How to make a tutu table and vanity mirror

So I have pretty much been steadily pinning things on pinterest like a madwoman. Particularily, adorable things for my little girl. Once upon a time, I bought this amazing little Peter Pan table for my boys. It was adorable, with crafted original artwork. 2 years later, I found it trashed in my backyard by my boisterous boys and the top of it had been completely ripped off. I was sad that this chapter had to end. But I put it in the back corner of my garage thinking that maybe someday I would do something cool with it.

                                           
My daughter Liv just turned 2 and has become obsessed with princesses. I wanted to do something special for her, besides the usual toys. So I dug through a handful of my favorite pinterest pictures and decided to do a mash up of a tutu-skirted nightstand, and a deco-pauged table I saw. These pictures were my inspiration:

 So I dragged my old, dirt-ridden playtable and scrubbed it raw. After that, I spraypainted it white (first a base coat, then a second coat.) After it was all spray painted white, I started cutting scraps of fabric into squares (kinda like fat quarters for quilting). I also added a 49 cent piece of pink sparkly scrapbook paper to the mix, and decopaged the top of the table. Over the course of a few days, I would add a top layer of decopage glue each day to make the top of the table scratch resistent and spill-proof. Next it was time for step two: tulle. I hit up Joanne's with an online coupon and bought 8 yards of tulle fabric. It ended up being about $10.

I'd love to say that I am an amazing tool wielder, but sadly I am not. So I enlisted my husband to help me use the staple gun. I bunched up sections at the bottom and stapled all the way around. When it was evenly distributed, I cut the bottom to be just above the floor line (so little legs to get caught in it). Next I took a can of sparkle hairspray I had from Halloween and added a little glitz to the tulle. Just enough to shimmer.

After I finished the table up, I went to work on the chairs, painting them white and then decopaging the seat with some more pink scrapbook paper I bought. Then I used the eraser side of pencil and dipped it in pink paint to write her name on the back of the chair.

But somehow, it still felt like I needed a mirror to make the vanity complete. So my mother in law brought her mirror she had been storing and graciously let me paint it pink (3 coats). Then I sprayed it with a shiny finish to give it the glitzy look. I also added bling that I hot glued all around the edges of the mirror, and then hot glued die-cuts of the disney princesses I had bought at Michaels ($4). Then I took a crown that I bought at the dollar store, and evenly cut the back part out so that it wouldn't be top heavy and fall over. And I hot glued that to the top.

At the end, I made a totally unique vanity table for $20! And this is what it looked like:

 It was a total hit! Have any Pinterest Challenges of your own? Send me a link to your creation!

Project Oasis-the boys room

f you've read my blog at all, you would know by now that I am a project person. I love the challenge of a task and the goal of completing it. I love seeing the accomplishment and the betterment of my skills, and life once I've reached that goal. So for the last few months we have been looking for a new house. 900 square feet with 5 people crammed in it has had it's share of challenges. Unfortunately, because we are trying to be good with our budget and stay within what we can afford, we haven't been able to find anything decent that meets all our criteria. This made me a little sad, as I have to live in the space all day everyday and it's driving me to my breaking point.

But this weekend, we sat down and made the commitment to stay in this house longer, as long as we could re-organize it into a more functioning space. So we're diving in head-first to a house-wide project of reorganizing, spring cleaning, and re-arranging everything.

First up: Boys room. We decided to put all the toys in their room- what a feat. I wish I had a before picture. But it ended up working out quite well. I was pleasantly surprised at how much space it created in the livingroom and how much happier they were to have all their toys in one spot. I feel like I have somewhat regained my house.

Next up... the livingroom-eek!

Pimp my Ride or The Cozy Coupe Transformation

I wracked my brain this year thinking of something really great to get my boys. But as I looked at my budget, I just couldn't get them the newest and greatest. By chance, I was browsing craigslist and found an incredible deal on 2 very old Cozy Coupes. At $10 each, I simply couldn't pass them up. The owners powerwashed them for me, and even though they were sparkly clean, they were still somewhat faded and definitely LOOKED like a craigslist buy. So I decided, after much research on the internet, to refurbish them. Here's what they looked like:

I bought the Krylon plastic covering spray paint and got to work covering the bottom in painter's tape. I painted BOTH of the top parts of the car a shiny black color. I started with the top because I knew if it dripped it would be alright, and I wanted to get the black over with, since that is the hardest to recover and repaint if you mess up. Once I did a few coats, they looked like this:

In my house, color is important. It's how you set apart what's yours from what's your brother's. Everything that Elijah owns is blue, everything Noah owns is green. So naturally, I had to make a blue one and a green one. Spray painting those were a challenge. I taped plastic bags on all the wheels and the black spots that I didn't want to get paint on. Even so, things leaked through and I ended up having to put several coats on them. I think it's the perfectionist in me probably. But after several coats, and several days, I ended up with a pretty amazing result. Ofcourse, I highly reccomend putting a coat of see-through polyurethane on top, to keep scratches and ruboffs from rearing their ugly heads. But, it worked pretty well considering:

It was so fun on Christmas morning peeling back the curtain and revealing their "new" toys. I found it quite hilarious that they both knew exactly which one was theirs, without having to be told. Ahhh, the simplicity of having those familiar colors- no fighting.

Elijah's room- yet another project.

Alright so I am taking a break on the nursery today- pictures will be available soon. I just had to take the time to post a blog about Elijah's room update. When Elijah was born we had to move so quickly that I never got a chance to put some real effort into his room. So here I am, nearly 2 years later, finally getting around to doing something about it. I chose a surf theme because I thought he could grow into it as we got him a big boy bed and some surf sheets. But buying stuff for a nursery and redoing Elijah's room has been pretty spendy, so I have gone to great lengths to get some groovy deals and stuff. Here is what I have come up with:

Cute "beachy" curtains

I completely lack talent in the sewing department, but fortunately for me, my friend Lauren is killer at it and agreed to make curtains for BOTH the boys' rooms.

We picked out fabric that had a neat beachy feel and she picked this awesome colored ribbon to add to the bottom. And finally, 19 months later, my boy has curtains!!

Beachy organizer:

Props to the clearance section at Kohl's where I purchased this beachy organizer for his room for a whopping $6. Woot woot.

Beach sign:

Got a bargain on this cute solid wood surfing sign on EBAY for $4.00 (yeah ebay is rocking my world right now).


New and improved Lettering:
I made lettering for Eli's room when he was born, but it was pretty boring and very bland on a white wall. While googling one day (is googling a word?) I saw the coolest idea for lettering using modge podge. I found cute beachy paper at the scrapbooking store and modge-podged it to some backing, which made each letter backing have a cool "glazed" look. Then I took his old lettering and "roughed it up" a bit by sanding the edges and using brown ink on them. A trip to Michael's helped me get the toothy edge hangers I needed and presto: beach-inspired lettering. (I especially like the bathing suit bottoms)
Total cost for this at-home project: $8



Surfin' USA picture frame:
I had a picture frame at home sitting in my closet that I wasn't super excited about using. So I painted it blue and used chipboard I had purchased online sometime ago on it. I took some of my favorite pics of Eli going to the beach and the swimming pool and used them (ofcourse I plan on updating that this summer).
Total cost: $4.50

So this room still needs some work, but I just had to share what it looks like now. It's so fun to walk in and see the transformation. Pictures really don't do it justice. But I have been having so much fun combining my creativity with my thriftiness to come up with some great home projects that keep me occupied when I can't do anything for the nursery. It's amazing what a little spit and some ingenuity can do!

The Nursery: and so it begins

So I picked out paint samples today. I got the paint mixed and the paint brushes bought. It's time to start this nursery!
I couldn't be more thrilled. I just wish the picture of the swatches turned out better.

Oh well. Here they are, the colors of the baby's room. It's pretty exciting to be able to get a baby room ready. Here is the material for the curtains that Lauren is making me. Can't wait till those puppies are up!

I feel almost like a new mom because with Eli, I never got to put together a real nursery for him. It's really invigorating and helps make the arrival of our new son a little more real. I'll post some pictures of the room, once it actually looks like a room.