tea party in a tent

My brother & his family, who I Love to pieces, were here from Indiana for about a week. One day it ended up just being me and the girls here, and Benson was taking a nap. I started thinking about how fun I thought forts were back in the day, and the great memories I have building them with my Mom.

Suddenly out of no where an idea struck me.

The girls were watching a movie on my bed, so I closed the door and told them to stay put for a few minutes. I rushed down to Laylas' room and snatched all her blankets and sheets off her bed. I ran back upstairs to the office, and constructed a princess fort with all the pink, purple, and teal pillows and blankets on the premises. 

Then, another idea struck, so I ran back downstairs and grabbed and princess dress ups and tea party supplies. 

I took the dress ups in to the girls and told them I had someplace magical to show them, but only princess' were allowed, so they needed to put their gear on...and come up with their princess names, of course.

For the rest of the evening they were princess Pink, and Princess Purple. 

I had them close their eyes as I led them to the fort, and I wish I had recorded their faces when they opened their eyes....so adorable! It was way more whimsical in person...for real.

In fact, the magic in the air was so thick.....

That I turned into their Fairy God Mother. hahaha

We finished our tea party, then painted our nails, and did a little make up (blush and lip gloss) before heading to the ball. This was a special ball though, so we played freeze dance;) and I taught them the ballet positions, and a couple basics. I actually got way into it, hehehe.

I LOVE these girls, and hope we can make some good lasting memories together. It only would have been better if all the girl cousins could have been there:( next time I'll have to actually plan it before hand;)

Our World In A Nutshell: Reveal...for real! $10 makover#links

Reveal...for real! $10 makover

                           After- so, have I mentioned that I had a budget of $10 for this little makeover?

True story....$10, do you think it was worth it? I totally do. I'll show you some of the projects closer up, but I just realized I have 2 more walls you really can't see in this picture....so I'll just have to show those another day;)

                                           I made curtains and a dust ruffle with some cute sheets, and found the right sticks to use as the curtain rods. I think the material brought just the right amount of color into the room.

This shot shows the dust ruffle, and the other ruffle cuteness:) What would you call it?

I found this adorable little birdie at a vintage shop for $1.00, and fell in love with it.

This is our handcast (done by http://www.firstimpressionshandcasts.com/ of course) ;) I LOVE it because we did this back when Craig and I both still had our original wedding rings.

The "capiz shell" like chandelier I made with wax paper:) that was a fun project.

The yarn and push pin tree, I love what it adds to the room.

Yarn and push pin birdie

And there you have it:) It was lots of fun redecorating my room, and a fun challenge to do it with only $10

I hope this can inspire you do get creative, and make something beautiful.

Reveal????

Before!

 It wasn't a bad looking room to start with, but it just didn't have any charector...and that wouldn't do!

Ok, so I took some great shots of the "After" Room, and my camera has turned up missing. Grrrr!

I'm sure one of my "little helpers" has just put my camera in a "special place" (Layla in particular is known for her "special places", thinking back to my lost wedding ring) ;). As soon as it turns up I'll post the "Afters".

Have a great weekend:)

DIY ruffle Throw

Today I have two sweet little sickies home from school, so I'm going to take the easy way out. Instead of writing my own tutorial I'm just going to give you the link to another one that is great, and I'm sure you will love muchly;)

To make this cutie for your bed go to

www.do-it-yourselfdesign.blogspot.com/2011/11/diy-ruffle-throw.html

Guess how much money I spent on this project.......$0! Wooohoooo, that's right, it was free. Want to know how? Most hotels love to give their sheets to others that want them when they start to look a little tattered or worn. My sister and I got 3 big garbage bags full of clean white sheets from the Marriott last year for a project we were doing at the time, and I had a couple left over. I used one of my free white sheets from Marriott to make my ruffle throw, and thank you Judy for helping me get started on this:) It was much more fun to make with your company.

Tomorrow I'll show you something else I made with Sheets;)

TTFN

DIY Yarn Tree

I have been wanting to have a big tree in my room for a long time, but I didn't know if I wanted it to be painted, vinyl, stencil, or what. I as searching the web for ideas when I came across www.apartmenttherapy.com/how-to-make-a-string-tree-wall-109655

I loved the idea.

I did mine a little different then the apartment therapy blog, but both are so cool.

You will need:

yarn (I used brown for the tree, blue for birds, but you could do all kinds of cool things with color)

little push pins

thimble

Ruler

pencil

I started at the base of the tree and worked my way up one wall at a time. my tree is in the corner of my room (I'll show you a better picture in the "whole room reveal" later this week;)), but it would be a little easier to do it on just one wall. Start by pushing a pin through the end of your yarn to hold it in place, and use your ruler and pencil to make a line from that pin to your next. Push the next pin in the wall, wrap the string around it, and continue the process.

After a while I figured out it's easier to draw the lines and push all the pins in first, then wrap the string all at once.

I looked at the tree in my back yard for a reference, but you might want to print a picture of the kind of tree you like.

After you have the basic outline of the tree, go back and wrap more string in the spaces to create the look of bark.

To make my birds, I drew a simple outline of a bird, pushed pins around the silhouette, wrapped the string around the outside and eye first, then filled in the middle.

happy pinning my friends, and send me your picture when your done:)

DIY wax paper capiz shell chandelier

I pulled a little "While you were out" action on Craig the other day to surprise him for his birthday. It will be 10 years this year that we've been married, and we have always just had an "it will do the job" kind of bedroom. No personalities, or fun details that made us love the room, and that had to change! I've been on pintrist a little, and looking around for ideas. I Saw this idea on http://www.designsponge.com/ and knew I HAD to try it! And I've got to tell ya...I LOVE the way it turned out!

I had a bunch of projects for my made over bedroom, so I'm going to show you one at a time how to do them (for the ones I took pictures of during the process), and at the end of the week I'll show you the before and after shots of my room:)

I'm excited:)

The First project was to get a Capiz Shell Chandelier, but have you priced these babies out? Anywhere from $250- $3,000! Um, ya...that's about $245 out of my price range...for the cheapest one. But don't you fret my frugal friends, My "Capiz chandelier" Cost me under $5. You heard me...UNDER $5!

So, Here is what you need:

1 roll of wax paper

1 roll of contact paper

1 3/4" Circle punch

lamp shade

sewing machine

and a little patience

I didn't have a lamp shade on hand, so I went to DI and found one that was the right diameter for the right price (.75). I cut off the fabric so we were left with the metal skeleton of a lamp shade. My sister couldn't find a lamp shade that was the right size for her light, so she got a hanging metal planter, and that worked to.

Now (sorry, I don't have a picture of this) you are going to layer your wax paper and contact paper like so: Bottom contact paper, 3 sheets of wax paper, 1 sheet contact paper, 3 sheets wax paper, 1 sheet contact paper on top. After you have your layers, you will iron the paper, and I had my iron set on high. This will make the 3 sheets of wax paper stick together, creating the capiz shell illusion. Save the wax paper, and discard the contact paper.

Side note, I tried breaking up a brown crayon, and melting it between the layers of wax paper, and it looked really cool. In the end, I preferred all white for this one, but if you want color, it might be fun to play around with:)

Now, you will use your 1 3/4" circle punch and cut out LOTS of circles. You can decide how long you want your Chandelier to be, but for my room, I did 12 circles per strip. I organized the circles with muffin tins, so they would all be the same length.

Next, you just feed the wax paper circles into your sewing machine (Chain linking). I linked 12 circles together, then let a little thread out, then linked the next 12, over and over.

Now, you decide how many levels you want your chandelier to have, I wanted 3, so I added a level with a wire.

Now you get to drape your circle chains over the lamp levels, leaving 6 circles on either side of the wire...make sense?   My chandelier is the same diameter as my light fixture, so I was able to slide my chandelier wire under the fixture to hold it up. If your Chandelier is bigger then your light, you can purchase hook screws for  a few cents from most any hardware store.

If you make your own Capiz Shell Chandelier send me a picture:) I would LOVE to see how yours comes out.