Baby Boy Nursery

I finally finished the quilt for my little boy's nursery! I saw this tutorial: http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.com/2008/10/how-to-make-ragged-squares-quilt.html and fell in love. I finished the top several months ago. But I knew I would be getting a walking foot for my sewing machine for Christmas, so I waited to finish it until I had that. I still don't have machine quilting figured out all the way. The stitches were a little loose and I still had some shifty puckery stuff going on. Anyone have any advice?



Here's a picture of the boards I have above his crib. The airplane was a gift from my sweet friend Leslie (oursidenotes.blogspot.com) and I made the top board. I sketched the letters by hand, cut them out and used foam dots to raise them. Matches pretty well, huh?!


Some day I'd like to add more. I'm thinking a vintage red airplane, some tin stars...I don't know. Haven't gotten that far yet. But so far it's headed in the right direction!

Christmas Dress

I just finished this dress. It was supposed to be for Christmas...oops. I figured since it's almost February, I should probably do the last bit of hand sewing and let The Girl wear it. She loves it and doesn't want to take it off. Instead of sewing the sash on, I made it so that we can change it out. I've got a red satin sash and a pink chiffon sash that she can wear. Who doesn't love to change things up?! Oh, and here's the matching hair bow:

Living Room "After" Pictures!

Okay, I'm finally posting some of the promised "after" pictures in my living room. It's not all the way done yet...I'll be tweaking things for at least another month to get it just right (yes I am obsessive). But this will give you the basic idea. :)
First is the couch. New pillows can change the feel of a room so much! The green fabric is duiponi silk that I got for FREE. I saw an ad on Craigslist...a lady had a garage chock full of fabric that she was just giving away. Either she was crazy, or a fabric pirate or just really wanted to get rid of stuff. The place was packed with people grabbing fabric. I was 15 minutes late, 9 months pregnant and STILL got four grocery bags stuffed with fabric and trims. The black and white print is from Joanns (purchased on sale for 50% off, of course). I bought it because...well, what else goes with apple green?! And after looking at these pictures, I'm wishing I had ironed the fabric before I sewed pillows. Eek!

Next comes that hideous corner shelf with the heart. Do you even recognize it? I covered the front with embossed cardstock lined with cardboard. Just glued it right over all that scrolly heart mess. Now the shelf is sleek and simple! I think I'm going to add a little more black glaze to the shelf. The embossed paper was metallic bronze and it's showing through just a little too much for my taste.

Oh, and just a little info about the two picture frames. The small one was obnoxiously gold and the large one was cream and mint crackle finish. YIKES...hideous, to say the least. I am shocked how much better they look with just a few coats of glossy black spray paint! And I'm kicking myself for forgetting to take a picture before I painted them, because seriously people, you would be amazed!

Basket from Salvation Army filled with apples. The apples were too much money (in comparison) but I really wanted them!

I made the runner...it took all of 20 minutes. Super easy, but it adds more color and pattern to the room.

Talk about a change...this clock was grandma-ish before. Now it is modern AND it matches my new living room! It only took me three or four rejects to get it right. I hate that...what a waste of time and supplies. But I couldn't settle on something I didn't like because then it would bug me everytime I look at it!

Here's my lovely $1.50 apothecary jar. I made the balls inside. I wrapped string around a small balloon, painted it with a water/Elmer's glue mixture, let it dry, then popped the balloon. I am going to add some little green balls in there too...just haven't gotten them done/right yet.

Another apothecary jar I found two days ago for $1. YES! I was so stoked when I saw it, I almost pushed a little grandma out of the way to grab it. Almost. To fill it, I just rolled paper into tubes, then tied them together with ribbon. I'm too cheap to buy anything to put in the jars, so I had to get creative. :)

And here's the whole group together. The skinny vase is only temporary until I find another apothecary jar. But I've had pretty sweet luck lately, so that poor vase shouldn't have to stay long. It's green because it's filled with split peas, by the way. I'm excited to change around the jar "fillings" with different holidays and/or as I get ideas of what to put in them. Now I just have to hope that my kids stay away from them so they don't get smashed into a million pieces!

Last but not least is my favorite transformation of all. This wicker basket is where we throw our scarves, hats and gloves during the winter. Before it looked like this:


Now it looks like this:
Much better, huh? This is my favorite transformation because...all I did was flip the liner inside out! HA! Brilliant! Some day I might paint the basket part black, but for now I'm just enjoying the fact that I got this awesome basket for so cheap and didn't have to spend any extra money or time to fix it up. Yay!

So there you have it...a thrifty "refresher" for my living room! Here's the cost breakdown:
green silk: free
apples: $5
metal basket: 50 cents
two apothecary jars: $2.50
clock: $1
shelf: $1
black and white fabric: $5
black spray paint: $1
big wicker basket: $4
TOTAL: $20

It may not be perfect or even done yet, but it's been really fun to challenge myself to do it for so cheap. I am happy.

Fridge Magnets

Here are a few magnets I made today to hang on my fridge. I used some Basic Grey paper. They're nothing fancy, but much cuter than the free magnets that come attached to the phone book. :) The frame is where I put our weekly dinner menu. The square magnet has little clothespins so I can hang reminders from it. The four round magnets are marble magnets. If you haven't ever made them before, you should! Super easy and fun!

Jewelry Holder

Remember this little frame I got for 50 cents?


Here it is redone! I am going to use it to hang my necklaces and earrings on. I removed the hooks, covered the front with paper, then sealed it with Mod Podge. I hot glued some heavy white fabric into the frame hole, screwed the hooks back on, and WHALA!


No more tangled jewelry! Hurray!

Thrifty Living Room Redo

I'm tired of everything in my living room. But what's a girl to do when her hubby is in his last semester of grad school and there's not an extra dime to be found? Okay, well that's not exactly true...I saved a little Christmas cash for just this kind of emergency. :) I can't afford to replace any of our hand-me-down furniture, but I can "refresh" the look by changing the fabric on my throw pillows and adding new accessories. I started in my fabric stash and found some inspiration. Then I hit my local thrift stores. I found some real treasures! These are the before pictures:

This clock was $1. A buck! It's about 12 inches tall and the front opens. It has little shelves inside. I'm a sucker for secret compartments.

I've been looking for a corner shelf for a long time...I have the perfect place to put it. This one was 50 cents. It is sad and 90's country cutesy right now. But wait until you see what I did with it!

I LOVE the shape of this little picture frame with hooks. It was also 50 cents. It DOES have the other hooks. At this point I had already taken them off to begin working when I remembered I needed to take a "before" picture. Ha ha. Oh, and this isn't for the living room. But I knew exactly what I wanted to use it for when I saw it.

I got this jar yesterday. My husband can't understand why I am so excited about a glass jar. It's an apothecary jar to be exact, and it is about a foot tall (it looks so teeny in the picture, but it's actually pretty big) The best part is it cost me only $1.50. I LOVE it so much it makes me giddy.

This is my couch. It is HIDEOUS underneath. But my mom made this awesome fitted slip cover for it a few years ago. Isn't she amazing?

Stay tuned to see the "after" pictures!

Pierogies

This is one of my favorite dishes. Pierogies are so yummy, but they are very time consuming to make. Luckily, I have an awesome husband who helps me whenever I make them. He makes the dough, rolls it out, and cuts the circles while I make the filling and fill/fold/seal the dough. We've got a system down that makes it pretty quick.

3 cups flour
1 egg
2 Tablespoons butter
3/4 cup warm water
1 teaspoon salt

Filling:
2 1/2 lbs. mashed potatoes (I cheat and use instant)
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup chopped onion

Mix dough together and roll thin. Cut 4-5 inch circles. Place one spoonful of filling on each circle, fold over and crimp edges with a fork. Boil in large stock pot in batches. They're done when they float to the top. Serve with melted butter.

Some time I'd like to try other fillings: sausage and peppers, spinach and parmesan, who knows.

Optional Sage Butter Sauce:
4 tablespoons butter
4 cloves garlic, very roughly chopped
pepper, to taste
1 teaspoon dry sage or 5 leaves fresh sage

Melt butter in a small sauce pan and gently simmer garlic until golden. Add sage and pepper to butter sauce; sautee for 2 minutes. Drizzle over pierogies.