Another piece of my Kitchen puzzle!

In an effort to make our kitchen more appealing, I have slowly been working on it.  First the counters (finished counters), then the hardware, and now the island "base".

Before we had two cubby systems, side by side, and while it was functional it wasn't appealing or looked finished...  You can see them in this picture, they are on the right hand side of the picture... But now look how nice this end of the island looks!

I actually found this piece of the side of the road, and painted it the chocolate brown, and had it in my living room for a while, but didn't like how Carter could open the doors and mess around inside...

Now all that is left of the island makeover is to box in the dishwasher so that you don't see the back... Another step closer to a kitchen I actually like to be in!

Refinishing...

I am pretty sure this is my first real refinishing project.  I have finished bare wood pieces and painted over others, but this piece is different.

This piece was given to my husband years ago, and it ended up in our garage.  I was looking for a new tv stand and saw it in there ( I don't go into our garage often) and decided I wanted to refinish it.

Before:

A little bit of damage, but it sanded right out!

After!

This came out so well, that I have gotten a little brave and started refinishing an armoire that came from the same person!  It's very LARGE so it will take a while, but I will definitely post pics when I am done!

Amigurumi Brobee

This has been "done" for a couple of days now, I just haven't had my computer for a couple days to get it up for you.

I want to reattach his arms, they seem to have come loose and I need to add his face... After Muno's face, I am a little nervous...

Ami what? Amigurumi.

At first I was like what is amigurumi?  So I looked it up...


Amigurumi: is the Japanese art of knitting or crocheting small stuffed animals and anthropomorphic creatures. The word is derived from a combination of the Japanese words ami, meaning crocheted or knitted, and nuigurumi, meaning stuffed doll.


I think just the name is japanese, but maybe I am wrong. But I did make Carter his own amigurumi.  I found this free pattern for Muno from Yo Gabba Gabba.


Here's mine. Not bad. I struggled more with the eye and mouth!  I thought it would be simple. Yup. It wasn't for me for some reason! And I have to add his teeth. I just could not get it right yesterday. Maybe today.

It was so easy that I also, started without a pattern a Brobee ( Also from Yo Gabba Gabba) and I think I did pretty good! I got one arm left! And then to add his face.  

Kitchen Update

After I did my countertops ( seen here and here), I felt I needed to do some more to my kitchen to complete it. I would like to update the paint, the hardware and maybe eventually the floor ( again. We did tile and they have broken terribly...)

Now I can check update hardware off the list!

Here is my hardware before, It was "Copper" but tarnished and even scratched off some pieces...  And I will confess I will not polish my hardware.  Nope. Not happening...

I took all my hardware off my cabinets, and drawers and pushed the screw into a box and attached to the cardboard... Like this:

Took outside and sprayed them a nice deep dark brown...

Not a huge difference on this one, but some were still shiny, and together they look better with my counter! But they don't look greenish tarnishy anymore, which I am pleased about!

Cd Labels

After seeing these cute labels for cds (  at Chronicle Books) , I thought my chicken scratched labels were a little lame...

I downloaded their free valentines labels, and used them as a starting point!  In photoshop, I traced the outline so that I had a plain cd label.  Then I added the text that I wanted! Printed these out two per page ( thats all that would fit) and using a glue stick I glued them down.  I tried the spray mount like Chronicle books mentioned, but ruined one of the backs of my disk.  And that's it!

Now, all my cd's are going to be a little better than what they were... I'm in the process of converting all my vhs tapes to dvd...

I'm in the process of converting all my vhs tapes to dvd...  Thats why there are so many chicken scratch covered dvd's laying around my house lately!

Blog Button Take Two!

Alright, so the first time I attempted this.. It was a no go.. Well today, I think I may have got it! Here is my button, hopefully you will be able to get it for your space too!

(this is just an image... Go to the left for the real deal!)

After scouring the internet looking for how to do it.. It took many mistakes to come across the easiest way to figure it out... But here it is...

Please leave me a comment if you get the button on the left hand side to go onto your blog!

Kate McRae's Quilt

Two more blocks for Kate McRae's Quilt!  A friend and I spent today working on these!

A Friendship Star from Erin

Heart from me!

These two will be sent to Jenny who is making a quilt for Kate...

Wow this week...

I cannot believe that this week is over already!

Not to much crafting going on, but a whole lot of planning... Lots of projects are in the works here! But i did help my sister out with the daunting task of 14 chef hats! A friend of ours' daughter is a brownie, and they are going to a cooking class, and my sister was asked to make each girl a hat. Not a big deal right? Well when three boys are together and two mommies want to sew it takes a while...

I worked on the "ruffle" and she sewed them, and I finished them up this morning by serge-ing the one rough edge to clean them up...

Can't wait to see all the girls in them...

A Counter Top Update!

So my counter's have been done for a couple days, and I have yet to move my small appliances and canisters back into place... And I am so tempted not to! I love how the resin/epoxy has such a high gloss to them! Before my counters were so dull and boring...  AND with a new sink! I forgot to thouroughly clean it out before we went away for a couple days and it had epoxy in it... But we needed a new faucet anyway, so we got a kit that had both. BONUS! Here they are with the resin/epoxy over them:

This is a project I would recommend to anyone debating on getting new counters! We spent a couple days and $70, which is way cheaper than what it would have cost for counters and an island top!

Need a Reason to quilt?

After going through all my usual blog spots, I stopped over at JennyGarland.com and read this beautiful post about a little girl, Kate,  who is only five and is suffering from cancer.  Jenny, a wonderful mother to two girls, and an avid crafter wanted to do something. So, she is making three quilts for this little girl and her family, and Jenny wants our help! Read about it here : A Quilt for Kate McRae.

I know I am working with two of my friends and we will be sending them out this week! Jenny would like all the blocks by April 1st if your interested in being a part of this...

A huge undertaking, but so far worth it.

We have lived in our house for three years now, and have done quite the amount of work to it. Hard wood floors, painting of the bathrooms, gutted a room for Carter, but I have not touched the kitchen until now.

I painted my tiles a couple months ago just, to get rid of a peach color that I couldn't stand anymore. And that was it. Now, I did a lot of research and decided I wanted to make my island and counters match.

Here's what they looked like before:

The island was a wood top, and the counters were white with copper flakes in it. Yuck. I have lived with it long enough. So, I researched and found you can paint and seal your counters. So thats what I did!

I sanded down both the counter and island with 80 grit sandpaper, thats all I had and it seemed to scuff it up just enough. Then I primed it with some Kilz brand primer.  Then I began my sponging/marbling.

This is one layer of Dark Chestnut paint, I made a mistake and picked up an oil based paint and it worked fine. It just was a paint to clean off my sponge.  I ended up doing another layer of this before moving onto my next color.

This has Gliden Bonjour Beige sponged over the two layers of Dark Chestnut.

This is my with my final layer of Dark Chestnut, now all I have left to do is seal it!

I also did my counter tops, and didn't like how the back lip came out so I just painted it brown for now. I am pretty sure I am going to get some moulding to finish it off on the back. Just because I am not sure how I like the brown back there...

Not bad for having most of the supplies left over from other projects!  All I bought was the Dark Chestnut ( and I bought the smallest can, 5 oz for $3.99!) The most expensive is the sealer. Its a commercial grade bar top sealer that we got at Lowe's, we bought the big box because we have a big island, and it was $60.  But in our eyes, it would have been more for counter top and a piece to match the island...

Some spots look sponge-y, and I have gone back in a reworked, but look at the results once the sealer is on it. Examples here, here and here...Pretty different huh?

We will be sealing it tonight, because it worked out perfect, we are going away this weekend and won't need the kitchen! Perfect timing!

When inspiration strikes!

Last night, as I was getting ready for bed my mind got going...  And I thought of a bunch of things that I wanted to get up today and do... Some I remembered, and some I did not. Man, am I kicking myself for not getting up and writing down those ideas!

But, you can see that one of my things I wanted to do today was update my space.  I have been waiting around since I started my blog for the right "vibe" and I think I  may have found it. For now.

What do you think?

Some elements are not in use yet, but the art is ready and waiting!

What I am working on...

 There are instructions here... And can be changed to match any decor!

I am suing an 11 x 14 frame and my boxes are 1 3/4" big...  Wished I had a larger frame to make larger boxes, but there's always next time!

Kid's Cup Leash

Months ago, I saw this tutorial when my son was too small for sippy cups and put it on my to do list...We are making a trip to NYC this weekend and I thought this might be very helpful...  Now as I made my own I did things a little differently... So I thought I would share!

Ashley used velcro, and I used snaps. I never have luck with velcro, it always seems to come off somehow, so I used snaps, and this was a first and I will use them again... Just use a pair of pliers and squeeze them where needed...  She used shelf liner as her grippy, I used hot glue, an idea I saw here... Enough about how I came about this idea...  here's what I did.

Using a piece of fabric about 2 1/2" wide and 140 inches long, I sewed it right sides together, turned and ironed it nice and flat. ( Ironing it flat helped me with positioning my elastic)

Next, I measured out 15" of elastic that would fit inside my tube.

Then using a safety pin I pulled my elastic towards the center of my tube.

Using the sippy cup that I use daily, I wrapped it around marking where I needed my snaps. For my cup it was about 8" apart. I added my snaps using needle nose pliers.

I then pulled my elastic next to the second snap and pinned in place.

Then I went to the other end of my tube and placed two more snaps about 5 inches apart so that I can snap it to my stroller.  If you are using a stroller that has the car seat, you may need to place these farther apart, I am using this stroller and the frame is thinner than our bigger stroller.

Finally, I took my hot glue gun and added some drops to create a little bit of a grip.

That's it! All done! 

I even used this in the grocery store. That way I did not have to worry about losing, yet another, cup...

You can easily adjust this for other strollers and cups, just by adjusted your measurements.  I see one for every different style cup in our future...  It is always the smallest things that help throughout your day!