Magazine Holder

I must be in a nesting mode or spring cleaning.  My to-do list is getting much shorter.  My sewing room is sparkling clean--something that I have been wanting to do for a long time.  If this baby comes as early as my last one I only have four weeks left until crafting and sewing will be put on hold to enjoy our bundle of pink.

So to the project...I found these magazine holders-or whatever you call them-last year or the year before.

They have sat in the closet in my sewing room taking up space.  When we moved my little girl into her own room I knew I needed to finish these up.

I started by painting the doors, windows, & roofs.

 The side of each house is painted differently. Diamonds for this house.

 Stripes.

Polka dots.

The kids helped paint too.  They were very careful and loved to help out.

Sometimes it is hard to let go and let the kids help.  Even if the paint isn't perfect, the smile and pride that they show from helping is worth it.

 We used the eraser end of a pencil to get the polka dots.

 My little guy loves this one the most.

Here they are, ready to move to their neighborhood.

I put two in a shelf in the closet.

The third house is next to her bed full of her favorite books, and an American Girl catalog.

Sparkle Shirts

The other day while I was at Walgreens I found this shirts for $1!  I grabbed a few and threw them in my stash.  While I was cleaning my sewing room last week I found the shirts again and decided to do something with them.

The rhinestone-iron on things were in my stash too.  If I remember correctly I did get the rhinestones on clearance at Michael's.

 They ironed on without any trouble.

Aren't they fun?  Add a little sparkle to any shirt--this would be an inexpensive craft for a birthday party.

Grass Head Guys

For our annual cousin's Easter Egg hunt this year we made Grass Head Guys for our craft.  We have been anxiously waiting for the sprouts to pop up.

This is what they look like-we started them the day before Easter.

For some reason dark nylon head guy is bald-we think it might need some more dirt.

This is a fun project for little kids to help with.  They like to check to make sure each guy has enough water-and they will tell you how many strands of grass are on each guy.

Whitney Farms-Organic plant foods & soils

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Whitney Farms. All opinions are 100% mine.

Growing up my family always had a large garden.  It wasn't ever a question of if we were going to have a garden-it was always a question of how many tomatoes or zuccinni plants would be involved.  I knew from an early age that good soil and fertilizer (aka plant food) was vital for strong healthy plants and great produce production.  Now that I have a home of my own having a huge garden isn't always an option.  Last year I planted tomato plants in planters, they turned out well and I was happy to have grown my own.  I was vigilant about water and feeding the plants, at one point I did wonder how the chemicals in the plant food would affect the taste of the tomatoes.

This year I'm excited to try Whitney Farms-Organic Plant food & soils.

Having organic plant food and soil would mean that the nutrients soaked up by my plants aren't going to hurt my family.  Whiteny Farms has had 25 plus years of leading gardening experience.  I'm sure with all the experience my planter garden will thrive this year.

Check out Whitney Farms organic soil & organic plant food for a $3 off coupon.

Obviously for me I will be trying out the Tomato and Vegetable Food-

Wouldn't it be great to have a garden that is lucious and produces amazing produce?  My parents garden is always amazing--that's what I want my garden to look like...

So give Whitney Farms Organic Plant Foods & Soils a try and you just might be surprised.

Whitney Farms®

 

Girl Room Makeover..the finish

My hubby had a four day weekend when we were working on this project.  We were able to get so much of it done--then it took another month of late night and Saturdays to finish it all up.

 Before during and after.

 The top is a soft pink.  The bottom is semi-gloss white.  This room is the sunniest in the house, if we ever paint the white I think I will go with a softer white.

 Each of the boards are 15 inches apart.  We had to move some of the boards for outlets and light switches.

 

 A mitered corner.

 
 Each corner of the boards are mitered cut.  When making the plans we made sure to start the measurements from the corners--so each wall starts from 0 instead of just continuing the measurement all the way around the room.

My hubby can now cut the finished corner of the crown-and it looks great :o)  There is a 3 inch shelf across the entire top of the board and batten.  It is a perfect spot for little frames or statues or other little trinkets six year olds like to collect.

Girl Room Makeover..Before & Plans

This is the before--the way way way before...

So we moved everything out into the hallway.
Then we measured the walls, windows, outlets, doors, closets to come up with the plan.

This is what the room would look like if you took each wall apart and laid it flat.  Each square equals 6 inches.

 We found some paint in the oops basket at Home Depot-flat finish, paint and primer in one an entire gallon for $7!

Then we replaced the baseboards with 3 inch primed mdf boards.  That way we wouldn't have to miter the edges of the vertical boards to match the thickness of the existing baseboards.
Next up-prime, board placement, caulk, sand & paint.

Grass is as easy as a Snap

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Scotts®. All opinions are 100% mine.

Lush, green grass is a status symbol around here.  Who doesn't want the greenest grass on the block?  When we moved into our home several years ago the grass needed help-I think the previous owners didn't know how to work the watering system.  We began using fertilizer and watering it consistently-and viola it is green and starting to look much better.  

Now when it comes to fertilizer we have always used Scotts-it just works the best for us.  When I was contacted by Scotts to tell you about their new Scotts Snap Spreader System I was excited. 

Check out the system here: Scotts® Snap® Spreader System

This new system is genius.  When it comes to fertilizing my hubby usually does it.  Mostly because pouring the fertilizer in and trying not to spill or get too much on the grass is almost a work of art.  And in my present condition I don't want to touch fertilizer and risk it harming me or my baby.  The Snap Pac that comes with the new system is great.  No cutting, no opening and no pouring from heavy bags--no spilling or wasting the precious fertilizer.  The system auto-sets the proper flow rate-meaning no Spreader settings required!  No guess work of how much fertilizer your grass needs.  

Have you ever found that you have too much fertilizer left in the spreader, but not enough grass?  The Snap Pac self-seals upon removal.  That means you don't have burn your grass trying empty the spreader.  With the bag sealed again you don't need to worry about little fingers getting into the bag.

I'm always looking for a deal and if you "like" Snap Perks of Facebook you will be in the know for all of Scotts great promotions and contests.

Snap perks on Facebook

So if you are trying to get greener, thicker beautiful grass this year give Scotts Snap Spreader System a try.

Easter Dress

This year I almost just bought a dress for my little girl.  The dresses at Costco were cute-and most of them had sleeves, and they were a good price.  We debated on which dress we liked the best, then I took my little girl to the fabric store to see if we liked any fabrics better than any of the dresses.  I think she choose the fabric just so I would have the fun of making it.

 First I made the top piece.  I made my own pattern piece.

 For the sleeves I made a petal design, using an existing pattern piece.  I ended up cutting the piece down about 2.5 inches to make it look right.

Here's the dress with completed sleeves-without a sash.

The bow doesn't look great-but after three hours at church it's not too bad.

We bought gloves instead of a bonnet.  She was in between sizes of hats, next year when we have two little girlies to dress up I will probably get matching hats.

Spring Wreath

The paper straw wreath has been hanging on my door since Christmas.  Now that my daffodils and hyacinths are beginning to bloom I wanted something refreshing.

I took an old straw wreath form I had on hand.

I found all the flowers at the dollar store.  Using wire cutters I cute each flower to have a 3-4 inch stem.  Then I just stuck them into the straw.

I liked the look of just the yellow, but I found little purple& green berry like things at the dollar store too.

The three colors together look so springy.

Once I had it hung up I rearranged a few flowers so we could still use the peep hole-my hubby's biggest complaint about wreaths.

Easter Egg Garland

The invitations have been sent for our annual cousin's Easter egg hunt.  I don't like decorating too much for Easter because it is a religious holiday and would like my family to focus more on that aspect than on the eggs and such.  

While I was at Walmarto the other day I was in the paint section and grabbed a few paint chips--does anyone else feel like they are stealing when they grab 20 paint chips?  

I just grabbed the colors that reminded me of Spring.  When I started cutting out the ovals I noticed the names of the colors:  Buttercup, Pink Peony, Spring Green, Spring Bluebell, Powder Pink & Rosy Mauve-just to name a few.

I made an egg/oval template and cut out from each color.

As I hole punched the top of each egg I laid the garland out in the order I wanted to tie them together.

I used leftover yarn-it is similar in color and texture to twine-to tie the eggs together.  It brings a nice pop of color to the mantel.