Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Number 5 Chair

I've been in the very looooong process of redoing my kitchen table and chairs for a very looooong time. It must be because we eat off of them every single day that it's been hard to find little snipits of time to work on them. But I finally have a few chairs done, and a few that are in the process.

Here is a before of everything. I bought the set for $125 off Craigslist. I liked the simple farmhouse style and the fact that it was solid wood.

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Here is the after of one of the chairs. I decided to paint numbers on the seats of the chairs just for fun. My husband is convinced there must be another way to teach our kids their numbers, but it is starting to grow on him ;)

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I'm posting this in hopes that it will motivate me to FINALLY get this project DONE.

Only 4 more chairs, and one big table to go . . .

*sigh*

Saturday, June 5, 2010

For the love of cards

I started making cards about 6 years ago. A friend of mine brought me along with her to a card making class offered by another girl just out of her home. And I’ve been hooked ever since then . . .

I did the classes for about 2 years, and then slowly started making them on my own. Now all the girls in my family do a card swamp about 3-4 times a year.

And can I just say . . . I ADORE scrapbook paper. I imagine I hoard scrapbook paper like a seamstress hoards fabric. There are just so many fun and colorful designs out there, it makes it difficult for a paper junkie like me to pick and choose. So I often end up with a lot :)

Besides the card swap I do with all the other girlies in my family, I love to dig into my stash of paper to make a set of cards to give away to my friends on their birthdays.

This is one of a set of cards I made recently for my friend . . .

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I didn’t plan on putting the pink and blue paper together, but when I saw them next to each other on my table, I knew I found a winning combo :)

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This little flower is my favorite element on the card! Vintage loveliness . . .

Any other paper junkies out there?

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

To Dye or not?

A couple of months ago I went to throw some stuff into wash and I noticed one of my favorite shirts had a little stain on the front. No biggie I thought. I’ll just spray on some Oxi-clean and that will be it . . .

So I go to treat it and what I thought was just a little brown stain turned into several BIGGER stains all over the front of my shirt. Hum?

Upon further inspection, I find not only is the front a mess, but there are also several big stains on the back of the shirt too. WHAT?!?

So I proceed to basically drench my shirt in oxi-clean and put it into wash, praying that’s the last I see of it.

Well, it wasn’t. That stain was there.to.STAY.

Blast!

Not to mention, that I still have no idea where that stain came from. Like, literally, it looks like I dumped my entire dinner of spaghetti on my shirt and then rolled around in it on the floor. But I have no recollection of anything so messy. However, I can be a clumsy girl, so that’s not TOO unusual . . .

So I put the shirt into my “stained/worn shirts that get shredded and used in my painting/staining projects” pile. Oh well . . .

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Then my wheels started turning . . .

I remember seeing these little boxes of powder dye in the laundry detergent section of Wal-Mart. Hum? Could it work? The shirt was still in perfectly good condition other than the big, ugly stain. And the dye is only a $1.50 a box? Should I go for it??

purple dye

I did!

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And I’m happy to say it worked!

So the next time you have a shirt that is still good besides a little staining, try dying it! I’m thinking of all my little girl’s shirts, especially white ones, that have gotten a little stained and would be so cute in a lovely shade of yellow or blue!

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Just remember you might have funky-colored finger nails for a couple of days :)

He He . . .