When I made the budget for this room, I never dreamed I’d find a mirror like this without completely blowing it!  Giving this to her is a gesture that screams love and sacrifice, because as soon as I saw it… I wanted it for myself.

I liked it so much the way it was, I almost didn’t want to change it.  But I was set on gold.  Plus, I have been reading all about Rub ‘n Buff products for a while and thought this would be the perfect project for me to try it out on.

When I read the packaging I thought, there is no way this little tube covers 20 sqft!  But I’m a believer now.   Plenty, plenty, plenty left over!  And it was incredibly easy to apply!!!  I know this reads like a paid advertisement, (I wish!) but it isn’t.  It’s just a great product!

Anyway…

See the difference?

I did as much as I could with my finger and then used a paintbrush to get in the crevices.

 I think it has become my favorite piece in the house!  What do you think?

A few years ago, I picked up three yards of a nice soft zebra print on clearance thinking I’d use it to recover a chair for Alycia.  That never happened, but because she liked it so much, she persistently asked if she could use it to make something.  I no longer planned to use it for a chair, but I did know I didn’t want it cut to pieces for tiny projects, so I consistently said no.  I bet she’s glad now that I did.

I was happy to find that I had almost enough for a duvet cover.

Short by just a few inches.

So I went out hunting and picked up a piece to finish it off for about $3.6-something.

I was in such a rush to get this sewed because it was almost time for her to be home from school; I sewed it the wrong way.  I spent the rest of my ‘secret time’ that day using my seam ripper to take it apart.

But I didn’t get it wrong the next time.

I was planning on buying a black flat sheet to sew to the other side, but I found a very nice plum colored flat sheet at Goodwill for $2.99.  You can’t beat that, and after a good cleaning and steaming, it was perfect.

I laid it out on the floor and smoothed out the top piece, right sides together; I had more time to think clearly.

Got everything pinned and trimmed…

I managed to get it all sewed up with minimal pricks… and was able to violently shake her comforter right on in.

When I sewed it, I sewed six inches in on both of the top corners to keep the comforter from coming out.  I also bought buttons, but have yet to sew them on.  sigh.

I think it turned out great!

Ya know, I hope one thing people can see by my ramblings is… you should never not try.  Things get messed up.. but most of the time, they can be fixed and you can start over.  :)

I have been sick.  I don’t know what got me, but the only thing that helped me survive Friday is a roll of scotch tape that Jude used to strap down his cars to the top of his monster trucks while I laid on the couch.  At one point I must have nodded off because I woke up with Jude snoozing next to me.  It was a rough day.  Damon took charge over the weekend, and I am now on my way to feeling myself again.

So, the chandelier.

As always, the name of the game is… don’t spend a lot of money!  I found a brass chandelier for $12.00 at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore.  I was a bit worried when I got it home and really inspected it, (something I definitely should have done at the store) and noticed that one of the wires was frayed.  I knew it could be fixed, but I didn’t want to have to spend the money if I could have bought one that didn’t need to be repaired.  Too late.  Oh well.

I cleaned it up really good and spray painted it with…

I forgot to take a before picture because I was supposed to be doing this in secret, but I was being daring and decided maybe if I spray painted it in plain sight she wouldn’t think twice about it.  I was right, but I also tried to rush through… juuust in case… and forgot to snap one.  Boo.  Sooo… this is first pic I have of this project.

I already started stringing some beads on it.

   The big beads here are actually acrylic gem vase fillers.  I was surprised and happy to find that they had holes in them and were perfect for this project.  When I was searching around online for a picture of the gem packaging (because I threw mine away. Again, without a pic.)… I found something interesting.

This picture is from Pottery Barn, and although they are no longer available (it looks like they sold them during the holidays and put them on clearance) I’m sure they were more expensive than the identical pack I bought at Walmart for $3.00!

{Happy Dance!}

But I needed a lot more beads!  I looked all over for a good deal on glass beads, I guess what it comes down to is.. I’m really cheap.  I rummaged through my bead box and found a pack of plastic clear beads that I must have bought a long time ago. I fought with myself for days on whether or not to use them.  In the end, the cheap side of me won and I started stringing them up.

Once they were strung, I just didn’t know if it was right.  Is it going to add that ‘sparkle’ I wanted?  My neighbor and I agreed that it did… and so here is how it turned out.

I did end up having to replace the ground wire, but that was very inexpensive.  I’m happy to report that the total cost of this project was $22.

The nail pop guy came out yesterday, so I should start painting soon!

On a completely separate note… if you were a female and had your child with you while loading groceries into your car… would you offer to help a man, who is alone, who appeared to be having car trouble?

I hope all of you had a Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year!  This december went   ~~~  <- just like that… flew away on a gust of wind so quickly I barely had time to blink.  I realize as I type this that I say that alot!   Where did this month go?  Where did this year go?  Where did the last 13 years go?  That’s where my mind was this past December.  My baby girl turned 13!  uuuhhhh, Yes.  13!  I would say at some point in October it really hit me that I said she could wear makeup when she turned 13.  This girl already looks older than she should… and makeup will not only add even more fictitious years, but wearing makeup AND being thirTEEN…  brings about a certain sassy confidence that I am not ready for.  At all.  In fact, please put me on your prayer lists.

I needed something to get me through it.  To help me process all that was sure to come.

A gift.

One that keeps the hands busy.

If I gave her a place to sit and do her makeup, it would be special for both of us.

It all started with a vanity and dream.

And ended up being a whole new room.

A whole new room right before Christmas.  What in the world was I thinking???

I was all over the web hunting down photos for inspiration.  You see, I had all kinds of things saved for her room but when I looked at them… I saw me.  This room needed to be her.  Glam and Fab.

I made a Pinterest board so I could see ideas all together and figure it out.

Then I created a mood board of how I really wanted it to be.  I planned to use as much of what we already had as possible.  Saved it as A1.3.  And this is only a rough version with some things not included.

Then I went missing.  I banned myself from FB.  From the computer.

I had to hunt down pieces. Fabric. Paint. Sew. Decorate the house for Christmas. Get a tree.

Bake cookies. Gingerbread House.

Shop. Wrap. Pack. Travel.  Plan for AJ’s visit.  And I know I’m missing things in that list.  Oh, like make a wreath!

Hello!  I can’t just leave well enough alone!  Why?  Life was already busy enough.

As you can imagine, I needed the kids to get to bed early most nights, so I slipped some sleeping potion in their hot chocolate.

Okay, not really… but man, I wish.  Mom – see.. I’m using the mugs you bought me!

* Because I added all of this to my life at such a busy time, I decided not to do Christmas cards.  To all of you who sent us cards, Thank You so much!  Each and every one of them warmed my heart. <3

Did I mention that this was a surprise gift?  mmhmm.  All done without her knowing.  Which gave me limited time to work.  Here was the plan.  Get all the pieces done, hidden and ready to place in her room after it was painted.  She flew up to PA on the 17th, so I was going to paint her walls and get everything in there before she came back, but before AJ came down to visit on Christmas day so I could give him my full attention while he was here.  But then we planned to head to MI for a few days and were leaving right after Alycia’s flight on the 17th.  AHHHH!  Still okay.  I could manage.  I planned well enough.  I cleaned out her whole room and pulled out tack after tack and tack from her walls (she used them to hang posters and stuff).  As I was taking everything down, I noticed all the nail pops in the walls.  Such a bummer.  We have a fit and finish warranty  on the house and I had scheduled the guy to come out on Jan 4th to fix all of them in the house.  Did I want to paint only to have them fix those and then have to repaint?  Uh, no.  Again, such a bummer.  At this point I felt defeated.  All of the running around and extra work and stress for nothing.  I put what I had done in her room so she could get a good idea of what it will be like when finished.  She cried when she saw it.  Tears of joy! What more could I ask for?

Tomorrow we’ll talk about her chandelier.

13, sheesh!

I wanted to take a moment and ask you to please consider giving a much needed gift to the people La Limonada.

From the Lemonade International website:  Christmas is an incredible time of year for most of us here in the US. For so many children and families in La Limonada there is no Christmas to speak of. For those of us who have been blessed with so much we have a great opportunity to Give Christmas to the children and teachers in La Limonada – through practical gifts that will help to provide education and opportunities to escape the cycle of poverty and injustice.

I’m preoccupied.  This amazing $10-deal-of-a-lifetime-mirror has taken over my thoughts. I will be working on it today so my mind can move on to Christmas decorating.   

If you don’t read many home decor or crafting blogs you may not know what a creative, informative, fun world it is.  You also may not know how overwhelming and/or acquisitive it can be.  It can make my heart heavy.  I started to feel very uncomfortable and very much like I didn’t want to have a part in it.  Mostly because I did not, and do not, want to promote materialism.  It was never my intent when I started this blog.  I wanted to share ideas.  I wanted to inspire.  But you can get sucked in.  And sadly… I started to feel myself wanting to join other bloggers.  To prove that I belonged, that I could do what they do, ya know?

But I was going in a direction I didn’t believe in, and put myself on a much needed time-out.

I often wish I could be more of a painting or drawing type of artist, or maybe a photographer.  Something that isn’t enveloped so completely by materialism.  I wrestle with it so much.  And I’ve tried… oh, have I tried to do those other things.  I’ve got nothin’.  It’s not what I was gifted to do.  I really struggle.  There are so many people who are living in poverty and here I am, writing about frivolous things.  Sometimes it just doesn’t feel right.

Damon has helped greatly in reminding me that God created beauty because beauty is good.  It can inspire hope and happiness and love.  And as long as I keep the right perspective, all will be okay.  And he also pointed out to me that God takes the hurting and broken and gives them new life.  And that’s kind of what I do too. I give things new life.  And how can I ignore a gift that is inspired so completely by God’s creation?  It stirs my soul like nothing else; the beauty of this earth.  His people.  His love.  His sacrifice.

I mean look at that.  God created those mountains.  I don’t know who can look at that and not be inspired or moved in some way.  It’s breathtaking. (If you click on it, it will take you to the awesome photographer’s fb page.)

I also firmly believe that…

Art is inspirational.  Van Gogh is one of my favorite artists; we have prints of his work all over the house.  I also have this quote framed and hanging on the wall by the printer.

I tell you all of this because these are the reasons for the works of art on the wall above the shelves.

and in the middle of the two…

(It’s not done yet.  The letters are just laying on the wood and are a little crooked.  I have some more coats of black to do and some layers of sealer to put on before they get glued down.  I’ll let ya know when its up on the wall.)

I talk a lot about being inspired or waiting for inspiration to lead me in a certain direction.  Its important for me to embrace that because it helps to keep me grounded.  I create because it’s a part of who I am, but I have this blog because I truly want to inspire others.  :)

The July/August issue of Coastal Living had an article showcasing, The Best Boardwalk Bites!  For weeks, I could not stop opening the magazine to that article!  I know you think its because I was staring at all the food; nope. Believe me, I DO love all that deep-fried doughy goodness, BUT my head could not let go of this image…

I like sausage, too.  And fries.  But it’s not what captured me!  This is what I saw…

It always amazes me, how inspiration strikes.  I could be walking along, minding my own business, (or my kid’s, whatever!) and BAM… my right brain starts sparking, smacks my left brain and says, “let’s do THAT!”  So we do.  Or rather, we try.

I had a nice piece of thick wood (not sure what kind) that we previously used as a desk top, but had been sitting in storage for three years.  And, I absolutely love when this happens, it was already the perfect size for this project!!!  :)

I started by painting it white.  I used my almost depleted gallon of Winter Moods by Olympic.  I love this paint!  I’ve used it on sooo many things.  The armoire, the shelves, the puzzle art, the game table, my desk, Alycia’s desk, the walls.  I could go on and on.  I was starting to think it was almost like a Mary Poppins bag.  Like I could just use it and use it and pull out enough for whatever projects I wanted and it would just keep coming.  I’m happy though.  It put in a good three years of service… can’t really ask for more than that.

So…

If you look close, you can see the pencil lines for the frame.  I tried drawing the edges by hand- it didn’t work.  Did I mention I can’t draw for anything?  I can’t.  I tried using bowls to get them all evenly shaped- that did work, but it still didn’t look right because the outside corners kind of come in at a 90° angle before they start rounding out and I just could not get it right.  What I ended up doing was using my projector.  I placed the wood up against the wall and did my best to trace the lines.  They still aren’t as sharp as I’d like them, but they look good!

I really thought I took pics of all of that but I can’t find them.  :(  Of any steps of the process really.  Double   Except…

These are the colors I mixed to paint the frame.

Whoop-di-do, right?  I know.  Sorry.  I wanted to use latex paint, but I tried to spend as little money as possible and I didn’t have the colors I needed to do it.

I also wanted to, just like in the mag, make it look like it had a shadow.  If there is anything I can thank my middle school art teacher for, it’s teaching the cheerleaders how to shadow letters for school spirit signs!  It always comes in handy!!  For the shadow I used acrylic paint as well.  A premium metallic, titanium gold.

Next up… how to create the buttons or knobs or whatever you want to call the circle things that go all the way around the frame.  I thought about painting them on, but really wanted them to standout more.  I was going to use cardboard, but did NOT want to cut all of them out.  I did not think I could cut them all to be exactly the same and I knew that would bother me. I thought about using small floor protectors for furniture, ya know the kind you put on the bottom of your chairs?  All ideas were rejected.  A trip to Hobby Lobby took care of that.  Walking through the bare wood aisle, I saw these…

They were the perfect size and are self stick.  They got two coats of black spray paint, two coats of Dust Storm by Valspar, and two coats of the Titanium Gold acrylic paint.  I didn’t think it would need all that to cover the letters, but they were stubborn! 

I didn’t care about them being perfectly covered.  I wanted them to be kind of messy and splotchy; it’s how they look on the sign in the magazine.  I just didn’t want anyone to be able to see the letters.

Before I stuck them on, I roughed up the sign a bit.  Not too much, but a little.  I could probably use a bit more, but I think I’ll just let time take care of that.

So… a good wet-rag-wipe-down, dry, peel and stick…

and viola..

I am sooo happy with how it turned out!  Tomorrow I’ll show you what goes inside the frame!

Just a quick note, for those who may have missed my fb post…  I started a Handmade Musings facebook page, and from now on, my blog links will be posted there instead of my personal page.  Thank you again to those who have already ‘liked’ it!  : )

I know its super late to be posting, especially on a Friday night!  I am just soooooooo jittery that I have to be doing something on my mental list!   I have no idea why I’m this jittery;  I didn’t drink much coffee today.  Hm.

The only thing I want to touch on today is the clubhouse.  I saw this idea in Better Homes & Gardens and knew it was a must!  Jude (and Alvin!) liked playing under the table even before the roller shades (that’s what is attached under the table to make the ‘walls’) were installed, but they absolutely LOVE it now!  Jude even caught Alvin hanging out in there all by himself the other day and thought it was the funniest thing!   I wish I could have snagged a pic of that!

He uses his flashlight in there because it can get dark, and I bought some push lights to tape under the table to make it brighter.

Tis all.

Have a good weekend!  AND, and, Root for the Royals tomorrow night!  I soooo wish I could be there to cheer for my boy.  <3 <3 <3

As life is lived, people gain wisdom.  Wisdom has always been passed along through stories and quotes and by reading books and in giving advice.  But it seems more and more these days, life lessons are passed along by displaying them creatively on a sign of sorts. So if I can pass along any wisdom on this day, it is….

For some, it may be common sense.  For me, well, let’s just say… I didn’t think it through.  Or rather, I thought I could keep food dropping and spills to a minimum.  I should have known better.  I should have remembered all the spilled drinks caused by yours truly when I was younger.  And if that didn’t give me pause, I SHOULD have been stopped by the thought of my children, especially Jude, not quite two at the time.  Nope.

It was destroyed.

But as with most things around here, hope (in this case, in the form of a blog post) revived it.  : )

I stumbled across that post a loooong time ago, but saved it, knowing it would come in handy!

When I was finally ready to start, I could not decide between a chevron pattern and a diamond pattern.   Both are so fun and both would have looked great!  I did a google search for some rugs of both patterns and came across this image…

.. and it is exactly what I was looking for.  I wanted the design, but thicker lines.  Problem solved.

New problem.  I didn’t know how to achieve it and make it all even and centered on the rug.

I don’t like math.  I was never great at it.  Geometry was the only math my brain ever really got, and it gobbled it up like ice cream on a hot day.  It’s more of a creative math, so it made sense that it made sense.  ;)

Anyway, I started measuring, and bit by bit this is what happened…

I didn’t understand how to get it done, and then it was done.  Its kind of like, instead of my brain focusing harder, it unfocused and just created.  And after I was done, I thought… I don’t know how I did that.  I imagine it’s how a lot of artists work; watching images appear on their canvas.  Or how a lot of authors say, I didn’t know where my characters were taking me until I was there.  I couldn’t really grasp the idea of that.  Like, of course you had to know!!  But I get it now.  Something just flows. It was a strange, but spectacular feeling.  :)

After it was all penciled up, I started taping it.

As you can see, Jude is my helper.  Always.

After I finished taping this section, I wrote notes all over the tape.  Paint here, not here.  Paint here, not there.  And arrows were pointing all over the place.  I did not want to mess it up.

I messed it up.

But, it was really supposed to be..

{Sigh.} Oh well.

After I got over that, the rest was still painstakingly slow.  I wanted to be super cautious, and the taping and re-taping took a while.

I didn’t mind it.  I think I am learning great patience in my 32nd year of life.  (You can see better in this picture where I messed up. {Sniff.})

My original plan was to paint it two different colors.  I even custom mixed some paint to match the paper I used on the crates.  But after I was done with the darker blue, I chose to leave it that way.

And it has found its new home.

: )

I expect that up here, with all the crayons and markers and paint and chalk… that it will continue to get dirty.  And I’m so okay with that.

P.S. I’m working on the coffee table.  Something easily moveable for when we pull the bed out.  : )