{Quicky Centerpiece}

I've got 2 minutes set aside to blog, but I wanted to share the pretty, quick, and cheap centerpiece I have on my dining room table.

I {love} antiques, and have had this bowl for several years. I use it for LOTS of things throughout the year, whenever my little brain needs a change. :) This year, I bought cheapo balls on the $1 spot at Target and dropped them in. Love! I like it that it doesn't look planned...and I'm using one of my favorite bowls...and it's easy to move for dinner...and it cost me next to nothing (okay, I'm sure I paid $20 for the bowl MANY years ago, but that's an investment, right?) . Of course it is. It's paid for itself by now.

What I'm throwing out there is that you can put these cheap ornaments in any bowl or basket that you already love and make something totally new out of it. And hey...your kids can mess around with them all they want because they are PLASTIC (don't look it, do they?) and cost $2.50 for a set. So you won't even bat an eye when little fingers approach.

Thanks for stopping by for a quick post.

We're getting so close now to Santa's visit and I.CAN'T. WAIT!

Take care,

{Bench Makeover #2}

Do you remember THIS BENCH?

My sister-in-law gave it to me a few years ago, originally hunter green with red undertones.

When we moved into this house, I decided it should be black.

You can read all about it HERE.

I lived with that for several months but never really got into the black.

So...I switched it up this week and came up with this:

I really love the color, although I'm still debating on putting a little bit of my chocolate glaze over it...just to tone it down a touch. I know I definitely like it better than the black. Only time will tell of course. :)

I really like the black showing through where I sanded the edges.

Paint is the ultimate home miracle worker!

Have a good one,

{A Little Bit of Easter}

Things have been so busy around here and I've had to put my blog on the back burner for a week or so. My creative juices are always flowin' though, and I've been busy,busy,busy working on our Disney scrapbook from our December vacation and trying to make a few new-to-me Easter projects I found in blogland. 

With Easter just a hop away, here are a few of our decorations around the house. A couple of them are new ideas that I've just made in the last couple of weeks. (See? I have been doing something!!)

I found this easy and fun tutorial for Polka Dot Bunnies and it's adorable! I've had a chance to make only one so far, but I plan to make at least one more before Easter gets here. I used scraps...the best part.

I also love these Burlap Bunnies. Another quick and cute idea made with scraps and things on hand. I filled mine with beans, and tore scrap fabric to make the ties. I "pinked" my ears using a makeup sponge and a pink ink pad.

Our cheap Easter tree, which I honestly like better than any I could have purchased. My daughter's painted bunny comes out as an Easter deco as well!

I looooooove these! These little Bunny Sachets are just about the cutest things!! I filled mine with poly-fill, and only made the larger of the two. Scraps again of course...I love the denim from my old jeans for these. I would love to make a full row of these to display for next year!

We have more plastic eggs than any one family should have. It's ridiculous! So this year we used some for our Easter tree, and tossed some into our $1 store hurricanes for bathroom decor. Simple and springy.

 $1 Store egg stakes turned Easter decos for my beloved plant.

And I'm not sure why it's LAST on my list, because it's part of one of the most important things in our home...BOOKS!! Outside of the masses of overflowing bookshelves at our house, we keep this basket around just for seasonal books. Right now it's chock full of anything and everything "Spring"...including Easter & Earth Day coming up. We like switching it out as the seasons or holidays require. Here are a few of the books we have in our basket right now:
The Lorax -Dr. Seuss
The Great Kapok Tree - Lynne Cherry
Tops & Bottoms - Janet Stevens
The Tale of Peter Rabbit - Beatrix Potter
The Velveteen Rabbit - Margery Williams

The Butterfly - Anna Milbourne & Cathy Shimmen
The Little Lamb - Phoebe Dunn
The Little Kitten - Phoebe Dunn
Hedgie's Surprise - Jan Brett
Fluffy & Baron - Laura Rankin
The Icky Bug Alphabet Book - Jerry Pallotta
The Grouchy Ladybug - Eric Carle

Hope you enjoyed the little bit of Easter and Spring I attempted to bring indoors. 

Off to make more Polka Dot Bunnies!

Take care,

I'm linking up to:

{Scallop Square Pillows & Coasters}

I promised to share more projects using a die-cut and fabric, so here are a few SUPER quick and fun projects!

Both are using the Sizzix Scallop Square Die from Stampin' Up, but any scallop square die would work fine. Both Sizzix and Cuttlebug machines will cut through nearly anything! I almost always layer 5-6 pieces of fabric over the die and cut them all at once. The fabric for this pillow is one of the only exceptions, because it's so thick.

The Scallop Square Quilt Pillow

You might recognize this fabric from one of my Impromptu Dog Beds . :) Yep. I originally bought a ton of it on sale for a baby blanket that never happened. (Ahem. Different story for a different day.) This fabric is uber-soft, and the color matches my daughter's bedding perfectly, so I threw together a very quick pillow using my scallop square die. I cut 18 squares, then sewed them together in (2) 9- square sides. Then I sewed almost all the way closed, stuffed it, and closed it up with the machine. Snip all the scallop edges with scissors and wash it, and it gets "raggy" on those edges. (I added the "X" stitching to this one just to make it look more quilted. There was actually no real purpose for the "X" stitch however.)

Coasters

Even easier...coasters using your die! 

For these you need to add batting or fusible fleece between 2 scallop-cut pieces. I used scraps for these, but they are even better with heavier fabric...even upholstery fabric is nice for these. 

 Take 2 scallop squares and sandwich a piece of batting between them. Sew around all four sides about 1/4" inch or so, snip the scallops, and wash to rag them out. OR...you can add an "X" across the middle of each coaster for a more quilted look. I tied these up with raffia and added them to Christmas gifts last year. GREAT project to get rid of scraps, because both sides don't even have to be the same.

If I had to measure squares for these projects it would NEVER happen, let me tell you. The die makes it so easy, and therefore even more fun. ;) 

Take care!

I'm linking up to:

{CD Cabinet Makeover}

So I've had this unfinished wooden CD cabinet for YEARS. Never disliked the piece, but never loved that it was unfinished. Well I got a 'round to it so-to-speak and it's an old piece made new! (Yes, we still have tons of CD cases...are we the only ones?? Of course the whole library is on my iTunes, but I can't part with the CD's themselves can I??) I guess I'm too old school on that one.

This was my first experience using glaze, too, and I love the results and how easy it was. 

Here's the before:

The knobs were already off at this point. 

I chose Valspar satin "Gentle Moss" green and painted it with 2 coats. Then I sanded the edges for a distressed look. After reading several tips online, I decided to glaze with Valspar's Transparent Color Glaze. I chose Mocha, and although I really like it, I think I might have liked a black or smoky glaze a touch better. Just overall. But I still love how it turned out!

I basically generously wiped it on with a paper towel, then wiped it off or lightened it to my liking. It really softened up the green, which is exactly what I was going for. The knobs were white wood, and I still might replace them, but for now I chose to glaze those as well...just too soften the white some. I'm happy with those, too.  It's hard to see the glaze on them in this picture though.

Here's the after, filled with CD cases again. :)

Nice change, and just spent the $ for the glaze and paint, which I will use for other projects. I made it through my first glazing experience and am smiling from the results, so it's a win. :)

Thanks for stopping by and I'd love to know how you like it!

I'm linking up to these fun parties:

{Altered Curtain Panels}

  We moved into our new-to-us home about 7mths ago and it's really starting to feel like ours. Yay! Our office/bonus room has one window, which is covered with new faux wood blinds. I've pledged to keep that room pretty masculine for my hubby, and he has lots of his football collectibles/memorabilia in there. I had these new but el-cheapo heavier panels that I found on clearance at Walmart while we were between houses and renting last year. Masculine, striped, right color scheme, so I decided to cut them off to make a valance.

You wouldn't know it, but they are tab top, which I didn't like the look of in this room. So first I took them from tab top to rod pocket with my Aleene's Quick Grab Tacky Glue. 

This took about 5 minutes of gluing, and I waited another hour or so before hanging them.

Then I measured how long I wanted the valance to be, cut them off, and sewed a thin 1/4" hem along the bottom. I did this with both panels because one wasn't thick enough along the window.

They look great and I'm always proud of myself when I use something I already have.

These were brand new for about $6 at Walmart, again purchased last year to cover a french door in our rental. These are the deals you need when you are paying both a mortgage and rent! :) But they actually turned out neat in the end, so if you see something too big on clearance at Walmart, you never know what you might be able to turn it into.

Take care!

{My Craft Room - Part 1: Decorating}

I've been working on jazzing up my craft room and the inspiration for it was this sewing machine cover. I have a hard case for my machine, but that's really best for longer term storage. I use mine so frequently that I want it out all the time but also don't want it covered in dust when I'm not using it.

I wish I could tell you where I got the tutorial for this, but I honestly took different parts from different sites. You can google 'sewing machine cozy' and get tons of great tutorials though. This took me about an hour or so to make, using fabric I had on hand.  I made several bags a while back with this fabric and loved it, so I quickly decided it would be a great color scheme for my craft space!

I made my cozy so that it would cover the machine with a spool still on top. I love how it turned out. I added the felt flower and button center as an afterthought...and then my brain kept going. :)

Why not make some valances, too?  :) I did have to purchase more fabric for that, but it was worth it.

I added the fabric flowers, totally free hand cut, about 3 to a valance. I like it that they aren't uniform. :) I deliberately cut cream-colored circles free hand.

Then I found an unused frame that I have and love (it's square, so unless it's matted, I don't have a photo to fit in it).  What can I do with this? Using inspiration from a number of online sources, and coordinating fabric I had on hand, I turned it into a wipe-off project noteboard to hang above my longest craft table. No more sticky notes everywhere!

I had to add a little felt flower to that, too, of course. I cut that one out with my Cuttlebug and small scallop dies. Oh if only my crafty "wanna make" list was really this short!

More craft room stuff to come. How do you decorate in your own craft space?

Take care,

{Coat Closet Substitute}

Somehow our 25 year old house was not built with a coat closet (what??!!), and honestly being a family of 3 in a 4-bedroom house means it's not the end of the world. We use another closet, and we've always had coat hooks at the door anyway. BUT...things like gloves, mittens, scarves, and the like you really want easy access to. 

I have a cool bench and coat hooks at the door (you can see the hooks here ), but I wanted a basket to go underneath the bench just for the above mentioned items.

I also wanted to do it on the cheap. Baskets are cool but can really get $$$ if you're not careful. And I'm sure I would pick out something way cool and way $$$ that never goes on sale. That's usually how I roll.

But then I ran across these wood bins at JoAnn, and 40% off, too!  Score! It was easier than hunting down a basket(s) that would cost more than I wanted to spend, and they solve me problem.  So I snatched up two of them and grabbed my spray paint.

I wish the pics were better, but for some reason I can't get the best lighting. I distressed the edges after painting them black to match the bench, then filled them with our gloves, scarves, and mittens. In the summer, we might actually keep our beach towels in here because we're at the pool all the time. At any rate, I like that they were just under $7 each, and that I can ultimately re-paint them in the future if I get an itch to do so. Added bonus!

Problem solved and on the cheap. I likes. :)

Have a good one,