Hand Towel 2 Toddler Bib

I love decorating... and redecorating... again... and again...
I like changing my decor for the seasons. I have fun crafting and creating new and fun things in my home. But with each holiday and season that passes I always have extra hand towels. Hand towels are inexpensive and I love matching them to my different bathroom or kitchen decor.
A few summers ago I had a blue, black and white beach theme in the kids bathroom.
When I switched things up I had a few blue hand towels left over. I never throw things away, I either reuse them in a different area of the house, upcycle them into something else, or give them to my friends.
For the blue hand towels, I decided I could very easily turn these into a perfect toddler bib, for my then 2 year old son. (This upcycle is from upcycles past, but still wanted to share it on the blog.)

Look how short his hair was?? and the hand towel reached all the way to his toes!
So this was perfect. He was too big for bibs yet still needed them, heck he is almost 4 and can still use these. They stay nice in the wash and are super cute. Since then I have made more from old hand towels. They are perfect for art and painting time too.
I just stitched a ribbon to each side of the towel, so that they could tie to different lengths. I also added buttons to the front because this towel was a little boring! You can be as creative as you want with this project.

Have fun with upcycling your old hand towels into cute and creative bibs.

tied up with a lot of projects...

I have been so busy lately...

Funny how life has a way of 'dumping' on you from time to time.

I have always wanted to try my luck and upholester a wingback type of loveseat. I have had my eye out for some time. I don't know how good I'd be at this venture so I've never wanted to spend money on the love seat. But I always said if one 'falls into my lap' I'll jump on the oppurtunity. Well, today my friend called me and let me know she saw a horrid looking love seat, just what I was looking for, free at a local thrift shop. Luckily, my Grand Daddy was able to take his truck and pick it up for me.



So I'm adding that on my to do list.

Then, the day before I found an old TV, the kind in the wooden consoles. I've been eye-balling some ideas from different blogs and said if I ever see one in someone's trash I'm going to give it a shot. Wouldn't you know... another one of my friends was at the park with her kids and saw one in someone's trash.

I love how my friends think of me when they see trash on the side of the road.. but, it works.

So I drove over, dug it out of someone's trash, and added that to my to do list.



Two, things I had never seen before, both of them, free within a few days of one another.

Love how that happens... so now I have plenty to keep me busy over the next few weeks.

I also have been painting some 'murals' on the walls of a local bakery. More to come but here is a photo of some of the work I did last night.



Also, today during naptime I realized I was totally slacking on the Easter Shirts for the kids and I decided I wouldn't neglect my children's need for Easter shirts because of some junk in the garage calling my name... so...
Here is Troy's shirt..



Here is Sophia's shirt...



And the back of Sophia's shirt..



The shirts could have come out better.. but with so much to do and so little time... I need to remember 'haste makes waste' and slllllooooooowwwww dooooowwwwwwnnnnnn.

Like Troy says, "Momma, go slowly-."

So, lots going on.. but I wouldn't have it any other way. We are having a good week. Keeping close to home and taking it easy. I have a final due on Monday so I've been preparing for that. We are going to my mom's house for an Easter celebration on Saturday, then Sunday church and celebrating with Tony's family... they are coming here so lots of housework to be done ;)

Hope everyone is having a good week.

Roadkill Remake

I went to Jungle Zone with a friend last week. We were chatting about crafting, she said "I saw an old coffee table in someone's trash on the way here and I thought of you."

Where!? I have to have it!

She laughed, like she thought I was kidding?? I was so for real!

She told me where she saw it and when we left I hoped that the trash truck hadn't made it to my possible treasure.

And a treasure it was!!!

Look what we found...



I know it doesn't look like much. The top was wet from all the rain we've been getting. I took the top off and painted it "Vanilla Brady" just like the kitchen hutch.



I was really excited about this piece I have been wanting an over-sized ottoman for the living room. We have a small living room space and I wanted to use the ottoman for extra seating and this was going to be perfect! I covered it with an orange/ivory fabric and I love how it turned out...



I added a few pillows to our boring couch and it really brightened up the living room and go things ready for summer...







I am going to keep looking for some creative things to do with the wall behind the couch but for now I am very satisfied with my cozy and cool living room.

kitchen hutch remake

My grandparents recently asked me if I wanted an old hutch that my Grand-Daddy made for my Grammie way back when. Of course I wanted it, unsure of what I was going to do with it but I love taking junk and making it treasure.... I know it made my Grand-Daddy really happy that I wanted it.
About a month ago, they brought the hutch over to my house. It has been sitting in my garage, waiting for me to get around to it.



This week I went to Lowes and picked a color... totally unsure of what exactly I wanted to do... that's what usually happens when I begin a project, I just want to do something but don't really know what I want so, I wandered around Lowes picked out some Mosaic Glass Tiles, spray paint, panels, then put it all back and left with a $12 can of "Vanilla Brandy" paint from Vaspar.

I painted the first coat and really liked the color, but didn't really know what else to do besides paint it.



We have had lots of rain and the humidity has been unreal, so I decided to pull it into the kitchen to paint the second coat and work on painting the inside shelves. I loved painting this old thing. I thought of my Grand-Daddy cutting and nailing away with his friend, Stan. I wondered what jokes they told as they worked on this for my Grammie's kitchen. This old hutch ended up being my mom's school desk. As I painted the inside of it I could see where one of their old barn cats had scratched up the inside, then the letter "R", the first letter of my mom's name. It looks like she carved into the wood with the tip of her pencil. I couldn't bring myself to sand over these memories... it's that the point of old things?



Once I painted it, I decided to try out a technique to make it "distressed". Simple, simple you take a piece of wire (like the kind you use to hang a picture frame) and scratch along the sides of the wood. Really simple but I love how it made the original wood show through the new paint.

Before-



After-



Then, cabinet doors, I heard about a local place where you could get some unique cabinet doors really inexpensive, but I'm not sure I was ready for that just yet... I decided on fabric. I went to the fabric shop and found the perfect piece of navy and ivory colored fabric that I was sure would accent this old hutch perfectly. I finished the edges with my sewing machine and made a loop at the top so I could hang it on an old bathroom curtain rod I had laying around. I put the curtain rod on the inside of the cabinet and I think it turned out pretty good.



I still want to redo the counter top with something? I'm not sure just what to do with it yet, but it is the perfect addition in my kitchen. Added storage, counter space, and makes it feel very cozy in there. Perfect spot to sit and drink coffee and blog ;) Not to mention... so far I've only spent $19 on the whole shebang!

Upcycled Picture Frame

One of my never ending projects got finished today... my upcycled picture frame.

I have 3 old picture frames that I planned to upcycle into crafty pieces of awesomeness.... they have been sitting, taken apart and half done for about 3 months now. I have been sick for a few days and today I started feeling better- not well enough to fold laundry or wash dishes but well enough to spray paint and finish one of my three upcycled picture frames.

So- here is the upcycled picture frame... turned kitchen chalkboard...


I have no before pictures... this was a large wooden picture frame that I picked up from Walgreens ages ago- it was the kind with the white inserts and you can put like 8 pictures inside it for a collage frame. I took it apart and spray painted the frame blue.
I spray painted the glass with chalkboard paint by Valspar.
Put it all back together and tada....



Don't ask me why this simple project has taken me so long- seems like the simplest projects are the ones that get drawn out the longest.

Upcycling is the process of converting waste materials or useless products into new materials or products of better quality or a higher environmental value.

Weekend Project

I scooped up a great find on a local Facebook group for moms and their kids. It is a group created by a friend of mine, for local moms to buy and sell new or used stuff. I have had awesome success selling within the group, last week I made $75 selling things that were just laying around my house collecting dust. This week also made my first two purchases from the website, one of those things was a metal swing set for $25.
I saw it listed and thought for that price it would be the perfect toy to put out on the farm for all the kids to play with. It had some rust but like my dad called it, "surface rust".
This is what it looked like when we picked it up. I just bought the metal swing set, not the wooden one.

We got it to the farm and my dad gave me some tips and he had to get to work. I started sanding right away and used three cans of Rustoleum spray paint. We got all new hardware for it and now...

Here is a great picture to show the difference of the painted side and the sanded side... whoa baby!

Well- I'm exhausted! Good Night!!

Upcycled Batman shirt.

Yes, that is his forced smile, "cheese" face... terrible isn't it?

But the Batman shirt I made him is pretty nifty! and he liked it enough that he posed for a picture. :) I made this from an old, stained Thomas the Train shirt we had laying around. Bought a plain navy shirt from Target on Clearance for $2.70, a few stitches and ta-da! An AWESOME UPCYCLED BATMAN SHIRT FOR MY LITTLE SUPER HERO!

Upcycling is the process of converting waste materials or useless products into new materials or products of better quality or a higher environmental value.