New Curtains

New curtains. That's what I've been working on, once I got my sewing machine running again. I really needed new curtains. The ones I had was just something I quickly put up after we moved into our house (five years ago) and didn't think much about them, (for 5 years!). Then I went to my friends house. She has a great blog, Kreyv. It makes me want to redecorate every room in my house, adding even more to my decorating ADD as well as giving me decorating multiple personalities. So many good ideas! Check it out, it's awesome. She had just made some curtains that I loved, or should I say craved! It was just a week ago that I saw them, and I've already made them, that's how much I craved them!

Here is what I did...I don't have many pictures because remember how I hate that! And they are all taken after I was done, because once I got started, I didn't want to stop to take pictures! I'm impatient like that. Anyway, I bought some twin flat sheets for 5 dollars at Walmart, 2 brown and 1 cream. I used the top of the sheet for the slot for the rod to go though. You know how there is that folded over part in sheets? I just cut a slit in the back section of the fold like this...

Then I cut them into 15 inch sections, that would make the length of my curtains 87 inches long, allowing for a 1/4 inch seam. I needed 6 sections for each curtain, so I cut the top off of the 2 brown sheets, then cut 4 additional brown sections. For the cream sections I started from the bottom and cut 6 sections from that one. The width of the curtain is just the width of the twin sheets. This is when I discovered that not all sheets are created equal. The cream sheets were about 1/2 inch smaller in width than the brown ones. So I just made sure that one of the sides all lined up, then once I had sewn the 6 sections together I went back on the mismatched side and hemmed the brown sections to make then match the cream.

Lined upside...

Hemmed side...

I used the bottom of the sheet for the bottom of one curtain, so that one didn't need to be hemmed. The other one got a 1/4 inch hem so that one is 1/4 inch shorter, but you can't tell once they are up, esp. since on is hidden behind an end table. At least I can't tell. Don't tell me if you can. :)

I love them! I love looking at something and thinking, "That looks really good!" Especially when I am the one that made them! Plus, they were pretty cheap, 15 bucks for 2 panels, plus I have enough fabric left to make some brown and blue curtains for my baby's nursery, plus I think I am going to make some throw pillows for my couch with them. All that for 15 bucks, not bad. Plus they look awesome.

She's back!!

Well, I called my Mom to complain about my sewing machine breaking. She is the one that gave me the machine (when she got a new fancy one) She got the green machine from her mom, who got it from her sister. That girl has been around the block! I'm talking about my sewing machine, not my Mom. :) ANYWAY, my Mom had some tricks for me to try and they worked! I got the green machine working again, which means I will be able to get my project done much sooner! It would have been done today, but on top of all the technical difficulties I've had today (did I mention that I also dropped my cell phone in water?) my sweet baby decided not to take very long naps today. I think he knew I was trying to get something done. :) But I still managed to get half way done, so hopefully I can show what I've been working on soon!

RIP

I need a moment of silence. My sewing machine died. Right at nap time. Right when I was starting a new project. I am very sad about it. Look how cool and vintage-y she is...

I'll never find a sewing machine as cool as she was. But she led a good, long life...for a sewing machine.

Rest in peace green machine.

Dollar Tree Plates

I love my Silhouette. I've had it for over 2 years now, so I think I jumped on the Silhouette band wagon before everyone else. Cuz I'm cool like that. :) But it is completely awesome and I use it for probably 75% of all my projects. And the cool thing about Silhouette is that even though mine is 2 years old, I can still get the latest program, since it is available to download. The only function I don't have that the new ones do is the ability to save things onto an SD card, which isn't a big deal for me. But I love it. Seriously love it. Can you tell? :)

Anyway, here is one reason why I love it. I can take plates from the Dollar Tree, add some vinyl shapes cut from my Silhouette and make them look like this...

Way cute, way easy, and way cheap.

And don't birds just make you feel all Spring-like?

Baby Boy's Nursery...it's a little *wild*

I am finally done with my baby boy's (who is 5 1/2 months old) nursery. Well, done for me. I have decorating ADD, so things get changed a lot at my house. It is way easier to get the nursery done before the baby gets here though, that's for sure! But with adoption you don't get the usual 9 months of preparation time. We were first contacted by Andrew's amazing birth mother on Sept. 10th. We got a call on Sept. 23rd and found out her water had broken (6 weeks early) and then five days later, he first showed his cute face. So 18 days from first contact to birth. Doesn't leave much time for decorating! :)

So, slowly I have been adding to it and am ready to call it done (for awhile at least). It doesn't look like it's straight from a catalog or anything, but I love it.

This little shelf is very sentimental to me. The book is a beautiful book about adoption, the elephant was a gift from Andrew's birth mother, and the sign really just sums up what adoption is all about.

I made all my signs and blocks using my Silhouette. (LOVE!)

My favorite thing on this shelf is the picture of his little foot. So cute!

This is my favorite part of the room...

I love this book, the pictures are so cool! I've always wanted to use them to decorate a room with. I can see this growing into his toddler room with some silly pictures of all the cute things toddlers do...don't all two year old become wild things anyway? Might as well have a room to reflect that! :)

I want to do something different than just framing the pictures. I got a 12 inch wide pine board from Home Depot and had them cut it into 10 inch long boards. I originally was just going to paint the boards and mod podge the pictures on. But then I remember that I had a TON of burlap left over from when I was going to make burlap pillows. On a side note, I did make one burlap pillow but nixed the idea when I discovered that burlap left lots of little hairs on my couch and my kids complained it was too scratchy to lay on! :) So that's why I have so much burlap left. Anyway, I ended up wrapping the boards with burlap and stapling it to the back. Then I just stapled the picture right on top. I used picture hanging wire (from WalMart) on the back so I could hang them.

L.o.v.e it!

Linked to Finger Prints On the Fridge

The BEST Sugar Cookies EVER, St. Patrick's Day style

Yesterday my family went to the St. Patrick's Day Parade in St. Louis. It is a HUGE deal here. When I was growing up, St. Patrick's Day wasn't a big deal. I mean it was a fun little holiday, you wear green, you pinch people, a sneaky leprechaun might visit your classroom, but that was about it.

We have had fun celebrating this holiday more since moving to St. Louis. We always have so much fun at the parade, my kids love all the free candy and green beads they get.

On Friday I made some on my Grandma's "famous" (at least in my family) sugar cookies, shaped like shamrocks to take to the parade. I was watching my friends' boys that day, so I gave them each a ball of dough and their own cookie cutters and let them go to town! Here is what their cookies looked like...

(one really likes dogs, one really likes cow boys, and one really likes football)

And here are my Shamrock cookies...

I think I will eat these ones and let the kids eat the other ones... :)

Anyway, here is the recipe for the sugar cookies. They are honestly the yummiest sugar cookie EVER! They are so soft and thick. In my opinion they are even better than those pink frosted Granny B's cookies. Make some. You'll be glad you did.

Best EVER Sugar Cookies

3/4 cup margarine

3/4 cup Butter Crisco

1 1/2 cups sugar

4 eggs

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 Tbsp. cream of tarter

2 1/4 tsp. vanilla

5 1/4 cups flour

Cream together margarine, shortening, sugar, and eggs. Add baking soda, cream of tarter, and vanilla. Gradually add in flour. Chill dough for one hour. Roll dough on a floured surface to 1/4 inch thick. Cut with cookie cutters, place on greased cookie sheet. Bake at 425 for 4-5 minutes. Makes about 4-5 dozen, depending on size of cookies. Cool and frost.

And in my opinion, the only kind of frosting to use on these is homemade powdered sugar frosting. (Store bought frosting makes me gag!)

I usually half this recipe and still have tons for frosting left. (To put on graham crackers...another favorite treat around here)

Powdered Sugar Frosting

3/4 cup margarine, softened.

9 cups powdered sugar (about 2 pounds)

1/4 cup milk

2 tsp. vanilla

milk

food coloring

Beat butter until smooth. Gradually add 2 cups powdered sugar, beating well. Slowly beat in 1/4 cup milk and vanilla. Gradually beat in remaining powdered sugar, adding additional milk if needed to reach spreading consistency. Add desired food coloring.

These are so good that I make them for as many holiday's as I can...and usually give some away because they are so good, I could eat them all, which my hips would definitely NOT appreciate! :)

Revival

So after many, many months, actually almost a year, I've decided to revive my craft blog. But here's the thing, there was a few things about blogging that I didn't like. Like the amount of time I was spending on it. Like writing tutorials. Like feeling like I had to take pictures of every. little. step. (hated that!) Like "linking up" to other blogs. Like the way I was comparing myself to other blogs and feeling badly if I didn't have as many followers or my blog wasn't as "cool." I didn't have the time, or the desire to make the time, to spend adding features to my blog or do all those other things that "real bloggers" do. So I just stopped. :)

That sounds like a lot of things that I don't like huh? But there are parts I liked too. :) Like having a way to show what I make to people who appreciate it more than my hubby,--not that he doesn't appreciate it, just not in the same way. :) Like reading the sweet comments from other people. Like the way my creativity is sparked by it.

Anyway, I've decided to start back up again. I am not going to do much of the things I didn't like and just focus on what I did like. So, if anyone out there besides my mom and sister still want to read this, awesome! If only my mom and sister want to read this, awesome still.

So you probably won't find many tutorials here, I'll still take pictures, but not of every little step, and I am not going to worry about whether or not I am as "cool" as the other bloggers are. I don't want this to feel like a job. I already have a job that I love. And that job got a little bigger a few months ago when we were so blessed to be able to adopt this beautiful baby boy...

Seriously, is he not the cutest thing EVER!! Don't you just want to kiss those cheeks! He has brought so much joy to our family and most of the time I would rather sit and cuddle him than sit behind a computer. :)

Speaking of babies, I have a baby related project to share with you today. I found this high chair at a garage sale for $20.

I really hate those huge plastic high chairs, they are such a pain to clean with all their nooks and crannies. So I loved the simplicity of this old fashioned high chair (and the price!) But I didn't love the crackle paint job and the stenciling.

So some sanding and 2 cans of spray paint later, and this is what it looks like now...

Much better. And then I added the vinyl, because everything looks better with vinyl! ;)

I've actually had this since kid #2 was a baby, but never got around to painting it then. That's part of the reason why I am so thrilled with it. I've waited 4 years for this baby to get here. I am so glad he is here and I can do baby related projects now!