No-Sew Bulletin Board

Welcome to the next installment of my dining room redecorating project! Today, a good friend and I set out on a sacred pilgrimage to Joann Fabrics with four children under five years old in tow. I had crackers in my diaper bag, a gift card in my wallet. What could possibly go wrong?

I mean, other than my children constantly (and loudly) deciding they wanted to go find the adult *other* than the one they were currently with, and Mikayla insisting on magenta chevron for her bedroom curtains.

With my kids being chaperoned around the store, leaving trails of Ritz crumbs where'er they ventured (a modern-day Hansel and Gretel), and little Oliver in a sleepy, feverish haze (sorry, third-born, the world continues to turn when you're not feeling well), I set out to make some serious decisions.

My object: a pretty, non-chevron gray print for the bulletin board and a few other accent items, a colorful fabric for cloth napkins, decorative buttons.

My favorite part was spending the kids' 25 cheerful/this-is-fun minutes trying to locate the home decor fabrics in appropriate colors, and then attempting to narrow down and price my options only after meltdown/we-ate-all-the-crackers phase commenced. You think that parents have ragamuffin homes because the kids make a mess and "we can't have nice things"; however, the truth is that we end up with pillowcases over the windows and mismatched lampshades half-cocked because our children have finely-tuned radar for those decision-making moments. Nothing like mentally coordinating colors in the midst of a toddler hurricane. You'd think I would have learned from my misadventures at Hobby Lobby?

Anyway, you are not here for the disclaimers, you are here for the art, the style, the reveal. I know your heart, friend. Without further ado, I give you The Process! Tutorials for no-sew bulletin boards are a dime a dozen on Pinterest, and I didn't really use one anyway, so please assume I am not stealing anyone's ideas by not providing a link. Behold, my blank canvas:

First, cutting my fabric with the rotary cutter and mat that have changed my life (do I say that every time I use it? Yes, yes I do.). Isn't it pretty?

With all my careful measuring, I did an awesome job of making it the right size and perfectly square. Not actually. The size was decent, but the pattern is regular enough that it was obviously crooked on my cut piece. I had to straighten it on the board, using my see-through straight edge to line up the pattern straight across, and then trimmed the edges. Needless to say, it was not nice and neat when it was all said and done.

What do you do when your edges stink? RIBBON! I had considered edging with this ribbon anyway, to match it to last week's wreath, but my pristine cut-job made it inevitable. Phew.

For a finishing touch, I gorilla glued buttons to my dining room table plain push pins.

The twine you see along the upper edge? Well. I noticed after hanging it up that gravity kinda affected the hang of my board. Namely, the top of the frame pulled up slightly, revealing unfinished cork board between the ribbon and the frame. I had already ribboned myself out of one predicament, so that was out. The twine gives it a down-to-earth feel and coordinates it even more with grapevine wreath next door. Right?? Haha.

And voila, all finished:

You might notice that one of my beloved children has also forayed into the wonderful world of interior design, in the form of abstract dry erase marker art. If you think that's snazzy, you should see the mural going the entire way up my stairs and embellishing my bedroom mirror. One of these afternoons I will be up to my elbows in Magic Eraser juice. Really looking forward to that. 

For now, though, it's onward and upward to my next projects: increasing our collection of everyday cloth napkins, and pondering how to fancify (apparently not a word, per autocorrect changing it three tea before giving up) my dining room chalkboard.

I'm also contemplating another refashion sewing project. Just waiting for the right inspiration to come along...

Plan B which should have been Plan A

Remember this post about our big dining room makeover? I bet you're dying to learn more about my plans for that lovely yellow window. Well, at first I thought it was too gold and not happy enough. I started to paint it a nice, sunshiny yellow instead.

The first paint went on, and my soul smiled at the happiness of the yellow. Halfway through, and my soul began to panic a little at the euphoria of the yellow. I squelched my feelings, but when I hung the window on the wall, the downright banana-ness of it all gave my soul a stroke. Nope. I mixed my original too-dark yellow with my new YELLOW!! yellow and got something nice and mellow-yellow. Which, in pictures, and probably most people's memory, is basically the old color all over again. What are you gonna do.

Mikayla agrees about the yellow, obviously. YOWSA!!

So we are basically here now, with a much toned-down version of the yellow above:

It looks lovely, but not quite finished. My hope is to add some touches to soften the look of it all and coordinate the dining room with our living room, since the space is open. Plan A for the window was to create an elegant wreath made out of pages from an old book. Once I got started, though, it looked like someone was just vaguely crinkling pieces of paper and pinning them randomly onto a big circle. Probably because that's exactly what I was doing. It looked a lot like a bad Kentucky Derby fascinator, I'll be honest. All you really need to know is it quickly spiraled into a whole a lot of ain't going to happen. 

Lovely idea, right? You don't even want to know how mine looked. On top of the sad appearance of my wreath, the straight pins I bought had teeny tiny heads and poked my fingers AND the papers pulled right off of them if I so much as looked at one sideways. I didn't make it past about five pages pinned onto my wreath before scrapping the whole thing. No, it wouldn't have gotten any better if I'd stuck with it.

I returned that failed experiment to Hobby Lobby, and left there with much better odds of success. So far, Plan B seems way more coherent and better thought through, for the simple reason that I didn't have my three small children with me as I navigated the glass-infested aisles of Hobby Lobby. Now that is a gauntlet if ever there was one. Have you ever tried to simultaneously brainstorm, visualize, make good shopping choices, and herd small children away from numerous breakable objects? It was a disaster waiting to happen, but we made it, albeit with a terrible project design. Bonus: my children only panicked twice thinking that I left them at the store. I guess the million repetitions of "mommy's going this way, please keep walking, I'm turning the corner, mommy's going this way," just weren't quite enough.

Anyway, so there I was on my return trip to Hobby Lobby (by myself!!! It felt much like twirling carefree through a feminine product commercial.) in hope of finding awesome ribbon to hang my wreath. Me: Gee, I wonder what cute ribbons Hobby Lobby has today. Hobby lobby: I hope you like chevron! Or maybe this medallion print in every color of the rainbow. Which, I don't hate Chevron, but it is so stinking trendy that I fear my wreath will look dated by September. No offense, but I hope to not redecorate my dining room again any time soon. Wait, who am I kidding? This is the girl who waited for her husband to leave town, and then promptly painted a piece of furniture, a window, a frame, and a vase, and completely rearranged the dining room. I dunno, maybe it is kind of like me to get bored with a space?

My revamped idea consists of a grapevine wreath, three nearly-white burlap dahlias (some of my favorite flowers!), a similar burlap rose, yellow lilies, gray twill ribbon and coordinating yellow grosgrain ribbon. This was to hang from my yellow ochre window frame, so the yellow lilies and ribbon were to be a pop of coordinating color, whereas the brown and white of the wreath and flowers would be the focal point. The gray ribbon for hanging will hopefully tie it in with our eventual gray living room walls, and the gray in my eventual bulletin board cover. Lots of unfinished projects right now. I don't know how I sleep at night.

Speaking of unfinished projects and lack of closure, how long do you think I can make this post without showing you my completed wreath?

Voila!

My method for putting the wreath together was to shove the stems from my fake flowers into the grapevine wreath and wiggle as needed, and then kind of bend the bendy parts into the wreath so they didn't stick out funny. It was highly technical and precise. The ribbon was added as an afterthought for balance, and to tie this in with my bulletin board, which will feature the same gold ribbon. I hung the wreath by driving two small nails through the ribbon into the top of the window, while praying that it was centered on the first try because NAILS. And you should have seen me trying to hang the whole thing back up while avoiding wreath shards and not crushing the flowers. The picture might look Pinteresty, but we all know the truth: behind every pretty wreath stands a bedraggled lady covered in craft debris and hoping it doesn't crash to the floor.

Also, I strategically moved all of my dining room mess out of the window reflection. I kept lining up the photo and going "phooey, you can see the Hobby Lobby bag!" "oh no, now there's me!" "oops, is that a half-eaten banana?" I didn't move the sippy cup because I am so into showing you (carefully censored portions of) my reality.

I'm purposely withholding the view of the whole wall, because I want to blog each piece and then do a big reveal at the end. Doesn't that sound like fun/a lot of waiting/slightly vain? Joann Fabrics is calling my name next week, and then I should have the next phase of the makeover ready to show you. Unless I get antsy and come up with a project in the meantime, but probably not. Nope, that's not likely at all....

An Almost-Before and Call for Ideas

You know what would be an important part of a good Before-And-After? A Before photo. Which, as I've demonstrated here and here, is not my strength. It's like I'm impulsive or not patient or something. YEAH RIGHT. Ok maybe.

This time was no different. A few days ago, we started kicking around the idea of moving our hutch out of the dining room to see if it helps make the space feel bigger. Naturally, that very day I reorganized the hall closet and kitchen cabinets to make room for all the items stored in the drawers, and moved everything from the shelves to our corner cabinet in the living room. It was great motivation to tackle a few things I've been procrastinating (feast or famine when it comes to motivation, I'm telling you; it's either X-Files during naptime for days on end, or DO ALL THE THINGS IN ONE DAY. I have no idea why you are flipping through your DSM-IV-TR to the "cyclothymic disorder" page.).

Here's the corner cabinet post-reorganization. It used to display my great-grandmother's china, which is gorgeous (thanks to my dear Katherine for setting it all out so beautifully when we moved in!), but as the months have passed, I decided it wasn't quite our "look". These pieces bring more color and a bit more of our style, which I honestly can't name. Casual elegant almost-country? No idea. We defy categories, people. Or, I am not a designer.

 I'd show you the corner cabinet "before" but, you know. In similar fashion, the following is the only photo I could find that even remotely shows the hutch in our dining room. I'm sure others must exist, but they are not contained on my phone or laptop. If you can somehow divert your eyes from the glory that is my royal jammie-clad children, you can spot the beautiful hutch taking up oodles of wall space in the dining room. Not the full effect, but you get an idea of the scale.

Now, I did think to take a photo after the hutch, and before all the finishing projects to pull the space together:

We are actually really loving the openness of the space now. The table is far more inviting for the kids to color, for a family game of Go Fish, and more, because the hutch is not there to bump into and squeeze around. Surprisingly, we don't miss the storage at all (the items inside haven't gone far - table linens to the hall closet, and serving dishes to a kitchen cabinet).

So here's the plan:
1. Console table - paint white to prime, and then when we paint our living room, we will paint it the same light gray color as our living room walls. The hope is it will help tie the two spaces together and still be neutral enough to work in the dining room. Worst case, I fall in love with it white, and finish it in white instead!

2. Gold window - paint it a lighter yellow color to better coordinate with the kitchen. Create some sort of something to make it a work of art - perhaps a wreath, maybe something else. Stay tuned. The creative juices are just beginning to flow on that one.

3. Chalkboard - paint this white, and possibly add a bulletin board where those silver plates are hanging on the far side, painted to match. The bulletin board, if I like it there, will probably be covered in a pretty fabric and criss-crossed with a bit of ribbon to make a photo board. The silver plates might go to the short wall by the glass door. One thing I can promise: this chalk board will never be covered in adorable bubble lettering and calligraphy while I am the lady of the house. Not my gifting.

Do you have any ideas for me, especially for that window, and maybe for making the bulletin board something worth featuring? I hope to hit Joann fabrics next week to shop for fabric for the board, and also to make some everyday cloth napkins because ours are about shot (and we don't have enough, due to tossing some of them that got super stained). Maybe coordinating or matching fabrics?

Pinterest me, people!

Refashion 201: Periwinkle Polyester Dream

This is a project that took all day, from about 9:45 a.m. when I settled on what I wanted to do, all the way til 7:30 p.m. when I sneaked back into my room after Oliver's bedtime to finish an accessory (AN ACCESSORY, I am so for real) to go with my project. The kids were so helpful, seriously. Not.  I'll try to hit the highlights as I blog the project.

First, a before. I could have put this one on, and in fact I did put it on in order to get a vision for a refashion. This is a bridesmaid dress from my BFF's wedding awhile back (I'm being kind by not doing the actual math, love you Susan!). I LOVE the periwinkle color, and I am a sucker for some flowy material. I still fit in it, which just continues to magnify my love for this piece. However, not something I am likely to throw on for church, so I have been thinking about how to get some more wear out of something so beautiful.

So, awkward. I don't actually have a photo of myself in my bridesmaid's dress from my best friend's wedding. Fortunately, she DOES have such a photo, seeing as how it was her wedding and all.

Hi, Ashley! Best maid and matron of honor ever, amiright? Do you see the fantastic asymmetrical neckline, one-shoulder design? Love this thing. This gem also has those long chiffony "wings" in the back, as seen in the next hacked-up photo:

 Chopped! I went in with my seam ripper the whole way around the bottom of the bodice, leaving me with this gorgeously shaped long skirt piece. There are three (THREE) polyester layers to this skirt because of course for my second ever refashioning project, I chose the most slipperiest and complicated garment in the closet. Thus, following my seam-ripping extravaganza, I had three raw, unconnected top edges that were only held together by the zipper. Yes, a zipper. Did I mention I picked myself a doozy of a project?

Cutest helper ever! If he's trying to measure his adorableness, it can't be done! Don't mind the sewing machine pedal and cord. Perfectly safe, I tell you. No babies were harmed in the making over of this dress.

Action shot of my vintage sewing machine (correctly threaded today!) making short work of those raw top edges.

 

Do you see the drape and flow of this material? Swoon. I would leave it this long if I weren't sure to break my neck hauling toddlers and babies up and down the stairs. 

I think it was at this point that yelling erupted from my young king and queen who were watching Cinderella in order to learn about how to be royal (parenting win). Mikayla was complaining, loudly and during Oliver's morning nap, that Isaac had turned off the movie. I dashed to help, and discovered that not only had he turned off the movie, but he had also used markers ALL over the living room hardwood floor. And both arms and cushions of the love seat. And when I restarted the movie, there was another little scribble on the TV screen. Seriously, you think you know a kid well enough to leave him alone for an hour and what does he do? I have never been so grateful for washable markers. And now you see why the ten-hour time frame for this little chop job.

Then I undertook the zipper. YOU GUYS, I shortened a zipper from the top! Cut the zipper to line up with the fabric, tuck it into the top seam on both sides, melt the top few (unused) teeth, and stitch a million times around to create a zipper stop. Ain't nothing to it! Except this is what I first ended up with:

 

That was some real good measuring there, folks. My method for that top seam was "I'll just fold it over about this much WHILE I run it through the sewing machine." That's unmerited arrogance if ever I saw it. The misalignment *probably* would have been ok, because you know what I plan to never wear this with? A belly shirt. Sweet heavens above no. But because I'm a perfectionist, and this was intended to be a learning project, I grabbed my handy seam ripper (which I do believe saw more action than the sewing machine on this project, bless). And I did get it to look just a wee bit better, with the encouragement of my cooing assistant.

My favorite part (which is not pictured because, well, read on) was trying to chop the length from the skirt. Picture me on my bedroom floor, meticulously aligning three slippery layers of polyester on my cutting mat, measuring and marking, rotary cutting - and all the while, Oliver is getting handsy with all of the things. So this step consisted of me straightening, flipping the baby away, smoothing, rolling the baby back over, making one fabric mark, rotating the baby toward his toys for the zillionth time. So much progress was made. It's a miracle the skirt has anything like a straight hem.

And the moment we've all been waiting for:

Ta da!! This might just be my Easter outfit, provided we don't still have five inches of snow on the ground trying to melt. It looks adorable with a white flowy cardigan - I took it off for the photo because it masked the true shape of the skirt just a bit.

And that matching scarf? Remember those long, flowy wings? Salvaged! I removed them from the back of the dress, ran a quick stitch to attach them to each other since they were already identical and the same width across - and I've got a lovely accessory to pull the outfit together. It's just a tad too long for my preference, so I might shorten it, but you get the idea.

I'm so tickled at how this turned out! This project definitely increased my confidence with a seam ripper and reconstructing a garment that already fit me. I'm looking forward to attempting this with a total fixer upper to see if my budding skills pass muster.

Refashion 101

I've been hording my old formal and semiformal dresses like they will come back into style my daughter will want to wear them someday. It's a lovely thought, and one that I'm sure my husband has appreciated as we are on our seventh residence in eight years of marriage. Full wardrobe box of momma's dead hopes and dreams? Check.

Except when I gave birth to my first daughter, these hopes and dreams received new life. Oh, it's been a long time coming, but she's finally four and interested in playing dress-up. And her momma has a thing about playing seamstress, so fueled with the best coffee in the world, I decided that today was The Day that eight years of lugging these dresses around would finally start to pay off.

Quick note on my sewing machine: It is an older machine gifted to me by my mom when they downsized last year. I've used it a couple of times now, but each time I have had to call her for some reason because it isn't working properly. Picture the two of us on the phone, her trying to remember using the thing (it's been awhile since she was regularly cranking out Halloween and school play costumes) and me trying to compare it to the portable model I had before, which is at least a couple decades newer in age. No, neither of us has the manual. Today I apparently couldn't thread it, despite having successfully done so several months ago. How many Grovers does it take to correctly thread an old Kenmore? Two, people. Two. And their iPhones.

So naturally I was looking for a "before" photo for each dress. It's not like I was going to put them on at this point, after all. You guys, I had to scroll so far down in my Facebook photos, I could practically smell their servers smoking as my page slowed and slowed. Suffice it to say, if the last time I wore these dresses was that long ago, the odds of me ever fitting into them, let alone looking age-appropriate, are slim to none (and Slim left town, as my dad would say). And here I was, in all my skinny, unmarried glory:

 Yeah, no full-length shot of this one. Sorry!

Happy (dating) anniversary to us! 

Let's just say I took the "va-va-voom" out of this one for my son (yes, my son) to wear for dress-up.

There's not too much to tell about the pink and white halter dress. I took in the back and stitched down the extra fabric instead of cutting it off, so that it can grow with her a bit as she gets bigger. And I took in the halter so as to hold the dress up appropriately. Oh, and stitched closed the bust so that it isn't hanging off of her awkwardly. Stay tuned for the "after" below.

The red dress, though, I am excited to show you. It is a really nice stretchy, clingy fabric (hey, why do you think I wore it for our anniversary?) and used to be a wrap-style dress with a silver ring closure, seen in the photo. My first step was to deconstruct it completely, to see what shape the actual fabric was.

This was better than I could have hoped for - vaguely cape-shaped already, and the halter style gave me ties for the neck. I just needed to remove the silver ring and then close up the seams. Also, I took in the center seam so that it wouldn't be SO big around his neck, and I stitched right up the outside edges to eliminate the ragged and irregular fabric that resulted from the deconstruction.

 Removing the ring, I had to cut through several layers of seams. Notice the poop on my thumbnail. Yup, poop. Not mine (that goes without saying, right?) I noticed it while texting Joel, obviously after I took this picture. Sigh.

 It got ugly, y'all.

But it was nothing a quick pass through my correctly-threaded sewing machine couldn't fix!

The headless seamstress models the almost-finished cape.

In the above photo, I hadn't taken in the center seam at all. You can see how wide it is; this would fit, well, around a grown woman's back. Once I took care of that, though, this little man was over the moon for his new Superman cape!

(Seeing it on him, I think I will go back and straighten the outside edges just a bit more. I thought the slight corner might be cool but it just flaps over his shoulder not as cool-ly as I had hoped.)

"Ok guys, look like a superhero and a princess!" 

She insisted I didn't need to shorten it because Cinderella's dress drags on the floor behind her, too.
Notice that Isaac's cape matches his Lightning The Queen socks.

I can't get over how the red dress made the PERFECT red cape, with the way it hangs and drapes and such. Also, I didn't try to do anything fancy, but I think the shape of his neckline turned out pretty cool for a cape. And I like the gathers in the back of her dress. They are caused by my stitching down the extra fabric on the inside - the dress is a sheerish layer over a white slip, so they didn't sew perfectly smoothly. Accidental ruching. I guess I'm kind of an amazing seamstress.

So, there you have it, my first refashion attempt! I have some pieces in my closet that I'd like to try to refashion, and I'd LOVE to do an all-out thrift store refashion from like a caftan or something. As a friend told me recently, though, the first step is just to get in there and try it. This was a confidence-building project, for sure, especially since I wasn't going to be too picky about the final product as dress-up clothes. My next project will either be to alter a clunky brown cardigan, or update an old formal gown for more casual wear. We shall see!

What projects have YOU been inspired to attempt lately? Does being stuck inside make you want to get creative, just to break the monotony?

Decorating the Library We Don't Yet Have

If you are here frequently enough to know that I have bought a banana hook and various other items for our new-but-not-yet house (including a dining room hutch, which is residing at a friend's house because as my mother in law says, you couldn't fit another toothpick into this house with our family of five, Joel's parents, Joel's sister, and Joel's sister's accumulation of furniture and things for HER upcoming move), you may not be surprised to find out that I've also undertaken a few small decorating projects. Yes, we don't live there yet, but I have things to hang on the walls. That patience thing is just not taking for some reason.

I came across a quote that I liked in the kids' new Precious Moments bedtime book (a baptism gift for Oliver, but if you think the big kids will allow it to sit unused til he's old enough, you haven't met my kids.). Searching for a way to use it in a project, I came across this idea on Pinterest (of course), which linked to an item for sale on Etsy (naturally). Ten dollars for the wrong quote is not my idea of a deal. So I took a good, hard look at the photo and engineered my own!

First, new frames for 50% and 40% off at Michael's, thanks to my mother-in-law's couponing prowess. Then, transparency sheets for the quotes themselves, free from my sister-in-law's fourth grade classroom. But what for the page of literature in the background? What book could I deface in order to make something cool for the walls of my own home library? (I can sense my husband's indignance as he reads this. Joel, I concede, it is really your home library. Online catalog, shelf markers, and all.)

This is where it comes in really handy to be married to a librarian. I asked him if Lafayette had a collection where they collect "weeded" volumes, those to be taken out of circulation. He asked what kind of book I wanted. Shooting for the moon, I requested some classic work of literature, or even a dictionary or other reference work. No math textbooks, I stipulated. He warned me that they weren't likely to have much good literature lying around in the donation pile, but he'd check. And do you know what book Joel brought home for me that very day?

The freaking Odyssey of Homer. I love that man.

So I have the sweetest pages, with numbered stanzas and everything, to mount behind my quotes. I wish I had some "in progress" photos, but the process was pretty simple: Rip out pages from the Odyssey, say a brief prayer of repentance for defacing classic literature, and then crop slightly to fit my frames the way I wanted. For the larger frame, I took two facing pages from the book, cropped, and taped them in an aesthetically-pleasing overlapping manner. Next, I played with the quotes in Microsoft Word to get them to the right size, alignment, font combinations, etc. and printed on the transparencies. I cut the transparencies to size using the glass from inside the frames as a template.

That part took some doing, because I found that the ink smudged just a little even after I let them dry awhile. I printed several times and came up with some creative ways to cut them to the right size so that the ink would remain undisturbed. Because as a mother of three children under four years old, I like to seek out extra tasks that try my patience and perfectionism.

Into the frame went the glass, transparency, book page, and backing, in that order.

But in the end, I turned out a couple of pretty cool-looking pieces for our future home library walls:

(No "before" or "in process" pictures, sorry, but imagine empty frames and an intact Odyssey, I guess?)

Also, any suggestions for a paint color that might look nice with these? We have a dark teal recliner and mostly oak-ish-looking furniture for the library. I'm just undecided what direction to go with the wall color. I want it to feel warm and sophisticated, so maybe something in the brown family? I don't know, I've never had to make these decisions since we have been renting forever.

If you enjoyed this little project, or have done something similar, leave me some love in the comments. I'm also eager for more decorating ideas I could undertake before we move. Do you have a Pinterest board I should be following?

My Kitchen Wall is Finally Happy!

Back when I posted about my first sort-of upcycle, I hinted that one day I would post a final "after" shot of everything up on the wall. The wait is over, loyal reader; that day has come.

Actually, please wait eight minutes longer while I go chase my daughter back to bed.

Also to prolong the agony, I thought I'd share that I totally just mistook a small toy walrus for a piece of poop in the bottom of one of my kids' bags. Because that is a totally plausible place to find that sort of thing. Welcome to my world.

But seriously, here is the gloriousness of my kitchen wall, complete with twenty-nine square inches of writable space and the craftiest little menu board you ever did see. The cast iron skillet just completes the vision of hominess, doesn't it? That wooden bread box was a particularly awesome flea market find in the mountains of southern Virginia for just $5 (I originally typed $55 due to my ongoing Vacuum Cleaner Wrist issues, but that is not nearly as enviable a bargain, is it?).

I know the menu board is just a liiiiittle bit north of where it should be, but there are some things you don't tell your husband when he has just finagled all eighty pounds of this stuff onto the wall and hung the menu board twice in the process. He technically put it where I asked, as the tops of the skillet and menu board are aligned, so it isn't his fault he doesn't have the incessant perfectionism aesthetic eye that I do. I will quietly move the nail sometime when he is off doing more important things.

Don't you love how I tidied the buffet for the picture but left shoes all over the floor in the background? Ah, honesty, you get me every time.

My First Upcycle - Sort Of

This is one of those super-Pinteresty project ideas that has been waiting far too long for completion. Our message board/menu board/grocery list setup in the kitchen has been, to put it generously, lacking. Everything had to fit onto one small board together, except "Projects" which earned their own little board because there are so many of them. Here is the "before" setup:

Please note that yes, I am holding the magnetic message board up with my hand. It's small. It's beat up. And the magnetic strips have completely loosed their hold, which sort of renders it useless. Our message board has since been migrating around the kitchen, spending time wherever there is counter space to prop it up. It even spent a few days on top of the pantry thanks to my husband but, as he would say, "You can't teach height" so I used my ladder to retrieve it. Also, yes, Isaac's appointment card is being held up with pants. It's not my fault. My children discovered that the magnetic doll clothes also stick to appliances, and we now find pants, dresses, even whole outfits strewn about the fridge. We occasionally make use of them because hey, they are magnets.

But this is not about how classy we are as parents of toddlers. It's about me taking trash and turning it into treasure! The essence of Pinterest! Yay!! So here's my $5 "trash" window. Clearly in dire need of stripping, sanding, and painting. One August day, I rolled up my sleeves (figuratively, because it was August and who wears sleeves in August) and got to work scraping the thing.

Five minutes into my scraping, it felt like too much work. I grabbed some sandpaper to see if that went any more easily. Meh. Another two minutes later, I headed inside to Google "how to remove chipped paint from an old window". Partially because there had to be a better method, and partially because I could feel myself starting to sweat and that means it's time for a break.

Fast forward to a delightful "after" shot of my beautifully finished white window:

Isn't it SO impressive? It hardly looks like the same window, does it?

Well I fooled you because it's TOTALLY NOT. The same window, that is. My hard-learned strategy for refinishing things? Let it sit for close to two months on the back porch and then purchase another, way better-looking used window for $5. Everybody wins!!

(Does anybody need an old chippy window? I know where you can find one cheap.)

My two windows next to each other for comparison, with toddler shown for scale:

I think my new window, in addition to requiring no work whatsoever, is a better size for the message board project because the panes are wider.

So all that was needed was to put something behind the glass in order not to showcase the bare wall behind it, and to make our dry erase writing clearly visible. I debated using the fabric from my curtain and menu board, but didn't want to get TOO matchy-matchy. This will hang next to the menu board and I didn't want it to be, you know, "Much".

Instead I chose a Polo Ralph Lauren queen-sized flat sheet that I bought for making cloth napkins. I roughly measured the size and sort of eyeballed it as I used my rotary cutter (seriously, LOVE that thing). At this point, I feel it should be known that I learned better than this. My father instilled in me a deep appreciation for the old "Measure twice, cut once" mantra of home improvement entrepreneurs everywhere. I think he mostly followed it himself, too. But I had plenty of fabric and it was going on the backside of my window so...it didn't have to be perfect. In an act of sheer over-achievement I even ironed my fabric. A little Elmer's glue later (I went all out on this one), it looked like this:

It's a little plain, but I hope that next to my menu board and the cast iron skillet I plan to hang with this, it will all look nice and slightly rustic together. I don't know if you can tell, but the paint on the window isn't perfect - it has some scuff marks on it - but it also isn't chipping. Perfect for a slightly-distressed, interesting look to the final project. OH, and the big groove in the long side of the window, previously used to make it go up and down in the window frame, is now on top and perfect for holding a few fat dry-erase markers! I need my man to help me hang it but watch for a final "after" picture sometime soon.

Apparently a Whole Bag of Round Tuits

We live in an old house with about a hundred doors. Really just six, but doesn't that seem like a lot of exterior doors for one home? It's a converted duplex, which explains some of the redundancy. I don't mind the design, because the doors have windows, which allows lots of natural light inside.

One of our front doors (it's a little confusing to visit our house) has this super neat old latch, and requires the actual vintage-looking key in order to lock or unlock it from the inside.

So that little key has to stay close to the front door, or else there is no opening it for the occasional salesperson or visitor who doesn't yet know to use the back door. With children who can easily grab the key in the keyhole and run, it obviously has to live someplace else, someplace very secret and/or unreachable. Especially because I have not yet discovered their mother of all hiding places, where three of my measuring cups have resided for at least two months now.

So far, this has been our very classy and aesthetically pleasing solution. Please note Isaac's phone in the foreground. He boosted it from Mikayla when she realized she could talk into an old iPod with similar results. Now our son toddles around happily with a pink plush cell phone going, "Hooooo (hello), pa pa, hoooo, mee-ma!" Who said anything about gender stereotypes at our house?

Tucked away in the recesses of my mind, then, has been a desire to find a more fitting home for our key. I thought it would be neat to hang it on a hook somehow, next to the door. But I never quite got around to it.

Enter my current obsession with repurposing picture frames and recent trip to Goodwill, where I purchased about ten really beautiful frames that we intend to use for a collage in our living room. Someday.

This project seriously consisted of removing the glass from the frame, and covering the cardboard backing with a piece of thin quilt batting and a scrap of muslin left over from my Advent calendar. I didn't even secure those in place, just put the frame back together and hoped for the best. I still needed a hook...a tiny, somewhat attractive hook...then I remembered that we had JUST that sort of hook on both sides of our bathroom window. I'm sure they're there to hold curtain tie-backs, but seeing as how I still have not curtained the bathroom, a year later I figured I could spare one of them.

I basically jammed the hook through my fabric and backing and secured the back with a little glue so it would hold the weight of the key. Here's how it turned out:

It's almost a little too neutral-on-neutral for me, but it does have a nice contrast with the maroon edge of the matting, and the darkness of the frame itself. It's hard to see, but there is tiny metallic detailing around the inside edge of the frame as well. I would consider swapping out the hook for a ribbon hanging in the frame if I had the right color, but alas, I do not.

This was a fun little project that required minimal time and resources, thanks once again to the rotary cutter that made trimming the materials a total breeze. I may not ever move out of this house (or when I do, they may find themselves short one front door key), because I love how much character and charm this old latch and key have. And now I get to enjoy it all the more from my comfy perch on the sofa. Bliss.

More to come, as I hope during naptime today to put together a frame for our bathroom mirror and/or repaint a wooden shelf I found for Mikayla's room. I don't know what it is, but I'm finally motivated to do the zillion projects I've been contemplating since we moved in. Perhaps somebody left a Round Tuit lying around here without me knowing it...

You know, you always get something done when you get "a round tuit". (Thank you, Dad, I remember that one from all the way back in your Westminster College days!)

Momma's New Menu Board

Remember when I promised to blog more often? Yeah, oops. In my defense, it's been pretty busy around here, and I have been tackling some of the projects that have gathered dust on my list for quite some time.

One of those projects has been to come up with a message board/menu board solution for our kitchen. Since we moved here a year ago, it's been this:

I actually haven't spent the last year holding this white board up on our freezer door; that's a new bonus feature from the past week. And the impetus for actually doing this project. You might also note the chip clip marker-holder, a real must-have. I call it Contemporary Mom on a Budget. It not only holds your marker most of the time, but it keeps you guessing when you open and close your freezer door. Where will the marker end up?? Under the buffet, or in a toddler's mouth? The possibilities are endless!

So obviously, reliability is an issue, as is general space and organization. I love my pretty menu planner notepad, but I have to walk across the room and squint to find out what's for dinner. The white board contains grocery list, wish list, and both Joel's and my to-do list. And my little project board is running out of space! (That's probably more my fault than an actual shortcoming of the white board, but still.)

I think I've made my case. Project Message Board commencing. Since I used my newly reorganized playroom/schoolroom/craft room, as well as my newish rotary cutting board and cutter (thanks, Mom P.!), I thought I'd show off with some process photos.

One element of my message board plan is to have a dry-erase menu board. I've shopped around and envied those I've seen on other moms' refrigerators. But I haven't found the perfect one to coordinate with my kitchen colors, such as they are. Meanwhile, I've noticed the Pinterest trend of repurposing old picture frames, using the glass as a dry-erase writing surface and doing any number of things in the background, from scrapbook paper to fabric to bare wall. I just happened to be surfing Pinterest (which I rarely do, actually) the other night, and inspiration struck at precisely 9:57 p.m. So that's when I started this project, obviously. It took about an hour, and felt so good to indulge my inner night owl.

I started out using remaining material from when I made our kitchen valence. I am a super matchy-matchy person, at least in fantasy if not in practice. Also, I have a huge fear of both commitment and failure when it comes to putting anything on my walls. (This might be why I am just now getting around to decorating our walls, a year after moving in.) If the fabric appears elsewhere in the room, my odds of decorator's remorse decline significantly.

By the way, if you consider yourself crafty, or would like to be, invest in a rotary cutter! It makes small sewing and craft projects in which you need to actually cut straight lines SO MUCH EASIER! I just put my fabric down with the photo frame backing on top, and cut around the edges with my rotary cutter. Easier than slicing pizza. Here's my fabric cut perfectly to size, on top of the cardboard backing piece.

I thought this fabric might have too many bold/dark colors going on to be able to easily see dry-erase marker on top of it. It needed to be a little muted, or lighter somehow, so that the writing would really contrast. Remember, the goal is not to be up close and squinty in order to read this thing. My actual thought process went something like this: I need something whitish...translucent...so you can see through it...like white tissue paper or vellum or....hmm a white plastic grocery bag is kind of the right idea.

Yes, yes I did.

Rotary cutter to the rescue once again (seriously, thank you, Mom P.!), and then I taped the edges of the plastic bag to the back of the cardboard frame backing. My fabric is in there between the layers. I pulled the bag taut as I folded and taped, so it wouldn't look too wrinkly on the front.

Moment of truth now as I flipped it over...

Wow, nice! The plastic bag nicely muted the fabric and didn't even look *that* tacky. Let's see how it looks inside the frame, behind glass:

You know what, I am actually kind of proud of myself.

Now, if there's one thing I've learned in the course of crafting/DIYing/being cheap, it's that my handwriting is not the stuff of artful display. My best calligraphy skills look like something that belongs on a middle school love note. Our babysitter puts me to shame, as I find my children's names all beautifully scrolled on the sidewalk in chalk. I really don't have an inferiority complex about it...yet...but when it comes to labeling my new menu board, I was obviously not going to write "Menu Board" at the top in sixth grade 3-D bubble lettering and call it a day.

Remember when I made our Advent Calendar? I still had some of my stick-on letters left. The Lord smiled upon this project because I had all the capital letters that I needed. It is good that they give you lots of N's and S's in these alphabet sticker sets.

The final product, complete with the current week's menu in my awesome handwriting. I totally meant to take a picture before writing on it, but I forgot. Thus you find yourself graced with proof that while my penmanship is legible, it is not fancy. That's about as good as it gets, right there. I'm considering adding a narrow matting inside the frame, but I also like it just the way it is (which, incidentally, reminds me of a Daniel Tiger episode we watched this morning. I like you, I like you, I like you just the way you are!).

Unfortunately, this will probably sit on our buffet until I finish the larger message board part of the project. Then they'll be hung on the wall along with my cast iron skillet in an arrangement that hopefully looks tasteful and decorative. For certain, though, it will hang reliably and not come crashing down in the middle of the night to scare the hoo-ha out of me (Joel sleeps through all things, though, so don't worry about him).

Thanks for reading along! More to come, as I've been in an absolute frenzy of projects lately.