Fall Headband

Today was a blustery yucky rainy early fall day so it was perfect for a quick sewing project. Actually, I started this a few days ago, but I had to put it on hold because my sewing machine was giving me fits, but I got to finish it today.
I absolutely love the headband craze right now! I thought I would have fun and make one out of some scraps I have laying around. I cut a strip 4.5” wide by 21.25” long.

I actually decided to add a little length to it so I had to make a little 2” tab at the end, but it actually worked out okay because it worked great with the button.

I folded it in half long ways, right sides together and sewed it together.

Turned it back right side out

Closed the open end by folding the raw edged under and sewed it down with a top stitch.

Picked out a button from my button stash and hand stitched it on. Don’t you love the creamy pearl with this fabric? I do! Also, can you see the “tab” I talked about? worked out okay to me! I love it when mistakes turn out for the better

This is where I had to stop. This should have been an hour long project but my buttonhole foot would NOT make a buttonhole!! I eventually gave up and made one by hand with a zig-zag stitch. it’s not perfect, but it works.

Now, for the fabric flowers. I decided to do a ruffled flower out of some scrap satin fabric that I had and some rosette style out of some red to pull out the red in the headband fabric. Here’s a close up:

I decided a didn’t like just one big flower so I made a second one that is slightly smaller. The satin fabric frays really bad, but I don’t seem to mind it much.

I sewed them on and viola! it’s done! Honestly, I can’t decide if I like it. I mean, I like the headband by its self but I don’t know if I am brave enough to wear it. I tend to shy away from “big” or “loud” fashion but hopefully I will get brave and wear it one day this fall.

P.S. I HATE taking pictures of myself but I needed to show it on my head. excuse the cheesy pics!!

My Little Yellow Table

This is another piece of furniture I got out of Jeff’s grandma’s house recently. It is currently being used as an end table in the guest room and needed some TLC. It needed to be sanded down and either restained or painted. Since I have always wanted to do some stenciling on furniture, I thought this would be a great piece to try it out on. Let’s just say, that I had a few “oops” with this project (I seem to have lots of those lol) but I think it turned out ok in the end. Here it is as I got it:

I sanded it down and spray painted the whole thing a soft yellow. The same color as these pots.

Ok, so here was the fun part! I laid out a stencil that I found a the craft store and taped it down, got out some white paint and a roller and went to town. I thought it worked great until I pulled the stencil up and realized that the white paint bled all under the stencil so it looked HORRIBLE!! I was not happy! Since I had used spray paint it’s not like I could just go touch up the smears. ugh!!!!!

 

Turns out you should read the instructions first! ha! I should have sprayed the whole back of the stencil with repositionable spray adhesive first to make sure every square centimeter is tightly up against the surface. Now, I know for next time I stencil a table! ha

After I cooled down and the paint dried I dug through my cabinets and realized I had a quart of yellow paint I had used several weeks ago on some other stuff. It matched pretty darn closely and you couldn’t even tell where I touched up from the original spray!! SCORE!!!

It took about 2 hours of tedious work and I was about cross eyed by the end, but I was able to get the lines all straight.

Thanks to Home Goods, I was able to do this whole project with accessories for just about 50 bucks! Works for me!! I think the yellow looks great next to the soft grey/purple walls, and the ash wood lamp with linen shade and textured frame with baby picture complete the set!

Old McDonald’s Farm

This is a local place near us that I have been dying to take the girls to as soon as we had a day of decent weather. Finally, we have had a relief from the miserable heat and humidity. It has been WONDERFUL!! Of Course, I didn’t get as many pictures as I wanted (trying to chase babies and juggle bags, and feed animals, sometimes pictures just don’t happen) but here’s a few of my favorite. I am so thankful to have family close by to come to these things with me
Train ride:

Feeding the peacocks:

Deer:

This baby goat (supposedly) was born that morning:

Whenever I feel ugly and awkward, I just need to pull out this picture:

Chickens and other farm animals:

The most exciting animals were the pigeons! lol:

Playgrounds (Norah is definitely my brave child!):

Planting some flowers

Sometimes some of the simplest tasks are great jobs for the kiddos to take part in.
My parents had a ton of ceramic pots that they were getting rid of so I grabbed a few that I thought would have some potential for a project or two.

So, I took the girls to Lowes and we picked out some flowers that we could plant and put on our breakfast table. I was originally thinking about doing seeds for a vegetable but I think I will leave that for one of the larger pots. Here’s the 3 we chose to paint:

and the flowers that Avery picked out:

I wasn’t too crazy about the pink but since they had some solid white I was ok with it. (I really didn’t care what she picked because honestly, I don’t have much of a green thumb so we may be replanting soon ha!)

We picked this yellow which actually turned out really pretty!

Once they had 2 coats of paint and 2 coats of polycrylic (I put a clear coat since I could already tell that the paint would chip really easily), I needed to seal the hole at the bottom. I did not have the plates for the bottom so I will just have to water a little at a time.

I first put some duck tape on the bottom.

Then I went to look for some caulk in the garage but found plumber’s putty instead. I think it will work just fine.

I plugged the hole then tested it with a little water and there wasn’t a leak so it seems to be a success!

Now, it was time to plant the flowers. Avery actually loved getting dirty…. for a few minutes. Then insisted that we wash hands and clean up our mess! haha she is such a girl!

Here they are on the table! I think it turned out pretty nice!

Such a simple little project can be so much fun!…. for toddlers, too!

Now, if I can just get the curtains made!!! It would really make everything come together!