Dry Erase Menu Board

I have been busy with my new Silhouette Portrait again.  I have wanted to make one of these menu boards for a while now and I am hoping that it helps me with meal planning. I have a tendency to be lazy and just want to order something or eat out if I don't have something planned.

This project was pretty simple.  I bought a long frame at Michaels and found this great graphic pinkish orangish wrapping paper at Target.

Just ignore the Mod Podge and brush in the picture.  I tried that method first and had too many issues with bubbles so I tried it a different way.

I took the frame backing and traced it on the wrapping paper and cut it out slightly bigger than the traced area.  Then I wrapped the edges over the the back of the frame backing and taped them down.  Then I put the backing back in the frame which took a little bit of effort but eventually I ended up with this:

 Then I designed the words in the Silhouette Design Studio software.

The fonts were ones that I downloaded.  The font for the word "menu" was called Fancy Pants and the font for the days was called Janda Apple Cobbler.  I bought the flourish and poppy at the Silhouette online store.  I thought the poppy would tie in nicely with my faux roman shade from this post. 

I printed the designs on black adhesive vinyl just like the labels for my spice jars.  

I really like how the black vinyl pops against the graphic background.

Then I hung it on the wall and wrote out the menu for the week.  There are a lot of leftover days because I work for the local independent league baseball team during the summer so I am not home for dinner very often.

Here is what this corner of the kitchen looks like with the addition of the menu board.  I like how it adds an extra pop of color.

I have also been working on organizing my kitchen cabinets so here is peek at some of the work I have done with that.

 

I should have taken a before but it was a crazy mess in there before.  I had thrown away all the rings that came with my measuring cup and spoon sets so I used some shower rings that I had hanging around.  It is nice to get them out of the drawers where it takes me forever to find the right size spoon.

Spice Jar Labels

So several months ago I posted this very long post on some kitchen updates that included the story of how I wanted to make one of those magnetic spice racks but it was a major fail so instead I ended up with this:

Well I have really enjoyed having my spices so accessible and organized but there has been one little problem.  The names of the spices are written in sharpie on the bottom of each jar which means that if I want to find out which spice is which I have to lift it out and check the bottom.  And while this might seem like a fun carnival game akin to picking rubber ducks out of a kiddie pool and checking the bottom to see if you won a prize, the game got really old really fast.  

So, enter my new toy: the Silhouette Portrait.  

You can find all the info on this awesome machine here. It is basically like a printer except it cuts a variety of materials including paper, cardstock, adhesive vinyl, fabric, etc.  I have been contemplating buying one for a while now so when I received some money for my birthday from my in-laws, I decided to take a leap and buy one.  I LOVE it!

My first project was making labels for my spice jars using adhesive vinyl.  I bought the label shape in the Silhouette online store.  The online store has tons of shapes for download that cost 99 cents a piece.  It is so much nicer than buying multiple cartridges of designs like other similar brands of cutting machines. There is also a featured free shape each week.  The font I used was called stencil and I think it was one that actually came with Microsoft Word but who knows now that I have so many free downloaded fonts.

 After putting all the labels on, I put them in alphabetical order to make them even easier to find.  I love the way they look.  This project was phase one in organizing my kitchen.  Yesterday I finished organizing everything inside the cabinets so the kitchen is nearing completion.  My next Silhouette project is a menu board for the kitchen wall.  I'll share as soon as I finish!

Tiled Kitchen Backsplash

I am very excited to be sharing my finished kitchen backsplash on the blog today.  I am also extremely relieved that this project is done.  I bought the tiles quite a few months ago and they have sat on the dining room floor for what seems like forever.  It took me a long time to get up the nerve to install it because I felt like I had no idea what I was doing.  It turned out to not be so hard but it took a while to complete which is also why I am relieved that it is done.  The pictures can't even begin to capture how awesome it looks in person and I am completely in love with it.  I can't believe that I did this!

This is not a tutorial because I am not a professional but I thought I would include some videos and links that aided my completion of this project.  This tile was a little difficult to work with because of its unique shape and I felt a little in over my head since this was my first (and maybe last) tiling project.  I did find two posts from other blogs where the writers ahd installed similar tile in their homes found here and here.  I cut most of the tiles by hand using a score and snap handheld tool and tile nippers.  Some of the tiles around the outlets needed more complex cuts which I had my husband cut with a portable wet tile saw.  In order to make sure his fingers were safe from being cut a tool called the Tilesizer was a necessity

I bought one on Home Depot's website.  I am also including two videos that were helpful.  The first one is helpful in learning how to grout and the second one explains how to extend electrical outlets out after you are done tiling.  That posed a little bit of a problem for me since one switch that seems to have no purpose in our kitchen kept giving me a voltage reading on my voltage tester (an absolute necessity so that you don't get electrocuted).  It turns out that the switch is labeled disp. on the electrical panel.  We don't have a garbage disposal in our sink.  I'm not sure why electricity needs to be running through a switch that isn't actually wired to anything, go figure.

There are other videos in this series that show other steps in the tiling process too.

Here are some more images of the completed backsplash:

  

 And here is a comparison of the kitchen with and without backsplash:

It's a big difference!

Things I Can Actually Sew

This past Saturday was my birthday which means that I have now had my sewing machine for 1 year.  It has definitely been well used over the past year and while I am by no means an expert seamstress now I have successfully completed many projects.  You may remember my very first sewing project, this camera purse.  I think it was a difficult project to begin with but while it is nowhere near perfect it protects my camera and I have used it numerous times.

Today's post is a round up of simple sewing tutorials that would be good for a novice sewer like me.  These are all tutorials that I have found through Pinterest and I have tried out myself.  The images are all of my own creations and I have included links to each of the tutorials if you would like to give them a try yourself.

1. Burp Cloths

A long time ago I pinned a collection of tutorials for making diy baby gifts.  One of the tutorials included was this tutorial for these cute burp cloths from Made.  I am always buying fabric quarters at Joann so I used those for the top layer.  I ordered a bunch of chenille from Fabric.com for the other layer.  These were so simple and made a cute gift for my sister-in-law who just had her second child.  I will definitely be make more sets of these to give as gifts in the future.

2. Lined Curtains

You can find the link to the tutorial for these curtain in this post from last November.  That post includes pictures of the curtains I made for the living room.  I made 6 panels for my living room and 4 for my dining room using this method.  They are super easy to make but require a lot of ironing.  The dining room curtains were slightly more difficult because of the fabric that I used (a sateen fabric made to look like Dupioni silk).

3. Maxi Skirt

 

I love the look of maxi skirts especially for summer but I had never purchased one for myself before.  When I saw this tutorial by The Winthrop Chronicles I knew that I had to make one.  I was even more convinced when I discovered all the cute knit fabric that can be purchased from Girl Charlee Fabrics.  I have worn it many times already and have gotten so many compliments.  I love it!

 4. Infinity Scarf

So I may have gone a little overboard with the ordering of chevron knit fabric at Girl Charlee Fabrics but that's okay because I can now make lots of infinity scarves.  I foresee making lots of them for gifts, so friends beware.  I used this tutorial from Sea Glass and Ribbons.  This was seriously the simplest sewing project in the world.  Anyone could do this and it only takes about 10 minutes or so to complete.

Well since this is a post on sewing I thought I would include an updated photo of the porch that includes the new curtains.

These curtains are made of outdoor voile and I didn't line them because I wanted them to be light and airy.  The porch is coming along.  I have been gathering all kinds of ideas for decor and art for this space and I hope to share them with you soon.  Lately my focus has been on the kitchen backsplash which is finally nearing its end.  I can't wait to share the finished project with you!

Mounting Photos on Canvas and a Reusable Running Training Schedule

So you may have noticed the photos in this dining room progress photo.  I finally got around to doing something with some of the photos from our European vacation.  This is a really simple project and I think it adds some variety instead of just doing frames.  I chose 4 of my favorite photos from Rome and ordered them in large format prints from Shutterfly.  I made sure to wait for a sale to get the best deal.

I chose prints of the Colosseum, the Trevi Fountain, and the Spanish Steps.

Other Supplies:
Blank canvases the same size as your prints
Black paint (I used acrylic paint which I already had on hand)
Several foam brushes
Mod Podge

The process was very simple.  I started by painting the sides of the canvases black and made sure to paint a little of the front and back too just to make sure no white would be showing.

Then I applied the Mod Podge to the front of the canvas and the backs of the prints with a foam brush.

Finally I placed the prints on the canvases and smoothed out any bubbles.  Then I hung them on the wall.  Piece of cake.  You could also cover the print itself with Mod Podge to create some texture but I opted not to do that.

My original plan was to hang the three color prints in the living room and the black and white Spanish Steps print in the dining room but once I hung the print in the dining room it looked really lonely and was too small for the wall space.

 

 So I decided to hang two more of the prints next to it and it looked much better.

I still have one more print that I am not sure what to do with yet but I'm sure I'll find a place for it eventually.

My second project was even simpler.  I am a runner and I am currently training for my third half marathon.  I like to follow a very specific training schedule and I usually make chart for each run I do.  I thought it would be fun to make a reusable training schedule for the exercise room.  I made a simple table in Microsoft Word and then printed it out.  I bought a really cute frame, trimmed the page to the dimensions of the page and then popped it in the frame.  I use a wet erase marker to write in my training schedule on the glass of the frame (you could use dry erase too but I am a teacher and have easy access to the wet erase markers and prefer them because I don't wipe them off as a write.  Darn left-handedness)  It was super simple and I think it is super cute!

A Colorful Entrance

I love the outside of our house.  The landscaping is absolutely gorgeous, the window boxes are adorable, and I love the gray metal siding.  But the front door left something to be desired.  Technically this door is a super heavy metal storm door.  We had some issues with it this Spring because the thing that makes the door shut slower was broken.  This door is heavy so when it closes quickly it gets stuck and is almost impossible to open from the outside.  Thankfully my husband bought a new part for it and it now works properly again but it was pretty boring to look at.  I especially hated that gold kick plate at the bottom.

So I decided it was time for a new bold paint color for the door.  Originally I wanted to paint the door a bright yellow a la the Petersiks of Young House Love.  But then I happened to be reading another diy blog that I like, IHeart Organizing, and saw that the lovely Jen had decided to paint her front door a lovely deep teal color.  I loved the color that she chose so much that I decided to put the same color on my front door.  Her house has gray siding too so I new that this color would look fantastic on my house as well.  The color is Behr Harbor and I absolutely love it.  I get giddy every time I see it.  Well enough talk, let's see some pictures!

Also, with the new color I am totally digging the gold kick plate now.  Teal and gold is a fabulous combo. 

I also thought I would include a little raised garden update with this post because the garden is looking dramatically different these days. This is what it looked like not even a month ago:

And it looks just slightly different now ;)

 

 Many of the cucumbers, zucchinis, and tomatoes have blooms now and I can't wait to be eating delicious home grown veggies!