Glider chair revamp

Another project I ( well we... My mother helped) took on, was recovering the glider chair. I purchased fabric online at fabric.com. I found it in the clearance section and ordered 3 yards, for a total of $20.94! This covered the chair and the ottoman and we even have a bit leftover. There are tutorials all over the net on how to do it, but we basically traced all the actual cushions for a pattern.

We then simply placed the new pieces over the old, rather than ripping the whole thing apart. The only spot this posed a problem was the arms because they needed to clip back on the chair and placing the fabric overtop made the, a bit shorter. They took a bit of fiddling to get them back together.

On the ottoman, we made a cover almost like a fitted sheet for a bed. It can be removed and washed if need be. Also, we didn't need to rip it apart and use the staple gun.

It looks like a whole new chair now that it's done! And for less than $25.

 

 

Owl mobile

While putting together the new nursery I wanted to reuse as much as possible from little dude's nursery. I hated the idea of throwing anything out, but I also wanted something "new" for our new little guy. Always seems unfair that the second child (like myself) gets so many hand-me-downs. When I was going through all the baby stuff I found the old crib mobile and wanted to spruce it up.

Before, it looked something like this...

I really did not like it. I looked on etsy for some inspiration and really fell in love with all the felt mobiles. And honestly, they looked simple, but were so expensive... So as usual I decided I could do it myself. I went and purchased felt sheets (really cheap at dollar store or even michaels with a coupon) and embroidery thread. Otherwise, I just used old buttons, pillow stuffing and scrap fabric. For tools, I needed sewing scissors, embroidery needles and a hot glue gun.

I made a paper pattern for my owls. I had one for the main body, one for the stomach and one for the eyes. I used them as a template for each owl. I used felt for everything but the stomach circle, there I just used scrap fabric. After all the pieces were cut out I glued the stomach and eyes to the main body. I then added the detail to the back, the buttons and embroidery. I then stitched the front and back of the owl together, leaving about a 1 cm opening for the stuffing. Using a pencil to push the stuffing in tight and then finished sewing it closed. I then did the same for the stars and moon. I used the embroidery thread to hang it all from the mobile. I also took a long peice of scrap fabric to cover the long plastic bit. Just sewed the two edges together, flipped it inside out and slipped it on.

I love the way it turned out. It is however missing the moon now... Not strong enough for a 3 year old to hang off of...

 

When marshmallows die and go to heaven...

I have recently discovered the greatest (and maybe easiest) project Ever!! Homemade marshmallows! I had no idea this was possible. Actually, I had always assumed that marshmallows were chemical filled pillows; granted yummy pillows, but still filled with chemicals. I found a recipe on Pinterest and decided to try it out. Here's the link to the recipe.

It calls for "light corn syrup"which I couldn't find, until a little googling taught me that it means light in colour, not light as in sugar content. I could only find golden corn syrup, so that I what I used. I flavored mine with vanilla. I attempted to make ghosts, but, they didn't look great. I made some that I cut into squares, which turned out great. I have been using them in my hot chocolate all week...

I also tried making some in silicone ice cube molds. I have little heart molds from ikea that I used. I greased them well and put a generous layer of powdered sugar/corn starch mixture on them. I filled a ziplock bag with the marshmallow fluff, cut the corner and filled the mold almost full. When I first tried taking them out I was concerned, they were a bit stuck, however,when I flipped the mold inside out, I realized they stayed intact, even if I needed to pull them a bit.

I then got creative and decided to coat them in chocolate. I just melted chocolate chips and added a bit of crisco to make it runnier and smoother. I attempted to just dip them, but they got messy and didn't look uniform. After a bit of pondering, I cleaned the silicone molds, dried them well and put some chocolate in the bottom of each on. Just about a 1/4 full. I then took the marshmallows and pressed them back into the molds, into the chocolate. This worked great. I tired putting them in the fridge, but the chocolate cracked when I tried to pop them out again. So, I put them in the freezer for 20 min or so. Then they popped out great.

I took mini cupcake liners and dipped them in a tiny bit of food color, mixed with water. Let them dry. And this is what I ended up with...

I think that they could make a great Christmas present for friends. I am going to keep trying and see what different combinations I can find and better ways for the chocolate. In the meantime, I encourage everyone to take an hour (including prep and clean up) to try making your own marshmallows. They're way better than Any store bought ones and are sure to impress everyone!!

 

Summer Centerpeices

For my little Dude's birthday I wanted to make some centerpeices for the tables outside. My initial thought was simple vases with spring flowers. But, I thought maybe something a bit more kid friendly was in order. Little Dude had gotten a tiny pinwheel from my inlaws (who live overseas) in their last care package and he loves it. They look simple enough to make, so I googled a few ideas. It turns out, it is pretty much as easy as I had thought.

I have a ton of scrapbooking paper with pretty designs that I have had for years, so I decided that this would be a perfect use for it. Other than that I used chopsticks (save the wooden ones you get when you order chinese food) and a thumb tack. I used the directions here.... Well, actually, it was the day before Little Dude's party, so Hubby put them together for me!

One they were together, I took the jars that I had made (check them out here), filled them with a bit of sand from the sandbox and stuck the pinwheels in. Any jar would work though, or even a bucket from the sandbox or a glass.

They were a cute addition to the party, and everyone had fun playing with them afterwards.

Summer Sun Jars

Summer is coming and I'm ready to be outside. I saw these mason jar solar lights on etsy almost a year ago and have wanted to try making it myself. I read on different blogs about tinting the jars with a product called Mod Podge. I have been waiting to try this out and finally found the time. This is the right time, not only because I wrote my last exam of the semester this afternoon(!!!), but the solar garden lights were on sale at Canadian Tire for a dollar each. I found outdoor Mod Podge at Michaels and I already had a bunch of jars that I have been saving.

The first method I tried was The Hand me Down House blog. It was really easy, added food colour and painted it on. The solar lights I found the light part just screwed off. It had the light sticking out the bottom, so Hubby drilled a little hole and I just set them inside.

I added a bit of texture and they look really nice. Unfortunately, Canadian weather came, it snowed a day or so later after this. I am not sure why, but the colour came off a bunch. I don't if it was not completley dry or if it doesn't withstand our weather well.

With a little more garden research I found another method here This included pouring it inside and baking it in the oven on very low for a bit. I didn't let mine drip out and got a bit of a puddle on the bottom. I think it looks pretty cool though.



The darkest one just had thicker Mod Podge. I think this will work, being protected from our crazy weather. I didn't have 3 identical jars, so I just randomly picked a few from the cupboard. I think it looks better this way.

It glows Blue!! I have them sitting outside on my table as a centerpeice now, but they would look cool randomly around your garden or as a path to your house in the front!

Overall, I recycled the jars (FREE), bought garden lights for $1 each on sale and bought a jar of Mod Podge ($7) and used about a third. They were also super easy and quick.

Can't wait to do more summer crafts!!!

Inspired By Buttons

At Christmas time my family draws names. I have 5 siblings and 3 of us are now married, so buying presents for everyone would be a big expense. Or in my case, everyone would probably get handmade gift certificates for 1 free hug. The thing is I love finding the perfect present for everyone or choosing a theme and collecting a bunch of little stuff. This year I drew my little sis and my husband drew my big sis. So, in essence, I got both of my sisters. They are very different, but they both bought property recently. So, I was scouring etsy for the perfect idea. I narrowed it down to some sort of household item pretty quickly and then I found these pillows...

Etsy: withLovebyApril

I thought they were so cute, but expensive. We have a 50$ budget and with that I would only be able to get them one each. Therefore, I decided to make them myself. It should be easy... I mean how hard could it be to sew a few buttons on a pillow?! I bought a few plain pillow covers from Ikea for like $9 and the actual cushions for about $6 each. I looked other places, but I couldn't find ones with strong enough covers that could hold all of the buttons, so I splurged at Ikea. Anyways, my younger sister got 2 and older got 3. (No, I am not playing favourites, my younger sister got another little present too!)

I bought buttons from ebay. I looked at button lots and bought a few lots of blues and teals. Most were vintage but I bought one lot of new ones that I liked the colours of. I bought about 250 buttons and spent probably $12. And I did use all the buttons.

On a side note... I love the way buttons look. I have no idea why, but they totally inspire me.

For my first pillow I took a pencil and drew on the letter. This wasn't the greatest idea because erasing it turned out to be pretty difficult. For the next ones I just put dots on to show me the corner of the letters. That was much more successful and easy to follow. I then sewed on every button individually, using embroidary thread. It took a bit of practice but got much easier as I went along. My little sister got an A and a Star. My older sister got a L, a heart and a N. I can not sew by hand and it took me a long time. I worked on it for weeks...every evening sewing a few on. I do have really bad eyesight, so threading the needle was a pain.

Here are how mine turned out....

Overall I spent for each pillow
$9 - for cover
$4 - for cushion
$2.5 - for buttons (on average)
$15.5 per pillow!!

It was much cheaper.... but, if I consider what my time is worth... not too sure.

Overall, I think they are pretty cool, and it came from the heart and a few weeks before Christmas my great-grandma passed away (she was 101!!). I asked my mom for a few buttons from some of her clothes. So, I sewed a few on each of the pillows for my sisters. You can see them on the corners of the pillow with the star. Now they have even a bit more meaning for everyone.