Mighty Warrior

Welcome to my first post of "M" week.


I have mentioned "Little Man" in previous blogs and today I am going to show you a project from his room.
First of all, he is called "Little Man" because he is very small for his age (he is 5 1/2 and looks about 3). I try to encourage him with "big" talk and expect more from him than a lot of people do. That being said, he is IN LOVE with Star Wars
(but, heck, what 5-105 year old man-child isn't).

I love vinyl quotes, but most of the time I can't find the quote I am looking for.
Yes, I know I could get some custom stuff, but I like the embellishments and variety of fonts the pre-designed stuff has
(plus I don't have the patience to create from scratch. I am a tweaker, not a creator).

I LOVE the quote from Judges 6:12, referring to Gideon,
"The Lord is with you mighty warrior."
That is PERFECT for little man. He is my mighty warrior, even in his size 7 (toddler) shoes. And that quote fits wonderfully in a semi-Star Wars theme room.
(I am also not a "theme-y" room person. That means I do it subtly-no Star Wars bedding or curtains, just little touches here and there.)

Here is how I created this quote for my little man:

Step 1:
I decided how much of the wall I wanted to take up, then drew level lines using chalk. (I did top and bottom lines to make sure my letters were somewhat the same size.)

Step 2:
Write the quote on the lines also with chalk.

Chalk is super easy to erase and you can easily paint over it. I used to use pencil, but could still see the pencil marks under the paint.

I free-handed this design. Now, first let me tell you I am no professional by even a stretch of your imagination. I just have pretty decent handwriting and a fairly steady hand. I simply found a font on the computer that looked "kiddish" and used that for my inspiration. This is doable for just about anyone, but you could print this out and create a stencil if you'd rather.

Step 3:
Step back and make sure it is large enough, centered, in the proper scale, etc.


Step 4:
Paint over the chalked-in words. I just used craft paint (the kind you can get for like $1 at Walmart, etc.)

Step 5:
Erase the lines and step back and enjoy.

Here you can see the chalk lines. You can even see where I don't write EXACTLY on top of the chalk. I almost always write bigger with paint than I do with chalk--another sign that I am no professional.

The sweetest thing was just this week I was putting little man to bed and he was staring at the quote. (He is in kindergarten and learning to read). He asked me what the last two words were, so I told him and he then read the whole thing to me.
I told him that meant he was strong and brave.
He just said "I know."
Awwwww...

Linking my warrior to:

Leggo My Eggos!

Okay, so that is a little bit of a stretch. I had another idea to link eggs to the letter L, but it didn't work out the way I planned. (Legumes means beans-or something like that-not eggs).

Anyhoo. Eggs are the topic of my second installment for "L" week:

I love to decorate for the holidays. I love sparkly things. For some reason this year, sparkly eggs and I didn't jive. I just didn't feel like all my cute, pastel, sparkly eggs were what I wanted out this year. So I came up with a different approach. I borrowed an idea from Maryann at Domestically Speaking and made my own "twinefied" eggs. I added my own embellishment to a few (you will see in a minute).

I also got some cute napkins and decoupaged some. Oh, also I have made several cloches. Here are some of the Easter decorations around my house:

This cloche is simply a white plate with a votive candle holder on top (the kind you stick in a candle sconce.) Notice on this twine egg, I added a little polka dot ribbon.
( I love some polka dots!!)

Next up is my dining room table:

I have a lot of silver accents in here. You can get a glimpse of my decoupaged eggs. (And there is Scarlett in the background.)

Little Bunny Foo Foo under glass.
(You know there was ACTUALLY a question about Little Bunny Foo Foo at the Regional Governor's Cup competition last weekend?)

Here is a closer shot of the decoupaged eggs.

I love this little silver bunny sitting under a votive holder. I LOVE the shape of the glass and it is perfect for a little "happy." Can you see that cute top?? It is a perfect tiny cloche!

Downstairs, I allowed myself to put out some of my pastel, sparkly eggs just because, well just because I really like them and it was difficult to give them up!
Here is my hearth on my fireplace:

That is a concrete bunny I normally have outside, but he has been in the garage for the winter, so I thought I would park him here for a little while.
Here is a closer shot of him, and the sparkly eggs:

I am pretty pleased with the pictures I have this post and I have Donna at Funky Junk to that for that. Go check this post for tips on taking better pictures. She promised Step #1 would make a difference and I think she is right! Thanks Donna!

I am going to be linking up some places this weekend. Come by and check them out. I kid you not when I say you will find some great ideas!!

Laundry Room Blues No More

*I chose this as my favorite project of 2010*

I am linking it up to the CSI Challenge. This post has been edited from its original version.

Feast your eyes on this:

That is so NOT my laundry room. Sniff, sniff, sob, sob.

We just moved into this house in October
(okay, how much longer can I really use that excuse-we just moved in? We're going on almost 6 months, what is the statute of limitations on it??).
Anyway, there are so many things I love about this house. Great space, great kitchen, great outdoor areas. There are a few things I DON'T love about this house. Truvy's beauty shop for a bedroom, the carpet and the laundry closet.

Yeah, you heard me right, it is a CLOSET. In my wonderful 2900 square foot house, I have a laundry closet! Anyway my A-Z Decorating has inspired me to get it spruced up just in time for "L" week:

Now that I tricked you by that amazing laundry room, here is what I get to look at every time I do laundry:

Wait for it....


Open the door slowly, so not to run screaming...


AAAHHHHH, TOO LATE, TOO LATE!!

Please, I can't take it anymore!!!

Really, people. You can be honest with me. It is pretty bad huh? Did you notice the cinderblock walls? The two by fours? What about the fuse box?
But look in that picture above. See that glass jar right above the light switch? That was my little pretty that I focused on and that is where I started with my inspiration.

Once I got going, it was really simple. I found a $5 light fixture (my daughter hated it, at first) and painted the yucky brass parts ORB. The globe has a pretty cool floral pattern on it that looks nice when the light is on.

Next I sewed some VERY simple burlap curtains.
(So simple in fact that the back panel is super crooked-I just block it with that tin finial thing).
I used tension rods to hang the rods on the three walls. When I got the curtains up, I felt like something was missing, so in true "Nester" fashion I "mistreated" those curtains by hot gluing some floral fabric and ribbon to them.
Yes, I can sew, but I did not feel like dragging my sewing machine out. It was kind of freeing to do it "the wrong way." And you cannot tell one single bit. I didn't even turn the fabric under to hide the raw edge, I just covered it with the ribbon--I was living on the edge!

After adding some accessories (a tray, my glass jar, a glass container for my dryer sheets and a PLASTIC cruet for my fabric softener) Also, the glass votive holds change and random legos that I find leftover in pockets or the washing machine. VOILA!

Because my laundry space is a CLOSET, I was really lacking a folding space. One night I had the brilliant idea to remove the fold-down desk from my computer armoire and it works great:

While there is one more thing I would like to add (thanks to an amazing idea from Sausha:

(Which I hope to gets hubby on ASAP)

Here is the after:

I added "Wash" and "Dry" signs on the doors, in case I forget where the laundry closet is.

Here is a shot of the table folded down. The great thing is that I can see the TV from this angle!

To save your clicker finger, let's take one more look.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

I have redone several rooms in this house, but this one by far has provided the biggest change to date (Truvy's beauty shop is coming next, I can't wait for you to see it) so I am using this post as my fav project of March. Come visit at Beneath My Heart and see what others chose as their favs!

Come by the CSI Challenge and see some other great projects!

"K" Week---Me and "K. McKay"

I stumbled across the neatest blog the other day. It was the kind of blog that instantly inspired me and made me want to immediately use all the ideas. The blog is K. McKay Designs and the wonderful designer is Kristine McKay. I loved her blog so much, I decided to devote one day of "K" week to her:

She is pretty high falutin'(that is pronounced fah-loo-'n'), she has developed products for QVC and the Home Shopping Network. She is so very talented and guess what she has on her blog...free downloads!

I found some pretty cute things to finish out some projects that I had laying around.
Because of her generosity I made some super cute tins, some great magnets and some cute thumbtacks. I am going to make some number spheres, I am just looking for the perfect spheres (aka ping pong balls).

Here is how the tins started:

I got them for less than $1 each. I glued them to the brass candlesticks you also see in the pictures, them proceeded to spray paint them black.

Then I hot glued some Dollar Tree twine around the lid and around a small bit of detail on each candlestick. I liked that look, but felt like it was missing something, then I remembered good ole' K. McKay!!

Here is the what the download looked like from her blog:

You can download it for yourself here.

I printed the labels out on resume paper
(mainly because my kids used up all my regular paper, but it actually turned out great),
then Mod Podged them onto the tin. Look how cute!
Thanks K. McKay (I just love the rhyme! Even if we were best friends, I probably would still call her K. McKay because it is fun to say...go ahead try it.)

The other thing I downloaded from her were some simple number circle tags:

These are on the same page as the link above.

I created magnets and thumbtacks with these in just a few simple steps:

I know these numbers seems random (and scary) but they are all significant for my family.
Yes, even the 13. That one happens to be my wedding anniversary.
Hubby's and my first date was on Friday the 13th and we got married one year later on July 13th.

Simply get the large glass beads (the ones with the flat bottoms) and decoupage the labels to the flat side. Make sure, of course that you glue them printed side down-so you can see the number through the bead on the other side. Once the glue dried, I Gorilla glued magnets or thumbtacks to the back. Voila. You can do this with cute scrapbook paper too.

Here is a little bit of Easter inspiration she just posted this week. Everything on her Easter post you can make from stuff from the Dollar Tree:
Couldn't you just see this with the candy hanging from the tree?

You should definitely go check out K. McKay:
www.kmckaydesigns.com
She covers it all: crafting, scrapbooking and sewing. There is something for just about everyone. She's awesome. Tell her Molly sent you!


I'm dropping over at Funky Junk Donna's for:


and Tatertots and Jello: