3 Years!

It is hard to believe that we have been living in our house for 3 years now.  Each year I like to recap the big projects that have happened in our house over the past year.  I'll start with the exterior.  Last summer we had a issue with our roof sliding off in sheets of shingles.

It was not a pretty sight.  We were hoping to make it a few more years in the house before having the roof replaced but I guess our roof just decided that it was done.  So we bit the bullet and got it replaced.

Another part of the house that saw some major changes this year was the living room.  We painted the living room and put up a chair rail before we moved in and then I made some curtains in November of that year but other than that the room stayed the same until this past fall/winter.  First we bought a new couch that was smaller than our previous one so that it fit the shape of the room better.

Then we purchased an Expedit shelving unit from Ikea that we turned into a media console.  You can check out the hack here: part I and part II.

We also purchased a new TV and then I stenciled some storage boxes for the console.

Next I made a skyline painting to go over the couch.

Finally I completed a small update to the living room curtains by adding grommets.

So without further ado, here are some photos of the living room in its current state.  I have also updated the house tour photos for the living room since the previous pictures didn't even include the living room curtains!

The next room that has gone through the most drastic change over the past year is our guest bedroom.

The only thing that had been done in this room previously was painting the walls and trim.  I had always anticipated that it would become a nursery so I didn't really try to do much else with it in the meantime.  I am not going to update the house tour or post a lot of pictures of the room until I do the big reveal but I thought I would give you one sneak peek photo so you could see the drastic change.

Just a little bit of a difference, right?  A few other parts of the house have gotten some small changes over the past year.  In the spring, I added some drawer inserts to the window seats on the porch.

I also painted the office.

So that is a recap of the year.  We are getting to the point in our diy home journey where major room overhauls are mostly a thing of the past but there could be one drastic change to the addition (office and bonus room) over the next year.  Stay tuned for that!

Atlas Roses

 Awhile back I made some poppy type paper flowers out of the pages of an old book for our porch.

It is one of my favorite projects that I have ever created.  Since the nursery has a vintage travel theme,  I decided to duplicate this project using an old atlas instead of just a regular book.  I once again used my Silhouette to cut out the flower parts.  The shape I used was 3D Catalina Tea Rose from the Silhouette Design Store.  It took lots of playing around with the settings on the Silhouette to get it to cut right and your settings will depend on the thickness of the page that you are using.

My mat was not very sticky at all so I used some painters tape just to make sure the pages would stay in place while cutting.

Once the pieces were cut I place them in order from biggest to smallest.

Then, starting with the biggest piece, I used a wooden skewer to curl the petals.

I used a glue gun to attach each piece starting from largest to smallest.

After gluing all of the pieces, I fluffed and adjusted the petals until I got the rose to look the way that I wanted it to.

I then took a piece of floral wire and wrapped a bit of floral tape around it making sure to leave a bit of wire exposed at the end.

I poked a hole through the rose and then put the exposed end of the wire through.  The floral tape will keep the rose from sliding down.  Sorry for the out of focus picture.  It was really hard to take a picture of this step!

I didn't use the center pieces that were part of the design from the Silhouette store because they were too delicate to be cut successfully.  Instead I cut a strip of the atlas page and cut it into little grass like pieces and then wound it around the wire and glued it in place with the glue gun.

I made three roses total for the tiny vase.  I found the antique silver "vase"at a local second hand store called Heirlooms.  I believe it is actually a candle stick holder but it was perfect for my three little roses.

I placed it on the little floating shelf in the nursery along with some frames that are now filled (more on that in another post), an antique perfume bottle and a Peter Rabbit music box that my Grandma Charlotte gave to me when I was a child.  I just love this project and I hope that you do too!

Sewing for Baby: Door Jammer

Today I have a very simple sewing tutorial for you.  These door jammers are great fabric scrap busters as they use very little fabric and can be whipped up in about 15 minutes.  We will be using them in our home to silently close doors so as not to wake baby when she is sleeping.  They are also great for teachers.  Some of the teachers at my school use them as a safety measure in case of an incident in the school that requires them to quickly lock their doors.  They keep their doors locked at all time and put the door jammers on to prevent the door from locking when closed.  In an emergency they can quickly remove them to lock their doors.  Alright now on to the tutorial.

Supplies

• Fabric-two 4" by 5.5" pieces
• Batting-also cut in 4" by 5.5"
• Elastic

I started by cutting all my fabric using my rotary cutter and cutting mat.

Then I cut pieces of elastic. This is where I made some mistakes as I cut them much too long for the first few.  It took some trial and error to get the right length.  When in doubt go shorter rather than longer on the elastic length.  I then layered the parts with the batting on the bottom, the two fabric pieces with right sides together and the elastic in between them.  I placed pins through the layers where the elastic was to hold it all together.

I then sewed around the edges making sure to leave and opening to turn the fabric right side out.

I turned the fabric right side out and pinned the opening.  This is my first one and the elastic was way to long.

I then top stitched around the edge of the fabric.

I made 4 of them total; one for each of the doors upstairs and an extra one for my classroom.

So that's it.  It was super easy and I think that I might start including one of these with the burp cloth sets that I like to give to expectant mothers.  You can take a look at the other projects in my Sewing for Baby series by clicking on the pictures below.

State String Art

It is hard to believe that almost all of my nursery projects are finished now and all that is left to do is clean things up.  But I guess I am almost 35 weeks and I am taking a two week class starting week after next so it is a good thing that the room is pretty much done.

Today I have a post on some more decor for the room.  String art is such an easy project and it looks so cool.  I chose to make string art with the states of North Dakota, Oklahoma, and Kansas since we have family living in all of the those states. I found the states in the Silhouette online store and they happened to be the perfect size to fit on the wood plaques that I bought at Hobby Lobby.  I put hearts on each of the states in cities where I have lived or have family or both.  I cut the states on contact paper using my Silhouette.  I then stained the wood plaques with some leftover stain from another project.

I put the contact paper states on the plaques using transfer tape.  Then I started nailing in the small linoleum nails around the edge of the states and inside the heart.  I found that using a small pair of needle nose pliers to hold the nails in place while I hammered them in made the task much easier. It took me several days to complete this task because I could only do one before I needed a break with my pregnancy carpal tunnel.

Next I removed the contact paper.

I didn't take any pictures of wrapping the string but I used embroidery thread and started by tying it to one corner of the state.  Then I wrapped it around part of the heart and then went back and wrapped it around the next nail on the edge of the state.  I continued this until I got all around the state.  Of course the heart nails will be used several times each since there are less of them.

They turned out exactly as I had envisioned them so that made me happy.  Tying the string was a little frustrating because my string kept getting tangled up as I was trying to wrap it but it was worth it.

I put these up on the wall behind the glider with a few other art pieces.

I found the gold frame in a closet.  It was a plain wood frame that I spray painted gold.  The picture that is in it is one that I took in college but I plan on replacing it with something else.  The bottom piece is a simple project that I put together with a frame that I found at TJ Maxx.

The print is just the page of an old atlas that I bought at a used book store for another project that I will be sharing soon.  It is Mexico.  I chose that page because my mother-in-law is from Mexico.  I cut the phrase "oh the places you'll go" out on gold adhesive vinyl which I happened to have in my craft closet using my Silhouette.  I used transfer tape to place the vinyl on the glass of the frame.  It was a super simple project and it turned out to be so cute.  

So that is another completed piece of the nursery for you.  I still have 3 or 4 projects left to share with you in this room and then you will have to wait a little bit for the big room reveal post.  Next up on the blog will be the 4th installment in my Sewing for Baby series.