4th of July Wreath

Summer is finally here!! 

I say that because I teach first graders and our school year is FINALLY over.  We went until June 11th which is abnormally long for Missouri!

So now that summer has come around I have a lot of projects in the works. Here is one I just completed:

Ray's family celebrates the 4th of July bigger than they celebrate any other holiday, including Christmas! All of the family comes over.  We swim in the pool, eat great food, and shoot off lots and lots and LOTS of fireworks! 

I made a wreath similar to this for one of my friends a month or so ago and I thought it would look cool in a red, white, and blue pattern. So I headed to the store.

Things you will need for this project:

a foam wreath

tulle rolls

a wood letter

acrylic paint/ spray paint

a hot glue gun

For the first wreath I made I got the foam piece at Michael's and it was around $9.  I got the second foam wreath at Walmart for $5.  Same wreath! 

The rolls of tulle are cheapest at Hobby Lobby if you go when they're on sale (which is like every other week!) 

So first you need to cut strips of tulle.  I lay mine out on the table.  They're about 12-14 inches long. You need to cut a lot of these.  I used a little more than a roll of white tulle for this one wreath. 

Next you start tying the tulle to the wreath one piece at a time.  This is a normal double knot.  Just like the first step I teach my kiddos when they're learning to tie their shoes.  I hold the wreath in between my knees so I can get the knots facing out. 

For this particular wreath I did a pattern- 5 white, 5 blue or 5 white, 5 red. Since the blue tulle was sparkly and a MESS, I did it all at once. (I would not recommend buying the sparkly tulle.  Once you get it tied on you have more glitter on yourself than the tulle!) Since I did all the blue at once I had to squeeze the white in so I used a piece of tulle to tie back the blue. 

Once all the tulle was tied on I painted the letter.  Ray's family name is Sales so I chose the letter S.  I sprayed it with grey paint that I had in the garage.  Then I hand painted the stars with acrylic paint.  When it was all done I sprayed it with glow in the dark paint just because its fun!

Last step is to find where you want the letter and put two big drops of hot glue to secure it to the wreath. 

And there you have it!

Here is the wreath I made for my friend a while back using the same process:

*Sorry it is sideways, not sure why that is.

On this wreath I also added a giant purple flower! 

I hope you have fun making your wreaths!! :D

Built-In, Custom Shoe Racks

When I had finally convinced Ray to let me create my dream closet room, I decided that I would take the original closet of the room for my shoes. (Yes I can fill an entire closet full of shoes!)

HomeDepot has pre-finished closet shelves in many sizes. This is what I used to create my shoe racks. This way I didn't have to finish them.

First I measured the width of my closet.  The top board would go the entire width of my closet.  

I knew I wanted a side for my boots so I took my tallest pair of boots and measured them.  This is how I got the shelf height for the right side of the shelves.  

I then measured the height of my tallest heels.  This is how I got the shelf height of the left size of the shelves.  

Once I got the wood, I first cut the top long board.  Then I cut the middle board that would support the top shelf and the other shelves would attach to it also.  

Now these shelves are really nice looking but once you screw into the small edges of them, they tend to split.  So instead of screwing into the edges I created a ledge for the shelves to rest on.  I used some leftover plywood that I had lying around. You can see these pieces in the picture below.

Once I had the top and middle pieces in and the plywood pieces attached, I cut the remaining shelves and just slid them in.  Here's what the finished project looks like. 

I added a shoe rack that I already had from target on the top left side and filled it in with shoes.  There almost wasn't enough room! But now my shoes are all organized and easily visible! 

Check out my other blog post to see the entire finished closet room here.

Crafty Origins

Lots of my friends think that I have to be the crafty one in my family, but that is not the case.  My grandma is the Craft Queen.  I spent all of my summers (and any other times I could) with my Grandma Sandy.  By the age of three I figured out how to sneak the phone away from my parents and hit speed dial number two to call Grandma.  

Her main hobby is sewing and quilting but she has many other talents.  She built and restored dolls, she created ceramics, and she painted.  We were always doing something crafty when I was with her. She taught me how to sew when I was two.  Grandma Sandy sat me on her lap.  She would run the foot pedal and I would guide the fabric. I made my first quilt when I was seven.  I never really got into the quilting side of things.  I was way too impatient to hand quilt, and this was way before she got the machine quilter! 

My mom always says that the crafty gene skips a generation just like the green thumb gene.  My great grandma was not very crafty but could grow anything.  So is my mom. My grandma and I can hardly keep any plants alive (especially me) but we're super crafty. 

So since my Grandma Sandy is the one who has inspired all of my crafty-ness I wanted to recognize her!

These are pictures of a quilt she recently made for my dad.  As she was making this quilt, my Pappoo (grandpa) decided he needed one too. So she actually cranked out two of these babies!

This is a quilt tribute to Route 66.  

Each panel is HAND EMBROIDERED!! Again, I'm so not patient enough to do this!   

Every time she completes a quilt I am amazed! She makes them like they're no big deal.  I asked her to make a quilt for a silent auction at my school.  She had the top of it done within two days and had it quilted within a week! I swear she has more hours in her day than the rest of us!

She also made the quilt for my bedroom.

These are just two of the many quilts she has created.  There are hundreds more where these came from!

So thank you, Grandma, for my crafty gene and teaching me everything you know! 

I love you!

This is my mom, me, my Grandma Sandy, and my great grandma.

Here we are with my daddy and my Pappoo. 

Bench Sneak Peek

Hey guys! 

This is a little sneak peek.

Ray and I went garage sale-ing yesterday and actually didn't find anything! We didn't even find one garage sale! But on the way to the grocery store I happened to peek into the thrift store window and saw this little beauty! 

After talking the lady out of selling me the entire bedroom set I walked away with this headboard for $10!  Soon it will be on its way to becoming an awesome patio bench! Stay tuned for the how to!

The Evolution of the Closet

The closet...
For many women the most important room in the house.
A closet can sell a house.
A closet can be the basis of many arguments between a man and a woman.
A closet can be a stressful disorganized mess.

OR

A closet can be a place of peace, organization, and convenience...
If it takes up an entire room!

When Ray and I moved into a house together I gave up my 10 foot long closet at my parents house.  It was glorious.  It had customized shelves and four doors.  It had no trouble holding all of my clothes and shoes.
Our new house's closets are not that glorious. But it does have four bedrooms! So I thought, why not create a CLOSET ROOM!

It started by one trip to Home Depot to buy a 6 foot closet rod and hangers. I mounted this on one of the long walls.

In the actual closet of the room I added some shoe racks from target.  All of my shoes didn't fit so I attached a hanging shoe rack to the end of the closet rod.

On a small wall I mounted a mirror and framed it by two small shelves.  This is where I keep my make up and hair products.  This way I don't have to take up the bathroom in the morning. 

(This is the real reason I won over Ray with the closet room idea.)

I also had to add our guest bed in this room since we were doing some construction in one of the other bedrooms.  This room went through a couple more changes.  I eventually moved the bed into another room and replaced it with a pull out couch.  Then I decided to move then entire closet room to another room.  

Ray loves how much I re arrange our house... NOT!

The house we live in was Ray's Grandma's house.  In her elder years she was un able to go to the basement to do her laundry.  Ray's dad moved laundry hook ups upstairs into one of the bedrooms.  At first I thought this was odd and didn't like the hook ups in the middle of our wall but then one day it hit me...

WASHER AND DRYER IN THE CLOSET ROOM!

I have awesome parents and grandparents and they were able to get us a new washer and dryer for Christmas.  While waiting for the appliances to arrive I went to work on moving! 

After relocating the 6 foot closet rod and adding an additional 3 foot rod below I decided I didn't like that all of the furniture was mis matched. So I grabbed some purple spray paint and went to work. I also added a new armoire. See how I made it here.

I created a custom shoe rack for the closet to hold all of my shoes.  Check out the How-To here!

Here is the finished result: 

I also made a little spot for my cat, Muca. 

Entertainment Center to Armoire

Recently my parents were getting rid of their old entertainment center and I was in need of another dresser for my closet room. Since I am a big fan of FREE I worked on figuring out a way it could work.  

Here is the before picture of the very 90s entertainment center:

First I took off the doors and all of the hardware, except the rollers for the drawers because they were on the inside and I didn't plan on painting the inside. Then I lightly sanded all of the places I planned on painting. 

Next I went to town with some purple spray paint.  I used about 6 cans! 

I would suggest not to put your face too close to small spaces where you're shooting compressed air into. I definitely got a face full of purple paint! 

Here's what it looks like after paint!

I then found some cool chevron plastic tubs at WalMart to add to the pull out shelves.  I decided I liked the open look of the door so I didn't cover it with anything.  

On the side I mounted one of my mirrors with hooks for my hats and some hooks for belts. 

In the end, I was very pleased with the transformation.  It holds as much, or more than a normal size dresser and it keeps small things (like socks and undies) separated better than big dresser drawers! 

The best part? I only bought spray paint and plastic drawers! 

DVD Shelves

So the entertainment center still didn't have enough room for all of our DVDs.  For the past year or so they were piled high on a cheap-o WalMart shelf. After redoing the living room they really stuck out like a sore thumb.

So one Sunday Craft Day I decided to do something about it!

I swung by Home Depot and grabbed some 1x6 common board. 

First I cut it in 2 foot sections.  I also cut 6 inch sections then cut them diagonally to create triangles.  These will be the sides of the shelves.

To assemble one shelf I used one 2 foot section and two 6 inch triangles.

Here are a couple of tricks I use when using a drill.

1. I pre screw everything! It is so much easier to put two screws in something flat and then I don't have to worry about holding screws when I am attaching two pieces. 

2. I brace pieces up against the edge of my tool bench. I don't have a ton of strength behind a drill and I am not coordinated at all!  In this picture you can see how I brace the triangle piece in between the wall and the shelf. 

Below you can see how I put the shelf together.  I wanted to put the triangle sides on the shelf so the DVDs would not fall off. 

Now I could have stopped here... but I didn't.  I wanted to add a decorative trim piece on the front of the shelf.  I found these in the trim section by the crown molding.  I cut these in 2 foot sections and used Gorilla Wood Glue to attach them to the front of the shelves. 

Then I put an extra piece of wood that I had to hold the trim pieces down while the glue dried. 

Last but not least, a coat of blue paint. This is the same paint I used on the inside of the entertainment center. 

Here is the final product! 

Here is a close up of the super cute trim piece. 

And here is the before and after shot. You can see how much nicer the shelves look!