{ my first ever sewing project }

I guess to be perfectly honest, I DID complete my 8th grade sewing class...because it was required.  But even that was pretty sad. 

I was one of those girls that thought sewing was SO NOT COOL.  And I wanted nothing more than to NOT be domestic.  So, with my awesome 14-year old short term thinking, I absolutely avoided ANYTHING that could be even remotely related to domesticity.

I never learned to cook.

Or clean (until I lived on my own.  Then helloooo neat freak!).

Or sew.

Or budget.

I think you get the picture.

When we found out we were expecting our daughter (and had gotten past the "danger zone" of miscarrying), I started looking around at bedding.  NOTHING was jumping out at me.  And the stuff I did like was SOOOO expensive.  So my sweet hubsters, Ben, suggested I make it myself.

Um....what the wha???  Do you not know me at all?

We'd been together for 8 years and yet you haven't realized I can't sew a straight line?

But he had confidence in me.  So I thought I'd give it a try.

Not by myself.  Not that brave.  But my sister-in-law's mother is uh-maze-ing!  So, I got her to figure it all out help teach me the basics. And lo and behold, I COULD do it!

Who woulda thought?! (certainly NOT me)

Well, now that my baby girl is almost 2 (seriously? It's crazy!), it's about time to get rid of the crib, so I thought I'd post some pictures of my first ever sewing project (that I was secretly SO proud of myself for creating) before we get it all changed out.

Ta-Daaaaa!

Her adorable little crib:

 The bumpers.  Um, can you believe I didn't know that people MADE piping?  Yeah, I might have been pretty excited about that... :)

Inside of the bumpers.  I did not make the sheet though - that's all Target, baby!

Crib skirt.  Obviously it doesn't really poke out the slats like that.  Just pulled it out to show you the detail.  I'm nice like that. :)

The window valence. This is one thing I will definitely do differently in the future.  My Taelie-girl needs it dark to sleep, so her window had been covered up with a blanket for the last two years.  A blanket that I take down in the morning.  And put back up for nap time.  And take down after nap time. And put back up for bedtime. It's ridiculous.  But otherwise it's either too dark or too bright.  New curtains will be a MUST for her new room.

Her rag quilt.  Probably my favorite item in her room.  After she got bigger, I moved it from her crib to the armchair in her room.

A little close-up :)

Terrible picture, but this is where we hung all her bows.  I added horizontal strips of ribbon across it and attached her clips.  It is defnitely too busy, and I will be making something new for her hair stuff for her new room.  I'm just not loving it, but it worked for awhile.

  

We painted the entire room and installed the faux board and batten.  We had no idea what it was called when we did it, we just liked how it looked. Yeah, we're decor-savvy like that.  It's pretty tall too, as you can see from the pic -- sits above the light switch.  I wanted it to peek out above her crib, and I love it.  :)  We still have that glider, but are planning on selling it, it never worked with her room, and we never used it, so I never finished it.  Her dresser is in it's place now.

I wanted to do the traditional name sign, but change it up a little bit, so I made hers out of the same fabric using a tutorial.  I love the font -- sooo adorable!

Close up of the letters and the adorable knobs I got to hang them from.  They were originally pink, but didn't stand out enough on her wall, so they got a quick coat of spray paint!

And finally...the view from her doorway. I know it's hard to see, but the chime hanging in the corner I brought all the way over from Ukraine, and saved it for years before it found it's home in her nursery. I want to add sparkle too it or even make it brighter pink, but I am worried about messing it up since I can't exactly run out and buy a new one if I do. Any pointers?

Whew! I'm pretty sure this was the longest post in the history of the world!  ha!  It's crazy to look at these pictures and see how much has changed and evolved since we first put this sweet little nursery together.  I will take pictures of the changes so I can document it and remember it after it "grows up".

This is still my favorite room in our home.  I wanted to be a mom for so long that the first time I was able to cuddle my baby in her own room was a monumental occassion for me.  Everytime I walk into her room, I'm reminded how lucky I am to be a mother.  Her room totally symbolizes that to me. :)

I am SO glad I got passed my "fear" of domesticity!  Now I love all things having to do with it and only wish I would have learned earlier because now I am desperately trying to make up for lost time!  I should have listened to my mom when she told me one day I'd want to know how to do these things.  Moms seriously know everything. :) (Hopefully my kids feel the same way one day.)

What is your favorite room?  Have you ever taken on a project like this, having no idea how to do it, and loving the results?  I'd love to see your creations!

Linking up to:
Between Naps on the Porch:Metamorphosis Monday
C.R.A.F.T's:Making Monday's Marvelous

{ sprucing up the dining room }

While I do believe that in many cases, less is more, THIS is not one of the times that holds true:

A dining room should not have a ridiculously bare wall like this, am I right? 

Yeah, that's what I thought too.

I kept changing my mind about what to do with this space.  At first I wanted a big family picture, then I decided I wanted the first initial of our last name, "A" up in vinyl in a scrolly print with a sweet saying behind it.  (I still want this somewhere...maybe the master bedroom?) Then I wanted a long line of random, fun, informal family pictures up on the wall.

Decisions, decisions!  The answer finally came to me when I found three beautiful floating shelves at our local thrift store for, get this, $1.50 TOTAL. For all three of them!  I'm pretty sure I let out an audible squeal of delight right there in the aisle.  This is where my thrift store obsession began.

They needed a little bit of TLC, but for a buck fifty, I was NOT complaining! I took them home and gave them a good scrubbing and a coat of black spray paint.  The shortest shelf needed a little repair work, and my husband fixed that right up.

Once we got them hung up, I knew I wanted some vinyl saying up there to tie it all together, and I played around with a bunch of different ideas and went to a million different vinyl websites.  Then I remembered that my husband had been given some vinyl lettering samples from one of his clients.  I thumbed through a couple of them until I found one I liked:

It wasn't along the same lines of what I'd been thinking, but when I read it, I loved the saying and knew it would work great for this space.

Now that I had the layout all put together, I was finally ready to start decorating those shelves!  I was so excited!  But I could not for the life of me find arrangements of things I liked.  I was SURE I had enough stuff lying around the house that I could figure something out, but I kept coming up with nada.  So, our beautiful dining room looked like this about a month:

What?  It's NOT a gorgeous dining room?  I know!  I was so sad.  Then one day it just hit me.  I had found a couple other awesome thrift store finds and once I had those ready to go, the rest just came to me.

Here is the finished (for now!) product:

That's our little dog, Chloe.  She is totally a member of the family.  Maybe it's weird to have a picture of our pet up, but we just love her like crazy, so it seems normal to us!

The other photo is of our daughter and niece.  They are only one week apart.  It's been so fun watching them grow up together!  Both frames were thrift store finds that were .75 cents each!  Can't beat that!

The reed diffuser I already had -- the oil was long gone, but I'd held onto the piece because it was so cute.  I am so glad I did!

The flower was one I got at Robert's Crafts forever ago, I'd been planning on making it into a clip for my daughter, but never got around to it.  It found a new home instead!  The circular vase was a buck from the thrift store and the little glass container (I have no idea what that is called!) was another long used up reed diffuser that I just took the label off of.

I love the sweetness of a single flower...so cute!

The vase was the most expensive thing up there at $15.00.  My husband and I went on a date where you paint your own pottery and this was his creation.  He was very proud of it (as he should be -- it turned out great!)  The fancy silverware was $2.00 for all of it at the thrift store.  I could not believe it!  I think I literally skipped out of the store.  It is gorgeous.  Not sure I'm loving how it's arranged, but it works for now!

One more to see it all put together!

Obviously, there are still some bare areas and I'm trying to decide if I should add to it or leave it as is in a "less is more" fashion.  Any suggestions?  Until we decide to change it up, I am feeling much better about this than the nothingness that was there before!

p.s.  Please ignore that all the pictures say "the inspiration studio".  That was my old blog that is no long in existence.  Apparently when I edited the pics, I didn't save the originals onto our external hard drive, and our old computer crashed, taking them with it, so the old edited pics are all I have.  Awesome.  Sorry for any confusion.

Linked up to:

The Shabby Chic Cottage - Transformation Thursday

Tales from Bloggerittaville - Thrifty Thursday

Somewhat Simple - Strut Your Stuff Thursday with Shaklee

Thrifty Decor Chick - Before & After Party

Between Naps on the Porch - Metamorphasis Monday

{ patriotic love }

We have quite a bit of American pride 'round our house. 

My hubbs was thisclose to signing up for the Marines.  He tore his hamstring practically in half the day before he was going in to sign up, and by the time it healed, he had other responsibilities to attend to.  His favorite song is "God Bless the USA" by Lee Greenwood, and he tears up at the sight of soldiers or memorabilia about our great country. 

Even with all of this, we haven't been able to celebrate the 4th of July properly - because pretty much since we've been married, my husband's job takes us out of state all summer long.  We leave our home and family and travel to somewhere else in the country.  Don't get me wrong, we LOVE these adventures, but I wish I could decorate our house during this time to show our American pride. 

We do have a little something up...it stays up all year to remind us how lucky we are to live here:

(don't mind the messy messy entertainment center...I swear that thing will be the death of me one day.)

I'll zoom in to give you a closer look:

Now, I know that I don't have to decorate to show pride, but, let's be honest, it's a fun way to do so!

Especially after seeing some of the awesome ideas around blogland.

Take this for example:

How stinking adorable is that?  Those girls over at How Does She? never fail to amaze me.  I might stalk their site for new ideas....maybe....I'll never tell!

As soon as I saw that, I about died.  "I MUST have that!" I thought to myself.  And I will be making one as soon as I get back home.  I'll show you the finished product soon, I promise!

And then I saw Thrifty Decor Chick's post about this same decoration PLUS her own twist on it to make it into a door hanging:

Ack!  Could you just die?  I just love it.  So simple.  So sweet.

Sarah never ceases to amaze me with what she comes up with.

So then I decided I had to make one of those too.  Darn it all.  Why do you all have to be so talented?

If you could give me about a lifetime minute to catch up, that would be great!

And then, if all that weren't enough (sheesh! Seriously.), I blogstalked stumbled upon Living with Lindsay's Teach Me Tuesday post.  Her guest blogger this Tuesday was Sarah from A Little of This, A Little of That.  Sarah made the most adorable little girl's American flag shirt.  Seriously. To. Die. For.

Don't take my word for it though, see for yourself:

I am pretty sure I have to make this for my little Taelie-girl now.

In fact, as soon as she wakes up from her nap, I just might have to run to the store.

Yup.  I'm gonna have to.

The best part is, all of these girls gave us tutorials so we can be as crafty as them!  Score!  Just click on the links with their names and you'll be taken right to their sites.  (Nope, no one paid me to advertise these girls -- no one knows I'm here, I'm a newbie!  I just love these ideas that much!)

What are you waiting for?  Get busy crafting!  Have you seen any other to-die-for 4th ideas that I've missed? If so, let me know, and I'd LOVE to check them them out!