The Magic of Spray Paint!

I'm pretty convinced that spray paint is the grown up equivalent of "magic in a can!" For less than $4, you can transform practically any ole object from trash to treasure in like ten minutes. Ok, ok, maybe more like fifteen minutes.

Years ago, like six or seven of them, we were expecting family for our first Easter and I went to dust off the dining room chandelier. I barely touched it and the thing crashed onto the table! Yes, that actually happened. In tears, I convinced my not-so-much-a-fan-of-electrical-projects-husband that he HAD to quickly hang another chandelier before family arrived to our new house for Easter. At the same time, since I am also part pack-rat, I had him save the old chandelier, convinced I would find the perfect something for it someday.

Today, the time had finally come for that old chandelier to serve a new purpose! I cut all of the old electrical wires and lightbulb holders out of that thing, rubbed it down with a little steel wool, and painted it the perfect shade of red. 

Then, I hung it from the magnolia tree in our backyard. I stuck the children's little plastic table underneath it and have visions of the cutest Fancy Nancy-style tea parties and play-doh formation creating taking place there. And there will be candles, oh yes, there will be little candles in that chandelier. Maybe even the faux-candles (you know the little battery-powered ones). I'm really going to have to do something about the old table though...hmm...project!!!

Happy Creating!

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Tips (aka, what I learned today):

1. Hang the chandelier from something to paint it. I used a ladder so that I could get to it from all sides. Note, you will probably get overspray on to your ladder. I did.

2. Hang the chandelier upside down to paint it first. You sit under a chandelier, and very rarely see it from the top. So, by painting it upside down first, you get better coverage and don't miss the visible spots. (I didn't do this and was a little upset that I hadn't thought about this first.)

Pillows: You can do this!

Yesterday afternoon I sewed my first real thing this year- pillows! Actually, I have only sewn a couple of things since Halloween when we closed on the new house, which was months ago. It sure was nice to be back at the machine.

Here was the basic chain of events:

1. Realization that the pillows on the front bench look like this:

Yuck! (In case you can't tell, they are very badly faded and damaged from being outside.)

2. Made decision that these pillows need to be fixed RIGHT NOW. (Sadly, this was actually on Monday evening, after dark. I have a pretty strict rule of not going outside in the dark alone. It has to be a pretty big reason to break this rule OR the hubs has to be home to protect me. I may be too old to be afraid of the dark, but I am anyway, so there. Instead of getting the old pillows, I decided to rummage through my gobs of fabric for options.)

3. Daylight= access to pillows. Got them. Measured width and length.

4. Cut fabric and inch longer on each side than the measurement I got in step 3.

5. Sew. Stuff. Sew.

6. Run out to porch and place pillows. Step back and admire.

For these pillows, I basically used the old pillows as a pattern and reused their filling, so the whole project has cost me less than the price of a yard of material (which I probably paid about $6 for). I have four more outside pillows to recover, and next time I should take some pictures so you can repurpose your old pillows too. Would you be interested in seeing those?

I probably spent less than an hour from choosing the fabric to actual sew time, if you ignore that I had to wait for the sun to come up. You can do this project too and spruce up your outside spaces with minimal cost.

For you experienced in the art of sewing, you know that the basic pillow is not to be feared. In fact, I probably have 10 yards of fabric waiting to be transformed into new pillows and valences for the new house. They just require time and patience.

If you are new to sewing, pillows are a great place to start! There are a few simple tips and techniques you need to know, and you will be creating your own pillows in no time. 

Are you interested in a tutorial on making these pillows? 

-Carrie

The "Brave Pill" My Son Needed

Ok, Moms, I'm sharing this little story from our world so you can tuck this solution away in case you need to pull it out when all else fails.

It was another one of those times when the idea popped into my head and I didn't really think about it before I was doing it. Here is what happened:

This morning I gave my kid a "brave pill." It was my brain's answer to the problem of a bad swimming lesson yesterday, meets pending swimming lesson today, meets candy jar sitting near the coffee machine.

"What?!?!" you say. Sorry, I'll back up.

Yesterday, my three-year old started swim class.  Within about 7.5 minutes from the start of class, he went from big boy excited to be in his own class, to wrapping his soaking wet little body around me screaming.  We sat by the pool, and waited out the remainder of the class with him barely daring to put his toes in the water.

This morning, I was somewhat dreading going back to lessons and having a repeat of yesterday's class. All the while hating that I know he will just love swimming if he would try.  As well as fearful that my three-year old was going to send the five other three-year olds in the class into the same crying tailspin.

My favorite thing about my brain is its ability to work on several things at one time. The swimming lessons issue was in desperate need of a solution because I had tried every rational thing I could. Then, in a moment of creative genius (genius because this idea came to me before 10 am and before I had consumed my coffee) this morning, I was plucking a "brave pill" from a jar.

Brave pills, you ask?  This brave pill was an orange jelly bean that I waved my magic (wooden spoon) wand over and said "Abracadabra, Allacazam. Turn this into a brave pill for Jack. Viola!" Then, I let him eat said "brave pill."  He instantly said he felt braver and stronger.  He decreed that he would be getting his hair wet in the pool.

Of course, his sister then needed one too. I performed the transformation on her pink jelly bean.

The whole way to swim class I was so skeptical.  I didn't want to get my hopes up.  Really, could this simple infusion of bravery work?  I was ready to be sitting by the pool again in wet shorts and a tank top while my son sent a class a three-year olds into a tizzy.  He continued to insist that he was braver and was going to get his hair wet and be so proud of himself.

When the moment of truth presented itself, he did in fact willingly go with the class to the pool.  He got in the pool.  He did all the things his coach asked.  He even got his hair wet.

Kicking with the kickboard 

Even jumping in

After class, he charged at me.  This time soaking me in his hug of pride.  He was beaming that he was brave enough to go in the pool and that he had even had fun.

I'm not sure why my words of reassurance, my husband's words of reassurance, and even seeing his sister have fun in swimming class weren't enough to ignite his confidence that swim class could be fun. However, telling him that a jelly bean would make him brave is something he can believe in.

Maybe, just sometimes, all one needs is one little magic bean to set the day on the right track.

So, that was my story about a little creativity before my cup of coffee and it worked.

When rational fails, sometimes the magical is what we need.

Awesome Spinning and Twirling Skirt! Pinned it and Did it

Who doesn't need super-cute summer skirts for their little girl?  A few months ago I collected a few DIY skirt tutes on Pinterest and I finally made one.  It was called the "Circle Skirt" but my daughter calls it her "Spinning Skirt." (Actually, it usually comes out "Sfinny Skirt"but I thought you may not be able to translate that last remaining vestige of her toddler lisp.)

This Pin by Made is quoted in multiple tutorials and after digging around on her blog, I can totally see why.  She has some really fun tutorials all over the place.  (insert the"Danger, Batman!" warning to anyone who loves good DIY tutorials that don't require purchasing anything)

Here is the link to her tutorial.

Source: danamadeit.com via Carrie on Pinterest

Armed with that Pin, some awesome knit fabric, 1.5" wide elastic, and an unplanned Saturday evening, I was able to tackle the mathematics, make a pattern and....drumroll.....a skirt!

Ta da!

Can you tell how much she loves the twirl power of this skirt?

For the most part, I followed her tutorial.  The math involved is easy and worked great. My fabric was a directional print (meaning all the little rainbows went the same way, so I had to cut two pieces and sew them together to make the circle.)  For fabric, I chose a knit, and although knit wasn't on her suggested fabric list. It worked great though.  The only other thing I did that she didn't do on her skirt, was to zig zag stitch over the elastic seam to provide a little extra durability and to make the elastic lay flatter.  Just be careful when you sew fabric to the band as it is a little thick in that spot and you don't want to break a needle.

I have now made five of these skirts and have a few more cut out.  They easily take less than an hour.   On the last one I made, I zig zag stitched the elastic to the fabric and was happier with the result than the straight stitch because I find it hard to sew perfectly straight lines and tug on the elastic.

5th Birthday at Walt Disney World Outfit!

Cinderella-inspired Cotton Costume with Twirl Skirt
I covered the waist-band on this one so I didn't have to dye the elastic to match. 

A side note on knits: Lots of people are afraid of knits since they can take a little more patience to cut and require a little finesse when you sew them.  However, I challenge you to conquer your fear of knits and try them.  Just pull on the fabric a little bit as you sew it to another piece and they will come out wonderfully.  It is actually a very forgiving fabric to sew with.

Happy sewing!

(And if you end up being inspired to make one, or ten, please let me know!)

On Pinterest:

Source: happylittlemonkeystree.blogspot.com via Carrie on Pinterest