Ready for Snowmageddon?

V has strep. I'm still in my PJs. Getting ready to be snowbound here in MI tomorrow. I have no energy. What the heck is wrong with me? Just realized I never posted a winner from the last contest. EMILY ANNE, since you were the only person in the U.S. to enter, YOU WIN! :) I don't have your email though and I can't get on your Blogger profile, so get me your mailing addy!

I have done a few tiny crafty things in the last few days. I've had these God awful looking ice cream parlor chairs for like 10 years. I covered them in this God awful looking sage toile circa 2001, and they are all dirty and faded, so I decided to recover them since I've been HGTV-obsessed lately what with getting our house ready to be put on the market and all.


Took me the longest to pry out the industrial staples I used when I recovered before. Bought some upholstery-weight crisp-looking gray and lemon modish dot at Joann's for cheap. I think I bought 2.5 yards, but I could have gotten away with 1.75 easily.


So here's what it looked like after I pulled the fabric off-- basically plywood with a foam cushion:


I placed the whole thing on the fabric and freehand cut a circle about 2" larger than the base:


Stretched and stapled as I went:



And voila! New chairs!



Probably could have used a new coat of spraypaint, but I like the distressed cream, and I don't do spraypaint in the winter.

Here's what we're doing for Valentines this year. For V who is pretty much the only girl in her daycare classroom, we're using this idea from Design Mom:



The jungle animals came from Michaels and were under $4 after my 40% off coupon (for 12). I had the cello bags, and I printed Design Mom's .pdf at 130% to have it fit the cello bags. My mother and I went back and forth with some good ones for the crocodile and camel (think 'You're a crock of sh&t Valentine!" and something about humping for the camel). Niiiiiice, right?

Here's Q's which came from Alissa of 24*7*365:


Cute, right? Beats the cruddy selection of boxed valentines anyway.

Hope you all get snowed in somewhere good as opposed to bad! xo

Happy 2011!

Last night, I imbibed several "pointsettias" (aka cheap champagne and cranberry juice). We had a wonderful dinner of lobster tail and finger foods-- brie and pear phyllo purses, cheese, salami, bruschetta, crab cakes, potato skins and cocktail weenies. Mmm! We had movie night in (we rented Cyrus and Cache...) and will be living in our PJs for the next 24 to 48 hours. Bring on the laziness!

So I only did something mildly crafty this season. Got my inspiration from the awesome Ez of Creature Comforts and made up a gift wrapping package for my sister in law. I also included a roll of Snow & Graham wrapping paper and a few sheets of individual paper from Shine. Everything (besides the rolls, of course) were packed up in cello or glassine bags with Hobby Lobby scrapbook paper and tags. I thought up the color scheme from cute dollar bin stuff at Michaels-- aqua, yellow, red, black and orange!


Here's what I included:

1. Green mushroom refrigerator notepad (to jot down gift ideas or upcoming birthdays) from Target.
2. Glassine bag filled with round envelope seals. I made these with my Xyron sticker maker, Hobby Lobby scrapbook paper and two different sizes of round craft punches.
3. Paris gift tags I had in my stash. I pulled out the appropriate colors.
4. Some downloadable gift tags from Camilla Engman via Creature Comforts.
5. Post It Notes from Joanns.
6. Bakers twine in mint green/white and brown/white from The Cupcake Social's Etsy shop.
7. Binder clips from Michaels.
8. Decorative tape from Michaels.
9. Gray/yellow handled scissors (not pictured) from Target.
10. Scotch pop up tape dispenser, Target (not pictured).
11. Decorative paperboard suitcase, Land of Nod (and I have two more for myself!).
12. Five rolls of ribbon, Michaels.



Hope you all have a wonderful New Year's Day! Off to gets me some mimosa!

3 Little Girls

3 Little Girls
Originally uploaded by Girl Land

I made these for my mom for Xmas. Bought her a generic necklace (which she got early), a very boring but completely utilitarian Snug cami (invented by a Detroiter!) and then these lovely little girls: V, Q and Cousin Sophie.

She puts little knickknacks up on her windowsill above her kitchen sink, so these will fit in nicely. I am also thinking about making her a shadowbox home too. Maybe for Mother's Day...to be continued.

Crafternoon was yesterday, and it was fun. Not a ton of people, but still a good time and I did sell a little bit. Will be posting much of the stuff in the shop even though some of it's Christmas, and it's a little late for Xmas stuff!

Today was a pajama day. Didn't get out of my pajamas. No shower either (ew, right?). But it was lovely! Painted these girlies, mixed some batches of reindeer food (oatmeal + glitter) and made some reindeer candy canes out of poms, google eyes and pipe cleaners for Q's daycare buds.

Feeling ambitious? You may be after you see this way cute project. My lovely Aunt Judy sent me a link to this felt mushroom tutorial courtesy of Pink Chalk Fabrics. I loves my toadstools!

xo!

Lazy Crafting

Truth be told, I have a pretty big fabric stash. I love fabric. I love handmade. Why don't I sew? One simple answer. I am realllllly freaking lazy. And I'm impatient. And I mess up stuff and get frustrated really easily.

Even with crafting, I enjoy coming up with the ideas. Not so much the hands-on making part of it. Every once in awhile, I come up with a good excuse to use my fabric. Take today for example.

We had our eye on this really nifty television stand for our basement, but it's now discontinued.

It was a little more than I wanted to spend too at $450 after shipping. I would have loved to have bought a vintage mid-century credenza, but we had a problem with the weight and length of vintage getting it in our house. Plus, the ones I found were more than $450.

We settled on this generic but economic and plain tv stand from Target ($179.99):

And this is what I did to it today! Forgive my pics. I cannot, for the life of me, get a good picture down there.

The rolling doors come out and the glass comes out kind of like a picture frame. I had a yard of Erin Michaels for Moda Lush fabric in woodgrain. I cut the fabric leaving about 2" on all 4 sides. I wrapped the fabric around the glass like wrapping a package securing it to the glass with packing tape (see? Lazy). Popped the glass back in the doors and the doors back onto the stand. Voila!

If you try this at home, just be sure your remote can reach the equipment behind the fabric. Mine had no prob.

I feel like I've seen someone else do this but probably with way more thought put into it and with a more perfect and finished method. Sarah, perhaps? She always does the most wonderful sprucing. This way is the lazy way.

Here are some more pics of the illustrious basement. It's coming along nicely.

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend! Ours was nice and relaxing. Oh, and speaking of lazy, I didn't apply to Craft Revival. I'm a little sad, but I know I would be having to force myself to make stuff (not in a good way). It will actually be fun to just go and shop my brains out. Doesn't help that my Etsy shop is super slowwwwww this month (and last, for that matter!).

xo!