DIY

Pinterest Projects: Laundry Detergent!

Posted by Nat on Jan 11, 2012 | 3 comments

I want to share the things I try from Pinterest that work, so I shall begin another series here on CC:  Pinterest Projects.  Sometimes I’ll devote an entire post to them, other times I’ll just mention them within a post.   I think it’s important to do more than just pin things- you must try them, too!

I was immediately intrigued by this pin.   The thought of making a boat-load of my own detergent and then not having to buy it for a long time…. awesome.  So I did it.  I made my own laundry detergent.  Here’s the original post in case you’d like to make your own.

I put mine in a giant glass cookie jar from IKEA.  I love it.  It’s so nice to have this instead of a big ol’ plastic bottle of detergent.  Does it work?  Yup.  Does it smell good?  It does.  It doesn’t necessarily make your clothes smell amazing, so if you need spring-fresh clothes you’ll want to add a fabric softener or something along those lines, but our clothes are clean.

Other tips I would add:

Order everything you need from Amazon.  It’s so much easier than driving all over kingdom-come for the ingredients, as they are not necessarily all in the same place.  What I really love is that everything the ingredients come in, for the most part, is recyclable.  RAD!

Mix it up outside, and wear a mask.  There will be soap dust everywhere, but it will smell amazing.  Love it!

If you grate the soap by hand, it’s quite a nice workout for your arms. 🙂

 I’m pondering trying the dishwasher detergent next.  Woo hoo!

DIY: IKEA Chair Makeover, Part 2

Posted by Nat on Jan 10, 2012 | 9 comments

I am so excited!  The chairs are done!  Read here if you missed Part 1.  If you are considering doing this yourself, be sure to read to the bottom- I link up to a few posts that really helped me out.  And if you like what you see, feel free to leave me some comment love!

Here they are- check them out:

And here’s a “before and after” comparison- doesn’t it look sooo much better?

Side note:  the light in the “before” picture is 3:30 p.m.-ish.  The light in the “after” picture is 9:30 a.m.-ish.  Interesting, eh?

I’ve decided that I am a color person.  I like rooms, especially rooms with light, to have color.  It helps my eyes dance around and it makes my heart happy.

So a few things about my process/what I did:

• I bought my fabric at a local upholstery fabric store.  The guy I spoke with at the store thought I was crazy for my fabric choice.  It’s cotton, and he seemed a bit car salesman-ish to me.  It was the only thing I liked in the store, so I bought it anyway.   I Scotchguarded the crap out of it- I think there are 4 coats on it.  We’ll see how they hold up.  The nice thing is that even if the fabric doesn’t hold up, I love the color, so I can just find new fabric and redo the seats if needed- that won’t take much time at all.
• I used Rustoleum primer and paint.  I believe the green color is called “Eden.”  I did two coats of primer, two coats of green.  I think I probably should have done 3 coats of green for good luck, but I didn’t.  Oh well.  I used every drop of every can I bought, which was 3 cans of primer and 3 cans of paint.
• I sanded the chairs lightly and wiped them down before priming.  I’m not sure it was necessary, but I did it just in case.
• I’ve never been entirely sure how long I had to wait between coats, but I had one morning to bust this out while Anna & Jack were in preschool from 8-12.  So after reading the directions on the can, I came up with a plan.  It took me about 20-25 minutes to do one coat on all 4 chairs, which is about how long the can said to wait.  So I just worked my way around the chairs, checked my watch when one “round” was complete, and then moved on.  I started at 9:30 and finished at 11:45.  I will say this:  it was VERY hot the day I did this and the sun was VERY bright.  This actually made it harder to see any missed spots when I went from white primer to green.

After letting the chairs dry for 24 hours, I coated them with one coat of Polycrylic (I used Minwax).  I HATE that stuff.  It was not fun to use at.  All.  I’m hoping it really does help because I was cussing inwardly a lot.  It did give the green a nice sheen, as the finish of the paint was “Satin” and it wasn’t quite as glossy as I wanted.  But you can see below that the chairs have bubbles in a few places.  Oh well.  I still love them.

I did ponder sanding the bubbles down, but it seemed like I would go through the paint and have to repaint again.  Not gonna go there- I am DONE painting furniture for a while. So, we’ll live with the bubbles and it will be fine.  They are just in a few spots, anyway.

The seat cushions were easy.  I did two coats of Scotchguard to the fabric before cutting and stapling it to the seat pads (I did it several days before actually doing the pads).  As you can see below, I stapled all four sides down in the center, pulling tight, then I worked on each side, and then folded in the corners.  It doesn’t look as neat and tidy as the original Ikea fabric, but I bet that was done by a machine or a person who does a bazillion a day, and no one is going to look underneath my chairs, so… I don’t care. 🙂  Once the fabric was attached, I Scotchguarded it two more times with very light coats.  I’ll keep you posted with how the fabric holds up- I’m curious to see how it does.

One final view.  I just love them.  They’re so bright and cheery.  The first time we used them we talked about sitting on rainbows.  Ha!

The following links proved very helpful to me in this process:

All Things Thrifty posted here about her spraypaint knowledge- uber helpful.

She also posted here with a Spray Painting 101, which includes a video of someone spray painting the correct way.

Lovely Nest’s post here about her dining chair makeover helped in terms of learning about Polycrylic.

DIY: IKEA Chair Makeover, Part I

Posted by Nat on Jan 6, 2012 | Comments Off on DIY: IKEA Chair Makeover, Part I

Warning:  I am going to embarrass myself in a bit with photos of our actual kitchen chairs.  My hope is to help all people everywhere feel better about how gross their kitchen chairs are.  We are not alone.  

Have you ever had a project that all of a sudden you just HAD to finish?  A switch goes off, and WHAM-O- you simply must. Do. It. NOW.  That’s where I am with this one.

I’ve been hunting for months on Pinterest and the WWW for fabric to use to redo our kitchen chairs.  I hemmed and hawed and then realized that the problem is not that I can’t find fabric I like, it’s that I don’t want to buy fabric online.  It weirds me out.  I’m sure someday I’ll do it and it will be great, but I’m a very tactile person- I don’t want to buy something sight unseen that my rear end is going to sit on for who-knows-how-long.

I digress.  Here are the chairs in their current state.  I hate them.  (I also can’t believe I’m showing you how bad they are, but hey- it’s cleansing in a way…)

(upper left:  for some dumb-a** reason I thought it would be okay to put the vacuum on the chair while vacuuming bugs out of the ceiling-fan light.  Duh.) 

It’s not just the seats, though. The frames have had their fair share of…  well, here- have a look:

Dirt, milk, juice, food, nicks, fading- the works.

I should say that while I do hate how dirty they are, I also think they have held up surprisingly well for IKEA chairs.  They’ve been with us through two moves, for five years, we have never had to tighten them, and they are never uneven on the floor or anything.  They deserve a little pick-me-up, eh?

Here they are in my kitchen.

They totally don’t match.  We used to have a dark table that they matched, but that table is long gone.  Now we have a huge birch table (love it) and the dark chairs just do. Not. Match.

So, this weekend I will be finishing them up.  If you’ve been to my Facebook Page you may have noticed I posted about the fabric I chose.  You’ll have to wait and see what color I chose for paint when I post the final product next week- can’t wait!

Do you have anything in your house that needs a pick-me-up?

Felt Obsession

Posted by Nat on Jan 3, 2012 | Comments Off on Felt Obsession

This project was a little toooo fun for me.  And for my mom.

Did you play with these when you were little?  If you’re a child of the mid- to late-70s, you may have.  They are flat, sort of like a glorified paper doll/Flat Stanley.

They are called “Twigs and Wigs” dolls, and after a little research I found that they are not made anymore, so I have officially dubbed them “cool retro dolls.”  We had 3, perhaps because I am one of three {awesome} girls.  My sisters and I wore them out!  They came with felt clothes that were uber-easy to put on and take off, which is one reason we loved them so much.  After a visit last winter where Anna played with the old, tired clothes, my mom and I decided to give them a new wardrobe and then give them to Anna at Christmas.  We started during my parents’ visit in late-September, but I finished them up just before we left for Christmas.  Before I go on, check it out- they even had a patent number and everything- aren’t they official?

Felt is addictive.  Not as addictive as Pinterest, but pretty addictive.  It’s so easy to work with, sews nicely, and just feels yummy under your fingers.  We used the old hair-do’s and clothes to make templates, but then I tried to add some new flare to the clothes.  The following pictures are not everything we made, but a nice sampling:

(not so happy with the hat, but Anna loves it)

(the rainbow shirt is my favorite)

Here a few dolls dressed and ready for action:

To keep everything together I also made a little bag with a divider in it so she can put them all away when she’s done (in theory, of course).

She’s played with them several times since Christmas- she loves them.

(Side note:  can anyone tell me when the “I can’t smile for the camera” phase ends?  And yes, that’s my arm tickling her, trying to get her to smile a natural smile…)

Linking up to:

Today’s Creative Blog

Ta-Da Tuesday @ Mommy By Day, Crafter By Night

Hookin’ Up with HoH!

Fingerprints on the Fridge

Christmas Week: Disney Reveal

Posted by Nat on Dec 16, 2011 | Comments Off on Christmas Week: Disney Reveal

Michael and I decided to take the kids to Disneyland!  We’ll take them in January while the crowds are thinner.  While they will get some gifts this year (okay, I’ve had a hard time holding back, but they aren’t getting anything huge), we are failing trying to keep things simple.  I wanted to have something to give them when we tell them we are taking them to the Happiest Place on Earth because none of them have been yet, and we are really, really excited to take them.

I rounded up some supplies, including some Disney paper I found at Michael’s Crafts.  I also downloaded the Waltograph font from Dafont.com.

I typed up a message to the kids from Mickey and got to cutting and pasting.

I am so pleased with how it turned out!

Here’s the cover:

Don’t you just love a good, layered sticker?

And here’s the inside:

(sorry it’s so blurry)

This is my favorite part- the message from Mickey underneath the black.  Anna loves Minnie right now, so I had to include her, too. 🙂

I’m not sure what we’ll do with it after-the-fact other than put it in a keepsake box, but it sure is cute.  Would you like a tutorial?  I was thinking this might be something to sell or share the process of how I made it, though it really is self-explanatory.  If you’re interested in either, please leave a comment and let me know!

And so, dear readers, I leave you until after the holidays.  We are excited to see family and friends for the holidays, and this mommy needs a break from technology for a while.  I’ll be planning lots of posts for the new year, including a closet update, fun with felt, and more!

Happy Holidays to you and yours, and may you have a safe and fun New Year!  See you in 2012!

Christmas Week: Our DIY Christmas Card

Posted by Nat on Dec 14, 2011 | 1 comment

I had this rosy picture in my head of how our Christmas card photos were going to look this year.  I would put my plan into action, the kids would perform for us, we’d get some stellar pics, and hooray!  Cute Christmas pics!  Ahem.  Well, even if things weren’t in our favor, it still turned out pretty darn good, if I do say so myself.

We decided not to get professional photos done in order to save some money.  So I went and found some cute Christmas pjs (something I would have done anyway), some white sheets at Wal-Mart (I have a love-hate relationship with that place), and also a few props.  Remember my glitter letters I shared with you a few weeks ago?  I tried to use them.  Didn’t work out.  Turns out 4- and 2-year-olds do not work well with props (for the most part).

Timing was difficult.  My husband, who dutifully knew he was needed to help, was sick.  Thanksgiving came and went and I was getting desperate to get it done.  The weather was also a factor- it was either raining or super cloudy, and I wanted outside light.  Finally the stars aligned…  Not really- I just saw the sunshine and started setting up even though my husband was still sick.  Sorry, honey.

My big take-away from this:  I have SO MUCH to learn about photography, and I REALLY REALLY REALLY want a *real* camera.

I used two sheets to set up a sort of outdoor staging area.  I hung one from a tree branch, and another I laid on the ground.  I covered our Bumbo with white for Miss Em.  I got the props, set the ISO on my camera to “high,” and started clicking.  Here’s an outtake so you can see what the set up was kind of like.

My wedding photographer said to me at some point, “All you want is one great shot.  If you get one great shot, you have accomplished your mission.”  It was slim pickins, but we got some good ones.  I started editing in Photoshop and created our card.  Many thanks to Rita at the Coffeeshop Blog– her green freebie is my background.  I found it here.

Here’s what it looked like as a digital file.

The little props we used I found here via Pinterest.  Where else, right?  Coincidentally, the best shots of the kids were when I had them lay down on the sheet rather than sit or stand.  Go figure.

The next part I wanted was an insert.  I saw this on Pinterest and wanted something similar, but knew I could never find something online that would put it together, so I started looking at fonts.  I decided on Budmo and Honey Script.  I made a list of our top 10 for the year, and this is what I came up with.  I. Love. It.

The last phase was printing.  I didn’t want a flimsy photo this year.  I wanted a nice thick print.  My friend Amy over at 10:02 told me that I should try Mixbook. They turned out so nicely and are exactly what I wanted.  The best part?  Mixbook sends you EXTRA ENVELOPES.  And not just 2 or 3- there were at least 10 extra.  Awesome!

For the “Top 10” insert, I went to Office Depot and had them cut down a bunch of cardstock.  I think I had 125 cards made.  Guess how much it cost to have them cut for me?  Including the cardstock, it was less than $8.  Super cheap.  I am so, so happy with this.  It will probably be a new thing for us.  It was honestly easier than a letter and so much more fun to do.