Summer Jewelry Love

Mr. T is over taking suggestions from my BFF when it comes to gifts...for Mother's Day I secretly wanted this...

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but instead, I received this...

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...and to be honest, while I didn't exactly want a clamp set for Mother's Day...I could use one and will probably be thankful for them soon. Not to mention the price difference between the two...

But back to the subject...recently I've noticed a ton of really great bracelets on Etsy. They are all so cute, it proves you don't have to spend a lot of money on jewelry. Here are a few of my favorites:

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Some of these would be easy to DIY, others...not so much. I am trying to get Marlene to open an Etsy store, but the conversation went like this:

I really didn't get very far convincing her of a store before she had moved on to diamonds...her specialty. I'm batting zero these days when it comes to the art of persuasion. Maybe I need to sharpen my skills...

Rachel :)

Recreating a $500 Wooden Sculpture

Pinterest. Ugh. Not only does it make my mind race with a million ideas, it was the source where Marlene found a wooden sculpture she fell in love with. A $500 wooden sculpture. Seriously.

Pink Door Decor

So for her birthday a few weeks ago...I (as in not really me, but Marlene) decided that I could recreate this and make it for her for much less. I can't complain...it's wonderful to have friends that believe in you more than you believe in yourself.

Mr. T bought a jigsaw for me for Christmas that was still in the box, so this was the perfect opportunity to break it in. After putting the blade in backwards, I did more than break it in, I almost broke it and cut my finger off when I made my first cut. It didn't take long and after a few cuts I was ready to go. I made a 12" pattern to use for each "petal" and used a cabinet grade 3/4 inch plywood.

After cutting and sanding with an 80 grit followed by a 220 grit, I used MinWax Weathered Oak to stain the petals.

I cut the base from a two inch thick piece of old wood, sanded it down, and stained it with Special Walnut followed with a second coat of Ebony.

The petals were put together with wood glue and held in place overnight with clamps...no nails or screws, which makes this two sided...yay! I cut a wooden dowel rod to hold it in place and used my wonderful Porter Cable Forstner Drill Bit Set to drill all the holes for the dowels. If you don't have this set, get it...it rocks my socks! After everything was dried and drilled it was ready to put together...

And again the $500 original...

And my $11 creation...

Happy Birthday Marlene!!!



Rachel :)

DIY Cake Pop Stand

It's been a few months...but what can I say...spring means baseball, ballet, school plays, and lots and lots of fun stuff to do! I'm still working on a few DIY projects, and today I have a quick, fun project to bring you. A few months ago, a friend asked me to help her with a birthday party she was giving. A grownup, "non-cheesy" birthday party. She wanted a dessert table set up with a stand large enough to hold a variety of cake pops (yummmmm) and miniature cones filled with mousse...

I took two unfinished, different sized bar stool seats...a large one for the bottom, a smaller one for the top and measured where I wanted the holes. The drilled size of the holes for the cake pops turned out to be perfect...easy to get them in and out, yet small enough to hold them up straight. Make sure to not drill these holes all the way through. That way you can pick up the stand without them falling though. I marked an extra pop stick with a line on how deep I wanted them to sit and used it as a guide when drilling the holes. This ensured they would all sit at the same height.

The miniature cones on top needed large holes that went through the wood. I used a drill bit from a Porter Cable Forstner Bit Set (best purchase ever) to drill these holes. When I was done drilling, everything was sanded, primed, and put together using a large candle pillar from Hobby Lobby (it was bright green in its former life). The finished product was sprayed in Antique White (one of my favorite colors) and distressed using Special Walnut stain.

When the cake pops arrived from the bakery (carrot cake in white chocolate and red velvet in chocolate), I trimmed an inched off the sticks of the white ones to create two tiers on the bottom stand. The miniature cones were filled with a variety of mousses (after I snapped this picture) and the dessert table was complete!

Yummy!!!

Rachel :)

sorry for the complete lack of pictures...i seem to be on the fly recently, only snapping pictures with my cell phone. email me with any questions!

DIY Jeans...Keeping the Original Hem

Last week I did something I almost never do...went shopping. For clothes. For me. Not my favorite thing to do (who needs to buy clothes when your best friend keeps you stocked), but Shannon managed to drag me to the mall for an hour of fun at The Gap. It also helps that her sister works there...which equaled a nice discount.

One hour, a few dollars, and some major dressing room meltdowns later, I walked out with a bag full. Two needed purchases: new jeans. I'm not really sure who they make jeans to fit, but it definitely isn't me. And it really stinks to spend money on clothes to turn around and have to have them altered. But, at the end of the day, the jeans were really long. As in way toooooooo long. So I decided to pull out the sewing machine and try to hem them myself. And to keep the original hem. There's nothing worse than a pair of badly hemmed jeans...well, there are a lot of things worse, but you get the idea...

Step 1: Determine the length you want your new inseam to be. Subtract it from the old inseam. Divide the difference by 2. For me this was 32-29=3. 3 divided by 2 = 1.5

Step 2: Make a cuff the size of your number and iron it down.

Step 3: Turn the pants leg inside out and stitch along the orinigal hem.

Step 4: Stitch up the side to prevent the cuff from falling down.

Step 6: Turn jeans right side out and press.

Some people might cut the excess fabric off. Because I didn't have that much, I decided to stitch the sides up and keep it. New clothes are awesome. New clothes that fit are even better. Especially when alterations were $0!

Rachel :)

A Boys Room...Moving Up In the World

My little man isn't exactly little any more. He's growing up...way too fast for me, but it's still happening. He was 6 years old and had just finished kindergarten when we moved into our old house. Flash forward a few years and he is now 10 and well into his 4th grade year.

He has changed and it was time for his room to reflect that...here is what it looked like before...

And here are the after pictures...



The beds went from single to bunked. A new area rug and window panels were added as well as sconces for both bunks. The antique corner desk (Pennsylvania House...and yes, I got it from the side of the road) was paired with a hand-me-down chair that I painted black. I was able to get some old wood (for free) from the local wrecking yard that I cut into two shelves and mounted with metal brackets from Home Depot. After a quick trip to my favorite thrift store, I left with an old stop sign, a vintage architecture light, the "lucky" mason jar, an antique table fan, and a curio shelf that was hung and turned into storage for his Lego men. Paper storage was hung on the wall beside the desk for those afternoons when he has "SO" much homework. The closet door is a fun little place for chalkboard drawings, and he still has the perfect spot for his backpack. Mr. T moved the $1 book shelves from the other side of the room and I hung part of his pennant collection from the different cities we have traveled to. The bedding is the same...I just perked it up with a bottle of Rit Dye in Denim.

What's better than a fresh, new, organized space? Spending some great quality time with my little man!!!

Rachel :)

The $150 Living Room UpDate

Confession...

I finished my part in Shan's living room about two months ago. That's right. It took me about a week to prime, paint, sew panels for the windows, and figure a few things out. It's great...completely different...and she loves it. We stayed on a tight budget, only spending money on paint, fabric, and a few other things. No new sofas, chairs, pillows, or flooring. We shopped from her attic and around the house. It's a great feeling when you can get a transformation without breaking the bank. Always a goal of mine. Always.

Before:

After:

Here's the breakdown of what was done...

The walls and doors were primed and painted. I used Better Homes and Gardens interior paint in eggshell from WalMart...no paint snobs here! The color is BHG809. She kept the sofas and I switched the pillows with some that were in her sitting room. I kept the original curtain rod, just painted it black and added new, longer panels made from painter drop cloths. The pictures above the sofa remained, as did one of the painted black side tables. Another black table was moved in from the dining room. The lamps (I love them!) were a treasure she found in her moms attic. Originally a terracotta color, they were painted with American Accents Spray Paint in Lagoon (it's made by Rust-Oleum) and lightly glazed with a brown stain. When I took her to the store to look at colors to paint the lamps, Shan looked at me and said, "You know turquoise is my least favorite color, right?!?"...well, guess who won?...just saying...

New lamp shades were purchased (on sale) at Target to complete that side of the room. On the other side I took down the pictures on the wall and moved out the round table and lamp. We found an antique pine side table (with fabulous spindle legs) at a thrift store for $35. It is in awesome condition and fit perfectly! I added a painting of a nest to bring in a little color and built and stained a farmhouse style backing for it to hang on. The lamp came from the dining room, but she didn't need it in there anyway :)

And the bookshelves...oh, the glorious multi colored bookshelves that used to look like this...

got a fresh coat of primer and paint, a few shelves were removed, and the rest were styled a bit with things she already had...now look like this...

There were several things that made this room difficult. There are a lot of doors, and windows, and built-in bookshelves. I tried her furniture in a million...ok, maybe a trillion...different places. In the end, the room was too small to have it any other way. I wanted the sofa to be centered and floating in front of the door to the backyard. When I tried, that put it in the middle of the room, leaving no area for the love seat or anything else. Boo. So everything went back to the walls, while the husbands chair was moved from one side to the other and pulled out just a bit. Speaking of the chair...oh...the chair...did anyone wonder where it went?...here you go...

This brings me to the reason I haven't written about this room. She still has the red plaid chair, and still doesn't know what to do with it...recover, slip cover, or look for a replacement. This is real life though, and sometimes decisions can't be made in a day, a week, or even a month. Here is the break down of what was spent, and yes...that is another consideration in the chair...

Paint, Primer, and Supplies $40

Drop Cloth Panels $20

Nest Painting and Wood Frame $30

Paint for lamps $3

Lamp Shades $28

Antique Pine Side Table $35

The grand total is $156. That is a lot of bang for the buck!!!

Rachel :)