Inspiration and Indecision

i find myself looking at pictures a lot and noticing just how nice the room looks, and thinking "that would look nice in my own house". i piece it together in my mind how i would walk into that room and feel all happy and relaxed, quite proud of myself and a bit smug with my awesome little room. and, even better, i can totally do that! i mean, it's just paint, a rug, the arrangement of the furniture.... how hard could it be?

(all from google image, btw)

then i look at my room and go completely blank.

(not how i want my room to look...)

i can't even come up with the most basic of concepts to try. a designer, i may have mentioned, i am not. apparently, it actually takes talent! and don't think i haven't tried! in college, i chose some rather unfortunate colors for our tiny little condo (i think my husband is still a little sore over the pepto pink bedroom, mint green and sunny yellow kitchen, and "sea venture" blue living room and hall). in my current house, the color i chose for my living room somehow changes color during different times of day, and is never a really pleasing color during any of them. it seems to have a pinkish/orange tint to it that can clash with my sage green couch and brown ottoman. and we won't discuss what my husband thinks of the pink paisley fabric i used on the bench he made me....

hey, don't judge. the first step is admitting you have a problem.

anyway, remember that art piece i made for the wall above my couch (here)? well, it turned out that the color blue i used for the background was much too light and bright for the space it was designed for. bummer. so i looked into all kinds of ways to try to fix it so that it would work without actually having to redo the darn thing. the best choice? repaint the wall. in fact, repaint all the walls in the living room. trust me, this really was the best option. if you doubt me, reread the second paragraph.

now, i wasn't so much worried about painting the room. i've painted before without incident. it's the easy part of decorating. but what color to choose? i was a wasteland for ideas. when i lack inspiration, i turn to my trusty friend, the internet. in this case, i turned to kreyv. if you look at this site, there is a whole series of posts dedicated to different colors and how they could work. check out the one for grey and see where i finally found my inspiration. that's me in words, people: subtle, sophisticated, and versatile! if you don't know me, just take my word for it. if you do...well, try not to laugh in front of the newbies. but, back on track, grey is the winner for my living room. a light grey, (a la:
to be exact. easy, peasy! except....

do you know how many light grays there are to choose from?! a bazillion! i counted! it's insane! i came home with 11 paint swatches to consider. ELEVEN, people. and i left at least twenty times that many looking lonely on the shelf as i walked away! why do we need that many choices?! it's dangerous, frankly, to put that many options in front of people who have no idea what they're doing! then someone suggested i consider light tan, as well. now, hold on. let's not get carried away and run all willy nilly through the store, okay? i don't have that kind of time! rein it in, people. just rein it in.

oh, this may take longer than i thought.

a couple months later....

so, a tip for other novices, like myself, who are not what we call "color confident" when it comes to these major decisions: ask friends for opinions. it's easy and they love to give them. here's the thing, though. only ask people who's tastes you admire. i asked one person who i think may be color blind. that opinion, obviously, does me no good. so, stick to a select group. then hit the store and grab some samples. then ask again. compare those samples that passed muster with the group with your furniture and curtains, etc. (unless it's all up for a change). they sell little sample cans of paint in some stores that you can get for a small area to test in your room, if you want to do that. it's a lot cheaper than a full can and less risky.

i made a deal with my husband. he only opposes me on most home improvement projects because he doesn't want to have to do it. so i told him he wouldn't have to do any of the painting (simply come home one day and it would be a different color), and he agreed to let me have my way with the living room. well, i have three small children to take care of all day, so painting a big room was not going to be an easy task. so i did what i could when i could. i started with the edging (which is my least favorite part and, i think, what takes so long when painting a room). i got one coat on while the kids slept...and then nothing else for days.


it looks blue, doesn't it? which was funny, because the paint in the can looked white. both of which are funny since the color i paid for was gray. i began to feel doubt (just so you know, people, doubt is a big part of my home improvement process).i stared at that edging for days and worried. then i did a second coat on the edging, just to see if that would help. it didn't. still blue-ish.

it sat even longer. we went out of town for a while and when we came back...still blue! what to do?! i had to make a decision pretty quick because we had company coming in a couple days. i either had to go ahead with the gray/blue, paint the edging back to the original color (which i had in the basement), or get a whole new color and start over.

have you ever heard the expression, "in for a penny, in for a pound"? well, i'd already paid my penny, so.... it was time to pound it out. with the help of a couple of friends, the paint went up.


it still looked rather blue to me, but the next problem was that i had misjudged the size of my room and needed more paint. so out i went. after treating my friends and kids to lunch and getting some more paint from lowes, i returned home to a gray living room! it was like magic. the paint dried to the color on the paint sample (as it was supposed to)! yes, it still needed another coat, but i could happily say that it was coming together!


i'm pretty happy with the result:



it looks pretty good with my new gallery wall, if i do say so myself. and i do. often.

so, bottom line is this: if you want to spruce up your room, paint is a really good option. just make sure to get the right advice when it comes to color. the color part, for me, got the juices flowing for the rest of the room (the room that i was completely blank about before). i never would have considered gray, to tell you the truth, if someone had not suggested it. don't be afraid to take advice that seems rather foreign to you. get the samples, test it out, and, if you think you might like it, go for it.

oh, and wait for it to dry before you panic. ;-)

Ever Wonder....?

i have friends people (admit it, you're surprised) who are a bit more confident with their abilities than i. they take on some crafting tasks that i would never have dreamed of. case in point: the canvas. it looks so simple, does it not, that simple piece of canvas stapled to a simple wooden frame? so why does it cost so much?! and why do they make special tools for it? hm. food for thought. then my friend decided to tackle a project for the wall behind her tv. and now, people, we know why. this is her story:

Thursday, March 31, 2011

I'm baaaack...

for now. With a boring project post. Sorry.

I needed something to do with the big empty wall behind my TV. I saw something online (check out the bottom picture here) that looked just like a giant plain canvas behind a TV, and figured I liked that more than anything else. So I decided to make it. I started watching tutorials on stretching canvas and building the frame, and figured, (you guessed it...) how hard could it be?

Hard. But definitely doable.

First I bought I huge roll of canvas, which kicked my butt into gear. I felt invested looking at that roll sitting there waiting for me do my project.

I started building my frame with 1x2's and then a quarter round on top of that. The purpose of the quarter round is so that the canvas basically doesn't touch frame except on the edge. Pretty clever. Also, very expensive. If I had skipped this step, which I'm not convinced was a real necessity, I could have shaved $25 off the cost. I think that is probably more important for artists, (you know, the people that usually use canvases to paint art, not solid colors)so that the surface of the picture doesn't perform differently around the edges.




That was all the frame building tutorial covered. Which would probably have been fine for 24" picture, but no so much for a 70" picture. I instantly realized I would need to put some supports in. Sadly, I hadn't bought enough wood for that since I was going off the online tutorials directions, so I had to make another trip to the Home Depot.

Incidentally, why is it every time I walk into the store, a prerecorded message comes over the loud speaker about keeping your kids safely buckled in the shopping cart within a minute? It's like someone sees me coming with three kids and pushes the button to tell me to buckle in my kids. I got news for you (well, them). a) I've been around the block (so to speak) with kids and carts and feel like I pretty much have it under control, and b)The straps don't even slow my kids down. In my opinion, they just create a false sense of security, since I am more likely to stand a couple feet away and turn for two seconds and find Jade standing in the top of the cart, the buckles hanging around her ankles.

Anyway...I got enough wood to put a support down the middle and a diagonal at each corner. I mitred each diagonal at a 45 degree angle and nailed them in. Very well. From both directions. That sucker was sturdy.



I then proceeded to start the canvas stretching process. It was hard. I got a blister on my wrist. Not really sure how, but I did. Finally, just before finishing the edges, I set it upright, and to my horror saw...a parallelogram. (I had a picture to show you, but most of my pictures magically went blank. Not deleted, just plain boxes :( ) Anyway, I couldn't figure it out. 45 degree angles and equal distances should have made perfect square corners, but it didn't. I called my dad to lament. Then I decided to take it apart, a pretty heart wrenching decision after all that work, but I knew I wouldn't be completely happy with it not-quite-square. I took each staple out of the canvas. Then I tried to take the supports out. Unfortunately, I had built it a bit too sturdy. I injured my leg and arm taking out the supports. I found a t-square and painstakingly put it back together, with perfect 90 degree corners. The t-square was absolutely imperative to getting this right (with my experience level, anyway...which is none...). For a smaller frame, you could probably get away without it, but due to sheer size on this big guy, a tiny error = a huge difference in the product. It was amazing how such a tiny difference could make such a huge difference in the whole frame. I stretched the canvas again. My hands felt like they were going to fall off from that little task.

Then the hardest task...choosing a paint color. I finally got a sample, which was almost enough, so I painted the parts that showed the best and did the part that would be hidden behind my TV stand last :)



Since I only spent $3 on paint, I won't feel bad when I change my mind and repaint it. I suppose I could change it with the seasons if I felt like it :)



It turned out pretty close to what I imagined. I wish I had done it a few inches wider. It's hard to tell, but comes out about three inches on each side of the TV stand, I would prefer it were more like 5-6". Sadly, that was a logistical problem since the wood came in 6' pieces and I would have had to buy the 10' pieces to go bigger which would mean a lot of wasted wood and money. I do think it adds something to what was a very, very boring wall. too bad the "before" picture is one of the blanks...you'll just have to imagine it. I may add a little decorative something (similar to this, perhaps) to it later...we'll see.


Anyway, here's the takeaway. This project was difficult (for someone who had never done something like this), but doable. And no matter what, don't try to do a 70" frame without a t square. Oh, yeah, and if you work at Home Depot stop pushing that button when I come in.

______________________________________________________________________________

so now we know why we pay through the nose for someone else to put that simple piece of fabric on that simple wooden frame. thank you, karma, for this insight...and thank you ahead of time for stretching my canvas when i need it done.

*note - this was taken from my friend's family blog, not a craft blog, so i will not be posting the web address.

the thing in my closet

there's this...thing in my closet. it's big and bulky and taking up space that could be better used housing my shoes. it doesn't seem to really do anything. it just sort of sits there and takes up space. and it's not just me. almost everyone i know seems to have one of these...things invading their closet space, too! what is this strange occupant, you ask? a troll? a monster? a relative who may have had too much to drink at the last reunion and hasn't managed to find his way out again yet? (hey, every family has at least one). but no, it's actually none of these. it's worse. it's a sewing machine.

one of the most skill-underestimated talents out there, i think, is sewing. it looks so simple! just cut some shapes out, run the fabric through the machine, press the peddle, and presto! you're a seamstress! who wouldn't want to just whip up some sassy new outfit every time we were going to a party or date or jog around the block? any time the mood hit us, we could suddenly design a whole spring collection! so we all get this harebrained urge to buy one of these seemingly simple seam stitchers. this crazy thought starts to fog our usually logical minds: i can do this. when i am in the store now and see the newest innocent idiot wandering aimlessly through the aisle of sewing machines, i want to yell as loud as i can, "DON'T DO IT!". i want to slap their hand away from the box they're reaching cluelessly for and shake them from that foggy state, to crush their delusions of grandeur as someone should have crushed mine.

because otherwise, they are going to go home and try to use that machine. they will find that it's not as simple as we all thought and, shock, there is a reason we pay for the service people who actually know how to sew can provide. so we store the machine away in the dark corner of our closets and pile our shoes and boxes and cat food on top of it and forget. until someone mentions a sewing project years later. or perhaps they need a hem fixed or a popped seam resewn. then, suddenly, we get that gleam in our eyes and, for some insane reason, think we can do it again! this happens over and over again in a vicious cycle! then we pass the dang thing down to our children whom we have never taught to sew!!

*deep breath* that's what i hear happens, any way.

seriously, though, i am surrounded by people who have sewing machines. when i see it out on the table, i remark, "oh, i didn't know you could sew." they kind of blink back at me and reply, "i can't." and then we bond over the shared lack of talent and absurdity of having a machine we have little to no idea how to use. that's how i make friends. but i am constantly amazed at how many people i know with these and how few people i know who actually sew! the ratio is not positive!!

well, people, the purpose of this post is...it's happened again. that fog has clouded my judgment and i pulled the darn thing out of the closet. i plugged it in and managed to fill my bobbin and thread my needle (surprised i know how to do that? yeh, me, too). i went to the store and bought some fabric and tulle and elastic. i even got out the measuring tape and wrote down the waist measurements of my girls. then i sat down with it all and thought: oh, crap. now what?

and why, you ask, would i do this after the rant at the beginning of my post? what could possibly make me venture into that fog again? well...it was this:

Ucreate

c'mon! is that not just the cutest thing you've ever seen?!! she calls is the cotton candy skirt. tell me that doesn't make you want to sew! and she makes it look so easy!! it's just sewing some tulle onto a long strip of fabric and attached to some elastic, right? straight lines, people! HOW HARD COULD IT BE??

so i took a chance. i downloaded her tutorial and decided that was not only going to make this, but i was going to make three of them for my girls to wear to the wedding we were going to a few days later. i was very determined that this would happen. delusional, people. i'm telling you, it's a serious problem!

should you be itching to get out your own sewing machine now, having seen the awesome cuteness that could be yours, let me walk you through the process that i went through so that you can, hopefully, learn from my...experience.

i'll walk through the tutorial from the blog i got this from. in italics beneath it, i'll comment on how that worked for me with some pics.

Step 1
Measure the rectangle for your skirt. I tripled (really--she wanted fluffy remember?) her waist measurement which is 20. So my rectangle is 60 inches by 16 inches for the height. Serge both edges and then turn under bottom and hem.


got it. this was pretty easy.

Step 2
Make your tulle "bundles." I used 4 yards of tulle and I did end up using all of it in the skirt. I cut strips that were 6 inches by width of the tulle bolt. You should have approximately 24 strips of tulle. Now cut these in half. This should give you 48 smaller strips of tulle.

Now make your bundles...

I am showing you the next steps with fabric (pretend it's tulle)--the tulle didn't show up very well on camera to fold it.

Fold tulle in half.Then fold it in half again. You should have something that looks like this.

Then bunch the top into a bundle--it will look like a tiny paper bag.

You are going to sew where my fingers are.

ok...this got a little confusing. i couldn't figure out how to work all of those measurements with what i had until i realized that she was using bolts of tulle whereas i had bought the rolls of it. so i just kind of guessed the length i needed and started folding:

then i sewed the bundles at the top and set them in a pile:
after i finished the skirt, however, i decided that "pre-sewing" the bundles like this was a waste of my time and the most tedious part of the the whole process. for the next one, i simply bunched them in my fingers and sewed it directly onto the fabric as i went. this not only saved time, but it looked "cleaner" as well without the extra messy lines of thread.

Step 3
Layer your tulle "bundles" on the skirt and sew on in rows vertically like the picture shown. I did 3 rows of 15 or 16 bundles per row.


this step was easy enough, though i will clarify that you need to sew on one line at a time, starting with the bottom since you are layering more on top of it. however, again, if you are simply sewing them on as you go rather than bundling and then sewing, you don't need the pinning step. just have your tulle cut, folded, and sitting in a pile beside you. here's the way it looked the original way, though:

Step 4

Sew up your side seam. Turn under the top to put in casing. Then, thread elastic in and sew up. And you're done!


okay, that was a bit abrupt of an ending, don't you think? where's the "how to" on threading the elastic? because that was freakin' awful!! anyway, a tip on sewing the casing. fold the top of the fabric FORWARD rather than backward and use it to cover up the top of your top row of tulle, as it is likely to look pretty darn messy. the other rows aren't a problem because they're under the rest of the tulle, but that top row...well, let's just say it needs a nice cover.

so that was it. the first one was the hardest, but it came out pretty darn cute:
of course, that model could make anything look good! including the totally mismatched outfit here. hey, i was lucky to get her still long enough to get the skirt over her clothes and get a couple of pics. i wasn't going to try to wrestle her out of the clothes she had one first!

one more tip for this one that the tutorial does not mention: make sure you choose a fabric that is the same color, or very close to it, as your tulle. the fabric i used here was too light for the tulle and showed through too much, i think.

so, there you have it. the second skirt was a lot easier to make with what i learned from the first one, so i would definitely recommend trying this one. do not, however, start designing that spring collection just yet. with my head still big from this success, i tried to make a little bubble style dress for this same model...let's just say that the fog has lifted after that one.

the gallery wall make over

my gallery wall (compliments of jamie over at kreyv) was the catalyst that sparked the living room make over (still in progress, more posts to come). i did this before i started the blog, so there is no post to refer back to. basically, i had some frames, one big canvas, two small canvases, a name plaque, and an inkling of an idea. jamie designed the wall, gave me instructions, and even hung it up for me. this is the result:


cool, huh? she has several posts on gallery walls if you want to find one for yourself and make it happen.

like i said, this started me thinking that perhaps it was time (after almost 4 years of living here) to decorate my living room. well, to make a long story short, i have to paint my walls. and the color i'm painting them no longer matches the canvases in my gallery wall. bummer.

so i needed a new idea. i've been seeing a lot of really pretty wall art lately that uses fabric. check these out:


so i could really just use the current canvases and cover them in fabric, right? really, how hard could that be? i have a nail gun, so really...not hard!

i hit the store and found some fantastic possibilities. seriously, i think i could become addicted to fabric...and not have any clue what to do with it. i went for texture in the two smaller canvases and a big bold print for the large canvas. for the small canvases, i was able to find a couple i liked in the remnant pile for a dollar each (score!). the bigger one wasn't on sale, but i only needed about a quarter yard, so it was still pretty cheap to get.

i do recommend, should you be doing this at home, lining the canvas if there is a pattern or dark color on it. even though my fabric was thick, the dark brown lines still showed somewhat. so i lined with a layer of white that i already had. then i simply started wrapping it all around the canvas frame.

i don't remember where i learned this (possibly from Trading Spaces during my college days), but you start with the corners.


then the middle of each side.


then where ever is left to tighten. make sure to fold the corners neatly because they will show when hung.


voila! first one done!


it took all of ten minutes. i finished the other two and put them back in the gallery for a nice photo finish:

easiest project ever. i definitely recommend this for all skill levels.

*note: the remnant i bought for one of the canvases was actually to narrow too fit the canvas, so i simply cut off a piece from the length (of which there was plenty) and sewed it together. if you do this, make sure to iron the seam so it will lay flat.

Baubling On and On

i have all girls. my girls are very girlie. my girlie girls love girlie things, like hair bows, flowers, and rings. they put these things on and they spin and they sing. and they laugh as the sun catches on all of their bling! unfortunately for me, buying their bling makes the register ching, and suddenly no more shuffle of bills in my pocket, but that annoying jing-a-ling.

dr. seus ain't got nothin' on me! word.

so my oldest is worse than most of the teenage girls i knew in high school. she changes clothes at least twice a day (more if i leave her unattended for more than ten minutes), is constantly checking herself out and posing in front of the full length mirror. everything she sees in the store is "beautiful" and something she really needs. her favorite game is dress up and i'm pretty sure that's what she dreams about at night. she has very strong opinions about the clothes i buy her or put out for her in the morning. the first of which always being "no jeans, mom! they're not pretty!". *sigh* and, of course, her sister just copies everything she does, so i'm already seeing the dollar signs fleeing my wallet as the years pass in my head. there are proms, homecomings, weddings.... the more immediate problem is her jewelry.

she was always admiring of my wedding rings and the few other rings that i wore. then she started noticing the occasional necklace on other women. then the ear rings were a big deal. suddenly, i wake up in the morning and she's climbed up on something to get into my jewelry box and is pulling out whatever she can get her little hands on! obviously it was time to get her some of her own.

have you seen these?


i know, cute, right? but let's be honest. these are for little kids. how long are they really going to last? so should i really pay full price for those? nah!! i can totally make that! and you know what? i can! with a little help from my blogging peeps, you can, too! go here to see where i got the idea for this project (a girl and a glue gun). i LOVE this blog. seriously, what's not to love? it's a craft blog that uses a lot of glue gun action. i have a glue gun! and i know how to use it! well, you know. the basics. plug in, point, pull trigger. how hard could it be?

so i went to the store to find the bases like what kimbo had in her post, but couldn't find them in bulk. they wanted $5 for one! i began to have second thoughts. but then my genius eye fell on these:


look familiar? well, they should. you're keys are probably hanging from one right now. well...not the exact ones, obviously. unless they're very small keys. these are about the size of a 3 or 4 year old's finger. convenient, no? so i sunk them into some Styrofoam and pulled out my stash of "some day" materials (as in "i'm sure i'll find a way to use this stuff some day). i pulled out some fabric and beads that i thought would work well, and away we go!



have you ever seen these?


well, they make awesome rings for little girls!


while i was at it, i found a couple of fake flowers in my stash that i'd used for a baby shower decoration and decided that they girls could use some new hair clips, too. so i clipped then off of the stem, found some "some day) beads, and hot glued them all to a clip that i also found at the store (25 for under $2).



then i made a couple of flowers out of fabric using the method kimbo described in her "hair crap" posts:


and that's it! it cost a fraction of what i would have had to pay to buy one already made only to have them get lost or broken within a month! and who's the coolest mom ever? me, of course!! it just doesn't get any better than this.