Dining Room Redo!

What you are looking at are pictures of our dining room furniture.  We inherited this a few years ago from my Grandma and Grandpa...  I love the furniture, but as you can tell, it shows it's age for sure. 

 I found a recipt in the drawer saying they purchased it from Sears in 1980... can you tell?

 The table has two leaves and six chairs... so it's a great size for a small crowd. And without the leaves, it's perfect for our dining room on a daily basis.

 If only it wasn't so ugly...

 Should we paint it?

Oh yes we should!  Here is the final result (it only took us three months to finish this!)... ack!  But now that it's done.... woah... I couldn't love it more. 

 All the difference in the world, right?

 We have some Christmas decorations on it right now, but the minute the last thing was done (chairs) I had to take pictures, immediately!!

 We replaced the hardware on the hutch and took out the door dividers... here's another before...

 The table and chairs are just paint, that's all! 

 Here's a few with the placemats I'm making... I only have two done so far... but they add so much color and FUN!

 Love the black chairs... the kitchen has black cabinets so it matches perfectly with those.

 Ahhh, a million times better!  Worth all the work.... first we sanded, then primed two coats, then did three coats of white, then two coats of clear coat. 

What do you think??

Drooly Babies and Such (LOVE)!

So, I've been making things for drooly babies (including my own) for a long time now and I've only done one post on them!  The hang up was, I didn't have any pictures of them... so last week I dug out my box of completed goodies and started snapping. 

 I'm in the process of making a baby, (a real baby- due May 27th!) yay!  So I figured now was the time to actually DO something with this mad stack instead of let it sit.  I WAS going to do a craft show, and I still REALLY want to (I've just always thought it would be fun!)... but time got away from me and I don't actually have enough items ready to go to one.

So, what to do?  Start an Etsy shop!  I've been told to do that for a long time by lots of peeps and just didn't... but here I am with a stack of completed things and no other outlet to sell, so here I go!  I LOVE Etsy so this should be fun... and I suppose its a tad easier to sit at home in my PJ's and try to sell my stuff rather than sit all day in a gymnasium :)  hehe.

I don't have all this listed on Etsy yet... some items I will be donating to a silent auction at my hubby's work that benefits a bunch of great volunteer organizations. 

Here is my stuff... 'check it out, check it outers'!

Pink dots girly set.

 Matching bib and burp cloth with contrasting hot pink thread!

The burp cloths measure 6.5" wide and 15" long... perfect for draping over your shoulder.

This is a large bib and measures 9" wide by 12" tall.

This is a ribbon blanket... I LOoooOOVe the colors of this fabric!

And check out the backing, it's coordinating white SUPER SOFT minky fabric... mmmmm.

The size is approximately 17"x20"

Next up are 2 bibs and 2 burp cloths, all boy all the time.

These bibs are 2 sizes, this is the larger size... it covers more area so is best for 5 months and up, including toddlers.  Speaking of toddlers, I only use snaps, so those little rascals can't pull off these bibs.  Muahahahaha.  It works too!

And this is the smaller bib, perfect for the teeny-tiny-spit-up-y newborn... awwww!

And a close up of the detail.... did I mention I lOOovE this fabric color combo too?

And all of my bibs and burp cloths have super scrubby, super absorbent terry cloth on the back... after lunch you just flip it over and scrub the face clean! 

And here is one of my non-girly fabric faves... It's understated girly...

it has the obligatory flower, but no pink in sight! 

And I really wanted the burp cloth to be something different and funky... so I sewed strips of fabric so that they will continue to fray a little bit.  Looks funky and and I love it.

See what I mean?

This is for the wild child... Giraffe and hot pink!

  Wooo-weeeee!

I used coordinating hot pink thread to match the ric-rac.

Close up of the snap!  Oh snap!

And this is a super soft flannel for your little monster... could it be any cuter?

This bib is sized for the tiny baby (snuggle!).

And here's another ribbon blankie... this one's for the boy!

 

And another fabric I love... it's the softest corduroy evah!

Check out those super cute footballs and helmets!

And of course, some more of that super soft minky.... ahhhhh!

Last, but certainly not least, a pretty bib for a little girl. 

This is a chocolate and white print with pale pink terry cloth on the back!

So, that's about it!  Other than a few I've given away and the one's I've made for Jack.

Wish me luck!  :)

Fall Wreath

 This wreath was so easy to make ANYONE could do it, literally.  No tools required. I didn't even use a glue gun! 

 So why am I posting this you ask?  Because it was CHEAP!  If you know me, you know that I love cheap.  And yes, that's exactly how I meant it to sound.  I've been really lazy in the wreath department the past few years and haven't had a fall wreath since who knows when!  I mean, there are TONS of $35-40 wreaths out there that I adore, but those don't exactly fit in my budget.  So here we are.  Last week I hit up the 70% off sale at Joanne's and came up with this wreath.

I used a grapevine wreath (not on clearance but duh, I had a coupon) and just stuck all the decorations in there real tight.  They're not going anywhere. 

Cost: under $10 (SMILE)

And the best part it, I really heart it!

Par-tay!

These are the invitations I made for Jack's 1st birthday party.

 

They were so easy~ I hand drew the elephant and then printed the invite on each,

cut it out and lined it with a black marker and drew a tail!

Easy easy!

The total for the invitations... a few dollars for some bright colored cardstock, and a few dollars for some googley eyes, that's it!

 Cheap cheap!

 

The font is Smiley Monster from

kevinandamanda's awesome free front blog.

P.S. Jack turned one back in March... this post was a long time coming, ya think?

Fun, fun!

Oh, and the black X's weren't actually on the invitations when they were sent out :)
Hehe.

Freezer Paper Stencil Love

Gather at our table for this is where we eat, listen, teach, share, laugh, play, work, pray, love,

and make memories.

My mom likes to have the whole family over for dinner on Sundays... 

so for her birthday, my sisters and I made this tablecloth for their dining room table. It's the same table we grew up using and orginally belonged to my Great Grandma.

We found the idea through

 this post at Be Different Act Normal,

 which came from

 this post at My Dear Trash.

We decided to use fabric paint over freezer stencils and paint directly on her favorite tablecloth- not directly on the antique table like the table in the other post. :) It was supposed to be word for word, but trust me, that was a lot of tracing and cutting on the freezer paper and once we realized we forgot a word (or two) we didn't really care. 

It still looks awesome anyway, right?!?!?!

The table is HUGE, so it was kinda tough to get the whole thing in one picture.

I love the saying and might make something for my dining room wall with that on it.

Happy Wednesday!  Thanks for looking!

Some Frugal Love

So, I definitely feel like I've reached some invisible milestone.  Maybe along the lines of making the weekly menu plan (which I absolutely do) or placing comfort over fashion in shoes (I'm not actually there yet, but leaning that way once in a while- GASP!). 

What have I done, you ask?  Use my sewing machine for something practical and money saving rather than just for fun?? 

 Yes, yes I did. 

The big reveal:Here are my newly patched jeans!

I used a small piece of old blue jeans that my sister gave me a huge stack of (Hi Jenny!) and went crazy with my orange thread over it!  As it turns out, I love it!   

There was also a much smaller hole, same place on the opposite leg that I did the same thing with.

So, there it is.  A pair of jeans that I can keep wearing, MINUS the gaping hole on my upper thigh. Yes, this was a good thing people.

 After I was done, I immediately felt my 'mom' status jump up several places.

But I'll take it... I am a mom.

Baked Crab Rangoon

Now that it's getting chilly (mmmmm, totally craving some chili)...

I wanted to share a super duper appetizer. 

This is a crowd favorite fer sure. 



Kraft Baked Crab Rangoon

1 can (6 oz.) white crabmeat, drained & flaked

4 oz. (1/2 of 8-oz. pkg.) PHILADELPHIA Neufchatel Cheese softened

2 green onions thinly sliced

1/4 cup KRAFT Light Mayo Reduced Fat Mayonnaise

12 won ton wrappers

HEAT oven to 350°F. MIX first 4 ingredients. PLACE 1 won ton wrapper in each of 12 muffin cups sprayed with cooking spray, extending edges of wrappers over sides of cups. Fill with crab mixture.

 Enjoy! 

They are amazing, and so much healthier than the traditional Crab Rangoon!