Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Shabby Chic Headboard and Foot-board Makeover

Headboard BEFORE...
Headboard AFTER
Headboard before
 Footboard Before...


 Bedroom furniture primed and painted. So beautiful and Green! The Perfect color for a Shabby Chic little girls room. I love mixing some old furniture with a new bedspread.
This was an old canopy bed for my neighbors daughter. The furniture did not come with the canopy nor does my daughter need one. Although, I always dreamed of having one of my own when I was a little girl. The bed looks great without it. 
 The tall spindles make this bed really stand out in the room. My daughter loves it.

An added touch.
 A flower ball to hang on the spindle!

Feminine Nightstand Makeover

BEFORE...
 DURING...
 AFTER!
Thank heavens for amazing neighbors. My dear neighbors were sending a bedroom set to Deseret Industries and they offered it to my husband and I. I loved the bones of the nightstand and headboards so I said yes. I have loved them ever since. I lightly sanded the pieces and then painted using a coat of primer. I waited patiently for them to dry then used a can of free paint I had in the garage and painted it Green with a foam brush. It is a nightstand makeover with a new soft green look. Much better!

Small White Dresser Redo and Redo again...

BEFORE

 AFTER!

 So I began distressing this small dresser....
 Then I thought I would antique it.....not the look I was going for so I painted some more. 

 Then I added dark Jacobean min-wax stain with cloth. Cool look, but too rustic for my home. Plus my husband said it looked fake. I thought it was sort of unique looking.  So... on with more layers of min-wax stain and 4 new legs to add height to the dresser.  This time I applied the stain with a cheep foam brush. I applied thick layers of Dark Walnut stain that I purchased at Home Depot. I had to let my project sit in the garage for weeks to dry. And I mean weeks! I am not a very patient person but it turned out well.
Lovely looking I think. Not perfect, but a much needed improvement!

Friday, November 4, 2011

My Sweet Son's Football Party

LET THE GAMES BEGIN!!!
 My son wanted a Football Party so...I searched the Internet for fun football party ideas and threw him a party! I am not the biggest fan of planning kids birthday parties but I felt it was time for my son to have one.
 We decorated felt flags with the boys favorite football teams, face painted, had an amazing obstacle coarse, opened presents, threw a pinata around (like a hot potato), and ate cake! I think the boys had fun and they played together well.
Here is my son's requested football cake with green turf looking cupcakes. I had fun making these little treats. I made the MVP circles for the cupcakes out of cupcake holders. I cut the bottom out into a circle shape and layered it on card stalk. 
 I made invitations to look like footballs with the field in the center.

WHAT TIME IS IT? IT IS GAME TIME!

My husband ran football drills with the boys. He had them do warm-up knee drills, crunches, and jumping jacks then they were off to the obstacle coarse.
Next they did Cone Drills: The boys ran forward, side-ward, backward, and all around orange cones in the yard.  Then it was off to field goal training. The boys kicked their own football through a goal post my husband made hours before the party.
Finally they had Receiver Training: My husband threw a football to each boy who stood in a hula-hoop. The goal was to stand in the hula hoop and catch a football 4 times. If they caught 4 balls my husband would do sit ups. The boys really liked being active and playing hard outside. Despite the cold the boys were smiling and laughing as they did all the football drills and it was very entertaining to watch. 

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Adding Elastic Waistband to Shorts

 Soooo...my son won't wear shorts that are loose. Delema...he has a pair of shorts given to him by his Aunt that are darling but..... that are 3-4 inches too loose in the waist. I began tackling this project head on. I got some elastic from another pair of pants that I was throwing away and cut it into 2 pieces. Then I cut a slit in the inside wasteband area of the shorts.
 I hand sewed a button hole looking slit. not too professional but who is going to look there right?
 Then I hand sewed a button next to the hole. Pretty tricky considering I didn't want to sew through the other side of the shorts.
 I inserted the elastic band about 3-4 inches and sewed it in place. I sewed underneath a belt loop so that no one would know that we changed the inside of the shorts.
 I slipped the button onto the elastic and VOILA! Shorts that fit! 
My son now wears these shorts a couple times a week.

Simple & Sweet Apple Turnovers

SO DELICIOUS APPLE TURNOVERS!!!

Really simple to make: 1 Can apple pie filling(chop coarsely), 
1 Box Refrigerated Pastry Pie crust (2 circles per package), 1 egg, powdered sugar, 
milk, water, almond extract.

Cut out circles with a glass or small bowl. Use knife to score edges. Fill center with 1 TBls. filling.
Wet seam with a small amount of water and press closed.



Score edges with fork or I used a Wilton decorative stitching tool (used for cakes & fondant). 
It is pictured below. 

Beat egg with 1 tsp. Milk and brush on the top of the turnover. 
Yum! The egg wash created this nice browning effect after they were cooked in the oven. So awesome! 
SOOOOO TASTY LOOKING!
After the turnovers cooled for a while, I glazed them with powdered sugar and 1tsp. water and 1tsp. almond extract. After I mixed the icing I poured the mixture into a Ziploc bad and cut a small hole in the corner. I used it as a make shift pastry bag. Then I drizzled the topping on and allowed it to dry.


Heavenly treats!
Warm, sweet and tasty treat for the Fall season. You can't beat these treats for the holidays.
These beauties remind me of the little Wonder Bread pies that my Dad used to bring home when I was a little girl. What a treat they were. They package up nicely for a great gift.

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Silk Flower Hair Accessories

 Silk Flowers for my girl's piggy tails! I finally have hair accessories to match my daughters church dresses.

My dear friend and I made these hair accessories today. We had so much fun creating and designing these beauties!



I purchased silk fabric and used some old skirt linings and suit jacket linings to make these beautiful hair accessories. As usual, I have to craft using something I already own and I have to use up what scraps I have laying around. I cut many different sizes of circles and spent time over the flame of a candle to complete this project. I burned the edges of the circle shaped fabric and it caused them to curl. Then I layered them on top of each other and glued them together using a hot glue gun.

 I used floral flowers for the hair accessories below. I took the fake floral flower apart and glued each petal on one piece at a time. I thought they turned out bright and cheerful. I used old blouse fabric covered buttons for the center as a delicate accent.











Here they are on display for me to look at and enjoy for a day! I can't wait to do my daughters hair tomorrow! So many hair accessories to chose from. It was good to chat with a good friend today and work on this craft together. Thank you dear friend!