Faster than lightning

Another pinterest project marked off my list.  I adore converse, always have but according to Colin, they aren't his fastest shoes.  Well little guy, I've got something for you!  These little bad boys will make them just as fast as a superhero.  Finding no such pattern online, I created mine to resemble these.  I made one pair but it wasn't very stiff so I made another pair and sewed in some fusible interfacing to give them some weight.  My first time working with grommets and I think we're in business.  They turned out exactly how I wanted and the best thing is that Colin loves them and they make him run super fast!

I'm watching you.......

Isn't this picture frame so much fun!  I saw it here and knew I had to make one too!  I think I bought a picture frame a little too big because it was a tedious task to glue all these eye balls on.  But it's adorable and will look so cute with a picture of my little trick-or-treaters.

More Pinterest projects

I focused on some organizing "pins" and jazzed up my kitchen. 

This one I bought a yard stick from Home Depot and cut it to the desired length, spray painted the sides and modge podged scrapbook paper to the front.  I screwed it onto the cabinet door and then measured out the spaces for my measuring spoons.  Voila!  I love this because it gets all my spoons out of the drawer and somewhere handy for easy access.  I'm not that fond of the rattling motion they make when I open the door but I'll get used to it.

This is the cabinet beneath the kitchen sink or everyone's household cleaner cabinet.  The "pin" was to use a tension rod but I know how flimsy those thing can be and that my cabinet was wide.  I bought a shower curtain rod for a stall, it's a little thinner but still has that extra strength needed to hold all sorts of bottles of cleaner.  I also didn't use it as a tension rod but as a regular rod and bought some closet rod hangers to install inside the cabinet.  I can't tell you how pretty this looks and gives me enough room to put the little box of cleaning brushes and sponges underneath.  It's all about using space and using space up top!  I had a picture of the before but can't find it so the after will be good enough.

Pinterest Projects

Pinterest is the most wonderful sort of website but it also causes the most trouble.  It's a brain sucking website that you just can't fathom.  I love it but I also need to learn to pace myself, so many glorious projects waiting to happen but they will pile up very fast.  This working mom can't keep up but I keep on pinning.....darn it!  I had a pretty low key weekend so I planned out a few projects to get knocked out.

Ella's birthday was coming up and I knew I wanted to make a darling little cake stand.  So off to Wal-Mart I went to pick up some burner covers.  I bought them for $3.47 and luckily they were white so it worked.  I had a wooden curtain rod left over from my last curtain re-do project so I had my hubby cut me 2 six inch rods.  I busted out the handy dandy gorilla glue and started layering.  These glass vases were sitting out for another project and made the perfect weight to keep it all in place while the glue dried.  Taa Daa!!

Next on my list was an adorable little holder of junk for the bathroom.  I made a trip to Home Depot for some of these circle thingies that I've learned are called couplings but anyway, picked up 3 of them for a few dollars.  I had the board already in my wood pile and the jars from another failed project.  I spray painted the board and after it dried, attached the couplings.  These things were trouble, I had to drill the hole bigger for the screw to fit through but a little elbow grease and my drill were no match.  I forgot to take pictures of the progress but here's the completed project.

And finally, a fun project for the kid's playroom.  I had previously done a window valance shaped like a giant crayon so this project was a perfect fit.  I bought some crayons and a blank canvas and went to town gluing it all on the board.  The original project showed it being set out in the sun and after an epic fail, they had to bust out the hair dryer to get the job done.  Well, I don't need no stinkin' hair dryer, I got 108 degree temps with it being 112 heat index....booyah!  After four hours, it was looking pretty good but the sun moved to the front so I had to move the picture to the back fence to get the rest of the job done.  Another 2 hours and it was a masterpiece!

I'm so excited to finally get these few projects marked D-O-N-E and start working on some other ones.

Ruffles, yes please!

A few friends of mine have made these cutesy dresses out of tank tops and I figured I'd take a whirl at it.  Lucky for me, I decided to make a few towards the end of the summer and little tanks are starting to hit the clearance section.  I snagged up a few in various colors and started digging through my fabric drawers looking for coordinating colors.  I'm hoping to ramp up some stuff to start going to craft shows with my mom and grandma.  I know I've been saying this for years but I might actually be able to make a go of it pretty soon.  We'll see how these little darlings fare at the county fair coming up.

I think most of them will be 18 months-24 months and a few 2T and 3T.  I've thought about making a matching bow to go with it.  What do you think?  $10-$15 with a bow?

New Pillows

I've  been reading craft blogs for a while now and seen some really cute pillows.  I've been waiting to recover my family room pillows until after Ella was done with spitting up so much.  She's destroyed those pillows!  I went to Joann Fabric to find something for another project and thought I'd look for some fabric for the pillows.  I found a beautiful brown, red and turquoise fabric but that would mean I'd have to make new curtains and buy a new rug....not gonna happen right now!  So I stuck to trying to find something that would match the curtains and rug.  That left only a few choices.  I found a pretty paisley pattern but the green was a little too lime and I needed something more olive.  I kept coming back to a simple stripe that would look really nice.  But were the stripes too boring?  Another thought....ruffles!  Now the plan was to actually make the pillows, where would I find the time?  Lunch hour I guess!  I started with the ruffle since we have a love hate relationship.  It turned out pretty good although it always kinks up on me but I managed to make it rather even looking.  Then the pillow part and next, inserting and sewing it up.  It turned out pretty good but guess what?  I've got another one to do!

Race Car wall art

I've searched high and low for some type of wall art with cars or race cars and the main thing that I end up finding is for the movie Cars.  I don't want to invest too much into decorating Colin's room because Lord knows me and I'll change my mind after a short while.  Or Colin will change his mind and want something different.  My grandma made Colin a beautiful quilt with cars all over it so that's the theme for now.

I bought 2 blank canvases at Michael's and was sure to get the ones with the staples on the inside so the sides could be left un-framed.  I painted them a basic color and using my handy dandy silhouette machine, I searched for some cars.  I found a couple of race cars and used a simple font to cut out on black vinyl.  If I would have thought about it beforehand, I would have used white vinyl instead of black but again, this was a cheap project for the time being.

Because the paint was a matte finish and I wanted more of a gloss, I used Modge Podge to coat the whole canvas and to seal the vinyl.  It turned out very cute and just like I wanted.