Husband DIY

 

I have been wanting to switch out our coffee table for a while now…with white sofa’s, a white coffee table was driving me crazy. So…we’ve seen all these cool ideas on pinterest on how to make a coffee table out of an old door. I love the rustic, natural, comfortable style we have flowing through our house, and I knew this would help to enhance that style even further. Only problem? I don’t use saws and I don’t make furniture. Enter husband. Sweet, sweet, husband – who does not consider himself a handy-man. But I just knew he had it in him. So I ever-so-kindly asked if he would attempt this project and he agreed! My brother gave us an old door, so this project cost us nothing. My man surprised me with his woodworking expertise and the table turned out amazing. I sanded it a bit (to try and keep splinters off of baby hands) and we left it as raw and un-touched as we could to keep the rustic feel. LOVE it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also hand-sketched the lettering of one of our favorite hymns which we now have hanging above our fireplace. What a sweet reminder…

 

Hutch Makeover

 

I finally tackled a project that I’ve been wanting to do for years now (yes, years!!). For some reason, the idea of this project haunted me…..sanding and painting a large piece of furniture was not my idea of fun. And then one Saturday morning I woke up and had this urge to do it and I am SO. GLAD. I. DID….

 

BEFORE”:

 

 

AFTER: with a coat of Martha Steward “Schoolhouse Slate” – amazing what a coat of paint plus primer will do!

 

 

 

 

And….because re-doing this hutch freed up space in our kitchen, I got to work on my sewing/office area and it is now newly re-organized too!

 

 

 

 

 

 

And, of course, my little helper!

 

Around the house…

 

I have finally completed some home decor projects since swapping our living room and dining room. I had been wanting to re-cover one of our chairs for a while, but it has been on the bottom of my list of priorities…seeing as caring for 4 little ones keeps me quite busy these days. I found a slew of fabrics I loved such as this one…

and this one…

and this one…

Well, you get the point! I just couldn’t justify paying $20 a yard and was so thankful when I happened upon an amazing deal at a local fabric shop in town. I’m really happy with the results…

 

 

 

 

Also, to feed my current bird addiction, I framed this authentic international coffee bean sack from a local coffee shop downtown.

 

I found this beautiful embroidered linen remnant fabric from the same shop that the other fabric came from for $4.99 and framed it as well…

 

and wipped up some new pillow covers in some beautiful neutrals…

 

covered another pillow with a $4.99 “rug”

 

 

 

and made this pillow cover inspired by a tutorial I saw on pinterest…

 

Love!

 

Swap

 

After having upwards of over 40 people in our home each week, my wonderful, aesthetically tuned husband went to work at devising a plan for seating more people. What he came up with? A swap of course. Our dining room is now our living room and vice versa. Although our “new” dining room is currently a work in progress(we would like to re-paint and are working on creatively filling some wall space),  we are please with the results…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fat Quarter Happiness

I love fat quarters. They are these adorable, in-expensive “little” wads of fabric that fit in your hand. I’ve always had a fascination for little things – and I think I especially like fat quarters because they don’t overwhelm me like 3 yards of fabric overwhelms me. I took a little trip the an adorable quilt shop a few blocks from our house and found some adorable Amy Butler fat quarters that I couldn’t pass up. And then my brain started going – wondering if I could come up with some dresses to make out of these nifty pieces of fabric. I went to work….and an hour later came up with 3 adorable “pillowcase” dresses (the latest thing  in children’s fashion it seems). And since these dresses are out of our budget at the boutiques (they often go for around $50 a piece), I happily discovered that for $15, I made 3 dresses! Not bad.  And since I don’t consider myself a skilled seamstress (remember?), this type of project is nice and simple, just the way I like it. So here’s what you can do with 2 fat quarters…

1. Make a cute little curtain

2. Or a nifty pillow case

3. Or an adorable little dress that turns into a cute top when your little one grows!

and…..take the leftover scraps and make a matching hair accessory.

Be careful, it’s slightly addicting…

 

SEW Fun!

Today for part of the day while pastor-husband held down the fort(thanks babe!) and even did homeschool stuff with the kids,  I packed up my new Singer sewing machine that my parents surprised me with for Christmas, to go to a very dear friend’s house to sew together. How fun! Suz and I have had many heart-to-hearts about how using the gifts God has given us and the loves He’s put within our hearts is a form of Worship. Worship doesn’t always look like the classic “sitting in the pew and singing songs” but rather, we worship God in the everyday of life and through the gifts He’s woven into our beings – to be a beautiful reflection of our Creator God. But that’s a whole other post…

I mainly enjoy posting things like this – such as sewing and the like, not to rant and rave about how creative I am (because I’m not an excellent seamstress anyway) but rather – so that my sweet little girls will one day have a glimpse into my life as to what it looked like to be a young wife and mom raising 3 little ones. I know they will appreciate it when they are moms one day – to see how it’s possible to still do things you love despite the business and even be thrifty in the process. I made 4 skirts total – 2 for the girls and 2 matching ones for their dolls – all for $10 which makes it even more fun!

And, I walked away from today feeling full – from a friendship that has blessed me in ways I could never put in adequate enough words. We laughed, we sewed, we ate warm, homemade pot-pie and spinach and strawberry salad (incredible Suzy!), we laughed some more, sewed some more and chatted about our not-so-perfect walks with the Lord, and walked away full – from a sweet friendship and fellowship all while doing something we loved that also brought glory to the Lord. There is such beauty in living and communing along side oneanother as women in this journey of life. And we’ve already got our February sewing date scheduled and put on the calendar. It couldn’t come sooner!

 

This and that

It takes me a while these days to get projects done. I’ve got list of gifts I’m working on and it’s therapeutic for me when I get to sit down with my projects but this season in life doesn’t offer as much time any more. I’m slowly plugging away though and here are a few things I’ve been working on…

I took this bib that I found for a couple of dollars (b/c the applique on it is adorable!)

And turned it into these dresses for the girls…

Remember the story behind these dresses? These green ones have been sitting in my craft closet for a year and I finally figured out a way to put them to use.

And finally (for you Sara), here is the bunk-bed tent I’ve been working on forever. This is one of the Christmas gifts I’ve been working on for the girls. I snuck in their room during the nights while they were sleeping  to measure and snap some pictures of the completed project!

The inside of the tent (curtains can be let down)

Notice the little kitty on the left side of the tree (for Jada, she loves kitties!)

A mailbox I embroidered with a flap that opens and really holds mail!

The tent folds into this little pouch I made

Complete with laminated photo on the front so the girl’s have a picture of what’s inside

And here’s a darling little spider made out of a mini pumpkin that the girl’s painted and created

People pay way too much for these rosette necklaces, I made mine for free with materials I already had

And I took some older shirts that were a bit too big and re-furbished them with some chic ruffle action (also a FREE project!)

Last, I happened upon these adorable little dolls attached to a cheap fleece blanket at the Dollar store and snatched up a few of them knowing I could cut them off and make them into super-cute appliqués. Here’s what I came up with for Ellie Bellie…

I found the purple top/dress at w-mart for $3 and already had the cute leggings. So the entire outfit was made for a whopping $4.00!

 

Schedule. Schedule.

…is what’s been on my mind these days. Monday – our life is about to change. I’m assuming the new title, “Kindergarten teacher” and we will officially start Ashtyn’s kindergarten year. That said, there needs to be routine around this place – especially with a busy 3 year old and a crawling baby in the mix! So…I went to work and put many long day’s worth of thinking, praying, planning and consulting with Kevin to come up with the new Figgin’s family schedule. Just call me “Super Nanny.” So…here it is. Actually, it’s nothing really fancy because, afterall, I’m trying to keep things simple right?

Routine does wonders for my sanity and the general disposition of the girls and the overall mood of our family. The beauty of routine (along with flexibility of course) sets us all up for success and helps create good character and life skills in our children. I’m currently working on/searching for a good chore chart as well. More to come with that later. For our schedule, I used a magnetic whiteboard (thanks mimi!) and printed off pictures and clipart from the computer, glued it to some scrapbook paper and then to some thick pieces of cardboard and hot-glued some magnets to the back. I also created a “mommy’s helper” magnet with a slit in it for either Ashtyn or Jada’s name where I will rotate their names every-other day and they will take turns being my helper (helping me make lunch, work on a special project etc.). Each picture symbolizes a part of the schedule for the day. After going over it once with the girls, they had it memorized. They are SO excited about this, it’s too cute! After we get going and test it out, some things might need to change…but so far it looks like it will work out pretty good. In case you are interested, our tentative schedule goes as follows:

7:30- wakeup and quiet time(I’m putting “quiet-time” boxes in their beds that have picture bibles, a journal for coloring and a picture of friends/missionaries for them to pray for)

8:00- dressed(I pre-pick their outfits for the week and put them in an organizer), chores

8:15- breakfast, brush teeth

8:45-9:30- room time (they play in separate rooms with toys, Ellie included-in her crib)

9:30-11:00- Ashtyn school

11:00-11:30-one on one time with Jada doing pre-school activities

11:30-12:00pm- girls play outside while I make lunches

12-12:30- lunch and cleanup

12:30-2:00- Flex time (errands, park, free play etc.)

2:00-3:00-rest time (in their beds with books and quiet activities)

3:00-4:00-snack and table time (playdough, puzzles, crafts etc.)

4:00-5:00- movie or free play

5:00ish-5:30ish- depending on when Kevin gets home, “Daddy time” (Kevin plays with the girls while I get dinner ready)

5:30-6:30- dinner and family worship

7/7:30pm- bed

 

The old becomes new

Don’t you just love when something old can become something new? I do. And I’ve been having a lot of fun over the past weeks using my creative energy to take what I have around the house and try and turn it into something NEW…

Scrabble Pendant necklaces – you can find the instructions to this project on our “project wishlist” on the sidebar. I plan on using these for Christmas gifts this year and rather than sticking to only the necklace, I decided to try some pendant earrings and they turned out really cute too…

(disregard the un-matching earrings and raggy t-shirt! )

Chick Applique and Ruffle Capris- I’ve fallen in love with this chick print that I traced from some paintings in Ellie’s nursery and I had an old target dress that I cut up and decided to create something out of. For the capri’s, I took an old pair of Ashtyn’s jeans that were too short and trimmed them and added a ruffle to the bottom with my sewing machine for an adorable capri-style pant. Voila! Instant boutique-style cuteness for not even a penny!

Roll-Up Kitchen Playmat- Finally, I completed this project for a friend who generously offered to sew me some dresses for my girls. It turned out so cute- I embroidered some words on the sink and the stove switches to add some more cuteness and I think I’m going to work on a couple of felt fruits/veggies to go along with it. Again, I used scraps of fabric that I already had in my stash…

Krinkle Taggie Toys

With Ellie’s love of plastic and wrappers and the like – I took some scrap fabric and pieces of ribbon and a left-over pretzel bag and went to town at an adorable little taggie square (pretzel bag inside of the fabric!) She loves the krinkle sound and loves to suck on the tags as well. I made some more out of an old pair of jeans and some other fabric for Ellie’s little boy buddies and purposefully left them crooked for a more fun and playful look – afterall, who wants everything stream-line in life, right?

 

Kitchen Makeover

Our sunshine yellow kitchen used to be cool, but it’s been driving me crazy lately. I saw a picture of a yellow kitchen in some home decor magazine and tried to copy it. Loved it at first, but it got old real quick. There are just some days when I just don’t feel yellow, ya know? And although this one is pretty sweet, our yellow paint peeling cabinets were calling for some change.   So we decided to tone it down a bit and it fits perfectly with our cottage-style home.  So here you have it, our very own makeover addition Figgin’s style.  I hope to add some fun punches of orange to it soon.  But thanks to my amazing man who gave up a whole evening to help me paint, we fell in love with the pretty incredible results…

BEFORE

AFTER

A mirror I made using spraypaint, fabric and of course, hot glue