Showing posts with label Tutorials. Show all posts

Trophy (Painting) Wife

Last week, I finally got around to throwing up a collage wall and making a lamp out of string lights in Sebastian’s room.  If you missed that post, go check it out.
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A few of the things up on that wall are some trophies from Anthony’s years past – Little League baseball years past.  I asked him a few years ago if he’d allow me to spray paint them and I got a shocked face and a stern, are-you-crazy, “no”.  Then I tried again last week and, maybe since all these guys have been doing is chilling in Sebastian’s closet, I got a “sure”.  So, I took that affirmative and ran with it…straight outside…with a few cans of spray paint.

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Have you a few old trophies laying around?  Maybe you’ve passed some by at your local thrift store?  Well, if so, here’s how to make them as exciting today as they once were.

Trophies are put together really simply.
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Basically, they’re a bunch of pieces and parts stacked on top of eachother with a long, threaded rod down the middle and that rod is secured at the bottom with a nut.

Unscrew that nut and everything will just slide right off.
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The super cool thing about Anthony’s trophies is that each base is marble, carrerra marble to be exact.  I know so because a tiny sticker on the back of each told me so.  So fancy, right?  Well, there’s no way I’m going to paint something that isn’t ugly in the first place.  So, I grabbed all the plastic to be painted and left the marble as-is.

I gave all of the pieces a good washing with some dish soap and a toothbrush before I painted them.  They were a tad dusty from being stored so long.  After they were dry, I took them outside and laid them all out on a big piece of posterboard that was headed for the trash.

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Then I gave each piece a coat of spray primer.  Plastic tends to be pretty finicky when it comes to holding paint (ahem), so priming it first ups the chances of it really sticking.
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I painted one side of each piece, let that side dry, and then turned everything over to paint the other side.

Two of the trophies I left just primed – the gray and white.  I wasn’t sure what color I wanted to go and the only actual color I have in my spray paint stash right now is yellow.

Once everything was nice and dry, I put the trophies back together the same way I took them apart – by stacking them in order over the rod and securing it all by putting that nut back on at the base.  Except, in putting them back together, I turned the marble bases around backwards so that the metal plate parts with all of the writing were facing the back and the fronts were just plain marble.  See?
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(So I was thinking while I was putting these things back together, about how awesome it would be to grab a few marble-laden trophies from a thrift store, take them apart to remove the marble, and stack the marble pieces all together to make a lamp base.  You could put all the big pieces at the bottom and small at the top or you could stagger them so they’re all different.  Either way, it be a really cool and cheap way to get a marble lamp!  :D  )

Had I a longer shelf, I probably would’ve painted more trophies and maybe that’ll eventually happen anyway.  Until then though, I really love how these turned out.  It’s fun when you can redo and repurpose something but even more fun and special when it’s something of sentimental value that probably wouldn’t have been used much less displayed anyway.  :)

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All thanks and gratitude to my trophy husband for being so good at baseball as a wee lad, for without his mad skills (and eventual reluctance to my painting idea), this post would probably never have been written.  :)

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 spray-painted trophies

Cuffergirls

It’s rare that I can begin a project and see it through to the end in one day but this past Tuesday, I did just that.  I’ve had some thigh-high womens’ socks in my “to sew” pile for a year now and finally got around to refashioning them into…IMG_8244…boot cuffs for the littlebig girls.
(PS, grandma got the girls these boots I was all heart-eyed over and they are just as cute and deserving of that emoji in person.  So, in case you’re in the market for some toddler booties, I highly recommend these!  They’re linked towards the end of the post!)

It took me about ten minutes total to grab the socks,
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cut each shaft into two equal lengths (which, by the way, leaves mama with a pair of crew cuts),
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and serge the unfinished ends.
IMG_1280Don’t have a serger?  Just sew a zig-zag stitch around the ends.  No sewing machine?  Grab some matching thread and sew a quick whip stitch around the top edge.  Don’t worry about perfection.  Worn, they’re scrunched up anyway so no one will be able to critique your whipping.

When the air down here eventually dips below sweltering during the day (November, here’s looking at you), the girls will actually don them outside for longer than a two-minute photo sesh. 
IMG_8241jeans:  Carter’s clearance last year // similar
sweatshirt tunics:  Carter’s clearance last year // similar or this one would be so cute too
scarves: 
diy // similar
boots:  Carter’s or Kohl’s
hats:  one gifted and one a hand-me-down // similar and similar
tire swing (in case you need a swing option that can hold two tots – we paid $30 for it so watch that price):  Amazon
slightly blurry pic:  juggling the camera with a baby on the hip
*some of the links above are affiliate links
 
Someone was not about to be left out of picture-taking…
IMG_8246…and one eager mama was not about to decline because, just look at that face.

Eat him up.

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diy toddler boot cuffs

Pressed & Sealed

I saved almost every single petal of every single rose Anthony gave me while we were dating.  My thick college textbooks were the perfect places to press them - I’d pick the petals off dying flowers and carefully stick them in random pages.  I’d leave them there for a few weeks and into a big bowl they’d go with the rest of the pressed petals once dry.  I didn’t really have any intentions or plans to do anything special with them while I did it though.  I just saved them because of the love and thoughtfulness they signified.  Fast forward to those months in the midst of planning our wedding, when I had this great idea to have them made into a rosary for Anthony; my gift to him on our wedding day.  I had heard from a friend of a convent of sisters who would do just this out in California (I think that’s where they were at least) but when I wrote them, I was sad to receive a letter back saying they no longer made rose rosaries.  I looked into some other options but the prices were higher than I could spend while paying for our wedding so the idea wilted and life went on. 

Fast forward again, only this time to present day, and to the ziploc bags filled with those dried petals that I’ve held onto for all these years.  I’ve finally found a place for them, or at least some of them. 

IMG_8206See ‘em?  They’re inside that shadowbox frame on the wall above our desk!  :)  That frame was one of many inside that bargain cart we bought a few years ago at Dirt Cheap.  (Here’s a similar frame*, though not square.)  I’ve had the idea to fill it with the roses for about a year now and, per the usual, my plans always get delayed by life.  But here it was, before I got to work on it last week:IMG_1162The starfish that was inside had come unglued and floated around wherever gravity let it and the backing of the frame had a little dent in it.  In other words, it was bumped and bruised and the perfect piece for a project.

So, after removing it from the packaging, I turned it over and ripped off the brown paper backing.  It was just glued on around the edges.

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Next, I took off the white carboard backing.  It was stapled to the frame so I just grabbed a small flathead screw driver to pry up and off those staples.IMG_1164
The hanging hardware kept me from getting the top side off because of the way it was attached, but three sides were enough to open up the frame and get inside.IMG_1165
Once I was in, I took out the mat.  It was held in with a bunch of staples.  I just removed all of the staples along the bottom of the frame and a few from each of the other sides so that the mat slid right out from the bottom.  When I was finished, I’d just have to slide it right back in and wouldn’t need to replace the staples.  I wasn’t diggin’ the off-white color of the mat so my next step was painting it white.  The white spray primer I had on hand did the trick.

I also wanted to ditch the blue background for a crisp white one so, I grabbed some watercolor paper I had (similar*) and used the mat to cut it to the size of the frame.
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Completely undocumented because it had to be quick to beat the end of naptime, I got out a little bit of black acrylic paint, a paint brush, and some water and lettered “you & me” onto the paper.  I waffled between a lot of different sayings – the lyrics to our wedding song “When God Made You”, a favorite verse from the book of Tobit, and some other sappy sayings but in the end, settled with simple yet profound. 

Enter the bags of rose petals.  They were going to be carefully laid inside the bottom of the frame, high enough that they’d show above the mat but not encroaching upon the “you & me” that would also be in view.
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At first, I didn’t think I’d have enough petals to fill the bottom of the frame enough that the flowers would peek up over the mat.  Thankfully, in this case at least, estimation has never been my strong suit, because I had way too many.  I mean, I probably used about 1/4 of the petals.  I’m really, really, really not good at estimating.  Once I realized I had too many petals, I went through and picked out the brightest red ones to use inside the frame.  The others I saved for another project; another day…maybe I’ll get that rosary made one of these days.  :)
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Once I was satisfied with the amount of petals inside the frame, I glued the watercolor paper with the “you & me” lettering to the inside of the cardboard backing (covering up the blue), and then ran a thin strip of Elmer’s glue along the back of the frame to hold the backing on.
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Since the back of the frame is against the wall, I didn’t add any brown paper to the back, but left it as-is.  Call it lazy or call it efficient, you decide.

Up it went, the start of a collage that will eventually make its way up this small expanse of wall.IMG_8212 
The evening after I shot these “after” photos, I took off, kid-less, to my favorite local haunt, Dirt Cheap, where I found this gorgeous cantilever floor lamp*.  It was on a bottom shelf, in a box that had never been opened.  I carried it around the store whilst I shopped, unsure if I wanted to spend the $25 it was marked at.  I’ve been using our desk to do finishing work on my pillow covers recently – things like cutting strings and serging edges – and the lack of light has been frustrating me.  But now, my $25 lamp has solved that problemo.  Yep, I got it.  It just makes the space, doesn’t it?     IMG_8221
As far as everything else goes, the chair was a Varage Sale buy ($15) that I plan on reupholsering someday, the desk was a yard sale find ($30), the rug was also a Dirt Cheap buy ($25), the basket was clearanced at JoAnn Fabrics ($7), the plant was a gift and the vase it’s in was thrifted ($1), the curtains were once sheets, the valance is fake and is a diy I’ll share one of these days, and the mirror was a cheap diy project.  The wall color is “Heaven on Earth”, by Benjamin Moore but color matched to Valspar at Lowe’s and the carpet is original to the home and something I’d replace in a heartbeat if we picked the right numbers.

This desk, you can’t see the whole thing, but it’s pretty big.  And, it’s been a big mess until recently.  It was the home for many an item labeled “to-do” and many a paper waiting to be filed.  About a month ago, I unburied the top of it so that we could utilize it and we’ve worked hard to keep it a clutter-free zone.  It’s been a much-needed space away from the kids for me to sew and a space where Anthony can study for his Masters’.  It’s not ideal for us to have an ‘office space’ in our bedroom but it’s the only place we have now that all the other bedrooms are taken by little people.  But, it’s been fun for me to make it “pretty” so that we venture more toward ‘creative space’ and farther from ‘office space’.  I mean, nobody wants to think about work when they’re in their bedroom, right?  So, the prettier and more integrated into the entire design of the room, the better in this case.

Anyone else have their office in an odd space?  Any tips on making it feel like it belongs or so that it doesn’t necessarily look like a work-only space?  I’m sure I could tweak a few things over here so I’m all eyes.  Type away.  :)

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*affiliate links

Easy Homemade Latte

We love our cups o’ joe in the morning.  The kids wake us up and, right after filling their sippies, one of us heads straight to our coffee maker to get that liquid fuel brewin’.  Anthony takes his black and I usually douse mine with more creamer than I probably should but a mom wants what a mom wants, right?  My j-o-b definitely warrants it so I’m totally justified…or so I tell myself.  Calories shmalories.

Coffee-mate’s Caramel Macchiato creamer is my favorite (not sugar-free or light; gimme all the calories and taste plz) and up until the beginning of the year, I’d just do the normal brew, pour, dump, and stir but then Anthony casually made himself a latte with said creamer one afternoon and it was so good that it’s now become a daily for me.

All you need is the coffee you normally brew, the creamer you love, and a frother (link heads to the one we bought years ago at Bed, Bath, & Beyond that’still running like a champ or here’s another that has great reviews and is under $7!!  Both can be found on amazon so you won’t even have to leave the house!)*

I rolled out a little Instagram video last week to show you just how easy it is to make one of these lattes from the comfort of your own kitchen but I realized that the ‘half-inch’ instruction might’ve been a little silly so, after you watch the vid, read the six easy steps below and then go make yourself one (or three if that’s your jam…errr, joe).

 

[Latte from Sheena Tobin on Vimeo.]

Step 1:  Brew your coffee.  (If you go the k-cup route, skip to step 2 and brew your coffee after you’ve frothed your creamer.)
Step 2:  Pour creamer into your empty cup.  We have two sizes of mugs in our cupboard; these two:Image-1 (1)In our 12 oz. cups, I pour about six tablespoons of creamer and in the 16 oz. I pour about eight.  You can adjust to taste but you just need to make sure you have enough to completely or almost completely submerge your frother.
Step 3:  Microwave the creamer for 25 seconds.  I *think* I read somewhere that, when making lattes, the milk (or creamer in this case) froths better when it’s warm vs. hot so, unless I completely made that up, you might want to run a few test rounds with your microwave to figure out what gets the creamer warm but not boiling.)
Step 4:  Froth that warm creamer until it’s nice and fluffy.
Step 5:  Pour in your coffee and give it a little stir.  (Or stick your mug under your k-cup and press play if you’re going thatta way.)
Step 6 (optional):  Add a little more creamer and give it another whirl.

And that’s it!  Let me know if you try it!

Making your coffee this way probably doesn’t taste much different but, while it feels lighter and more coffeehouse-ish, it’s definitely a little more fun, and sometimes, a little more fun in the morning just makes the whole day better.  ;)

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*links to frothers are affiliate links

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DIY Fitted Sheet

Remember back when Sebastian was about to arrive and we were just finishing up making his co-sleeper out of an old changing table?  Well, along with that co-sleeper, I whipped up a fitted sheet to fit the irregular-sized “mattress” that we cut to fit it.  I didn’t document the process or write a tutorial because I was seriously winging it and didn’t know if I’d be writing a ‘What Not to Do’ post instead of a success story.  But, ‘twas a success and so here we are today with a tutorial.  We went the whole of Sebatian’s time in the co-sleeper with one sheet (a big pain when it needed to be washed) but now that Gianna is here, we need at least two.  So, last week I whipped up another one.  Here’s how I did it and how you can too!

First, grab your supplies.  You’ll need fabric (I used and cut up a queen-size fitted sheet), elastic (you can reuse the elastic from the queen sheet if you go that route), scissors, a measuring tape, a safety pin, and a sewing machine.  (Abby at Sew Much Ado made up a great chart to help you figure out how much sheet fabric you’ll need for what size mattress you’ve got!)

Next, get the measurements of the mattress you intend on making a fitted sheet for.  The mattress on our co-sleeper was a piece of two-inch thick foam I bought from JoAnn’s that I cut to fit inside the co-sleeper – 34.5” long by 17.5” wide. IMG_0406 
With the mattress measurements in hand, you’ll cut a big rectangle out of your fabric.  To figure out how big your rectangle needs to be, you’ll add the depth of your mattress (x2) plus an extra few inches for extra fabric around the back to the measurements of the mattress.  So, since my mattress was two inches deep and I wanted six inches (including the pocket hem for the elastic) of extra fabric to extend around the underside of the mattress, I added 4 (depth x2 for each side) + 17.5 (width) + 12 (6 inches of extra fabric around each underside) to get 33.5; the width of my fabric rectangle.  The length of the rectangle then, was 50.5 or 4 + 34.5 + 12.  Does that make sense?

Here’s my mattress in comparison to the fabric needed to make a fitted sheet for it:
IMG_0410Because I measured and cut the fabric while also tending to the kids, I messed up.  After many, many mistakes made because I wasn’t cutting/sewing/painting with my full concentration on my work (read: while the kids were not napping), you’d think I’d learn.  Oops.  Well, what I did was measure the width and not the length before I decided to cut the rectangle out of the fabric.  I didn’t realize my mistake until I had tossed the remants of fabric so, out of the trash it came so that I could cut out two pieces to sew onto each end to make it the length I needed it to be.  I’m telling you all this because in most of the pictures below, there are two seams on my rectangle of fabric and fitted sheet that are only there because of my mistake.  They shouldn’t be so I put a white squiggly line over them hoping for less confusion.  In reality, you’ll just have a big rectangle without any seams.

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Now then, where were we?  Oh yes, your rectangle of fabric.  At this point, you’ll want to serge all around the outside edge to keep your ends from fraying.
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If you don’t have a serger or your sewing maching doesn’t have interlocking stitches, it’s ok!  Just iron the edges over just the slightest bit – enough that, when you fold over your edges again to make a pocket for your elastic, that you can sew a stitch right over it to keep it in place.
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Now, you’ll have to cut squares out of each corner.  The sides of the square cut-out should be equal to the depth of your mattress plus the extra fabric you left to go around the underside of the mattress.  So, I measured out an 8 x 8 inch square at each corner – 2” (depth) + 6” (extra fabric) = 8”.
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Next, you’ll sew together the two sides of your square.
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Pull the sides together, right side of the fabric pieces touching, and stitch them together.
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Or, if you have a serger, just serge them together like I did.  If you don’t have a serger, sew a zigzag stitch along the very edge to help keep the edges from fraying.
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At this point, you’ll have something that looks like this:
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It’s time for elastic to come into play.  You’ll need to sew a hem or pocket all around the bottom edge of your soon-to-be sheet into which the elastic can fit.
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The size of your hem/pocket depends on how wide your elastic is.  I used 1/2-inch wide elastic so I made my hem 3/4-wide.  So, sew that hem but make sure to leave an opening so that you can insert your elastic.  I left about two inches unsewn.
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Now, grab your elastic.  This is the elastic I used:
IMG_0439(This is post-unpackaging obviously…in case you were wondering where I got invisible elastic Winking smile )

For the first fitted sheet I made for this co-sleeper, I took the elastic out of the queen-size sheet I used to to make the sheet.  I just used a seam ripper to rip out the thread holding it in and easy was it.  I used 52 inches of elastic, or the equivalent of two sides of my mattress, in the fitted sheets for the co-sleeper.
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To make threading easy, stick a safety pin in the end of the elastic.  You may also want to pin the opposite end close to the opening in your hem so that it doesn’t get threaded into your pocket.
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Use the safety pin to help your fingers guide the elastic through the fabric pocket.
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Once it comes out the other end, sew the two ends of elastic together.
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Then sew that opening shut.
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Now you can make your bed/crib/co-sleeper/whatever it is you’ve made the sheet for.IMG_8085

And then daydream about all the cute fitted sheets you’re going to make now that you have thousands of cute fabrics to choose from and not just the pre-made sheets found down the aisles of stores!  I mean, look at these

In other news, you might’ve noticed that we added some fabric straps to Gianna’s co-sleeper.
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IMG_8090We were 98% comfortable in the fact that our newborn wasn’t going to pull herself up and out of her bed through that space between the top two rails but for the sake of the 2% of worry, I just cut out some strips of fabric we had leftover from our headboard and tied them in knots along the top.  They’re not hemmed or anything so they’re fraying a tad but I guess we’ll call that the rustic vibe.  ;)

So anyway, now that we have two sheets for the co-sleeper, we’re not hastily washing the one sheet before the next nap arrives but just swapping out clean for dirty.  It makes life over here a little less harried and chaotic…emphasis on a little less.  :)

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