balloon shade

Ive grown up thinking these were hideous

 

lol

and the mention of balloon curtain or even valance made me imagine something of the sort.

 

.......but i guess im getting older, broadening my horizons, and letting my taste be swayed because i saw these :

Draped Shade Curtain from Urban Outfitters

 

and was inspired to dress up the window above my kitchen sink

I googled a tutorial and found this one as easy to understand, not too complicated, or too 'froo froo' heehee

http://www.itallstartedwithpaint.com/relax/

 

Instead of having 3 panels mine is one piece with the rings sewn in place. 

I am SOOO happy with how it turned out! it does release all the way down and could look like a plain panel.  It is Very functional and believe it or not easier to operate daily than regular blinds or fiddling with drapes pushing them aside.

Loving the ease of light in the day and privacy at night... and done so delicately!

 

fabric stash stockings

Last year for my sons first christmas santa left a bowl of goodies rather than filled a stocking. And katie has had a cute knit vintage, thrifted stocking santa has filled since her  first christmas.  I had found a fabric i liked last year but didn't buy it when i should have : P Apparently other people liked  it too : )  This year I didnt see any that stood out as my family.... and Santa is coming soon! also i need to be equal with the babies too : ) i did feel bad last year i didnt make any but  then again i would have made them matching ones and we didnt think we would be delightfully surprised by another on the way!

Sooooo this brings us to today and whipping some up with fabric from the scrap stash : )

Make a template of the shape you want; i almost made these like elf shoes with curled toes : P
I would give the one i created but i think it's subpar far from perfection.

For each stocking you make you'll need an inner and outet fabric

and you will cut out two from each with a total of 4 'boot' shapes

*****make sure you take into account the right side of the fabric print; you'll want to flip your template over to get a left and right : )

Pin the inner and out pieces, right sides together and stitch around the boot leaving the top open.

You  will want to cut out strips for hanging loops too!

These are roughly 7"x3" with a thick 1/2" inseam.

The top is sewn and turned out : ) bottom: just sewn.

Now after you've made your loop a left the top of the boots open you will turn them out and tuck the top in and pin closed to sew. This is for a clean finish on top and for the hanging loop. On one you will insert and pin your folded strip (loop) before sewing so when you seal the edge its in there nicely as shown above.

Here we have the two pieces we've made pinned together, outside fabric together, ready to be

Sewn

and Turned Out : )

Have a lovely holiday!!!!!!

*maybe next year ill have an update with new babys stocking or matchy ones : )

btw, hope you havent been naughty!!!!! lol

pumpkins for winter

Have any pumpkins lingering around still? Just today I finally took the orange ones off the front porch (I may do something w/the lg white one) and adorned the tree behind our garbage can with them, lol, they made it bright and pretty back there! : ) Since my kids are little I cant help picking up little pumpkins for them throughout fall. Especially the white and green. They dont go bad for a long time and my conscience doesn't want to toss them but I came up with an idea for turning that bit of autumn into winter.  A Pumpkin Snowman! The little guy came out soooooo cute! and it was a Really fun project!

We went from this:

To this:

I used construction paper, green fleece, buttons, beads, and sticks. For decoration on the hat: feathers, a lg. sequin, and some faux mini holly berries too.  Use what you have, I say! : ) That's what makes it individual, doesnt it?
Other materials used were: hot glue and gun, glue stick, scissors, small branch pruners, compass, and white charcoal pencil.

First, I cut the stems off the pumpkins and found a 'balance' for them, mostly at this point to know which would be the head. Then,  using my compass I determined what the width of hats brim would be.  The circle was drawn on black construction paper and from the same point another smaller circle was drawn inside and then cut out.  I probably would've used a stiff black felt if I had any. 
To get the height of the hat I cut a long rectangle roughly 3.5 times the diameter of the smaller circle to have glueing room for the cylinder.

Here you see the arm branches cut, the fleece cut for a scarf (which is twice the length of the black rectangle), the hat circles, and rectangle measureing 3.5 times the diameter of smaller circle.
The black rectanglehas been folded somewhat accordian style and slits have been cut to the fold on both top and bottom perpendicular to the folds.

 the rectangle has been inserted into the larger circle and the seam glued to be as wide as it needs to be

the tabs have been glued to the underside of the brim

to attach the top part, smaller circle, i used the glue stick on the perimeter of the circle insted of on the tabs to make it easier

then the the details were added : ) honestly before this, i havent used a hot glue gun in probably 6 yrs or more, lol

Next, to make the carrot nose out of construction paper i cut a long right triangle the length of a page. It's height is only about 1.25 inches.

On one side I glue sticked : P

Starting from the wider end and with glue on top rolled the triangle like a making a paper bead but keeping a flat edge

Then came hot glue assembly : ) and snowman was complete ! and ready for his close-up : D

wrealthrifty

I couldn't bring myself to spend 20 to 40 dollars, or more, on an autumn wreath so I made this for a little under 6. I love the yellow flowers! and if you can tell from my other blogs I like simplicity! : )

I am a firm believer in the less is more concept often.

simply pretty storage

So this little project is just as the title describes. It's simple, but pretty, and useful for storage : ) & effective for coordinating decor : D. 
I had a problem in my bedroom with gaming gear. Imagine that, lol! Ahem, anyway I needed somewhere to keep the extra controllers, cables, adapters, and head sets of the sort.  We certainly are gamer dorks in my household. I thought this up and though it is super basic of an idea I wanted to share it here to show the impact and individual statement you can make in your own space with basically paper (scissors), some modge podge (paint brush), plain wooden boxes from the craft store, and a screw driver to remove and replace hardware.

I found these to be of the best size and sturdiness at my hobby lobby, and although I didnt like the handles I knew the holes of their absence wouldnt show : )

Pretty plain but they aren't actually "pretty". 
I removed the hardware but left the hinges.  That would be up to you whether you would want to or not, I had debated it but decided to leave them in the paper glueing phase. : ) The larger used three 12x12 pages and the smaller used two.  At this point (below) I replaced the hardware over the attached paper to use the same holes and not have to find them blindly.

And here is the finished set : ) Originally I was going to use use a different paper for the smaller one (one that probably matched the paper of the larger better) But I fell in love with it and couldn't help myself from using it.  It reminds me of a vintage 45 case : P ...... the yellows match and they are from the same paper pad, lol. I did coat the boxes in the end with a layer of the modge podge as a varnish of sorts and that itself intensified the colors really nicely and the paper is sealed from damage of normal use : )

Now it's your turn to express yourself. Brighten up a shelf in your home. : ) I know when I was done I wanted to do the same to every wooden box in my house! or at least paint them all bright yellow, lol.  There's a paper out there for everyone!