My first ever burlap wreath.

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Last year I painted our boring black front door bright turquoise, and it was love in first sight... But ever since I did it, I wanted to make one of those cute burlap wreaths that you see all over the web.

This week I finally bit the bullet... Now I just grossed myself out imagining a burlap bullet in my teeth... Yuck. But anyway, here it is:

This wreath cost me about $10. I only needed to buy three things:

Guess, whose kitchen table is in desperate need of refinishing? I temporally lost my craft area due to remodeling of the guest room (where I permanently occupy a closet with my sewing machine), so I had to use our kitchen table to the dismay of the rest of the family - oh, who am I kidding? The boys would eat on the couch in the living room rather than at the table any day. I digress...

So I only needed to buy three things - a 10 ft roll of burlap (got it from Michaels for about $5 after 40% coupon), a metal form (ab. $3.50) and a big MDF letter that came from Hobby Lobby (on sale for only $1.50). All the rest of the stuff I needed, I already had on hand.

So, first I primed the letter, painted it white and taped to create stripes:

I then used some leftover spray paint in forest green. While the paint was drying, I made the actual wreath. I'm not going to post a tutorial because, honestly, there are hundreds of them online, and it really is a 15-minute project, very easy to make. Two warnings though: first, is that 10 feet of burlap was BARELY enough to cover the form. Next time I would get some extra just in case. Second is that if you have allergies, especially to dust, be sure to borrow a heavy-duty gas mask from somebody (dead-serious here!) because the burlap lint stuff will be EVERYWHERE and you are guaranteed to sneeze for the rest of the day. It's not my first time to work with burlap (I even made the stockings out of it) but it was for sure the messiest.

To "fancify" (is it even a word??) the finished product a bit, I added fabric flowers made from some scrap fabric:

I think, from the beginning to the end, it only took me about an hour (minus the drying of the paint).

Ta-da... Why did I wait for so long??? I do love our front door even more right now. Thank you for stopping by :)

I shared this project with these awesome parties:

By Stephanie Lynn     I should be mopping the floor     Uncommon Designs     Ginger Snap Crafts
Family Home and Life     DIY Show Off      Love Bakes Good Cakes    The Shabby Nest  
The Chick on a Shoestring Decorating      The Mandatory Mooch    Natasha in Oz   Thrifty Decor Chick

A little something I made for myself...

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Yesterday I decided to squeeze in a little time for myself...Because of my hypothyroidism, I gained quite a bit of weight over winter. I'm slowly back on track (more on this later) but, unfortunately, most of my clothes just don't fit properly :( I have a full closet and not much to wear. And no money to shop :)

So I thought it was time for me to make something just for myself :) Like this striped maxi skirt:

I'm not much of a seamstress, far from it. The last time I made a skirt was when I was twelve (I think) at my school Home Improvement class. It's been a while...

But this one was so easy! It literally has four cuts, four seams. I'm not good at writing tutorials on sewing (duh!) but here is a pretty good one.

I've had this fabric for a while. I honestly don't even remember where I got it from or why. I had just enough fabric for this project (about 1 1/2 yards), so I had to be careful how I cut it.

I basically cut A-lined silhouette for the skirt by folding the fabric in half and using my measurements (if you make a striped skirt, be sure to carefully match lines together before you start cutting):

The hardest part is measure yourself right. It works so much better to ask somebody to help you out with that. Because I didn't have anyone to help (two munchkins here don't count), I somehow added 1.5 inches when I measured my waist.  When I tried the skirt on half way, it was too big...  yeah I don't know what happened...But hey, it was a pleasant surprise that I'm not as big as I thought at first I was :)

Then I used leftover fabric to cut the top portion. I really wanted to have a "yoga fold" (you know, like on those comfy yoga pants) but I just didn't have enough fabric left:

Then sewed it all together, and it's done!

I know, I still need to press those seams but it's pretty much finished :) I love how comfy and versatile it is:

What do you think? Now I'm itching to go and sew some more...

I shared this post with these awesome parties:

The REAL housewives of Riverton 
Homemaker on a Dime 
Sumo's Sweet Stuff
Monday Funday Link Party  
Ginger Snap Crafts 
Clean and Scentsible 
The Shabby Nest 
Homemaker on a Dime 
Plane Pretty 
By Stephanie Lynn 

Another project complete!

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As promised, I'm sharing with you another project that we worked on for about two months or so - our reading area/ bookshelf. Here it is:

We love books. And we have books everywhere. We wanted to have a nice bookshelf for a while but everything I liked was just not in our budget. Plus our house is pretty small, and we don't have an area we could use for a separate library or even a reading nook. So our living room is all-in-one: it's a media room (hence leather couches for all the football watching...note from husband, refer back to this during football season ;), a play room, occasionally, a dining room, and now it's a library too :).

A few months ago (or more like a year) I found this shelf on classifieds for just $10:

It was nice, tall, sturdy and in pretty good condition. But it didn't match anything in our house. For a while it was sitting in the guest room but it was way too big for the tiny space we have there. I knew it was time to transform it and make it more useful.

So I sanded and primed it with water-based primer (I like Zinsser cover stain primer. This stuff is awesome). I then painted it with three coats of Valspar Ultra White. I used a small roller for most of it and an angled brush for the detailed areas. For the inside I decided to go with Valspar Green Mist. I only needed a sample size can. It gives just a little of the color that I wanted.

But after it was all done, it just didn't look finished. So we decided to add some simple molding on the top. We didn't want anything too heavy because we are still planning to add crown molding around this room...You know, one day...:

To seal it, I used Minwax polycrylic protective finish. If you paint something ultra-white or just white, do NOT use polyurethane!! I learned that the hard way :( A very-very painful sand-everything-down-and-repaint kind of hard way...Polycrylic it is!! It's more expensive than polyurethane but you don't need much. I actually was pretty lucky. Usually an 8oz can costs about $9 in Walmart or hardware stores. But I stumbled upon a clearance sale in our local Michaels and bought it for only $4.43. Who would've thought?? I used, maybe, 1/3 of a can but I still bought a couple more cans for other projects we will be working on in the near future.

I wanted this shelf to be mostly for books (it's a BOOK shelf, after all :). And this room already has plenty of color in it, so we went with very simple accessories:

I'll tell you more about all of the accessories (including my $2.50 DIY lampshade) next time but here is another glimpse at my reading "corner":

I think it turned out pretty good for only about $20.

What do you think??

 I shared this project with these awesome parties:

I should be mopping the floor
That DIY Show Off party
Monday Funday  
Marvelous Mondays 
Sumo's Sweet Stuff 
Homemaker on a Dime
By Stephanie Lynn 
Natasha in Oz: Say G'Day Saturday party 
Not Just a Housewife  
Ginger Snap Crafts
Clean and Scentsible
The 36Th Avenue 
The Shabby Nest  
Chick on a Shoestring Budget 
Elizabeth and Co 
Thrifty Decor Chick
House of Hepworths 
Blissful and Domestic

I have a "command center" corner now! And a little tutorial.

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 I know, I was going to post it yesterday but life got in the way, as usual:) But here is a little project we were working on lately. It will be part 1 of our master bedroom reveal:)

When we started working on our bedroom, I knew I wanted to use this corner wall:

It was this big and empty corner (minus the laundry basket). But I had something better in mind. I decided to turn this area into a "command center"/ working area for me. We have an office but it's too far from the Baby when he sleeps, and I can't hear him. Plus the office is in our guest room, so we rarely use it. I have a netbook that I use, and I usually work on the couch or at the kitchen table. But I needed a designated place for doing bills, planning and translating. This corner seemed perfect for it:

First, I painted it with stripes using leftover paint from another project. Of course I forgot to take a picture of the "finished product" :) I'm always to anxious to move on, and always either forget to take a before or an after picture. That's the story of my life!

I had a few things I wanted in this space. First, I wanted to add a memory board. I decided to make it myself. I had an old frame that I almost took to the thrift store but changed my mind:

It was a cheap frame that I got years ago for $3 (I think) from Dollar General. But it's big, it's 17.5 x 21(16 x 20" with the picture inserted), so I knew it would work great for a memory board. I spray-painted it black and set it aside.

One thing about this frame is that it had flimsy plastic instead of glass but it was perfect for my project. I got some cute fabric from my favorite fabric store for $3.99 a yard and used leftover batting:

I covered the inside plastic with a spray adhesive and glued batting to it. I cut batting about an inch smaller than the plastic all the way around, so it would easily fit in the frame. Then using a glue gun I wrapped a pre-measured piece of fabric around it.

Then, still using a glue gun (it's a no-sew project!) I added some ribbons:

Then I just put it in the frame. Here's the finished product:



It's perfect for storing paint chips or cute little pictures that I occasionally find under my pillow :) The basket underneath was a Goodwill $2 find that I painted black. I keep all the billshere that need to be paid soon or coupons for eating out.

As for the other side of my "Command center" it looks like this:



The small red desk is from IKEA. We bought a couple of years ago. The white board calendar is from Walmart (and you can see, I was busy this month:), the little red buckets are for storing white board markers, magnets etc. and they are from a $ area in Target. The little "greenery" on the top is from IKEA too as well as cork board circles (that are actually heat trivets for $2.99/3). The floating shelf on the top is a yard sale find. The rest of the accessories I already had on hand:

And here is another picture of MY corner (and because I just like it so much):



And here's my project for you for today. I love my little space so much and use it e.v.e.r.y s.i.n.g.l.e day!

I share this post with these great parties:

To Sew With Love 

And I also entered this project for a contest below. Wish me luck!!

The fun fall wreath for less than $12

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 Today I was working on a really fun project:

 I've been carrying the idea in my head for a while. The thing is - I like Halloween and all the fun of it. What I don't like is the scary decorations. I'm just not into it. So I wanted a wreath that will work both as a fall decor and a Halloween one. And I know it's still August, but I really couldn't wait to get it done :) The best thing about this project is that it takes only a couple of hours and costs less than $12 to make. Honestly, it costs even less considering that with some of the supplies you only use a fracture of them.

Here's what you need:

Wreath or wreath form ($1, read further)
4-5 yards of black tulle ($1.27/yard at Walmart)
0.5 yard of bright-orange satin (appr. $1, also at Walmart)
1 can black spray paint (99c- cheapest at Walmart or any home improvement store)
Orange ribbon for hanging ($1 at the Dollar store)
Little black fuzzy puffs ($1 at the Dollar store for a nice size bag, different colors)

How-to:

   I actually first purchased a Styrofoam wreath form for $4.47 from Wallmart (ouch!!). I really didn't like the price because I knew it will all add up. So when I went to the Dollar store for some other supplies, I decided to check out what they had. And I found this plain wicker wreath that I knew would be just perfect for my project:

  So I returned the Walmart one. :) First, I spray-painted  it to make it less visible through tulle. I used some paint I already had on hand but you can always find the cheapest paint for less than a dollar:

   You don't have to do a super-good job because most of it will be covered anyway. Then cut your tulle into strips about 10 in X 4-5 inch and start to tie strips around your wreath in a double knot. Push them together tight:

 

   Keep working until the whole wreath is done. It looks time-consuming but it actually took me an hour tops.

Then onto the flowers. Believe me, they are pretty easy to make too. First, cut out a few circles of different sizes from a piece of satin. They don't even have to be perfectly rounded:

   Then light a candle and hold the edge of the circle a little over the flame (don't burn yourself!!) until it starts to curl. I tried to get a picture of a process but it's hard to do it with one hand and hold a camera in another :) :

   Move it over the flame until it curls all around the edges:

   Then put the circles together and sew them into a flower:

   Then sew or glue the puff to the middle of your "flower" and attach it to the wreath. I used a fabric glue for it but you can use basic Elmer's white glue too:

  The more circles you add to the flower the prettier it will look. I used 7 on the big one and 4 or 5 on the smaller ones. Then attach the ribbon for hanging and voila- your wreath is done!! Here's another picture of the finished product:

   Sorry for the picture of the inside of our front door. The outside needs to be cleaned and painted. And very soon :) But I'm kind of liking this new edition to our fall decor :)

I'm sharing this DIY project with these fun parties:

Uncommonly Yours 
Ginger Snap Crafts Wow me Wednesday 
Homemaker on a Dime 
Family Home and Life Wow Us Wednesday 
Pin It Wednesday