Ikea Curtains: Upcycled

I'm currently working on decorating my guest bedroom. I decided to go with a yellow & gray color combo and I LOVE the way it is turning out! I painted the walls gray but when it came to window treatments I had a bit of a dilemma.  I knew yellow curtains would be too much so I thought white would look good.  But when I put them on the walls it just looked too blah.  Enter my awesome mother.  We picked up some cheap white curtains from Ikea (love the ones with grommets!) and some yellow & gray fabric from Joanns. 

(Since I have a phobia of sewing machines my mom did all the work on these!)  She cut the curtains, inserted a panel of fabric, and sewed it all together.

 

Don't they look fabulous?!  I am so happy with how they turned out.  It gives just the right pop of color in the room without being overbearing.  Stay tuned later this week when I show you the finished room.  I have a few finishing touches to do and then it will be all ready for our guests to arrive in a couple weeks! :)

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We Believe Board

I've wanted to do something like this in our home for a while now -- a place to display some of the scripture stories we've been learning about as a family.  So I found a scrap piece of wood in the garage that was the size I was looking for.  I spray painted it black and then used sandpaper to rough up the edges a little.

I found these jumbo clips at Walmart and thought they were perfect.  I tried gluing them on with a hot glue gun but for some reason they didn't hold.  So I used Gorilla glue instead and that worked perfectly.

I hung up the board and used my Cricut to cut the words "We Believe" in black vinyl and applied it to the wall.  Then I printed up some scripture stories and Articles of Faith cards from Simply Fresh Designs (which are sadly not available any more!).  Now each morning after we read our scriptures the story goes on the clip to help us remember.  And whenever we read a story from The Friend magazine we put that up there as well.  I'm hoping that as we see this every day it will remind us of our faith and our desire to learn more about our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.

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Christmas Pillows

I wanted to make some cute Christmas pillows this year. I have seen them in stores, but they can be expensive, so I thought that I would give it a try for myself. It makes it even better that it did not cost me a thing to make these since I already had the supplies.  I used scrap red, white and green fabric that Buff had.


Using the scrap white fabric we made a pillow (Buff did the sewing), then we stuffed it with batting.

 

For the "ho ho ho" I cut the letters out of foam craft sheets and then glued them onto the pillow.

After the letters were glued on, I felt like the pillow was missing something. I had a scrap piece of the white fabric and began to mess with it and came up with a flower. Then I hand sewed the flower to keep its shape and then glued it onto the pillow. Then I glued a button onto the middle of the flower and it was complete!

It was a cute and easy project to do. I now have a ton of ideas floating around in my head for more pillows to make, so there will be more to come! 

-chelz 

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Cricut Cards

I recently got the Create a Critter cartridge for my Cricut and I had so much fun using it to make some cute and easy birthday cards.  I used my Cuttlebug to emboss the backgrounds, added some ribbon, and cut out the critters and attached them with foam tape to give them some dimension.

I think the cute little owl is my favorite. :)

"What I Wore Wednesday" The Pleated Poppy Blog

Ok since we are new to the blogging world, we have been checking out blogs that we like and came across this one. Lindsey does a post called What I wore Wednsday (WIWW) and you can link up to them and post an outfit and get great ideas from other girls that post up. She is super cute! Thanks Lindsey!

Morning & After School Routines

In an effort to be more streamlined in the mornings, I created these "Morning Routine" charts for my kids.  I wanted to keep them short and simple so the kids could do them without any direction.  After breakfast I just have to tell them to go do their checklist and off they go.  So far it's worked wonderfully!  You can download a copy HERE. 

 Along those same lines, I got tired of having to tell my daughter every day to put up her backpack and other things after school.  So I printed up this After School Routine, laminated it, and hung it up right by her backpack hook.  Now she gets everything done without me having to nag her.  :)

Product Review: Bath Stickers

Bath time around our house is crazy.  The twins splash and scream and giggle and get everything in the vicinity soaked. It's like Sea World -- if you're sitting in the first 3 rows you will get drenched!  We've tried a few bath toys to keep them occupied and calm, but squirt toys tend to get mildewy and cups and stuff are apparently only good for filling with water and dumping on the floor, and other toys they play with once and then they lose their novelty.

So when a friend of mine mentioned these Rub a Dub Stickers for the Tub: Beep Beep! from Amazon, I ordered them and gave them to the boys for their 2nd birthday last week.  I can't even tell you how much I LOVE them!  We got two sets -- the Rub a Dub Stickers for the Tub: Beep Beep! and the Stickers for the Tub [Farm Friends] .  The cars is probably a better value as there are more pieces but they are both great.  The stickers are foam and stick to the walls of the bath or just float on the water and they come in a mesh bag with suction cups for easy clean up.  There are plenty of pieces so the boys don't fight over them and it keeps them entertained in the bath for a long time and they haven't gotten bored with them yet.  No more splashing and jumping and screaming around here!

G*rated rates this product: A+