Vintage Blue Velvet Sofa | A Fabulous Find

I am in LOVE. With this little ballerina and this vintage sofa. Stay tuned for some living room progress, coming soon.

A Giant Measuring stick {DIY projects for kids}

I decided quite awhile ago that I wanted to make one of these. What is it you ask? Well remember when you were a kids and your dad stood you up against the door frame, drew a line above your head and marked the date? Maybe all those cute little markings are still in your childhood home? Memories. Love it. But what happens when you move? What if you could take that doorframe with you? Or what if instead, you had this cool, giant sized ruler to mark your own kids' heights as they grow? That way, if you ever move, those memories come with you. Well, I don't plan to ever move again but I just happen to think they look really cool. And I have the perfect spot in my house for this.

So...I thought about making one and then I got lazy and thought about buying one and then I looked on etsy and they are selling for like $75. Are you kidding me?  Its a piece of wood. I can buy that at home depot for $7! So I did. I bought a piece of 1" x 6 " x 6 ' pine at home depot.

 And I stained it, using some Miniwax stain in dark walnut that I already had in my basement from my coffee table project.

After it dried cured for about a week in the garage, I measured out the lines with a tape measure, because I couldn't find my yard stick. I definitely recommend a yard stick for this project because the tape measure slid around a lot and made it difficult to get perfect measurements. Ah. Who needs perfect measurements anyway.

I decided it would look way cooler and more authentic if the lines and numbers were actually engraved in the wood and not just painted on, so I consulted one of the smartest guys I know, the head custodian at my school. He recommended the perfect tool, AND he let me borrow his. This dremel.

I tried it out and I loved it. Now I want one. I am not sure what else I would use it for but I secretly love tools. Shhh. Don't tell my husband. I still like when he drills holes for me. But anyway, I want one.

So I used the dremel to "carve" out the lines, and the numbers. Definitely far from perfect. I am getting MUCH better at just living with imperfection. 

I had originally planned on painting the lines and the numbers, but when I went to search for a paintbrush, I happened to notice a sharpie laying on the countertop and I thought, "Hmmm. That would be much easier." I also figured if it didn't work or if it looked all janky, I could certainly paint over it, no biggie. But sure enough. The sharpie did the trick. 

I LOOOOve it. It has its blemishes....but that makes it even more authentic, right? That's what I tell myself anyway.

I was going to hang it in our hallway near the dining room where it could be seen more often, but than the hubs had the brilliant idea to hang it right between the doors to the kids bedrooms. Why didn't I think of that?

And here is is in all its glory....ready for its first markings....I can't believe how tall my kiddos are already. Wish I had made this right when we moved in.

This is the view from my bedroom into the kids' rooms. I'm so happy. It makes me smile.

Have you DIYed anything that makes you smile lately?

Blast Off for Cooper's 4th Birthday {An Outer Space Party}

Slowly but surely I am trying to catch up on old posts...and I figure since I only have a few more weeks before Cooper's 5th birthday (Yikes, I better get planning!) I better get a move on posting his 4th birthday party, themed, Cooper's birthday blast.

Here was the set-up in the dining room, which was home to the desserts and party favors.

This was Cooper's favorite part...the planets, made from paper lanterns, bought on Amazon for super cheap.  I first tried hanging them from the ceiling in the dining room, orbiting the chandelier, but they kept falling down so eventually, they made their way here. I like them better here anyway. They were hanging from cute orange and blue polka-dotted ribbons of varying lengths. and topped with little party themed circles. BTW- in our house, Pluto IS a planet. 

I wish I could take credit for the cake, but I don't bake cakes. Why bother when I can go to Metro Market, bring in the invitation that I designed and custom order it with polka dots, stars and all and end up with this: 

Dessert table: Black Hole Brownies, Celestial Cupakes and Cosmic Cookies

Moon Pies and Deep Space Donuts.

Party favors. Inside were bubbles, marbelized superballs, gumballs (planets) and butterscotch candies (flying saucers).

Jupiter Jello

The food table

Cooper and his BFF.

Pinata. I bought a pre-made rocket pinata and added colors and embellishments for my party theme.

Happy Birthday Sweet Cooper. Make a wish.

What was your latest party theme? If you've discovered Pinterest, then you know there are lots of ideas out there that are yours for the taking.

A Fireplace Makeover and some DIY Art

Shortly after we moved in, my fireplace looked like this:

I am fully aware that the art on the mantel isn't to scale. While it is much too small for this space, the framed art is a favorite of mine, a watercolor print of a bay in Cinque Terre. It's almost exactly the view that we had from our balcony in Vernazza, which was one of our many stops on our three week honeymoon in Italy. It recently found a home on top of our piano, but for our first few months in this house, it lived here.  However, first things first. I hate brass. So, it didn't take me long to find some black spray paint to take care of that fireplace screen. Of course it had to be high heat spray paint, to avoid problems when we have a fire. I believe I used this kind from Rustoleum. Anyway, that was a nice quick update and I like how this looked much better.

My most recent project was to create a huge piece of DIY art for above the mantel that would fit the space much better. A while back I found this awesome ornate gold frame at a consignment shop near my house. The shop is a little gem called Legacies Limited that I stumbled upon about 12 years ago, shortly after I moved to Milwaukee. Many of the wood pieces in my home are treasures I found at Legacies over the years.  And now that I live less than a mile away, I love grabbing a Saturday morning coffee and making a swoop through the shop to see what other vintage treasures I might find. Right now I am in the market for a cool twin bed that I can paint white to pair with the other beauty in the girls' room.

Anyway...Back to my art. So about a year ago I scooped up this frame for about $40. It actually had an oil painting of a ship inside it and when I first bought it, I popped off the frame and put the painting in my garage. For many months it hung empty over the mantel and at Christmas time I dangled some glittery red letters which spelled JOY inside it. 

For a long time I've had this idea for some DIY art and I knew I wanted it to include the Lyric, "All you need is Love..." one of my favorites for so many reasons, partly because its such a great mantra and partly because it reminds me of my childhood since my dad loves the Beatles and played their music often. My original idea included something organic with some strips of barnwood fastened together and painted with this quote... but the logistics of cutting the wood the right size and fastening it together made me procrastinate even getting started on the project...so when it ocurred to me that I still had the original painting from the frame, which was exactly the size I needed, my original plan evolved into something else that resulted in this...

Here were all of my supplies just before I got started.

First I loosely planned out the placement of the words, using some sticky letters and wooden letters that I bought at Micheal's.

 Next I began to Modge Podge the newspaper and scrapbook paper to the old painting.

When that was complete, I let it dry for several hours. Next I traced the large wooden letters onto some plain white paper and cut them out. Using some "repositionable" ( Is that a real word?? The stuff is actually called that!) scrapbook tape, I stuck the letters to the decoupaged canvas.

 

 Then using some leftover paint, I covered the entire canvas.

When I removed the letters, I had this masterpiece... Well, not so much a masterpiece, but it is a pretty nice "place-holder" until we can afford some real art.

What do you think?

Have you made any DIY art lately?