Superhero pillows

I have been in Superhero mode almost nonstop as I am planning little Destructor's 3rd birthday. I have a few projects to show you as I go along. You already saw the batmobile. Today I have a "Super" simple superhero pillow to show you. A few weeks ago while browsing through Hobby Lobby I stumbled across their aisle of handkerchiefs. They had a Spider-man and Iron Man each for $1.99 I think. And I thought, I can do something with those. So... when I got home I realized I had some plain red fabric that I had purchased a while back for a different project. I used it as the backing and stitched up some simple square pillows and stuffed them up!

And we have to happy little boys hugging their pillows!!

chair update

Remember this chair? Well, while she was functional, she was a little bland for me. I have had some free time as my boys have been on vacation with their grandparents for a week. My main focus has been cleaning out my basement, but I've tried to squeeze in some other little projects here and there as well.

So I saw this interesting chair on Anthropologie's website and I loved the colorful piping and the stripes.

So I made some double welting tape with some fabric I had leftover from pillows.  I had a tutorial on how to make it, but..... that method failed. So I came up with my own way and it worked out better for me. I made enough to cover all the edges of my chair and hot glued it in place. 

Then I mixed a couple of colors of green craft paint with a little water and taped off to paint a couple of stripes going down the middle of the chair. 

I LOVE  the final result. 

One more before and after shot

Before

After

I'm so happy that I took the risk to give the chair a little more pep. It went from blah to Blam!!! Yeah, I said Blam!!! 

Linking up to 

Under the Table and Dreaming

Just a Girl

Copy-cat batmobile

Let me start this post by saying if you are a mother of boys (or girls) and you have not yet checked out Cheri's blog you are missing out! She is incredibly creative and talented and the BEST blog I have found for craft ideas for my boys! The project I am about to show you was totally hers and I just followed her awesome detailed instructions to make my own version.

For my younger son's 3rd birthday we are having a superhero themed birthday and I wanted to make stuff that I could then move down to a playroom in our unfinished basement for the boys. His birthday is still a month away, but I have a bunch of projects floating around in my head that need to be accomplished in this time so I figured I should get started early.

Anyway, if you like this and want to make one of your own go here, to get the step by step directions. The only difference for mine was that I wanted to make it wider so Batman and Robin could fit in it together. ;) The only money I spent on this project was for glue sticks, paint and duct tape. I had all the cardboard and other things I tried to get creative with!

Anyway, here is the final project.

I found those little stick on LED lights in one of our closets. They weren't strong enough for the closet, but make awesome working headlights!!

For the symbol I used Duct tape sheets. I found them at Hobby Lobby right next to the rolls of duct tape. They are 8x10 sheets and come in all kinds of colors. They happened to have yellow and black. I just cut out the shapes and stuck them right on!

The "grill" is just a rectangle of foam core board that I sprayed with Chrome spray paint.

Can you guess what the tires are????

Yep, the edge of those workout mats. We had a small section of those in our workout area, but just replaced it with a large carpet remnant. I thought they would make great looking tires because of the texture.

I love how it turned out and can't wait for the photo ops at the birthday party with superheroes riding in it!

faux zinc

I have seen a few of the faux zinc letters around the blogosphere and decided to try the technique out on some bookends I have had for a few years. A few years back I got a set of ? and ! bookends. They were originally just black and the paint was chipping off of them anyway so I thought I would try to give them a little more oomph. In true impatient crafter fashion I forgot to take a before picture. If you look really closely at the office pictures you can see them on the desk there. Anyway I spray painted them both with the rustoleum hammered aluminum spray paint and then did a little glaze on them. I did remember to take a picture of the ? before it got glazed.

I just mixed up some black acrylic paint with some water for the glaze.

Paint it on.

You can see how careful you need to be with this step ;).

Then wipe it off.

I just layered on the glaze until I had the look I wanted.

Here is the finished product back on my desk. Not a major change, but I like them. They have that slightly "found" industrial look to them. It was a really easy little afternoon project too!

Happy Friday everyone. I am hoping to get around to a couple more projects this weekend! We will see what gets done!

I had my first canning experience last weekend! My husbands grandparents have an amazing garden (just realizing that I didn't take any pictures of that part). They grow all kinds of things in it every year, corn, green beans, egg plant, zucchini, onions, potatoes!! My mouth is watering just thinking about it all!!! They have always been kind enough to share, not only the fresh produce, but that which his grandmother has worked very hard to preserve as well. So when I was asked if I would like to help with the canning process this year, I was more than happy to try to repay, even ever so slightly, the benefits we have received from them! It was actually kind of fun, but time consuming, hard work. After just one half day of it I am amazed and somewhat humbled to think of the number of hours both Nana and my mother in law have spent over the years snapping, washing and canning those delicious veggies we have a tendency to take for granted! Thank you Nana and Mama for all you have done and shared with us over the years! You are both amazing women and wonderful examples of hard work and generosity!

Here are just a few snap shots of the process.

And here is my little destructor putting his talents to use devouring ear after ear of corn at lunch that day!

Over the weekend a good friend rebuked me reminded me that I had never blogged about my FIRST WEDDING!! I am not sure how I forgot to do so. But it is an error quicky remedied! This winter I was honored to be a part of a good friends quaint and beautiful wedding! There were so many gorgeous details about this DIY wedding! All kinds of hand made and vintage lovliness, which is fitting because the bride herself is so lovely! Although I am so late in saying so, Thank you John and Joanna for the priviledge of documenting your beautiful day!

The bride made her own boquet of ranunculas!

Pies instead of cake! Look at those sweet pie birds!

Sweet nephews of the bride getting their sugar high!



F-f-f-free makeover!!!

Yeah! I said free! Sometimes it is easy to forget that change doesn't have to require a lot of money! Last week I got that twitch.... that I need a fresher feeling in my home kind of twitch! Of course there are plenty of ways to do that with some extra cash in your pocket. But this particular twitch came upon right after a "family budget meeting". The timing is a little ironic, don't ya think?

The room in question was the living room. We have a very open plan in our home where the kitchen/breakfast nook and living room all blend together.

Before, I had the room positioned with the couch dividing the space from the kitchen into the living room. I some changing around and came up with this.

It feels so much more open now! I love it! Obviously there are a few other changes that have been made since that before picture, but I forgot to take a before picture in my rush to rearrange when the mood struck! You know how it goes!

So I now have what feels like an all new room for no money! Love that! And did you notice that my sweet hubs hid those cords for the TV???? And on Father's day no less! What a guy!

What was that? You said YOU have been wanting a change but have been bummed about lack of funds? Well, get your tail up and play around with what you have! You just might surprise yourself!