kiddie made personalized tee shirt

My kids decided they wanted to have shirts to wear for the 4th of July. I'm not going to run out to the store and buy and expensive tee shirt for just one day. I'm too cheap for that. So what do I do? We have loads of plain tee's and tanks that can be "converted". I took a couple plain white tank tops for the girls and a plain navy blue one for the boy. Take some red, white and blue acylic paint, and textile medium and let the kids have at it. They loved it and their shirts turned out super cute! cheap fun woohoo! sorry no pictures. Camera broke :(

yucky tummy

After a day off and a day called in I did.... well almost nothing. I spent all day Tuesday and Wednesday sick :(. I made another tutu last night and now have a couple to make for coworkers. because they are just too cute. Its supposed to rain for the next 3 days so I don't know if much of anything will get done. Actually.... I have some sewing to do. It will be awesome. I am convinced of it. I plan to recover the kid's booster seats. I bought some absolutely adorable fabric to do it. yay! I do have something to do even if it is yucky rainy weather all weekend :) I tried to find a tutorial for recovering child seats and it was a no go so maybe, just maybe, you folks will get a tutorial outta me :). I'll update tomorrow on what I have come up with.

one of a kind tutu

Tutu's are cute. And expensive. and actually really easy to make for a fraction of the price.

 how did i do it?  First I found a couple of tutorials on line : suburbs mama, feels like home

I kinda mixed how the 2 different blogs said to make it. I started with 4 1 yard sections of tulle in different colors. Black, hot pink, shiny light pink and shiny light purple. and 1 yard of 1/2 inch width of elastic. This is all from Joanns crafts. They didn't have rolls of tulle so I had to have it cut to what i wanted off the bolt. I measure Layla's waist (21") and cut my elastic to 19" (2 inches smaller then her waist) and sewed it into a circle at the ends. Now the problem i had when reading the tutorials was 'how wide do I make the strips?' one of them said 3-6 inches(or something like that). I made my strips approximately 4" wide by 24 inches long. I used 2 different color strips placed on each other at a time. use more or less at once to make it smaller or fuller.

Next, fold in half,

tie in a knot over the elastic,

repeat with the rest of your strips. Mine has a total of 38 knots. I used all 4 yards of tulle on it, rotating black and another color with 2 other colors. I didn't make any specific pattern with the colors.  ribbon and bows and stuff can be added to this but overall I am proud of my homemade tutu :) 

All together this cost about 7$ in supplies ( I probably could have gotten the tulle cheaper) and 3 hours of time,  instead of 30-40$ to buy one.

LINKED TO:

making the world cuter

skip to my lou

craft-o-maniac

pinkapotamus

sunburnt cow handmadeshop

sun scholars

dandelion key hook picture frame

When I went to DAV the other day I got this cute picture frame with some key holder hooks on it.

This is actually a pic of the back, my camera was dead when I started painting so I improvised.

I'm definitly not into the whole folk art country hearts teddy bears and stars and stripes kinda thing so it needed a little tlc. Since everything in our living room is black well, I decided this little baby needed to be black too. So, out came the trusty flat black spray paint. The center picture was a flag. Not really my style so it became white. I painted a pretty little dandelion on it in black and I think it turned out FABULOUS!

The frame cost $4.95, a little expensive for a thrift store picture frame but I really liked it and had plans the second I saw it so.... I already had the paints so that didnt cost anything. So total for my adorable dandelion key hook picture frame: $4.95! And I LOVE IT! I'm going to find a couple of cute black and white pics to go in the spaces and it will be perfect. And once I get that painting I have planned finished it will match perfectly with the rest of the room. I am excited to get the rest done :)
Linky parties::
the girl creative
flamingo toes
I <3 naptime
sugarbee crafts
young nester

spring clean up

I just found out that this saturday and next saturday is Clive's spring cleanup. Guess what just made it to the top of my to do list for the day :) for those that are not aware spring clean up is this nifty little thing that we hicks here in central iowa do to get rid of extra junk(or in my case dumpster dive for more things to hoard) for one week in each of the towns around here (or a day) you can set out your big things, extra stuff, ect and they will pick it all up with your trash. How cool is that! hoarder heaven!! I'm not rally a hoarder but I really do FIRMLY believe Your trash is anothe man's treasure! We have found and been given so many cool things for absolutely free that I have to believe this. Seriously, we have spent a complete total of 80$ on all the furniture in our home. And it really isnt junk, totally useable and cumfy. Especially my bed. Oh how I LLLLLOOOOOOOOOVVVVVVVEEEEEE my bed. for real! and It was given to us by my friends amazng mil! So, now I am going to embark on a treasure hunt :) wish me luck!  oh my garsh I have turned my child into a hoarder too! lol! se just brought the empty egg carton to me and said "hey mom, dont throw this away! we can make something out of it! Like bats or a rainbow or something." in her favor we did make bats out of egg cartons, but I'm not really sure how the rainbow thing came about or how we would do that. Hmmmmm.... I love my little girl, She is her mothers daughter!!!

Bathroom shelves

I have this space in my bathroom. I have this shelf that has been a plant stand thingy outside for a few years now. Ya know, for those plants that I forget to water and kill. We need something fo this space that can hold towels and other bathroom related stuff that wont fit in our too small linen closet. So, I took the outdoor shelf thingy and popped the ugly sunbeam thingy off the little side bar. straightened out a coupleof the bent bars(the ones I could) added pretty gloss blue spray paint. And now we have a bathroom shelf. fabulous. Made with a shelf we already had (that I got for free) and some left over spray paint, total cost: FREE!!

Before

   After

revamped tv stand

My little bro and his darling wife are moving to Texas here in a few weeks. They gave us some of their furniture including this little old TV stand

It is a good sturdy solid wood thing that is just the right size for the TV and small overfilled living room. I'm not quite sure about the color though....so What Do I DO?? of course, Spray paint! not just any old spray paint, flat black of course! My favorite color is blue, any blue, but there is NOTHING in my house that is blue! well, actually the bathroom has a few things and the kids bunk bed. everything else seems to be black or become black with the occasional tan thrown in there. I AM trying to expand my color wheel, I PROMISE!! So after several coats of paint and some repainted handles we now have:

I seriously LOVE it!! I thought the little teal for the handles would be a nice little touch but it is awesome! I think I am going to incorporate more teal in my living room. I cant find my polyurethane....I am going to have to get more in the next couple days and get some protection on this little puppy. You know haw much this cost me?? $2.91!! the stand was free, almost 3 cans of cheap spray paint (.97 each) and lots of time. It'll be a few more dollars once i get a protector coat on but, I'll buy a big ol can of that and use it on more then one project so we aren't gonna count that. I also need to find a drill bit that will cut 2" hole in the back so I can get the dvd and vcr off the floor next to it. I think my dad has one but it's a little late to call him :) tomorrow tomorrow there's always tomorrow. 
Submited to :
a little tipsy
House of Hepworths

word magnets

The kids like playing with magnets and are learning to read so I decided that word magnets would be a good idea. well, they are pretty pricey for words that are too complicated still for my kids. So, off to walmart I went.  

I bought these ^^ little puppys from the craft dept for ¢97. I bought 2 pkgs. Took yesterdays newspaper, cut out some words I like, peeled off the lining and stuck away. I cut the strips in between the words and voila, customized word magnets for $1.94!!

Finished product :)

Linked to the following parties:

youngnester

ladybug blessings

sugar bee crafts

sugar and dots

blue cricket design

a little tipsy

      house of hepworths <<have I mentioned I LOVE this blog

sunscholars

rain rain go away...

It has been raining almost constantly for weeks now :( rain makes me depressed. I'm cool with a day or 2 but not weeks. I have a buttload of stuff to spray paint and I need it to stop so I can go outside and get it done!! I have so many projects to show you guys. The one that I don't have to go outside to complete I just have to put the finishing touches on and I'll photograph and post it later(after I get some sleep and donate some plasma) We went junking on Sunday and got a few good finds, a glass patio table and 2 chairs and a cute old end table. I have big plans for the end table, but, it needs to stop raining so I can get outside and get it painted... hopefully this afternoon. You guys are going to LOVE this table when I am done with it! really!! I promise!! check back this afternoon, I'll update with something awesome then :)

pretty black knife block

So, I was just doing a little blog surfing and found where I got my pretty black knife block idea :) House of Hepworths. There is a ton of awesome crafts and ideas on here! what an awesome blog! I love it!

This was way simple and  I love it. I used my trusty 97 cent flat black spray paint. and our already existng knife block and it matches perfectly. Thank you HoH for a great idea!! (sorry once again about the awful pictures)

recycled dry erase board

ok, Last post of the day! I promise! See the super cool dry erase board I made from an old window and some flat black spray paint that cost 97 cents at walmart! FABULOUS! I got the window free from someone off CL. taped off the glass, add black spray paint and hanging hooks to the back. and voila, A Dry Erase Board!

Sorry again about my poor picture taking skills!

Blogging Crafter parties I submitted this to :) ::

butterfly window is complete!

After hours of tracing cutting and argueing with the kids to clean their room so I could get in it, THE BUTTERFLY WINDOW IS DONE!! Its adorable and Layla loves it! sorry about the bad photos I am terrible at taking pictures. Maybe that can be one of the next projects, learn to take better pictures.  now to get the dry erase board done....