refashioning

I used three different shirts to create this fun dress, and headband.  It was a great way to reuse some stained play clothes from a friend!

matchy, matchy

 Is Hello Kitty everywhere or what these days.  I remember when she was first cool...way back when.  Well, at Kohl's the other day Maria spied a HK purse that she wanted, but for $15 I talked her into making our own version.  I had seen this skirt at the thrift store.  So for $.50 and a little ingenuity we had our purse, and she didn't have to save her allowance for months!

 I simply sewed the legs closed on the inner pair of shorts.  I attached a ribbon, which just happened to match perfectly on either side for the strap.  Then I twisted a loop of embroidery thread and attached it behind the button closure.  And a bonus, the purse already has built in outer pockets.  Maria already used it for church with her new dress below.

The girls ready to head to church in their new matchy, matchy outfits.  My mom got this adorable fabric and had a pattern to make the dress.  I had just enough left after making the dress to do this bow top for Anna.  They both just happened to have matching capri/pants.  Aren't they adorable, and the pigtails, too much!

a week of projects

From this.....to this! Anything has to look better than the lovely blue marble like laminate counter top!

A coat of primer, coat of base color, two coats of color applied with none other than a paper towel! Many, many coats of polycrylic, and lots of time to set.

Now the wall behind just has to be repaired!

The once wallpapered half bath underwent a skim coat of drywall mud, sanding and a repeat of two previous steps and then priming, and two coats of yellow paint...geesh, I am sure glad it was such a small bathroom. And for goodness sake people, if you are going to wallpaper, use sizing, someone will thank you later!

My double towel bars, one for washcloths, I still need something to go on the walls perhaps, but it can wait.

Kind of turned out to be an Ecuador theme, as several of the items I brought back have yellow...who would have thought! And the shelf was once HOT pink, and I got it free from a garage sale! That picture is a favorite of mine, taken by a Ecuadorian street photographer. The subject is a street kid.

The old drab linoleum was replaced by some nicer looking tile! And it wasn't too bad to install, just a killer on the knees.

Caulking and the rug, which I already owned, help to complete the look.

 

The very, very dark brown door getting a face lift. It will eventually get a large glass window to install (from Crestview Doors, a great option for a door refinish) to allow more light in, and it had some scary block architectural things on the outside... totally forgot to document those things!

Yes, more yellow! (the paint is a story in itself. I got it at the Habitat for Humanity Restore, a great place if you have never been to one, for only $6) It was a nice paint, Dutch Boy brand, and basically a plain white color. I tried to get Lowe's to color it for me...she refused, and was pretty rude. The great guy at Ace told me, oh, no problem, we'll get you fixed up...and he didn't even charge me! I LOVE ACE!

and a new door handle, which I got for over 75% off last year!

Those strange holes are from the blocks that were on the door. Hopefully the new window and trim will cover them, or I will be filling and sanding those things!

And more drab linoleum replaced.

Now I'm in the market for a new rug!

My last project was a bust....moral of the story, follow directions very carefully! It said to mix the silver roof coating with an electric drill and mixer attachment, which I did not have. So, I figured if I shook it up really well for several minutes that should work (kind of annoyed now that they guy who helped me find it at the hardware didn't shake it in the machine!). Well, can you see when I finally got down keep enough to actually hit the silver sediment part...so, now I have a mostly black roof, which totally defeats the purpose of the silver part! The sun room will be hotter now, not cooler, thanks to my oops...luckily it was only and $20 mistake, and a bit of effort. Guess I know what I(or maybe Larry) will be doing next time we are up there. Let's hope that at least the leaks we had been having in the sun room are non-existent now!

We have plenty to praise God for; the ability to repair/update/modify our house to make it a home.

Pay it forward and misc. projects

felt play food for Maria's birthday

a bicycle basket for Maria's birthday

Pay it forward apron #1 for Kirsten

pay it forward apron #2 for Michelle

pay it forward apron #3 for Emily

pay it forward apron #4 for Robyn

pay it forward apron #5 for Mindy

Matching doll/child apron for Maria's friend's birthday.

I made myself some new PJ's

I made some new curtains for Anna's room.

I may have already posted the monkey I made Anna, but she just got it for her birthday, so here it is again.

The local Tri Kappa did their Chairs for Charity again and I redid these two chairs.

How do you like my Flower Power Duo?

just randoms

The girls were taste testing the cream cheese filling for our King Cake for Mardi Gras...no complaints there!

The King Cake...yum!

Anna trying to climb up a slide at Bremen Bounce.

Maria was helping me to make noodles for our Chicken and Noodles one night.

She is a good helper when she wants to help.

Maria was invited to a Ballerina birthday party.  They were playing a version of Duck, Duck, Goose.  She is the one standing up on the far side of the circle.
Girls have been sick lately...still.  We all had colds that we are just recovering from, but the girls seem to have caught something new, or perhaps it morphed into something else.  At any rate, the humidifier is still running, tissues are being used up rapidly and patience is at an all time low with sick, tired, cranky girls.  So we hope that mending is on the way soon.
Anna has been very vocal in her "I love you."  or "I love ___".  In fact at the Ash Wednesday service this week, I had to try to quiet her several times as she was saying it pretty loud!  At least she wasn't yelling something less positive, not that she ever does that.
A rather strange find last night was when I found Anna asleep sitting up in her bed against only a very short side rail of her toddler bed.  At first I thought she was awake, but when I laid her down it didn't phase her at all.
We have plenty to praise God for; the girls have been lucky enough to only get sick a few times besides your typical cold.

a revived floor

As far as lake house projects go I am pretty much done with major things, just a few that when we have the money we will tackle them, new front door, bathroom countertop and backyard patio/landscaping.  

This was one last one that just required finding the product to do it.  I had seen grout being stained on some HGTV shows, and thought that would be the perfect solution to the dingy, stained grout in our main bathroom.  I had tried to clean it, with bleach even, to no avail.  So, after checking a couple places, I finally found grout stain at Menards...I tried Lowe's and they didn't seem to know what I was talking about?  Anyway, it was SO simple and I am so happy with the results.  I chose a darker color (Mocha) to hide the dirt stains in the grout.  

The steps are basically like this, clean the tile/grout well.  Paint on the stain with a brush, I used a small cheap one and cut the sides to make it narrower, that way I would have less to clean off of the tile in the next step.  The directions say to allow it to dry for 30 min. and then spray with water and clean off the tile.  I decided to just wait until it was a little bit dry and clean it off with a dry towel, which prevented the extra water mess.  It all worked out and I think it looks great, much better than dirty tiles looks!

working on birthdays

Well, I know we just had Christmas, but the girls will each have birthdays before we know it.  I think in the future we may do very minimal gifts at Christmas, maybe a game and some books.  We really want to focus on the gift of Christ and not the gifts anyway.  Since they have spring birthdays, April and May, it seems like they just got gifts, and what could they really NEED already?  Anyway, I'll have to revisit this again in the fall and evaluate as a family what we want our holidays to look like.  So, I decided to work on part of the girls' gift list, which will be mainly handmade items.  I had seen this monkey pattern a while back and decided that I have made several softies for Maria, but Anna doesn't have any yet.  So here is gift #1.

This pattern was SO easy(and free!), it literally only took me a couple of days from cutting out fabric to finish.  I somehow missed the pattern piece for her shoes, and it was from fabric of my mom's so I'll have to get that when I am there again, and the hat needs a bit of trim, but not sure if the hat will be left off for now anyway, since most accessories are just lost around here.  I like the lighter fabric that I used, but the original is cute too.  There are a ton of others people have made and posted here.

gingerbread cottage

Well, it's not exactly the size of a house, so we call ours a cottage!  Maria had fun helping, Anna just wanted to eat everything...she kept saying AHHHH, and opening her mouth like a little bird.  During the video you can hear her saying AHHH, and then she does in fact eat one piece, but who can blame her!

 anticipation...

 the goods...

 starting...

the result
We have plenty to praise God for; the generous church family who gave us this fun kit to do as a family.