Advent Calendar

I saw this in Joanne's after Christmas last year. I yanked the silver plastic knobs out of the holes before I took this picture but most of them were missing. Which is why I got this item with a price tag of $50 for $4! Yes, $4!!!! The challenge was on ~ I wanted to alter it completely and have fun with it!
I painted it with my green wall paint. Then, in order to put new knobs on this, I had to drill all the way through the holes. And then there were some brads I wanted to use and they need to fit into the doors so I had to drill for those as well.
I had to be patient and wait for the large order I placed from Scrapbook.com as I didn't want to mix stuff ~ I wanted everything I used to be from the same line so that my over the top project pulled together well. I ended up buying "We Are Memory Makers" White-Out Christmas Collection.

Many hours later, here it is!


Here's the back

Close up of the side. I used 'frosting' as well ~ the stick on 'bling' that links together and it is so fun and easy to use! Another thing not from the paper line I mentioned would be the knobs. Those are beads. I wired them with a small bead behind the door to attach them.

More close ups of the 'Glitz Frosting' which is the stone like embellishment I used. You may notice that some of the items are outlined in white. That is a huge trick of mine. So that things don't appear cluttered, I use a white gel pen to outline embellishments. It makes them pop and cleans them up too!

The big door is so cute!

More details including a bead

One of the cute little doors!

I love my new advent calendar and hope you enjoyed seeing it!

Have I gone too far?

Very soon, I am going to show you the completed pool house! FINALLY, right? I had a great time finishing it and love it!

While completing the details, I ran into an expense that I wasn't amused with. I custom made a bed skirt for the queen size bed in this space. Instead of sewing it onto a big square of white fabric which is the norm, I decided to just attach it around the edge with velco! Easy and simple right? Well, that velco was going to cost like $40! I needed many yards for this, of course. I have no problem spending money on something that I love or that adds value to a space or is needed. But $40 on velcro? That you will never see or ever use? What a waste!

I am all about finding a shortcut if it's available. I am just fine with my solution and it worked great. But some of you may think I have gone too far. The Nester, I am pretty sure, would be proud as this is certainly a spin on her 'mistreatment' mentality! But a few may think that this combination of frugality and craft skills is a bit much. Here's what I did.

I HOT GLUED the bed skirt on. Yup, I did. Rough edges and all. Will this ever be seen by human eyes ever again? Nope. When you sleep in a guest room, do your lift the mattress? If you do, don't visit me!!! I think it's pretty brilliant and it was FREE! Yes, I have some glue sticks lying around . . . that was no issue! Here is a shot of me hot gluing!

If you wonder how I will wash this, well how often does one wash a bed skirt anyway? But I have already prewashed all the fabric (yes, it said dryclean only but I am wild and risky and dangerous like that) and can easily just pull it off, and wash and dry on low settings and then glue again! If I do this once a year I will be impressed. Tell me if you wash your bed skirts more often (this is the only skirt I own so I'm not up on this perhaps?) and if I'm crazy but I think it will be just fine!

If you wonder how I did this, it was pretty simple. I used pins to space the fabric where it was needed and then stuck pins straight through the fabric into the box spring to get the edge hitting the floor correctly. Once it was all in place, I just started at one end with the glue gun and moved around the bed, taking out the pins as I went. I went through perhaps 6-8 glue sticks? I just sat in the middle of the box spring--easy!

Here is a peek at the pillow shams that I made. I think you have to get your main fabrics as perfect as you can and that can't often be done with store bought items. I am a firm believer in spending money on the inspiration fabrics and then blending it with affordable and simple complimenting items. I'll show you the entire bed the next time but you will see these pillows mixed with simple items from Ikea! I think it's all about balance when you want to create something that looks fabulous but don't want to spend a fortune. So yes, this complete room will show you pillow shams custom made from $40/yard fabric and a huge queen size comforter from Ikea for far less than that! It's all about balance! The adorable Sea Horse pillow is from Stein Mart!

I will show you the rest soon!

Summer Crafts!

I've been busy crafting! I attended the Memories Expo with some friends and then we spent a day finishing our class projects and doing other scrapbook stuff! We had a great time! Lisa is SO fast that she finished all her projects and offered to transform items I had into a wall hanging for the pool house! Here is what she whipped together in an hour! I would have done it very symmetrical and simple and it would have taken me 4 hours! I love how she is so creative and girly with all the bling!

Then I bought this Creative Memories Everyday Display that I think is 18"x18", it's the big one. I copied this before picture from another blog since I didn't take one so if that person sees this picture and notices it's hers, Thank You for being more focused than I and taking it!

I tried to grasp Lisa's free flowing creative style and then did this! I'm working within square lines so not quite as cool as hers but I do love it!

Soon, I am going to tell you about a project I did that may have taken my skills at craftiness and desire to not waste money a bit too far . . . I think The Nester would be proud of me!

Kid's Wall Art

When we moved into our new house, I did a LOT really FAST! My friends will tell you how nuts I was and how much I got done which is true, BUT the reality is that I rushed through a lot to get things pulled together. Here is an example.

My son Carter's bedroom is a super hero theme. He had quite the dress up collection so I wanted to do a hero's theme without buying Spider Man bedding or anything else that was expensive so that his room could change easily. So I bought some fun costumes the day after Halloween and bought these cute 4 x 4 inch canvases. He has a custom bed next to this area with some spaces to stash his favorite things so I decided to use "Hero's Hideaway" on the wall. I painted the canvases a color that is in his bathroom and used a red paint market to put on the letters and a black market to 'age' the edges and I was DONE! Quick, fast, easy and DONE! Here they are! I put them on his wall over the costumes and it was great! (Here they are on my floor as I forget to take a picture of them on the wall before I took them off for their makeover . . . )In the past year, I've been trying to upgrade some of these quick things. I knew they weren't as good as they could be but hadn't thought too much about them. My friend Lisa came over and told me about some Super Hero scrapbook paper and suggested I decoupage them. I started looking for the items I'd need and didn't find paper that matched his room as most were like a newspaper print or the hero was big for such a small canvas. I was quite disappointed as it was a great idea. Now what?? Then one day, I saw wrapping paper and it all came together! I ordered letters from Uppercase Living and here is what I started with to redo the canvases. I left the sides the same color. Cut the paper with the letters in mind as I wanted them to fit well with the art. I then glued the squares on the canvas with a glue stick, blended the edges into the black edges of each canvas by rubbing on black ink and placed the letters on. They didn't "pop" enough so I used one of my favorite tricks--a white gel pen! I just outlined each letter with the white pen and they look great! Here is the entire area! The uniforms are hung with wig forms. When I was planning, I was trying to figure out how to get these on the wall. I started searching for 'hat stands' and then 'wall hat stands' online and that eventually led me to wig stands and forms on ebay! They mount on the wall and are made for stores to sell wigs and are perfect!
I STILL need to do roman shades on his 3 windows. We've been here 2 years and I am still NOT DONE! No one ever is though, right? I plan to decoupage a cornice in James' room and have FINALLY had the main part cut but have I finished it yet? No.

This week is a good project week for me as I am home all week while family is visiting so I hope to get more up soon and hope to have a fun, busy and creative summer! I hope you are able to do the same . . . Perhaps there is a cornice board in my future?

A few things in the Pool House

I finally had an ENTIRE day to craft for myself! Yay! This is what happens when an ADD girl with an entire day crafts! I needed to laminate some labels and had no more chairs to move to so that's when I organized my projects again! I got lots done! My poolhouse is NOT done but I wanted to show you a few things! I haven't printed the actual labels as I still need to sort into all my new bins but the pretty tags are ready for labels once I get to that part! The tags on the metal buckets are laminated so I can changes things around and put on a new label whenever I want.

Fun decor

More with some empty spots ready to fill.

I started sewing but have lots to finish. This is part of some small curtains covering lower parts of bookcases for hidden storage. I am making pillow shams with the print fabric and bed skirt with the green.

Here's my clock! The furniture is white so this is perfect right??? Ha! No way! This is my clock 'before' and I bought it at Walmart for a whole $4! This is my favorite type of decorating project!

Here it is after! The little sign says "it's 5 o'clock somewhere' in case you can't read it!

Not a good zoom quality but I had to make sure you saw all the fun bling on it--it's quite fun to do something girly since I'm a Mom of 2 boys!

Love my new stainless steel desk where I will do lots of sewing! Here's what I have on one corner.

Bedding isn't done but throw pillows are ready! Stein Mart has fabulous pillows!

I sure hope I can get the room done so I can show you the rest but had to share a few details since I finally got lots done!

Teacher Appreciation Week--through a PTA Mommy's view

Wonder what I've been up to? Well I have been working lots first of all! Lots of decorating and 1-2 days a week helping a mortgage company organize and create new processes after a few years of neglected file and system management. But when I'm not working, I have spent lots of time this past month doing another 'job' I do--Hospitality for PTA at my children's elementary school!

I have held this position, co-chairing with my friend Kay, for 2 years and this was our last official event! We decided to do an Italian theme but dump the red and white checkered tablecloth and bring on a Tuscan bistro feel!

Here is the centerpiece on the drink table--tea, diet lemonade and raspberry lemonade were the options.

Focal point on the buffet table. I need to now refill these jars with my cotton, sea salt and sponges in my bathroom! The entree was lasagna made by an amazing local restaurant and salad with Olive Garden dressing. To my friend Kim if you read this, the sign in the middle says "Mangia, Mangia!" Thanks for the fast Italian help this morning!

Here's the start of the buffet-rolled silverware is just so much better than bins of silverware with napkins, don't you think?

The tables where our teachers and staff sat had fresh flowers and more food! Macaroni Grill bread, with pepper mills we bought from their local supplier and olive oil, was served hot to the table along with fresh grated parmesan.
When you were done with that, then you headed to the other side of the room where we had an ice cream buffet set up! Oh yes, how fun!!! I have done this for a couple birthday parties too and it's so fun and easy! I have lots of pieces from the Southern Living at Home, Gail Pittman Sienna collection and this is the first time I used this much of it and it worked so well!

Here is our president during the last week of her reign of two years! She was our hostess, handing out our gifts! She's off to middle school and we will miss her!

Here's the room (we took over the music room since there's no furniture in there!) with some of the staff on their break! No running lights were on--just lots of Christmas lights and it was a very nice atmosphere.


A few of us during a moment where we weren't running, enjoying ourselves as everyone on our board is awesome. Don't be crazy jealous, but we have lots of fun during our PTA event too! I know this isn't the case everywhere so had to tell you how lucky I am to be at this fab school! Oh and yes, we are crazy where we assign a dress code for our volunteers to fit our theme so the all black was on purpose. Don't they look great? Last holiday, we did a Christmas Morning Brunch and yup, we all wore our PJs! FUN!!!


Here is everyone, except Christine! Thanks for taking the picture!

Here are Kay and I, at our last event together as co-chairs! We work so well together as I just fret about all the decor and do nutty things like sew table runners and craft labels and fill all my jars with pasta and she works her tushy off pricing caterers and making schedules and lists and it was a perfect match! We will both be on the board next year but I'll be doing 1st VP (fundraising) with another friend and she will be doing newsletter! I have been asked to share pictures from our past events and I think instead of spending time emailing them, I'll spend time uploading them so I can share them with you all too! I know this isn't organizing but it is being creative so you'll deal with it right?

Oh, Kay got Macaroni Grill to give us tons of their paper! So we wrote a note to the teachers on each table, hoping they would scribble, play tic, tac, toe or do whatever and what did they do? Wrote us sweet Thank You notes! See why we do this?? I took lots of pictures but here are just a few examples of their notes to us!

We all read each one and many of us took pictures! Their sweet notes meant a lot to us!

Craft Room Reveal!

Okay, FINALLY I am blogging! There are so many things to show you and so much that we did that I have been avoiding working on this! It has taken me hours just to upload the pictures! If someone out there can tell me how to blog without spending so much time on editing pictures and uploading on blogger, that would be SO helpful as I do NOT know how some of you blog daily!

There are 2 things pending that I have been hoping would get finalized for pictures but I'll just tell you about them so I can share this fun transformation! There are so many things to show you that I think I will break it down into walls--here is a collage of the left wall, center and right wall, before and after! This desk epitomizes her challenge. Outdated furniture. Lots of stuff. Her scrapbooking supplies as well as products to sell to clients. Many projects that she wants to do at some point. Bins and baskets where she started a system but it wasn't quite streamline enough to keep her straight. Stacks of pending albums for herself and some that people pay her to create. Yes, she's cool like that--people pay her to make scrapbooks! Throughout this transformation, you will see areas that have been created to fix all these challenges that she has! Here is the left wall. This is where two items are missing. The glass jars on top of the bookcase will be moved to the right side and on the wall facing the desk at an angle will be a flat screen TV. To the right of the drawer cabinet above the basket on the floor will be a really cool magazine rack mounted on the wall which will balance out the space below the "inspire"! There is a picture of the rack below.I had way too much fun making this and felt a little guilty this day that this was my job! This is her project area. She had boxes and bins of pending books to make, projects for clients, albums to start and she needed an organized way to handle all that. This cabinet now holds them in separate drawers! On the display board is a list of the 6 drawers and which project is in each drawer so at a glance she knows what she needs to work on. She can easily reprint and put on the display area as things change. This Simply Renee embellishment holder is SO handy for a scrapper (I LOVE mine!) and her business cards and current catalogs are right there for her Creative Memories clients! Here is the Longaberger Magazine Rack that she has ordered and will go to the right of the above items. The cabinet in the corner houses her scrapbook paper, resources and her personal albums. She had a couple notebooks with references/resources and simply putting them all in matching white notebooks and printing coordinating labels makes them look great! The desk has an open are to hold her papers, current work in progress and cutting systems! Her chair came with a boring gray cushion so I sewed a cover out of the matching fabric that I made a window treatment with. Goal #1 was that it was comfy and swiveled so she could easily get into her cabinets behind her and this one is pretty perfect! This window needed to be lightened up from the heavy treatment it once had and now the room looks so much larger! Here are the resource notebooks that she used to pull together pages from magazines and random idea books that she was holding on to! Resource Books are needed by all creative types who like to hold onto inspiration! Fun crafter items displayed for easy access. This is the bottom of her desk where there is open storage. She made the cute sign! Here's the right wall! We needed Storage, Storage and some more Storage!

The left cabinet has often used supplies since it is right behind her desk. Fun labels transform this from utilitarian to gorgeous!

The center has all the 'stuff' that was in boxes and bags before in these cute jars from Crate & Barrel! She had an amazing collection of handmade cards given to her by friends that we displayed on the display frames with more in the fun metal container below them. The right side of the cabinets is 100% Creative Memories products available for her customers. Come shop! Here are a few details:

These magazine bins are 5 for $3 at Ikea and are the only bins I would spend money on! Transform them to match your room and look at how amazing they are! Perfect for loose resources that you are holding on to.

On the same wall as the door is a large closet. This closet was FULL of stuff she needed often, things she was holding on to and products. We worked hard at getting out the often needed items and getting this to function well for her.

Everyone has what I like to call their 'crazy'. We all just have something that we buy too much of or can't get rid of and some are even useful which is quite nice but still is just over the top! I have an awesome client who had an uncountable amount of free Christmas cards that were sent to her by charities that she donated to. They weren't even all cute but they were free and she had hundreds and hundreds and it was just 'wasteful' to get rid of them to her so she had saved them all in office space that she could really have used for something esle. So that was her 'crazy'--but are you ready, she is Jewish. Yup, never even used them. So, back to this client's 'crazy', hers is gift giving supplies! And she uses them so it's okay! She has LOTS!! We really had to figure out how to better sort her supplies and she loves her curling ribbon. This was an easy and affordable solution and she can get to it so much easier! She has lots of projects to complete, just like the rest of us! We created a section of her closet just for projects and added a list of all that she needs to finish. She can check these items off as they are done and then easily print this again and switch the sheet out as the list changes. If you do this, just use a removable glue or adhesive so you can switch out the basic white paper!
You can just see it at the top center but that box is for her son's school work. At the end of the year, she put it in a storage container with the date and this box is where she can now easily place new items as they come in.

This bin was here with gift giving already but we pulled out the gift bags (in their own bin standing up) and the ribbon so it really freed this up to be sorted better and is much more accessible for her.

This room was transformed from top to bottom and was so much fun to work on! All the furniture is from Ikea! I know, Ikea is NOT for everyone and I personally wouldn't use it in the main living spaces of my home but for kid's rooms, craft rooms, work spaces, playrooms- Ikea is AWESOME! This store is viewed as very contemporary but you can see there are some pieces that have a more traditional look and your accessories/paint/fabric choices can drastically improve upon the furniture's streamline look! There were many questions from my past post about this room, like where is the furniture from, and I may be forgetting some. I think some asked about cost and I think she spent around $2,500 on all the furniture down to the chair, new lighting, new accessories, storage containers, etc. I worked around 45 hours on this job and was there 1 or 2 days a week to start and then a bit more often at the end with the detail work. She worked with me 100% of the time which is great as I can move through organizing decisions quickly. At the start, I helped her get through the decision making process while sorting and determined storage needs and then would leave her with 'homework' of things she needed to accomplish so the first few weeks left her with lots to do in between my visits. Once we were getting into decorating, I'd start a group of tags and then show her what I was thinking and she'd bring out a cool corner punch or have an idea and we'd finish deciding and then she'd make that group while I moved onto another decision. She not only wanted to transform the space but really transform what issues were there that prevented her from getting projects done and wanted systems in place so that she could move forward without piles and stacks of things that overwhelmed her. This is the perfect example of the type of project I love--making things Pretty AND Neat! And I am a firm believer that clutter in your life is clutter in your head. An overwhelmed space is an overwhelmed person, in my opinion. Both decor and systems were addressed at once and she is now ready to use this room to be more productive with her personal projects as well as her scrapbooking business and it was a pleasure to work with her! I wouldn't put someone's name on my page but if you want to buy Creative Memories supplies from her, email me and I'll get you her contact info! You can order online too so even if you aren't in the Central Florida area, if you want to order and have products delivered to your home and don't know a consultant, she will follow up on any questions or needs you have and is now who I shop with too! If you have more questions about this space, let me know and I'll do my best to answer!