Sunday, December 30, 2012

Cool Idea

Was reading an article in one of my old lady magazines... Good Housekeeping or something... about a lady that jots down a one sentence journal entry a day-- just a quickie reminder of how that day went so that when she looks back, it reminds her of something wonderful.  That sounds like something manageable!

Jan. 23, 2012

I was feeding Abby her cereal today (which she DOES NOT like) and Nick was watching.

"Mommy, don't feed her anymore.  Put that away," he said.  "
Why?" I asked, "Because she doesn't like it?"
"Yeah.  Throw it away."

What a good big brother.  :)

Winter Redesign!

I had the day off as Mommy and hit the road with $120 in Christmas money.  Mission:  to decorate my great room with items that said "Baby it's cold outside!"  So here's the breakdown...
With roughly $120, I bought:
- 2 brass lamps for our future bedroom redesign ($6 each)
- 1 gray vase ($4)
- 1 silver plated tray ($10)
- 2 crystal wine glasses ($1 each)
- 9 drinking glasses in 3 sizes ($1, $.75, and $.50 respectively)
- 1 white urn ($3)
- 1 can of silver foil spraypaint ($6 but had 40% coupon)
- 2 orange pillow covers ($2.50 each)
- 2 blue chevron pillow covers ($3.50 each)
- 1 glass snowflake bowl ($8)
- 2 snowflake statues ($8.50 each)
- 2 crystal plate stands ($4 each)
- 1 ivory striped curtain panel ($6)
- 3 ivory sweaters ($3.50) each
- 6 hard bound Reader's Digests with really pretty covers (3.50 each)
(The cute kid was free... sorta!  :)

Now, for the Winter Redo, I didn't use some of this stuff, like the lamps or the pillow covers.  So, if you are doing the math, take those out of the grand makeover total.  You can add those in at a later date.

(Note:  Who knew that Hobby Lobby had 16x16 and 18x18 pillow covers?!  Not this girl!  And, to top it off, they were super cheap (at 50% off)!  They have tons of colors and textures, so check them out!)

Ok, so here's for the awesomeness that is my Winter Redesign...

Let's look at the mantle first:
 Everything was thrifted except the silver Christmas balls and the tree, which were left over decorations from Christmas.  I love how it all came together!  Here are some close ups of each side:






 See those lovely mercury glass votives?  This is how they used to look.

  To make them, I...
1. Sprayed them inside with a silver foil spray paint from Hobby Lobby.  Make sure it's high shine.  I didn't use the silver Looking Glass paint because it was expensive!  Went for a cheaper model.  :)
2. While wet, I squirted the inside with a mixture of half water and half vinegar.  At this point, I learned that the finer the mist of the spray bottle, the tinier the spots.  So, if you like the look of real mercury glass, you might want to experiment with larger water droplets.
3.  After it all dries, wipe the water droplets off with a paper towel.  Ta da!!!

Of course, that wasn't enough for me, though!  I had to go a little further!  I used painters tape to tape a narrow line around the top of each glass on the outside and sprayed that with the same silver, sans water solution.  I wanted a nice clean line there.  That's what you see in the close-up picture.

To make the knitted vases, I cut the sleeves off of 2 of my ivory sweaters and carefully put the vase inside.  I love this because I can reuse those vases for anything!  Sweater sleeves= 0 commitment!


Below is a picture of the pillow covers.  I tried them on the pillows to make sure I liked them all together.  I think with a little sprucing up, they'll be perfect!


Now for the winter pillows!

With the sweater that I bought, I laid each pillow COVER on top and measured around.  Now, I can't lie; these took a little wiggling here.  The large cable knit of each sweater gave each on a lot of "give" so I had to tight them up a little here and there.


On the center pillow, I used a narrow ribbon to sew on some extra rings I had from a previous project.  I thought it needed a little extra "pizzazz"!  (Who doesn't love pizzazz?!)

Let's talk Tablescape!  Using the $6 curtain panel, I sewed 2 table runners.  FYI:  curtains and tablecloths are awesome for making projects!  It's a lot less sewing because the sides are already hemmed!
















The trees were left over from Christmas, the tray was from the Goodwill, the wine glasses were from the Habitat Restore, the brass birds were my hubby's grandmothers,  and the snowflake came from HL.


 Last but not least, my son made a gorgeous snowflake for our pallet wall.  The frame and original picture came from my hubby's grandmothers house.  It was originally a brass colored plastic, but I zapped it with that same silver spray paint from the votives.  I think I'm going to write "Baby it's cold outside" or something to the liking on the glass with a dry erase marker (again, no commitment!).    The snowflake picture is actually the back of the original picture paper that was in there.  Cost:  $0!  Aw yeah!