Recovered Infant Seat

Mar 20, 2012 by Lindsay

When Andrew was born we had a brand new car seat, stroller, crib, changing pad, you get the idea. First baby = nice new baby gear. All three boys have used all the same gear and while it washes well it has gotten lots of use! I thought about the possibility of a new infant seat for this baby but it just didn’t seem practical when ours is still perfectly safe, just a little tired looking. So I found the idea on Pinterest to recover the seat and I am so happy with the way it turned out. I followed these instructions almost exactly with a few minor adjustments for my particular seat.

Here is the best picture I could find for a “before” shot. That’s Andrew at just 2 days old!

I started by dissecting the entire carseat, I took apart every section at the seam with a seam ripper. I made sure to take pictures of the pieces as I took them apart so I would know which pieces went where when I put it all back together!

read more

DIY Wall Art

Nov 4, 2011 by Lindsay

So as I mentioned Wednesday I just completed what I think might be my favorite DIY project to date! I got the idea and instructions from this tutorial on The Lettered Cottage. While I was in Ohio Spencer built the frame and placed the slats for me.

When I got home I stained it (I ended up using just the stain, gloves and cheapo paintbrush pictured, it applied just the right amount of stain on the first application, so just disregard the foam brush and rags.)

read more

Boys Initial Art

Nov 2, 2011 by Lindsay

So for awhile the wall above Joshua’s bed has looked like this

Boooring.

Then I added some picture frames and filled them with burlap. But it was still missing something. While I was in Ohio last week I picked up some cardboard letters, A, J & Z for the boys’ names.

I painted them with the same paint I used on the number pillows.

read more

Yellow Dresser Make-ova!

Jul 27, 2011 by Lindsay

A few months ago I posted a pic of this yellow dresser I found at Goodwill

I wasn’t sure what to do with it at first, but I finally decided to try and spray paint it. First I filled in the holes and outline of the previous trim with wood filler and then gave it a good all-over sanding. Then I picked up some Metallic Bronze by Valspar from Lowe’s, put on Spencer’s flip flops and got to work.

(I tend to do a lot of dirty work in my husband’s shoes, am I the only one that does that!?!?!)

After three coats of spray paint, three coats of Minwax Polycrylic, new hardware and freshly lined drawers here is the finished product!

Centsational Girl just posted about a nightstand re-do HERE where she chose to use spray paint followed by a coat of polycrylic to get rid of any difference in finish because of using spray paint. As you can see, mine is still a little splotchy, maybe I need to use glossy instead of satin polycrylic?

(I thought about not sharing some of these photos because you can see that the dresser is in fact, not perfect. But what would be the point of that? To make you think that everything I do turns out just the way I want? Ha! I think it’s good to realize that while it is fun and way more affordable to buy old furniture and update it, you are still working with…old furniture. Plus, at the end of the day, I am still quite new to this whole DIY thing, and I have a lot to learn! Don’t get discouraged if you try something and it’s not perfect, just be glad you tried and chalk it up to a learning experience! Some of you probably also noticed that you can still see the outline from the previous decorative trim on the top two drawers, that no matter how well I filled and sanded it, just did not want to blend with the rest of the drawer. Well, I do hope to fix that, I just don’t know exactly how yet! I just need Centsational Girl to come to my house and help me with that…I might be waiting awhile!)

For now my bronze dresser is living in the nursery, but I’m not sure if it will be there long, I think I have a tad too much long furniture going on in that room and since I CAN’T get rid of the crib, and WON’T get rid of the bed, the dresser might have to go live at someone else’s house soon! But that’s the beauty of re-doing old furniture, you buy it cheap, put a little bit of money into and don’t have to feel guilty changing it (which is great news for people like myself who don’t like to commit to furniture!) One day I will stumble on just the right tall dresser for this room and…and daybed frame too!

read more

Painted Number Pillows

Jun 23, 2011 by Lindsay

I came home from Ohio with a renewed passion to decorate and complete some projects. I had been focusing on the nursery, but I decided to switch gears to the big boys room. I think that pillows and little accents do a lot to add to a room, plus I had been wanting to do something to pull out the orange stripe in the boys’ bedding, so that’s where my inspiration started.

This project cost me next to nothing because I already had old couch pillows and canvas drop cloth (left over from a previous project) so the only thing I had to purchase was my craft paint.

I started by making a super simple fold-over cover for my pillow. Measure your pillow and make sure that there is enough fabric to overlap in the back, then just sew along the top and bottom edges. Turn your cover right side out.

Print out whatever logo, letter, number, graphic that you want and cut it out.

Trace it onto your pillow.

Start painting the outline then fill it in. (I used plain old acrylic paint because my fabric was thick and I couldn’t find the color I wanted in the fabric paint.) Wait patiently while they dry. I was ok with the imperfect look of the paint line, I was going for a natural look, but if you are super particular you might want to use a smaller brush and take your time

Then stuff yer’ pillow in.

And enjoy your el cheapo decor….at least until it gets thrown on the floor at bedtime! And for those of you who are wondering if there is any reason I made 4 pillows it’s because we have 4 beds, no other reason than that

read more

Keychain Wristlet & Mother’s day gifts!

May 10, 2011 by Lindsay

Does you have a hard time keeping track of your keys, wallet, cell phone and/or sunglasses? I do, and I like to blame it on the fact that I am usually toting three kids too!

My sister-in-law carries a wallet like this one from Vera Bradley. I received one for Christmas last year and I will never carry another wallet! I love the wrist strap and the way it zips open and you can just stuff all your money and receipts in it and sort through it when you get home.

Then when I stumbled across this tutorial for a wristlet keychain I got pretty excited! No more digging for keys in the bottom of the diaper bag!

I made a few today and I can’t wait to use them. They can even hang right next to my diaper bag on a hook! Now I just need to find a fashionable way to strap my cell phone and sunglasses to myself and I’ll be set

Do you spy some of my Mother’s day gifts in the background there?

At preschool my boys do the most adorable crafts. Their teachers use their hand, finger and footprints to make all sort of things and I love that! Andrew’s teacher made my handprints when I dropped him off one morning and put his on top of mine with a little poem about being hand and hand….so precious to me! But I have to admit that Joshua’s teacher gave me my favorite gift this year….

Isn’t that precious?! She photographed all the kids individually, printed out the pictures and framed them for all the mommy’s! I was extra surprised when I found out that she printed out extra of Joshua for me because she got such a good close-up….

Melt my heart! I can honestly say that this is my favorite picture ever taken of him. His personality is so wild but sweet at the same time and this picture just captures my sweet boy so well!

I used to not understand why my mom loved the “artwork” that we used to bring home to her, pictures, poems and so on…..but now I do!

read more