In Search of the Mojo

I apologize for my absence from blogland. Between the cold, blustery, monsoon-like weather and the arrival of the cold from {h-e-double-hockey-sticks} I have been suffering from a sad lack of motivation. I only have one teeny little project to share for all my time away...

I had seen this quote in a few different places & it was just {begging} to find a place in my home. So...off I went to the dollar store to find a frame so I could start the project.

The frame is an {off} size ~ it was originally meant to hold three 5x7s ~ so I had some figuring to do. I measured the opening, then opened a new blank file in photoshop using those dimensions. Creating the word art was pretty quick & easy ~ just a matter of choosing fonts & colors. Once that was done, I went to the Costco photo lab website and found the closest print size available that was {larger} than the size of the word art. I opened up another new blank file in the size of the print I'd be ordering, and used the paint bucket to turn the background grey. I then sharpened and flattened the word art, and moved it onto the grey background, so it looked like this....

I uploaded the finished file, ordered the print size I needed, and an hour later it was ready to go. All I had to do was trim off the grey part & pop it in the frame.

Less than $5! Not bad... I'm hoping that this little project will be the springboard for more projects. I so want my {mojo} back!

Told 'Ya...

This week I managed to go grocery shopping, take the tiny people to the library, get both tiny people to and from their respective schools on time and not leave either of them anywhere where they weren't supposed to be left. I also changed the sheets on all of the beds, kept the kitchen reasonably reasonable, vacuumed the living room 2-3 times, got the tiny people to clean their rooms, helped the Hubband keep up with his workload, watched ridiculous amounts of baseball and hockey....and completely {forgot} about anything laundry-related.

Don't believe me? Well, here we have Exhibit A: Our Laundry Chute.

When the Hubband, while waiting for the water to warm up so he could take a shower this morning, opened the linen closet to find it completely devoid of fresh towels....then grumbled his way to the basement and emerged moments later with a clean and folded {beach towel}....yeah, then I kinda knew it was worse than I thought.

See for all the {shockingly} idiotic and interesting home-improvement methods used by the previous owners of our home (my favorite example? drywall as a substitute for sub-flooring in the kitchen. can I get a WTH!?!?!) they did do one thing that I find to be {brilliant}. When they were having the basement finished, they had a closet built around the area where the laundry chute empties. (insert sound of singing angels here...) Smart, right? No one has to see our dirty clothes when they go downstairs ~ it's all hidden away behind a closet door....which is great, except for one small side-effect known as "out of sight, out of mind". Oops.

And now you all have photographic proof that I chose the title for this blog very wisely.

Now *This* Is Exciting Stuff!

Take a little lookie-loo at what I found at {Michael's} the other day...

Tulip Fabric Spray Paint

This stuff comes in a ton of different colors ~ which made it reallllly difficult for me to just pick up white and walk away, but I did! ;) This is a great {alternative} to using bleach. With the bleach t-shirts, you have no control over the color that you end up with on the area where the bleach is sprayed. Go back a few posts and take a look at the navy t-shirts that were bleach-sprayed...you'll see that the bleached areas are a purple-ish color. Green turns kind of a yellow-ish, red would turn pink. I wanted to make myself a Red Wings shirt and I didn't want pink ~ I wanted red and white ~ and the white spray paint worked {perfectly}. I used the exact same method with the freezer paper, etc. and it turned out great. SO, next time you're at the craft store grab yourself a bottle and try it out!

An Imperfect Improvement

When I upholstered the {fugly} headboard ~ which I'm still in love with, by the way ~ I started really looking at the rest of the bedroom furniture (b/c of course it was a full matching set) and trying to figure out what I could do to it to make it...better. After a great deal of inspection and an exploratory mission involving a screwdriver, I discovered that the drawer fronts on the nightstands and dresser could be very easily removed from the actual {drawers}. Hmmm... I thought about making new drawer fronts and then I thought ~ {why}? The existing fronts are, obviously, the right size ~ and they're {free}! So I decided to flip those suckers over & use the backs as the new fronts!

I forgot to take a {before} pic, but here you can see what the original drawer fronts looked like. Obviously, there was no way to just slap on some paint & new hardware for a fresh new look.

I decided to experiment with the nightstand that the tinier of the tiny people has in her room (we had to split the set so we could fit a stand-up chest of drawers into our {small} master bedroom...she got the extra nightstand) so that if it didnt' work I wouldn't be faced with figuring out how to fix it and make our bedroom set match again.

So I took off the drawer fronts, filled the screw holes with wood putty, and sanded all the surfaces I planned to paint. It took a few coats of paint, with sanding between, to get the finish nice & even. I know a lot of people love their {spray paint} but I'm a can & brush kind of girl, and I used white paint we had on hand.

The Hubband came to my aid in measuring, drilling, reattaching, etc. Good thing, too, because otherwise I'm certain I would've made an enormous {mess} of things. It's not perfect, but it's a definite improvement!

The Hubband did say that the measuring was a bit of a pain...but when you consider that the only thing I {bought} for this project was the hardware, I think it's well worth it! Less than $10 total for a new look...that's not bad!

We're still debating about doing the same with our own bedroom furniture... I'll keep you posted!

Little Girls are Sports Fans, Too!

You wanna know what's really {frustrating}? Trying to find "team apparel" for little girls that isn't grossly overpriced or pink. I mean, really ~ if our team's colors are blue & orange...or scarlet & grey...or red & white...why in the world would you slap that logo on a pink t-shirt? So earlier this week I took matters into my own hands and made some lovely bleach-spray t-shirts that have been floating around in blogland!

I searched online for the {Detroit Tigers} logo ~ gotta love the good old-fashioned {English D} right? I found a printable version on the Tigers' website, but it was made to be used as a template for pumpkin carving (how cool is that!?!?) so I kept looking. Lo & behold, I found exactly what I needed on Wikipedia of all places. It even had the logo in 4 different sizes, which was perfect as I knew the tiny people would require a smaller one than I'd need for my own shirt! Now ~ this might be considered copyright infringement....but the logo was made available by the official site, so they can't be too picky about what it's used for, I would think. Not to mention that I'm not using their logo for profit, so I'm okay with taking my chances. ;)

I printed the logos out on {cardstock} then cut them out and traced them onto {freezer paper}. This was the first time I'd ever used freezer paper and I was thrilled that it really does stick to the fabric when you iron it ~ AMAZING! Next, I took a spray bottle of bleach and went to town. **Don't forget to put something inside the shirt to keep the bleach from soaking through to the back ~ a plastic grocery bag works well!** Quick, easy, and {cheap} ~ as in $5 for each of our shirts ~ and we've got t-shirts for game day! WOOT! I showed them to the Hubband and his immediate response was, "Where's mine?" So...I'd better get on that!

Spring Broken

Ahhh, Spring Break. I had no first-hand experience with any such thing until I went to college. No, really ~ we never had Spring Break when I was in high school....let alone elementary. Both of my kids are mid-way through SB right now & it's wiping me out. Their little schedules are totally {jacked} and I have a feeling they're looking forward to school starting back up just as much as I am.

We just got back from 2 days in Ohio, visiting my mom...and tomorrow she'll be coming up here for the weekend. :) Should be fun. We're going to see {Straight No Chaser} on Friday night and I'm probably a little too excited. We'll also be celebrating the tinier of the tiny people's birthday on Sunday, so it's going to be a weekend full of excitement!

I left for my mom's on Monday afternoon with one project about halfway done, so hopefully I'll be able to finish it up this week at some point. Should be interesting with my very willing {helpers} at my side. Anyway ~ all this to say that I'm not sure how much I'll be around for the remainder of the week but I do intend to try...

Gotta Love a Twirly Skirt

Wondering what I've been up to lately? Well check {this} out! :)



I've gotta admit, I'm {proud} of myself for this one...because a) I'm not so much a sewer, b) I figured it out all on my own and c) I'm going to get one more spring/summer out of this puppy...if not more! WOOT!

This dress was a 3T, so definitely too small for either of my tiny people (5 1/2 and almost 4) ~ but I love it so much I just couldn't bring myself to give it away. So I decided to make it into a skirt. It was pretty easy (I say now...if you would've asked me immediately after my sewing machine needle broke & I couldn't get the doggone screw to turn to release it so I could put in a new one, you would've gotten a decidedly different answer). I cut around the bodice, giving myself as much fabric as I could while making sure the stay as straight as possible and paying attention to the existing arm holes. Then I folded that fabric over, making sure that I'd have enough room to run my elastic through the pocket I was creating, and sewed the new waistband. Then I fished the elastic through, sewed it together in the back and closed the pocket. {DONE.} Go me!

The tinier of the tiny people tried it on today and was thrilled with the twirliness. :) I was, too.

In other news...today, the Hubband hit Cabela's and came home with fishing equipment he may or may not actually need. And there, my dear bloggy friends, is my opening to buy paint and goof around with the bedroom furniture at the next possible opportunity. {insert evil grin}

Sooooo {EXCITED!}

You know those days when everything just falls {perfectly} into place?

Yeah, neither do I. ;)

But I had a day this week that came frighteningly close.


I found the {perfect} fabric to upholster the previously-mentioned {FUGLY} headboard ~ and I found it for 50% off at Kohl's. To top it off, I had a whopping $18.71 left on a gift card from Christmas, and with the sale I got 17cents back in change ~ so the fabric was, basically, free. {WOOT!}

In my perusal of blog-land, I stumbled upon another headboard upholstering project in which the woman used an old comforter instead of buying batting. {Brilliant!} (I cannot for the life of me remember where I saw this, so if you're reading and you know, PLEASE tell me so I can give proper credit.) I didn't have any old comforters lying around, so I did the next best thing ~ I hit the Salvation Army thrift store. Now, I'm not gonna lie, used bedding totally {skeeves me out} on several levels...so I should mention that (after being reminded to do so by my mom) I did the smell test before I purchased, and I then washed the comforter...twice...with copious amounts of {bleach} in each load...before I even considered doing anything else. I found the comforter for a whopping $8.

***disclaimer*** In case you're wondering the universe made sure I didn't get too excited about my close-to-perfect day. The following day, I opened up my car door...into my forehead. {OUCH} doesn't cover it. The bruise is HOT. But I digress...

It took me a couple of days to build up the {courage} to actually start the project, because, honestly, if I did screw this up royally, we'd either be stuck using it anyway, or we'd go without a headboard. I should mention, too, that I don't mean anything {personal} by calling this headboard {FUGLY} ~ but it's clearly dated, and not in a vintage/antiquey/cool retro sort of way ~ rather in a "Whoa ~ that's totally from the 90s!" way.

Anyhoodle...yesterday, I took the {plunge}.

First, I removed the headboard from the bed and brought it out into the living room where I would have the needed floor space. I {cleaned} both sides of it, detached the legs and measured for new legs. Since I flipped the headboard around and used the flat side (what was the back) as the front, new legs had to be cut to work around the "decorative" trim that is on the side that was the front. That also required predrilling holes to attach the legs to the headboard, and to the bed frame...don't forget that part!


Next, I laid the comforter down on the floor and laid the headboard down on top of it. Once I determined that the comforter was large enough, I cut the sucker in half. I wanted the headboard to be {soft} and {cushy} so I wanted to use two layers of padding rather than one. I stapled the first section of comforter to the back of the headboard ~ pulling it taut & stapling 3 staples at the center of the top, then the bottom, then on each side, and then going back to add more staples in between. I did this with 2 layers of comforter....


Now, because the sheet I chose is a thinner, microfiber material, and it's also light in color, I had to jump through a few more hoops to make sure that the {peachish} color of the comforter wasn't going to make an appearance. I had a couple of old, plain off-white sheets, so I used those (yes...two of them) to make sure that none of the color would show through. I stapled those to the back the same way I did the comforter.

Finally, I stood the headboard up, put the sheet over the headboard and lined up the pattern to make sure it was as straight as possible. I was doing this by myself, which made it a bit more complicated, but I did manage to pull and staple the top, bottom, and side tightly enough to then lay it down and finish it up without screwing up the pattern too badly. It's not {perfectly} straight, but it's as good as it was going to get, so I'm okay with that.




So, the {first} of many bedroom-related projects to come. I'm working on choosing a wall color now. I had considered a much lighter shade of blue, but now I'm thinking I might go with something closer in color to the print on the headboard. {Thoughts?} Please do share. The {FUGLY} dressers and nightstand don't have long to live, either...at least not in their current states. I've got a little trick up my sleeve for them, and I plan to paint them a dark brown.

In a brief and {fleeting} moment of excitement I realized that I would have enough fabric from the sheet set to do matching window treatments, but alas, the pattern was printed on the flat sheet {crooked} and I didn't realize it until after I'd cut...so now it's not lookin' like that's gonna happen. We'll see if I can muster up the {patience} for figuring that whole thing out.

Until then...I'm {happy} with what I've managed so far!

All linked up to Tatertots & Jello and Funky Junk Interiors! :)

Peek-A-Boo!

Oh, c'mon ~ you knew I'd come back....{eventually}....right?

While I was busy neglecting you all, I began what is sure to be a long and lusty love affair with {Hobby Lobby}. Oh, lawd, help me. I had never been to HL before, although I had heard my mother speak of it's wonders, and had even sat in my van in the HL parking lot while she ran in for a quick item. Had I only known... I have been spoiled for quite some time with a seriously {rockin'} JoAnn ETC right up the street, but the store recently closed {SOB!} and I now have to hop on the expressway and drive a solid 30 min. to get to the nearest decent Jo's. HL is much closer ~ and while the fabric dept. is a bit lacking in comparison to what I had grown so accustomed to w/ my Jo's, it'll do!

I found {exactly} what I was looking for at HL. In the way of {burlap}. Yep, I'm on that bandwagon. ;) Seriously, though ~ I have been searching in vain for OVER A YEAR for the perfect fabric for window treatments for my kitchen. Granted, finding the perfect fabric to go with {orange} walls is undoubtedly never going to be easy ~ but this was getting a little ridiculous. Finally, Jen's many posts at TT&J about the wonders of burlap seeped into my brain & I decided to throw caution to the wind, bust out the glue gun and go for it. So, I went to HL, bought my burlap, found a great orange fabric to use as trim, and off I went...





I'm {thrilled} with the curtain over my kitchen sink and I think I'll be equally thrilled with the one over the other window...once the Hubband hangs it for me ;) ~ the shade on my back door needs a liiiiittle {tweaking} though, and I'm not entirely sure how to go about it. I wanted the blind to be long enough to cover the whole window, with the option of raising it so we can see out. I attached a loop to each of the upper back corners, and a ribbon about 1/3 of the way up the back on each side, with the intention of tying the ribbons through the loops to hold the shade in it's "up" position. And that worked, BUT, the center sagged SO badly that I couldn't stand it. I ended up tying the ribbons to the side of the actual curtain rod, which is much better, but the middle still sags. Being that I know a few things about sagging (if you have kids you know what I mean...) I feel bad for the poor thing and want to fix it. The hubband suggested a strip of velcro...which I suppose I could do although it feels just a bit like cheating.

In other news, the Hubband had a really big, really {stressful} career-related test this week. It was his second go-'round with this particular test (the first time didn't go so well!) and I am beyond happy and relieved to report that he {passed}! WHEW! He's in a pretty good mood because of it. A good enough mood to agree with me that our bedroom furniture is {FUGLY} and to let me attempt a re-do. WOO-HOO! I promise more on that to come...hopefully sometime relatively soon!

And I Didn't Even TRY...

Do you ever find that you're suddenly, for no apparent reason, drawn to certain color pallettes? The fabric I used for my camera strap cover & the apron I made for myself ~ my very first sewing projects ~ is a {bold, splashy, fun print} with green, orange, pink, yellow... Then I started crocheting, and after making a green-ish scarf for myself with yarn I had on hand, and pink scarves for the tiny people, I went out and bought myself some bright, multi-colored yarn. Yep ~ green, orange, pink, yellow...and white. Then I started thinking about a project I want to do (you'll find out soon enough) that I wanted to get some pretty papers for. So I grabbed some scrapbooking paper at Michael's. You guessed it ~ green, orange, pink, white ~ no yellow this time, but DANG. I hadn't even realized I was doing this! It hit me then that the sweater I picked up a couple weeks ago (for $3, thank you) is the same shade of pink. Will it never end!?!?! And THEN...


I saw that {Crystal} over at Little Bit Funky is making these super cute yarn wreaths. And that got me thinking. I had a wreath form. And I had the yarn. And, while I don't possess the skill, time, or actual fabric, I did have the paper. So I sat out the paper and the yarn, and couldn't believe how perfectly it all matched. Sickening, really. This is what I ended up with...









So, first I wrapped the whole wreath form with the yarn. I secured the end of the yarn to the back of the form with hot glue, then started wrapping it around the form. Then I took one of the tiny people's juice cups and traced circles on the back of the different papers, using both the bottom & the top of the cup so I have circles in 2 different sizes. I laid them out on the form to figure out the placement of the circles, but wasn't completely happy with the lack of dimension, sooo...I went a little green and hot glued some of the smaller circles onto discarded pop bottle lids and a few pieces of cork to create more depth. It's now hanging on my front door ~ which is {perfect} really, because it adds a punch of color, and it's not too thick to fit between our regular door and the storm door. It might not last more than one season, but that's OK...it was super inexpensive and {fun} to make ~ so I'm happy!

Speaking of that color pallette...how about the new header? ;)

Linking up to the amazing and wonderful Tatertots & Jello...

Wait...What is today!?!?!

I'm still trying to get used to "borrowing" the Hubband's laptop. He is very...ummm... {particular} about it's use. For example, it's okay if I turn the volume all the way down, but it is unacceptable for me to actually {mute} the volume, even though it requires no more time or energy to turn the volume on again that it would to turn it up. Interesting. I'm also finding that I lose access to the laptop around or before 11:00PM. Kinda sucks.

I do have a quick project to share, though! Don't try to hide it, you're {excited} ~ I know!

Those of you who are moms know that tiny people aren't so great with the whole grasping the passage of time thing. When the not quite as tiny person started preschool she would get so excited about school, but couldn't quite figure out the Tues/Thurs schedule. After hearing "I get to go to school today!" on random Saturdays, and trying to no avail to make her understand, I decided that she just might need a calendar of her own. So I made one.

It was {ridiculously} easy. I started with a full sized piece of posterboard (I have since made a smaller version for the tinier of the tiny people), but you could use whatever size works best for the space you have. I measured and drew out the grid for the 7 days of the week, then committed by writing the days of the week directly on the posterboard ~ no turning back now! I figured out how many activities I wanted to be able to place on any given day, then busted out the very sticky round velcro pieces and got to stickin'. {Captain Obvious} is going to point out that it's important that you use the same side (all fuzzy or all rough) on the whole calendar, and opposite side on all of the activity tabs. Like I said, seems obvious but I know I'd be the one to louse it up, so I'm sharing. ;)

You might notice that there's also a velcro piece above each day of the week. I had a tab that said "Today Is" that I moved each morning to the new day, but somehow...it disappeared! I can't begin to {imagine} how that could've happened.

Next go ahead and make the activity tabs. It's helpful to make a list of the tabs you want to make first. We have tabs for school, library, music (as in listening to it and dancing around the living room), watching a DVD, playing games/puzzles, bike ride, playing outside, going for a stroll, running errands, grocery shopping, doctor's appt, dentist appt, going on a trip, "special day", etc. Any kind of sports activities, piano lessons, whatever your kids are involved in, are a good thing to include - and when your kids start school, it's helpful to {everyone} if you put their "specials" (art, music, gym, etc) on the calendar so you're both aware and can be prepared ~ and you don't send your precious darling in a brand new outfit on art day ~ or a skirt on gym day. ;) I drew a picture of each activity, then wrote the word/s underneath it, so that even those who can't quite read yet can use and understand the calendar. If you wanted to, you could take pictures of each thing and use those instead of drawing. You could also laminate the tabs to help them last longer. I drew the activities, wrote the words, then cut them out to a managable size before sticking the velcro on the back.

I found this whole project to be super quick and easy, and it really does help the tiny people understand what's happening when. It does use up a lot of velcro, but it's totally worth it!

Quickies... {tee~hee...}

First, a great big WOO-HOO and a {THANK YOU} to Jen at Tatertots and Jello! What a great surprise it was to see my subway art project featured on her blog! It made me feel totally {special} and cool. And yes, the Hubband did like it.

Second, a great big {apology} for falling off the face of the earth. It's the whole "no computer of my own" thing and I'm still trying to deal. Today, I attempted to load Photoshop CS2 onto the {prehistoric} desktop we keep chained up in the basement, and it didn't work. I'm trying to figure that out. That and the mystery of a totally distorted screen. Big fun. Hopefully the Hubband will have a chance to look it over this weekend so I can get back into the world of {blogginess} again. I've missed it soooo much.

Third, what an {awesome} surprise to get shout-outs in my comments from fellow BGSU FALCONS! I haven't been back to BG in years ~ the Hubband, otoh, gets back every summer for the hockey alumni excuse to get together & drink too much while re-living the glory days golf outing. There are a lot of great memories there for me and the Hubband. And since I know there are fellow Falcons out there, I'll try to get back sometime next week to post links letting you all know what you can do to try to help save the BGSU hockey program! ROLL ALONG!

I {have} been working on a few projects. I crocheted 2 more scarves ~ one for the tinier of the tiny people and a pretty one for myself ~ and I'm going to working this weekend on a bookend project & a wreath. I am so so so hoping to be able to share photos of finished projects soooooon. Cross your fingers for me, peoples.