Coming Soon!! Ugly April Makeover Challenge

April 13, 2015April 13, 201518 Comments

I have a story for you today.

Once upon a time there was a little girl. She had a beautiful spirit, was kind and had many friends. She was not ugly, but … maybe awkward. In second grade she got glasses after the teacher said she may have some learning problems. By 6th grade she had to wear the headgear for braces. Not pretty! Her friends still loved her and stuck by her. We all saw her beauty. In 8th grade, she was the Valedictorian for her graduating class. So much for learning problems! In high school, she started discovering what her style was and her spirit and determination stayed strong. She made many more friends too. Her senior year, she decided to run for Miss Kings County. She figured she didn’t have much of a chance, but she did it for the scholarship. In the end, she won! She was crowned as Miss Kings County! She was, and is, beautiful on the inside and the out. She still has her same group of friends, is a wife and a mom, and she glows with beauty. She just needed time to come into her own. I know all this, because she is my niece, and I am very blessed to have her in my life!

Ugly April Challenge

I tell you this story because, we can’t always see the beauty of somebody or something until some work is done. So it was with this little stool. Lauren and I are joining the Ugly April Makeover Challenge, No, not for ourselves!, but for a piece of furniture.

Peeling veneer

It just needs some braces, maybe some contacts, and some care. We hope to give it a new life. I am just going to give you some glimpses of it today and we will have the reveal next Monday.

Tattered, ugly fabric

I definitely think this need some tender loving care!

Ugly April Challenge-homeonthecorner.com

Wobbly, cheap wheels

That’s it for today! Please join us again next Monday for the big reveal, the stories behind the ideas, and the bloopers!

Pin Art

March 12, 2015March 12, 20154 Comments

Well…I’m bringing you another craft that I found on Pinterest. Today, I’m bringing you some pin art.

And I don’t mean using pens, I used push pins. I’m going to give you a brief description of how I did it and what I made from my pin art.

Items Needed

Black Poster board

Push Pins (they can be gold or silver depending on what you want)

A Pencil

An Exacto Knife

I started by cutting the poster board to the size I wanted. Originally I wanted my board to be certain size to fit inside a frame. But, because of the absence of an exacto knife in my apartment, I had to use scissors…Not the best choice for trying to cut a poster board. So, in my failed attempt, I tried something else.

A wonderful kitchen knife!

I decided to change my plans for the size of the board. I measured the poster board and cut it into three equal 10 inch by 20 inch pieces. And using my handy dandy kitchen knife, I cut the boards to use for my projects.

I then text some friends to ask them for a word or phrase that was inspirational to them. I got some responses and was then able to actually start the project.

To start the next part, I drew on the poster board with a pencil to get my design on the board. Don’t be afraid to erase and try again if you don’t like how it looked. I also wrote in cursive to make the word or phrase more elegant.

And now the pinning begins! I bought a box of 300 gold tacks from the Dollar Tree to get started. I slowly put the pins along the pencil lines that I drew to get the pins where I wanted. Also, if you don’t like where the pins are placed, take them out carefully and replace them where you can’t see the hole you first made.

Now, inevitably, you will run out of tacks. Fortunately, 300 tacks only cost $1, so it wasn’t too expensive.

And…here are some of the finished products!

This was created for my friend and co-worker Jessica who found inspiration in this Norman Vaughan quote.

This one was for one of my roommates, Bailey. It is now hanging above her window.

My roommate Lydia loved this simple word that inspires her everyday.

I had pins left over, so I found this quote in Google about friendship and decided to make this for my apartment living room.

Now…you may notice that I didn’t make one for myself…and my last roommate still hasn’t told me her word or phrase. But I had more fun making these for other people and not myself. Now if only my roommate Hannah will tell me her word or phrase so I can create some artwork for her!

Do you have a word or phrase that is inspirational to you that you would make artwork out of? Let us know in the comments below!

How to Make Your Rice Glow

March 5, 2015March 10, 20157 Comments

The other day, when I was absentmindedly scrolling through Pinterest, I came across this

So…………I was intrigued.

I went to the following website http://www.growingajeweledrose.com/2013/01/glowing-rice-sensory-play.html?m=1 and looked at what Crystal and her daughter did to make their Neon Rice. So check out her website to see what they did.

Ingredients (I had to change to measurements a little bit to make it work for my “experiment” because I wanted to make a big batch so that my mom could take this to her preschool classroom.)

4 2 pound bags of rice

4 different colors of neon paint

Glow in the dark paint

Water

4 Ziploc bags

Cookie Sheets

So I started by purchasing neon pink, blue, orange, and green non toxic paint along with a bottle of glow in the dark non toxic paint from Michaels. Thankfully, it’s only about $.70 a bottle so it’s not a budget breaker. Also, because it is non toxic, mom can take it to her classroom to use with the kids.

After I got all my supplies, I got started.

1. Separate the rice into separate bags for each color you want to use. Since I have four colors, and four bags of rice, I just emptied a full bag into a Ziploc bag.

2. Squirt the color of choice and the glow in the dark paint into the rice. You will also want to add some water to the mixture to make the paint runnier and easier to spread over the rice.

3. Close the Ziploc bag to start mixing. Make sure you get all the air out because it will be easier to mix the rice with the paint.

4. Knead the mixture until the rice is coated with the paint. I found that I didn’t add enough paint the first time, so I added more blue paint and more glow in the dark paint.

5. Empty the rice out the Ziploc bags and onto a cooking sheet. I covered my cooking sheets with aluminum foil so that the paint wouldn’t ruin the cooking sheets.

6. Let the rice dry! It doesn’t take too long to dry, but it may take a while for the glow in the dark paint to actually start glowing. If you leave it in the light for a while, the rice should start to glow in the dark.

Now…this didn’t work exactly as planned. The rice covered well with the paint, but it didn’t glow in the dark. I don’t know if I didn’t add enough glow in the dark paint, which is possible because I only added about 1/4th of a small bottle.

But, it still turned out to be really pretty and now it’s a great item for mom’s preschool class to dig through.

Parties we’ve linked to:

http://www.usscrafty.com/2015/03/submarine-sunday-114.html

http://2crochethooks.com/snickerdoodle-sunday-link-party-71/

http://www.ishouldbemoppingthefloor.com/2015/03/inspiration-monday_8.html#more

http://www.sewcando.com/

http://www.thatswhatchesaid.net/2015/st-patricks-day-crafts-projects-monday-funday-link-party/

http://www.alifeinbalance.net/motivation-monday-linky-party-133/

Busy Monday 155

http://www.mabeyshemadeit.com/green-treats-for-st-patricks-day-do-tell-tuesday/

http://thewinthropchronicles.com/2015/03/share-it-link-party-157/

http://www.vmg206.com/2015/03/brag-about-it-vmg206_9.html#more

THE NEW LIFE OF A CHAIR

January 26, 20158 Comments

This is the story of a chair. A chair that we don’t know its whole life story. A piece of furniture that isn’t a huge statement piece or something that people would awe over if they found it at a yard sale.

Unless…that person was me.

Before the Extreme Makeover

It was just another Saturday when my mom and I went on another one of our journey’s to the local garage sales in town. We were just about done when we stopped at one more place. And at this garage sale, was this little chair.

This chair was nothing special. It was just a wooden folding chair. But, it had a past. We will never know what it went through before I bought it, but what I know is that now it is safe. It is in my care and I will now make sure that it lives a good life as a chair.

The seat doesn’t look too good at the start of the project.

This chair had a few nicks and scratches, but overall it looked pretty good. It folded well, it was comfortable, it was a chair. When I saw this chair, I knew that I could give it a new life. When it came home, I gave it a good sanding down to make it more even on all of the surfaces. I was able to get some of the nicks out of the wood, but because of the condition of the chair, I planned on painting it instead. I knew that I was going to paint it white because that would go with anything.

The new finish on the chair.

The white looked amazing! This turned the sad chair that didn’t have a bright future into a chair with a lot of hope. This chair now looks like it belongs in a house and someone should sit in it.

Except that it doesn’t have a cushion…yet.

I picked a black and white fabric from my miniature Joann’s store to use as the cushion. It is a universal fabric that doesn’t only fit with one style. This fabric would make a wonderful cushion on this lovely chair.

This fabric is universal so it can be used in any room

I took an old chair cushion that we had in our newly organized shed and cut it open to use the padding that was inside. After cutting it down to size to fit on the seat of my chair, I added my fabric to cover the seat.

I did something tricky with the cushion. When I was putting the cushion on the chair, I stapled the fabric on the front and back of the seat. I did this so that the cushion was semi permanent. Once I put the padding under the fabric, I was able to hot glue the other two edges down to the seat so the fabric was now hidden and stuck on chair.

And Voila! The chair now has a new life!

The finished product! A breath of fresh air

The chair now has a new life that it can live. Love was poured into giving this chair a new life and it turned out beautiful. It took a little time, but it was totally worth it.

Now…to find it a new home in mom’s house…

Love, Lauren