Shameless

I entered my bench project in a contest. The winner gets a gift card from American express. I would be honored if you would take a few minutes to go here and vote!

As a thank you, every time you vote, you will be entered to win a 6-pack of Krylon spray paint! A new winner every week. Can't beat that!

Thanks so much for your support!

Also, I entered this contest. I am a little intimidated, but I think I'm up for the challenge!

Dining Room Re-Do

Something got into me on Friday night and I just had to do something about this orange disaster of a room!

I have been living with this color since we moved in and have always hated it. Not only is it orange (and I'm an Aggie), but the room itself has almost no natural light so it was always so dark in there. The table is basically a dumping ground for mail and other junk and the coat rack was overflowing with jackets and random hats that only get used during rodeo time!

I've been wanting to get on the grey-train for awhile so I went to Lowes, picked out a color and went with it. Honestly, I spent about 5 minutes looking at paint samples before I just picked one. Hardly any thought at all. And I actually really like the color. It has a little bit more blue than I wanted, but because the lighting is so bad in here, I really don't think any color will be true so no biggie.

Once I had the grey on, I knew it needed a little something more, so I painted on some stripes! Now the room is beginning to shape up!

Sorry the lighting/pictures are so bad, just take my word for it- it looks great!

To add some brightness to the room, I went with yellow accents! I threw together some curtains for the oddly placed window, bought some flowers from Hobby Lobby (1/2 price of course) and put them in my Ikea vases. I also took some leftover fabric and cut some napkins for the table.

I also spray painted the ugly brown coat rack a sunny yellow- I don't want to hang anything on it now! I also found a hanging basket at Hob Lob for $5- sprayed it grey and now we have a place to put the mail instead of the table.

Maybe we will actually eat here now!

The room is so much brighter now! I really love it. Not too bad for a weekends work!

The paint colors are Urban Sunrise and tempered grey from Valspar

The Yellow is Marigold spray paint, also from Valspar

Headbands for Orphans

Last Summer I got the incredible opportunity to travel to Kenya with some people from my church. We went for 2 weeks to be exposed to the culture and to minister to some children in orphanages there that our church supports.

It was an incredible time that changed so many things about how I want to live my life. The main orphanage that we spent most of our time in was called Eden Orphanages. It is a small orphanage that was started by a farmer from Waller, Texas. Mike and his wife Sylvia have spent the better part of their marriage investing in the lives of children half a world away. Mike, despite his recent battle with brain tumors, still makes bi-annual trips to Africa to oversee the orphanages' operation. He is using his knowledge of farming to help teach the kids and workers how to plant vegetables, raise cattle, rabbits and chickens. By doing this, the orphanage is virtually self-sustainable. Whatever is not used for the children, is sold to pay the salaries of the matrons and other workers.

I was in awe of these kids and after hearing some of their stories of where they came from and the conditions they were living in, I couldn't believe they still had these beautiful smiles! I truly saw the joy of Lord in them.



As much as I wanted to go back this year, my job would not allow it this summer. I wanted to send a little something for the girls and had an idea! The girls over there are not allowed to have long hair when attending school. In fact, they have to shave their head because of lice, lack of water and other factors. I noticed that some of the girls had these little head bands, just plain fabric they would tie around their heads. I figured I could do something like that, but add some girly-ness to them. What little girl wouldn't love a colorful, flowered headband?!

The orphanage has taken in a few more girls since I was there so I had to make 36 of them. It was a labor of love, but one that will hopefully bring a little smile to their faces.

I purchased the cloth headbands and started off by cutting 36 circles out of fabric scraps I had.

Sew around the circle with a basic needle and thread

When you get all the way around, pull the thread to gather the fabric together and then sew the middle to secure it.

Sew the flower onto the headband. I just placed it on the seam that was already on the headband.

To add some more fun, I hot-glued a button in the middle.

I then packaged them all up and off they go with the team of people leaving in a few days!

They look really fun hanging on my hall mirror! I can't wait to see how they look on all those precious heads! Hopefully I will get some pictures!

It is Finished!

Remember this big guy I snatched up for free at the Houston Re-Use Warehouse?

Well, a few thousand staples and 4 yards of fabric later

It now looks like this...

I am really proud of how it turned out. Not only was this my first attempt at hard core re-upholstering, but I can honestly say it has been my toughest project to date.

Just to get to this, took me 5 hours... not to mention gave me some massive blisters!

I had to do a lot of research to even know where to start, but thankfully the blog world had lots of tutorials out there!

Plus, the place I bought all my supplies online had some super cool, and by cool I mean outdated but full of information, videos!

The sides were the toughest part. This is definitely not perfect, but for my first time and on a free chair, I think it's great!

One of the best parts of the project was that it forced me to purchase an air staple gun and air compressor! I have been wanting a reason to get those and since this would have been impossible with out it- I finally bit the bullet!

Here is where it sits as of today. I am not crazy about it next to the zebra chair, but I'm going to live with it for a little bit. I am also working on a stool, turned ottoman to go with the new chair. Hopefully that will be up soon!

Here are some details about the supplies I purchased from www.DIYupholsterysuppy.com

Upholstery Tacking Strip, Metal, 27" Each	3	$0.45	$1.35
27 Bonded Dacron / by the yard	4	$2.75	$11.00
Upholstery Tack Strip/Cardboard	1	$3.99	$3.99
Upholstery Supplies, Ply Grip by the running foot	5	$0.38	$1.90

They were by far the most reasonably priced and you could buy what you needed without having to purchase large quantities of stuff. Shipping was a little slow, but other than that it was great!

The fabric is from a local fabric warehouse here in Houston.

I hope you all like the chair. It was tough, but so worth it. Really all it takes is a lot of patience. Oh, and about a thousand staples..but I already told you that!

* I link my projects to the following blogs whose links you can find on my side bar

- Todays creative Blog

- Someday Crafts

- Somewhat simple

three becomes one

I have been collecting old chairs from various places over the past few months for a special project. After I found my last one a few weeks ago I was able to finish it out.

These were the chairs before, plus one that I had previously refurnished that you can see in this post

I got one from Goodwill for $6 and the other one was $2 from the Habitat ReStore

After painting, glazing, and a little woodworking, I joined the 3 chairs together with scrap wood and metal braces behind the legs.

I used 2 king sized pillows for the cushion, and covered them in this awesome fabric.

Now I have a fun, colorful, little bench!

Isn't it so cute!

I really wanted to add arms to both ends, but that proved to be a little beyond my skill level. Maybe one day!

It was originally going in the living room, but the colors match my bedroom so perfectly!

Plus, I have another project in the works for the living room...

This took me 4 hours on Sunday. Hopefully the rest won't be so bad!

I hope you like my bench! It was pretty easy to do, the hardest part was collecting the chairs. And, if I ever want to separate the chairs again, I can. I didn't have to make any real structural changes to them!

* I link my projects to the following amazing blogs whose links you can find on my side bar

- Todays creative Blog

- Someday Crafts

- Somewhat simple

a preview...

I've got a few projects in the works, but they might have to take a back seat to this:

Look what I just picked up at the Houston RE-Use warehouse for free...

She definitely needs some, well, a lot of TLC, but I can already see her sitting pretty in my living room!

Now I just need to pick out a fabric and- oh yea, figure out how to reupholster a chair But hey, I totally got this!!

Maybe..

Cake Eggs, Repost

I've posted this before, but with Easter around the corner again, I figured I would repost! Happy Easter everyone!

Have you had Cake balls before? How about cake eggs?
I made these for an Eastger brunch! They were a big hit and really fun to make.
The Pioneer Woman has a good step-by-step recipie on her site, I just modified it to fit the holiday!