HAPPY HEART DAY EVERYONE!!!!!

I made you all some cookies!!!!
See??!?!? Aren't I sweet? Yea.....they're not really for you guys. They're for my boys, the little ones, because they asked nicely and now the small one is asleep on the floor. Its going to make working out interesting. He's right next to where I usually get my work out on. Fun times.

So anyways, on to the real post. I've had this project done for a little bit, and I'm still lovin' on it. :)
 I made a gigantic ruler!!!! Love it!!!

The best part was the it was stupid simple to make. Just take an 8' board and stain, paint, do whatever you want to it, and then stencil on some numbers, make your hash marks and then let dry! I used Rustoleum's Sun Bleached stain and just some black acrylic paint.

Believe  it or not, but the ruler is actually hung just about right. Its like 1/4" off or something like that, which is perfect for getting a fairly good idea of measurements for the boys!
 There are my two sweeties' measurements! Its only a small gap. :)

I decided to hang the ruler right near our front door and two-story foyer, because, well, there was room, and it showcases just how tall our ceilings are. I am really loving the stain color too! I may need to find more things to use this stain on.

I hope you guys having a rockin' V-day and come back to see what Dana's whipping up this week!


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One of Mom's favorite sayings when we were growing up was, "The only constant in life is change."

This is a phrase often uttered in my house. Usually when the hubs comments on some change I've made in the house. ;-)

Well a couple of weeks ago I started painting and then hubs finished up the job for me (he's a very sweet hubs). I painted the dining room in Purple Fury. Sounds fun doesn't it? Reminds me of a purple dragon.
 
Anyways after the room was painted, I put it back the exact same way it was.

Well last Sunday, I HAD to change everything at the front of the house around.

Really, it had to be done.

Don't ask why. It just did.



I like how the living room and dining room are now arranged. They're more open, and just feel nicer.

In other changes - remember my sidelights from the old family homestead? The 200+ year old ones?

Well one of them lost in a battle against Harrison.

Yep, he knocked it over - damaging a chair, almost hitting me, and missing him. Luckily, only one pane of glass was actually damaged and I just need to put the glass back in. Bring on the silicone.

So there are some of the changes around the house. Tomorrow I'll be sharing some of the things I've been up to. :)

Hey guys! I've been busy this last week!

I don't know how many of you look at the Facebook page, but if you subscribe to Straight Stitches on Facebook, then you would have seen sneak previews of things I've been working on!

So a while back on Pinterest, I saw this pin -

Love those letters! I need some of those letters!

So I made myself some paper mache letters using cereal boxes, a phone book, flour and water. Dev even helped me make the letters. A good, messy time was had by all.

So after the letters were dry, I painted them with some copper paint and then just hot glued my pennies to them! $3.63 worth of pennies to be exact.

I ended up overlapping the pennies so that more of the letter was covered, but I like the dimension and depth the layering gives the letters.

I also ended up rearranging my copper jello molds when I decided to  put these letters over the pantry door. They are now above my cabinets, and there is plenty more room for more molds! Not that  I'm happy about that or anything. :)




I am loving the simplicity of my letters, and how they add a bit of shine to my brick red walls. See you guys later!

So what started off as a very long project has finally reached completion!

Wahoo!

So the journey started like this.

She's really beat up, but she's got such pretty potential. I love her lines and her femininity. Unfortunately, there's no saving the veneer. It has to come off.
It was tough going at times, and then I just had to stop, because the veneer was not coming off. So a $6 iron, some perseverance, hard work and about an hour later She was completely free of damaged veneer. yay! Now how to finish her? It would take me a while to figure it out. I fixed the pitting and gouges and then sanded until she was baby-butt smooth. Then it sat. And sat. And sat some more.

Then hubs and I moved it inside, and it sat for a few days. I did figure out what paint treatment she needed on the 2nd day though, then it was just finding time to do it. :) I decided on a dry brush technique using the yellow color already in our master bedroom and antique white.
After a mishap where I painted the desk portion and forgot to paint the mirror, the whole painting process took no time at all. So here she is back up in the room!

 Please pay no mind to the mess just off camera. I still haven't gotten all the fabric back into my sewing room. You'll also notice that pictures have moved around, and maybe even see a few new ones. More on one of them below!


 The hubs wasn't so sure about the shabby finish of the piece, but after everything was put together I think he liked it. He said he did, so that's what I'm going with. I love it! I love the whole look and how it all came together! I really love all the details too, including some of the cracked veneer that I didn't remove.
 So are you wondering about one of the pictures? Do you follow Straight Stitches on facebook? If not, then you have no idea that inside one of the drawers of this vanity I found a page of scribbles and math equations from either my aunt or my mom. How cool is that? The vanity was in my grandparents' outdoor shed and lots of critters took advantage of her, but they also left some nice details. Anyways, back to the paper, I decided that the perfect way to showcase it was to frame it and put it up near the vanity. I really like the story behind it and its just a cool thing to showcase.

So there's my new vanity and I am in love.


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It's been awhile since I've shown up here hasn't it? I apologize for my absence, but he reality is still that I haven't crafted anything. At least until last night/this morning and the night before.

Yesterday kicked off teacher appreciation week at Dev's school and today was bring in flowers for your teacher.

Since I'm trying to save money at every turn, I decided to see what I had around the house that would work.

Enter coffee filters.

I actually tried this project a couple of months back, but never completed it so when we started this project Sunday night (nothing like teaching your kids about time management) I figured it would be quite simple to get it done. The instructions can be found {HERE} on Ms. Martha's site.


I'm so silly. I should know that nothing ever goes as planned, but despite my mishap the flowers got done and look lovely.

I would say a few things about them though.
1) Make sure that your floral wire is secured tightly with the tape and maybe even add a drop of with glue to the first set of petals so that the stem doesn't pull out while you're working with the flower.
2) This is probably a no-brainier, but don't use pen to trace your petals on the coffee filter. I couldn't find a pencil so I used a pen and that's why I have nice blue tinged petals in the purple rose.
3) Martha uses nice water colors. I used crayola watercolors. They're not as intense as what Ms. Martha got but I like them nonetheless.
4) If your stem does come out of the flower after you've painted it, like mine did, I just folded the tip of the tape back towards the flower and taped that up like a boutonniere. Worked just fine.

I'll be sharing another teacher appreciation gift later this week!

Hey guys!

I've been busy around here lately, but have neglected to take pictures. I know.....I'm horrible.

Here's the dining room and message center in the house right now.

I moved stuff  around and I'm really loving all of it.

There's also some sneak peeks here and there too. :)

 So here's the message center - complete with awards and artwork and school announcements. I moved the tall branches that framed our front door in the foyer to over here to help connect the whole vignette. Its also safer  for  them here. Boys are destructive. :)

 So here's a look from the foyer into the dining room. You can see that I have fabric in the extra chairs. Its all the same fabric, but I only felt like folding 3 yards of the 15 yards  in there. Oh well. You can also see some paint chips on the wall. Yep, I want to paint the dining room again. This  room has been such a PITA to get right. I don't hate the way it looks right now, but I think the dining and living rooms need freshning, hence the new fabric. I have many, many plans for this room. You're going away in May, right honey? ;-)

 I  don't know if you guys remember this mirror from when I moved it out of the butler's pantry area (now the message center) and when I moved it out that area I propped it  up against the wall in the dining room and left  it there for about a month. H had great fun watching himself be a goofball in the mirror, and was quite displeased with me when I decided that I was going to prop it up against the wall on the buffet. I love how the mirror helps  open up that wall visually. I even like that it doesn't match the buffet.


Here's the table. I pulled out the denim runner that I made years ago and then topped it off with my pewter pitcher, dogwood branches and all of my glass and crystal candlesticks and hurricanes. I love how everything comes together. What I don't love  is that my candles don't seem to want to stay in said candlesticks. Oh well.


 Here are just some pretty shots of the table. I'm just playing with the camera. :)

And here are the color swatches. Which color do  you think I'm going to go with? I received my free Valspar paint sample today, and I can't wait to see how it looks on the wall!

See you guys later!