Personalized Birth Announcement Art

As you know my favorite post of all times was the Name/Established Art. I have given these as gifts for teachers, weddings and any other occasion I can think of.

When my new nephew was born, I knew I had to make him one.  I knew I wanted to include some additional information on this, like his weight and the date and time he was born, so I put a black line to frame his name and put the date and time on the top left and his weight on the bottom right.   I blurred out the details but you get the idea :)

Here is what the draft image looked like. I created this before I had the exact details for him.

For instructions on how to make this and where to find the letters, see the Name/Est art post here.

I knew the frame I was going to purchase when I created the art, so I made the image to fit perfectly.  The image you see is approximately 15x7 inches but I had to create an image that was 18x12 inches for printing ($3.49 a Costco). (Update: I have been having a lot of questions as to how I am printing at Costco. I am not sure if Costco US is different from Costco Canada, but we can print photos in sizes up to 12x18 for an extremely reasonable price. After uploading the image, I can simply select the large size from the pull down menu. I am sorry I do not know how the US version works. If there isn't the exact size I want, I create a photo to the print size available and leave white space around the image. Then crop the paper once I get home. hope this helps.)

I purchased this frame at Ikea ($12.99) and my wonderful husband cut the mat so it held one photo as opposed to three small photos. He used a metal ruler and an Exacto knife and cut the mat on an angle. You really can't see where he removed the sections.

 I am really happy with how it turned out. What do you think?

Linking to the following amazing parties:

Counting down the days - Pregnancy T-shirt

No, I am not pregnant! But my sister-in-law is.

I have to share the cutest pregnancy t-shirt she created using the freezer paper stencil technique you see all over the blogging world (if you need details on how to do it, I posted the instructions last month here).

Using a t-shirt she had on hand, fabric paint, freezer paper and a Cricut, she stenciled the words "counting down" below her belly and added some hash marks. How cute would it be it you added a new line for every week you are along!
She was wearing it when she came over today, so the only shots I have of her are with it on. But it shows how adorable it looks when she is wearing it. And shows what a good sport she is allowing me to photograph her belly when she is scheduled to have the new addition to our family on Monday! I promised I wouldn't show her face since she thought she wasn't camera ready, but she looks amazing for being 9 months pregnant.

  How cute and we can't wait to meet the little one!

How to Upgrade your Builder Grade Mirror - Frame it!

I love framed mirrors in the bathroom but I really don't like the idea of ripping out a large builder mirror to replace it with a smaller framed one. Not only is it hurting the environment, it hurts my pocket book. So at our first house we framed our builder grade mirror with some cheap MDF molding and ever since, we have been hooked on this cheap, but with a huge impact, solution.

I saw on Our Suburban Cottage, over a year ago, an amazing mirror that she created in her bathroom. Using her design, my husband was able to create this stunning addition to our master bathroom's mini-reno. I fully intend to redo everything out of this bathroom when time and money permits; but for now we had to do cosmetic changes that have made this bathroom livable for a few years.

We did two bathrooms with this type of frame. This bathroom mirror is between 2 walls so I will give these instructions. When I have some time I will show you how to do a bathroom mirror that is not butted against two walls.

Before (when we bought the house):

After (after some minor and inexpensive changes):

 

Materials needed:
1x4 MDF trim (to go the entire way around the mirror)
Thin trim with one side rounded (2 times the width of the mirror)
Crown molding (the width of the mirror)
Paint
Liquid nails (be sure it adheres to glass!)
Caulking

Method:
Paint all the trim both back and front. You might not think of painting the back side, but take my word, you will see the reflection of the back side in the mirror.  I spray painted the trim and I loved the smooth look; I personally have issues with getting my paint smooth so this was my only option.

Measure (twice) the width of the mirror and cut 2 pieces of 1x4 trim and the rounded trim. Paint the ends that have been cut.

Attach, with liquid nails, one of the rounded trim pieces to the 1 inch side of the 1x4 piece. Be sure to keep the back side of these 2 pieces flush because they will be up against the mirror..a flat surface. Do the same with the other 1x4 and rounded trim (the second glued "trim to 1x4" will be used for the top of the mirror, that I describe below).

 

We then secured the one 1x4 and rounded trim to the bottom of the mirror. We used liquid nails to attach the peice to the mirror and used my son's lego as a support it until it was dry.

After determining exactly where we wanted the top of the frame to be, we measure the distance between the top and the bottom molding and then cut two 1x4 pieces for the sides. These two pieces were then glued to the mirror tight against the bottom piece.

With the second glued "trim to 1x4", we flipped it and glued the crown molding to the opposite side of the 1x4. Once set, this piece was then glued to the top of the mirror. We did put a couple triangle pieces on the back of the crown to give it additional support, but this is optional.

 

My husband caulked the seams to make it the frame seamless and not look like pieces of wood.

Isn't it absolutely AMAZING!?!?  I think in total it cost under $30 to do this frame. Worth every penny in my opinion.

 In total for this mini-renovation we painted the entire bathroom, framed the mirror, replaced the counter top with an in stock piece from Lowes, bought two beautiful raised sinks on clearance at Lowes, purchased 2 new lights from a cheap local store, made some roman blinds out of a scrap curtain and bought a couple new faucets.  These simple things have made a huge difference. I still hate the shower but I can live with it for a few more years :)

Here it is from a few different angles.

Oh and I almost forgot...I made a pendant lamp that hangs above our large soaker tub from a really cheap lamp shade ($10 at Walmart) and a pendant kit from Lowes. I love it too :) It has one low watt bulb it in which is great when you are soaking in the tub. Not much brighter than a few candles but enough to read by.

What do you think? I love it every day I walk into the bathroom.

Answers to the clip questions: There have been questions about the clips holding the mirror on the wall. On all of our mirrors, we have flush/flat metal hooks that holds the mirror to the wall. You can see the metal clip on the photo below, it is immediately below the light. We were able to put the molding right over the hooks without a problem. We know that when we want to remove the mirror we will have to destroy it..the builder glued it to the drywall. If you have the plastic hooks that are not flush (with the screw through them) you will not be able to do this unless you replace them.

OMG!! Flip flop, sandle and ballet flat hangers on my $0 budget

 

With two shoe loving girls in this house, we have our fair share of summer shoes (especially my daughter who loves shoes more than I do). In the winter, I hate having a pile of flip flops kicking around the bottom of the closet getting in the way and in the summer I struggle to find two matching shoes in when I am always in a hurry to run out the door.

Funny story..A couple of months ago I ran out of the house to catch my train. It was very dark outside and I didn't want to turn on too many lights, so I grabbed my knee high boots and ran out the door. I drove across town, parked and ran to the station, I was running up the stairs with the train pulling in and I realized my heels were making different sounds when I walked. It was an odd thing but didn't think too much about it, until I looked down to avoid a pile of snow and saw I was wearing one knee high black and the other was brown! To make it even worse, they were different height heels! I still to this day don't know how I managed it but at least I caught it before getting on the train and was able to go back home to change :)

Back to the flip flop hanger. I was surfing through Pinterest and saw a picture of this amazing idea. I thought it was absolutely adorable and I knew it would solve my shoe problems :).  EPBOT took a cheap wire hanger and converted it into a flip flop hanger!!! She is a genius...who would have ever thought to do this!

Materials
Wire hanger
Wire snips
Pliers
Scrapbook paper 1.5 x 12 inch (optional)
Spray paint (optional)

Method
Here is how it is done. Take a cheap, thin, flimsy wire hanger and cut off the bottom.
My girlfriend is a police officer, so she gives me her wire hanger from when she dry cleans her uniforms. I started to amass a large stash and was thinking I wouldn't find anything else to do with them.  Reinforces my craft supply hording :) 

Using pliers, I straightened out the small bend at the neck and created two new bends about 3 inches from the middle. I then created a loop at the bottom and continued to roll it up for where the flip flop will hang. For ballet flats, I made a wider circle so the toe of the flat rested on the wire. There is no right or wrong here.

I debated spray painting these a bright color, like hot pink or lime green but I liked the white. Perhaps I will make a set for my daughter's closet with bright green. We will see. But if you want to spray paint them, this would be the time.

Cut a strip of scrapbook paper to be 1.5 inches wide and 12 inches long and made a little jacket for the hanger.

Glued on a spare button or a rhinestone to finish it off.  Isn't it adorable!

 I have only done two but I knew I had to share it ASAP. I just love this. Thanks EPBOT!!!

I have an old shower rod (you know the tension mount ones) that I am going to put in the closet to hang all of the shoes. When I am done, I will post more photos.

Are you as excited about this as I am?!?!

Enjoy!
Stephanie

Help...I need your advice to finish my Master Bedroom

I really have no desire to do a house tour on my blog since my house really isn't spectacular (I love it because it is comfy) but my last post kind of lends itself to showing you our bedroom. So I thought I might as well for those of you who are interested and for those of you who have advice to help me in my quest for a ceiling light/fan and curtains.

Here are the before photos from when we bought the house.  What do you think of the wallpaper and trim on the top of the wall? I assume at some point they had matching bedding too :) :

 

 

 

 

 Here are the after photos ..still with no curtains (please give me some advice!):

 

 I was not very smart buying a 100% cotton white duvet for our massive king size bed. Just think about it, white duvet, 2 kids, 1 dog...spells disaster. I am always struggling to keep it white with the dark lines staying dark! Plus I feel like I need to iron and starch it and the pillows so they aren't full of wrinkles.  My husband would chime in right now and point our that I don't iron...so there will always be wrinkles :)

This little nook leads to the master bathroom and walk in closet (I can never show you that!).

 

What we see when we walk up the stairs.

As mentioned, I still have some items that I would love to do/replace in here. Curtains for one and the overhead light. It currently looks like an upside down mushroom. I debate a ceiling fan or a chandelier.. I hate the look of a ceiling fan but I love the practicality of them. we have hot summers and I love a fan. But we also have cold winters and hate to have a fan that is off. My debate will rage on.

So does anyone have any curtain advice? I was thinking of putting one rod the entire way across all the  windows and putting panels in between each window. Maybe drop cloth curtains or a deep brown. I have to keep some sort of blind for privacy and I do love how bright the white wood blinds make the room.  I just can't decide. HELP :)

I hope everyone has a great day.
Stephanie

Creating a Quiet Reading Nook in Master Bedroom on my $0 Budget

I have always struggled to get my Master bedroom to be the room I dream about. I like everything but I don't love how it works together. I can't really explain it.

We are lucky our bedroom is quite large but it has a really awkward bay area that you see when you walk up the stairs. Until now it has housed laundry baskets, our dog's beaten up bed and many other things that just have no home.

(sorry for the dot in my photos. There is something in my camera causing this and I can't find it!)
Now that we have our beautifully framed flat screen mounted, I knew I wanted to make this area into a reading nook/TV watching area. Since I am working on a $0 budget, I had to repurpose what I have in storage in the basement (aka the dumping ground for all homeless items kicking around my house).

I had a small leather arm chair that has been kicking around my house for a couple of years without a perfect spot. So I brought it up and it seemed to be the right size. I knew I wanted a place to put my feet up so I went hunting. I found two old stools (both bought for next to nothing at a thrift store) that I use to have in our bathroom for when we would spend countless hours a week watching the kids play in the tub. Well, now that the kids are bigger and I don't have to watch them as closely, I had put them in the basement.

The one stool was not the color I wanted, so I got out my handy black satin spray paint and gave it a nice coat of paint. I have to say this was my first spray painting gone wrong experience! Me being the patient person I am and not wanting this to be done the second I got the idea, I did not prime this piece first. So the spray paint just seemed to roll off the 'wood.' I grabbed some paper towels and quickly wiped off the dripping paint and stood back to figure out what to do. I decided to put on a few thin layers of spray primer and they seemed to stick well. After it dried (well not really) I tried the black paint again and this time it worked! Says a lot for priming. One step I won't skip again. My wonderful husband covered the seat with faux black leather that I had on hand.

The other stool, with the large cushion, looked like a tray style side table when the cushion was removed. So I tucked it in the corner with a basket underneath (to hide my never used exercise videos :) ).

I did the Pottery Barn knock off that is going around the blog world by ripping the covers off a few old books, darkened the sides with tea bags and securing them with twine. I added an extra special touch..my daughter made me a paper flower years ago so I thought this is a perfect spot to showcase it. I would love one of those little silver clocks with the feet to put beside the books but that will have to wait. 
 I can't say I am 100% happy with it but I do love being able to sit and read quietly.

 On a side note...does anyone have a suggestion on what I can do for curtains? Should I do one rod across the entire wall and put panels between the windows and on either side of the bay (so 4 panels). I am struggling with this...hence no curtains almost two years after moving in.