My friend is having a baby girl!

I've passed along many a cute outfit to friends who have younger little guys than my Jack. I love seeing Jack's old duds given new life on other cuties.  I found out a close was expecting a little girl...I thought I was out of luck on passing-clothes-along front. Her son had looked so cute in some of Jack's hand-me-downs, that I was disappointed I couldn't do the same for her daughter.                                         

When I found a cute pair of red pants for the little one, I decided this old shirt of Jack's had potential.

I added some lace to the front. Cut off the collar and used some bias tape  to give it a rounded neck. In a last little tweak, I decided to make the sleeves cuter by running a bit of elastic through the sleeve hem to gather them a little. I made a pair of matching shoes using this great tutorial by Prudent Baby.

 It's not the typical baby-girl pink, but it's girly all the same.



HAPPY JULY 4th

May God Bless You

And

May God Bless America!

Well, that project spiraled out of control...

We live in the city, where lots are small, so I use every inch I can for gardening. The most usable space is actually along our driveway, but since our dogs and my son like to hang out in the backyard, that leads to a lot of lifting Jack, 4, over our gate because I don't want to risk the dogs getting out. Frankly, he was just getting too heavy.

My solution was making a movable fence. It's not perfect and not exactly what I had in mind, but this hodgepodge is my creation and believe or not, it's working...well it's working for our little dogs...a visiting foster, recently jumped our backyard fence and then made quick work of this "little obstacle."

When I need to move it, I can simple pick it up and put it too the side. My son has enjoyed going from the backyard to helping mom with your garden without having to rely on me lifting him over the fence and my back has been very happy.

This may look like a random picture, but it's actually the table I used to create my fence. It was really too big for our family room, but I really loved it and didn't want to get ride of it. I started disassembling it with the idea of using the components in the future, when I realized that the frame, cut in half would work for my movable fence.

This was definitely a trail and error project and it shows, but it's made my life easier. I think it has some charm to it...I'm sure there will be some tweaking in its future...I was trying to do it without having to buy much...like pickets (which would have been my first, but too pricey, choice.)

Peonies and a thrift store find...

Each spring I eagerly await when my Peonies bloom. I'm not sure there is anything quite as lovely. There a little like clouds on a stem. When I saw this lovely pottery "basket" at the thrift store. I knew I had to have for my Peonies. It set me back a whole $1, thanks to a 50 percent off sale.

Make your own Mercury glass...

So my friend recently had a yard sale, and let me tell you, I was buying. (Plus she gave me lots of stuff too.) Anyway she had this star shaped tea light holder that I thought had potential as just a decorative element. I thought it would look great with a mercury glass treatment.

The main ingredient needed is the Looking Glass spray, by Krylon. It's a little expensive, but it's awesome stuff.  I've used it to make mirror before. You just follow the instructions on the can, but they basically entail spraying the back of the glass. I like it because it created the aged mirror look that I love. While making the mirror, I found it sped the process along if you sprayed black paint on the back. (Otherwise you have to put on a lot of coats of the Looking Glass.)

So to get the Mercury glass look, I found it works best to use the looking glass first, a couple light coats. While the Looking Glass is still a little wet, start spraying, other metallic paints - I had chrome and gold- on the backside of the glass. It's also great, while the paint is still wet, to hit it with some sprinkles of water. (It reacts cool with the paint and makes it more Mercury-like.) I forgot this step on my star. I finish off with a light coat of black paint. I just used chalkboard because that's what I had on hand. 

Here's the finished product ... cloudy-mirrored, loveliness. Useful, no. Pretty, yes.

Almost everything has potential...

When it comes to furniture, I think almost anything has potential. There are a few caveats...pressed board pieces are generally not worth the effort ...okay, so maybe there is really only one caveat. Anyway, when my grandmother offered me this ugly footstool I didn't hesitate to take it in.

It took me awhile before  I decided what I wanted to do. I've never really recovered anything like this before, so I was a little hesitant. I decided to tackle it using some nice, but cheap fabric I picked up at St. Vincent Depaul.

I originally going to sew a removable cover for it, but since I'm new to sewing, I made the initial part of the cover a little too small, so I decided to get out my staple gun (otherwise known as my BFF.)

 I stapled the skirt on. I also chose to do the fabric on the reverse because it was a little garish (which is probably why it ended up at the thrift store.)

I  was able to cover up my staples with a combination of piping and gimp. This was my first attempt at making my own piping. The single piping turned out great, but the double piping not so much.

It's a little wonky, but I'm pretty happy with my first attempt. I have a similar project waiting it's turn in the basement.

Now the real challenge--- finding  time for the piles of potential hanging out in the basement.

Ready to travel

I have a hard time passing up a suitcase, but you can only use so many...especially when you rarely go any place.

I decided to take this suitcase and

combine it with this ...



The combination equaled a cute little side table.

I don't know if it was the recent royal wedding ... or maybe my extreme adoration of Miss Mustard Seed ... but I can't get enough of the Union Jack right now. This looks much cuter in person... the background is actually a light blue, but in the photo it almost looks white.