Chalkboard Love

You know my love for chalkboards. I've linked up to a chalkboard party...Whoo-Hoo! There are a few super cute ideas. Take a look!

Ruffled Tee

I finally completed this ruffled tee, after falling in love with the "Inception Scarf". The Inception Scarf was actually made with the remnants of this gray heather knit.

Total cost of t-shirt...about $5.00...BAM!

I can't believe I actually model it, or the picture taken by my 10 year old turned out. He accidental had the camera setting to "extra wrinkled face".

I struggled to finish the ruffle, not quite sure how I wanted it to look. I knew that I wanted to wear it specifically with a charcoal cardigan sweater I have. The first ruffle went all around the neckline. Very circus-clowny. So I took off the ruffle, cut it in half, and laid a narrower ruffle on the top. Now the t-shirt is perfect for the sweater.

Here is a close up.

I did make the t-shirt, but you can buy one and add a ruffle of coordinating knit. The t-shirt was actually super simple. I took one of my favorite fitting tees, a Mossimo from Target. Turn the t-shirt inside out, laid the Target shirt flat on the table, then folded in half, straight down the middle. I traced around the neckline, shoulders, armholes, sides and bottom. Then added 3/4". Do the same for the back and sleeve. Three easy pieces. Much easier that it sounds. Now I have a pattern to make a pajillion tshirts. You can alter the length of the sleeves, necklines, etc.

No buttons, zippers or ties. Yippee!

Let me know if you have any questions.

Enjoy!

Welcome Eleanor

I'd like to introduce you to the newest furniture member in my house.....Eleanor.

She was acquired last week in a brilliant Craigslist exchange...money for furniture.

I found her after only a few days of serious search, which completely contradicted my theory of "Nothing good is ever found in my neighborhood". Actually, I had to travel to the tony city of Carlsbad, CA to find her. Well worth the trip.

She is a Bernhardt antique, supposedly purchased from an estate sale in North Carolina about 45 years ago. Whatever, I bought it, story and all.

Now the dilemna. She has a cruddy top and some dings and worn spots. Nothing serious, though. How to refinish her? Lovely, glazey paint finish, refinish as original or something new?

Her new home is across the room from Baxter:

Baxter is a handpainted sideboard. Tobacco, green and a teeny bit of gold finish.

So HELP! What do I do? I am not into matchy-matchy. I love pieces that are collected over time and have character.

Sidenote: Yes, I do name most things. My car is called Butterscotch and my dog Oliver.

Your help needed!

I am in the middle of a transition. For the first 10 years of my married life, I had pink walls and blue floral sofa. I loved them.

Flash forward 20 years.

Now, I am a little older, no babies to worry about and my style has become a little more refined. I have been stalking, reading and blotting my new style/strategy. My husband, while tolerant of my shenanigans, does not read my blog and has very little idea what happens while he is a work. Poor dear!

Here is my current living room status and some ideas:

Millwork, including crown molding and maybe even wainscotings.

Good-bye to Eleanor's green predecessor, the sofa table.

Window treatments on the horizon. 3 long panels. Fabric-to be determined.

Wingback chair is going to be slipcovered...very soonly, in drop cloth. Imagine this:

image from Pink and Polka Dot

Floral and denim wingback...relocated to another room.

End table...refinished...maybe painted?

Window treatment: valances to coordinate with panels.

I'm thinking something like this:

Victorola...loved this piece given to me by my grandmother. Doesn't work, but splendid at holding sheet music and books. Said piece will soon be moving to my sister's home.

Bookcase...BA-BYE! I have great plans for a "booknook" in an underutilized computer nook upstairs. This is the only project husband is aware of, and not to crazy about.

A lot of talk about resale values, blah, blah, blah.

And we are back at the entry way with Eleanor.

Here are a couple of other ideas.

Good bye to yellow #13.

I have loved this yellow in 2 houses for over 9 years. Time to move on.

I'm thinking something more neutral, BM-OC14 Natural Cream.

Hate, Hate, HATE carpet. Tile, not so much love either. Would love to replace with wood all downstairs, but that includes a kitchen island remodel that is a couple of years away.

Who designs kitchens anyways? Men, men who don't cook!

ok. So sorry to drag this on. I have been thinking of this post for a couple of weeks. I am soliciting any and all suggestions. You ladies are so wonderful and generous.

Thanks and see you Lowe's!

The Inception Scarf

Have you seen the movie "Inception"?

Me either....but I live with people (Sweet Pea) who LOVE it.

So, when I made a scarf within a scarf.....it had to be the

"Inception Scarf"

Here is how it goes down:

You'll need 3/4 yard stretch knit. Will also work with fleece.

See Suzanne's version in fleece. Very cute. I am sure I CASE'd this scarf from her.

Cut 2 pieces of stretch knit 8 x 60 inches; sew ends together to make one long 8 x 120 inches.

Cut 3 pieces of stretch knit 6 x 75 inches; sew ends together to make one long 6 x 150 inches.

Gather 8 inch wide piece of fabric by stitching down the middle. Use a long stitch when gathering. I bunched it up and I pushed it through the needle as I go along.

Your finished length should be about 60 inches.

Do the same thing for the same thing for the 6 inch wide piece.

The finished length should also be about 60 inches. I will be a little fuller than the 8 inch wide piece.

Turn under the ends of each layer.....stitch to finish.

Pin the 6 inch piece on top of the 8 inch;

adjust the gathers so that both layers are the same length.

Stitch down the middle of both pieces.

Sew down the middle again using a zigzag stitch to secure the gathers.

Next time I will stitch a piece of ribbon to the backside of the stitching, just to make sure the stitching doesn't pull out.

There you go....Inception Scarf...a scarf within a scarf. Sweet.

My girlfriend ALMOST didn't get this for her birthday. Sweet Pea loved it so much.

I love the way it makes a little collar.

Oliver.....inspector number 16...quality control.

Christmas Tag

Merry Christmas!

I had such brilliant plans, and as usual, they didn't all come to fruition.

I have a list of holiday craft projects to do.....maybe complete them now and be ready next year?

I wanted to post all of my beautiful Christmas decorations...hasn't happened. Is it too late?

Wanted to make handmade gifts for dear friends....still working on a few. Maybe birthdays?

Well, here are a couple of things I did manage to squeek out at the last minute.

I was inspired to use vintage images after seeing a lovely gift wrapped at French Garden House.

Special thanks to the Graphic Fairy for sharing so many sweet images. I had a hard time decide which ones to use.

I used dotted swiss embossing folder, dictionary flower and a gold embossing sentiment

Simple text and reindeer graphic.

Did you know caribou, or reindeer are good swimmers?

Another Graphic Fairy image with some berry and leaves from my stash.

Graphic Fairy image and a little gold glitter on the candle flames.

GF image and scraps do the trick. I loved that little scarlet birdie.

Finally, a graphic from the interwebz....I can't remember where...and I will check because I want to give credit. Nothing original here!

A few sweet images, scraps and my news Sizzix tag die, I cranked these out at 1 am the other night. Still haven't been to bed before 1 am in the last 4 nights. Perimenopause sucks! Thank heavens for Ambient!

Enjoy!

Pottery Barn Pillows

Happy Thursday!

A week before Thanksgiving and things are moving right along. We are going to be visiting family, so no dinner at my house this year. Shoosh!

However, we will be visiting some dear friends who will be hosting my brood for the turkey/Harry Potter/shopping/football fest.

It's only polite to bring something to the hostess, don't you think?

This year my husband will be bringing a 24 pack of Diet Coke (how very thoughtful!) and some summer sausage. I don't think our hostess will care much, but the hubby's will enjoy the snacks while watching football.

My hubby thinks with his tummy, I think with my eyes. When I saw these pillows at Pottery Barn Teens, I think I screamed a little.

Cute, bright and embroidered.

Then I inspiration on how to make them at Naptime Crafters and it was all over and done.

Here are mine:

I call this one: Owlie Babba and the 40 Leaves

Falling Leaves

They turned out sooo nice, that my sister is getting the same set for her birthday. The

floral pattern is perfect for her living room (cross fingers).

I even, quite by coincidence, came home for the store with the same fabric as Naptime Crafters.

Hum. Must be cuz it's so cute.

Enjoy!

Future Star Stencil

Happy Saturday!

Thanksgiving is coming up and I am getting stressed. But, that doesn't stop me from working on projects on the BOTTOM of my To-Do List. Ha!

Today's project is a "BING" light bulb idea I had last week. I have seen lots of fun projects out in blogland using freezer paper stencils.

Heeeellllllooooo! Where have I been?

Lacrosse season is coming up and I wanted to make to cool shirts for my boys, Lazy Boy and Drama. Here is Drama modeling my SECOND attempt. I'm not even going to post the first shirt. Yuck!

beautiful fall day

I am so happy the way this turned out. Now, I have got a bunch of LAX ideas on my scribble pad ready to go.

Want to know how?

There are a ton of tutorials on the interwebz, so I'll hook you up with a couple of good ones:

Dana at Made

Cheri at I am Momma

Here is a couple of tips.

I design my graphic in Pages, cuz I'm a Mac girl and Photoshop stupid. It's easy to manipulate images and resize.

When cutting your stencil, put a fresh blade into your Exacto knife. Totally makes a difference.

Use a piece of freezer paper behind the fabric so that the paint doesn't soak through. DO NOT use cardboard.

Use the paint designed especially for fabric. I like Tulip Soft Fabric Paint, in Matte. It's cheap ($1.69 a bottle) and comes in many color. It's the perfect consistency to paint, leave a good coat of color and not bleed through.

DO NOT use watery, acrylic paint.

Use a specialty brush. Also inexpensive, and sold right next to the fabric paint.

DO NOT use a big, foam brush, unless you have a large area to cover.

Hope to make a lot more stencils and finish, FINISH a few projects this weekend.

Cheers!

Sweet Pea Banner

Sweet Pea's birthday was last week and since she is attending college 1200 miles away, I wanted to send something to make her day special.

I put together a banner for her party at Grandma and Grandpa's house.

(Of course, it arrived 2 days later. Urgh!)

I used the Girl's Paperie line "Paper Girl" that I won at April's charity auction.

I can't get enough of this goodness.

I also stole....blatantly stole the ideas and the circles from

Pretty Paper Blog

then added some sweet butterflies so that I could use the paper cuts.

I had to print out the letters, mirror image, with the compy.

Man, a Cricut would have saved me a boatload of trouble.

Forgive the lighting. I finished the project at 9:30 pm and immediately

packed it up for shipping the next day.

Sweet Pea called yesterday and G & G brought over her banner and presents.

What other 19 year old would love this

AND this?

Happy Bday Sweet Pea!

Halloween Wrap up-Craft Style

Now that Halloween is over, it's time to take down the pumpkins and whatnot. Here is a quick shot of my mantle before it goes into a box 'til next year.

First up, Halloween banner. Sweet Pea has a completely blank, white dorm. Made this to add a little color.

She liked it. I should have made like 15 of them to fill up that wall.

There is my lovely owlie plate.

The vinyl was $5 from Wonderfully Wordy

and the plate was $1 buck from Home Goods

SCORE!!!

Here was a fun project. I made this fun candle wrap with the paper I won from Margie Romney-Aslett. You can see all the goodies I won at my other blog.

Thanks Margie and April!

A friend and I went to Tai Pan yesterday and got some goodies....OOOOHHHH!

Looking forward to finding new homes for those new pieces.