Spring has sprung! Outdoor space revamp.

Nicer weather has finally arrived in North Carolina! One of my favorite things about our new home is the screened in porch. Coming from California, I thought that screened in porches were the epitome of southern living. Random side note, in California, all the southerners I knew would set up shop in their garages. Seriously. They'd have couches, tables, BBQs, and would almost set up a second living room in their garage. It makes total sense to me now, they were just looking for their screened in porch! That has to be the reason because I haven't seen a single person in the dirty south hanging out in their garage like the people in California did...

So, this post is a little bit about a DIY gone wrong, but has a happy ending (no, not THAT kind of happy ending :) See, we have four chairs with seat cushions and back cushions, that looked like this...

Gross right? We bought this patio set at Lowe's probably 4 years ago when we moved off base and into our little beach house. We wanted an outdoor space and paid a hefty penny for this set. I'm disturbed, shocked, and disgusted with how much outdoor patio sets can cost. Even the ghetto ones from Wal-Mart are expensive! Anyways, we left them outside, year round, for 4 years. I'm pissed at myself for letting this happen.

Anyways, what had happened wasssss, I had an idea to just remove the old covers, dye them a darker green, and slap them back on, and laugh at how much replacement cushions would have cost me.

Well, I def messed up, two things:

1. I thought the cushions had zippers, they didn't. I know. I know. I should have looked before I left the house, but this epiphany came to me in the middle of the laundry section of the store, and I just went with it.

2. The covers didn't dye. I'm an idiot. Patio furniture cushions are waterproof, AKA they ain't soaking up shit, Tina!

So, there was I was. With all these chairs, and all these cushion insides taking up valuable real estate on my porch, and no cushions. If you've ever looked at replacement cushions, you know those can be pricey. For instance, the ones I wanted, and didn't even like that much, would have been $300 after all was said and done. Yeah, screw that.

So, I was walking around the store, and saw this rug, and the sky parted, and the angels starting singing, and I KNEW what I was going to. I grabbed this rug, and headed off to the sheet section. I ended up buying two King sized flat sheets in two colors, and came up with my replacement idea. See, since it's a screened in porch, I didn't need to have fancy water proof ish, that stuff isn't going to get wet. In a few years when we move back to California, and have had this set for probably over 7 years, I'll just get a new one. But, for now I needed a quick fix.

So,  I just reused all the old stuffing, which was like brand spanking new due to those fancy waterproof cushions! The old cushions were sewn insides out on three sides, turned to the right side, stuffed, and then sewn closed on the forth side. So, I just measured out the old pillows and cushions, and sewed my own.

As you can see, the dog loves them, that's his chair, but I thought that the chairs just looked too plain, that they needed a little throw pillow or two...

So, I had some leftover red from the pillows and canvas material laying around the house. I drew a paisley print on the canvas material with a pencil, and then went over it with some acrylic paint.

Then I pinned it wrong sides together with the sheets.

Cut it out, and sewed around three sides, turned it inside out, stuffed it, and then used this video tutorial on how to do a closing stitch. I think it's the best sewing tutorial I've ever seen.

Then I was happier with the outcome of the cushions! I think it just makes it look a little less homemade, and ties the colors together.

Here is the whole set! See that weird little metal thing? It's from the fireplace in the house, it vents onto the porch to heat the porch as well. Weird, right?

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, overall it only cost me $30 to completely redo the cushions and create a happy new outdoor space area.

And last, but not least, who's the cutest cattle dog you've ever seen?

That's right Smokey.

DIY - Sugar Skull Ceramic Pot

I'm not going to lie...I saw this pin on Pinterest, and thought it was adorable. So I decided to make my own! It was actually fairly easy. I thought it was going to be a nightmare because I do not have a steady hand with a paintbrush, at all.

What you need:
-Ceramic Pot
-White Spray Paint & a clear topcoat
-Pencil
-Acrylic Paint and Brushes
-Plant and potting soil

I have a lot of this stuff already because I am a crafting hoarder, but if you wanted to make everything, you could go to Wallie World and probs pick up the whole deal for 10 bucks. Seriously. Depending on the amount of colors you want to use, I already had all those colors...

So...

Step One - Not Pictured:
-Spray paint your entire pot white, this took me a few days because I was in and out of the house, and my husband is a spray can nazi. He would only let me gently mist the thing, and it literally took DAYS to get the ceramic orangey color to not show up!

Step Two: 
-Draw your sugar skull with a pencil
-You'll notice I made some mistakes along the way, but I left them because I was going to cover them with black anyways
-The best thing about this project was that I could erase! I erased that damn mustache about 20 times before I got it the way I wanted.
-Also, if you don't feel like making up your own like I did, print one of these out and trace it onto your pot by pressing hard, but gently with a pencil

Step Three:
-Paint!
-I used the smallest brushes EVER for this project, and went slow. I think that's what helped make this project not look like shit. Of course, always start with the light colors first. Here I bounced from yellow to black because I was waiting for the yellow to dry before I added the red.
-I also used the back of a brush for all the dots. I did draw them so I knew where I wanted them, but I just simply dabbed the back of the brush into the paint, and went around the eyes, super easy, and it didn't glob up. Acrylic paint is the shit!

Step Four (Not Pictured)
-Clear coat, so that when you're watering your plant, your sugar skulls face doesn't melt off!
-Slap your plant in!

Step Five: Display
-And enjoy! : )

I might make some more, but I need to check myself, because I can get easily obsessed with something, and then go ape shit crazy and make like 12 for my house... Coughbuntingflagscough

Where art thou Gidgie?

I have been extremely busy lately getting my house ready for my family to visit. I'm a bit of a perfectionist, so I've been patrolling Craven County for the best curtains, home decor etc. etc. So, I've been everywhere, but on here. I have been crafting, but I've recently becoming much busier than I was before, if you know me personally, you know why I don't have time to sit around and craft all day anymore. Sadly. :(

But! I did promise to talk about the quilt I made, and I sat and tried to come up with a pattern for this quilt, I really did. I could do it, but it makes me look like an idiot. Seriously. I was drawing it out on graph paper, and just thought, wow. People are going to question your crafting abilities, and maybe your mental state if you post this. So if you really really really want a pattern, let me know and I'll email it to you, so I'm not embarrassing myself with my horrible excel and graph paper skills..

Anyways, here are some pictures of the quilt in my extra bedroom and the process. I'm still having mixed feelings about it, I'm not sure if I love it, or if the colors are a little too, I don't know, off? I think once the room is finally put together, it will all tie together nicely.

I used these 5 prints, that top bright one is the quilt back. All of these fabrics I bought at Joanns on Veterans Day last year, for 50% off, 

so I've had this idea in my head for awhile! 

I always lay out my quilts before I sew them together. You'll notice that the quilt got bigger because my husband kept telling me it was too small, so I kept adding on columns and columns! The little squares are 3"x3", the bigger squares are 6"x6" and the green rectangles are all 3"Wx6"L.

I ended up with: 

*9 - Little Square/Rectangle Columns

*8 - Big Square/Rectangle Columns

*Borders

I find that the easiest way to make a quilt is to sew the columns first. So I assembled anything vertically first (for some reason I always confuse the meaning of rows and columns.) So, I sewed the pieces in column 1 first, then labeled it some masking tape, then moved on to column 2, and so on. After all the individual columns are sewn together, I sew them together. So 1 with 2, 3, with 4, and so on. Then I sew the bigger pieces again, 1&2 with 3&4, if you've ever worked with a large quilt, this helps with the handling! 

I hope this helps anyone who wants to sew a quilt because it makes it go by SO fast. Now that I'm better at sewing and assembling, I look back on my first quilt and laugh at my self. I think I've realize why that quilt took something crazy, like over 24 hours to make.

I always buy way more fabric than necessary. So I had some extra little squares, so I decided to sew them together around the outside for a border. I originally wanted 2 borders, but I ended up almost not being able to use the backing sheet!

I ended up with:
-28 Squares sewn together for the columns
-25 squares sewn together for the rows

Now that I'm done with this quilt, it would have been a much smarter decision to add on the border squares to the actual quilt. I wish I would have sewn them on with the columns from the beginning, that way, when I finished the quilt, I would have been done with the border as well.

I hadn't finished the pressing the bottom of the quilt when I laid this one out, so look at what a difference ironing makes! I always thought ironing wasn't that big of a deal, but I pressed the crap out of this quilt!

I also got a new attachment for my sewing machine! I ordered this free range motion quilting attachment for my simple Brother machine, and it worked perfectly! I was a little scared at first, so I practiced on a piece of scrap fabric. It's really hard to get used to, because the faster you go, the smoother the lines are, but you can't move too fast, or everything gets messed up.

I also used two entire spools of fabric on this bad boy, and did I mention this part of the quilting process took me 10 hours??

I will never be able to make a quilt again without "quilting" the whole thing. This one feels like an actual quilt, it's surprising how much sturdier it seems. I need for it to sit in the wash with some downy for a while so that it gets soft. It takes so long to break quilts in!

Of course I forced my husband into the woods near our house for a picture, I was too short to show the finished product! Here is the top!

Backing

Someone on my Instagram said this is a super hero quilting pose. It sure is! My back was sore for days slapping this bad boy together!

Overall, this quilt was fun. I learned so much, just by having to figure ish out on my own. I hope my guests like it as much as I do!

DIY Rustic Headboard

We recently bought an extra bed since my fam-damily is visiting, and I was disturbed at the prices of headboards and furniture sets. Half the stuff I saw was hideous, and the other half was all boat themed. For some reason here the decor and furniture is all shore themed, we even have a furniture store called "Shore Decor" here, YIKES! Personally, the whole nautical theme is overdone to me, and this is coming from a girl who has anchors in every room. ;)

So, I did some googling, talked it over with the husband, and came up with this bad boy, who only cost us a whopping $18.

Relax girlfran

And here's how you make it!

Supplies Needed:

-4 boards (Ours is 48 inches L, 24 inches H - boards are 48"x6")

-8 Screws & Electric Screwdriver

-Scrap wood to attach to the back (the picture later will make more sense

-Oil based stain of your choosing, I used this one - a true "barnwood" stain I think!

-Sponge for Stain

-Brush & Polystain (Optional)

-Gloves

-Circular Hooks for hanging (see picture)

-Gorilla Hooks

Step One:

Get your supplies. We bought everything at Lowes

Step 2:
-Cut the boards, or get them cut at your local store. You can actually have Lowes cut your wood for you, which is why I didn't include a saw in the supplies needed, we have a saw, and in this case, we bought larger boards and had them cut into 3 at the store, and used the leftover ends for the backing.
-As you can see we have 4 boards because the bed in the picture is a full. If you want to make a headboard for a larger bed, just measure 1 inch on both sides, and adjust your measurements
-Each board is screwed in twice (once on each side) to the backwood pieces, I suggest using the black screws, I think they look better with the stain

Step 3: Distress Wood
-When you stain wood, you'll notice if there is an indent in the wood, or a scratch, it holds the stain darker, since I wanted a rustic look, we went to town on this board. As you can see, thats my lovely husband hitting the board with a military issued Kaa-bar. Yay Marines!
-You can use anything really, most people use a chain, but I didn't have one, so we used the metal end of a dog leash, a big long metal thing that turns the sprinklers on, and the kaa-bar.
-Go hog wild, and beat that board down.

Step 4: Stain
-Get your stain on.
-Staining is pretty simple to me, so I didn't take any progress pictures. You can see in this picture the sponge I used, and how I kept the stain all to one side of the sponge. Don't get that thing soaking wet, and always brush with the grain of the wood.
-I always stain the creases and then go back over
-The more stain you use, the darker it will be, if you like the stain I used, this is one coat of this

Step 5: Not Pictured
-Sanding and Polyurethane top coat (Optional)
-What had happened was, my husband left my paddle board directly next to my lovely project, and it fell over, knocked the can of stain, and it splashed onto the wood ruining my lovely headboard. I was so upset. So we tried to sand it out, and ended up loving the way it looked. You should always sand it slightly before the poly coat anyways, but if you want to do it exactly like me, just sand it pretty good in random places to get it more weathered.
-If you're the type of person that doesn't like the unfinished wood look, sand it slightly, and then apply a polyurethane base twice (directions on the product)

Step 6: Hanging
-Here is an example of the hooks we used, we hang everything in our house with those gorilla hooks. They're amazing, and bizarre. I think they used to be called Hercules hooks? Anyways, we have heavy windows, pallets, etc. etc. in our house, and they're all hung just like this! But be careful, studs in the walls are gorilla hooks enemy!

TA DA, You have a fab new headboard for cheap cheap cheap!

I hope you're digging those sheets and pillows as much as I am. I made the shams, quilt, and Relax pillows all myself. This is a handmade house!

Here are some closer up pictures of the stain, the wood, and how it looks hanging up against the bed.

I hung the wood slightly lower than the mattress top because I didn't want my guests banging their head on the wood above them.

Isn't this a beautiful stain?

I am so happy with the finished product, and it's only nearly 1 week until my family gets to experience it all. My older sister has been threatening me that she's taking my brand new quilt (which I've yet to blog about, sorry!) home with her! That quilt had over 10 hours of free motion quilting on it. It's never leaving my hands, ever! 

Standup Paddleboarding

I have been hitting the crafts hard lately. It's all I do whenever I have free time, sew, craft, clean, and repeat. Yesterday was a glorious day here in North Cackalacky, so I threw my quilt to the side, slapped on my bikini, grabbed everything beach related, and sped off to the "beach."Technically it's a river, I jump, but there's sand, so whatever.

I've been dying to take my paddleboard down the Neuse River since we moved here. You can paddleboard in the ocean, but with the waves and the wind, there's a greater chance you'll fall in. In the calm water of the river, I knew I wouldn't fall in. It was warm enough to be on the paddleboard, but not warm enough to be submerged in the water, so I was stoked to get some sun.

Flanners Beach

I brought the fattest shih-tzu in the world along, because he's getting groomed on Tuesday, and he loves to rub his beard in the sand, so I figured since he's getting washed on Tuesday, why not fulfill his life dreams. I am soooooo happy that I brought this little nugget with me because I decided to throw his ass on my paddleboard and see if he would try to jump off.

And he LOVED IT. This would never happen in California because I think it would have been too cold for him, the water gets up on my board a little bit, but since it was pretty hot and humid he loved getting splashed. I stayed in the shallow water because I was afraid he was going to commit doggie suicide, and take a header off the board, but mostly he just laid down, or stood up at the front of the board, which is super slippery! This dog has balance like a cat! I swear!

So of course I went out immediately after and bought him his very own lifejacket. I hope it loosens up a bit, because he looks like a very unhappy stuffed sausage. I can't wait to take him out again!!

This week I will have finished my headboard and quilt, so I can't wait to post pictures! I'm also making some scrabble piece throw pillows that I can't wait to share with you all!!!!

Update - Whatcha Making?

I have been very busy lately, and unfortunately neglecting any and all pictures of my latest crafts. My family is coming to visit April 1, and I decided to make a quilt for the extra bed, and pillows, and curtains, and decorations...You catch my drift. Luckily, I've had an insane amount of energy. So enjoy the photos below...

Remember the Valentine's Day bunting flag I made? Well, I loved it so much, I made a St. Patty's Day one too.

I made my two little nephews dinosaur hoodies for Christmas, but not my older nephew because my sister and I weren't sure that he would like it. Well they both got dino hoodies, and my older nephew wanted one too! So I whipped out this bad boy and mailed it out there to him. I had to try it on before I sent it because I was considering keeping it, I was really happy with how it turned out. I'm glad Luke loved it because he's a special little guy. He was my first nephew, and I called out his birthdate before he was born. I knew he was going to be born on Saint Patricks Day, I just knew it! 

Lukosaurus - I miss this little guy!

Oh and guess WHAT? Mama finished decorating the reading nook! FINALLY. I made this little chevron throw for that area because I actually do use it, and like to cuddle up with a blanket when I read. The quilt is quilted in a chevron pattern as well, so it's reversible. The back side, which I don't have a picture of, is a vintage floral sheet. 

When Hobby Lobby opened, they had a ton of that burlap chevron print. I saw they had a whole yard of this color in the remnants for $4!!! I swooped it up and made a pillow for my nook. You can also see the quilting of the chevron throw better in this picture.

And here are the fabrics I am using to make the extra bedroom quilt. That top piece is a vintage Monticello sheet. I have a whole set, SCORE! I'm using the flat sheet from this set as the backing to the quilt. It's looking pretty good. I'll post the finished product hopefully later this week because I've already assembled the top quilt!

I made this lovely cup at my craft group this week. Too cute right? I just want to have a backyard BBQ and serve lemonade in them! 

I've been feeling very productive lately because it feels like spring! Yesterday I took my husband out of the house for a run/bringing him to the house of pain. I've upped my mileage, so when we run 4 miles, it's like a cake walk. I ran last week with him and he nearly died, and we always sprint the last little bit to the car or the house, and he had his ass handed to him by me.

Anyways, I've been running through my neighborhood, and a few days ago I came across this weird driveway that looked like it went into the woods. Now, I've seen horror movies, I know not to go back there alone, so I waited until yesterday so I could run there with Dustin, and it was AMAZING. Isn't this just a beautiful picture? The light streaming in? The woods full of color? Spring people. SPRING!

So we were walking, and we came across this fence. Chained, barbed wire around the top? Yeah, we went in. Good thing I brought my phone with me because we found out we were actually crossing over into Cherry Point MCAS. Isn't that safe? I didn't take pictures of what was behind the gate because secretly I was afraid we were going to get into trouble. So we ran through a forest towards the water, and ended up on the Neuse River. I always say it's the "beach" because, we'll there is sand! It was so beautiful because it was like an untouched beach. I'm sure other people in our neighborhood know it's there, but do they have the balls to cross the fence? Probs not.

Today we are making a headboard, and I'm actually remembering to take pictures, so there will be a detailed tutorial of that soon! : ) 

Hobby Lobby ain't got nothin' on this girl!

When I first found out I was moving to North Carolina, I was excited for crafting possibilities! In the south, they have Hobby Lobbys! Now, HL's are now slowly making their way out to California, but the nearest one to me was about an hour away when we still lived there.

So, we get our orders, I start googling everything that I love to see how close by it will be to our new house. And guess what I find out? There IS NO HOBBY LOBBY NEARBY. I was so sad. There wasn't even a Joanns, the nearest place that had fabric? Wallie World!! Which I hate and despise, and secretly sanitize my hands about 10 times when I am forced to go there. Fast forward to a few weeks later, and someone posted online that a Hobby Lobby was in fact opening near our new base. I was tap dancing on my table tops for weeks. Well, I found out about 3 months ago, and guess what?

Hobby Lobby opened last week!!!

If you've never been in a Hobby Lobby, try to think of it like if Michaels and Joanns had a threesome with Home Goods, and could produce offspring, that offspring would be Hobby Lobby. It has fabric, crafts, furniture, decor, etc. etc. It's seriously amazing, and seriously overwhelming. I forgot how hideous some of the stuff there can be. There is one aisle in particular that I've deemed "baby hooker" where everything is hot pink, zebra print, and feathery. Not cute.

Anyways, I went opening day, and bought a ton of stuff. I went up and down every aisle, and just liked to look around at what they had. One thing in particular, caught my eye. It was a piece of old wood that had some wrought iron decor mounted onto it. I seriously considered buying it for $100, but I thought, screw that, I can make that!

I wish I would have taken a picture of it, but it looked something like this:

Hobby Lobby

Anyways, the husband came and found me just as I was pondering the metal decor, and I asked him if he thought that we could make something similar, and he said of course. That man is always up for a challenge, even a crafting challenge! So, we went through the metal aisle, and found one that we liked, and since it was their opening day sale, we got one 50% off and ended up spending an entire 7 dollars on this project!

On our way home, I was staring down the roads trying to find a good pallet. Weathered pallets are hard to find. Someone once told me they get theirs from the backs of stores, but those are just too new, too wood looking. So we are driving along the "freeway" here, and I see an abandoned field next to a church and scream for Guido to pull over.

We had hit the jackpot. There are old white picket fences, bricks, and various sizes of pallets that have been there for what seems like forever. We picked out an extra long one that I haven't seen before, usually they're pretty square, this was one totally rectangular. We grabbed it, and took off before the 5-0 showed up, because honestly, we have no idea whose property we were on.

We removed the pallets from their backing, and actually attached them to some leftover wood. To get the pallets off what originally holds them together, just hit them with a hammer against the opposite side. Usually they pop right off, this one was a little hard because it was seriously weathered.

We attached them to three different pieces of wood. Originally, I wanted to reuse the nails, but this wood was messed up, so we had to add some of our own screws into the new wood we had left over.

We hung up the pallet, and once we thought it looked level, we took it back down, and added the metal piece.

Finished Product

I am so happy with how it turned out. My house is already pretty much completely decorated, except for our master bedroom. No one goes in there but us, so there is literally nothing on the walls. This is the only thing on our walls right now. My mission is to spruce up that place! We have family visiting very soon, so I need to get my ass in gear!

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed my Hobby Lobby inspiration, not bad for only 7 dollas!