Drop Cloth Bed skirt

Back to my lack of storage....

 Sorry hope you don't get too tired of hearing me complain about this fact...

 I have to have storage bins under my bed and because of this I have been in the need of good bed skirt.  I did actually have one that I bought a long time ago but it never seemed to hang down long enough or was always getting bunched up.  Plus, it was the wrong color and just time for an update.  

Every once in a while I would look at a pattern for a bed skirt and think about making one.  The thing that always stopped me was when I'd get to the part where you needed  yards and yards of fabric that goes UNDER the mattress.  I always felt that was such a waste of fabric!  

So here is my quick and inexpensive way of making a bed skirt without wasting all that fabric under the mattress.  

All I used was:

 Paint canvas drop cloth  

a sewing machine

and my new favorite thing Velcro

That's it!

I apologize I can not remember how big of a drop cloth I bought.  I was sure I saved the packaging the canvas came in so when I was writing this up I could for sure tell you.  Of course I can't find it!  I'll I can say is I bought mine at home depot and I bought the one that was close to 20 dollars. I bought that big thinking I could make a few different projects with it.  Wow! It ended up being a TON of fabric.  But this is awesome heavy duty fabric! 

First, I measured the length and width of my box spring, then measured from the top of my box spring to how far down I wanted the bed skirt to hang.  Then added a 1/2 in for seam allowance. I cut out two long strips for the sides and one strip for the width. I cut the side strips a few inches longer so I could do pleats around the corners. When I was cutting out my strips I tried to keep the existing hem as much as possible.  Once it came time to sew hems this was a huge time saver!  Before sewing hems though, I sewed one side strip to the width strip. Then the width strip to the last side strip.  You are then left with one long strip of fabric.

  

I was able to make it so the bottom of the bed skirt was all existing hem so all I had to sew was up the ends and across the top. My hem was 1/4 in and I only turned the fabric down once.  Then, I did a little mock run and pinned it to the box spring just to be sure it wrapped around like I wanted it to.  Plus, then I was able to figure out where the pleats needed to go and where to cut the slit on the corners so it would lay flat over the bed frame.  Then I took it off the box spring, sewed the pleats and sewed a hem around my slit on the corners.    

Then I got industrial strength Velcro and used about 5 in strips.  Place one side of the Velcro at each corner of the box spring and the other side of Velcro on the inside of the bed skirt. 

I tried to keep the bed skirt pulled nice a tight as I was connecting the Velcro.  I did end up going back and adding an extra strip of Velcro in the center of the side of the box spring. 

That's it!

This was an awesome afternoon project, came together very fast. I love how heavy this fabric is, it makes it hang nicely.  Now, I don't have to worry about the storage bins under my bed being seen.

I love it! 

Happy Monday to you all!

Chelsea

Garage Work table

During my birthday in March I asked for a chop saw.  I know that might sound like a weird request but I love being able to make things for my home.  A long time ago my husband got me a jigsaw and I love it but I felt the need for something that I could make angle cuts and more efficient straight cuts.  My hands most the time just aren't steady enough to get a perfectly straight cut.  So my wonderful husband got me a chop saw. :)  I'm very excited!! I already have a list a mile long of projects I want to make. 

Only there is one problem.  I had no table to put it on.  Well that just had to change, so here is how I made a work table for my garage.  I have a pile of wood that something has to be done with, so this table was made with supplies I had on hand. 

First I measured the area where I wanted my table to be. Then I had some plywood that I cut down to that size with my jigsaw.  Then I made a frame for the plywood to sit on out of 1x4s.   

Then I placed the plywood on top and nailed in place.

Then I flipped it over.  I knew since my plywood isn't very thick that I would need to reinforce it to make it stronger.  So I cut 2x4s down to size and placed them in the center.  I tried to space them out evenly then screwed them in place. 

Now for the legs of my table.  I have 2 extra headboards that I didn't need and was very tempted to take them to DI or chuck them but I really liked the posts on them and knew they would make perfect legs for my table.  So I pulled them apart and luckily they were about the right height that I wanted.

Using 2 1/2 inch screws I secured the legs in place.

Flip the table over and Wah La! 

Now I have a nice big work space to build!  It might be sad how excited I am about it :)

I have an idea of what to put on the wall behind the table to help organize our tools.  I'm excited to show you! Hopefully I'll be able to get that done in the next week.

Happy building! :)

Chelsea

Spring Cleaning Bug

I have officially been bitten by the Spring cleaning bug!  The last week I have been furiously trying to organize and clean all the dreaded corners that I've ignored one too many times.  Such as the closets, garage, going through kids clothes switching out winter clothing for summer, the kitchen/bathroom drawers,etc...

It is still a major work in progress. Many times I feel completely overwhelmed and feel like putting it off yet again.  Then I walk into the garage or one of my kids rooms and I have an anxiety attack because it looks terrible and I can't find anything I need!  So to avoid dying of a heart attack at the age 28 I must press on!! 

I know it will all look and feel amazing when it is done.  So that keeps me motivated to follow through to the end.  I am just amazed at how much stuff a family of 5 can accumulate!  My husband and I are not big spenders, we try not to spend money on frivolous things, so where does it all come from!?  Anyone else have this problem?  Throwing it all away would make me a very happy person, however, I know that isn't always the best solution.

I just can't stand that every time I need a bowl or appliance out of the kitchen, or something out of the garage or closets I have to move stuff around to get to it! My dream is to have every organized in a way that I know exactly where it is and to be able to pull it out without everything I don't need falling out on me! Ugh moving into a house that is barely over 1000 square feet maybe wasn't that good of an idea.  Or we should have at least taking storage into consideration before settling.  I guess you live, you learn right?

So over the next few months I'd like to share my organizing solutions with you.  I wish I could get it all done right now but it will have to be a slower process.

Since I've been mostly working on my garage lately, I will start there.  To start I will mention that we have absolutely no storage inside the house and no attic or basement storage.  So anything that we deem worthy to hang on too goes out in the garage.  I've tried to keep things in boxes or bin but it was through this last year it got away from me and turned into an unorganized mess.  So I pulled everything down, went through every box, got rid of somethings, and move shelves so there was a better flow. 

One thing that really helped was to get rid of the cardboard boxes (that were all falling apart) and replace them with plastic storage bins.  It helped things look better and I felt better knowing things we protected. Then, of course, I labeled them all so at a glance I would know where things are without having to dig.

My next favorite organizing tool for the garage was this...

The one I used is called Hyloft ceiling mount shelf.  I would much rather have a attic storage but since I don't have that this is the next best thing.  It hangs on the ceiling in the garage and it can hold quit a bit of weight.  I just love having things off the floor, it gives me the illusion of having more space.  

I will eventually buy one more off these.  I swear all the things that you have to have for babies is ridiculous! and takes up so much space! So I'd like another ceiling storage for my holiday bins.  The one I bought cost around $55 so its not the cheapest solution but it really is awesome.  It hangs down low enough to put lots on it but not too low that you can't walk under it.

Well that's all for now.  I have about a dozen projects started right now and can't wait to get some of them completed so I can share.

Happy Spring Cleaning!

Chelsea  

For the hair

Since posting about the Lightscoop, I got thinking it might be fun to post about other products that I use and love. 

A little disclaimer, and side note first though...

 I am not being paid by these companies to tell you about these products. I am the type of person that when I find something I like I rarely change it up.  I usually stick with it for a long time!  Unless I hear from someone else how much they like a certain product, THEN I'm willing to try something new.  On the occasion that I've tried new products (on my own) most of the time I'm disappointed and hate that I spent the money on it. 

So these posts are for you people who like me don't like to try new things unless they know it works!

This product that I wanted to share today my Mom 'n law told me about it quite a few months ago.  I've been hooked on it ever since.  This little green bottle is magic!

It's called Garner Fructis style, Body Boost. 

After having my first baby, almost 8 yrs ago (wow that's crazy!), My hair has never been the same.  It is thin and lost some body.  I am always complaining about it!  My poor sisters have heard me complain for so long I'm sure they are sick to death of hearing about it.  I'm sure I just need to take my vitamins regularly then my hair will thicken up and feel better. Until then though I've got this amazing bottle. 

All I do is, after my shower in the mornings, I lift a few sections of hair at the top of my head and spritz this at the roots.  Then use a round brush while I'm blow drying.  When my hair is dry I have the perfect amount of volume, that holds all day!  I feel like I'm able to control how much volume I want.  If I want a little more I can blow my hair upside down and use a round brush.  Or if I'm just looking for a little boost I just use a round brush at the top of my head.  It's nice that I still have control while using this product.  

The best part is that it doesn't cost that much.  When I first started using it it was on sale for $1.50, but now I think its around $3.50. Still not too bad.  Since I only use a couple squirts at time the bottle will last me at least a couple months.   

Do you have a favorite hair boosting product?

I've been working on a few projects the last week so I will have them up for next week.  Hope you all have a great weekend!

Chelsea

One of my favorites...

You may have already seen this floating around on various blogs, but in case you haven't I wanted share this amazing photography gadget, I bought a few months ago.

It's call a Lightscoop.....

And it has solved all my indoor photography problems!  Before the Lightscoop, If I wanted an indoor picture to turn out perfect the lighting had to be perfect.  It had to be afternoon and there had to be lots of light streaming in through near by windows and doors.  Otherwise, my pictures always came out too dark or blurry.  Of course, it is rare that all those precious moments you want caught on the camera happen at peak lighting times.  

It drove me absolutely crazy!  For instance this last Christmas most of my pictures came out horrible!   I was so excited to capture the excitement on my kids faces as they opened there presents.  Instead, I got blurry scenes of there excited faces because the lightening was low and my shutter speed was slow. You might be asking yourself..."Why didn't she just turn on the flash?"   Because the washed out faces and shadows caused by the flash drove me equally as crazy!  Something had to give.

So I checked to see how much an external flash would cost. $600, Yikes!  Not going to happen unless I win the lottery.  So time to figure something else out. I'd vaguely remembered reading about a lightscoop a long time ago on someones blog (sorry can't remember which one it was).  So I found the website and read about it and decided since it got so many good reviews.  That it would be worth a try.  The best part is that it only cost $30!  In photography land that is an amazing price!  It seems like every time I want to add to or upgrade my photography equipment it's all sadly very pricey.  So my list of wants gets longer instead of shorter. 

I have used it almost everyday since buying it and have love, love, loved it!  Now, it doesn't matter what time I finish a project I can take my pictures and know that the lighting will turn out pretty darn good. If the kids get silly in the living room in the evening and I want to capture it I can without having to worry about my shutter speed being too slow.  If I want to take a picture inside on a rainy day, I can!  So if you hate the built-in flash as much as I do, Check out there website found here.  There you will find many before and after pictures that you will be amazed at.  You wont be sorry if you decided to get it.

(By the way:  I'm not being paid to tell you about Lightscoop, these are my own, honest, opinions.  take them or leave them :)  ) 

Happy Monday!

Chelsea

Spring Wreath

Over the past few years my husband and I have been working hard at planting flowers and trees around our house.  This year I finally feel like all that work is paying off. I am loving all the beautiful spring flowers that are in bloom especially the ones by my front walk.  They make the house look so inviting.   Just looking at them make me smile and relax a little. Now it's just keeping it looking that way when the temperature goes up past 100 degrees!

So the other day my sweet sister, Jessie, called and said she made a spring wreath and wondered if I'd be interested in putting it up on this blog.  I, of course, jumped at the chance! All of my sister are so talented and it so fun to see and hear about all the projects they are involved in!  They inspire me daily!   So this amazing Spring Wreath was made by my amazing sister! 

(pictures courtesy of Jessie :) )

I will try my best to relay her directions so you can make one too! 

Jessie said Joannes was having a sale on there spring flowers. ( Hopefully they are still on sale or if not keep an eye out for coupons or for them to go on sale again.) So she bought 6 bundles of lilac flowers at around 5 dollars per bundle. (By the way I have a few lilac bushes around my house that are in bloom right now and they smell amazing!)

Next, she cut the stems in half so she was left with a shorter bundle of blossoms. 

Using a foam wreath form she stuck the end of the stem into the form and also used hot glue to secure them in place.

She would periodically fill in spaces with the leaves.

Keep going all the way around until the form is completely covered and the wreath look nice and full.

After, she glued a ribbon in the back of the wreath for a hanger.  Jessie, also mentioned that she put any left over blossoms in a vase, which I loved! any added color around the house always brightens my spirits. 

There you have it! A easy but very cute spring project! 

Happy Spring!!

Chelsea

Altered Jeans

 Well it's officially getting hot here in Southern Utah and I'm ready to get out the shorts!  I decided instead of hitting the stores and spending way too much on only a few pairs of shorts; I'd save a few bucks by altering my worn out jeans and turning them into shorts.

Plus, these pairs of pants just happen to be my all time favorites and I just can't part with them. They are the only pair I own that fit just right.   Why is it so hard to find a pair of jeans that actually fit right in the hips and rear?  At the beginning of last fall I bought two new pairs of pants, which I was very excited about (I don't shop for clothes very often).  Unfortunately, after wearing them for a few hours they became baggy!  I can not stand when jeans do that!!  They fit perfectly in the store, then somehow after wearing them for a few hours they are two sizes too big!  Grrr!

Since these are my favorites the knees finally gave out and the hems at the bottom where frayed. So with a little TLC they can continue to be my favorites all summer long. :)

Here's what I did:

First I put on my jeans and marked how short I wanted the shorts to end up.  I marked them by using a pin, if you look closely you can see them in the picture below.  I wanted my shorts to be the Bermuda style.

(Sorry these pictures are a little off I used my hubbies computer to edit this time and it just isn't the same)

I knew I wanted my hem to be about 1 inch. So I cut 1 1/4 inch below my mark. 

Then I turned my shorts inside out and folded and pinned the end up 1/4 of an inch all the way around and sewed in place.

Next, I folded and pinned the ends up 1 inch and sewed around again.  This time I made sure to start and stop near the in seam so my back stitches wouldn't be as noticeable.  Also I tried to stay as close to the edge at the top of the fold.  Then, I sewed around again about 1/4th of an inch from my first line.  I had to go slow to make sure my lines were nice and straight.  For those of you who have a double needle for your sewing machine you wont have to worry about that and this step will be a cinch!!  One day I will buy one.

Turn shorts right side out and the hem should look like this:

Do the same for the other leg and that's it!! 

It took me an afternoon to complete two pairs of jeans.  I was so pleased with the results that I've decided to do the same to my kids jeans that are worn in the knees but still fit in the waist.  I haven't done it yet but it's definitely on the to do list.  They seem to either wear out the knees or grow a few inches before they actually out grow the waist.  What a huge money saver this is for the new season!

Hope you are all getting out and enjoying this amazing weather!

Bye for now!

Chelsea

Tutu {for photo shoot}

Not sure if I mentioned this or not but, like the rest of the world, I'm in love with photography! Over my kids spring break I got the chance to do a newborn session.  I knew I wanted to put a tutu on this cute little babe.  So I quickly made one.  Once again I wanted to make one with items I had on hand.  

 Waste not want not, Right?

A few years back I made a Tutu for my oldest daughter while she was in dance. I still had some left over tulle from that, the only thing I didn't have was elastic for the waistband.  I knew I needed somewhere around 14 inches for the waist but I wasn't positive on size. So instead I thought it would be fun to make the waistband out of ribbon.  Then I could just tie it around and it could easily be adjusted for any size of baby waists.  Luckily, I had just enough of a silky white 1 1/2 inch ribbon.

Here's how I made it.

Since tulle is such a slippery fabric and can get tricky to cut.  I folded the fabric in half, then in half again, and again until I had it rolled into a couple inches wide.  Just made sure you're fabric is lined up at the edge. Sorry I should have taken pictures of that step.  Then I took my scissors and cut every two inches.  I thought it made the cutting process sooo much faster and easier.  Then, I measured my strips and cut off the length I needed.  I made my strips around 9 inch long. 

Next, I Pinned the tulle to the center of my ribbon

Then sewed in place.

Then, I folded the ribbon in half over the top of the tulle, pinned, then sewed around 1/4 inch from the bottom of the ribbon.  I did end up sewing all the way across the ribbon but in retrospect I probably would have only sewed ribbon in half where the tulle was and left the ends free.  I think that would have made it a cuter bow when tying around baby.

Then I was left with something like this:

Cute....but I felt it could use a little something else. Using scraps of left over strips of tulle I made a little rosette. Using hot glue to hold the flower together and also to attach it to the waistband.

Much better I think!

And here is how it came out in the photo shoot:

I really loved it! She was a lot smaller than I had expected.  It's crazy how fast you forget how small they are!! So the adjustable waistband was very helpful!  To see more photos from the shoot check out my photography website at greatandsmallphotography.com

Have a great weekend!

Chelsea

Vynl vs Paint Showdown!

Have you ever wanted to buy those really big vinyl wall art?  But have you noticed the price tag?  Yikes!!pretty expensive. Well I have found the alternative solution for you....but first a story. :) 

A couple weeks ago I was up in Northern Utah visiting family. 

My sister, Lyndsie (that a pic of her below, isn't she beautiful!), is the hair stylist of the family, so while there I went to her house to get my haircut. Oh man! I'm so grateful that she is always willing to give me haircuts otherwise I would never make it to a salon and my poor hair would be in rough condition! 

Her talent goes beyond hair. Lyndsie and my other two sisters also have a blog only theirs is a cooking blog.  They all have an allergy to sugar (so far I haven't gotten this and hopefully I wont ever) and because of that it changes the way they cook everyday.  So this blog is full of yummy sugar free treats and meal ideas!  I definitely get in bad eating habits and it would be nice to have a treat to eat that I don't need to feel guilty about eating or giving my kids.  I think we could all do with a little less sugar!  The blog is call Natural Sweeties click on this link and check it out! You wont be sorry!

Anyways, while at her house my eye caught this amazing sight in her daughters bedroom.  Isn't that amazing!!     

I instantly demanded to know how she did it and asked if I could post about it on this blog.  Thankfully, she said yes because I have been obsessed with it ever since I saw it! I will try my best to relay the how to directions she gave me.

She said she was looking online at the vinyl version of what she now has on her wall. It was over 100 dollars to buy and she just did not want to spend that kind of money on it.  So instead she thought she could paint it on.  She researched it online and got some painting tips.

  

All the supplies she used was:

 *a small sample jar of paint (brown for the tree trunk).  I thought that was ingenious to use the sample jars they are only a couple dollars and would give you the perfect amount of paint.  *Acrylic paint (green for leaves), *tissue paper for blossoms and *craft paper for butterflies.  She used just a *small craft paintbrush for leaves and* a little bigger brush (she said she bought a few different kind of brushes and just tried until she found the one she liked the best) for trunk, and *an old rag.

First, she traced the outline using a pencil on the wall. Then on the bigger tree trunk part she would dab some paint on the go over the paint with the damp rag to help dilute the paint and spread it out in the area and direction she wanted. After that dried she went back in using a smaller brush and added lines in the trunk to give it more detail and texture.  Then also using the smaller paint brush and acrylic paint she painted on the leaves. 

After that Lyndsie and her kids worked together to make the butterflies from paper and pom poms out of tissue paper.  Then simple attached them to the wall with tape.

She also said she is planning on changing the look of the tree as the seasons change.  So changing out the blossoms for fall colors and snowflakes for the winter.  Another amazing idea!! Oh and I should mention the best part, it only cost her 10 dollars to complete this project!  Now that is what I call Sublime on a Dime!

I've been dying to update my daughters room and have been trying to come up with fun ideas.  I am totally going to have to copy this.

Hope this inspired you as much as it did me!

Chelsea