What I've Been Working On - Spinny Stool

Can you tell I'm slightly obsessed with stools?  This one is just so pretty...and it spins, y'all!  How fun is that?

I forgot to take a before picture, but imagine rust colored vinyl on the top and plain wood on the bottom.  It wasn't very pretty. 

But she is now.  I'll miss you, Spinny Stool.  I hope you go to a fabulous home.

You can buy this beaut at the Vineyards Antique Mall in Colleyville - Just ask for Booth Vintage 32 or Dealer #13.

What I've Been Working On - Wicker Basket Storage Rack

I bought this at a yard sale for $5.  Somebody had spray painted it black - and it wasn't a very good paint job, I might add.  I wish I had taken a picture of it before I spray painted it white.  (Please don't mind the shoe, the dog bed and the 9,000-year-old floor in the picture - that's just life...my life.)

Anyway, I spray painted everything white, I gave it a splash of turquoise.  Why?  Because I think I might have a slight addiction to turquoise.  Anyway, here it is after a few hints of my favoritist color ever.  (Don't mind the owl - he's just stamped on a price tag I put on there.)

I think she turned out pretty cute.

My First Attempt @ Shabby Chic

Soooo I'm, like, in love with shabby chic.  You couldn't tell it by my house because I have nothing that is shabby chic.  Shabby, yes.  Chic, notsomuch.  Now, I've refinished furniture before but it's not like I'm a pro or anything...far from it.  I've only refinished two things - a hope chest and also a double-size bed.  The double-size bed I refinished with my grandpa - something I will always cherish.

Before

So when I saw these two nightstands at a friend's yard sale, I saw my first shabby chic project.  They screamed white and turquoise to me.  They said, Shelley, take us home and try to make us pretty.  So that's what I did - I tried my very best.  Trial and error, trial and error. 

Before

I watched a couple of videos online and learned how to use Vaseline to give the paint a chippy look.  First I sanded the nightstands.  Then I painted both pieces with turquoise paint.  Then I put Vaseline in different spots on the nightstands.  And then spray painted them with a gloss white.  Then I went back and wiped off the Vaseline and, wallah, spots of turquoise appeared.  That process worked great.  What wasn't so great was how I applied the Vaseline.  The nightstands came out polka dotted looking, almost like a cow print - not the look I was going for.

I went around the edges with a sanding block hoping that would make them look better.  It helped a little bit but not a lot.  I wound up taping over the edges that I had sanded and then spray painted the nightstands again with the white, to cover up the polka dotted cow mess that I had created. I then stenciled on a few designs and put on some new knobs and called them good.

After

Are they perfect?

After

Not by a longshot.

After

But I think they turned out pretty dang cute.


I also painted this child's rocking chair.  You can kind of tell what I meant about the turquoise looking like a cow print - I didn't go back over this with more spray paint, just added the hot pink polka dots.

If you like the looks of these, they're for sale at the Vineyard's Antique Mall in Colleyville, booth Italy 13.

Repotting Festival @ Calloway's Nurseries

Don't miss out on the Repotting Festival @ Calloway's Nurseries.  Do you have plants that have outgrown their container?  Is there an empty corner that could use a splash of color to brighten your home?  Does the colder weather make you dread repotting outdoors?  Come to the Repotting Festival at Calloway's Nurseries and replant in comfortable greenhouses on potting benches.

Help yourself to Calloway’s Premium Potting Soil and one feeding of Calloway’s Lasting Beauty plant food.  Take home a freshly planted container to liven up your indoor spaces for the Winter months!  Bring your plants or empty containers and leave the mess at home.  Or go pick out new plants and containers to purchase and pot them up while you’re there.

The Repotting Festival is this Saturday, January 19, 2012 and starts at 9:00 and is happening at the Calloway's on South Hulen, as well as the Hurst, Southlake and 13 other Calloway’s Nursery locations.

Display Kid's Artwork

I saw this idea on Pinterest over a year ago.  And since at that time we were redoing our dining room/entry/hallway/whateverthatroomiscalled room, I thought this would look super cute. 

You just take a 1 by something or other and cut it to whatever size you want.  My husband routered the edges and then painted them black.  I took some sandpaper and roughed up the edges a bit to give them some character.  Find you some of those little metal clips.  We could only find some that had magnets in them.  My husband had to drill them out so we could screw them to the board.  Then he just screwed the boards to the wall.

We ordered the word Masterpieces from a vinyl lettering company - I wish I could remember where I ordered it from, but since it's been almost a year, I've forgotten.

I think it turned out great.  My kids are so proud to see their masterpieces hanging on the wall. 

Polka Dot Design - For All Your Party Needs

Have y'all ever heard of Polka Dot Design?  Well, if you haven't, you're missing out.  They have top-quality stationery items such as birthday party invitations:

Personalized note cards:

Party supplies, such as flag straws:

Personalized recipe cards (gotta get me some of those):

Cool note pads that would make great teacher gifts:

Awesome envelope wraps (they wrap around the side of the envelope and you write the address of the person you're writing to on the front and your address will be printed on the back - really neat idea.)

And they have these cool, little personalized stickers you can use to stick on your Christmas packages:

 They also have personalized iPhone 4/4s cases:

And these really neat, totally customizable and interchangeable Lucite trays:

Polka Dot Design has so much to offer that I could stay on their website for hours.  Their website is so easy to navigate.  They make shopping for things easy.  For example, say you want to order that cute Lucite Let's BBQ tray up there - you click the link to the tray and then listed on that same page will be a list of other things you might need to order, like the kissing pigs BBQ invitation.

Everything Polka Dot Design offers is so modern and chic.  I have fallen in love with some of their designs and the different color combinations they have to offer.

You want to know one of the reasons I really love Polka Dot Design?  Because they're based right here in Fort Worth.  Can't get much better than that.

Oh, wait...maybe you can.

Want to know one of the other reasons why I really love Polka Dot Design?  Because they're offering Fort Worth Mama readers an exclusive 30% discount.  Isn't that awesome?  Who's your Mama?  Just use the code FORTWORTHMAMA30 at checkout.  Also, right now they're offering a $5 flat shipping rate.  Sounds like a great time to order to me.

Thank you, Polka Dot Design.

Back To School Sale @ The Mercantile

The Historic Camp Bowie Mercantile is having a mall wide Back To School (yikes - already???) Sale starting Tuesday, July 31.  You can save anywhere from 10 to 50% off.  The sale ends Saturday, August 4th.

Go have lunch at the beautiful Rose Garden Tea Room and then browse around the mall.  You're sure to find something you can't live without. 

Be sure and check out the booth immediately to your right when you walk in the front door.  The person who rents that booth is ...well, she's awesome and she has excellent taste!

Patriotic Wreath

I saw this gorgeous wreath on Pinterest a while back and I just had to make it.  It was super easy to make and cheap too.  The most expensive thing was the foam wreath and I think that cost me $5.99.  You could probably find one a lot cheaper than that and use a coupon at Joann's or Michael's or Hobby Lobby.

I suggest you cut all the felt pieces out with one of those rotary cutters.  I started cutting the felt like this - each strip individually then turning and cutting the strips:

 

That took a while.  So I wised up and starting cutting them like this:

Which made it go a lot faster - hello!

My only suggestion would be to mark your foam wreath as to where you want the red, the white, and the blue.  I wanted my blue to butt up to white, so I had to do some finagling at the end to make it come out that way.  If I had marked the wreath beforehand, it would have been a lot easier. 

Also, the instructions said to use cardstock and punch out stars using a punch.  This homegirl does not have a star punch, so I just decided to use some of the white felt to represent the star.

Turned out pretty, don't you think?  God bless America.

Things That Should Be In Your 72-Hour Kit or Bug-Out Bag

I am, like, obsessed with this blog I found recently.  It offers so much useful information that I could sit and read it for hours. It's called Homestead Survival. 

One of their recent posts is about 72-Hour Kits or bug-out bags.  If you've watched any of the Doomsday Prepper shows, you'll know what they're talking about.  I think it's better to be safe than sorry, whether it's for doomsday or a natural disaster.

One day there was a fire burning really close to our house, and I was so worried that it was going to reach our house that I just started throwing anything and everything in my car.  It would have been much easier to just have all the important, necessary stuff in one spot instead of me running all over the house gathering stuff like a chicken with my head cut off.

Here's a list of that important, necessary stuff.  Each member of your family should have their own kit.

 

Thanks, Homestead Survival, for all the awesome information you provide.  Keep up the good work.

Cut Kid Clutter

I read a Good Housekeeping article a while back about helping with kid clutter - you know, all the little bits and pieces your kiddoes leave in their wake - toys, books, Barbie clothes, whatever.

The article suggested this: "Cut clutter by telling your kids that anything they don't put away during the week will be placed in the "Saturday Box" - meaning they don't get back a toy left out on Monday until Saturday. (To defeat rescue attempts, she keeps the box in the trunk of her car.) Usually the kids are so eager to hold on to their stuff, they put it away in 15 minutes."

Might be worth a try.

Kid Clutter?  Try a Saturday Box.

My New Favorite Commercial

This is hilarious!!



I can relate!!

Homemade Fabric Softener - Don't Knock It Until You've Tried It

Homemade Fabric Softener

Since my husband is on strike for Lord only knows how long and I stay at home with our kids, I'm trying to think of every possible way to scrimp and save.  Well, I saw a link on Pinterest the other day about how to make your own fabric softener, and lo and behold I ran out of fabric softener this weekend.  I figured why don't I give that homemade fabric softener a try.

All you need to make it is hot water, vinegar and cheap hair conditioner.   The recipe calls for 6 cups hot water, 3 cups vinegar and 2 cups hair conditioner.  Well, the conditioner that's depicted in the picture (15 oz.) doesn't measure two cups, so I adjusted the recipe.  Here's my recipe for Homemade Fabric Softener:

About 3 cups hot water (more or less) - I just used hot tap water
15 oz. bottle of hair conditioner
About 1 1/2 cups vinegar (more or less)

Mix hot water with hair conditioner then add vinegar.  Pour into old fabric softener bottle or whatever clean jug you have on hand.  Mine just barely fit into my old 51 oz. Downy bottle.

Downy is about, what, $5 a bottle or more?  I paid .99 cents for the conditioner and I paid about $2 for a huge jug (1 gallon) of Kroger brand vinegar that only used up 3 cups so I have 13 cups remaining.  So I figured I spent a little over a dollar for my fabric softener.  Cool thing about this is you don't have to use the same fragrance of conditioner every time - you can switch it up.

Now, I don't consider myself to be a supermom.  I don't, like, sew all my kids clothes out of all natural fibers.  My kids don't eat vegetables or fruit at every meal.  I don't make my own bread or hug trees or anything like that.  But since we're having to tighten our belts a bit during this strike, I figured I'd give this homemade recipe a try and I'm so glad I did.

Burlap Wreath

I got the basic idea of how to do this off of guess what? Pinterest of course! I took a wire hanger, opened it up. Got two different colors of burlap that I've had for probably close to 15 years and started cutting that into strips. That stuff is messy and leaves little strands everywhere so be ready for that before you start cutting. I'd say that I had about a yard of each color of burlap - so about two yards of burlap total.

I cut strips that were about 3 inches wide (more or less) and about 12 inches long or maybe a little longer. It really doesn't matter.

Take a strip of the burlap and start kind of threading it by placing the wire hanger through it.

It's almost like you were skewering meat to put on the grill.

I poked the clothes hanger through about every inch and a half or so.

Alternate the colors of burlap if you like.

Squish it all together then twist the coat hanger closed.

Then tie a pretty bow. I think my mother bought the ribbon I used from a flea market in Mena, Arkansas - beautiful place that Mena, Arkansas - Mena will always have a special place in my heart.

Hang that gorgeous wreath on your front door and call it good!!

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Horchow Everything Sale - Get you some nice towels at a low price

I had never even heard of Horchow until last year. That's how hoity toity I am (snort, snort!!) Anyway, I read about this deal last year over on a Grocery Game forum. I ordered monogrammed Ralph Lauren bath sheets and monogrammed hand towels. Well, they're running the same deal right now. You can get you some awesome-looking, very high quality towels now for cheap. Here's a link to the towels I ordered this year. You can get a monogrammed Ralph Lauren bath sheet for $16.79! That's pretty awesome They would make great gifts too. Don't forget to enter code EVERYHC at checkout. Sale ends November 9 @ 6:00 a.m.