Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Coral Pillows

Hello again!  I've been working on some "repeat" projects lately, so no new tutorials.  But, I wanted to show you these two pillows I made the other day.  I made these using the same iron-on transfer technique as with this pillow

I found the black coral graphic at the Graphic Fairy's blog (it also came in a red/coral color).  The pretty blue coral, for the life of me, I cannot remember where I got the graphic from.  If anyone knows, please contact me so I can give proper credit.  I am slowly working on giving my master bedroom some updates, so I'm thinking the blue coral would look perfect in there.  And I might make a little friend for the black coral so it doesn't get lonely.  Here are a few more pictures.

As much as I love making gifts for other people, it's nice to sometimes make crafty things for myself too.  Loving these!
Thanks for looking!

Linked up to:
Brassy Apple's Make it Monday link party

How To Nest For Less' Party With My Peeps #7

Live.Laugh.Rowe's Live Laugh Linky party

Homework's Inspiration Board link party

The 36th Avenue's link party

Too Much Time On My Hands Get Schooled Saturday link party

Ask Anna's Weekend Warrior link party

Graphics Fairy Brag Monday link party

It All Started With Paint's Pillowpalooza link party

And a HUGE thanks to Homework for featuring this post on her blog!

Posted by http://adventuresindiy1759.blogspot.com/

Monday, March 26, 2012

Dry Erase Calendar: Take 2

Hello there!  I hope everyone had a great weekend.  I sure did!  I spent the weekend in San Diego visiting my parents, so I've been M.I.A.  We had a nice visit and got tons of shopping done.  I actually got a lot of stuff that I needed or had been wanting to get and at pretty good prices, so I'm a happy camper!

One of the places we went to was Ikea.  I needed to return a couple of things as well as get a few more things - one of them being a replacement picture frame for my dry erase calendar I made that you can view here.  That was before tragedy struck as seen here.  Very, very sad.  But, I got her all fixed up!


I had remembered seeing picture frame sized glass at Home Depot awhile ago, so originally I had decided to try my luck there.  I did my measurements and found the size that I needed.  It was only a few dollars.  Score!

As I ripped open the plastic, thinking how clever I am, my hopes were soon dashed as I tried setting the glass into the opening.  Alas, it didn't fit.  Sighhhhh.  I must not have taken exact measurements (seriously - I was off by a centimeter.  Really?  REALLY??), plus it's an Ikea frame which never really quite works out to the same as regular store-bought frames.  So I made the trip back to Home Depot and returned the glass.  And then I patiently waited until I got the chance to get a replacement frame at Ikea.  Their frames are pretty cheap and I figured that I had to get other stuff there, so why not just get the same exact frame.  (I ended up using the other frame without the glass in it for something else - yay for me and reusing it!)

There were a couple of changes that I made this time around.  I found a different blank calendar that I liked better because the actual boxes were a bit bigger and easier for me to write in.  I found it here at Cutie Pie Printables.  I also hung it from 2 of the little command hooks instead of 1.  I almost had a tragedy before - it actually fell off the hook and onto the counter, but no damage was done (not until it was introduced to my elbow).  And I bought a new set of dry erase markers - they are mini sized and different colors, which should make it more fun.

So, there you have it.  She's all fixed up and ready to go.




I hope everyone has a good week.  I'll have more projects for you this week.

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Iron-on Transfer Pillow

Ok, so I couldn't think of a better title, so I went with "descriptive".   I've had this idea for awhile, but wasn't sure if it would work, but it turned out great.  I see more pillows in my future!

I made this pillow for a friend of mine.  She & her husband have been remodeling their "barn" and when discussing the decor, we refer to it as Chateau De La Mer.  It's kind of an inside joke, but I found this graphic on the Graphics Fairy's website and thought it would be perfect since it's in French (it's in French, right?) and she loves sweets.  There are tons of great graphics on her site - check it out!  Here is a quick tutorial on how to create your own pillow using graphics.

Supplies needed:
*  Fabric (I used a canvas drop cloth I purchased at Home Depot)
*  Iron-on transfer paper
*  Printer
*  Iron & ironing board
*  Sewing machine & thread matching your fabric
*  Polyfiber fill

1)  First, find an image that you want on your pillow.  If the image has words, make sure to print the mirror image (when you iron it on, it will come out the correct way).  This is what the mirror image will look like.
Via The Graphics Fairy

2)  Next, print your image on iron-on transfer paper.  I bought mine from Walmart in the office supplies section.  I wasn't sure if it would work with my printer (I use an HP Photosmart printer), but it ended up working like a charm.

3)  I cut two squares out of leftover canvas painter's drop cloth that I had previously purchased at Home Depot.

4)  I followed the directions that came with iron-on transfer paper.  They suggested to use a pillow case underneath, so that's what I did.  I then trimmed the paper around the graphic and placed it where I wanted it to go on the fabric.

5)  Then, I used the iron and ironed on top of the paper onto the fabric.  I made sure to apply lots of pressure.

6)  Once it was time, I slowly pulled up on the paper, making sure that the image stayed on the fabric.  They suggested that if it didn't completely transfer, to just iron it again and apply lots of pressure.  Mine came out perfectly - I just made sure to slowly pull off the paper, little by little.

7)  I turned over the piece of fabric that had the image ironed onto it, placing it on top of the other piece of square fabric (right sides in) and pinned them together.   Sew up all the sides leaving a section open so you can stuff it.

8)  I turned it out and wa-la!  It's ready to be stuffed.


9)  I had an old decorative pillow that I haven't been using, so I ripped  that seam open and used all of the filling for this new pillow.

10)  Once I stuffed it to my liking, I closed up the opening at the bottom by hand-sewing it, to seal it up. 




I'm so pleased with how it came out.  I already have a couple of graphics that I want to use to make pillows for myself.

Linked up to:
How To Nest for Less's Party with my Peeps link party

Creatively Living's Tell it to Me Tuesday link party

Live.Laugh.Rowe's Live Laugh Linky Thursday #2

Too Much Time On My Hands' Get Schooled Saturday link party

The 36th Avenue's Show Me Extraordinary link party

Home Stores A2Z Tutorials & Tips link party

Graphics Fairy Brag Monday link party

It All Started With Paint's Pillowpalooza link party

Posted by http://adventuresindiy1759.blogspot.com/

Saturday, March 17, 2012

Kitchen Makeover

Hello again!  We've been having cold and super rainy weather this weekend, here in Southern California, so I'm taking time to write this looooong & picture-filled post!  As you may have noticed, I've been trying to share more of my house.  Although, some of the rooms are still very much a work in progress, I have a couple of rooms that are pretty much done (for now).

Today, I'm going to share my kitchen.  Of course, there are already things I want to change (isn't that how it always works?).  But, I have other priorities as far as the house goes, so I'm done for the time being. And it's not to shabby, if I say so myself.

Once upon a time, my kitchen looked like this.
Wow.  I didn't remember how it looked until I searched for these pictures.  It's your basic builder grade kitchen cabinets and tile counter.  They were in decent shape, but well, as much as I love the 80s, my kitchen needed to jump into the 2000s with me.   I started working on it before I even moved in, but most of it was put back together within the first two months of my living here (yes, I went quite sometime without having a working kitchen - I got tired of fast food pretty quick!).

I'll start with a list of changes that were made:

1)  Cabinets:
The cabinets were sanded down and stained in Minwax's "Ebony".

The doors, drawers, and upper cabinets were removed for this whole process.


2)  Counter tops:
The old counter's tile and wood trim were taken off and new tiles put in.  I decided to go with tile vs. any other counter tops because a friend's friend did it for very cheap.  I originally was not going to do much to the kitchen, so didn't do any research into any materials.  The opportunity arose, so I jumped at it.  I bought all of the supplies at Lowe's.  The counter top tiles are American Olean's "Bright Smoke" and the grout & caulk was Custom Building Products' "Delorean Gray" (sanded grout).  Before I decided on the tile, I had considered granite, but I really don't like the speckled look and at the time, that was mostly what the choices were. Plus, it would have been a lot more expensive than having to put the tile in.  If I had a choice now, I would pick either butcher block (stained a dark walnut) or concrete.  I love the look of both!

3)  Accents:
I also added some accent tiles.  I chose a metallic vine trim to go on the back splash (using Mapei's "Gray" caulk).

Under the picture window's sill, I chose a metallic pencil tile.

The smaller window sills got a mosaic tile treatment (by Daltile from Home Depot).
I really like this type of tile and thought these two little spots would be a good place to put them.  I originally was going to just use the same gray tile as on the counter tops but as you can see, it would have been a bit of a pain to put them in because of the small space.  It was do-able, but turns out it was a good thing that I didn't (see below).
Notice a difference in the 2 above pictures?  I got new windows installed in my house a year ago.  You can see the difference in the windows above.  They actually had to cut out some of the tile to fit the window in, so it actually worked out better that I had this type of tile in. 

I also changed out the outlet/switch plates.  They went from a white/off-white plastic as seen in the picture below.  (Sorry, this was the best picture I could find that had the outlet plates in them).

There are several outlets in the kitchen alone and some switch plates are expensive!  I ended up finding some cheap, stainless "generic" ones at Home Depot.  They don't have any detailing and are just plain, but I didn't need anything fancy.  (Again, sorry about the picture.  But, you can see how the switch plates were changed out).


4)  Door/Drawer Handles:
There were no handles or pulls on the cabinet doors and drawers.  I had debated for quite some time on whether or not I should add them.  I ended up using Ikea's "Metric" handles and love them.  They break up all the dark of the cabinets.  I had a hard time with installing them because the drawer fronts were too thick for the screws that came with the handles and I had a hard time finding screws for it (as you can read about here and here).  But, it all worked out in the end and looks great!


5)  Window Treatments:
After buying my house, I learned that all of the windows are not a standard size.  Meaning, if I wanted to replace any existing blinds, I would have to custom order or have store-bought ones cut down to size.  Sigh...  In the kitchen, there is a big picture window, and two skinny windows next to it.  All of them came with those cheapo aluminum mini-blinds.  They were very dirty and the strings were nasty.  Ick.  Here is a before picture showing all three windows and the icky blinds.

I finally put in new window treatments last year.
Sorry that you have to see the mess on the counter.  I didn't want to buy anything too expensive for the bigger window.  I ended up finding Bali Vinyl blinds in "Coffee" at Target for the big window.   I had to buy two and installed them side by side, but for $14.99 each it was a steal.  But, as you can see above, the blinds on the right towards the top don't close correctly so some light filters in.  I guess that's what $14.99 gets you.  I am going to replace them eventually with a nicer bamboo set, but wanted to see how this would work in the meantime. 

I also made curtains for the two smaller windows (as seen here).  The only way to get blinds for them was to custom order and it was going to be at least $80 per window.  There was no way I was going to pay that. I'm pretty happy with how they came out.  In the picture above, you can see I had originally hung them by sliding the curtain rod through the pocket I made at the top.  This was fine, but was a bit of a pain to open & close the curtains.  So, a few months ago, I decided to buy clip-on rings and clipped them to the top of the curtain and the open & close waaaay easier now.

6)   Dishwasher:
All the appliances that came with the house were white.  I really like the stainless look and had planned to gradually replace everything.  My dishwasher was the first to go.  The one that came with the house was old & didn't work very well (when turning it on, sometimes the water would run & sometimes it wouldn't).  

My friend had replaced hers and kindly gave me her "old" one - score!  (The actual process of installing it was easy, but came across a few issues as seen herehere, and here).

7)  Refrigerator:
Another appliance got replaced just a couple of months ago and she is a beaut!  More details here.

8)  Sink:
My kitchen also originally came with a ceramic, white sink.

I got a really good deal at Home Depot on a stainless steel sink.  At first I hesitated to buy one - the ones I've seen before made a lot of clanging noises when you put dishes in it.  This one sold me because it was made so that you don't hear a lot of that clanging.  (I made sure to tap on it at the store to make sure.  Ha).  Sure enough, it doesn't make nearly as much banging noise as some other stainless ones.
This is a picture before the faucet was installed, but I used the same one that came with the house.  The faucet is a good one and it detaches so you can use it to spray.

9)  Paint:
The walls also got a fresh coat of paint.  The main walls were painted Behr's "Sandstone Cove" and the accent walls were painted Behr's "Oakwood Brown".  You'll see them below in the before & after pictures.  I wanted to paint the main walls a different color, but it wouldn't have looked right because the accent walls don't go all the way up to the ceiling (I have vaulted ceilings).  The living room, dining room, and kitchen all share one big wall, so I made them all the same colors (it would have looked strange to paint the same wall 2 or 3 different colors).

So, are you ready for some before & after pictures?

BEFORE
AFTER


BEFORE

  AFTER

 BEFORE
 
AFTER
 
BEFORE
AFTER
 
As for changes that I would like to eventually make...I will be replacing the stove with a stainless steel one (and the microwave also).  Also, I'd actually like to go the complete opposite as far as the color of the cabinetry.   Yep - I want to go all white.  But, I hate painting, so who knows when that will happen.

There are still a few finishing touches that need to be done.  When the cabinets were re-done, the trim was taken off and put somewhere in the garage.  I need to find the trim, stain it, and attach it back to the cabinets.  Once this is done, I will be officially finished with this room.  Eventually, when I'm done with other projects for the house, I will start thinking about doing those changes above.  But, I'm very happy with how all of it turned out.

Thanks for looking!
Posted by http://adventuresindiy1759.blogspot.com/

Linked up to Thrifty Decor Chick's Show Us Your Kitchens party