Your friend, Spray Paint.

So, this blog will be somewhat short and sweet! I just wanted to do a quick blog about the beauty of Spray Paint! I think we often see things at Thrift Stores and think to ourselves, “I like that, but not in that color, and it would be a pain to paint.” and we forget HOW SIMPLE SPRAY PAINT IS! So, I just wanted to show you a few things that I’ve done to remind you that spray paint is simple, easy, and relatively cheap!

This first “Simple Spray Paint Upgrade” was crazy cheap! The two picture frames were .45¢ each and the sconces were .75¢ each from my local Salvation Army Thrift Store. HOWEVER, they were super chincy, the off white looked dated and cheap, but I KNEW they had potential! Two layers of metallic gold paint later and they look like this! The picture frames will soon hold ultrasound photos of my little one 🙂

“Simple Spray Paint Upgrade” number two was just as simple as number one! I was given these drawer pulls for my dresser (For Free!) they are a beautiful French Provincial style, but they didn’t look good AT ALL with the dresser. The dresser is pure white and grey, and these pulls were a kind of strange off-white color that just looked completely off with the dresser. SO, just like the above project, I sprayed those puppies gold (since it’s the accent color in my nursery, anyways!) and now they look awesome!

AND on top of the fact that I spray painted the drawer pulls, I also spray painted these drawers grey! The whole dresser used to be white, and I wanted to throw in some grey to make it match my crib, which I ALSO SPRAY PAINTED! So, if you’re keeping up, that’s now number 3 & 4 for “Simple Spray Paint Upgrades.”

I could probably go on for a really long time, but y’all probably wouldn’t actually appreciate that. So I’ll leave you with these simple thoughts:

1. Spray Paint is your friend.
2. If you see something that you’re not in love with the color, remember that changing it is relatively simple.
3. Don’t ever let a color get you down!
4. Spray Paint isn’t just for color, it’s for texture and style too! So don’t forget that you can make something look like stone or metal!

Are Your Boots a Slouchy Mess?

Ya’ll. I have a LOT of boots. I moved to Illinois right before this winter started and boots are kind of a necessity in the Midwest (even though it’s been a mild winter.) So I acquired quite a few pairs this season (thanks to my awesome Sister-in-law who found me a bunch of really nice ones at some consignment stores in Georgia!!)

However, my boots were all slouchy. And I don’t mean “I got these super cute slouch boots” I mean, my boots were slouching when I wasn’t wearing them because I didn’t have boot shapers. I know I’ve read that you can cut a pool noodle down and use that to keep your boots standing, HOWEVER, newsflash –No one in the Midwest carries pool noodles in January and February (nor did I want to pay for any.)

So, when you buy new boots, but there are no pool noodles, what do you do? Buy the fancy boot shapers? (Which, my local Target has to the tune of like $20.00!) They have a variety of them on Amazon from $6-$30, however, then you add shipping and in general, Why spend money if you don’t have to?? So, this is my solution!

Do you use canned goods? Do you have fabric? Do you have a hot glue gun and hot glue? Then you are SET for this DIY!

So, here we go. You’ll need four cans, the cans that are the standard size are best (The big Progresso soup cans are too big, and a lot of the smaller “Cream of” soups are too small depending on the brand. So I used four of the standard size cans that had veggies in them.

You’ll start with your can, and put hot glue around the ridge of the can so you can stack the second can on top of the first one. I originally used Krazy glue, but when I made a second set, I realized that hot glue was easier. When you’re done with this step you’ll have two stacks of two cans each. These are your Boot Shapers. But they’re obviously not very “pretty.” They’re just silver cans.

This is where the fabric comes in. I had an old plaid skirt that was in my fabric drawer that I decided to use for this. I cut the fabric so that it was about an inch longer than the two cans, and wide enough to wrap around the cans with a little extra fabric.Put a line of hot glue across the length of your cans and set the cans on the fabric. Glue your fabric to your cans line by line so you can make sure the fabric is smooth and well attached to the cans. Once you’ve got your entire cans covered, use glue to attach folded over fabric to the inside of the top of the can. And fold carefully to attach the extra fabric to the bottom of the can.

Once you’ve finished this step, you’re done! Put those puppies inside your boots and you’ve got boots that can stand proud!

I’ve made two sets so far! But I only need one more can and I can make set three. But I’ve got pictures of my first two sets for now!

So, what do you think? Did you try it? Do you have another easy way to keep your boots standing that doesn’t require you to spend money? I’d love to hear about it in the comments section!

Let’s get Floral

Here’s a SUPER simple DIY for anyone wanting to add a little touch of floral into their daughter’s room/nursery, or even your own room! This would probably look super cute above your vanity or if you have a giant room for a closet! I was making mine for Violet’s nursery!

Here’s what you need:
-Wooden letter
-Silk Flowers
-Hot Glue Gun/Hot Glue
-Paint (If you want it.)

I got this “V” at Hobby Lobby for $3.99. It’s just a simple particle board V. They had larger ones but they (obviously) get more expensive the larger you get, and I was gonna cover it to make it cute anyway, so I didn’t really care that it was just particle board.

I looked at the silk flowers at Hobby Lobby but holy wow they were pricey. I could not even FATHOM spending the amount that I would have needed to spend to get all the flowers I wanted. They were anywhere from a $1.99 a stem (with literally only one flower on it) to $10.99 (with still only ONE flower on it.) So I quickly abandoned that idea and went to the Dollar Tree. For about ten bucks I bought a ton of silk flowers (and I actually bought wayyyy too many and had tons left. I’ve been using the extra flowers to make little baby headbands!)

Basically, this is the easiest DIY ever. Plug in your glue gun, grab your flowers and get to gluing! Whatever pattern you like! Could be completely random, could be ombre, let your creativity run wild! (One note: You WILL want to trim your flowers so that they are easier to glue down. If you leave little chunks of the stems they wont adhere easily.)

I was originally going to cover the entire “V” in flowers, but I realized after I started, that the V that I bought didn’t really have enough definition to it to cover it completely. the flowers would have just been too close together. So, I stopped using flowers about halfway up and decided to paint it white. After I painted it white, I added gold glitter for just a touch of sparkle.

I picked up a gold frame at a local thrift store for $7.00 and when I hung the V up, I hung the gold frame around it.

I typically do not spend $7.00 on a frame (that’s just too rich for my  blood) HOWEVER, it was the exact size I needed, the exact shape I wanted, and I’d looked at one at Hobby Lobby (that I would have still had to paint) and it was $40.00. I could never do $40. Ever. So, $7.00 seemed much more doable 🙂

So, there you have it! Easy as pie!

Bridesmaids dress…no, Pillow.

Have you ever had a dress/sweater/shirt that you liked, but you couldn’t wear anymore? That was the case for this DIY. My brother got married in December and I was a “Groomsmaid.” (Basically a bridesmaid, but on my brother’s side of the attendants.) And I had to buy a dress for the wedding. Well, since I’m pregnant, I knew I wasn’t gonna be able to wear this dress again, and I couldn’t imagine spending money on something I’d only wear once. SO, what does a thrifty person do when they can only wear a dress once and that dress just happens to be the color that you’re using in your nursery? You make an accent pillow for your nursery!

I dug around in my fabric drawer to find an accent fabric for my pillow since I didn’t want to make a simple grey pillow. I wanted something else with it. I’ve seen lots of pillows that have designs on the front out of a second fabric with exposed stitching, so I decided to make something like that.

I started by cutting out “Flower Petals” for my floral design. I just free-handed the shape. So they weren’t at all perfect, but I kind of liked that. I cut the dress in half, and set the top aside. Once I had the skirt prepped to become a pillow I pinned my first petal to the skirt so that I could start sewing. Once you’ve got one petal on you can start sewing others on. Again, it might look a little messy, but I kind of liked that it wasn’t perfect. It just seemed a little more realistic.

Once I had all my petals attached, I wanted to add something in the center for the center of the flower. I cut a circle out of a pink fabric that I had scraps of in my spare fabric. Once I cut the first circle, I continued to cut circles out of it until it got smaller and smaller until I had a sort of swirled circle for the center.

So, once this part was done, I’d actually finished the “hard part” of the pillow. Now I needed to actually make it look like a pillow rather than an unfinished skirt with a flower on it!

Turn your skirt inside out and pin it along the top edge. You’ll sew the top of the pillow here.

Turn your “skirt” back to the right side and now you can put a pillow into it. I used a pillow that I got at a local thrift store here in town for $2.00. Buying pillow forms can be expensive, and just stuffing a pillow sometimes means that you can end up with it being uneven or uncomfortable. Once you’ve got your pillow inserted into your “skirt” you need to be able to seal up the unsewn end. There are a number of ways to do this; you can insert a zipper, you can do buttons and button holes, or you can stitch it, amongst other things. I decided that my best option was to permanently seal the pillow. I chose to fold the end sort of the way that you tape up the end of a wrapped gift. But rather than tape, I sewed it shut with buttons. I had plenty of matching buttons, but I decided it would be more fun to use a bunch of similarly shaped but different colored buttons.

So, there you have it! A relatively simple way to make a pillow from an old dress! Once I have our glider all put together, this pillow will sit in the glider. For right now, it’s sitting in the crib.

 

 

DIY Harry Potter Crib Mobile

It took me awhile to decide what kind of Mobile I wanted in our Nursery. I’d seen lots of cute stuff, but nothing that seemed quite right for us. My nursery color scheme is Pink, Grey, and Gold and I didn’t really wanna stray too much from that, and I tend to find a lot of nursery stuff really, really childish. Yes, I know, the nursery is for a child, however, I just can’t handle too much of it. So I decided to go with something both my Husband and I would love and something that I could make myself. So, Harry Potter it is!

There will be several sets of instructions here to kind of break it down into smaller, more manageable DIY sections.

PART ONE: Make your Broomsticks!

So, I ended up making several of these, and only ended up using one in my actual mobile. I’ll probably end up using the other broomsticks for something else in the nursery later. Here’s what you need for your Broomsticks: Several small dowels, Raffia (I got mine in the floral section of Hobby Lobby), a glue gun and glue sticks, a box cutter, and twine.

Start by scoring your dowels to make them smaller. I scored them all the way around with my box cutter and once I’d scored them, I just broke them in half with my hands. Then I cleaned up the rough edges with the box cutter so it wasn’t going to give anyone a splinter. After the dowels are cut you want to color/paint (whatever tickles your fancy) them. I used markers on a few, crayons on some, and colored pencils on some. I wasn’t sure what I wanted them to look like so I tried all three.

Next take a large section of Raffia in your hand and begin wrapping it around your fingers so that you’re holding it with both the bottom and the top appearing to be rounded. Using just a dot of hot glue to keep it in place, begin to wrap the twine around the raffia more towards the bottom to create the look of the straw section of a broomstick. Use another dot of the glue to secure the end of the twine in place.

Once the twine is wrapped around the raffia, you’ll have a smaller loop on one end, and a larger loop on the other. You want to cut those so the “loops” of Raffia are gone and it’s just the strands. I then cut them to keep them all even. Find the center of the bottom of your raffia so you know where to insert your dowel. Putting a bit of hot glue on the end of your dowel, place it into the end of the raffia and hold it until it hardens. Viola! You’ve got your Broomsticks done!

 

PART 2: Creating your Winged Keys!

Here’s what you need for your winged keys: Skeleton Keys (Either vintage or reproductions. I purchased reproduced keys that were simply made to look old off ebay. I just wasn’t willing to spend the money on actual vintage keys. These keys were only $3.00!), Wing patterns, Transparent bead illusion cord (or good old fashion fishing line), Hot glue, and Transparent Vellum Paper.

Start by finding what kind of wings you want your keys to have. I used everything from Dragonfly to Butterfly to Angel wings! I wanted each of them to have their own bit of personality. I will happily send you a PDF or Word Document of my wings if you’d like to use mine. Print your wings in various and assorted sizes onto some printable vellum paper. Vellum paper is a bit pricey (I got mine at Staples and it was $16.00) I typically don’t spend that much, however, I knew this was going to be the best way to keep the wings transparent while still being durable. So I broke down and spent the cash.

Once your wings are printed, you’ll need to cut them out. It’s easiest if you leave a section of the vellum in the center to attach the key onto. But some wings have to be cut separately, in that case, I glued the wings together. Once you’ve cut your wings you’ll want to use your hot glue to attach your wings to your keys.

For the ring that you’ll attach these keys to, I bought a cross-stitching ring and used the center ring! I spray painted it gold so reflect the color in the keys (and my nursery accent color).

PART THREE: Assemble your mobile!

Once you’ve got your keys made, your broomsticks made, and your ring painted, it’s time to assemble your mobile! Use your clear fishing line to attach your keys and broomsticks to the ring. Any design is a good design so get creative! Then attach either ribbon or twine to four areas of the top and join them together at a loop knot to make a hanger for your mobile. And there you have it! A Harry Potter Flying Key Mobile!

 

 

 

So much to do, so little time!

So, it’s been 6 days since my last DIY post, which is crazy because I’ve been working on projects like mad! However, I haven’t actually finished any of them! But I didn’t want you guys to feel like I’d abandoned you! I promise I’m working on stuff and it’ll probably all get finished at approximately the same time, meaning, there will most likely be a FLOOD of posts all very close together! I’d love to show you what I’ve been working on, but I’m weird about showing half finished projects. So I figured I’d touch base and let you know that I am indeed working on some really cool stuff that you guys are gonna go bananas over!

HOWEVER, I figured I’d show you my January/February wreath so that you’d at least get to see SOMETHING I’d worked on. Even though I didn’t take pictures along the way for a true step-by-step guide.

Everything on this wreath I already had at my house, so I didn’t have to buy ANYTHING! I used the form from my Christmas wreath, wrapped half in a pink lace “baby ribbon” and the other half in a white rosette ribbon. The hearts are backed in cardboard to keep them solid and they have stick pins in them that I put between the cardboard and the paper so they would stick into the foam wreath without showing on the front of the heart. The arrow at the top was the same concept; cardboard covered in paper that I colored for the pink gradient. I sadly forgot to put the stick pins in before I added the paper so it’s on top, and kind of caused a wrinkle in it paper. All around, a super simple wreath that I think turned out pretty well!

That’s all I have for y’all for today, but I’ve got a lot of really awesome stuff coming for you!!!

Deer Antler DIY –With a little help from my brother…

So, I recently saw this picture on Pinterest:

(Click here to see the original website it was published on and here to see the etsy shop where you can purchase it, TheShabbyShak. Her stuff is really awesome!)

Awesome right? I’m working on our nursery for our soon to come daughter (Less than 12 weeks to baby! Crazy, right?) I’ve decided to go with a grey and pink nursery with hints of Gold and when I saw this I KNEW I wanted something like this in Violet’s nursery. HOWEVER, this one was a little over my price range. At $40.00, I knew I just couldn’t swing spending that amount and feel okay about it. But I was completely in love with the concept of these antlers.

I started brainstorming on how I could get something like this, but on my “Thrifty, only wanna spend a dime” kind of budget. I knew I didn’t have any antlers, and I wasn’t even sure how to go about beginning to make this. So, when all else fails? CALL YOUR BROTHER! I texted him a picture of this beauty and said “Umm…can you make something like this?” and of course he said yes. (I swear y’all, my brother could construct nearly anything.)

So, my brother, Stan, worked on this beauty and mailed it to me!

I already had gold spray paint from another project so I took the antlers to my basement and sprayed those puppies down.

And here we go! I just put some jewelry on it so y’all could see what it looks like, but I definitely want to hang headbands and bows and stuff on it like they did in the original photo. So, this cost me a total of $0.00 because my brother had all his supplies already, he did pay to ship the antlers to me from South Carolina, but since I already had the spray paint, the only money spent was on shipping! Not too bad, huh?

 

Once I actually have this set up in the nursery (and once the nursery looks good, right now, it’s all a big huge mess! But it’s getting there!) I’ll take new pictures. And those won’t be cell phone pictures I promise! Sometime soon there should be a nursery post coming! Trust me, it’s nearly all thrifted or upcycled!

 

My .99¢ Goodwill Chair Makeover

So, I’ve been a little MIA with the whole pregnancy, moving across the country, and the fact that there is NO GOODWILL where I live now!!!! So, I’ve been frequenting the smaller thrift stores in my area, but their hours are shorter, they don’t have as much product, and furniture is definitely at a minimum. There are some great little stores, but chairs and tables seem to be a very real struggle. Which is exactly what I needed! Before we moved, we donated our dining room table and chairs to our local goodwill because they weren’t in great condition and they just didn’t seem worth moving. I figured I’d just get new stuff here at Goodwill. But y’all. Seriously. Tables and chairs are REALLY hard to find here unless you’re willing to shell out some serious cash. Of which I am not…like, ever.

Anyways, a few weeks ago my husband and I drove 45 minutes to go to a larger town because we wanted to got to Barnes & Noble (because, no, we don’t have that either. I know. It’s very sad.) While we were there we popped over to Goodwill because it was just up the road. As I was in the front looking at picture frames, my husband had disappeared to the back. He comes up and tells me “Honey, come look at these chairs they have!) I walk to the back to see these chairs. They weren’t anything special. I’d call them typical “church chairs.” The kind they pull out at church when they need extras.

Not perfect, but, wait until you hear how much. Take a guess. 99¢!!!! Yep. Not even a buck each! So we grabbed those babies up and I figured that I could recover them.

(Yes, that’s my husband with our prize chairs.) The chairs needed some serious love, they were torn, and the metal was a little rusted in places. So we went to the local hobby lobby and grabbed some fabric at TWO DOLLARS a YARD! (Clearance Shelf!) And then I bought some grey spray paint (which I had a 40% off coupon for! Brought the chairs home and used my drill to remove the screws so I could take the cushions off the chairs.

Once the cushions were removed from the chairs, I took the frames outside and spray painted them. The paint was nearly the same color as they were originally, so it only took one layer of spray paint. After that, I had to pull that ugly maroon vinyl off of those cushions. This part was not the easiest thing I’ve ever done. I don’t know how people usually do this (I’m a total rookie) but I used a screwdriver to kind of work the staples out of the wood and then I used needle-nose pliers to pull the staples out. Some of the cushions were really easy, but one had rusted which led to serious issues. Staples breaking in half, sticking in the wood, and my growing frustration. Eventually, I got them all out!

I cut my fabric so I had about 3 inches on all 4 sides of the seat. I laid the cushion down, then put the seat over the cushion so that the soft side is completely covered in fabric. Pull the fabric tight on one of the “straight” sides and staple it down using a heavy duty stapler. (I was using a Stanley T-50.) I am so mad t myself, but I totally forgot to take pictures while I was doing this, but I know there are tutorials online!

The chair backs were more difficult to cover because they were smaller on the top than the bottom and I had to work to keep the fabric from wrinkling. For the back cushion I took the fabric and folded it over the top so that the top was completely smooth. The biggest goal is to keep the staples where they wont be seen, so for the back cushion, that was on the sides and the bottom, but not on the front, back, or top.

I reattached the cushions to the chairs, using the screws that were with the chairs when I got them.

And here we go! Here are my Goodwill chairs! Here’s the breakdown of what I spent:

Chairs: .99¢ each (x3)= $3.00, Fabric: $2.00 a yard (2 yards)=$4.00, Spray paint: 1 can (40% off coupon)=$4.00. TOTAL: $11.00!!!

 

So, I got creative with my front door…

So, I’ve been trying to think of something for my front door for the Holiday season, something kind of Christmas-y, but also just something different for the new season. (I’ve had my Cork Wreath up on my door since we …

DIY Watercolor Coffee Mugs!

So, I found a DIY tutorial awhile ago on how to make some really cool Watercolor Coffee Mugs, and all you need is 4 items!

1.) A mug

2.) A Bowl of warm water

3.) Nail Polish

4.) A Toothpick

I mean, most of us have all of those things in our home anyway! So, I buy plain mugs, whether white or another color, just as long as it’s a plain solid color, at places like the Dollar Tree or on sale at Target. Then I choose my colors. It’s best if you choose two colors that contrast or look good together so the watercolor marbleized effect looks the best.

SO. To keep credit where credit is due, I saw this DIY on Youtube by a girl named Audra Kurtz and here is the link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uL5oBMF7zNQ. This girl does a MUCH better job at explaining it than I would simply because she actually shows you step by step in a video and you have to move pretty quickly or your polish will set in the water and I knew I couldn’t take pictures fast enough. So watch the video! It’s not even 3 minutes long!

In case you can’t watch the video, here’s the run down. (But seriously, watch the video.)

1.) You’re going to start with a plastic bowl (like a tupperware container or one of those little containers that lunch meat comes in). Fill the bowl with warm water.

2.) Take your nail polish and pour it into the water. If you’re adding a second color, pour that in as well.

3.) Grab your toothpick and run it through the polish giving it more of a marbleized effect. But you have to be fast during this part because the nail polish WILL HARDEN so you can’t really “take your time,” So you have to move pretty quickly.

4.) Dip your mug into the water, directly into the polish and then remove it. This is another thing that needs to happen pretty quickly. Dip it straight in and pull it straight back out.

5.) Set the mug out to dry and leave it for 24 hours. Don’t touch it!

6.) Spray the mug down with a clear acrylic spray to seal the work 😀

And you’re all done!

I like to do these mugs and add quotes to them! Here are some pictures of mine! 

 

 

And just so ya’ll know, these beauties are all for sale in my etsy store! https://www.etsy.com/shop/EmilyYakshDesigns?ref=hdr_shop_menu