2011 In Review - 2012 So Much To Do!!

Dear Readers & Followers,

Wow, this last year has been AMAZING! I've done more sewing and DIY projects than I could ever have imagined. I got my first sewing machine and went on a mad spree of successes and failures.. did a couple of major home remodels, and got in to the fun world of furniture makeovers! Every now and again I even like to share what the Lord is doing in my life :)

My dedication to this blog has drastically increased and I absolutely love coming here to share new creations and fun things to inspire others. To me it is like giving back the inspiration that I have drawn from other bloggers! I think I'm in it for the long-haul! With the year rounding out I'd like to share my 2011 Top 10 posts along with a 2012 to-do list of things I'd love to accomplish. I'm looking forward to the new year, are you?!

~Lisa~

Top 10 most viewed posts of 2011:

Follow the links to see the posts!

10.

Car Seat Re-cover

9.

The Little Red Rocking Chair

8.

Home Improvement: Kitchen Finished Result

7.

Rocker/Glider Cushion Recover

6. 

DIY Spool Rack

5.

DIY Anniversary gift - Simple and sweet

4.

Toddler Hand print Reindeer Shirt

3.

My Husband's Anniversary Gift to Me

2.

Cube organizer on the wall - Laundry closet redo

1.

The most viewed post that so happened to be my very first furniture makeovers...

Desk/Vanity Redo 

Top 10 to-do list for 2012
A few of the things I'm looking forward to accomplishing and blogging about this year:

1. Re-stain and beautify our front and back porch.

2. Gel Staining the front door and kitchen french doors inside & out. 

3. Finishing the flooring in our 3 bedrooms.

4. Interior doors makeover, or replacement...?!

5. Jaiden's room makeover including

Making a STAGE area!

6. A lot of repainting!

7. Mirror closet doors redo.

8. Recover couch cushions.

9. Completely reorganize Sewing room.

10. And maybe, just maybe, a bathroom redo!


Linked:

The Little Red Rocking Chair

About 21-22 years ago (wow, really?!) my dad bought me a little red rocking chair. I can still remember the little shopping center in Weaver, AL we bought it from but the heck if I could tell you much else other than how much I loved this chair! So much so that I still have it. It's one of only very few things I still have from when I was little. When Jaiden was born it automatically went in her room and it has been "hers" ever since. She loves it just as much as I do! 

Sadly it's just worn down and while still being red, it was also kind of tan, and scruffy, and not so pleasant-looking (oh yeah, and the chunk of gum stuck to the underside from when I was in middle school... oops!) so I decided it would make a great Christmas present to repaint it, peel off the old gum, and personalize it just for her!!

Before:

(Jaiden at about 14 months?)

 

 After: 

Nothing that a little sanding, $2 quart of paint from the Lowes (the stuff that gets mixed wrong or whatever..) a home-made "J" stencil, acrylic paint, and some Polycrylic can't fix right up!

This was supposed to be a surprise for Jaiden for Christmas but when you decide to do your painting on the front porch and accidentally leave it out to dry for a day or two, your kid will probably see it. She LOVES it but she still has to wait until Christmas before she gets it :)

#9 Most viewed post of 2011

2011 In Review - 2012 So Much To Do!

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My Husband's Anniversary Gift To Me

I am going to finally share with everyone what my handsome husband did for me on our 5yr wedding anniversary in September!

I already shared with you what I did for him which was NOTHING compared to the amazing thought he put in to my gift. The blog world probably does not have much of a male following but maybe this can inspire someone to try something different!

A couple of months before our anniversary I asked the hubby to come up with a fun surprise for me so we could start planning ahead for some time alone and a special evening. I really expected a nice night out to eat somewhere and possibly a little outing of some sort. I had no clue he was going to plan one of the most awesome weekends we'd ever had! While our anniversary approached he would give me little hints here and there; It would be a 2 day getaway, in Kentucky but not near by, would start out as a scavenger hunt (?!)... the hints were KILLING ME! I was so confused! My mind raced for weeks trying to think of what it possibly could be, and I could tell poor hubs was bursting at the seams trying not to spill the beans.

 GeoCaching, anyone?!

September 9th is our wedding anniversary and the day we started our adventure! Bryan gave me a packet of papers which were from www.Geocaching.com. It really is very neat! Basically people all over the country place little "caches" in different spots which usually consist of a container ranging in size from very small to large and easy or hard to find. Each cache has a log in it, then the "owner" of the cache links it to the website with a clue on where to find it along with the coordinates. When you find it, you log your screename from the website on it and put it back. Some of them have little things in them that you can take and replace with something different.

So we started out very close to home with Geocache #1:

It took a while to find since it was our first try. We were ALL over that field lol, I could only imagine how strange it looked to anybody who might have seen us. This one was just a warm-up... you'll see as it goes on that we could have used a few more warm-ups lol.

He was so organized with this trip that he already had every destination we were going to entered in to our Garmin, so all he did was pick the next destination and we were on our way to Geocache #2!

He comes bearing gifts!

While we hunted through a corn field, down in a sink hole and across the ball field, we never found the cache :( Even with using the GPS on our phone we just could not pinpoint the coordinates and find any sign of the cache! We did find a snake... and 3 days later would reveal we found a lot of chiggers, too!

Oh yeah, and we did find a weird wrinkly tree trunk!

Anyway, at this stop is when I started getting little presents so even though both of us failed to find the cache I still got rewarded so-to-speak hehe! When we first started dating back in high school somehow we came in to an odd obsession with frogs. Usually on my birthday or another special occasion he would get me a frog stuffed animal. For this stop I got a frog Pillow Pet and another little adorable frog. I was thrilled! It was SO awesome, and right then I knew he was taking me on an adventure through our relationship, not just to our final destination!  

*heart slowly melting away*

On to Geocache #3! Mr. Garmin pointed the way and off we went. Sorry, no photos... and we didn't find this one either! We really worked hard on it, too. (We realized it had not been logged online as having been found for several months and we think, based on where the GPS coordinates hit, that it was probably washed away during some heavy rains we had earlier in the year. Bummer!)

Either way, I still got my gift and that is what counts! After high school we were super broke. We had no cable TV and any real form of entertainment so on pay days we would buy a board game of some sort. Over time we built quite the collection of Uno games, Pictionary, Boggle... So once we realized we were defeated by the cache we sat down at a picnic table in the park and played Scrabble Slam. It was amazing that he remembered those simple times in our life. I whooped his butt (as usual) but it was another memorable moment and I loved it!

FINALLY!

Geocache #4 was a success!! We found this one! But yeah, again we were so in to it that we didn't take pictures! Argh on me! It was hilarious though because we drove right past it by quite a distance not realizing it and then I ended up walking across a plowed corn field with the phone GPS back towards the cache. The farmer on the tractor stared at me haha. This is the one time in life my husband got away with driving while making me walk! For this cache he gave me a bag FULL of chewy Sprees... oooh how I love chewy Sprees! It was perfect, and made a great snack for weeks!

Lunch break!

You now get to witness what happens when two very hungry people wait nearly 30 minutes for Pizza Hut in Beaver Dam, KY to bring out your pizza... and this isn't even half of the distorted pictures we took! I'll spare you ;)

 

 Come what may...

I won't lie, Geocache #5 was the absolute most beautiful thing I've ever experienced. Coming from a man who is terrible at surprises and not the overwhelming romantic type (sorry baby, but I still love you just as you are!), he actually made not only ME cry, but HE cried too! You know a man is doing it right whenever he does something so sweet for you that he himself sheds some tears! We found #5 on a fairly secluded back road (yaya, we found another one!). Hubby then took me to the back of the van and let me open my gift. It was a ring box with ear buds in it. I figured I'd have to listen to something but never expected what happened next. I put one in my ear and he used the other, plugged them in to his phone and next thing I know we're on a country road DANCING to our first dance from the wedding reception! OHHHH MY!!!! We could have ended the trip right then and there and gone back home and I would have been the happiest woman on the planet... wait, I already was!!

Here is

~Our song~

Ok, ok.. that wasn't everything. Yes, the man who just danced with me on the side of the road has more! Back on the road with Garmin and I'm told we have 1 more Geocache stop before our destination! For Geocache #6 We get off at an exit off the highway and stopped on the overpass hunting for the cache. What a hoot... we're wandering up and down the bridge looking under rocks, in the grass, next to railing posts, walking across the roadway from one side to the other, you name it. Apparently we suck at this Geocache thing. But wait, I found it!! Yay me!  

Geocache - 2, Bryan&Lisa - 4!! We ROCK, just sayin'

 

My gift for this stop was a full body massage "coupon" that I could cash in whenever I want. I already cashed it in.. hmm, I need to find a way to duplicate that booger :p

On the road again

Back on the road we go to the final stop! Eeeeeee! That evening we end up in Henderson, KY. I'm slightly confused trying to figure out what on earth could possibly be in this city. My last gift?! Tickets to see Josh Turner in concert! Yayay!

Coincidentally he was having a concert the next day on the 10th within short driving distance from our house so hubby planned everything around that! I don't listen to a lot of mainstream music, mostly Country if I do have the radio on, and even then I'm really picky about what I'll listen to but Josh Turner is the exception. He is the one music artist we have in common to the same degree lol. What a way to round out day #1!

The next day we had several hours to kill from hotel check-out til the gates opened for the concert. We decided to go to the Evansville, IN Zoo which turned out to be the perfect filler. All I cared about was the giraffe! I really enjoyed the peaceful time we had together there knowing the concert would be loud and crowded. It was a beautiful lead-in to the night. With the clear sky over head and watching the beautiful storm clouds in the distance things just couldn't have been any better!

Overall it was the most amazing 2 days! My husband poured so much effort in to this to make it a meaningful and exciting surprise anniversary and it truly did mean the world to me. I STILL have butterflies thinking about it and wishing I could go back and do the whole thing all over again. The Lord truly has blessed me with him in my life! 

Thank you, Bryan, for everything you do for me!

The Zoo




The concert

5 years ago when I married my high school sweetheart :)




 Charity suffereth long, and is kind. Charity thinketh no evil, rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things...
Charity never faileth.
(1 Corinthians 13)

#3 Most viewed post of 2011

2011 In Review - 2012 So Much To Do!

Toddler Hand print Reindeer Shirt

While doing my usual snooping around blog world for a fun Christmas activity idea for my 3yr old, I found some adorable ideas to do with hand prints! I know I'm not the first one to do this idea but I can not for the life of me find the original blog of the person who did this to link for you, so I'll just show you mine.

It's really very simple! I used a sewing machine for mine, but you may decide to use the Fabric Tac stuff or something no-sew. I SHOULD have used something to adhere the hand and foot prints to the shirt but I had to make it difficult by pinning every finger and corner down. 

To do it like I did this is all you need:

~ Shirt of your or your kiddo's choice. Jaiden picked out the white one which is perfect for this project. It's a $5 Circo turtle neck from Target

~ Brown thread and fabric for the reindeer face

~ White buttons for the eyes plus black thread to sew them on

~ Red button for the nose plus red thread to sew it on

~ Themed fabric of your choice to cut out the hand prints and thread to coordinate

~ A willing participant to let you trace a hand and foot! Easy if you hype up the activity idea to a 3yr old ;)

I traced my daughter's right hand and right foot on to paper then cut it out. Pin the paper to the fabric, use a pen or fabric chalk stuff (obviously I don't use it because I don't even know the proper term) to trace around the cut-out. I got my "left" hands because I cut multiple layers of fabric out that was folded up so some layers were right side up while the other layers were wrong side up. You could easily trace a left hand and cut that out but I didn't really think that far ahead, plus anyway the 'antlers' are symmetrical which is easy on my eyes!

Lay out your hand prints on the shirt and then lay the foot print over it and situate them how you want it to look. Once you have that figured out pin the hand prints down or do whatever method you like to use to stick it to the shirt and lay the foot print to the side for later. Begin stitching around the hand print! I used a zig-zag stitch with a neat multi-color green thread. 

Once you have both of the hands sewn on, place your foot print on the shirt and pin it down, then begin stitching it with the brown thread. Once again I used a zig-zag stitch. 

I ironed the shirt out after that and then worked on the placement of the eyes and nose. Like I listed above, I used buttons. I made this a very budget friendly project for myself since I already had everything except the Christmasy fabric and shirt. I would have preferred the plastic googly eyes and red pom-pom for the nose but didn't want to go out and buy it. So anyway, sew on the eyes and nose and you're done!!

So far this shirt has survived two washings... I was really afraid that it wouldn't survive since I only stitched the hands and feet on without any other bonding material. I'm posting because I'm confident in the way I did it in case anybody else is keeping it cheap with limited supplies!

I think it will be so neat to make another one next year and watch how her hands and feet grow!

Enjoy & Be Inspired!

#4 Most viewed post of 2011

2011 In Review - 2012 So Much To Do!

DIY Anniversary gift - Simple and sweet!

I had quit the time trying to come up with a budget-friendly and meaningful anniversary gift for my hubs. He was planning me some elaborate (to me at least) weekend getaway and I had absolutely nothing planned for him! He said "make me something." So after some hunting around I found a few ideas. I couldn't really bring myself to do the ones I found... they just didn't sound right for us so back to the drawing board and my trusty blog website, www.childmade.com.

Here is what I found and who I credit the idea to...

http://wave-and-smile.blogspot.com/2011/08/free-project-is-my-favorite-kind.html

So here is what I did...

It encompassed everything that makes us who we are in a simple, elegant way that we can hang on our wall and share with others... PERFECT! 

What you see is my birthday, my husband's birthday, the day we started dating (a looong time ago in 10th grade!), our wedding date, the birth date of our beautiful Jaiden, and the date we found out we were pregnant with our 2nd baby that we miscarried. I also was sure to leave a little extra space for any future pregnancies/births.

For the original blogger, the project was free. For me, it wasn't but that's because I just didn't have anything handy to make it, so it cost me about $24.

I bought:

Photo frame

Piece of scrapbook paper

# stamps

Stamp pad

Brown ribbon I actually already had

I cut the paper down to fit the 8x10 frame. then laid out my stamps to see how to space them because of course once you start stamping you can't go back... and I didn't buy an extra sheet of paper. I made sure to write down all of the dates I wished to use so I would put them in the right order and not accidentally skip one. I did make a few booboos. I even stamped the wrong number on my last date but I just cut out a piece of scrap scrapbook paper and taped it down with the right number. From there I added the ribbon border with a little bit of hot glue. The ribbon is a little crooked but I just need to open the frame back up and adjust it.

I accompanied it with a note (that I bawled my eyes out writing) and gave it to my hubby on our anniversary night. Real men shed a few tears ;)

Be Inspired!

#5 Most viewed post of 2011
2011 In Review - 2012 So Much To Do!  

Cube organizer on the wall - Laundry closet redo

I looked almost everywhere for a blog, website, tutorial, anything that would prove I could put my cube organizer on the wall... No luck. 

Obviously I didn't let it stop me, muwahaha!

I really needed to find a new home for it. Recently I got a bedroom set that once belonged to my Mamaw. The armoire wouldn't fit in Jaiden's room with the rest of the pieces so I decided to put it in the extra room. That meant the shelf had to go.

It sat for a couple of days until I decided I would go ahead and completely reorganize my laundry closet and find a way to get that sucker on the wall!





Yeaaahh, that's my nasty laundry closet. Of course at this point it has been emptied out. Before this it was a disorganized mess so believe it or not I did spare you some pain.


It took me about a day and a half total to finish it up. I had to putty old holes, clean up all the dust and lint, and paint. (Thank you to my friend Judy for selling me an entire unopened can of great quality paint for cheap!) Then I had to hang up the cube shelf. 
That was hilarious and I never want to do it on my own ever again.




I'm not 100% confident in the bracing of this shelf. I think my stud finder is out to kill me. Had much better luck knocking on the wall looking for studs after I had already screwed a gazillion holes everywhere. Argh! So only a few of the brackets are actually in studs. 

The rest of the weight is supported by a lot of prayers and the arms of the wall shelf that was already there!

A little tugging on it did seem to prove fairly safe :\



This is to the left of the dryer. There are two shelves. The top shelf reusable bags, my Hefty & Ziploc bag collection, as well as some bread for now. The bottom shelfs holds all of my paint cans. 

After I got everything in there I realized it needed to be covered. It just looked so cluttered. There is a water softener system and water heater back there.  
(I used hooks screwed in to the top shelf and a leftover piece of quarter round, of all things, to fit across as a make-shift curtain rod.)



Just some Dollar Tree fabric cubes I used to organize little things.

Now instead of having junk piled on top of the washer and dryer making it more difficult and annoying to do laundry, I have everything organized with a home and it only cost me about $30 for the paint, Dollar Tree cubes, and wall brackets!!


Be Inspired!

#2 Most viewed post of 2011
2011 In Review - 2012 So Much To Do!
Linked:

DIY Spool Rack!

I feel like I'm on some sort of creative roll, and I have no clue where I got it from. I take that back, yes I do! I suppose the Good Lord sees how frustrating my old ways of organizing and decorating are to me so he has given me a nudge in the right direction. I am very thankful for it. It needs to be done, plus I'm having a blast with it!

This week I started work on a spool rack. 

Since it is my sewing room I have to have a place to store thread spools.  
Originally I had them in a tiny drawer and that got old way fast especially when I ran out of room. Then I bought wood craft boards that I wrapped with quilt batting and brown fabric, then hammered nails in to at an angle. My goal was to wall mount it. That project failed because I bought nails that were too short so the larger spools slid off :(

I wanted to do this project at ZERO cost to me, using materials I already had.

Thank you, previous homeowners, for leaving behind this ugly wall hook rack for me to keep hung in the same place for nearly 2 years before realizing how hideous it was and making it over for a beautiful new purpose!

I can't find any better pictures of the before product. You get the idea though... the other half isn't hiding any surprises. Trust me.

After a little hunting around and brainstorming I decided to use a box of corsage pins I had as the hooks for my thread spools. I hammered them in just enough to hold the spools. Then I hung the rack on the wall along with an old "Trust In The Lord" sign my MIL gave us a few years ago. 
It was pretty ugly before I painted it which explains why it sat in a closet for a long time.

 I took the old brackets off the top that allowed the shelf to hang horizontally and moved them to the side so it would hang vertically. I also had to create a way for the sign to hang since the old method was with a metal wire hot glued to the back that was in bad shape, so I nailed brown ribbon to it. I'm not too terribly pleased with the way that part looks but I'll fix it one day when a new idea comes to mind. 

Here is a close-up to give a better idea of how the pins serve their purpose. On smaller spools I can keep the bobbin with it, otherwise I just stack the bobbins up on another pin. It also worked great for my tiny stash of ribbon!

As always,

Be Inspired!

#6 Most viewed post of 2011
2011 In Review - 2012 So Much To Do! 

Desk/Vanity Redo

THIS excites me!!! 

I have been itching to redo of a piece of furniture (paint-wise) for a while. 

I finally did it!!

Last year I got a desk from my mom. 
Well, really it was from my aunt and uncle but my mom came by the house with a big desk in the back of her truck.

I told her she surely did not need any more furniture in her little house so convinced her to let me have it. Since then it has served a convenient purpose in my extra room, especially when I got my sewing machine in December. 

Can't beat FREE!!

In September of last year I also decided to go buy a vanity (or anything I could find that would work) to use as a vanity table. I have Plantar Fasciitis so standing in the bathroom for an extended period of time to do my hair/make-up was very hard on my feet. I found the perfect little desk with all kinds of beautiful potential... I think I paid $25-$30 for it.

I'm slowly in the process of trying to put our house together and I really wanted to get my sewing room set up the way I want it. That involved moving my vanity from my bedroom to the sewing room. After standing back and looking, everything was so mismatched and it drove me crazy!! Sooo... a little hunting around online and I decided to repaint the desk and vanity to match so I could get the ball rolling on the decor process.

My Inspiration: 

Kammy's Korner: The Desk I was Loathing

After a little color debate I settled for pink and white 

...and this is what I got...

I decorated it with perfumes and pretties my mom gave me that she inherited from my recently passed Mamaw. I think they made a beautiful addition.

Forgot about the white mirror I had tucked away.. PERFECT fit!
I was using a big square brown-framed one from Kirkland's. Got this white mirror off Craigslist last year originally for my bathroom whenever we redid it. Still have not redone it...






I LOVE the new knobs I bought for it! They are like a pewter color... $5 for all of those brand new!! 
(at a local store that sells stuff they buy by the truck loads from department stores and such.)

In the finished product I got rid of the shelf that was in the top right corner, and the shelf on the bottom right, as well as a roll-out keyboard tray that was attached under the desk.

I'm definitely thrilled at the results!!

I won't get in to too many details about how I did everything. It's pretty simple. Sanding and painting. 

A couple notes: I do not recommend spray paint for this. I used it at first and had to go out and buy a paint+primer in one paint to finish the project. I only used the spray paint ultimately for the metal legs on the desk as well as the black rubber-like strip that went around the outer edge of the desk. It was the only way I knew to make it white. Give that stuff plenty of time to dry! It took nearly 2 days for it to not be tacky to the touch any longer. Rubber is not easy to paint apparently!

In total, this project cost maybe $30 for the stencil, paint, and hardware. 

Be Inspired!

#1 Most viewed project of 2011!!
2011 In Review - 2012 So Much To Do!