Monster shirts for the kiddos!

I posted before that I have been trying to involve my chillins in my crafting more lately. I found these super cute Monster iron on art kits at Hobby Lobby and thought they would be fun to do with the boys. Not to mention, they are easy and the mess is minimal! Love that!

The kit comes with a basic green monster body and then tons of options for the kids to choose how they want their monster to look. It was fun to see the things my boys wanted the same or different. For example, they both randomly insisted on a bow tie! Didn't see that coming. Destructor is still young enough that he needed a little more guidance so that it would be recognizable as a monster and not just random body parts ironed all over, but he still had some say in it.

Anyway, I won't go into detail about how we did it because the instructions on the package were really clear and easy to follow.

picture of the kit

Yes, my child spends many a day in his pajama top and a diaper. We are classy that way!

I love the irony of his sweet facial expressions with the mean looking monster he put together!

Little man was pretty wiley by the time I was trying to get pictures of the finished product

We tried many times! Not always easy to make a 2 year old pose!

Burlap drapes

So, I have been eyeing these burlap draperies at Ballard for a while now. I love the simple, rustic look of them. I have also been wanting some new budget friendly drapes for my office. Well, I finally decided to go for it. I went and bought my burlap for a whopping $4.00 per yard and got to work. I found a tutorial for them at Life to the T. The only thing I did differently was make my hem bigger so I could run my drapery pole through it and I sewed the hem on my sewing machine instead of just using the stitch witchery. I fringed my bottoms like she did, and they looked darn cute, just like hers. I was oh so proud... I had accoplished the task of new draperies in like an hour! WHAT??. So I hopped up on my stool and hung them up...... and they were.....too.....SHORT!! Like a FOOT too short! Seriouly??? Measure twice cut once people!!! MEASURE TWICE, CUT ONCE!!! Why oh why did I ignore those wonderful words of wisdom????

Anyhoo! What is a girl to do? Well, I went digging through my scraps and found some dark brown cotton fabric in my stash and attached that to the bottom of the burlap. Then stopped by a local craft store and found a lacy little trim to attach and here is the finished result.

So it is not what I originally envisioned, but I like them! Draperies too short = lemons. Being able to fix them relatively easily = lemonade. Hence my lemonade drapes!

4 year old inspired art and a new (to me) lamp

So, I had a bunch of these rocks laying around that I had used at some point in time sprinkled around candles in a centerpiece or something. You can buy them in a bag at the craft store or wal-mart pretty cheap. Anyway, my 4 year old found them the other day and had been playing with them. We were doing something in his room and I looked down and noticed that he had them neatly arranged in rows and I thought... "oooh, that looks really pretty!" Then I remembered that I had this shadow box in my craft room just waiting to be made over. The frame was silver, so I just sprayed it with a couple of coats of ORB because I wanted it dark to accent the rocks. Then I got out my trusty glue gun, arranged the rocks and that was that! I love the simple, natural look of it. That boy of mine is a genius! ;)



Wow! :)



In other news, I found this lamp on craigslist yesterday! It is a vintage pharmacy lamp. I think I am in love. I really wanted something that would come out over the chair a little to make for a nice reading "nook" in my office. I had found a lamp I liked at home goods but decided to wait. Now I am so glad I did!!

A cold trip to the beach

I don't have a lot to say as of today. I've been feeling a little less than motivated this week and rather than start on a new project right now I really need to get my house back together after our trip. Nope, I haven't done that yet! I know... it is pathetic.  But I will leave you with a few of my favorite pictures of my sweet boys on the beach. They didn't care that it was way to cold to be there that day! They had a blast! Oh and mom, because I love you I left out the pictures of you huddled up in the hot pink beach towel! :)

Easiest pillows EVER!!

I have been on a mission since we moved into our house last April to lighten my style up a little. I love rich tones, but I have lived with red in almost every room for quite some time now and I am over it. Like, way over it! So, the room with the most red left is the living room. I have been wanting some new pillows, but didn't want to spend $30 - $50 for new ones when I am still somewhat in transition. So I remembered an idea I saw while blog stalking sometime around Christmas where someone turned a place mat into a pillow. I wish I could remember which blog it was but I can't.

Anyway, I cam across this cute place mat while in Target yesterday.

Seriously.... are you ready for just how easy this is??

Rip a little of the seam that connects the front to the back.

And stuff! I used the stuffing from the awful pillows that came with our couch. Then stitch it back together. Since the place mat had already been top stitched all the way around I just zipped mine through my sewing machine, but you could easily hand stitch it as well.

I added the extra step of scotch guarding the pillows since my children are gross :) and the pillows are such a light color.

And...Voila!

It really took about 30 minutes and cost me all of $8.00 for the place mats! Love it!

Pottery Barn clock knock off

First of all, can I just say.... there is no place like home!!! Seriously! I have been away for two weeks and I am SO happy to be back! I had a great time, but I wanted to kiss every wall when I made it home. That is until Destructor settled right back into his usual routine of, well, destroying everything in sight!! :) Lets just say shampooing carpets and re-hanging drapes is already on the to do list and we have been home less than 24 hours! Sigh!

But, onto the good stuff!!! My clock! This is another item that has been resting in my inspiration file for a while now and while I had the helpful, creative hands of my mom last week I set out to accomplish it. Unfortunately, I took all of the beginning pictures with her camera instead of my own so I can really only show you the after pictures for now. I will try to explain what I did and when I get those pictures I can update with a little more detail perhaps.

So.... this was my inspiration.

And here is my knock off!

I found a perfect black frame at hobby lobby on clearance and then did some brainstorming about how to make it all come together. I ended up using a plain white mat board as the face and one of the packaged clock sets you can get at the craft store. The hands that came with the clock set were too small, so I aslo bought a larger set of plain black hands.

Making the face was somewhat tedious. My mom and I measured and drew out with pencil the rectangles and angled sections. When we were satisfied I went back over them with a very fine tip sharpie. Then because of the funny angles I had to write all of the roman numerals by hand. Not easy as I am NOT an artist!! Once I finished, I simply cut a hole in the middle of the mat board and attached the clock mechanism. Then I glued the face into the frame. Easy Peasy! I love the finished product. I think it will find a home in my office somewhere!

Linking up to:

Under the Table and Dreaming

Just a Girl

Going home!!

I have had a great trip in Florida, but I am so ready to get back home in my own bed.... filled with munchkins or not! I have some great things to share with you all. Including,  my first wedding shoot and a pottery barn knock off! I will also be trying to lose the 20 or so vacation pounds I put on these last couple of weeks!! ;) I can't wait to have a chance to sit down and examine all the great projects I have missed in the blogging world these last couple of weeks as well.

Still allive!

I have not fallen off the face of the earth! I am in Florida with my mom and boys for a college reunion! Nothing like a walk down memory lane to realize how everything has changed and nothing has changed at the same time! I am loving me some sunshine and warm weather while they fight more snow at home! Hopefully I will have some good beach pictures to share before it is all said and done!!!

Three little words that make my day!

I am sure that with Valentine's day coming up you thought I was going to say "I love you". But...... No. I am actually thinking about three words that if spoken to me in person would creep my out to an extreme, but in the blog world leave me giggling like a little girl! It is amazing how the phrase "I'm following you" could leave me happy, rather than sleeping with a large knife under my pillow. Just want to say Thank you to all of those who have deemed my blog-stalk worthy! I love you!! (There are those other three words)