery shopping, cooking, and kitchen-cleaning. Seriously, he is amazing.

Rec Room – We are well underway making some major progress up there. We are currently in the state where it looks like we have made no progress, or even negative progress…

But so far we have:

• Purchased and assembled the futon
• Finally assembled our boxing stand
• Started going through the bazillion boxes and tubs of baseball stuff
• Moved the TV and TV stand upstairs from the family room
• Started to mount the TV on the wall [in doing this, Mr. W is definitely getting to use some cool tools, which was another one of our home goals]
• Started a pile of Goodwill donations
• Started to determine where things will be hung, including this future gallery wall of pictures…

On our to-do list before Sunday:

• Finish mounting the TV
• Actually hang things on the wall [also gets double-points on our home goals – put more stuff on the walls and work on rec room]
• Secure the bookcase to the wall and start accessorizing it
• Move the bazillion boxes and tubs out of the way to make the room presentable until we have time to finish it

Hosting more people – On Sunday, we are having a small SuperBowl party at our house. So I need to stop writing this post and get to work - nothing like a deadline to get you motivated. :)

*I did have one slight laundry mishap during the month…Mr. W was sorting through [what I thought was] a big pile of shirts to help me with the laundry. Being the sweet wife that I am, I told him not to worry about it and I would separate out the dress shirts that needed dry cleaning. He happily agreed and just asked me to make sure to pull out the Nautica’s. I finished the sorting without finding the so-called Nautica shirts he was talking about…umm, because he was talking about the three pairs of dry-clean only Nautica pants that I washed. Woops. But with my mad ironing skills [or something like that], I was able to make them look normal again [I think].

Gifts | bulletin and magnet board...

I made customized this bulletin / magnetic board for my precious little nephew's first Christmas. I painted the cork board on the left side with orange craft paint, so it would be a little more exciting looking and match his nursery. [I also painted the push pins, because once I start painting I just don't stop.] Also, the gift will totally grow with him, because I'm sure as his room evolves over the years, there will always be plenty of Longhorn's orange around. :)

The cute little wooden jungle animals were originally from his baby shower - I just glued some magnets on the back. The animals make me smile every time I see them, not only because they are so cute, but also from the memory of when we bought them. At one point while my sister was pregnant, I was shopping with my parents at Jo-Ann's and we must have been hilarious to listen to - literally, every aisle we walked into, at least one of us found something the baby would have to have. Everything from fabric, to stickers, to books, to stuffed animals, to little wood animals - we wanted to get him everything. We were probably the most excited, proudest family to ever shop the aisles of Jo-Ann's. :)

And in true, proudest-aunt-ever fashion, here is the adorable little guy with his first snowman...

Gifts | fun frosted flower-holders for family...

Are you impressed by my awesome alliteration in the post title? No? Sorry, I just get super excited when I get to use my frosted glass spraypaint. :)

I made these vases [three of the bazillion vases from our wedding] for my sister using simple techniques with my favorite frosted glass spraypaint. Seriously, it is so fun. And there are so many ways you can use it to personalize things around your home or as gifts. I also used it to make these Longhorns glasses.

But back to the vases [aka fun frosted flower-holders]. Here's the lowdown on each of them...

Left: Wrap painters tape [masking tape works too] around the vase in straight lines. Or you could do diagonal lines for more of a candy cane effect. Give the vase a few light coats of frosted glass spraypaint and then remove the tape carefully.

Center: Do not spray with any spraypaint. Clearly. :)

Right: Put circle-shaped stickers on the vase in your desired design. Give the vase a few light coats of frosted glass spraypaint and then remove the stickers carefully. For these vases, I used silly "You're #1" stickers from the dollar store and they worked perfectly. I have also tried nice scrapbooking stickers that I got on sale and they did not work at all. They were much too high of quality and stuck too well. This is definitely a time when cheaper, less sticky, stickers are better. :)

Gifts | paw necklace...

So, have you ever seen anything cuter than this picture?

It's Mr. W's little sister and their family dog, Goldie. Incredibly sweet, huh? His sister is a huge animal lover and especially loves Goldie, who just joined their family last summer. For Christmas, I made her this little paw necklace using a chain from Michaels and a cute black paw charm from Hobby Lobby. I like how it is very simple but totally fits her personality. :)

Gifts | desk calendar...

I made this calendar for Mr. W this year using a simple template I created in PowerPoint [I clearly have a strange obsession with PowerPoint and use it for everything]. I added major holidays, birthdays and anniversaries to the calendar. Since Mr. W works in public administration, each month has a picture of a city hall from a city we have visited together. I got the calendar pages printed to Office Depot, cut them to size, and then punched a hole in the tops for him to hang the calendar on the wall in his office.

Gifts | Big E...

My dad has always gone by Big E [or Dad E to my sister and I], so gifts with a big E are clearly perfect for him. When I saw a big metal E hook in the clearance aisle of Hobby Lobby, I knew I had to get it for him. The hooks come painted white and look like this...

This picture is from Rocky River Farmhouse, partially because I forgot to take a before picture of what they look like to start out. But more importantly, because the project she made with the hooks she bought is amazing. You seriously have to check it out.

My project with the hook is a little less amazing, but was still a fun, personalized gift. I just spraypainted the hook a dark silver, so it would fit in well at my dad's man shed at our family farm. :)

Gifts | tile and coaster sets...

This Christmas I made many personalized, handmade gifts for our family. The first of which were these tile sets which included a plague on a wooden stand and four coordinating coasters. They were made using the same method as this monogram tile set.

The first set was made for my mother and father-in-law. Tiles similar to this would also make a great gift for a wedding, shower, anniversary, or even Valentine's Day gift....

The next set was made for Mr. W's stepmom. I love the saying that is on them. I also like how the tiles can use any quote you want, which means they can also be good gifts for birthdays, graduations, or any other occasion. :)

I don't use anything fancy at all to make my tile designs...actually, I just used PowerPoint for each of these using a variety of different fonts and lines. 

To make the tiles, you have to flip the design over for it to transfer properly. So I "grouped" each of the text boxes and lines. Then I copied the design and did a "paste special" to paste it as a JPEG picture. Then, you can use the rotate option of flip horizontal.

DIY ornaments...

So, I realize most people have probably put away all of their Christmas decorations already and are not thinking about making any new ones at the moment...but I still wanted to share the three types of ornaments I made this season. And actually the last of the three types was made after Christmas. :)

Glittered cookie cutters: 

I have wanted to make these ever since I saw them last year at Centsational Girl and even posted about them. They were incredibly easy to make and free, since I already had the plastic cookie cutters on hand and the glitter was from my magazine tree project [seen here]. Here's how I made them:

1. Spray paint the cookie cutters the same color as the glitter. In my case this was white [actually white primer to be exact, because that's what I happened to have on hand].
2. While the paint is still wet, sprinkle glitter all over them.
3. Let the ornament dry and then tie on a ribbon. [As I side note, last year I tied sparkly silver ribbon on all of my ornaments in place of the standard ornament hooks and it was definitely time well spent. I was able to catch up on my soap opera and easily add a little extra pizazz to my Christmas tree.]

Metal stars:

Amazingly, the second set of DIY ornaments I made was even easier than the first. :) Also, I made five ornaments for $1. I found a pack of five simple metal stars at a dollar store last summer. They were originally a brassy gold, but I spray painted them a pretty silver instead. I just hung them directly on the tree. In future years, I think they would also be fun hung with ribbon from door knobs or in the center of a wreaths. I love simple, cheap, versatile things. :)

Spool Christmas trees:

I made these spool ornaments with my mom and although more time intensive than the others, they are a lot of fun to make. To make your own, you need 1/2 inch wooden craft spools [we got these at Hobby Lobby], various colors of embroidery floss, clear craft glue [not hot glue], and ribbon. Here's how:

1. Cover a wooden spool with clear glue and wrap tightly with floss. Put another dot of glue at the end. You will need to make eleven spools for each tree. We always use brown for the tree trunk, yellow for the "star", and all different colors for in between.
2. After completing the spools, glue them together in the bowling pin formation. We found it is easier to glue each line together first [i.e., three for the bottom and two for the middle]. Then glue the lines together and add the star and trunk.
3. Cut a piece of ribbon to the desired size to hang your ornament from. Loop the ribbon and make a small knot with the cut ends. Put a drop of the clear glue into the hole in the star spool. Use a toothpick the push the knot of the ribbon into the hole.[I'm not sure these directions made much sense, but they really are very easy to make. :)]

Christmas home tour...

Mr. W and I had a great time decorating our new home for Christmas. Mr. W did the lights outside and I did the inside. Here are [were] the highlights from the inside...

The card holder was simply a red ribbon [hung by a push pin] with clothespins to hold the cards. I spray painted the clothespins a shiny silver to make them a little more festive. :)

The garland on the railing was one of the very few purchases made this year for the Christmas decor. It was $2/strand at Walmart and was quite possibly the best $12 I have ever spent. I wrapped it with extra lights and added in some red and silver ornaments.

The magazine trees were inspired by my friend and I loved how they turned out. If you want to make some yourself next year, I suggest using Real Simple magazine - the pages are thicker than most magazines so they are very sturdy. The red sign in the background is a canvas painting temporarily covered in wrapping paper.

This was one of my favorite areas - I just added the candle in the background and some pretty dollar store ornaments. Love them!

Thanks for checking out my very late Christmas home tour. Hope you all had a very merry Christmas and New Year! :)