Turning Stones Blog

Whimsy Rings

2011-12-14T17:59:00.001-08:00

I started messing with some beads and wire and, though I thought I was going to make a nest ring, it turned into these instead. My friend told me they look like "whimsy".

Our Chocolate Wasted Cake

2011-12-10T11:22:00.000-08:00

My middle child is having a birthday and this year he wanted a chocolate cake. On Pinterest I came across this Chocolate Wasted Cake and I knew he would love it! (minus the alcohol, of course, as he's only 9). My pictures (below) do not do full justice to her cake and you should check out the original. Also, hers has a tasty twist if you are making it for adults only.

For the chocolate drizzle on mine I melted chocolate chips in a double boiler and used some Torani Almond (Orgeat) syrup to thin it enough for drizzling. If you do it the same way, be careful not to use to much drizzle, as the Almond syrup has a really strong flavor. I was thinking that using peanut butter could be really tasty, too, and would be a little more subtle.

Can't wait to try it!

Tomato Cage Trees

2011-11-27T06:00:00.000-08:00

I found an idea on Pinterest (originally from Lucy Designs) that I wanted to try out. But, since she doesn't have a tutorial, I thought I'd explain a few things about it that I was wondering as I went into this project.

What you need:
2 urns/pots
2 tomato cages (these were 56 inches from tip to end)
Garland (for my size of cage it took 6 of the 9 foot garlands, or 54 feet, for each tree)
Lights (I used two 100 light (24 foot) strings per tree)

The total height of my finished trees is 67 inches. As I was buying the tomato cages (yup, they do still have some at Home Depot) I checked the fit of the cages to the pots and it was perfect to sit in there as they were. They are not in any way secured to the pots and can lift right out. I love this because it means I can store the trees and use the pots throughout the year and when the plants die in the fall I can just set the trees over the top of the pot and into the rim.

Since I just bought these pots, the inside is still completely empty. If you live in a windier area I would suggest filling it with dirt or rocks. You could also stick a piece of pipe into the filler to tie the cage to so it wouldn't blow away. Luckily my entry way is protected so I didn't have to do this, despite the amount of wind we get here.

At the top I used a small piece of wire (twist ties would probably work as well) to secure the ends together.

Two people have come over so far and neither noticed it wasn't an actual tree till I told them, though it helps that the wreath is real so the front porch smells like trees. :) I may still put some ribbon on them, not sure, but for now I think they look really pretty.

I also really like the nighttime look of the cage and lights without garland, though I'm not sure how pretty it would be in the daytime. (See it here)

Hemp Bracelet

2011-11-22T06:00:00.000-08:00

A few months back I saw someone demonstrate a way to tie up extension cords that I thought was just genius (see the technique here). Then today I realized I could apply the same method to make a bracelet and it came out pretty cute in just a couple of minutes.

If you'd like to make your own, here are the steps.

1. Create a loop in your string.

2. Feed the long end of the string into the loop, making another loop.

3. Pull the first loop tight to create a slip knot.

4. Feed the long end of the string into the loop to make another loop but do not pull it tight this time. Repeat this step to your desired length.

Because of the loops you will have a little play in the bracelet that will allow you to slip it on even if you knot the ends like I did but you could attach some jewelry findings instead if you would prefer. To get the look of my bracelet I just did the steps above with 4 strings at once (with hemp cord) instead of a single string. I estimate you can have this finished in less than 10 minutes.

New Office

2011-11-20T06:00:00.000-08:00

The new office is painted! We got all of the stuff moved in and it looks so nice and clean. I just love it. We started with this room and here is where we have gotten to thus far.

Our Office To Do list:
-~~Run network line to office~~
-~~Add light to ceiling in office~~
-~~Paint office gray and ceiling white~~
-Add trim to door of office (we installed the door 3 years ago and never trimmed it, oops)
-Hang window blinds in office
-~~Move all the furniture/stuff between rooms~~
-Select pictures/artwork for office

For anyone wondering, the paint colors are Dark Granite on the walls and Billowy Down on the ceiling, both from Behr.

Boys' Room To Do list:
-Paint boys' room navy blue (they want to keep the color they have now) with white stripes
-Add shelves above beds in boys' room for treasures
-Add bedside lamps
-Hang new curtains in boys' room
-~~Move all the furniture/stuff between rooms~~

This is the boys' room at the moment, carpets freshly shampooed, and it will be the next large project we tackle here:

Thanks, Facebook, for the Laugh

2011-11-17T14:00:00.000-08:00

Well, the office is not quite ready to show you so, until it is, here is a slightly amusing story to tide you over.

As many of you use Facebook I'm sure you're aware that they are constantly ~~breaking everything~~ tweaking their site. In this latest revision our posts and comments are visible to friends of friends even more than ever before and this can have some amusing consequences. Husband was recently commenting with a friend about a new video game they are both enjoying (as are several million others according to the record breaking sales numbers) and he got some fun hatemail in his Facebook inbox this morning. He decided to not respond and encourage the random internet person but I thought it would be more fun to yank his (her?) chain.

The Facebook message Husband recieved looked like this (some minor language):

you have a kids and your playing games? are you fucken kidding me? put the toys away little boy and take your kid to the park or spend some time with it. .i swear people are sick in the head these days . .

My kids are all well loved and played with and we make it a point to spend individual time with each of them. But this random person apparently decided that you can't enjoy a game and love your children at the same time and sent the missive above. Husband ignored it but I thought he should have responded with the following just for a laugh (please keep in mind that I am the last person to be the grammar police and I was only doing it to be a smart-ass in this case. I'm sure there are lots of grammar problems with many of my posts and I have no high horses about it):

Well, actually, I spend a lot of time with my kids and play computer games mostly after they are asleep in bed. In case you are thinking this means I ignore my wife, please be assured that she is playing right next to me and we do not lack for quality time together. However, before you decide to attack random people for random things on Facebook perhaps you should look to yourself. I can only imagine, since you are so passionate about the subject, that your parents spent a lot of time with you. It’s a shame they couldn’t teach you to write coherent sentences during that time. In lieu of your parents teaching you basic common sense and grammar, please allow me to help you out.

Sentences start with capital letters. It’s “You”, not “you”. Next, if you are using the word “kids” instead of “kid” then you can omit the “a” as it is unnecessary and doesn’t make much sense. Simply say “You have kids and…”. Also, “your” is possessive meaning something belongs to me. The correct usage you were looking for is “you are” or “you’re”, not “your”. Again, capital letters are most helpful in denoting the beginning of a sentence and you may want to consider using them as in “Are” instead of “are”. I assume you are aware, as of course your intelligent discourse suggests, that the word would be “fucking”, not “fucken” unless you actually meant, perhaps, a strange cross breed of a frog, duck, and chicken, in which case I can see how that makes sense in the same way that the new holiday dinner bird is called a turducken (turkey, duck, and chicken). However, since that would also not make any sense in that sentence I can only assume that your sentence enhancer was misspelled. Technically, a computer game is not considered a toy and is an entirely different sales market and you may simply want to say “game” (and you forgot another capital letter). I can assure you that I am not that little and am, in fact, over 6 feet tall so you may want to come up with a more thoughtful and intelligent insult. Also, you forgot to use commas, which is the correct way to address someone in a sentence (“Put the games away, little boy, and…”). My kids love the park and I believe it would be accurate to assume that I have been there more recently than you as no one with your particularly cranky demeanor could possibly have seen the sun in some time (are you related to Golem, by chance?). Really, the word “or” doesn’t seem correct in the next sentence, as you are suggesting that I do both, in which case you should say “and”, especially since going to the park IS spending time so it can’t be an “or” as I would, by the very definition, be doing both at once which would also make it an “and”. After you remove the gratuitous period in the next sentence, capitalize the “I” and then add a comma after swear (“I swear, people…”) and you’ll be just about done. In order to save you time I have corrected your oversights (notice the correct usage of the word “your” in this sentence for reference) for you and you may use the sentence below.

You have kids and you’re playing games!? Are you fucking kidding me? Put the games away, Random Name Call, and take your kids to the park again and spend some more time with them when they are supposed to be sleeping. I swear, people are as sick in the head as me these days.

No thanks necessary,
Your new Facebook friend

Room Switching

2011-11-12T08:40:00.000-08:00

We have decided to switch our older boys' bedroom with the office. We looked up our list of reasons to do it and our reasons against it and decided it was time.

Reasons to switch:
1. Theater room above the boys' current room means no movies after boys go to bed
2. Not enough room in the office to have office, filing, computer parts AND craft stuff so it's all scattered around house.
3. Not enough room means I usually craft in living room and it gets messy fast.
4. Boys' door is glass paneled and not great for privacy or letting them sleep, even with curtains. (It was originally built to be a formal dining room but, since my "breakfast nook" fits a table for 10 and the bar counter next to it seats 6, it seemed silly to have yet another large seating area.) Also, the glass panels make their mess known to anyone visiting (above picture).
5. The boys want to watch cable, but their room doesn't have a jack.
6. The boys' room is near the kitchen and in between the family and living rooms which makes it hard for them to sleep when we have adult company.

Reasons not to:
1. The current office has an attached bathroom and the boys are 8 and 10.
2. The window offers prime sneaking out location when the boys get older
3. We'll have to repaint both rooms again and we just did them within the last 6 months.
4. The boys' room does not have a network jack for the computers.
5. The boys' room does not have a mount for a ceiling fan, only recessed lighting.

So, we decided the pros finally outweighed the cons. The boys are going to learn how to clean their bathroom as they are old enough to handle that. The window sneak out location I'll address in a couple more years as needed. I like painting so it's not a huge deal to do that again. We are adding a network jack and a light to the room so that is solved as well.

I took pictures as the house was being built so we can go back and look at the internal structures of our walls and see what we have to work with. Adding a network jack to the new office is a little tricky because in between that room and the main networking center of the house there are a couple of firewall breaks. Obviously we can't drill through those as it would compromise them so we had to come up with something else. In the theater room above the new office there is a network port already so we are going to install a switch up there and then run a line from that room to the room below it. However, one of the big headers that I can't touch is directly below that jack so the new jack couldn't be next to it which would have looked better. But, see that tiny wall on the left that changes angle? THAT doesn't have the header below it. So from there we could drill down and run the line through the ceiling to the new room. The line upstairs is covered by the curtain and shelf and the downstairs line drops in right at the computers.

This is the ceiling of the boys' room. To fish the line through several feet of ceiling we attached a hook to the end of the extendable paintroller handle. That way we didn't have to buy any new tools and could use what we already had. The line you see above is not live, btw. It's for a hot tub plug but we don't have a hot tub so we turned the breaker off.

Our To Do list:
-~~Run network line to office~~
-Add light to ceiling in office
-Paint office gray and ceiling white
-Paint boys' room navy blue (they want to keep the color they have now) with white stripes
-Add trim to door of office (we installed the door 3 years ago and never trimmed it, oops)
-Add shelves above beds in boys' room for treasures
-Add bedside lamps to the boys' room
-Hang window blinds in office
-Hang curtains in boys' room
-Move all the furniture/stuff between rooms
-Bring the filing organizer down from the master closet to the office
-Bring the crafting supplies down from the master bedroom to the office

My Tree Pendant

2011-11-10T06:00:00.000-08:00

As I was digging around in my bead box last night, looking for my friend's stone (for the cabochon posted here), I found several projects I had started but never finished. I started this pendant a year ago (based on the work of this artist) and last night I finished up the wire twisting. There are several more half finished projects in the box I'm looking forward to finishing up so I'm sure you'll see a few more on here soon.

I'm not posting a tutorial on this one since the idea was not created by me and the artist sells her creations (her etsy is here if you want to check it out).

Polished Stone Pendant

2011-11-09T06:00:00.000-08:00

A friend of mine who knows I sometimes make jewelry asked if I could take a look at a small stone she has and see if I could make a pendant for her. Last night as I browsed Pinterest I found this pin (originally from here) for a cabochon tutorial. The tutorial is for a round stone but I figured I could adapt it somewhat for this purpose and here is what I came up with:

Giveaway Winner

2011-11-08T19:10:00.000-08:00

And the winner of the bracelet is:

Samantha! Who said:

Check your email Samantha!

Fantasies in Chocolate Gala

2011-11-07T08:58:00.000-08:00

I do not have a project to post today as we went out on the town instead of creating this weekend. I went to the Fantasies in Chocolate gala with Husband and several of our neighbors. It was my first time there and it's definitely going to be repeated. Great friends, dinner, wine, chocolate everywhere, and dancing. It was really lovely. My friend Zoe took the above picture and, since I didn't take my camera with me, I'll have to ask a couple other friends if I can share a few other shots with you because the place really looked amazing! I hope you had a great weekend too and I'll tomorrow I'll post the winner for Saturday's giveaway!

Dollhouse: Stairs

2011-11-03T06:00:00.000-07:00

The rest of the dollhouse story can be found at
Part I - The original derelict
Part II - Fixing her up
Part III - Repaired and pretty

A couple months ago I showed you the dollhouse I had when I was little that I fixed up for my kids.

Now I thought I might show you how my dad built those original stairs that stood up to all those years of abuse. The stairs are built from a single board, just one piece of 2x4. You can use a radial arm saw or a circular saw (you may want to make a jig for the second option). The blade is tilted at a 45 degree angle and the cuts are made 1/2" apart. Cut all of the angles one direction, turn the board around and cut them the other way. Now it looks like teeth.

Now it's just a matter of tipping it up to nail it in place and you have sturdy stairs that will stand the test of years and kiddos.

Pinterest Fall Challenge

2011-11-02T08:49:00.000-07:00

It's time for the seasonal Pinterest challenge (hosted by YHL, Bower Power, Ana White and Erin from House of Earnest) where you make something you pinned on Pinterest. It's a great encouragement to actually get that project going that you were so inspired by. Lemon Tree Creations is also hosting a Pinsperation party and you can check that out here.

I saw this on Pinterest (originally from here) and created my Grow headboard (my original post with more pictures here).

Original Inspiration:

My creation:

And I saw this on Pinterest (originally from here) and created my own colorful version (my original post with more pictures here).

Original Inspiration:

My creation:

Have you made something after getting inspiration from a Pinterest pin? Play along over at Young House Love, Bower Power, Ana White’s, and House of Earnest. You can also join in over at Lemon Tree Creations.

Don't forget, Saturday is the last day to enter for the bracelet giveaway!

300 posts, a Tutorial, and a Giveaway

2011-11-01T06:00:00.000-07:00

300 posts! My little blog is getting so big. As promised today I am doing a giveaway, the info is at the end of this post. (This giveaway is now closed but the tutorial is still good!)

This is the necklace I showed you yesterday and today I'm going to show you how simple it is to make if you want to try it out.

You need beading wire, a small piece of tiger tail or a beading needle, seed beads, and 1-2 dozen larger beads that have a hole small enough the seed beads don't fit inside.

If you are using tiger tail you can fold it in half and crimp the end (as pictured) to make a threading needle that will hold your thread. String 16 seed beads, 1 large bead, and then 5 more seed beads.

Count back to the 11th bead of the 16 (leaving 5 after it before the large one) and run the thread through that bead a second time in the same direction as you did originally.

Pull the loose thread through and this is what you will have. Now repeat this until the bracelet/necklace is the desired length. Now just tie off your ends and secure to your fastener and your creation is done!

I now have a bracelet to match the necklace, made in about 40ish minutes.

(This giveaway is now closed)
And now for the fun GIVEAWAY details! In order to thank all of you wonderful followers for visiting me I am giving away the bracelet below, handmade by me, to one of you. If you are a follower of this blog (or become one), leave a comment below to enter for it. I'll pick a random winner on Saturday at 12:00. That's it! If you don't have an email in your profile you can leave it in the comments (but use "at" instead of "@" to keep junk mail from picking it up). Good luck!

Beaded Necklace and Announcement

2011-10-31T06:00:00.000-07:00

Day 31/31:

First off, we have reached day 31/31. Whew! 31 days of projects is a lot and I'm beat but in a really good way! I got SO MUCH done around my house and off my project list and I'm extra happy about it. I will have to do this again. Anyway, not only is this a completion of 31 Days but tomorrow will also be my 300th post so I think that calls for my very first giveaway! Sound good? Come back tommorow for the details. Ok, on to your regularly scheduled post:

I have a black tie dinner coming up (so excited!) and I needed a little bling to go with my dress. Something pretty and also a little dainty. I made a necklace similar to this once and loved it while it lasted but I made the original with cheap sewing thread and one of the kids broke it with a single pull. This time I used beading thread and doubled the line to give it extra strength.

I used white beads with a bright blue to set it off a bit. The style is REALLY simple to make. It's something I came up with while screwing around a couple years back and it's a good project to keep your hands busy while helping with homework or watching TV. I'll post some detailed pics tomorrow (you can find the tutorial here!) of how it's strung with a couple extra little tips that help while making this. All total I think this took me about 2.5 hours to make.

Halloween Costumes: Alice in Wonderland

2011-10-30T06:00:00.000-07:00

Day 30/31:

Today has been a bit of a whirlwind and I'm a little late in posting. A friend's daughter is doing a costume theme with her friends of Alice in Wonderland and she is Alice. I just finished up the costume this morning.

She has a tiered skirt, a blouse with puffy sleeves, and a white apron.

I just dropped it off about an hour ago and made sure it was going to fit and I'm excited to say that it does. What do you think?

Be a Fruit Loop

2011-10-29T06:00:00.000-07:00

Day 29/31:

A friend of mine posted this picture on Facebook and it inspired me to turn this picture frame (bought at a thrift store):

Into this:

Also shared at:

Halloween Costumes: Zombie

2011-10-28T06:00:00.000-07:00

Day 28/31:

This costume takes about 10 minutes and about $2.50. I went to the thrift store and bought a pair of jeans that were large enough to fit over another pair of pants and I bought a army-ish jacket. They each cost me $1.25. The condition of the clothes as far as tears really doesn't matter when you buy them, and being a little worn out is actually good. I used a pair of scissors to liberally shred the clothes, enough so there were lots of holes but not enough it would fall off as the kids ran around playing.

Then I rubbed black and brown crayons all over the shirt and pants to give them a dirty look. We added a little blood with Halloween makeup to the front but that part is really optional. For his hair I filled it with hairspray and ratted it up a bunch. His eyes have just a little black Halloween makeup crayon and that's it. And in 10 minutes and for next to no money it's now a child's zombie costume.

This was the picture the kids took right as they were headed off to school. A zombie, a kitty, and a viking .

Baking Fail

2011-10-27T06:00:00.000-07:00

Day 27/31:

I swear, sometimes the only way I get through the day is because of this corner of the kitchen. Sometimes I think my dear coffee will get me through anything.

Tomorrow the kids have their Halloween parties so today we were making sure costumes are ready and cookies and cupcakes are done. Well, they are now done but it's also 1am. I thought I would make cupcakes in ice cream cones for Erin's classroom as it's a classic dessert that's a little fun. But as I took the last batch of the boys' cookies from the oven I apparently turned the oven OFF without noticing. So the tops of the cupcakes cooked but not the middle. I noticed this and turned the oven on hoping that it would still be okay. But the middle of the cupcakes collapsed like a souffle and settled into a chewy mess at the bottom. When I tried to frost the cupcakes (thinking that maybe I could salvage them somehow?) the tops collapsed into the vacant hole and it all just looks like crap.

Think they look vaguely okay from the distance? Well how about a close up. Yeah, not so appetizing. On the other hand, a bunch of 2nd graders are usually not picky about sugar so for a brief moment I considered giving it to them anyway. So I decided to try one and see if they tasted edible, given that they already had a big strike against them in the looks department. WOW, that was gross. Chewy, nasty, nasty. Aaaand... Garbage. So at about 10:30 I headed to the store and got some more cones. I almost gave up here and bought the cupcakes pre-made from the store but I had already sold Erin on the idea of ice cream cone cupcakes and I didn't want to disappoint her.

This time (REALLY important tip here) I made sure that the oven was ON. I know, who would have thought? Anyway, this worked out much better than last time. The kids might even eat these.

Now with some fake dirt (Oreos) and some worms they are disgusting in a good Halloween-ish way instead of a OMFSM-what-is-this-disgusting-thing-get-it-out-of-my-mouth-before-I-puke-ish way. So yeah, the kids will be thrilled and I am finally going to bed. Yay!

Pantry Can Rack

2011-10-26T06:00:00.000-07:00

Day 26/31:

I'm blessed to have a large pantry as it allows me to store up on things when they're on sale BUT it also means my pantry can be a disorganized nightmare in which I can't find anything (the more frequent occurrence). One of the biggest problems was that I usually had no idea what canned items I have and which I need to buy so I was constantly either out or overstocked. But now I have a new storage item which ALSO used up part of the scrap pile in my garage so that's even better!

Before (yes I still have a girl scout cookie stock. I try to make them last!):

I made a new rack for the cans out of some scrap MDF, a piece of 1x3, and a couple of 2x2 scraps. I set it up to sit at a 45 degree angle so that it would be easy to see and easy to figure out the angles to cut.

After I built it I did a quick test fit to make sure it would work because, to be honest, I didn't measure the height available on the shelf ahead of time and wanted to make sure it would work before I painted it. Yup, very fly by the seat of my pants and I made this on a whim. So if you had any illusions that I have it all together, um, I don't. I just get lucky a lot, hehe.

And the final painted rack in its new home:

And because I'm feeling particularly brave I will even show you the entire pantry (since I organized it first) but please don't judge the volume of processed food because while I will organize my pantry for you I won't pretend to shop in a way I don't. Please be okay with that, k?

Fish Tank: Painted

2011-10-25T06:00:00.000-07:00

Day 25/31:

We inherited a HUGE fish tank and the kids are really excited about it.

But it was about 25 or 30 years old and needed a little bit of love to get it ready.

So last week I got it all sanded down and primed. Friday night I got it painted chocolate brown (I have used this paint on so many projects and I STILL have a half gallon left) but the fun came in last night.

I had an idea to paint fish silhouettes on one of the doors but Husband said it would be so much better if I added a shark to chase them. He was kidding but I decided he was on to something. I played around with ideas in Paint to figure out just how I wanted it to go, using clipart images I googled.

Then I sketched on some paper my shark and a couple of fish. I cut them out to use as templates and traced them with pencil onto the doors.

I used a little black and white craft paint to fill in the lines and done! The fish tank will now fit in with the rest of our somewhat eclectic home just right. I still need to clean the tank out (yuck) but then I can install the whole thing in our entry way. The kids are already arguing about what kind of fish we should get. Since I've never owned fish before I think we're going fresh water as it's easier but I'm open to suggestions. Do you have any big tank wisdom to share? Or an opinion on pretty fish? I'd love to hear your thoughts!

A Face Full of Bugs

2011-10-24T06:00:00.000-07:00

Day 24/31:

This is our entryway as of this morning. I wanted a light that made a bit more of a statement and I found the perfect one at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore for $25. Even better, it was actually brand new!

I bought a recessed light conversion kit so I didn't have to do any major rewiring. You just take out the bulb and the trim there and there is a new piece that goes up that you can wire a light fixture to. One of the steps is "remove the trim from the recessed fixture". It didn't say to duck the mass quantities of bugs that were hanging out in there since this was on a porch light. What you can see in this picture isn't even 1/10th of what awaited me.

Gross! And of course this is about how much hit me in the face (mouth closed, thankfully!) when I pulled it away from the ceiling.

But doesn't this new cover look nice? Ok, kind of boring but you can see that now I have a place to wire the new fixture in after less than 10 minutes of work.

Here's our pretty new light:

And voila! Nice and light and something pretty when you approach the front door. There is more to do out here but this is a pretty good start to it!

Tissue Paper Stained Glass

2011-10-23T06:00:00.000-07:00

Day 23/31:

We've been working on Erin's room a little bit at a time and today it was time to tackle some wall art. I cut a pile of squares from tissue paper in shades of blue and green to go with her color theme.

A heart taped to the bottom of the glass worked as my template so I knew where to glue down the pieces. I started with an outline, filled it in, and then went back and added extra pieces here and there to balance the colors.

Just a glue stick, tissue paper, and a frame is all this project requires.

I just washed the windows 2 days ago, I swear, but I think that's a bit of a losing battle these days, haha. Anyway, this gives you an idea of what it looks like with the light behind it which is really very pretty. It's a little softer than the colors of the wax paper/crayon stained glass and it's just the thing for the new girly bedroom.

Fish Tank: Primered

2011-10-22T06:00:00.000-07:00

Day 22/31:

It's day 22 and I'm working on a big project so today I have progress pics. Husband's aunt had a great big fish tank that she didn't want anymore and now it's my latest DIY. I got it all sanded and ready to paint but the temperature at night has been a bit cold for garage painting so my dining room is the next best thing.

There was a very good chance I would get primer on the dining table but if I did I figured it would be a good excuse to sand it down and redo that too so that's okay.

So I apologize that today isn't a little more exciting but I'm loving where this project is going and hopefully that means it will be doubly good when it's done. Or something.

Give Thanks Ornament

2011-10-21T06:00:00.000-07:00

Day 21/31:

Today I tried playing with a little FIMO clay, some cookie cutters, and the metal punches. I quickly found that wrapping the punches with rubber bands to make the whole word at once was a lot easier than one letter at a time when I got ready to impress it into the clay.

And then this (words):

Plus this (cookie cutters):

Equals a quick thanksgiving ornament:

A New World (Map)

2011-10-20T06:00:00.000-07:00

Day 20/31:

I have a small globe collection and I've wanted a world map to go on the wall behind them. I ordered it 6 months ago (this one), bought the wood for the trim and then left it in the closet for ~~forever~~ a while. But today I finally did it!

I used 4 1x3 boards with brackets screwed into the back to tie them together (just simple corner braces) and I used packing tape to actually secure the map to the boards. I bought the map pre-laminated so I wouldn't have to worry about small child fingerprints and so the tape wouldn't damage the map if I ever take it off.

I love the new view from the entry way. Everything is starting to look like it kind of belongs together instead of just all getting tossed in. Even better, it has already been useful a few times for the kids' geography homework. I also have a map like this of the United States to hang on the other wall in this room but for today I will have to be happy with just getting one out of the closet.

Did you notice what looks like a random chicken photo in there? It's actually the continents of the world rearranged into a chicken (found here via The Bloggess) that I thought was really funny, if a bit tacky, and had to add to my map collection. On a side note, do you follow the Bloggess and have you read her big metal chicken story? When I read that, I admit, I laughed so hard I snorted (there is some minor language so don't say I didn't warn you, k?).

Hot Glue Faux Candles

2011-10-19T06:00:00.000-07:00

Day 19/31:

I found an awesome tutorial for faux candles (via Pinterest) and thought it would be a good addition to both the Halloween and the Christmas decor depending on how it is styled. On page 38 of the tutorial someone posted a chandelier they made and I knew that's what I wanted to attempt.

The hot glue is applied to the PVC pipe. The best advice I can give you here is don't be in a rush. Start with your long layers, let it dry, and then come back to add then next layer and so on. If you do it all at once the glue will run into itself and won't look as much like drips but will be pretty flat.

Everything is spray painted black.

I cut out a piece of MDF and spray painted it with layers of black and gray. It's mostly black but the pictures insist on looking gray, possibly because it was still wet when I took this.

I had a few eye hooks and some leftover chain in the garage for hanging it and I used glue to attach the pipe to the MDF. The cheesecloth got a bit of spray paint and then a little shredding before it was draped over the candles. I'm thinking for Christmas a little holly or something would be pretty in place of the cheesecloth to change the holiday mood.

Halloween Costumes: Child's Viking

2011-10-18T06:00:00.001-07:00

Day 18/31:

My little man likes to tell me that his ancestors were Vikings and now he can be one for Halloween. This costume is pretty quick, too. I bought a 2 pack of men's undershirts (size medium), cut off the short sleeves of one of them, and used the body of the other to make new longer sleeves that will be nice and wide. A little elastic sewn into a pocket at the end of the sleeve makes it bunch up a bit like a tunic sleeve. A little fabric that has a hide-like appearance trimmed with fur makes the vest. I topped it off with a hat they already had in their dress up stuff. Getting the perfect fierce face is all up to him, though.

Kids Rooms: Fairies

2011-10-17T06:00:00.000-07:00

Day 17/31:

Each of the kids has gotten to pick the general theme of their rooms. K wanted fairies and butterflies and I made the fairies little, as I imagined a fairy should be. See the first one to the right of the closet?

I added three Disney fairies to the room, each on a different wall. They were projected onto the wall with a craft projector using a free coloring sheet I downloaded online. Each one was traced onto the wall with pencil, filled in, and then outlined in permanent marker. The wings were done with a glitter craft paint (and I didn't trace that part with marker but just left the pencil) and the translucent effect came out just the way I'd hoped for.

Of course fairies have to have a fairy castle, too. Like I did for the fairies I used a craft projecter to get a graphic onto the wall and then filled it in with paint.

Now as her friends come over they can hunt for the hidden fairies that were sprinkled about and it adds a little extra fun.

Chandelier Redo

2011-10-16T06:00:00.000-07:00

Day 16/31:

Since I was working on K's room I installed the new light. I bought it from the Habitat for Humanity ReStore for $5 and gave the shiny brass a coat of creamy spray paint. Then I couldn't help adding a little bling from the dollar store. Totally cheesy and girly and I hope she'll love it.

ps. Like the super fancy paint studio? Haha.

Curtains, Forts and Monkey Bars

2011-10-15T06:00:00.000-07:00

Day 15/31:

***Let me say first that I make NO safety recommendations on this and if you follow this project you do so at your own risk.***

One of the girls' favorite things on a playground is monkey bars. But most of the playgrounds closest to our home don't have them. So we built them in one of the girl's closets.

We fastened 2x4s to 3 walls of her closet and capped the front with a 4th piece. Electrical conduit is used to make the bars and we drilled holes into the 2x4s to hold them. Then we screwed down through the top of the 2x4 and into the bars to keep them from spinning as that would suck when trying to catch the next one. Originally we wrapped them with duct tape to soften it on her hands but we found she actually just preferred it as plain bars.

The girls have loved it but it wasn't very pretty to look at so I made some curtains for the outside of it. The same curtains that Luna ate a couple days ago. Last Thursday I was home with a sick kiddo so I made another curtain to replace it and got them hung up. Now it has a little reading corner inside when she isn't using it as monkey bars.

And the curtains can all close up to make a private fort as well.

Upcycle: Stained Dress to Skirt

2011-10-14T06:00:00.000-07:00

Day 14/31:

E's dress still fit but sadly had gotten stained and I couldn't get it out.

Bummer.

So I cut off most of the top, stitched it up with some elastic, and made it into a skirt so she can continue to love it for a while.

Upcycle: Torn Jeans to Girl's Dress

2011-10-13T06:00:00.000-07:00

Day 13/31:

My jeans were toast. They had been worn and washed so many times they just gave out. But for the most part the legs were okay so I decided to give them a new life.

I don't have a how to because I was definitely winging this one. I cute the legs off and figured out where I wanted the seams to show up on her dress. Then I laid the two sides out and used a tshirt to trace the armholes and neckline. I added an extra strip around the bottom to ruffle it a bit and added small arms pieces as well.

The front

The back

I love the little ruffle. I think it finishes it off nicely.

Erin was really good about giving me a nice face for the picture

And we had to try getting a bit silly, too because why not?

The Best Laid Plans

2011-10-12T06:00:00.000-07:00

Day 12/31:

All the best planning in the world does not account for a 60 pound 1 year old puppy. I made these curtains this weekend, even stayed up a little late, and then yesterday Luna decided to get chewy before I got a chance to hang them. So today I am being realistic about handcrafting in a home with pets and children. There are definitely projects that go wrong, even when you're getting all the steps done right. Lucky for me I think I have enough extra fabric to correct this and lucky for her I like her so much.

Upcycle: Curtain Hooks to Magazine Rack

2011-10-11T06:00:00.000-07:00

Day 11/31:

I'm a romantic. I'm so romantic that for my 1st anniversary I made my husband something that goes in the bathroom... To be fair it was because all of the reading material in there is his and I knew how much he hated having it on the floor. Picking something he would want and would use everyday seems like the good way to go. And, he likes it so that's good.

This was our magazine situation before

See? We couldn't even open the door fully. Boo.

Out in the garage I found all this junk and decided to give it a new purpose. 3 curtain hooks that don't match anything else in our home and scrap wood left over from other projects around the house.

It needed a couple quick cuts on the saw, a little pre-drilling, and a handful of screws.

A little sanding on all the edges and 3 coats of spray paint were next.

After it dried overnight I hung it on the wall. Always make sure at least one of the screws hits a stud, two if possible. In this case I just screwed directly through the back since the magazines will cover the screws up anyway.

Does anyone else find it odd that Martha Stewart baked a Wii cake? Since she doesn't own a microwave I'm guessing she also doesn't own a Wii so it seems out of place somehow. Am I crazy (about this)?

Wax Paper Stained Glass

2011-10-10T12:00:00.000-07:00

Day 10/31:

A fun craft almost anytime of year is making fake stained glass with crayons and wax paper. You just lay down a sheet of wax paper, add crayon shavings, and top it with another layer of wax paper. Cover with a paper towel, lightly iron, and cut your shape out after it rehardens. Nice and simple.

It makes a pretty window hanging and the kids can do it, too. So I tried that this weekend and decided that, although really pretty, it didn't quite look like stained glass. Something was missing. See it there?

Yup, there aren't any lines on it. I started thinking about how to put lines on it and puffy paint (a sensation for almost every girl raised in the 80s) came to mind. Since my stash dried up somewhere around '95 I went to the store to get it and was bummed they didn't have any black or dark brown. But they did have gold so I decided to work with that.

To know where to put the lines I put my stained glass picture over the wax leaf and traced with a knife where the lines should go.

That left me with this:

Then I started outlining. I messed up on a couple of spots on the left and it made a mess but I just left it to dry and cut that part off later.

And it's stained glass! It does actually look fairly realistic and a friend that came over this weekend thought it was stained glass till I told her how I did it.

I also made a bat for fun. This might have turned out better with less crayon shavings (less crayon = more see through) but it was a good first try.

Have you tried making these before? Do you have any tips or tricks you found useful in the process?

also sharing this at:

Alis volat propriis

2011-10-09T06:00:00.000-07:00

Day 9/31:

The Latin "alis volat propriis" is usually translated as "She flies with her own wings" though technically it is not gender specific and could mean "He flies" or "It flies". It's also the state motto of Oregon, where most of my family is and I've long been in love with the phrase just for the meaning of it. What a beautiful idea to have your own wings. Not anyone else's, just yours. Lovely.

My number one most common thing doodled on a piece of paper? Wings. I'm still figuring out (literally and metaphorically) exactly what my wings look like. But for now, this will do.

What are you up to this weekend? Have some friends over or a project you're working on?

Halloween Costumes - Adults

2011-10-08T06:00:00.000-07:00

Day 8/31:

As promised, I have two of my homemade Halloween costumes to show you. You would think there would be more but I have worn both of those costumes a few times.

The snowman. I used all white clothes, of course, and added a few giant black buttons to a stretchy and comfy shirt. A Christmas ornament made the perfect necklace with a little bit of ribbon. A black felt hat (stolen from the snowman in a box kit), an oversized candycane, black boots, and one of my scarves topped it off.

Gypsy. I made this from a pattern. I've actually made this one twice (the first time I was about 60 pounds heavier so I had to make it in a smaller size this time). My friends and I went downtown to the casino strip and had a ball checking out the large crowd of costumed people. I actually have no idea who the guy in the photo is, I just thought his costume was funny.

Halloweens Costumes - Kids

2011-10-07T06:00:00.000-07:00

Day 7/31:

As part of my Handmade Home series I thought I would show you some of the kids' Halloween costumes from the past. Not all of these are handmade but many of them are so I'll point them out as we go.

Joe as a Cow. This is one of my favorite handmade costumes. Well, technically only partly handmade. I purchased the hat and made the shirt. Anyway, it was a plain white shirt and I used puffy paint on it. Add in the hat and the pants and I made the very first costume for one of my kids.

Joe as a Pumpkin, this one I did not make. Yup, he had two costumes that year. We went to two different parties and this was too cute to pass up using for the home party but the cow costume was good for leaving the house and staying warm (and easily buckling into a car seat).

Erin as a bumblebee (purchased), Joe as Spiderman (purchased), and Glenn as a teddy bear (handmade). Erin was a stinkin' cute bumblebee so I went ahead and bought it and Joe had his heart set on Spiderman so we just went with it. But Glenn didn't have a preference yet and I got to have some fun making that costume.

Ok, one more shot of the Teddy Bear costume just because.

Joe as a lion (purchased). I loved his roar, he was so enthusiastic about it. I giggled my butt off quite a bit that year just watching him.

The Wizard of Oz: Dorothy, the lion, and the tinman costumes (all 3 are handmade). I ran out of time and didn't get the tinman's hat painted but it was still fun as it was. Unfortunately the sun was in their eyes so I had a hard time getting them to look at me.

Here's one more shot from the party where you can see Erin's Dorothy costume a little better.

There were more costumes of course but I don't have photographs of them all (whoops!). All of the others were store bought except the year that they all 3 went as pirates. The pirate pictures I'll keep looking for as I'm sure I have them somewhere...

Anyway, come back tomorrow and I'll have two of my adult costumes to show you!

Coin Art

2011-10-06T06:00:00.000-07:00

Day 5/31:

Ever since I started using the stones for my cabinet doors I started thinking about other things I collect but don't get to visually enjoy in my home. I have a fairly large foreign coin collection but they all just sit in a jar on a desk. Occasionally we dump them out and look through them but usually they are just, well, there. They aren't worth anything but they're pretty and I wanted to highlight them somehow.

I had a couple of frames in the closet so I grabbed those.

I removed the back and started filling in with all the coins that would fit.

I added a drop of Elmer's Glue-All (which is fairly quick drying) to each coin to hold them in place. Originally I did try a spray adhesive but that failed quite miserably for this project. The Glue-All is holding well.

After I put the backs on again I flipped them over and left them to sit for a bit while the glue dried. The reason that I flipped them during this time is so that all of the coins, thin or thick, would get contact with the back and glue correctly.

I hung them in the downstairs hallway and now I can enjoy them every day instead of just once a year!

Snakes on a Wreath

2011-10-05T06:00:00.000-07:00

Day 5/31:

For the front door the snake wreath was the perfect addition this year! I first saw the idea about a year ago (from The Art of Doing Stuff) and knew it would be perfect for the front door. I used one grapevine wreath, 8 rubber snakes and some spray paint. You don't even have to glue anything! Just tuck the snakes into the grapevines and they hold themselves.

At first glance people don't notice the snakes until they are up close to the door. It's scared a few so far and I think the neighborhood kids will like it, too.

Welcome!

Adhesive Felt Pumpkins

2011-10-04T06:00:00.001-07:00

Day 4/31:

Wow, day 4 already! The kids and I got going on our next Halloween project today and had some fun.

In this house we love our non traditional pumpkins. Adhesive felt, pipe cleaners and miscellaneous bits are all fun for decorating and help us skip the mess of carving (which also means less clean up!).

We added a pipe cleaner halo to twist up some hair

And twisted them into a few easy curls

Strips of felt also hold on the pipe cleaner arms

This year we made Monster I and Kitty

And we made Monster II and Spider Pumpkin

Prior year pumpkins are here and here:

Butterfly Mobile

2011-10-03T06:00:00.001-07:00

Day 3/31:

Inspired by the Heartland Paper mobile (found via Pinterest) I made one for Erin's bedroom makeover.

It's really very simple (Heartland paper has a step by step and a materials list so I'll let you click over there for the list). I cut out two butterflies for every one I wanted on a string so they could be glued together around the fishing line. So, each string has 5 butterflies but it's made from 10 punches.

I folded them a little using a straight edge (a butter knife in this case) so that the wings would stick up a bit.

I precut all of my butterflies and fishing line and then I started gluing them to the line. I didn't measure the distance but rather just eyeballed it to "close enough". The Elmer's glue Glue-All dries a little faster than the regular stuff and was perfect for this.

I ended up with 8 rows of 5 butterflies for the outside and 4 rows of 6 for the inside (but on the same size string).

For the metal ring on mobiles someone suggested buying a grease splatter shield from the dollar store and removing the middle for an inexpensive ring. It worked perfectly and was super cheap (does anyone know who said that because I can't remember which blog to give credit for the idea. I'll update this if someone knows). Next I tied the string onto my metal ring and then added bits of ribbon around the edges and to the fishing line across the middle. A little extra ribbon is perfect for hanging it and hides the tack that's in the top to hold it to the ceiling. It's so light that a single tack seems to be more than enough to keep it there.

A Morning Without Coffee

2011-10-02T06:00:00.000-07:00

Day 2/31:

A morning without coffee is a lot like sleep

The first time I heard that phrase I knew it was true. I thought it would be a nice touch in the kitchen so for a very simple project I spray painted a board brown (Java, of course) and used a stencil I cut with the Silhouette to make the phrase. And then I made a homemade stencil for the coffee cup by printing the graphic on a piece of cardstock and cutting it out.

I attached a small hook to the back and hung it above the window in the kitchen. I think it works perfectly!

Destinations Sign

2011-10-01T11:04:00.000-07:00

Day 1:

Today is the first day of my 31 Days of a Handmade Home series. This is already a great jumpstart to my creativity and motivation and I'm really thankful to The Nester for inviting us to join in.

When I saw this sign it was instant love! However, I do not have a beautiful garden (or even a well planted yard) to put it in. But, I do have lots and lots of books.

So I made my own version, in miniature, for my bookshelf!

I broke a bunch of paint stir sticks and gave them jagged edges. I cut the words with the Silhouette machine and laid out the order for the destinations.

A little black paint and the vinyl can be peeled off.

I drilled a hole into a small piece of 2x2 to hold it up and glued it in. Then with the wood glue on and tape to hold everything in place I left it all overnight to dry.

And then the next morning I washed down some gray paint and some brown paint with water and put a thin wash over the wood to give it a little pretend age.

It is now living with the book collection (safely nestled in the Heinlein books) and I'm loving the new addition.

31 Days of a Handmade Home

2011-09-30T12:00:00.000-07:00

Click here to view all of my 31 Days Project

Week 1:

01 - Destinations Sign
02 - A Morning Without Coffee Sign
03 - Butterfly Mobile
04 - Adhesive Felt Pumpkins
05 - Snakes on a Wreath
06 - Coin Art
07 - Halloween Costumes - Kids

Week 2:

08 - Halloween Costumes - Adults
09 - Alis Volat Propriis Sign
10 - Wax paper Stained Glass
11 - Upcycle: Curtain Hooks to Magazine Rack
12 - The Best Laid Plans
13 - Upcycle: Torn Jeans to Girl's Dress
14 - Upcycle: Stained Dress to Skirt

Week 3:

15 - Curtains, Fort, and Monkey Bars
16 - Chandelier Redo
17 - Fairy Bedroom
18 - Halloween Costumes - Kid's Viking
19 - Hot Glue Faux Candles
20 - A New World (Map)
21 - Give Thanks Ornament

22 - Fish Tank: Primered
23 - Tissue Paper Stained Glass
24 - A New Light
25 - Fish Tank: Painted
26 - Pantry Can Rack
27 - Cupcakes and a Fail
28 - Halloween Costumes: Zombie

29 - Be a Fruit Loop
30 - Halloween Costumes: Alice in Wonderland
31 - Double String Beaded Necklace

Have you heard about the 31 Days? It's being hosted by The Nester (though I heard about it from The Inspired Room). The idea is very simple, you just blog about something for 31 days in a row, or all of October. If you've ever done a photo 365 or something similar I'm sure you know this can be a challenge to keep on top of but that it's also a great motivator.

SO, I've decided to do it! I'm a little nervous (ok, a lot nervous) but it's going to be fun. So what am I blogging about for 31 days? A Handmade Home. It's what I do anyway but the challenge is going to be 31 days. In a row. No gaps. So Exciting!

I hope you'll join me and come back to see what we're up to because it's going to be fun (and any encouragement will be appreciated!). I have a list of 50-60 items I can use, some big some small. Why 50-60 for 31 days? Because some days I'm going to be working on the big stuff that takes multiple days and I'll need smaller things that are easy and I can still get done. And also because I don't know what my life will be busy with on any particular day and this will give me a ton of flexibility since I can pick from a large list. 'Cause let's face it, life with a husband, 5 kids, 7 pets and just life requires flexibility.

And just a reminder since there are several new readers, Turning Stones is also on Facebook if you'd like to follow along there at all.

Comments and Emails

2011-09-29T17:00:00.000-07:00

I LOVE your comments and I appreciate the hell out of them. I do. And I would love to tell you how much :) I always read the comments and if you have a blog I go and look at that too. But if you don't have an email attached to your profile I can't respond to your thoughtful comments.

Not sure how? I'm not sure how it works on Wordpress, etc but on Blogger it's really easy.

On your dashboard just click Edit Profile

Check the box to show your email in your profile and choose where you want that mail to go.

And save. Easy peasy done. Because I really would love to be able to tell you how much I appreciate your thoughtful comments that mean so much to me.

The Importance of Art for Kids

2011-09-29T12:00:00.000-07:00

I cannot express enough how important I think art is to children. Even the littlest of projects may stay in a child's mind forever and help shape the person that they will become. My grandmother was a very artistic and creative woman and started in early teaching us kids to love it too. She enrolled me in my first sewing class, helped us make enamels, taught me how to twist wire for jewelry and make coils (like this) and was always such an inspiration. Her home was very colorful and expressive and filled with interesting things for the kids and adults to find fascination in. She also gave me my first copy of Anne of Green Gables and helped cement my love of reading. I can only hope to instill in my children all of the gifts that she gave to me.

Below are a couple of the projects she helped me with. They created memories that I will never forget and, while they just seemed like fun at the time, it started a love of art that I'll always have.

Age 11: (I wasn't really this talented at enamels. My grandmother helped me quite a bit to recreate a drawing that Little-Little and I had made for her.)

Age 10: (My older sister used to draw this all the time and I wanted to recreate it as an enamel. Like the 80's ponytail?)

Age 7: (This was an exercise in perspective. I made this picture with the assumption that I was laying on the ground with the flower in front of my face and the houses off in the distance. My older sister made endless fun of me for thinking that flowers could be bigger than houses...)

After the kids went to bed last night I grabbed a level and a hammer started changing the art wall around to include my childhood enamels.

I added the canvases the kids made with punches this spring and the enamels I made when I was small (before we found out that the enamel powder had lead in it and they stopped letting me use it. boo). It also brings more blue to the top of the wall and it seems to make the chairs match everything better.

What kind of projects do you do with your kids/grandkids/nephews/nieces?

Teal and Zebra Chairs

2011-09-26T22:20:00.000-07:00

I knew that my living room needed a couple more chairs and when I saw these unloved and filthy little things at the thrift store I knew they would be perfect to fill the space. Then they sat there for a month as I tried to figure out what color to paint them and what fabric to put on the seats. One of the guys at work said I should use a cow patterned fabric like they have on the seats at the corner bar and that jump started my imagination nicely. Sadly there was no cow fabric to be found, though I did find some fun zebra and I like how it worked out. Pulling the seats and backs off of the frames and recovering them was pretty simple but my staple gun has recently turned into an automatic and made that part of the project a little dangerous and living-on-the-wild-side kind of scary.

Husband suggested painting the frames teal to match the DVD shelf in the room and I certainly won't turn him down when he comes up with bright color choices (yay!). So we jumped in to our newly organized garage and got to sanding/painting.

With the color being so bright I think I need to tie it into the rest of that wall a little more so I have some ideas for the storage bins in the IKEA cubbies in order to bring it together a bit.

Now instead of ugly and filthy the chairs are bright and a little fun. My daughter actually squealed when she saw them. I would call that a good endorsement. What that also tells me is that if it becomes too bright for me I know what other room they would have a good home in. :)

How To: Stone Cabinet Pulls/Knobs

2011-09-26T08:00:00.000-07:00

When our home was first built I skipped the option of upgrading the knobs on the cabinets and just kept the chrome knobs that were standard. The builder wanted some ridiculous sum of money ($350 ish if I remember right) and I just figured I'd do it later. 3 years later and now I have been looking at options and at $3 a knob, which only affords the plain and kind of ugly cabinet pulls, it would cost me about $120. Yikes!

This is where we started:

Then I saw a link on Pinterest to these and LOVED them. But, they are $75 for 4 of them. So, um, that's $750 for my kitchen. Right, keep looking.

It was at this moment I noticed a jar to my right. It was filled with rocks my grandmother had once collected, I believe from Washington. I had kept them for sentimental reasons after she died since I collect random rocks myself and didn't want them tossed into the flower beds, which is sadly where they were headed. As I looked at them I realized that better than random rocks with no history for a ton of money was rocks for no money with a ton of history.

I started by picking out all the rounded rocks that could make good knobs as there were quite a few that were too oddly shaped for this purpose. Then I started matching them into pairs so each place that two were next to each other would look like they belonged together. I super-glued a flat head screw to the back of the rock and added one nut to go between the rock and the cabinet so it wasn't flush and hard to grab.

One more nut is also needed to hold it on the back side.

I started with these ugly things:

And now we have some knobs that are not only pretty but also have memories. And instead of spending $120+ (or $750!!!) I spent a total of $20 on the screws, nuts, and glue. I did consider using an epoxy that was meant for metal and stone instead of the super glue but I think it wasn't needed. When I attempted to break the screw off of the stone I didn't break the glue, I broke the stone and stronger glue isn't going to change that I can break the stone so I kept it simple.

Now the only thing I'm wondering is if I should seal the rocks or just leave them be? It's possible they might stain if I don't but stones are mostly washable as is so maybe it's fine. What do you think?

Oh, and if you're wondering which type of super glue I use it's Loctite Gel Control. I LOVE that it's not runny and doesn't get all over my hands so it has quickly become my go to glue.

How To: Fall Wreath

2011-09-23T08:00:00.000-07:00

I made a couple wreaths for Fall/Halloween this year. I decided to do a fall/not-holiday-specific mantle and make a Halloween wreath for the front door. Since the fireplace decorations aren't holiday themed they can stay up till I break out the Christmas stuff later in the year and I won't have to fuss with changes.

One grapevine wreath and a few dollar store picks like the one pictured below and I got started on the first wreath.

I pulled all of the leaves off the picks and started fitting them into the wreath. I DID NOT use any glue or adhesive for this. Since the wreath is made of vine there are a million little places to tuck in stems that they'll stay put and if I reuse the wreath for something else later I didn't want it all gummed up.

Here's a closeup of a way to tuck the leaves into the wreath if you want to avoid adhesives.

I have the harvest sign from last year and I thought it might be cute in the middle. Clear string would have been preferable but I used what was available and tried to keep any yarn colors in fall hues. The pumpkins and gourds are also dollar store additions. To attach them without glue I stuck them in the back with unfolded paper clips, stuck the paper clips into the wreath, and folded the back of the clips behind the wreath to make them stay.

Other things to make up the mantle:
Erin made the sunflowers from construction paper
The lanterns are from IKEA
The mice are Charming Tails (circa 2001 ish?)
The tree is made from a branch I found while hiking and repurposed from this project
And the In This House sign was a project here

Past Halloweens Recap

2011-09-21T08:00:00.000-07:00

Fall officially begins on Friday which means that it's about that time of year again to get the Halloween stuff out! This year someone else is hosting the party but we'll have quite a few kids over here so I'll be decorating again. Anyway, here are a few things I did in years past and I'll be posting some new things over the next month.

The pumpkin pendant:

Adhesive felt and pipe cleaner pumpkins. We'll be doing them again this year so I can't wait to see what creative ideas the kids think to add this time (the hands were one of their ideas last year).

From the party decorations post:

A spider webbed ceiling. This will be repeated but moved to another room and changed up a bit.

The spookified chandelier. Another one I'll repeat but add onto.

Bats over the moon and cheesecloth webs. I can't find the bats :( But I'm sure we'll have some fun out there.

Are you getting ready for Halloween soon? What have been some of your favorite decorations either at home or elsewhere?

Turning Stones is now on Facebook

2011-09-20T08:00:00.001-07:00

Turning Stones is now on Facebook!

Want to know what is going on in between the posts? Are you interested in seeing sneak peeks of upcoming projects? I realized that a lot of my personal Facebook posts are related to my blog and it seemed like the right time to graduate my blog to its very own page. So come join in the fun and see what we're doing!

How NOT to install a light

2011-09-20T08:00:00.000-07:00

My home was built about 3 years ago. So I want a time machine to go back about 3 years ago and tell the builder to fire the electrician who installed the lights in my house. While working on Erin's room I took down the old light so I can install the small chandelier for her room. The diagram below is what a basic installation for a light is going to look like (image from here). If you haven't replaced a light before it might take a little while to figure out but it's not overly complicated, right?

Below is what the electrician did in her room (and I assume the others, I'm going to have to look at those). There was NO cross bar. The screws that are supposed to screw the bar into the ceiling were screwed directly from the light to the ceiling like the orange lines indicate. They had to be screwed in at an angle because the holes don't line up. On top of that, one of the screws they put in the ceiling missed the hole and they kept driving the screw anyway with an end result that they put a hole in the box. Yeah, they made a new "hole" for the screw because at the angle they were going they couldn't reach the hole it was supposed to go into.

So, instead of getting her chandelier up yesterday I made another trip to Home Depot. I bought the cross plate and screws to install the light correctly but sadly ran out of daylight for the project. Ah well, I should have pictures of the new light for you tomorrow (cross your fingers for me?).

What kind of unexpected bumps are you running into lately?

Tween Girl Room: Headboard

2011-09-19T08:00:00.000-07:00

Having redone the older boys' room recently I figured I should turn my attention to the 3 kid rooms upstairs (the girls and K2). I've started on Erin's redo first only because the idea for it seems to be falling together first (Erin has had some fun ideas for her room that I think are pretty cool. Yay for my creative 7 year old).

The first project for her room was getting the full size bed in and the twin bunk bed out. In order to get the full in she was going to need a headboard. I saw this on Pinterest (originally from here) and loved the idea. Now, I don't have any salvaged wood so I went new. Also, for the theme I working on in there I thought "grow" would be a good word to put on hers instead of "love".

I cut 5 1x6 boards (about $3.50 each) down to 54" and 2 1x3 to 48"

I stained the front and sides of the boards and used the 1x3 for legs. The square made sure I had it all at the correct angle. I left 20" at the bottom for the legs (the height of the mattress comes to 21 so it will overlap a tiny bit) and inset the legs a little so they weren't visible from the sides. I did add another piece of wood in the middle, that isn't pictured here, so the whole thing wouldn't tilt later (needed!).

I made stencils for the letters from printer paper, one sheet each for the r and the o and two sheets for the g and the w. The ruler was definitely my friend here but I free handed quite a bit. To make the o symetrical I folded it in half one way, traced against a window, and then folded the other way and traced that side. That way all 4 sides would be the same. I did the same for the top part of the g as well.

Then I traced the outline of the letters with a pencil. It was barely visible on the stain color, which is perfect so that if I missed painting over a few bits (and I did) then it wouldn't be noticeable.

And voila! One full size headboard for about $20 for lumber and stain (paint I already had left over).

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Life By Mom's Rules: A Survival Guide

2011-09-16T08:00:00.000-07:00

Click here for more tips from Life By Mom's Rules: A Survival Guide

You sometimes get exactly what you ask for.

When I was really little (around 1) my 3 older sisters informed my mother in no uncertain terms that they did not want rules anymore. They were tired of all the rules and it wasn't acceptable. My mother decided that if that was what they wanted then fine. NO rules.

My sisters had a great day doing whatever they wanted without being told what to do in any fashion. That night, as they started to get hungry, they came into the kitchen to see what was for dinner. But no one was there and dinner was not being cooked. Upon searching the other rooms they found my mother watching TV and asked her what was for dinner. She said, "I don't know. What are you making?". The girls were flabbergasted. This was their MOTHER. She HAD to make them dinner! Mom pointed out to them that they didn't want any rules so there weren't any. But if there were no rules for the girls then there weren't any for mom either and she didn't have to make them dinner. They were told to fend for themselves. After 2 days my sisters agreed that perhaps a *few* rules were ok.

The garage that scared me

2011-09-12T08:00:00.000-07:00

So I know I've been silent this week and I'm ready to show you why. I have been out in my garage making it into a place that can actually be used! What I'm about to show you was a garage in crisis. There were sections of the garage that you couldn't get to and you had to pick a very careful path to get anywhere. Sometimes the only way to get to the front of the garage from the back was to walk back into the house and out the front door because you couldn't actually go through it.

Here is roughly where we started (shamefully this is actually after we got some stuff out of there!).

The biggest problem was the areas we couldn't get to. Let me highlight a few issues here:

The back of the garage is SO bad that I don't think I need to describe the issues there. It is worth mentioning that the light back there is a single bulb just like the front of the garage so it was really DARK in the whole place when the door was shut.

My dining table still has the tools from building the pergola because after we dug them out of the garage we had no where to put them short of tossing them on the pile.

So what did we do out there? Well, to start with we added some pegboard by the door for the hand tools to both make them more accessible and make it faster to put them away after they are used in the house.

We primed the back walls and covered the old sayings that the previous person had painted back there and then added a ton of shelves. This was not expensive (about $150 including paint, lumber, screws and a few brackets). We left plenty of room around the water heater for when it needs to be replaced somewhere in the future.

We added two new shelves in the front to hold hand tools as we need those quite a bit and wanted them to be a quick grab.

We changed out the single bulbs for some bigger lights bought cheap at Home Depot and we finally got to start moving in to the new space on Saturday. Just look at that difference! The back isn't just a pile anymore but is fully useable!

My wood pile is organized and now accessible.

All of the tools finally have homes (wahoo!). There is still a box on the floor with all of the wrenches as we need more peg holders for them but we're working on that.

And we now have a dedicated shelf for my "in progress but not yet working on" projects (which also gives you a few guesses to some upcoming posts).

Anyway so that's what I've been up to. I've also started my next project which involves teal and zebra stripes. It's pretty bold, even for me, and I can't wait to get it done.

What did you do this weekend? Any fun projects or did you go somewhere and have a little fun?

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Fine Compliments

2011-09-03T08:00:00.000-07:00

Throughout my childhood my mother had a small metal sign hanging on the wall that said "All the fine compliments and all the good wishes will never replace help with the dishes". Looking at the empty space above the pantry door I've often thought something should go there and this week I thought of that saying and had to add it.

She had another sign in the same style that said "I'm the boss in this house and I have my wife's permission to say so" but I thought maybe Husband wouldn't like that one quite as much.

I did this one in a few evenings. I laid out chipboard letters, traced, and filled in with craft paint (two coats mostly). After a clear matte finish and a couple hooks I now have something in the empty space of the wall that reminds me of my childhood and my mother.

For the very observant you may notice a paint sample on the wall in the picture above. I decided to keep the green in the great room but the back wall of the kitchen (currently yellow) will be changing to this. It's a Walmart Colorplace color called Sesame which is NOT the same as Open Sesame in their colors. Sesame is a warmer color than Open Sesame and I've used it several times in my homes such as the nursery below. (more pictures of the Jungle room, and a castle bedroom, are in this post)

Lamps in Toyland: Completed

2011-08-31T08:00:00.000-07:00

Remember that toy lamp I was working on (inspired by this one on Pinterest)? Well it's all finished up now and in its spot in the front living room (which is mainly the kids' playroom).

Here is where we left off with it:

And our final lamp:

Remember, if you want to give this one a try there are instructions here.

The evolution of our game closet

2011-08-29T08:00:00.000-07:00

In our house we have so many board games that there is an entire (full) closet dedicated to them. But really I need that closet for blankets so they have to get out of there. I would have mutiny getting rid of any of them so another solution was in order.

Here is the game closet in all of its original glory (nice, right? haha).

And it got a whole lot worse before it got better...

Much worse... That box on the left has no less than the pieces of 5 different games in there all mixed up. Boo for having to sort.

But after a couple hours of work it now all fits nicely in the hutch. A few of the boxes now contain only the game boards (and which boards are where is labeled on the side of the boxes) and the pieces for the games are in labeled zip lock baggies in the drawer. The other game pieces are in jars on display (idea for that from here) in the top.

The kids really like the new solution, mostly because if they can see it they are more likely to remember it's there/play with it. I certainly like to encourage board games over the TV (which I let them watch too much of) so this will hopefully bring some nice changes.

I've added a few more items to the hutch, mostly my elephants and the ugliest cookie jar ever (and I love it SO much! There's a lot of history to that jar).

I still have a few more holes to fill in but this project is certainly starting to look like it actually belongs here. There are still 4 games that are not in this cabinet but I have other plans for those, hopefully to be wrapped up soon.

Any fun organizing projects going on at your house?

Lamps in Toyland

2011-08-25T09:54:00.000-07:00

The completed lamp is now here.

What can you make from a $2.99 Goodwill lamp and $8.56 in toys? Why not a lamp!? I saw this really cool lamp a few months back and filed it in my mind under "Wow!". Last night as I was walking around Goodwill I looked at a bag of random toys and thought maybe it was doable. I picked up 3 bags of miscellaneous toys and a cheap ugly lamp (that needed a good scrubbing) and then stopped on the way home for 4 bottles of super glue and a can of primer.

The glue I used is Loctite Super Glue Gel Control (4 bottles). I've never used it before but it was recommended by the guy at Home Depot for this project because it wasn't so runny. It was PERFECT! Not runny, didn't cover anywhere I didn't want it to, it's NOT stuck all over my hands and it filled a couple of small gaps to hold it all together nicely. (I do not get any product compensations or anything, I just really love the Gel Control glue they make)

To make assembly easier a few of my little plastic friends had to lose their tails (poor things) and several had to lose the little plastic bases that help them stand up. The snake got shortened as well. The rest of the pile here is pieces of my 59 cent dinosaur. I cut a big fat hole in the middle of him so he would fit around the lamp and stick out to the front and back. I figured that would give me a nice base to build on.

Here is the pre-primered structure of it.

This really isn't a hard project, just a little time consuming. I spent 3 or 4 hours last night chopping up pieces, trying out arrangements and gluing. To give you an idea, here is the order in which I did the big pieces. The big dino was first (with a hole cut to fit around the lamp) and glued really well. Then a couple toys on the sides (gray robot and orange dino) I wanted a few pieces to stick out so I had toy #4 (that gold robot) with flat feet on the big dino and glued his flexible hand to the lamp base like he was leaning out. Pirate filled in the front space and Wolverines stance was perfect for the other side, etc. Just keep trying and you'll find a toy that's the perfect fit (most of these took a while to place, hence the 3 or 4 hours of assembly). After you get all the big pieces on then you go back and fill in with the little ones to cover your holes up.

Another side shot:

After giving it a little while for the glue to fully set (it recommends at least 5 minutes) I took it out to the garage and hit it with the primer.

A few close ups:

Project Costs:
$2.99 Lamp
$8.56 Toys
$12.06 Super Glue (Walmart is about a dollar cheaper per bottle than Home Depot on this)
$3.77 Can of primer

$27.38 Total (I already have the top coat paint and sealer left over from another project. If you don't then add about $5.00 to the project total)

Tonight I will hit it with the spray paint and then it will need some dry brushing for a little dimension and a sealer. I'll post pics as soon as I can! (The completed lamp is now here.)

Dee Wright Observatory

2011-08-23T11:05:00.000-07:00

On the second day of camping my older sister and I took our kids out to the Dee Wright Observatory which is just a short drive from Sisters, Oregon. From there you can see two of the Three Sisters, Mt. Jefferson, Mt. Washington and several of the major buttes and landmarks. It was a beautiful clear day and perfect for the views.

The building was made from the lava rocks at the site and the "castle look" got the kids excited to play Save the Princess and other sword fighting games. They all had a good time playing here.

Up on the top there is a dial to tell you which direction to look for each sight, how far and how tall they are.

The view for the North and Middle Sisters is always my favorite.

In the lower room of the observatory it's also fun to check the patterns of the water stains on the ceiling. It's not exactly one of the attractions but I think it's very cool.

Sahalie Falls

2011-08-22T13:35:00.000-07:00

From Wednesday to Sunday the kids and I went camping in Oregon with my sisters and their families. On Thursday morning I took my kids down to Sahalie Falls and followed part of the trail down towards Koosah Falls (which we didn't quite make it to as the kids were wearing out).

This is beautiful Sahalie Falls from the viewpoint. There were several lovely rainbows when we got there in the morning.

This is from the viewpoint above the falls. This rainbow was actually a double but the second was faint and a little harder to catch.

From the waterfall we followed the lower trail towards Koosah Falls for a bit.

The boys LOVED this staircase and we spent a little extra time as they went up and down it. Erin stood with me and just watched as she was worried about falling off and into the river.

In a nice easy spot I freaked Erin out a bit when I went off the trail for a better picture and she was sure I'd fall in which would somehow make her fall in even though she stayed on the trail. I told her to look on the bright side: at least I wasn't standing in the river for the picture like my Dad used to when I was a kid. :)

Later in the week we took the kids out to the Dee Wright Observatory near Sisters, OR and then to Scout lake for a little swimming and hiking along the Metolious River and I'll have more pictures to come. I neglected to bring my camera to the lake but I do somewhere have a childhood picture from when my mom was about my age from that lake. I'll have to see if I can dig it up somewhere.

Craigslist Score Refinished

2011-08-15T10:05:00.000-07:00

It's almost done! I bought this baby a couple weeks ago and I've been chipping away at the project in between work, kids, camping, etc. All of one's time seems to disapear in the summer but it gets done eventually. It's still missing two doors that I'm finishing up in the garage and I still haven't decided if I'm going to stencil the back but otherwise it's looking good.

If you remember I started with this off of Craigslist. She was $60 and had a few scratches and dings and whatnot needing repairs and some paint. (Awesome quality Craigslist picture here).

I started sanding her down in the driveway the same weekend I brought her home (yes it's a girl). I could have tried to sand in the garage but as you can see that's a bit of a tight space in this picture with that never ending project list hiding in there.

For the hardware I gave it a good scrub and a few coats of ORB paint to match the ginormous light fixture in my living room (that I still have yet to post, shame on me). I didn't make a full tutorial on how I painted the cabinet (sand, prime, paint, poly) because there are lots of them (I like this one) so I hope you'll forgive me for that.

Finally my bowl has a home where it fits. I bought this at TJ Maxx a couple years ago because I thought it was just beautiful but the size and shape don't lend themselves to easy display and it's always stuffed into some akward spot where I hope the kids won't break it. When it's laid down as a bowl the bottom is really skinny and tips easy and to make matters worse it was, of course, holding my glass ball collection which gave me a heart attack anytime the kids messed with it. Now it can be pretty and safe behind a pair of doors. Whew!

I'm hoping I'll finish the doors tomorrow and hang them on Wed. night and then I can fill the cabinet in a bit with some of my pretties. What's your opinion on stenciling the back? If you did it do you have a favorite pattern or color you'd play with?

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Crayons in an Oven

2011-08-01T14:48:00.000-07:00

Young House Love had a great idea to use something we had pinned on Pinterest and actually do it. I am a Pinterest addict and have gotten a few things done but this is one of my favorites so far.

Inspired by Pinterest, I decided to try melting some crayons. According to Crayola the melting temp is somewhere around 135 Fahrenheit (give or take 10 degrees) but other sources have pointed out that different brands can vary slightly in melting times/temps.

The basic process I used is that I bought some foam core board ($2.40) and a box of 48 Crayola crayons ($2.37) and some "extra strong" Elmer's glue (new this year I guess and a little sturdier than regular Elmer's). For the large one I cut the foam board in half and then glued the crayons down along the top. The other half I later cut up into 3 pieces because the girls wanted to try it and we raided the crayon stash. One of theirs is also done with Crayola, 2 with an off brand.

I thought a hair dryer might not be hot enough so, not having a torch handy, I just went for the oven. On my counter I conveniently have 6 pots I have not planted yet and I figured they would probably be oven safe so I used them to prop up one end so the picture would be directional. Underneath at the bottom I also placed some tinfoil to catch drips (unless you hate the pan DO NOT skip this) and made sure it was curled a little so none would escape. I played with temperatures around 300 Fahrenheit (give or take 20 depending on which one I was doing). If you try this then when you take it out of the oven remember that, of course, it's all very hot and don't touch. The wax (even what is on the tinfoil) is still hot and in some cases still very liquid. So use extreme caution.

The not-Crayola brand definitely melted differently. It was less of a smooth melt and more solid blob like maybe the shells weren't as tight? In any case it was still good because it made each a little different from the next.

The crayons leave a darker mark around where they are from moisture/wax so next time I may have to try this on something like wood and see if I can lessen the appearance of that. Also, in all 4 cases, it was a very smooth melt and not as chunky/candlewax like as I would have hoped. So next time I may try for the torch. I think if I melt only at Crayon level (and not all over like the oven does) then I might be able to get a more drippy effect.

And here is what we ended up with this time around:

Have you been inspired by Pinterest to try a project? What are you working on?

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I scored on Craigslist

2011-07-29T08:34:00.001-07:00

Last night I scored on Craigslist. I know that sentence sounds bad but really it was a good thing. Who would sell a solid wood buffet/hutch for $60? It's beautiful and I have a new paint project. That's right, MORE PAINT. Aw, yeah! Luckily I just about have one of my other paint projects done and ready to leave the garage so I have space (hubby will appreciate that). This is the picture from the ad. I need to take a better one but last night it just got put down in the middle of the living room so I haven't gotten one yet.

I have to tell you I was so nervous I wouldn't get it. With a price like that (when all the others were $250+ and not as nice) I figured it would go pretty quick. I called 50 minutes after it was posted and I was already the 5th call BUT he said he was first come/first serve and I was the first to make arrangements. Booyah! (Can you tell I was excited? Haha!).

Anyway, so we made an appt. for 6 but then I was reading Mandi's blog and I got nervous that someone would offer more money because it was definitely worth more. Then the guy's wife got called to go into work and they share a car so it was almost off again. Luckily they said she could come a bit later and my father in law came to help me out. This was great because a)I needed his truck and b)I'm going to meet people I don't know at a storage unit and what if they are sinister people (turns out they were really great people and not crazy people luring me to a storage unit and I was psyching myself out for nothing (as usual) but we'll overlook the "I'm crazy" part). I owe my FIL big time for the help, too.

And now it's home and I'm in love. She's in really good shape, too. There are a few dings here and there to clean up and that's about it. Can't wait to start this one!

Oh, and what perfect timing, too. Mandi is doing a Look What I Found Friday right when I actually found something (normally I would find something 3 days from now when I can't play so the timing is nice). Anyway, go check her out because her blog is awesome and she has great style.

Have you found something fun lately? Anything (find or otherwise) have your stomach all tied up in knots right now?

Random moment: I just noticed that I don't have post tags for Paint or Furniture. That surprises me since I do a lot of both. Huh.

Random moment #2: Why is it that, even though I know how to spell definitely, I always spell it wrong anyway (definetely) and the spell checker has to point that out? Every. Single. Time.

Birthday Cake: Monster Trucks

2011-07-18T09:16:00.000-07:00

Boy, n.
1. Noise with dirt on it.

K2 had his 5th birthday this weekend. I almost made a construction cake but the Monster Trucks birthday cake won out.

This cake stuck to the pan (both layers, argh) and I ended up having to frost the whole thing back together. Luckily, it's supposed to look torn up and dirty so I didn't have to remake it.

I love really simple cakes. Vanilla cake (double recipe), chocolate frosting and crushed up Nilla wafers (with a little cocoa powder mixed in to darken it). I made two 9x13 cakes and one short (2 inch tall) loaf. I cut the corners from the loaf cake to make the ramps and used bamboo skewers to make the trucks stand up over them. I got into the older boys' car stash and picked a couple cars that looked really well beaten up for the "crushed cars" and washed everything real well (including the new ones).

First Day

2011-07-11T10:12:00.000-07:00

It's the first day of school again! This morning I delivered 3 balls of nerves to school. We went through and checked out their classrooms and met teachers. I think it helped the kids when the teachers told them that they are nervous, too. :)

And of course we had to let the silly get out too.

Hope you're having a good Monday!

Couch Recovered

2011-07-10T12:00:00.000-07:00

Last November we got a puppy and, in true puppy style, it ate my couch. Luna (puppy) tore the sides and back from the couch (all of it) and put a big hole in part of the cushion. It was still comfortable to sit on (the seating areas were mostly fine), just ugly. I thought I had a picture of the destruction but I am having trouble finding it. Just imagine something truly ghetto.

Anyway, the original couch was the dark green color you see below (with the southwest design on the backs of the pillows). It wasn't exactly my style but it was given to me for free and in good condition so I can't really complain about fabric. And then in stepped Luna, also known as Looney and Pain, who "remodeled" the couch. We tried to buy a premade slip cover but the store here only carried them for couches up to 97" (about 7 or 8 inches too short). We bought it anyway and made do for a while.

Then I discovered that it fit much better if I took the seating cushions out and put them on top of the cover instead. Except the cushions had been doggy chewed a bit themselves and I was back to a little ghetto (though less bad than it had been at least). I stopped in at the fabric store and found this pretty green in the clearance section for $3/yard and it's extra wide. I took the old covers off of the cushions and used those for the pattern. Following my little sister's advice I didn't make them too tight (the seams on her's busted from being too tight). So here's where I'm up to so far. The cushions are recovered (but still need a little bit of foam to fill in the holes on the right side, pretend you don't notice) and there are new pillows. Next I need to add some zippers to the back of the cushions and add that foam.

What projects are you working on at the moment?

Pergola Building

2011-07-09T13:32:00.000-07:00

When I first bought this house 3 years ago our backyard looked like this. Pretty, right? Over time we added a concrete patio and the grass and then it pretty much has stayed that way.

But I have been dying for a little shade because Nevada gets hot, hot, hot. Last weekend the pergola went up (when it was a fun 97 degrees outside. Ouch). We based it almost exactly on the one my parent built a few years ago with some of their "wish I had done it this way" thoughts added to the design.

Since 2x2 and 2x4 are about the same price we decided to just buy 2x4 and rip them in half to save some money. We don't have a table saw but luckily we know someone who was willing to let us use theirs for a bit.

We got a pretty good system down of taking the boards out of the car, running them through the table saw and putting them right back into the other side.

We decided to go ahead and prime and paint before assembly.

On Sunday I got to see the first side go up. Once we had all of the cuts done it was pretty quick work getting the frame together.

Then starting in Monday morning we got the slats on. Obviously I have some paint touch up to do and more clean up on the patio. I'm thinking some curtains would be nice for the end of it since after about 5:30 the sun gets low enough that the cover doesn't help as much. Our next step will be to build some benches and then see about some bushes and trees for the yard. Can't wait!

4th

2011-07-06T11:03:00.000-07:00

I hope everyone had a lovely weekend!

We spent the weekend working on backyard projects (hopefully to share really soon) and at the annual neighborhood BBQ for the 4th. Did you do something special this weekend? Did you go somewhere or stay close to home?

Making memories

2011-06-16T09:06:00.000-07:00

My front door patio is really plain. In fact, about the only things out there are a welcome sign and a bunch of bikes, scooters and skates. Over the next few weeks one of my new projects is remaking that space into something as interesting as I can for as little money as possible. Which means shopping home.

I started by making this very simple sign (that I found the quote for on Pinterest here)

Materials were:
- A board from the scrap pile
- Brown spray paint
- Clear spray poly
- Craft paint (white wicker)
- Stencil made on the Silhouette machine (I broke the computer cable last week (cry!) but figured out how to use the SD card)

Since I already had all of this it made the project FREE! (love that kind!)

After painting and before poly I sanded it off a little because it looked a little too perfect given the sentiment of the sign.

Fish Heads

2011-06-12T14:28:00.000-07:00

While I was weeding in the front ~~yard~~ rocks I saw this little rock hanging out and I thought it looked like a goldfish cracker. Or a smiling fish head anyway. But it must be hard for a fish to smile when it hasn't any body so...

I helped it out a bit. See? Looks kinda like a goldfish cracker.

So I suppose now he's got something to smile about. And on the plus side, this is a fish that won't end up belly up in my tank.

PS. Even after fimo clay cools, the rock is still really freakin' hot. So be careful on that. :)

Kid Project: Super Simple 3D Stars

2011-06-08T19:35:00.000-07:00

This weekend the kids and I played with craft punches a whole lot while I was working on the mantle decorations. One of the things I showed them was how to make 3D stars. I think this would be really fun to make a mobile with or to use decorative holiday paper and make 'em really big. I'm thinking something sparkly and white made from full size sheets (like 5 or 6 sides instead of just 3?) could be really pretty on a Christmas tree top, too. In this case, we found a really squirly branch while we were hiking and turned it into a mini-tree.

The materials are simple. Paper, scissors, thread, glue and an optional craft punch. Any shape will do as long as it's symmetrical.

Cut out your shapes and fold them in half.

Glue one half of the first two pieces together:

Put glue on the other halves and stick some thread in the middle for hanging:

Then cover with the third piece.

And that's it. I like this one because once the kids master the basic idea there are so many places they can take it from there, like making larger ones and punching smaller shapes out of it when it's done, putting pictures on the outside so you see new images as it turns, using more than 3 pages for more intricate designs, layering the paper, adding beads, etc. Have fun!

182 Stars

2011-06-06T21:16:00.000-07:00

I saw a really pretty image on Pinterest of white stars all sewn up in rows that I thought would be great for Christmas or 4th of July. I wasn't quite sure how I was going to put them up when I started punching the stars out but as I laid them out it just sort of turned into an American flag. Of course, for Christmas or other holidays you could do the same thing with random colors or all white for a very pretty display.

That is a whole lot of stars, 182 to be exact (49 Blue, 63 White and 70 Red). It's a really good workout for your arms if you're using a craft punch like I did.

This will give you an idea of how far apart I was spacing them. I stuck a piece of tape on the machine to give me an idea where to pull it to.

As I finished sewing each row I taped them onto the branch so that I could adjust them all at the same time when I finished.

They aren't at all straight but it gives it more character anyway.

And below is my new mantle for the 4th of July, including the Liberty raised paper art from yesterday and the white mantle I worked on last month. There's no tutorial for the star but I just hand drew it (and redrew and redrew) on a piece of plywood until I had what I liked and then cut it out. I can't decide if it should be painted, stained or left bare. What do you think?

Sharing at Thrifty Decor Chick and

Raised Paper Art

2011-06-05T23:49:00.000-07:00

I've been seeing quite a few images of art with raised wooden words and I'm really liking it (a couple favorites here and here). BUT, I didn't really want to spend a couple hundred on art and I don't like the idea of being limited in fonts to only what I could buy at the store in pre-cut letters. Then yesterday while I was working on another project it occurred to me that if my cuts are all exactly the same (like if I cut it out with a paper punch or with the Silhouette) then I could layer the papers for the same effect. Enter the test project:

Looks like the verdict is that it definitely works. I used 5 layers of watercolor paper for the letters and 9 layers of card stock for the center star, both to about the same height. So, for future simplicity, this project style will certainly be done with watercolor paper (less layers to glue together).

Simply cut out your text/image multiple times and use a trusty glue stick to put them together. Same effect as the wooden letters, at a much cheaper price, and now I have the start of my mantel finished for July 4th.

Sharing here:

How To: Cake and Cupcake Stand

2011-06-03T21:02:00.000-07:00

First off I LOVE pinterest. I was resisting because I didn't want to transfer my massive idea folder that I already have but now that I have started I just love it. I have part of my idea folder up there now and slowly I'll get the rest up. No more will I have to transfer my idea folder between computers and my backup hard drive as I can just reference it from anywhere and so can any friends who are interested. LOVE!!! Anyway, I mentioned to someone that I could give them the dimensions to make a cupcake tower and then I figured why not just blog it and then I can put more info up on it.

So, this is the cupcake/cake stand I made for my wedding last October. My friend Selena (behind the stand) made all of my cupcakes and my cake and she was wonderful. They turned out so nice! My niece Julia was quite the helper for her as was my niece Brianna (Julia's cousin).

This is what it looked like before I painted it. I put it all together in the garage to check the fit and see if anything needed to be trimmed up at all.

The support pieces are pretty simple. Mostly you cut out some rectangles and notch the centers. When you cut the center notch you cut it slightly wider than your wood (so that even after painting it will slide smoothly) for half the height of the board. As you can see in the picture below most of the supports are 5 inches tall so the notch is about 2.5 inches so it will fit nicely together.

My support pieces are 7 x 5, 11 x 5, 16 x 5, 20 x 2.5. Most pieces are cut from MDF except for the short support (2.5 inch tall). For that I just used a 1x3 I had in the garage in the scrap pile.

When you are ready to assemble the whole thing this is how the supports fit. They just make an X (or + depending on how you look at it) and then the circle is set on top.

Here is what it will look like all put together. The circles I cut are 10, 14, 18 and 21.5 inches. You could probably make a couple more layers (maybe 24 and 28 inches?) but my reception was fairly small so I stopped at 4. The reason I went with 10 inches for the smallest layer is so that a 8" or 9" cake fits nicely on top. After that it's just a matter of sizing for cupcakes so I allowed a little room on either side for the next layer and then went up a little for each of the next.

My edges aren't perfect (after I drew the circles with pencil I cut it out with a jigsaw) so I trimmed the edges with ribbon. If you are going to use ribbon instead of sanding more I recommend that the ribbon be the same width as your board thickness but I didn't think about it and by the time we started gluing it was the morning of the wedding and there wasn't time to go to the store, haha. So my ribbon is a bit too wide.

The nice thing about building it this way is that you don't have to use all of the layers:

The layers can be separated into multiple towers:

And you don't even have to center anything so you really have a lot of flexibility.

When storing you can stack it flat which is what I did for quite a while.

But later I decided that it was more convenient to use a pan rack (this one was picked up at Walmart) to make it easier to get to the layers I wanted. It also takes up less shelf space (slightly) this way.

And to finish it off, how about a couple more action shots:

Project shared at:

Before and After: Powder Bathroom

2011-06-02T08:47:00.000-07:00

Despite almost constant painting, there are 4 rooms in my home that have still been unpainted. The bathrooms. I've just never been itching to do them. I don't know why, maybe because I've never been inspired or possibly because there is just something about putting my face that close to a toilet, no matter how clean.

In any event, the paint bug bit again and I turned the bathroom into this:

From this (Sorry for the awkward pics but it is really hard to get pictures of a seriously tiny room. I actually took the door off of the hinges for most of these pictures):

Here's one more before shot. I still have no idea why the builder installed a full towel bar in a powder bathroom. Such overkill. The paint in here was truly awful before because, like the rest of the house originally did, it had flat builder paint. Builder paint being different than normal paint because they buy crap paint super cheap that the store who made it won't even sell to the general public. Seriously, the guy at the paint store that the builder paint came from actually sneered at the idea of selling it. This stuff is like chalk and just rubs right off the wall if you try to scrub at all. I can't tell you how well that works in a bathroom with 5 kids.

To set off the gray a little more I changed out the owls to a white felt background.

(Remember those?)

The paint color is Sherwin Williams Pewter Cast (though I had it mixed in Behr paint).

I really love how it brings out the colors in the floor. So much better than before.

And the white sink and toilet stand out, too, which I like. I'd still like to chuck the builder light fixture but for now it will do since leaving it made this redo super cheap. Like $35 dollars total cheap. Yay!

Punch Collages

2011-05-28T19:05:00.000-07:00

This week I saw this collage idea over at Ucreate with Kids (Tutorial and idea from bright eyes + blue eyes). It seemed like a great weekend project for the kids, especially with the rain today.

The kids started with their paintings last night after dinner.

With and without the brushes.

These are the pictures they created for their collages:

And Katelyn's finished work:

And Erin's:

All of the kids made something really beautiful and were so proud to hang it up. For a full tutorial (and a really cute video of the original artist) take a look at bright eyes + blue eyes. For reference, we used 12 x 12 canvases, I think her's is a little bigger.

Linking up at:

The Worst Trip I Ever Took

2011-05-16T14:27:00.000-07:00

What was your worst trip EVER?

For some reason this story popped into my head today and now, many years later, I can see how it's a little funny. A little. Do you have a trip like that? So bad at the time but later you can start to at least laugh about how bad?

I was living in Oregon and we made a trip to see extended family in Boise (about a 9 hour drive). I was pregnant and cranky and really would have rathered be home. My car had a loose belt and squealed something awful (we had tried the soap trick to shut it up but it never worked very well). I had tried to tighten it myself but it's really a 3-man job in that car and the shop wanted $150 just to do that and nothing else. They told me the worst that was going to happen if I left it the way it was is that it would sound bad. And it did. But sounds bad was cheaper so sounds bad it did.

On the way to Boise a deer hit my car (no, not the other way around). We had slowed down when we saw a few deer crossing the road and even stopped for them. When the one deer made no motions to cross the road to join his buddies we started driving slowly only for it to freak out and run into the front passenger side of my car. Since we were moving, the passenger mirror hit the deer in the head and gave it a good brain duster and left a LOT of deer hair all over the side of the car. We did stop, but the deer ran off and we just had to hope it was okay and continue on. About an hour later we realized it had popped the mirror off the holder but we decided not to go back for it. We figured we wouldn't be able to find the right spot in the dark anyway (it's a *really* long straight stretch and any guess as to the exact spot could be off by miles anyway). Down one mirror.

While we were there the car broke down and we had to take it to a shop whose owner turned out to be a liar and a ripoff artist who charged us hundreds more than he said he would for the job, money we couldn't afford. Unfortunately, we were a long way from home and really had no options but to pay the man so we could get our keys and go home after what was already an exhausting trip. Down a couple hundred $$$.

We got on the road and breathed a sigh of relief, happy to finally be headed home. On the way out of town I was going a little fast (about 80) and a deer jumped in front of my car (a theme?). Anyway, I stomped the brakes and we stopped just fine. Whew! We got going again and about a little while later the landscape opens up. The only thing to either side of the car for MILES is low grass and nothing else. You can see everything. So, I wasn't really worried about deer because you could see them coming in that area. So instead of the deer, the State Patrol got me. He said I really needed to keep it under 70 in case a deer jumped out in front of my car. I figured I probably shouldn't press my luck and tell him that I had stopped for the last one just fine when I was going faster and that the one that did hit me did it anyway when I was only going 15, so speed probably wasn't much of a factor. Anyway, I got a ticket. Down a couple hundred more $$$.

Then the storm clouds rolled in. What was a clear and dry road quickly turned to snow and ice and we crawled through it. That is until about 5 miles outside of Burns where we ran out of gas... In a construction zone... On a one-lane bridge... In a couple feet of snow in the dark. Did I mention it had gotten dark and was still snowing? Sigh... So my husband and his friend (wearing a thigh-high leg brace) got out and pushed us off the bridge and sort of off to the side (as much as the snow would allow) so that traffic, if it came by, wouldn't hit us.

At this point I should mention who was in the car. Me, pregnant. Husband, has developed a bad case of the flu on this trip. Husband's friend, wearing a thigh high leg brace. Husband's friend's girlfriend, whose English still needs practice and probably weighs about 100 pounds soaking wet. And one of us is going to need to go get gas because this was before any of us owned cell phones and not a soul was driving by. So husband decided he was going to have to do it since clearly the rest of us wouldn't do well at it and he left. Since we were still partly blocking the road he had us leave the headlights on so we wouldn't be a surprise in the dark if a car did happen to come along.

The nearest gas station was 2 miles ahead but had closed due to the late hour and he ended up having to go about 5 miles to get to the next gas station. The police passed him *3* times and, despite him trying to flag them down, did not stop to help. When he finally got to the gas station I almost couldn't believe him when he told me what he saw. The police car was parked in front of the gas station and they were sitting at a table inside having coffee and... eating donuts. OMG, the stereotype of all stereotypes. He thought about saying something but figured that instead of a ride back to the car he might get arrested if he opened his mouth so he got the gas and came on back. Probably not much of a surprise, his flu later turned into pneumonia.

So he gets back to the car and puts the gas in. We all get back in the car and get ready to go and... the car won't start. The lights had now been on for a couple hours with no charging and the battery had died. At this point we figured we should probably go wake a farmer up and ask for help. The one bright spot to this entire trip was a farmer who not only got out of bed very late one night to give us a jump but told us we should have asked him for the gas as would have given that to us as well. Thank you random farmer for being so kind to us that night.

Luckily, that ended the bad luck for that trip for the most part and we then made the last 5 or 6 hours without incident. How about you? What was the worst trip you ever had? Can you laugh about it now?

No Cost (but time) Wall Art

2011-05-14T17:46:00.000-07:00

I originally saw this phrase in a picture on Beth's blog (love her blog!) but I'm not sure where the original came from. Any ideas? If I google the phrase it gets a ton of hits from everywhere. Anyway, I loved it and during a few quiet moments yesterday (staining) and today (painting) I finished it right up.

I was really bummed that the second line came out a little crooked but my very sweet husband pointed out that since it is "we do second chances" it's a little poetic. So, yeah, I oopsed but I kinda like it that way.

Total cost for this project? $0

-The wood is scraps left over from building the boys' headboards (I didn't even cut them down for this, these are the size the scraps were already).
-The stain is left over from the coffee table I built last year.
-The piece screwed into the back to keep it square is scrap from the new dollhouse floors.
-Add a little paint from the craft box and a stencil from the Silhouette machine and done.

Once Upon A Dollhouse: Completed

2011-05-13T10:26:00.000-07:00

The severely beaten dollhouse of my childhood is finally safe for my own kids to play with!

The rest of the dollhouse story can be found at
Part I
Part II
How to do the stairs

One last glimpse of the derelict that she was:

A few little painted details add some fun to the house:

I had a lot of fun painting the playroom and added the flower to the floor on a whim.

A clock (made from a scrap piece of round cardboard we had lying around) adds to the wall and a chandelier hangs in the 2-story room. The railing is gorilla glued in place and hopefully can stand up to the kids.

I added a house number of 1972 for the original year it was built.

Finally she has been moved from the hiding place in the back of the garage into a new home to be played with in safety.

I added this post to:

Once upon a dollhouse Update

2011-05-09T13:40:00.000-07:00

Last week we started renovating the sad neglected dollhouse of my childhood. You can see the rest of the before pictures in this post but I have a couple refresher pictures here.

Cool but kinda gross, yeah?

Now all of the holes are filled in, there has been a lot of sanding, a little priming and now the first coats of paint are on.

Kinda hard to tape off the inside of a dollhouse from the outside. Isn't that mess of construction paper and painter's tape pretty?

The outside has the main paint color on now. I need to paint the patio and the ground and I'm not sure if I want to add something else out here. Mostly this side will be against a wall in my home so it won't be seen much but... Well, I guess we'll see what happens after I get the inside taken care of.

So, below is the basic layout of what I'm doing. I added a banister to a half floor in one room and started the paint job details in a couple other rooms. I need to fix the paint in the living room where the primer didn't take well but I have an idea to take care of it. In the meantime I've been having fun crafting chandeliers and miniature artwork for the house to personalize it. I hope the kids like it when it's done (and thankfully it's now safe). I also hope they value it a little more than I did so many years ago.

Tiny

2011-05-09T06:00:00.000-07:00

The most amazing things may also be the smallest.

Foolproof way to make a kid smile for the camera

2011-05-08T17:08:00.000-07:00

Have you tried saying "Cheese" and it doesn't work? They stare at you grumpily or give you that fake smile that looks like a grimace? Let me share with you a trick I learned from my mother. Tell them to NOT smile. Really.

It goes something like this (speak like you are serious but be smiling a little yourself):

Non-smiling child
"DON'T you smile!"
The child looks surprised
"I mean it!"
Small smile starts
"I see that! Wipe that smile off your face RIGHT NOW!!"
Big open grins and belly laughs
Keep talking as long as you are taking pictures, with variations on the theme. "Don't you dare" does wonders, too.

Since daddy has been doing a lot of business in Seattle he needed to demonstrate how far it is from Reno to Seattle.

Animal Ark Wildlife Sanctuary

2011-05-04T12:00:00.000-07:00

I have lived in Reno for 8 years-ish. When I first moved here I heard that there was a zoo and I took my kids out there. It was, um, well it was bad. The poor animals looked sad in little dinky squares with not much natural shade, plants etc. The kids didn't like it and we never went back. Not long after that I heard that there is also a wildlife sanctuary here but after my zoo experience I never went out there to have a look around. That was a mistake! We took all of the kids out to Animal Ark on Saturday and it was wonderful.

The viewing areas had a nice view of most of the animals and this big boy came right close up to see us.

The animals have nice big spaces to move around in, the big ones are rotated often so they aren't out all day and there is a lot of natural shade and interest in their homes.

We were there around the time that they were changing the bears around and the kids really enjoyed watching it. They placed fruits all around for Yogi (yes, the bear) to find and we were able to have the pleasure of watching it.

I tried to get a bears-eye view but Glenn caught me.

But after the bear was done I did round them all up for a silly face shot. Everyone tried something except I think K2 thought I told him to pick his nose...

And then they all ran away from me, haha. If you live in the Reno area and have thought about going to the Animal Ark I would certainly recommend it. We'll take the kids there again.

On Sunday we took the kids to my mom's house and just played around.

What did you do over the weekend?

Rainbow cake

2011-05-03T14:31:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure where I first saw the rainbow layer cake but I've now seen it on quite a few blogs. Of course I was dying to try it myself because I was sure the girls would flip for it. I didn't want to make a full six layer cake so I made 6 thinner layers (from a doubled cake recipe that would normally make 4 layers) and it worked very nicely. If you do the same just make sure you keep a close eye on them in the oven because thinner cakes won't need to bake as long.

And of course since it was rainbow on the inside we made some rainbows on the outside, too.

Can you tell in this picture that it is a tiny bit lopsided? Hmm, yeah. I tried to level them but unfortunately it got away from me a bit, hehe.

To continue the tradition of 2 dozen balloons on the kids' birthdays I filled K's bedroom and added a little something to her whiteboard, too.

Vintage Cameras and TtV

2011-05-02T23:25:00.000-07:00

Once upon a house...

2011-04-30T22:12:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time, a daddy built his girls a dollhouse. It was a very nice dollhouse, solidly built, with 8 rooms and a staircase. It had a front door and a garage door and a nice little patio. The house was lovingly painted in bright colors left over from building the real house.

The dollhouse was played with often and was very happy.

Years went by as the 3 girls grew. 2 more girls were added and all 5 of them had played with this house. The girls painted the house new colors. Some of the floors started to give way but were temporarily replaced with cardboard. They painted it again. And again. The garage door became stuck with layers of paint. The front door was lost and a replacement was stapled in place. Part of the roof came off, and only a hinge was left to remember where it had once been. It was painted again.

More years went by and all of the girls were grown and gone. The house was moved to a storage area and forgotten. For several years the rains came and often soaked things not well protected in storage and the wood of the house swelled with water. It remained there for some time, lonely and forgotten.

Then one day the daddy was cleaning some things from storage and recalled that there was this house on the back porch. He offered it to one of his girls, who snatched it right up.

She took the dollhouse home with fond memories of playtimes past. The poor waterlogged thing was in a very sorry state indeed. Not really knowing how to work with wood or do many things handy she asked the hardware store and they sold her some paint stripper and a scraper. The paint stripper was poured on and she got to work taking away the gum it made but the poor little house wasn't looking much better. All of the water had done a lot of damage and she felt overwhelmed trying to fix it.

So the poor little house went back into the garage and there it stayed again. For 13 years the girl took the house with her everytime she moved. And every time, the house was stuck in some corner of a garage and forgotten again.

The girls had girls of their own but instead of the old fixer upper their dolls recieved move-in ready houses. The dollhouse was again forgotten and sad.

And then, one day, after those 13 long years since someone tried to last fix the house, the girl realized that she now knew a little about how to work with wood and tools. She now had some knowledge of paint. And she pulled the poor little dollhouse out and gave it another go.

Today we began sanding and I think maybe she can be saved. A little sandpaper, a little wood filler and a lot of elbow grease will be needed. But I think we can do it.

Erin said she likes the paint job after the sanding and would like to keep it that way. I think we need to paint it again but that blue if kinda pretty...