Yet Another Way to Use Spray Paint- Spring Planters!

After doing everything we could think of besides yard work, including purchasing an iPad and a sewing machine (guess whose is whose) we had to do some yard and housework today. Once we get started, we are fine with it- in fact I would dare to say we sometimes enjoy it. One quick project you can do for under $20 (depending on materials) is Grecian style urn planters. Aubuchon Hardware and Rite Aid actually have plastic urn's for under $7 a piece, I got two. They only had them in a faux concrete/cement ivory and I really like black accents for my house since my front doors are black. So just by using a few coats of Krylon black glossy spray paint, you can easily have an totally different look!

I use cardboard to spray paint on- trust me, it takes about 4-5 times cutting the lawn before your leftover paint goes away.

Few coats and some sunshine, they are good to go in an hour or so. I don't do the inside since it will be full of soil and plants. 

And with a little Picnik (bummed to see it go this week) here are the two with some newly planted flowers and herbs. (Don't judge my stoop and how badly it needs some paint).

I planted lavender, pansies, lemon thyme, chives and even a little piece of my hosta from the garden. I have seen on Pinterest some doing this, so I figured I would give it a try. It very well could take over the entire urn, we will see! 

So even if you don't have a green thumb, these are pretty easy. Keep in mind, a few weeks after you fill your planters, they really start to fill in and look really nice and lush. These will look a lot different after some more sun and rain. Happy Spring!

April Showers bring... New Closets!

I am so excited to have been featured on Mainely Mara's Spring 2012 Style Selection of her blog! You can check out the full reveal of the closet here. She offers some of the best deals on all of the must haves in Portland, Maine from fashion to spa and beauty! I highly recommend you check out her blog and sign up for her daily deals! I wanted to do a quick re-cap of the master closet Matt and I did...after a lot of back and forth, we settled on this! Enjoy

This photo is so before, this was taken during the inspection of the house before we even bought it!

After a little elbow grease, Matt ripped out all the rods and patched up the walls.

And we are getting there...

Still getting there! We decided to do a built-in bench at the end to make it kind of like a room, since it has a window in it. It is a great place to put your shoes on! 

I have a million scarfs and pashminas- so I came up with this handy dandy little contraption (with a little Pinterest inspiration).

And the finished product! I had the bench cushion custom made with fabric I got for a steal at under $3.00 a yard! I made the curtain to match, and found a few accessories around the house. 

I hope you enjoyed the total closet renovation! I am so glad we did it- it makes putting my clothes away not so unbearable! Thanks again Mara for featuring it on your blog! I greatly appreciate it.

Matching It Up! | DIY Favors

I am preparing for two fun parties coming up- my niece Lucy's first birthday, and my dear friend Anna's 32nd birthday- which I am hosting little get together for. I have always loved thinking of useful, cute and economical favors. Here is the one I decided on today- while shopping. I think I have seen it done on Pinterest, but never thought to try. It is funny what you start to think of while wondering the aisles... for a couple of hours... ;)

I found match boxes at a discount store, 3 for $1.29- you cannot beat that. I also found a book of cute basic prints and colors of paper at Michael's for 50% off, so it was only $9.99 for over 200 pieces of cute paper!

I have rick rack scissors from my mother-in-law that are great. All I did was trim the sides of the paper, and glue gun it onto the boxes.

It was so easy and pretty cheap! I know I am always looking for a match to light candle- these are so cute you don't need to hid them :)

The candles were just as easy. Just use rick rack ribbon (I got 2 yards for $1 at Michael's- I used a total of 2 yards). The tea light candles are from Michael's as well- it was $6.99 for the box of 24.

Just hot glue gun a dollop on the back of the tea light, and connect the rick rack- trim and you are done.

I am excited to share these favors, and have a fun girls night celebrating Anna. Stay tuned for more on party ideas...and see how the entire party comes together!

Guest Post! DIY On The Cheap

I am so very excited to introduce you to fellow blogger, Erin from DIY On The Cheap! She has amazing ideas, and uses so many different things I know we all have around the house (and a great sense of humor!) Much like Erin, I love up-cycling and am always inspired by others ideas. Here is Erin's excellent coffee can into vase. Amazing - enjoy!

{ From Erin}

I love the whole idea of creating useful things out of items you would usually throw away. The trend of up-cycling and re-purposing things, or turning trash into treasure, is something I've written about on my blog in the past and something I enjoy doing often. For a fun, crafty little project, I decided to turn a coffee can into a cute little burlap and ribbon-covered vase. This is a quick and easy project, and can be customized to coordinate with any type of decor. I chose to use burlap for mine, but any fabric will do. You don't even have to use a coffee can, any type of food canister would work just as well. I've used bread crumb canisters for projects before and they are about the same size.

Materials used for this project: Coffee or food canister; burlap (or fabric of your choice); ribbon; double-stick hem tape; and scissors.

Here is how I did it:

First, cut your fabric to fit the height of your can. For the fabric length, leave some room. I wrapped mine around twice just to make sure the can didn't show through the burlap. Depending on your fabric, one time around may suffice, but just wrap around until you can no longer see through to your can label.

After you have cut your fabric, apply a strip of hem tape along one side of your can, from top to bottom. Then, peel away the backing and stick the edge of your fabric down.

Apply a strip of hem tape to canister.

Next, wrap your fabric around the can once or twice. Apply a second strip of hem tape in the same manner as the first, this time on top of your fabric. Leave enough fabric to cover this second strip of hem tape. Fold your fabric under about an inch or so, creating a little hem so the raw edge of fabric won't show. Then peel the backing off your hem tape, and stick your fabric down.

Create a hem by folding fabric edge under, then secure with hem tape.

After your fabric part is finished, cut 2 strips of ribbon, each of which should fit around the perimeter of your can. Apply strips of hem tape around the top and bottom edges of your can. Then, peel off the backing and slowly attach your ribbon about an inch at a time, smoothing as you go.

Attach strips of hem tape around top and bottom of can.

Attach your ribbon by adhering it to the hem tape.

And.... you're done! Couldn't be easier. Bonus: If your husband sees that you've made a vase, maybe he'll take the hint and buy you flowers. Mine did! (Tip: Sometimes you have to make SURE he notices that you've made a vase. Example: "Honey, don't you LOVE this vase I just made? Wow, too bad I don't have any flowers for it. Hmm.. Hint, hint." This may need to be repeated a few times to produce the desired outcome.)

This project actually cost me nothing at all because I already had all of the supplies (except for the flowers). If you don't have extra fabric lying around, the good news is burlap is extremely inexpensive. There are many online fabric stores that sell it for under $2/yard. And of course ribbon is inexpensive too. And a great thing about using hem tape (aside from it being extremely easy), is it can be temporary. If you want to change out the ribbon or fabric, all you have to do is peel it off and replace it. It's one of my favorite products and I keep finding new uses for it. (You can find a couple of my other easy hem tape projects here and here.) The funny thing about this particular project is I don't even drink coffee! Luckily, my husband drinks enough for the both of us. He even brought the canister to me and said, "Do you want to make something out of this or should I just throw it away?" He's learning!

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Thank you so much Erin! I love it, and will be trying this with my old Trader Joe's coffee cans soon! xo

Not Every Project is Perfect

Well....today is a day for posting projects that don't come out exactly how you pictured. I have had this little sitting bench forever. We got it at an antique shop and I have always been wanting to recover the top. So today I decided to tackle it. I have plenty of fabric and a staple gun which is all you really need. Here is what it looked like:

Instead of me just picking out a fabric I had to make it more difficult and use burlap and wanted to add a strip of linen fabric with zig zag stitching. This is where I should have stopped- and just stuck with what I know.

You can see below I have cut my burlap and white linen to fit the top of the bench.

I then 'wrap' the bench top and pin it into place. Pinning the white linen too- so I know where exactly to sew it on.

And I begin sewing. This kind of a stitch can be difficult since you can see it so well- so one little hiccup can really show. I did the sewing about three times to try and make it perfect.

But in the end, there are imperfections of the stitching and the entire top came out looking a bit 'lumpy' and the linen was tough to keep in a perfect straight line. I fastened the top back on to the bench- and it looks OK. It does not look as perfect and professional as I had hoped- but not every project can come out exactly as you wish.

See- tough to make it perfect horizontal and not lumpy.

Miles was somewhat unimpressed as well- and is ready for a nap.

So anyways, this is just a quick reminder that we are not perfect, and even just trying a project (trial and error) can make you a better. Maybe on the next project-less Sunday I will again, re-do the bench- but for now, it works!

Sewing Kit | How to and Giveaway

I am really excited to be part of a fantastic giveaway over at Cinsarah starting tomorrow! There are tons of great items you can win...so check out all of the great participants and prizes. I decided to make and giveaway a sewing kit idea I found on Pinterest a long time ago...and always wanted to try. So here is how I did it!

I have a ton of mason jars leftover from my sisters Cowgirl Rodeo Bachelorette Party (more on that another day!) So I used one of those, and some great tea stained burlap I got at Marden's for $2.99 a yard (see more I got here). You will also need: hot glue gun, fun sewing notions, sand, nylons (old tights, pantyhose, etc.) ribbon or twine and a cute tag.

To make the pin cushion on the top of the mason jar, I took an old nylon and filled it with about 1/2 cup of sand (from the beach- or you can buy fake sand at Michael's) and tied off the nylon really tight, making a ball of sand in a nylon. Then I placed two layers of burlap over the 'sand ball' and pushed through the top of the mason jar lid so it was very taught. You will have leftover burlap around the edges (see below) so using the hot glue gun, I secured those edges to the lid.

I took another piece of burlap and cut it the same size as the bottom of the lid. I glued this on to make the inside lid look a little neater.

Once I had the lid compete (see in a few of the below pics) I had so much fun finding vintage sewing notions to give this kit a romantic, rustic, antique feel. I had some great vintage bobbins and thread, along with some great buttons and pearl tipped pins.

I wanted to make a cute tag, so I tried a few different ways. I have really small alphabet stamps I got at Michael's for $1 (in the $1 bins in the front of the store) and have a bunch of stickers I collect...so I had a few options.

So I placed all of my sewing notions (also included sewing scissors, thimble, measuring tape, needles, pink and grey embroidery thread) and added my tag (and also a stamp of a bumble bee and an extra piece of burlap for fun) using twine to keep with the rustic romantic look.

I also rolled up some burlap and striped khaki and cream fabric (for the lucky winner!) to create a sewing project of their own.

There you have it! I love sewing (am not very good, but am learning) and think it is such a great skill to have. So hopefully this will inspire you to dust off, or borrow a sewing machine and get sewing!

So don't forget to go over to Cinsarah to enter to win this, along with a huge list of other great items including some of my other favorite blogger and retailers like Southern Lovely and Vintage Printage.

Good luck and enjoy!

Are you in the mood...to craft?

So blogging means sometimes it is OK to share other people's ideas and crafts (thank god because I can not do projects or shop every day!) So in lieu of doing a craft tonight, I am sharing a few good ones that are on my hit list.

Source: designsbymke.blogspot.com via Sarah on Pinterest

I don't know about you, but I bock when I see fabric lined baskets in the big box stores for like $17.99 a piece- ridic! So, above is a very inexpensive way to use an old box, any color spray paint and line with leftover fabric. Simple, great idea.

Source: welltodoyou.com via Sarah on Pinterest

I love bangles and have a million all misplaced in my 'jewelry' drawer in my dresser. I think this is a cute way to keep them organized! I always see boxes like those at flea markets or thrift shops and just buy some Izzy bottles :)

Source: rustoleum.com via Sarah on Pinterest

So you might be wondering why I think this is a crafty fun idea. Well, because my husband has two boxes full of bowling. lacrosse and basketball trophies in our attic. Just spray paint them, and use as book ends or fun little bookshelf doo-dads. You could always 're-give' them to your friends too, for like, 'Best Friend to Drink Wine With' or 'Aah-mahzing Husband Award'...

Source: sherlonkahkai.tumblr.com via Sarah on Pinterest

One of my favorite things to do is go to flea markets and yard sales in the summer (Anna Cole) and hit up Goodwill year round. I always end up with at least two books...and they always have some old vintage ones. The library is also a great place to get .50 cent books too. Just rip, cut, and hole punch...so cute (especially the ones with the great pictures). There you have it, gift tags and bookmarks.

Source: marthastewartweddings.com via Sarah on Pinterest

Feeling extra craft this weekend (and have some power tools?) If I was, I would (err, my husband) would make this amazing corn hole game. I was first introduced to this living in Seattle where all of my University of Washington (go Huskies) friends would play (including bright purple ones at tailgates). Well, I fell in love immediately, and now of course I want one- monogrammed. Here is a site to get you started. I told Matt, you make the wood part, and I will sew the bean bags :)

So there are a few ideas for this long, President's Day weekend! Let me know if you end up making anything!