What Can White Do For You?

Here is a before.  You know the drill.

Pretty sure this doesn't need explaining.  Add white and have a swell day, Madam. :)

Catfood and Beauty

Been to icravefreebies.com lately??  You need to!  Last week I got ANOTHER bag of cat food - I seriously have gotten probably 20 pounds of free cat food in the mail by now.  And on the same day I also got this cute little bag full of goodies!  Ohhhhh I love you, icravefreebies.  You da best. 

So TODAY:  Free anti bacterial something or other - FULL SIZE, Baby!  Not a little one time sample packet...  CLICK HERE and hope you're not too late!  I think it was only to the first thousand or million or something.  Haha.  And where on this planet are Quick Cheks??  Because they ALWAYS seem to have free drinks and what not and I've never seen a Quick Chek in my life.  Michigan, I think it's time we get some of those!!

Skirt From a Pillow Sham

I've always looked at furniture and home decor for what it could be, not for what it is.  But a day of shopping thrift stores with Angelina got me started doing it with clothing, tablecloths, and GOODWILL PILLOW SHAMS!!

The design of the fabric on these pillow cases just totally caught my eye.  I was thinking of recovering a chair cushion with them, but Angelina was afraid they were too thin.  I bought them anyway...  I'll think of something some day....

My mom is a pretty good seamstress, a talent I did NOT inherit, so I lobbied for her skills when she was here visiting last week and using a skirt of mine as a pattern, she made my Goodwill shams into a cute skirt!

I'm proud to say that I actually did the "flower" myself!!!  Sewed a long strip of fabric together along the side, then just wound it around in a circle, pinning it in place, and sewed around and around with the sewing machine.  In fact, I was so busy sewing that I didn't realize I was sewing it to the back of the skirt as well!!!!  Let's just say I'm well acquainted with my seam ripper.  Being blond has it's down moments.  (Oh, and don't mind my extremely funky tan line on my leg.  I burned bad in the Dominican Republic and some of it peeled off, some of it didn't!)

     

Marie's Clever Wall Art

It started with a stencil.  No.  It started with Marie.  She is my friend who has a bajillion and four creative ideas flying all over between them ears of hers.  And then came the stencil.  She drew a rectangle on the wall and kept the fern stencil in it's boundaries.  I'm not even sure she knew where it was going next....  we're both kind of like that.  Start something with no idea what it should end up looking like!

Then she framed the stencil art, adding another frame in the middle that contained the front of a Christmas card.  Now how clever is that?  It's the first thing that meets your eyeballs upon entering her house, and if I do say so myself, it makes quite a striking first impression.  It kind of wets your appetite to see what other clever things Marie has tucked all over her house!  Unless you're like me, and you just want to see what yummy food is plopped on the island waiting to make their home on my hips!

Ladybug Party For a Little Lady

It's a Party!  Tori Turns One!!  (I threw those together around midnight, so they're nothing special!)

"Mommy, can I pleeeeease paint?"  "Why, yes, yes you may, Tobin!  We need ladybug rocks for the party!"

Trying to keep her occupied while I frosted the cake.  She was occupied!! :) 

Our lady bug rocks made cute decorations around the cake!

I am NOT a cake decorator.  I was nervous to do this myself, because I've never done one without help, but I figured it was about time I step up to the plate and be a "good mom"!!  I mean, don't all good mommy's out there decorate their kid's cakes??  (I'm only joking of course....)

Since I'm a professional procrastinator, I waited until two days before the party to look for some plastic ladybugs.  I wanted them to make a special hairbow for Tori and a matching one for Mommy.  All I could find was a plastic bag of bugs, which contained one awful looking ladybug.  So I decided to use the bugs in the bag, and make my own.  Now if you're an entomologist, you might be horrified.  (If you think I actually knew the technical term for a "bug studier" you'd be wrong.  Google and I are tight). 

Happy Birthday my feisty, sweet, darling daughter!!  Grandma Ann brought her the cutest ever little ladybug dress!  I'm sooo counting on the "spray n' wash" to take the lasagna stains out!!!

Tori got the one and only ladybug in the "bug bag" for her hair clip.  However, I had to add 2 black spots, make the head black, and add the black line.  Man, don't they have ladybugs in China?  I thought about going around my house and collecting them in jars for center pieces since I have such an abundance of them that I don't even bother to kill them anymore.

Now for the next party....  my boys will be 3 and 5 in June.  They've been hinting at a "bug" party....  And no thinking about it, if bugs are the theme, there WILL be real bugs in jars for center pieces!!

Pink Shirt Sprouts a Side Ruffle

Please don't ask me for a tutorial.  I can't follow directions very well, therefore I stink at giving them!  In fact, do you know I always got "A's and B's" on my report card in elementary school (ahem, I started out really smart... but then it caught up to me!) except in Kindergarten.  I got two "U's".  Which back in the day was equivalent to an "F".  It stood for "unsatisfactory" and I recall it was the lowest letter you could get.   Do they even give grades out anymore in elementary?  Or might that damage a child's self esteem and force them into a life of crime and endless prison terms?    Okay, let me try to sum up how I did this (while my mom looked over my shoulder, sighing at my lack of seamstress skills).  I sewed a wide stitch up the middle, then held one thread and pulled tight to bunch it up.  I know there's a better word for that, but I need to be in the kitchen chowing down some breakfast, not trying to recall sewing terms.  Then I pinned it into place on the shirt, and sewed down the middle again, being careful not to sew it to the back of the shirt as well.  I could just see myself doing that and then wondering why I couldn't get the blasted thing on!  I think I have a new addiction to making over shirts.  Mom and I just brought home about 25 new plain shirts from the $1.99 clearance racks at KMart.  So, you know what this blog holds in the future!  haha.  More shirt revamps coming soon to a Korner near you........       
                                                                                  

Kammy's Southern Blitzes

This is my fast fairly fast version of Southern Blitzes.  I'm running out of new things to bake for those hammer swingin' gentlemen working hard to get our addition done, and all I could find in the house was a loaf of bread and some cream cheese.  So, these were quickly born!  They loved 'em.  Try them and let me know that they weren't just being nice! 

Filling: Blend 2 packages of cream cheese, 2 eggs, 1/2 cup sugar, and a tsp. vanilla in a bowl.

Roll out a slice of bread as flat as you can and spread 2 spoonfulls of the cream cheese filling.  Roll it up and place in a greased pan.  Continue until all the mixture is used up (about a dozen or so slices of bread).

Brush egg whites over the tops, then spoon LOTS of white sugar over the top (I never said these were healthy!) and sprinkle cinnamon on top.  Bake 20-25 minutes on 365.  Random temperature I know, but that's what I baked them on.   Now ya'll enjoy them Southern Blitzes!

My First T Shirt Makeover!

I used the strip I cut off from the bottom of the shirt and hot glued it on by twisting little sections and sticking in the glue, until I used up all the fabric.  It was quite easy, just burnt a couple layers of skin off my fingers in the process.

I kind of wish my home-made embellishment was a little larger, but so goes using what ya got! (And quite often, what I got, ain't a whole lot!)

Hello, Closeup.  Eek, are those age spots I'm getting on my neck?

Linking up at:
Sew Woodsy

 

The Last of Raquel and Abby's Furniture

Raquel and Abby were getting bedroom makeovers.  Their sweet mommy sent me a photo of the purple walls, white beds, and wild zebra comforters, via cell phone.  I scrounged around for my magnifying glass to see these cute rooms on my itty bitty screen and then went searching for the missing furniture they needed.  This has definitely been my largest paint order by far and I was quite excited!!  After my hubby made the above delivery, I received an email from and little Raquel's mother and it said "we love the pieces - my daughter spent all night in her room coloring at her desk. she said, Mom this is going to be a great semester!"  My heart was a happy heart. :)  Soooo, over the last week, I have posted about all of the above furniture except for this last little chair...

I decided going the zebra route might be overkill so I did this...........

But it looked like little doileys.  After it sitting in my dining room over night, I just couldn't hack it.  And if I couldn't hack it, I didn't think the girl on the recieving end would be able to either.  So... I covered the larger than life polka dots with two coats of black paint and started over.

Light purple flowers kiss the seat (minus the polka dots on steroids) and it's a little girl winner! 

Redo for Raquel : Zebra Night Stand

You'd think I'd just had a trip to Africa or something, what with all the zebra you've been seeing on this blog lately!  No, no...  The same girl that ordered  the "beastly" zebra desk, and wanted the zebra side table, also wanted a nightstand.  When I first bought this little piece at the Goodwill As Is store, I had noooooo idea what I was going to do with it, nor had any ideas crossed my mind for all the months it in sat in the corner.  Until Raquel and Abigail's matching zebra bedrooms came a callin'.  That's it!  That's what this end table needs!  A walk on the wild side!

Took the handle off and spray painted it black, and I think the rest is obvious?  I'm starting to get a little better (and faster) at this free-hand zebra stripe thing.  Thanks mom, for pointing out that the stripes should come to a point, rather than be rounded!  Haha.  This was not fun to paint, btw.  I gave it a good rub down with Wil Bond, and then painted it, HOWEVER, I would recommend spray paint, rather than regular old brush/roll on.  I ended up spray painting the front and bottom edge around the sides, because the paint dried funky.  Well, that's my two cents worth!  Ta ta for now!

The Homely Lamp - Before and After

My parents live in the wonderful state of Iowa.  When they come to visit, they usually bring me fun gifts like cast away lamps from friends - thanks, Bec!!  It was pretty ugly...  but of course NOTHING has to resign to a life of ugliness.  No siree, Bob.

I spray painted the bottom with a super hard enamel spray (make sure to wrap the first inch or two of cord with tape to keep the paint off it), and then painted it with black semi gloss to give it some shine and match the rest of the black I used.  Then went white and lavender, every other.  Lastly, finished with a flower stencil for a touch of "girl". :)