"Painted" Shoes

My little girl grew out of her only church shoes, so I was on the hunt for some new or used shoes. I wanted either black or brown so they would coordinate with most of her dresses. I have had the best luck with finding children's shoes for great prices at the Deseret Industries (D.I.) thrift store here in Mesa. So, off I went  to the D.I. in search of perfectly cheap shoes (most kids shoes are $2-$4).

I found some just her size but they were navy blue. I settled for them and bought them since I couldn't find exactly what I was looking for.
Then, when I got home, I had the idea to use black shoe polish to "paint" them black. I first cleaned them up really well and the velcro needed to be cleaned out a lot (hairs and fuz). Then, I got to my painting project.

I am so pleased with how they look so perfectly black! I also really liked how the polish turned the threads from dingy white to black to make the shoe look new again.

Sorry, I forgot to take a before picture. But here they are now.

Try it yourself and transform shoes into just what you were wanting!

~ Chelsea ~

Trying out some new GLAZE!

Oh, no! It's all cracked up! This cute little shelf needed some LOVE!

First I scraped all of the loose paint off.
Then I filled everything with this wonderful spackle.
Because I knew this shelf would be hanging on my bathroom wall, I didn't feel that it needed the strength of wood putty.

Here it is all patched up.
No pic, but next I sanded it to ruff it up a little for better paint adhesion and to smooth the spackle. I decided that I wanted some of the glaze to catch in the dings, so I didn't sand them all out or fill them all in. Before painting, a good wipe down is needed with a diluted dish detergent. I like to use Dawn because it really gets the grease & grime off.
It looks pretty good with a nice coat of white lacquer. My handy husband sprayed it on for me!!!!
You could use a can of spray paint or brush laytex/acrylic paint on too.

Here are all of my goodies to glaze with. This was the first time to use my new glaze & I am so happy to say that I like it much better than the other type I was using before. It's called Special Effects by McCloskey. Tintable, non-yellowing, low odor ~ just to name a few of it's wonderful qualities. I mixed it with a little brown & a touch of black acrylic paint in that bright happy bowl.

A tip about gloves ~ vinyl gloves are stronger than laytex. It's not very fun to get stain on your finger nails (which has happened to me plenty of times when I used to use the laytex gloves)

Here it is with the glaze applied and then wiped off with a clean rag.
It looks great to let the glaze stay in the dings and indentions of the molding.

I LOVE THE LOOK!

And I love my beautiful statue of a Mama Bird caring for her Babies.

Bye for now, ~*~Lynda~*~

Reversible Ruffle Apron

I love aprons, although I honestly never remember to wear one when I am cooking or baking. It's silly because then I get upset when my clothes have oils stains.

I really enjoy making aprons for little people, I guess because little things are always that much cuter. And, kids love helping in the kitchen, or playing pretend kitchen and an apron just makes it that much more fun.

I made this apron for a friend. I made it reversible and with a cute little ruffle. It can be made in any size your heart desires. For a toddler-sized apron, you need about 3/4 yard of each coordinating fabric and some 7/8" wide grosgrain ribbon.



Here's how I did it:

First, I cut out 2 coordinating fabrics into the desired apron shape and size, including an extra inch or so for seam allowance. One nice thing about an apron is that it doesn't have to fit just right. When I cut out the apron shape, I have both the solid pink and the pattern fabrics together and folded in half and I cut with the apron center on the fold to get the apron perfectly symetrical.

Here are my 2 pieces of fabric, cut identical using a rotary cutter (wonderful invention!).

Then, decide if you want pockets or some shape on your apron. I chose to put hearts of the opposite fabric on the front and back. One on the chest section and the other where a pocket might be. I drew out my heart on a piece of paper and used that as a pattern to cut out my two fabric hearts. Then, I pinned them on the right sides of each apron piece in place where I wanted them and sewed a tight zig-zag stitch around the edges to secure them.

Ok, on to the ruffle...

Cut out long strips of each fabric, mine needed to be 57" inches by 2.5" inches each. I needed to sew shorter strips together to make 57" strips because of how short my cut of fabric was.

Then, sew with right sides together along one long side and both short sides to form the seam for the outer side of the ruffle. Then, turn it right sides out and square the 2 corners using something pointy, like a pencil. Iron flat.

Then, do a basting stitch (increase stitch length) about 1/4 inch from the raw edges and pull one thread to gather the ruffle evenly and just enough to be the correct length to match up with the bottom of your apron.

If you need help with gathering, check out this tutorial.

Then, lay out the ruffle, matching the raw edges of the apron pieces and the ruffle. Pin in place (Don't skimp out on pins, use a bunch to keep it all in place). ***Leave about 1/2 inch at underarm corners open, allowing room for the underarm seams. Apron pieces need to be right sides together with the ruffle laying with opposite fabric patterns touching. In my case, the solid pink fabric against patterned purple fabric, as shown in the photo below.

Once it is all pinned, cut your grosgrain ribbon to make your 2 straps to tie in the back. Then, you will need to pin those 1/2 inch below the underarm corner (where the ruffle begins) facing into the apron body on both sides. Then, sew with a 1/2 inch seam allowance around the bottom of the apron, being sure to align the ruffle inside as you go.

Then, pin the neck strap facing inward and sew along the top of the apron and along one underarm section. Leave the other underarm section for turning right side out. Turn the apron right side out and make sure the ruffle, neck strap and back ties are all sewn in correctly.

Fold under the last underarm seam, iron flat and topstitch around the entire border

 of the apron.

Admire your work for several minutes. :)

I hope this tutorial was helpful!

~ Chelsea ~

Painters Tape

Here's my opinion based on my experience with 2 types of painters tape.

When I painted the stripe in my bathroom, I purchased a more expensive brand of tape called Frog Tape because I really wanted perfect lines, and that is what it promised me. My house has slightly textured walls, so that makes it hard to find a tape that is sticky enough to seal off all those bumps.

From this project, I don't think that Frog Tape works any better than just normal blue painters tape. So, in the future, I wouldn't spend the extra money on Frog Tape.

There's my 2 cents on the matter, just in case you have ever wondered for your projects.

~ Chelsea ~

Happy Love Month!

The girls & I got together to make Valentines!

We are feeling the love!

 

As  have loved you, love one another!

Spread the love everyone!
With Love, ~*~Lynda~*~

Sharing the Wealth

I got a fast, cheap idea for a cute little craft from Sharing the Wealth yesterday. And since I had a little more nap time to use up, I thought I would have a little fun using some things I already had to make a cute

tissue rosette ball

for Valentines Day... or whenever.

First, I gathered the Tuesday ads from the mail and started bunching them one by one into a ball shape, until I got the size I wanted. I made it as dense as I could and glued down the last ends to keep it in a ball shape.

Then, I cut 3-4 inch wide strips of used pink tissue paper and starting from the center, made twisted, rolled rosettes. And I glued them on the ball as I made them, overlapping them to make sure all the ugly ads were covered up. (Mine used about 4 sheets of tissue paper)

After it was all covered, I attached a ribbon for hanging. I plan to make another and make it a topiary next time. Or make a set of three and put them in a bowl for a center piece.

I wasn't even sure where I would put mine, but it is now giving some pink to my dining room, hanging from the fan. It was really fun to make and the best part was that it was FREE! (Other than the minimal cost of hot glue)

~ Chelsea ~

Improvement is a GREAT THING!

Over the past 2 years I have been so pleased to find these
wonderful folding table & chairs from 3 different second hand stores.

The chairs are made by the 'Stackmore' furniture company.

I would love to find 2 more of these awesome chairs.

They are perfect to use when our Grandcuties are here.

Thus the dark brown upholstery!

Look at this beautiful 'Drexel Heritage' dining room set.

Unfortunately its previous owners were very rough on it

and so, it needed a face lift.

It was actually a little hard to paint over such beautiful pecan

& exotic burl wood. But it just had to be.

Pretty, huh!

This dresser was fun to transform. I usually wouldn't waste my

time on such a piece (particle board), but it still functioned well,

the chuncky handles appealed to me and it had some good lines.

Sweet "Ballet Slipper Pink" with Brown glaze.

The pulls painted up well with Oil-Rubbed Bronze.

I decided to paper the top instead of replace with a new piece of wood.

It's so PRETTY now! ~*~Lynda~*~

Attacking the Laundry Room

I don't know about you, but I find laundry to be one of the most challenging chores to keep up on. I decided I really needed to do myself a favor and make it a little smoother by organizing  my oh-so-messy laundry room. Before it had basically been a catch-all room with things that belonged in every other room of the house. It's a room we also use for home maintenance items such as light bulbs, but we could never find what we needed and would end up buying more. It was a mess and because of this, my laundry life was harder. One of the worst issues I had was not having proper places for the things. For an example, I would sometimes find that a wet laundry item (like a rag or washcloth) had been thrown in with all of our clothes making them damp, dingy, and stinky. Damp and dingy is bad, but I absolutely despise stinky. I knew I needed to put things into categories that worked and I especially needed a spot designated for wet laundry. So that is what I did.
-First I figured out what needed to go in other rooms and put those items away.
-Second I took what I wanted to keep in the laundry room and put them into categories
-Third I hit up my local dollar store and bought enough buckets to have one for each category
-Then I made labels so that the other people in my home could follow my organizational plan, thus maintaining the order I worked so hard to create
-After that, I put the items in the appropriate buckets and arranged them with items I use most often in the most convenient places.
-Lastly, I cleared larger clutter by mounting things such as the ironing board and brooms/mops onto the walls and cleaned my appliances and floor really well.
I love having an organized laundry room. I still don't always keep up on laundry, but it is definitely less discouraging with a clean and orderly place to work.

<3 Crystal

Before:

After:

Ugly Bathroom

My house was built in 1960 and it shows, mostly in the 2 bathrooms. Those rooms have had the least attention when  it comes to renovation and updating. With that said, my master bathroom is not a designer's paradise in the least, but after I moved here, I really wanted to at least make that small space slightly more pleasing to the eye.

First, I listed all the upgrades and things I want for the bathroom.

That list included:

1) REDO shower completely (has original pink tile)

2) Purchase new mirror and medicine cabinet

3) New door and trim

4) paint walls

5) remove 2 handicap handles and rails from the walls and patch HUGE holes

6) remove the towel bar hanging over the sink (bad placement).

7) New towel hangers

8) Paint sprinkler system box white to "blend in" (yes, the green auto sprinkler box is in our bathroom and is ugly).

9) Buy a brown bathroom rug

Then, I crossed out the things I couldn't afford right now (#1, 2 and 3) and figured out what I already have to make as much of these items come to life. I already had brown semi-gloss paint, so I decided to paint a brown stripe. With mom's help, we decided the stripe should be about 7 inches wide and go all around the room.

Here is my bathroom before:

It's hard to get the entire bathroom in a picture since it is so small.

After a few inexpensive fixes, painting and finishing touches, here's what we have.

Over time I will hopefully get to other things on my wish list, but for now me, my husband and our budget are all quite pleased with my efforts. :)

~ Chelsea ~