Crafty pants

So...I'm about to toot my own horn on projects done around the house and little things I've done.  But let's get a couple of things straight.  1 - I'm not original.  These are all things I've copied off of somewhere, anywhere, and added my own little touch.  2 - What I have done is NOTHING compared to what my dear friend, Katie can do.  NOTHING.  The woman is amazing and inspiring.  Every time I go to her house, I look around and think she's got new things.  But all she does is move stuff around to different rooms and re-paints something, or makes a piece of furniture, or a picture frame and freshens up a space.  She's amazing.  And she's not even an interior decorator.  She's good at so many things and I'm so glad she's my friend.  What a gal.  

Here she is.  Reading to the boys.  And while she's reading this book, she's planning in her head ways to re-arrange my play room and how to make it more functional.  And her planned worked.  She's amazing.

The playroom.  We painted the walls grey and assembled a bunch of expedit units from IKEA.

Now for my mantle.  I found a pin on Pinterest that I liked that had this garland.  So I made it using pom poms, yard, hot glue, and felt.  It's tempting for Kyle, but he's managed to leave it alone.  I found the YOU ARE SO LOVED printable online and printed it and trimmed it to fit this 8x10 blue frame that I found on clearance at Michaels.  I painted it red and took out the glass.  Emilie picked out the heart.  I was going to make my own using little felt circles, but I did not have the patience.  But my friend, Rebecca, did and you can see how she did it here on her blog!

"Are toys and balls part of the valentine's decor?" Yes, it is the latest trend and we have it in every room. All the cool people are doing it.  

Next, we have my favorite and most humorous project, the laundry room.  Our laundry room had one 60 watt bulb in an old fixture hanging from our 9 foot ceiling.  So, I immediately replaced it with a chandelier.  Yes, a chandelier in my laundry room.  Once we had more light, I could see all the filth...I mean...the paint swatches I had taped to the wall.  So, I then picked out a paint color and painted the walls a light green.  It's beautiful and I can wipe the dirt off.  Our whole house was painted one color before we moved in and the paint they used was the cheap contractors paint that is like chalk and shows every kid fingerprint.  

We bought the in-stock white cabinets that Lowes carries and took down the wire rack that was hanging in there.  Now, this next step was the MOST CRUCIAL!  We invited Katie to come help us.  She and the boys came over 2 days before Christmas and the kids played, while we worked on the laundry room.  She had this awesome laser level that came in handy and she is so good at helping, suggesting things gently, and building us up to make us think we know what we are doing.  

 In the above picture, you can see a whole in the wall where the cabinets were going to hang.  We ran into a small snag.  We could not find any studs in the middle of the wall.  So, Adam was using a nail and hammer to look for studs.  He got to right above the faucets for the washer and started to bang and right when Katie went to open her mouth to warn him not to....PING!  He hit the pipe and the faucet busted off where you hook up the washer and water was spraying everywhere!  I was in the kitchen and came around the corner to see Adam frozen, sweating, and Katie laughing hysterically.  Adam looked at me and yelled, "WHAT DO I DO?!!" and I said, go turn off the water.  He then runs into the garage and starts tackling items to get them out of the way, like the utility sink, and still didn't know which valve to turn so I had to help him.  The kid was panicked.  It was pretty funny.  Sooooo, after a trip to Lowes, some bad luck, a call to the plumber, a trip to chick-fil-a for some lunch, and a visit from the plumber, we were back on track and started hanging the cabinets, which turned out to be pretty easy and it turned out GREAT!!!

This next project is from the fall. I made two different banners to hang on the mantle.  One went to Marcie's house and the other one stayed at ours.  Once again, Kyle really wasn't tempted to jerk these down.

It says "with grateful hearts"

The next couple are my favorites.  I learned how to crochet from a sweet Australian lady on YouTube.  Ever since then, I've been trying to perfect hat patterns for babies.  I love making hats and things for kids.  I think of their sweet little heads and how precious they are.  I love making hats.  

These two are for Katie's nephew, Grayson who was born a couple of months ago.

So stinking cute!

This one is for Aubrie's teacher's little boy.  Huge IU fans.

And this beautiful frame with bead board was made by Katie.  All of it.  Frame and everything.  

And this gem is for baby Lily. 

And this gem is for baby Luke.  

Lily and Luke are cousins.  Both born recently by twin sisters, two dear friends of mine.  Michelle and Marcie.  Marcie had Lily and Michelle had Luke.  I loved making these for their doors at the hospital and for at home.  I also thought it was cool because you can hang it on the front door and tell drop in guests or the UPS man to not ring the doorbell, baby is napping!  

And now the new little baby that I'm ready to spoil is Steve and Brittany's little baby.  They are fun, like us, and not finding out what they are having and so they have the cutest grey and yellow nursery waiting for this little one.  I made this picture for her baby shower.  I used painters tape and MATH (gross) to paint on the white and yellow chevron stripes.  Then I cut the elephant and balloons out of fabric and hand stitched them on the canvas, which was so cool.  Didn't know if I'd be able to do it, but it worked and I love the way it turned out!

Some of the hand stitching.  I used yarn for the strings to the balloons.  

I love that there are so many tutorials and other people out there sharing their ideas so we can use them.  Please note, this was all done in a span of 6 months.  There's no way in the world I have time to do stuff like this every week.  Wish I did!  

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