WHAT I'VE BEEN UP TO

As y'all know, I've had a sick kid this week, but I did manage to get a little work done.  This is what I've been up to. 

 

and

I've got three more orders to take care of so I better get busy. 

Hopefully, I'll get time to sew up my window mistreatments next week, that is unless my son decides to share his germs and gets another kid sick.  

I'm linking up with Tatertots and Jello, It's So Very Cheri, This Girl Creative Just Something I Whipped Up, Someday Crafts Whatver Goes Wednesday, 1Crafty Mommy's April Baby McLinky Party and

  

 

Show Me The Progress Party

This has been a crazy week for me because I have had a sick baby this week, but I had to post my progress for Amanda's Show Me The Progress Party.  I haven't made a lot of progress, but I have made a little.  This is my before picture.  You can see the original post here. 

My problem was the space on top of my cabinets.  There is only about 12" of space up there so not much room for display not to mention I didn't know what to display.  I talked about losing the whole red, white and blue theme. 

This is the progress so far. 

I FINALLY got my kitchen painted red.  I've been living with red splotches on my wall for over a year trying to find the right color and I finally found it!  YEA!!!!  It's Sherwin Williams Stolen Kiss, if anyone is wondering.  Other things have improved since this picture was taken.

1.  My fridge is cleaned off.  My Hubby nearly thought I had bought a new fridge since he couldn't remember what it looked like.

2.  I bought some GREAT fabric which you can see here.  I plan on making a faux roman shade for the kitchen window.....someday. 

3.  I'm planning on getting new canisters, but I'm torn on what kind.  I'm loving plain old clear glass.  I'm torn on whether to get fancy toppers with a fleur dis lis or something with a silver top and maybe the cute chalkboard labels with Flour, Sugar, Tea, etc. written on them. 

4.  You can't tell so much in the before photo, but my cabinets were COVERED with junk mail, small appliances, etc.  I got a new piece of furniture for my adjoining dining room that stores my junk so my countertops are much cleaner.  YEA!  

5.  As for the space on the top of the cabinets.......I'm still torn.  Cherish gave me a great link for painted plates, which I LOVE.  I bought some plates and paint, but I haven't had time to get to them yet.

I haven't made much progress yet, but considering it took me FOREVER to paint, it may take awhile to do this too.   

Okay.  I'm off to check on my sick baby.  Y'all don't party to hard without me.

NEW SCARF TUTORIAL

I consider myself a jeans and t-shirt kind of girl.  I don't dress up very often (because I don't get out much).  I always go for comfortable cute over 4 inch heels.  As I have said before, I am a big ole dork and falling is inevitible when I wear heels while I'm trying to chase kids around.  So, I prefer jeans and t-shirts.  I totally love the current scarf trend to dress up my jeans and t-shirts.  So, I thought I would try my hand at making a scarf.  I can't knit or crochet, but I can sew. 

This is my beloved Tina Givens fabric that I have been hoarding for several months.  I LOVE it!  It's if the most beautiful shade of purple.  I hate that the color doesn't show true in these photos.  Anyway, I bought it to make something for my daughter for fall, but couldn't decide which pattern to go with and time got away from me so it's been sitting waiting for inspiration to hit me.  I had two yards so I decided to use a yards for myself.  I never make anything for myself.  So, I decided I would just this once.  I seriously almost cried when I cut my fabric.  I love it that much.

I started by ironing my fabric (it was also prewashed) and then I cute it into four strips of 42" (full fabric width) by 7" using my beloved rotary cutter (it makes my life so much easier).

Then I pinned the short ends of two strips, right sides together and sewed them using a 1/2" seam.  Then press your seams out.  Do this on twice so you have two very long strips. 

Now, pin both long strips, right sides together.  Leave one short end open and fold downr 1/2" and iron.  Sew using a 1/4" seam, but leaving the short end you ironed open.  Basically, it'll look like a really long, skinny pillowcase. 

Now, trim around the corners and turn inside out.  Iron your scarf flat and fold the open side in and pin.  Top stitch all the way around the scarf as close to the edge as possible (about 1/8").  Trim your threads and you're all done!

Sorry about the picture.  I didn't have much makeup on and my hair, well, EEWW!  Sorry the bottom got cut off.  This is what happens when you ask your husband to take a picture of you in your new scarf while he's busy watching people beat eachother up (also known as boxing). 

This is my first tutorial so please forgive me if this is hard to understand.  Feel free to contact me if I completely confused you!

I'm linking up with It's So Very Cheri, Making the World Cuter, Skip to My Lou, and The Girl Creative and

CHALKBOARD PAINT TRAY

I've been wanting to experiment with chalkboard paint ever since I saw this post by Amanda at Serenity Now.  I LOVE her chalkboard and have been scanning flea markets, Goodwill, etc. for a pretty silver tray.  I have found exactly NOTHING!  Today, after checking out all of my bloggy friends' dollar deals, I decided to visit my local Dollartree store.  I found this.

Okay, so technically it's some sort of plastic, not silver, but....it'll do for now.  I immediately drove to Wal-Mart and bought the $8 can of chalkboard paint I have been dying to buy. 

I painted two coats, probably not allowing enough time to dry in between.  It has a slight smudge from my

finger, but it's not REAL obvious.   

What do you think?  I think I need another coat of paint and perhaps a cursive writing lesson from my son's 2nd grade teacher, but other than that....it'll do for $1.09 plastic tray OR at least until I find a great non-plastic one to replace it with. 

I'm linking up with Frugalicious Friday, Tatertots and Jello Weekend Wrap Up, Making the World Cuter and It's So Very Cheri and

LOOK WHAT I GOT!

This is going to be a crazy short post.  Have you ever had one of those days when you have so much crammed into one day that everything doesn't get done, even though it seems as if you should have had time to do everything?  That is today.  I had LOTS of errands to run, but I did manage to at least do cardio at the gym this morning before I headed out to run errands.  I'm sure the folks at Hobby Lobby appreciated that I smell and look like a big sweaty ball of yuck!  Anyway, because I have to shower, eat, do laundry and leave in an hour to go pick up the kids from school, this is gonna be short. 

I just wanted to show you what I bought at Hobby Lobby this morning.  I'm sooooo excited that I can hardly stand it!!!!  

What do ya think?  I got several yards of this and several yards of a gold/black houndstooth and both were 30% off!  WOO HOO!  I love this picture that I totally stole from Thrifty Decor Chick.

The center is through a door knocker, which i just happen to have.  I'll have to test it though.  My dining room window is big so it may not work there.  We'll see. 

Okay, I'm off to stuff my face with my Lean Cuisine and try my best to stay out of the crack filled Oreo cookies!!  Have a great day!

BABY ON THE WAY

Those of you who know me are probably freaking out.  Nope.  I'm NOT pregnant.  I'm linking up with Elizabeth at Confessions of a Working Mom for Truthful Tuesday.  Today's topic is How Did You Tell Your DH (What does that stand for?  I know H is Hubby, what is the D?) and Family You Were Pregnant? 

Hubby and I got married five days after my 30th birthday in 2001.  We had been married for three months and I had just gotten off the pill a few weeks before.  I had lots of friends who had been trying to get pregnant for years and I was terrified that because I was 30, I would have trouble getting pregnant.  Of course, this is before I realized that we could share soap and get pregnant. 

So, the story goes, I had been up all night with a stuffy nose/sinus yuck going on and I wanted to take some DayQuil before I went to work.  I was only a day late, which is not uncommon for me, but I thought I would take the test just in case.  I'm really freaky about taking medicine when I'm pregnant.  Hubby was still asleep.  I went ahead a took the test KNOWING it would be negative.  It wasn't. 

When I saw that big ole plus sign, I was stunned.  I went running (actually it was a really small house, so it was more like three very fast steps) to the bed and jumped on top of a sleeping Hubby and yelled, "Get up!  get up!  Oh my gosh!  Get up!"  It took him a few minutes to focus on the test I was holding in my hands and while he was very excited, he was very mad that I hadn't included him on the peeing on the stick part.  Needless to say, I was forced to promise I would NEVER pee on a stick without him again.  He was there with a stop watch for the next two peeing on the stick events.

Thanks Elizabeth for the fun McLinky party.  It's been a fun trip down memory lane, especially since that baby will be eight this month.

NEW FURNITURE

Bloggy friends, today I would like to introduce you to my new piece of furniture.  Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday to me!  YEA! 

Isn't she gorgeous?  I would LOVE to tell you that I got it at Goodwill for $35 like my friend Holly, but that would be a big fat lie.  I did buy it on sale, but not for $35, unfortunately.  I got it at a kids furniture store.  It was in the bedroom furniture section.  We paid for it and they put it in the backroom until we could come back and pick it up.  When we got home, we realized they had left it FULL of duvet covers, pillows, curtains, etc.  It was so full the doors would barely shut.  There was easily $1,000 worth of merchandise in there.    It's a good thing I'm a honest girl!  I returned it all the next week.  Boy, were they surprised.

Anyway, look at all the crap stuff I can fit in there. 

Isn't that GREAT?  I know I should be really embarassed to show you all my junk, but considering all of this stuff used to sit out in the open, this is AWESOME!  I have a place for cookbooks, homework, crayons, Play Doh (which, BTW, I HATE!), platters, crock pots, etc.  YEA! 

We'll be painting the kitchen this weekend (hopefully).  YEA!