Queen of Love

In honor of the royal wedding today.  I found a modern twist of a traditional chair. Appropriately named the "Queen of Love" comes in many colors and is made of recycled polyethlyene.  So, it can definitely be used as an outdoor chair as well.  This Baroque styled chair is designed by Design of Love.  Here's the link to their website.

Anthropologie Inspired Shirt

I had bought this long sleeve shirt on sale and wanted to transform it into something for summer.   The first thing I did was cut off the sleeves.

Then I found a cute shirt on the Anthopologie website that I thought was cute and wanted to do something similar.

So I used one sleeve to drape from one shoulder along the neckline and the other sleeve I gathered and attached to the other shoulder.  What's that called, ruching? If so then that's what I did.

I thought for a shirt that I bought for next to nothing to turn it into this, was pretty exciting.

Painted Onesie

This past weekend while celebrating Easter my sister came in to town with a project in mind.  She wanted to create painted onesie's for a baby shower that she's helping to throw. The party guests plan to each make one.  So, we set out to make some examples and use them as possible party decorations.  How cute would these be hanging up on a little clothesline on the wall?

If you want great results painting, especially with any sort of lettering on the shirt, your best friend is freezer paper.  Freezer paper is awesome.  You can use your computer printer and print your image and wording directly on the freezer paper and cut it out.  Use the negative space as the stencil and iron it on to the shirt.  Now you have a stencil that will produce a crisp image.  Time for the fun part, painting.  To paint the shirt you will need to use fabric paint.  Once it is dry you can remove the stencil and see a cute little shirt.

Bunny Pin

My daughter received this pin today from her teacher and I thought it was so cute and clever.  Very easy to make too.  The materials you would need are a clothes pin, google eyes, fuzzy pom poms, ribbon and a pin for the back.  My daughter loved it and wore it the rest of the day.

Cascarones aka Confetti Eggs

 Cascarones or confetti eggs are a great Easter craft and kids love making them too.  They originated in Italy, but are also a Mexican tradition as well.  They can be hidden and once the person finds the cascaron they crack the egg on their friend's head.  It is said to be good luck and you make a wish. 
First, you will need to put a small hole on the end of the egg.  I just crack it a bit and then hollow out a hole with a toothpick. Here is what it looks like.

Next, you will pour the egg out and rinse out the inside with water.  Be prepared to make something with all of these eggs.  We made omelets with ours.

Now we are ready to dye and decorate the eggs. The kids love this part.

After you dye the eggs you will need to let them dry before you put the confetti in.  Here is where you can make your confetti or you can buy packaged confetti.  We made a little bit of confetti before my daughter was done.

Once the eggs are dry you can fill the eggs with confetti.  This can be a little messy and if you have a funnel on hand it is much easier.

 

To seal the egg you will need a piece of tissue paper a little larger than the hole in the egg. Place glue around the edge of the hole and put tissue paper on top.

At this point you are done or you can add more decoration such as glitter glue, etc.  Now go have some fun and don't forget to make a wish.

Omicra Chair

The Omicra Chair is designed by Sotiris Lazou.  The base is made from stainless steel and the seat is made from an inlay of oak or walnut.  I just love how the back looks in this chair.  To see more designs by Sotiris Lazou, click here.

Tank Painting

Another painting for a little boy's room done. First time I've ever painted a tank.  I totally had to step out of my comfort zone with the last few paintings.  I haven't painted too many vehicles before.

Easter Basket Liner

With Easter coming up I thought I'd show you a way to dress up your Easter basket with a liner.  It's such a simple project and if you have some leftover fabric it's a great way to use up some of your scraps. Here's how you do it.
First measure your basket's height and circumference.  Don't forget to add a little extra for seam allowance. 

I traced the bottom on craft paper and made a pattern from there.

With right sides together sew the short ends of the long piece together.  Don't sew them all the way to the top.  You need to leave it open a bit so it can go around the handle. See the picture below.

Next you will baste the top edge.  Gather the material till it fits the bottom piece.

Then you will pin the bottom to the side piece all the way around with right sides together.  Sew together. It should look like this.

Now, here's where I either forgot to take pictures or don't have any, but as you see in the finished pictures.  It has a ruffle around the edge that lays over the outside of the basket.  Cut 2 pieces to make a ruffle for the liner.  The length will depend on the basket and how ruffly you want it to be. Hem the long side of the fabric or you could add bias tape to the edge like I did. The other long side you will baste and gather to make a ruffle. Sew ruffle to liner with right sides together. Fold under edges and hem where the fabric meets around the handle. On my daughter's I added ribbon for a little bow to dress it up.

 

Happy Egg Hunting! 

Linking up to - DIY Show Off ,  Keeping it Simple,  Marvelously Messy,  Tea Rose Home,  Sew Much Ado, Blue Cricket Design, Creation Corner, Simply Designing, House of Hepworths

Baton Drum Chair

With Easter coming up and spring in the air, I thought an egg shaped chair was in order.  The Baton Drum Chair by Samuel Chan is made up of hand carved sections of solid oak. It has a revolving base, which I think it is a pretty neat feature. His company, Channels is known for its contemporary furniture with geometric and organic shapes. To see more of his work, click here.

Another floor down

 Whew, I think we are almost through with the kitchen/ utility room tile.  Of course there are always a few things left to do, but we are so close to being finished.  I was actually really glad the kitchen had holes put in it from the foundation work because there was no love lost when this laminate flooring had to go.  Bye, Bye! It's just not my style.

 Before Picture

Now, I'm all for the great properties of laminate, but it really should have never been put in a kitchen.  Let's just say after having three water leaks in the kitchen, laminate buckles and separates with water.  Tile is really the only thing you'd want in areas that gets wet.

I found a great porcelain tile that has the color all the way through it.  This was an important to me because I've seen how my little guy can tear things up. In fact he tested the tile out yesterday with a red crayon.  Needless to say, I'm almost certain that someone will chip it at one point and having the color all the way through will make that chip less noticeable. Another great thing about this tile is it is a rectified tile, meaning you can have really small grout lines.  Hurray, for less grout to clean.  Do not ask my husband what he thought of the tile.  Haha.  According to him it is pretty difficult to lay the tile level when you have to lay them so close together.  So, I guess I didn't do him any favors by just picking one size of tile for this room.  I'm not sure what he thought was more difficult, the kitchen or the entry.  Oh, and ignore the base molding in the pictures.  We haven't put the quarter round back down so you can see the previous colors of paint people have painted the molding. Once everything gets put back into place I'll get you some prettier pictures where you can see my kitchen.  The best thing about the new tiles is that it has really made my kitchen look bigger and brighter. 

Little Beach Bum

I found this cute Hawaiian shirt at a local thrift shop, but it was 5 sizes too big for my little guy.  Since it was only $2, I decided to cut it down to his size.  I can ever get fabric that cheap and I liked the fabric of the shirt.  I had a pattern for this style shirt in his size and just used it to cut the shirt down.  It worked out so nicely that I was able to reuse the placket on the shirt, the sleeves, and the collar.  I had to trim the collar down a bit, but it all came together nicely in the end.  Now we are ready for the beach.

Tree Bookshelf

What a lovely bookshelf.  The designer, Shawn Soh was inspired by a childhood memory of sticking letters on tree branches. This bookshelf would make an excellent addition to any room and would serve as a bookcase and a piece of art. To see more work from Shawn Soh, please click here.