2011 January

Dining Room Re-Do Part One!

January 18, 2011 3 Comments

Yesterday I revealed that in all of my madness, I decided to redo our dining room last weekend!

Yay for a new project!

Here are some before shots just to give you an idea of the transformation:

Please excuse Harper’s party decor. It was ok, but a little cold and plain:

Oh yea and we did have chairs too!… I moved them into the hallway before I remembered to take pictures of the dining room before we began to move everything:

The new dining room is still a work in progress… Hopefully it will be totally done in a few days!

Filed Under: Decorating, My House

A little Distressing How To

January 17, 2011 4 Comments

I have had sooo many questions asking “how do you get that old distressed look on your furniture?”

Well, because I loooooove you so, so, SO much I think I’ll share how I do it!

Last week I found these puppies at the local Thrift Store for $5 bucks a pop:

…Just in case you thought I was exaggerating:

I began by lightly sanding the chairs or whatever piece of furniture I am distressing:

Wipe down the furniture with a damp cloth and then spray paint (I use gloss) with one good coat of paint (You only need ONE coat since you will be distressing it anyways… the more coats, the more sanding you will have to do… keep it simple!.. O.N.E. coat of paint!)

Let the chairs dry really, REALLY well. I let mine dry overnight (which is so hard for me to do because I want everything done umm pretty much… yesterday. But trust me, if you don’t wait until the paint is completely dry then the paint will clump and peel which = u.g.l.y.) So once again… LET THE PAINT DRY and THEN sand it! This is like an art form. You have to play around with different pressure, motions, etc to get the “look” you want. I use Ross’s air compressor and sanding pad since I do this so often, but if you are just doing a piece or two for your house then you can do it by hand. I recommend a 200 or higher grit sand paper since you are just knocking off a VERY thin coat of paint in certain spots.

By the way, don’t I look super cute, trendy and well dressed for the occasion?! …Such a fashionista!

Continue to sand, sand and sand some more until the whole piece of furniture is completely distressed:

Wipe down with a damp cloth and marvel over your new “old” piece of furniture! (If you want to, then you can paint a top coat of Polyacrylic to protect and seal the furniture. I did this for a table once because we used it all the time, but for the distressed look, it doesn’t really matter if it gets a little beat up…if anything, it adds even more character!)

I love these blue chairs.

My favorite part about the “distressed” look is that each peice of furniture is different.

I think these chairs will be perfect in my new… dining room!

What?

I forgot to tell you that I decided this weekend to completely re-do our dining room?! Yep. I did.
And I cannot wait to share with you!

Stay tuned!

Filed Under: Decorating, Distressing, Revamping, Thrifty, Tutorial

Applique the EASY way!

January 15, 2011 8 Comments

I cut out appliques with my Silhouette!

WHAT?!
I forgot to tell you that my awesome, fabulous, hunk of a hubby gave me a Silhouette for Christmas?!
Yep. He sure did. The poor thing sat in the box for two whole weeks while I got back on my feet after the Christmas Illness of 2010, but as soon as I got it out of the box and plugged it in, I was smitten! And yesterday I decided to try to cut out a few appliques with it. Guess what? It worked like a charm!

Note: Silhouette claims that they do not recommend using their machine to cut fabric. However, I do! So here is how I did it:

Put Heat n Bond on the fabric like usual. (or Wonder Under…Follow the directions on the roll.) Then, I cut the fabric in an 8in x 11in rectangle.

I placed it on the green cutting mat fabric side up. (I think I may try the clear cutting mat next time because the paper on the Heat n Bond stuck to the green cutting mat and did not come off easily…)

Create your design on the computer. Make sure you put the PINK tip on the cutting blade:

When you are ready to cut, load your media and then cut (saying a little prayer at this time seems to help too)!

It’s cutting….!

Unload your “media” and peel the fabric off… and VIOLA! Perfectly cut appliques ready to be ironed onto your new project!

I ironed the “h” onto a onesie and added an over-sized bow! I love the way it turned out! (please excuse the yuck on my mirror… SOMEONE can’t seem to keep her grubby little hands off of it!)

As for the flower and Harper’s name…they turned out sooo incredibly cute! I’ll share those another day!

Can you believe it?! I could have NEVER cut that flower by hand! And it only took me a few minutes from start to finish! MUCH faster! Now that’s it is so quick and easy, I just have to fight the urge to applique everything I own!

Filed Under: Applique, baby, Sewing, Silhouette, The Girl

Pom Pom How To!

January 14, 2011 1 Comment

Since Harper’s party has been pushed back two weeks, I decided to hang the Pom Pom Balls I made in her room:

I love the character they add!

I used this tutorial from Martha Stewart to make them. I found that if you are using the whole size of the tissue paper then 18 sheets work best to make the pom poms look full. For the smaller ones I cut the tissue in half and used 12 sheets of paper. Also, I cut the tips of my pom poms in points instead of rounded edges… it was easier that way.

They make me so happy with all of their fluffiness:

Now that these are happily hanging in Harper’s room…I guess I’ll just have to make more for her party!

Oh Darn!

Filed Under: Decorating

…One more "thing"…

January 13, 2011 3 Comments

Well, the birthday party has been postponed for two weeks.

Harper and Cliff are both sick with an infection. They are on antibiotics and hopefully these cooties will clear up soon! Today is day FOUR of no school for all of the kids around here (yes, it snowed on SUNDAY night and everyone is STILL freaking out!). Not that it really makes any difference to us (we are usually home except Cliff goes to pre-school 2 mornings a week), but we are all going super stir crazy and am ready for everything to be back to “normal” (well our normal at least…). But now that the babies are sick, we are very contagious and cannot have anyone over (not even Cliff’s PT) or go anywhere for a little while! So, I think I will sew and craft and continue to work on Harper’s party decor! …Oh yea and love on my sweet children too!

I made this little outfit for Harper and I love it so much that I think I will make a few more:

Then I decided to make her a Party Hat too:

The hat only stays on for .5 seconds!

So this was as good of a shot as I could get before she ripped it off the threw it on the ground… Poor party hat!

Filed Under: Family, Random, Sewing, The Girl

Pretty, Pretty Chandelier!

January 12, 2011 17 Comments

Let me just say that I am having a BLAST decorating for Harper’s First Birthday Party! Little girls are just too much fun! Inspired by all of the Christmas Balls I saw hanging from chandeliers, I decided to get a bunch of glass balls and fill them with “all things girly” then hang them from my chandelier in our dinning room! For Harper’s party, I chose to use pink, hot pink and green as the colors so I stuck to those colors when looking for items to put inside the glass ornaments.

Ok, so get glass balls (I got mine from Hobby Lobby, %50 off of course) and I got different sizes. This helps add another layer of interest.

Then get all of the materials together that you want to put inside the balls. I used feathers, strips of scrap fabric tied in knots, little pink balls, tulle and ribbons of all sorts (scrap ribbon):

Take the top off of the ornament and begin to put your materials inside. (NOT all at once!)

Fill until it looks “right” then replace the top. Hang with fishing line or a cute ribbon (I used different ribbons) from chandelier. Make sure each ball is hung at a different height. Play with it until you get the look you want!

See how pretty they turned out?!

I love all of the different textures.

I could ooohhh and ahhh over them all day…

The feathers are so light and airy!

This one may be my favorite:

I have an awesome idea for these in Harper’s room after the party!

Can’t wait to show you next week!

Filed Under: Birthday Party, The Girl

Snow AGAIN?!?

January 11, 2011 1 Comment

We got slammed again with SNOW!

This is crazzzzzy and NEVER happens more than once a year (if that) around here so we were super excited when we awakened to a winter wonderland!

Warning: For those of you who live up North and are used to the snow, this may be boring to you! And no we aren’t crazy, we just NEVER get to see snow!

Cliff was so excited to stand up with his walker in the snow! (note: the grocery bags over Cliff’s shoes were Ross’s idea…)

Then Harper came out to join in the fun! She looked just like the kid off of A Christmas Story (She actually fell over on her back in our den and couldn’t get up, it was so funny!):

Burrrr it was so cold!

Harper was so confused:

My little snow bunny!

…Still trying to figure out why everything is white…

Love that profile!

..Then she decided to try to crawl… That ended up with her face planting in the snow!

Sweet, Sweet babies!

Wagon ride in the snow with Daddy!

Off they went:

Cliff and Ross played in the front yard for a long time!

…I looked outside to check on them and yep, they were STILL playing!

We were so excited to have a chance to play in the snow since the first time it snowed, we were all to sick to go out and enjoy it!

Yay for snow!

But that’s not the end of the story…

After Hot Chocolate, lunch and naps we went BACK out for a Ranger ride! Ross drove the Ranger all over town today… He was only pulled over once and the Officer said “This is the safest thing you could have out here on these roads! Be careful for other drivers! Have a great day!”… You know you live in the South when the Police allow ATV’s on the roads (No, our Ranger is NOT street legal)! We put the kid’s 5,000 layers on and off we went!

Cliff was all geared up!

It was so much fun to ride in the snow!

It was so beautiful too!

And to top off our perfect Snow Day, Cliff insisted on eating dinner by the fire with his Ski goggles and hat on!

Great family memories were made today!

Filed Under: Family, Random

My Weekend

January 10, 2011 Leave a Comment

Was spent making these bad boys:

They are taking over our house for Harper’s First Birthday party next weekend!

Poor Ross walked into the kitchen and said “Do these really have to stay in here ALL WEEK?!”

“Yes, Ross, Yes.”

More party decor to come! And MAYBE I’ll share how I did it too!

Filed Under: Birthday Party

Post-Op Week Seven!

January 9, 2011 3 Comments

This week is going in Cliff’s baby book for sure!

He took his first steps with his walker all by himself! Seeing him to this is truely watching God perform a miracle right before our eyes! Cliff cries when he walks because it is such hard work for him. To you this may look like so small, but to us this is HUGE! Cliff has to think about shifting his weight to take a step, lifting his leg, bending his knee, completing the step and repeating with the other leg. He is so amazing and we are so proud of him!

Here Cliff is walking in our kitchen:

Please continue to pray that Cliff will gain strength and endurance. We are so thrilled with his progress in just seven short weeks!

One question Ross and I get asked is “would you do the surgery again?” Our response “Absolutely!” Having this surgery has given Cliff the ability to do so many things he could never do before! Of course God blessed Dr. Park with the knowledge to perform this surgery. He blessed us by guiding me to stumble on the St. Louis Children’s Hospital website in one of my desperate attempts to “fix” Cliff. God has blessed Cliff with a huge amount determination and drive to want to walk like his friends do. So, as much as I want to give all of the credit to SDR or Dr Park, I have to give all of the credit to God! God is so good and has used Cliff to teach Ross and I that no matter how much we want to control things in life, the ultimate control is in God’s hands. I used to sit at the computer for hours crying and trying to ”googling” ways that I could ”fix” Cliff. That got me no where, so then when I thought there was not hope for Cliff and I was at my lowest point, I placed my worry in God’s hands and asked him to guide Ross and I. A few days later, I stumbled across Dr. Park’s web page and three months later, Cliff was in surgery!

We have such a wonderful Lord! He is so good to us!

Filed Under: Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy, The Boy