2 more Pretty Items for the Boutique!

Here is a lovely painting of a woman or is it a man???? Anyway, I loved all of the style going on with the frame, so, I bought it from a really awesome gal!

Here it is all changed up & BEAUTIFUL!
And here is a very lovely necklace holder! I can see this holding some super pretty chunky necklaces too!

~*~ Lynda ~*~

More about the Boutique coming up HERE!

Louver Doors Make Great Home Decor!

I love how this decorator used these old louver doors in her living room!

Doors can be used in many different ways. Placed behind a desk, credenza, foyer table, bed (headboard) & etc are all really great looks!

Here are some old and crusty louver doors that I picked up super cheap (free)! I decided to paint them the same colors in case someone wanted to buy both of them. One side is painted antique white and the other side is painted dove gray. The knobs can be on either side and the hook on the top can have items hanging on either side too!

I made a couple of pretty small wreaths to add some flare!

Here is a picture of the other side painted in a beautiful shade of gray.

The other wreath hanging so beautifully with it's ribbons and flowers!

Take a look at the gorgeous porcelain floral knob!
These pretty doors will be for sale at our Holiday Boutique on Nov. 18th!

~*~Lynda~*~

A "Tangled" Halloween - Part 2

Tangled wouldn't be awesome without the Eugene Fitzherbert (otherwise know as Flynn Rider). And Flynn rider wouldn't be awesome without his vest. Right? So that put me in a pretty tough position trying to get together this costume for my son. He had some plain pants and plenty of white shirts, but I knew I wouldn't be able to find anything remotely close to the vest. As it turns out, I couldn't even find fabric in the right color in my price range. But here is what I came up with for a Flynn Rider vest:

(a very funny looking Flynn Rider "smolder")

I got a heavy polyester fabric from an estate sale. It was blue instead of blue-green, but oh well. It was good because it didn't fray and kept it's form. I made a pattern from a vest my son had but altered it so that it came down longer and straighter like a tunic. Then I added the little sleevelets and a short collar that stood up. I sewed some details at the top of the vest. If I'd had more time I would have liked to actually create an overlay, but I do what I can these days. It looks OK. The buckles were another puzzle. I eventually decided to make them velcro flaps with the look of buckles. That way I didn't have to complicate it by trying to find something that was actually functional. I was going to buy some metal rings at a hardware store but then remembered that my dad had recently hung a chandelier in my kitchen and had removed some links from the chain. I found those and sewed them to the velcro flaps.

As for the other costume elements, I found a mans leather belt at Goodwill for a buck and cut it shorter and used a power drill to make some additional holes. The boots were also alluding me. I ended up using some old black boots from our costume box. It bothered me that they were black, so I spray painted them brown. They really aren't as tall as Flynn's boots, but they will do. All together I spent $2 on this costume. Not bad. It's more of an impression of Flynn Rider's outfit, but everything considered, I am pleased with how the costume turned out. What are your thoughts?

Baby's Costume

I finally got into the dress-up spirit and decided to let my baby (due to be born in about 1 month) in on the fun too. Maybe I'll even share some Halloween candy with her too! :)

Here's what she'll (I'll) be wearing this year:

Thanks to freezer paper, this costume was simple and fast. Good thing since I'm last minute and we have a Halloween party to go to tomorrow! 

First, I measured my belly and the area that I wanted the pumpkin to cover on my shirt while wearing it. I drew out the pumpkin onto a large piece of freezer paper (glossy side down) and then used a box cutter and carefully cut out the design.

Then I ironed all the pieces (glossy side down) onto my black prego shirt.

Then I dabbed and painted...

Until the pumpkin came to life. Then I pulled off all the freezer paper and admired the silly little grin on this guy.

Then I let my belly give it a try. I like how it turned out. 

I got my fill of pumpkin carving, crafting and costume making all in one.

Happy Halloween!

~ Chelsea ~

Metal Leaves! Pretty Embellishments!

Our candles got a little touch of autumn!I'm not a big fan of real fall colors in my decor,

so, I paint everything brown, cream & green colors.

I totally enjoy seeing a mountainside of trees ablaze with their fall colors though!

These pretty pins used to be shiny gold. First I spray painted them silver for a different project that they ended up not being used for.
Now they have a nice thin coat of dark brown paint on them.

*~*Lynda*~*

A "Tangled" Halloween - Part 1

Wow! There is less than a week until it's Halloween! When we were growing up my mom made many of our costumes. I don't remember ever going and buying one at the store. I have fond memories of being part of that creative process. And if my memory serves me, I believe some of our costumes even won contests.
My two older kids have decided that they want to dress as a group this year and chose the Disney movie "Tangled" as the theme (no surprise there). What's not to love, really? The boy gets to be a ruggedly handsome, carefree rouge with boots and a satchel, the girls gets to be a princess and wear a pretty dress and a wig, and the little sweet pea gets to dress as a cute, no-nonsense chameleon (since she's got the sticking-out-her-tongue part down solid!). I have a budget of about $10 for all three costumes... not a lot. Luckily, this post is going to show one way that creativity and thinking outside the box can help you pull together a costume that is pretty decent while using what you already have and stretching your dollar.
Tonight I made the Rupunzel costume. I started by looking in our costume box. I was glad we already had a long blonde wig... that saved a lot. But if you didn't have a long blonde wig, you could check your fabric and yarn supply for yellow colors and get creative! We also had an adult-sized purple dress. I figured I could use that for the skirt portion of the outfit. Rupunzel's top is unique. It is laced up across the front and has slightly puffed sleeves with pink stripes. I knew I wasn't going to find anything like that on the cheap, so I looked around the house for a way to make it without spending hours upon hours in my craft room. I found a stained and too small tee-shirt in our "donate pile". So this is what I had:

I didn't do anything to the dress. I will just pin the straps and bodice with lots of safety pins so that it will fit my skinny little 5-year-old and pop the top over it. 

For the top, I cut the dark purple part of the tee off with a slight "V" shape at the front center. I also cut the front neckline into more of a square. I then folded the center to create a faux lace-up look and re-cut my "V" shape (yeah... I did those steps backward). I didn't have enough pink ribbon, but I happen to have a gigantic spool of pink elastic so I used that for the laces. I painted (the untalented way to avoid complicated sewing) the pink accents on the sleeves and the area behind the lace-up. This saved a ton of headache while producing the right look (at least for a costume).

The wig was pretty frizzy, so I wanted to make it look as good as a cheap costume wig could look. I un-braided it and sprayed it with a solution of 1 part fabric softener to 4 parts water. I sprayed, brushed, waited, and brushed some more. I repeated this process several times. It took a long time, but it looks a lot smoother now. I also raided my craft supplies for silk flowers. I tried to find the colors they used in the movie even though they weren't the same types of flowers, necessarily. I think it's close enough.

So what do you think? I spent $0 on this costume by using what I had around the house and a little bit of creativity. 

<3 Crystal

The Process of the Adorable Bench

My Handy Honey built this cute little bench for me to PAINT! We found the old headboard at an antique store on our way home from our recent trip to Utah. The aged wood of the headboard necessitated the use of aged wood on the rest of the bench. We found some nice old wood from a child's swing set. It was perfectly weathered and very old looking. After sanding, I started giving it the first coat of paint (a dark tan color) nice and thick. I used an old paint brush because of the roughness of the wood I knew it would be rough on the brush. We filled most of the holes, but left a couple unfilled just for the rustic look.I had the idea to paint the slats before nailing them on the seat. I really like doing it that way. It's so much easier to paint. I used an acrylic/latex paint for the first coat because it is thicker.

Next I painted an Olive Green color on. This paint is your regular acrylic craft paint.

Not too thick so a little tan could show through.

Next I painted a light Blue (acrylic craft paint) color on. I added a little water to the paint to give more of a washed look. I also used a foam brush to apply it.

And then I painted a dark Gray (acrylic craft paint) color on. It also had some water mixed in it to wash over the other colors. I used the foam brush again and even though the wood wasn't as rough as at the beginning it still tore the brush up a bit. After the gray paint was all dry I used a coarse grit sand paper and distressed it. My goal was to let all of the colors come out and be seen, even if just in small amounts, such as the tan and green. This gives the impression of a very old bench that has been painted several times and over the years (really only hours) has worn to the look of a wonderful finish.

I finished it up with a nice coat of clear satin lacquer.

Aren't the spindles pretty? The cracks in the old dry wood make the look even better!

Here's a close-up picture so you can see how I distressed it.

Isn't it adorable? I'm going to be selling it at a Holiday Boutique on Nov. 18th!

~*~Lynda~*~

A New Look for Baby

The baby room decorating is under way!

This photo board has been changed four times since I originally made it when I was a teenager. This time, I liked the black and white leaf background (a pillowcase) for the baby's room, so I just changed the ribbon and added a bright happy flower. I am excited to have this baby room with bright orange, pink and bold patterns. 

Before:

After:

~ Chelsea ~

Christmas Stocking

There's no hiding my excitement for Christmas! Today, I made a stocking for my little girl who is due to be born on December 6th. Although this year she won't care, I know she will eventually love it and all the goodies that it will hold over many years. 

Stockings are so simple and I really enjoyed making this. I also made a pattern for it so I can make similar stockings in the future. I like the traditional shape and size...just big enough for a fair amount of treats and small gifts.

The outer fabric is an adorable thin corduroy that I snagged from the red tag fabrics at Joanns a while ago. I love corduroy... the way it looks and how easy it is to work with while sewing. The lining is solid white cotton fabric that I cut out from my husband's old (and helplessly stained) church shirt. Great re-purposing for this small project. 

Do you plan on making any stockings this year?

I had to remind myself how to sew in the lining and got help from this tutorial. I used the second tutorial on sewing linings. 

~ Chelsea ~

Feeling Halloween!

It's pretty rare for me to get into Halloween. Although I think it can be a really fun time for kids and a very profitable time for candy sellers. :)

I think being a mother has made me a little more interested in making this holiday fun for my little girl and future little ones, so when I went through the Halloween isle at the 99 cent store and saw these large, thick felt shapes, I thought I could come up with some way to spruce up my home with some orange.

I like the simplicity of this door hanging decoration and it was easy and fun to put together. Some scraps of black and white ribbon did the trick to combine these three shapes into something cute to hang up in honor of this crazy Halloween holiday!



Hope you all enjoy your October and Halloween!

~ Chelsea ~