Savannah's Bed

We (my husband and I) made this bed using instructions from Ana-white.com It was pretty simple and I LOVE the fabric we choose!

Close up of the fabric: (sorry the lighting is bad)

All our pieces cut and ready to be assembled:

Finished product:

Table Makeover

 Above is the before picture. Our goal was to make our chairs more stable, change the white to a brown and recover the cushions. The back of the chair and the part that holds the cushion in place would come apart, this was a big problem! First we tried nail glue, but that didn't work. And so we bought some corner braces and screwed them in. Cheap, easy and effective! (Below is a picture of the brace we used) We bought them at Home Depot. I can't remember how much they were, but it was cheap.

 The screws that held the cushion in place would fall out, the wood had been stripped. So we bought a board and cut out new seats for the chairs. After we did this we talked to some friends who told us a much easier/cheaper way of doing it! All you have to do is get toothpicks and guerrilla glue. Glue the toothpicks into the hole until the hole is completely filled. This creates "new wood" for the screws to hold on to. You can do with knobs on dressers and such. MUCH MUCH cheaper than replacing the seat, but we had already bought and cut the wood when they told us. :(

Then my husband attempted to spray paint the chairs, which didn't work out very well. It looked awful. I'm not sure if it was because he has never spray painted and was doing it wrong, or if it just didn't work for whatever reason. I've never spray painted anything either, so I had no clue. After using 4 cans of spray paint and ended up with a horrible painting job we went to plan B. We bought a primer and a can of paint and brushed the paint on. This worked a lot better and we used very little paint. We used less than a 1/4 of the gallon of paint, MUCH cheaper than the cans of spray paint. Only problem was that my husband got a little carried away and left puddles of paint around the legs of the chair and table...

 These are the pictures of the bottom of the leg...you can see what a problem this caused...

It took 1 coat of primer, 2 coats of paint and a coat of polyurethane. Make sure each coat is thin and even, especially on the table.

 Next step was to cover the cushions. this was my favorite part, probably because I've done it before and its easy. You will need fabric and a staple gun. Cut your fabric so you have enough to fold over the cushion and staple down.

 Lay the fabric down first, then the cushion and then the board for the seat

 Fold the fabric over the cushion and board.

 Staple starting in the middle, when you go to the other side be sure to pull the fabric snug.

Staple, I use about 3 per side.

Now for the corners...sorry for the blurry pictures, my camera sucks. I always leave the corners for last. First let me leave a disclaimer, I am NOT a professional, and have just found what works for me. I'm not sure that it is the "right" way, but its a way and it works, so I'm happy with it.

 First I lay on side flat to the board (like in the picture above).

 Then I fold the same side over itself onto the board.

Using my finger to hold it in place I fold the next side over in the same manner.

It should look like this. I then staple it in place and cut the extra fabric away to get rid of some of the bulk. Repeat until all the chairs are covered.

I don't have a picture of the after yet.

But I can tell you this is a fairly easy project, just make sure you have the time and patience for it before you begin, it's is kind of tedious.

So many projects, so little time...

I have a gazillion projects I want to do, but so little time. I was surfin' my favorite craft blogs today and while looking over the blog MADE I discovered her AWESOME home improvement section. She has a great Painters 101 entry that I found very helpful and thought I would share. Also she made the cutest costumes for her two kids. Her daughter was Alice and her son was the Mad Hatter (the Disney original version, not the new Johnny Depp creepy version).

Here is a sneak preview of the projects I have in mind for the future:

(Image from allthingsthrifty.com)

(image from westelm.com)

(image from

http://courtypantslance.blogspot.com/)

ps. please ignore any spelling errors or any errors period in my entry...I've been sick and still can't think straight but I was so excited I had to share.

Halloween Costume

I found this tutorial for an adorable owl costume and HAD to make it. I made a few changes on mine. The mask is only half a mask because our church has asked that we not wear masks to its functions and we are going to the trunk-or-treat on Saturday. I personally like the full mask better, but am happy with my alternative.
I also made my "feathers" smaller because she is much smaller than the little girl shown in the tutorial. She says you can sew or glue the feathers on. I highly recommend gluing, sewing by hand takes forever. I started this costume by sewing and realized how long it was going to take so I started gluing.
The hoodie was $2.50 at a gently used kids clothing store (it had a little design on the front that I covered with the feathers, so your hoodie does not have to be plain). Fabric was about $3 at Joann's (I used fleece), and I bought extra "just in case". The mask I used was $1.99 (it was not the one she used on her tutorial). The rest of the materials I had at home. This project is SO easy I really think anyone could do it.

Lamp Shade!

I found this adorable idea for a lamp shade for my daughters room at 1 Talented Family. They have several other great ideas, check them out! I can't wait to make this shade! What a terrific idea! Also they've posted a tutorial on how to make the fabric flowers used for the shade here.