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Monday, September 3, 2012

Tutorial: Bench Cushion Cover

I have been in desperate need of recovering my vanity bench cushion for the longest time but honestly...I've just been really lazy.  I think another reason is that I just could not find any fabric that I was all that excited about.  However - I did finally find this grey and white medallion fabric on fabric.com and that got my rear in gear! 
Here is the bench BEFORE.  It had a water stain on it and not only that it was just a sad, blah color.  It needed some glitz!


So to get started I had my hubs take the top off.
Next he took the black lining off by removing the staples.  I decided to leave the original suede cover on.  I just didn't think it was necessary to remove it.
Next I layed the lid on top of my fabric so I could decide where to cut it.
 Once I decided where I wanted to cut I just eye balled it and cut away.  I wasn't super technical with this part, I just made sure it was going to be long enough to come up over the cushion.
Once everything was cut and ready to go I started staple gunning the fabric to the back board of the cushion.  I started with one of the long sides first and then just worked my way around.  I really wanted to make sure that it's going to stay in place and stay tight so I did lots of staples. 
Next I did the short end and realized that to make the corner lay right I needed to trim so I did that as soon as I had staple gunned that side.
I checked out how the original corner was done and decided I would try to do mine that way as well.  It made the most sense to me and seemed the easiest.  There is probably a better way but that's OK.
Here is how my corners ended up looking...

Almost done!  As a final touch I decided to staple gun the black lining that we removed in the beginning, back on to make it look professional and like it was always there.  I also figured it would give it just a little bit more reinforcement.  Then I screwed the lid back on and bada bing bada boom.  It's done!
I love how it turned out!
Next I need to organize what I normally store in this little bench so once that's done I will show you what I came up with! 

Happy Monday!
 
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Thursday, August 16, 2012

Car Kit: Part 1

I, like many people find so much inspiration through Pinterest and others blogs and lately I've noticed a lot of people creating personalized car kits for their cars.  I am guessing they are so popular right now because of the summer time and so many families taking road trips but I love the idea and decided to create my own. 

So many times I am in my car wishing I had some contact solution or something of the sort so I decided to rack my brain and come up with all of the things I might need while in the car and here is the list I came up with.  A lot of the items I already had on hand, it was just a matter of putting them all together...

     * Kleenex
     * Small Flash Light
     * Pad of paper and pen
     * Lotion
     * Chap Stick - in a tub in case it melts, it won't matter
     * Contact solution
     * Hand Sanitizer
     * Wet Ones
     * Small Manicure Set - Nail File and Clippers
     * Gum
     * Bleach Pen
     * Bobby Pins
     * Safety Pins
     * Hair Ties
     * Plastic Grocery Sacks
     * Small First Aid Kit
     * Toilet Seat Covers
     * Water Bottles - NOT for drinking


Once I had my list - I went through and figured out which items I already had and which ones I needed to pick up and headed out to get them.  I also got two of these plastic bins from Wal Mart to store everything in.  The first tote will have the personal type items and as you can see I have plenty of room to add more things as I come up with them.


The second tote will have more road side assistance type items.  I will be talking with the hubs about what those items should be this weekend (because lets face it, I know nothing of those things) and then I will post the list we come up with. 

Everything will be stored in the back of my car in this tote I found at The Container Store

Come back in a couple days so I can show you the finished product!

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Monday, August 6, 2012

Work Hard & Party Hearty

Did you think we gave up blogging?  I can’t believe it is August already and summer is nearly over.  Here’s what has kept us so busy this summer.

Davis Ranch Craft Show
In mid-June we participated in the Corn Festival at Davis Ranch in Sloughhouse, CA.  It was tons of fun and I had great help from my friend Virginia. 





Un-wedding Reception

My nephew married his soul mate on June 29, 2012 so we celebrated their wedding with an Alice in Wonderland themed “Unwedding Reception” during our family reunion.  Here are some of the decorations we made.  It was so much fun putting this together for them.  They are such a sweet couple and truly are perfectly matched.


Paper Roses
We made tissue paper roses in various sizes to use for center pieces on the tables.  It was so easy.  Just cut 3 different size circles from tissue paper and stack them placing the smallest circle on top then the middle sized circles and finally the largest circle.  Punch a small hole in the center and insert a brad to hold the circles together.  Starting with the smallest circles, pinch each layer up tight to the center then when all the pedals have been fluffed; wire the flower to a florist pick so you can arrange them.  We used oversized tea cups and mugs as well as stacked regular sized tea cups.  These center pieces were very fun & inexpensive to make. 

 Framed Art Work


The drawings from the original Lewis Carroll version of Alice in Wonderland are now available to download so I made “framed”  works of art using small silver serving trays (say that fast three times) that I got at Dollar Tree.  I increased the size of the original pieces using a copy machine.  I centered the drawings on the back side of the trays and pressed down around the edges to create a crease which I could follow as I cut off the excess paper.  The drawings were attached to the bottom of the tray with double stick tape and the decorative edge of the tray created the perfect frame.  Cost per piece was $1.45.    We used these as table decorations along with the tea cup flower arrangements.

 White Rabbit  


This large framed picture was made by my friend Nancy who is so creative.  I gave her a copy of the rabbit which was Felicia’s favorite drawing in the story.  She used black and white fabric as a background and increased the size of the drawing which she mounted on cardstock.  She used a font that was similar to the Lewis Carroll Font to write the words and added some embellishments.  This now hangs in their home as a reminder of their special day.  Thank you Nancy!

 Mad Hatter Hat Party Favors
Felicia wanted the party favors to be in the shape of the Mad Hatter’s hat so I scanned through tons of ideas on Etsy and various party web sites but I just couldn’t come up with something that was pre-made that was affordable so I put my thinking cap on.  I purchased the "Tags, Bags, Boxes & More 2" cartridge for my Cricut because it has tons of different shapes of boxes.  I experimented with several boxes and finally settled on using a trapezoid box which we turned upside down.  We added ribbon trim and an oval paper brim base.  They were filled with sugar cookies that had a white chocolate rabbit on top and a small bottle of juice.  These were labeled with little tags that said "eat me" or "drink me".  We had a ton of fun putting these together the night before the reception. 
Team USA Popcorn

Since our family reunion began on July 27, 2012 which happened to be the opening day of the Olympics I made some special popcorn to show our support for the USA Team members.  It also kept the troops working as they helped prepare the decorations for the reception which was the next afternoon.

It was so easy and I got lots of requests for the recipe.  Here it is:
1.  6 regular size bags of Pop Secret Microwave popcorn
2.  1 bag each of Red, White, & Blue Candy Melts (Chocolate melts usually found in the party or wedding section at Wal-mart or JoAnns.)  Note that they only have a pastel blue so I added blue food color to make it darker.
3.  Pop two bags of popcorn.  Place in an extra large bowl making sure all the un-popped kernels are taken out then set it aside. 
4.  Place a bag of the candy melts in a dish and microwave until they are melted.  Follow package directions.  Stir the candies until they are smooth.  While the candy is still hot pour it over the popped corn.  Stir the candy and the corn together until all the corn is well coated.  The more you stir the more evenly the candy coats the corn. 
5.  Spread the coated popcorn onto two large cookie sheets that are lined with waxed paper to dry.  Let it dry for about 2 hours then break it up and store in an air tight container.  Repeat with the other two colors.  When all the corn is coated and dried you can mix the colors together.  I also added almonds, pecans, & raisins to the mix. 

All in all we had a great time at the unwedding reception and the family reunion.  Now it is back to reality and crafting.

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Davis Ranch Corn Festival

Sorry for the hiatus in posting!  There is so much going on this summer, it's been hard to get things up on the blog but I'm hoping to change that!  I have lots of ideas and projects floating around in my head so keep checking back! 

If you are in the Sacramento area stop by our booth at the 4th Annual Davis Ranch Corn Festival held July 14 and July 15 in Sloughhouse, CA. Bring your family for a great day of fun and entertainment, we'd love to see you there!!

I'm not sure why this is turning out so blurry so I am typing below what the card says:

4th Annual
The Davis Ranch
Corn Festival
13211 Jackson Rd Sloughhouse, CA

Come join us for a weekend
of live music, arts and
crafts, delicious food
and of course our famous
sweet Sloughhouse corn!

Saturday & Sunday
July 14th & 15th
9AM - 4PM

&


Sunday, June 10, 2012

Organization: Master Closet

I am here to tell you that I am the official owner of the smallest Master Bedroom closet known to mankind.  We moved in to the house we are living in 5 years ago and after living in 2 small apartments we were so excited to have a space to call our own.  To be honest we didn't think much about things like closet space or storage room when we were making our decision.  Once we started moving things in however we quickly realized that going from a walk in closet to this much smaller closet was a bit of a stretch.  We did what we could to make it work until just recently I couldn't take it anymore!!  Something had to be done!  So, before I tell you what we did to change it let me show you what it looked like before.

Before:

We had two racks - one on top and one on bottom.  We originally started out with just one rack along the top but my husband installed the second rack a few years back which did help with maximizing our space. 

Hers:

His:
One of the biggest headaches this closet gave me was the shoe storage situation.  WHAT A DISASTER!  They were all hidden behind our clothes on the side walls of the closet.  We bought these little shoe towers but it was always such a pain in the rear to get to the shoes that were in the back. 
We were also keeping our laundry baskets in the middle section of the closet so we lost a lot of good space doing that. So by building this new closet we have created a new dilema in that we need to find a new place for our laundry baskets but it was so worth it!

The very top shelf held extra shoes, shorts, pants, bags, sports stuff, etc. Nice storage space but not cute!

Now that you've seen the before, let's take one last look at it all emptied out...

Now the good stuff!  About 3 months ago we were at The Container Store (L.O.V.E that store BTW) looking for some baskets and bins to organize some things in our guest bedroom closet and on a whim decided to have them build us a closet with their organization system.  Not gonna lie - I was pretty shocked by the quote they gave us but seeing what they were able to do with our small space got me excited and got me thinking about what we could do.  A few weeks passed and we were in Home Depot looking for some hooks I needed for another project. We were walking up and down the isles and ended up on the closet organizing row. Martha Stewart has an organization line there that is pretty reasonable and ended up costing a fraction of what we could have had done through the Container Store so we went for it!  We had to order all of the pieces on line because they don't carry the white unit in the store.  It was delivered to our door about a week later and we got to work!  The whole system is completely customizable and very easy to install and we are MUCH happier!!  Ok so here we go...presenting our beautifully functional closet!!

After:

Shelving, nearly floor to ceiling for shoes
Two bars for hanging

More shelving for shoes and folded clothes
Two bars for hanging

Hooks for hanging belts, ties, jewelry - one on each side of the closet

We decided to put the shelving in the middle with the hanging rods on either side

His side

Her side
I love that we were able to customize the shelving to fit each of our needs.  My husband wanted to be able to fold his shirts, shorts and pants and didn't need as much hanging room or shoe space so we were able to build his shelves accordingingly.  I wanted all of my shelves to be used for shoes so we built my shelves accordingly.  Perfect!

Here are a couple of shots of the closet all filled up.  We bought some baskets at the Container Store to store my hubby's socks on one of the shelves.  On the floor I used the same baskets to store swim wear, slippers and warm weather accessories. 




 I am now able to store all of my handbags on the top of the closet instead of in a laundry basket like before which I love.  The last thing I need to do to finish off this closet is to get some dividers to put in between the bags to help them stand up better. 
I hope you've enjoyed this tour of my new and improved closet!  Thanks for stopping by!

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OrganizingHomelife.com