Earring Makeover

Today is Valentine’s Day.  Do you have any awesome plans?

I do.  I’ve got a fun dinner with my guys planned.  I hope they like it.  Heart shaped personal pizzas, heart shaped carrot slices, heart shaped garlic parmesan breadsticks, red Jello, red punch, and a heart shaped chocolate layer cake.  Mmmm…I can hardly wait!

Since today is the day of love, I thought it would be fun to have my Valentine’s day nails, and dress in red, white and black today.  (I need to match my Valentine’s Day décor!) I whipped up a red ruffle scarf…Ash is right…it’s insanely easy and fun!

I also gave my favorite earrings a makeover.

That was also quick and easy.  About a year ago, I got these cute, fun earrings on sale for a dollar.  Score!

But, they tarnished after just a few months.  I guess that’s what happens when you buy such expensive jewelry!

I remembered that (a very, very long time ago) one of my friends did her science fair project on rust.  She found that nails that were coated in nail polish (he he he!) didn’t rust, and others did.

That’s what sparked my idea for this earring upcycle.

I decided to paint them red with nail polish…

…and I just LOVE how they turned out!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Bathroom Remodel. Again.

My husband and I are stupid.

I mean really, really stupid.

Why?!

Because we decided to remodel the upstairs bathroom the week before I had surgery.  We decided to do the ENTIRE thing in less than seven days.

Stupid.

But, we finished the bathroom really late the night before I went under the knife. 

Before I take you on a tour of our awesome new bathroom, I’ve got a story for you. 

Picture this.

It’s crazy late at night.  The Hubsters and I have been working like crazy to get the house clean, laundry caught up, and bathroom finished before I had surgery in the morning.  I walk down to the basement to put the last load of laundry in the dryer only to find the washer clear full of water.

I tried to turn it on.  Nothing.  I unplugged it and plugged it back in.  Again, nothing.  I kicked it, hit it, and even mentally gave it a good tongue lashing.  Nothing. 

It was dead.  Completely, utterly dead.

We bought the washer and dryer when our oldest was a new baby.  He’s eleven.  I do 11+ loads of laundry a week with all these little boys.  I guess it was just time to let go.

So, guess what The Hubsters and I did right before we spent thousands of dollars on surgery?

You guessed it!  We spent thousands of dollars on a new washer and dryer!

(…just pretend that’s what my laundry room looks like, and we’ll also pretend that the cute little puppy is mine too…)

Oh goodness.  I am so in love with them!  They hold so much laundry, and they’re so fast!  I’m doing half as many loads of laundry in just a fraction of the time!  Woot! 

Okay, so NOW we’ll move onto the bathroom overhaul:

This is what our bathroom looked like before:

It’s your typical 1980’s bathroom.

So, so pretty.  (blech…)

We took everything but the tub out and replaced it.

This was taken after I painted the top half of the walls.  I had a lot of paint left over, so I painted the hall, too. 

Ahhhh….that looks so.much.better.  This is how Monkey enjoyed our remodeling:

Poor baby.  Back to the bathroom.  When we ripped out the ugly medicine cabinet/mirror, we were left with a really big hole in the wall.  So, I left a message for my dear, sweet, hubby, and anyone else who happens to live in this house if we ever move.

It’s true.  I love that guy!  :)  I also love how he can tile a floor.

Very nice!

On the bottom half of the walls, we did that fake bead board with strips of Masonite and molding. 

The boards are glued onto the wall with liquid nails, and the screws held everything into place while it all dried.  We removed the tape and screws when it was dry, then filled the holes with putty and filled in the gaps with painter’s caulk.  This is what it looked like when we finished:

Oh, I love it!  We then replaced the toilet, vanity, and mirror.

There’s that good lookin’ fella!

…and that’s it. 

We now have two “new” bathrooms, and their combined total was less than $1500.00.  Yay!

(you can check out the other bathroom here if you want)

Our next big project will be replacing the fence in our yard.  So excited for that one!  ;)

(sense my sarcasm…)

Nursery Redo: Part 3

Who’s ready for the last installment of this nursery redo?

I am!

Who’s ready for their baby to sleep in a big boy bed?

I’m not!!

But he is, so we will proceed…and this is just a curtain refashion.  And he’s been sleeping in his bed for a while now, and I’m still not okay with it. 

Sadness.

Okay.  This is what Monkey’s curtains looked like:

Wow.  It’s hard to take pictures of a window.  Sorry.  So, as you can(not) see, the curtains are just plain and blue.

Now let’s look at Monkey’s crib skirt:

Are you pondering what I’m pondering?

Uh, I think so, Brain, but this time you wear the tutu.

My thoughts exactly.  We can spruce up the hum-drum curtains with the crib skirt!

I cut the edges off of the crib skirt and serged the edges.  Then I gathered them at the tops and sewed them to the top of the curtains. 

I took the two shorter sides of the crib skirt and folded/sewed them into tie backs for the curtains.

They’re even reversible!

So easy.

Wanna see how it all turned out?

Ta-Da!  I love the color that it added to the boring curtains.

This concluded Monkey’s nursery redo. 

Ready for a recap?

We went from this:

To this:

…and this:

The room décor stayed the same.  Monkey’s toy box now sits where the crib used to. 

Wanna know what I loved most about this bedroom redo?!

It didn’t cost a dime!

My favorite kind of project!  :)

Nursery Redo: Part 2

Are you ready to see how I turned Firecracker’s twin sized quilt into a queen sized one?  It was really, really easy.

I did this because the twin quilt already matched the nursery décor, and because I am a cheapskate.

This is what Monkey’s “guest bed” looked like before he moved into it.

Lovely, right?!  I am kidding.  Let’s flashback to what Firecracker’s quilt looked like:

 

See the blue edging on the queen sized quilt?  I cut that off and serged the raw edges.

Then I lined the blue edges up with the twin quilt and pinned them into place.

When everything was pinned, I sewed the ‘new’ edges onto the quilt.

That was it!  Easy Peasy!

You know that old saying, “Use it up, Wear it out.  Make it do, or do without”?  I live by that.  I serged the raw edges of the queen quilt and now it’s in with our camping gear.  Waste not, want not, right?!

Back to Monkey’s new bed…

…ssshhhhh…

…whispering…

He loves it!

Check back on Thursday to see the conclusion of the nursery redo!  I’ll show you how I refashioned Monkey’s curtains!

Nursery Redo: Part 1

Remember the post I wrote about dollar store nursery décor?

Well…sniff, sniff…Monkey has decided that he is above babyish things--such as sleeping in a crib.  Unfortunately, he wants to be like his big brothers.  Pssshhhttt…

Doesn’t he know that he’s still my baby?!

Sadness…

When The Hubsters and I redid our bedroom, we gave Monkey our old queen sized bed.  We didn’t see the point of throwing the bed out only to turn around and buy a twin sized bed.

Time for a flashback.  This is how the nursery looked before Firecracker moved out.

Firecracker moved out and we put our old bed where the twin sized bed is when we redid our bedroom.

The crib is supposed to convert to a full sized bed.  Monkey has a queen sized bed, so that wasn’t going to work.  I know.  Monkey is spoiled rotten. 

Anyway, I tweaked the full sized headboard to make a queen sized one for Monkey.

I took the headboard and the posts from the front side of the bed.  Hubby sawed the legs off of the headboard.

We took the headboard and the side posts and drilled them into the wall.  Like so:

 

Then we pushed the bed up against the headboard. 

Ta-Da!  We have a big boy bed!

Monkey’s bed isn’t on bed rails.  We didn’t want him to have a long way to fall if he fell off the bed.  So far, it hasn’t happened.  Rather than cover the box spring with a bed skirt, I just used a fitted sheet.

It stays in place and fit like a glove!  Perfect!

Check back on Tuesday to find out how I turned Firecracker’s twin sized quilt into a queen sized quilt.  See you then!

Summerize Your Winter Wardrobe

Last Thursday, I showed you how I turned one of Firecracker’s shirts into one for Monkey.  I also mentioned that Monkey has lots of hand-me-downs that are either too big or Winter clothes.

I’m a cheapskate and I didn’t want to waste these clothes and buy new ones for Monkey.  So, I just refashioned them into Summer clothes.  I did it all while he took a nap. and it didn’t cost me a dime!  Sweet!

I turned seven pairs of pants into shorts, but I just grabbed two for these pictures.

All I did was cut them off at the knees, serge the raw edges and hem them.  I did a tutorial on hemming.  Check it out here if you want to see it.  The thing I like best about these two pairs of shorts is that they are size 12 months.  Monkey is really skinny, and these shorts are a perfect fit for him.  When they were pants, they were way too short.

I’ve used this same method to turn some of my jeans into capris.  When I do this, I make the hem a bit longer and use matching thread so it looks better.  Like this:

You could also cuff them if you don’t have matching thread.  Just serge or zig-zag the raw edge, roll the pantleg where you want it and sew it into place along the side seams like I did here:

Okay.  That isn’t me.  I didn’t get a decent picture of my cuffed capris because I am wearing them and I don’t want to take them off for a picture.  So, I stole this one from the internet.

I took ten long sleeved shirts and turned them into short sleeved shirts.

This is just three of them.  See that one in the middle?  That was the long sleeved romper I refashioned in the basic hem tutorial.  That $1.00 shirt has definitely been used!  :)  Ha!  That green striped shirt is also used in that post!  Welp, now they’re both short sleeved.  This is how I did it:

Since I was in a hurry when I was refashioning Monkey’s wardrobe, I’ll show you what I did with one of my own shirts.  I got this bad boy off of the dollar rack.  Shocked?!  Me neither.

Start with a long sleeved shirt.

Measure the sleeve length with one of your own shirts.  Cut off the sleeve.

Serge around the raw edges, or leave it raw.  Knit doesn’t fray.  Measure the hem and pin it into place.  Set the stitch length longer so that the fabric will still stretch.  I set mine at 3.1.  Stitch around the sleeve. 

You can double stitch if you want.  I did, but it was just for looks. 

Steam press the seams like crazy, and you’re done!  The picture above is in  bad lighting, but trust me, it’s the same shirt.

That is how you Summerize your Winter Wardrobe!  :)