Staying Busy

I’m busy working on some of my pinterest challenge pieces.  I have a pair of pants made for my son Oliver that are almost done.  I just need to finish the hem and then miraculously get him to model them.

I’m also working on the painted dress.  I had hoped to finish it and wear it to my friend's bridal shower I have this weekend.  Except it’s turning out to be quite a big fail.  Not sure I want to wear it out in public.  Regardless I just have to hem that up too and then it will be ready to show you.

I’ve also been scoping out deals for the finishing touches on our dining room remodel.  I am currently in the market for a new rug, a new light fixture, and fabric to make new drapes.  I think I want to find the rug first, and then coordinate the others from that.

The dining room in it’s current state.

Some rugs that keep jumping out at me are.

I know I want to bring a dark/navy blue into the dining room, I just can’t decide if I want to make that statement in a rug, or choose something more neutral.

Metallic

This is a couple days late…but I’m finally getting around to it.

I like to watch the red carpet events for the award shows.  I might actually like the award shows themselves too, but I usually go to bed before they are over.  It's an early 5am wakeup call around our house.

So as I was watching this years Oscar red carpet the predominate thought in my mind was metallic.  Those dresses were everywhere.

I also love reading what peoples opinions on the best and worst dressed are, to see if they line up with my own opinion.

Here were mine.

Best dressed.

I am starting to learn that I love the designer Elle Saab, here is Sandra Bullock wearing Saab.  I love this dress.

I also think Jennifer Lawrence looked great.  She has one of the best personalities in Hollywood and it’s great to know that a little stumble won’t keep her down.  Plus if you have seen any of the coverage backstage with her and Jack Nicolson…I think it was one of the best moments of the whole show.

I also liked Nicole Kidman’s dress, but I kind of wish the little bat like emblem in the front wasn’t there.

Charlize Theron was stunning.  My husband thought she needed a necklace…I kind of agree.

I loved this dress on Stacy Keibler, but I just didn’t like the hair…It almost ruined the whole look for me.

Now for the not so greats.

If you take the sleeves and shoulder pads off, this dress would be gorgeous on Halle Berry.

If you knew this dress was from H&M you would admit it looks good, but against all the other way more expensive dresses, it doesn’t stand up so great.  Plus it’s a little wrinkled.  Totally something I would do though, since I hate to iron.

As Reese Witherspoon was being interviewed on the red carpet, I just kept thinking that I really didn’t like this dress on her.  I can’t quite put my finger on it, something about the color and the black bow at the top just doesn’t work for me.

There have been mixed reviews on Anne Hathaway’s dress, but I am definitely on the “don’t like this one at all” side.  It just looks like a prom dress that teenagers would wear.

I also wasn’t a fan of this dress on Zoe Saldana, just like most of the experts.  I actually didn’t mind the different shades of gray on the bottom if the top half had been plain white.  The flowers and belt made the whole thing look inexpensive.

And my favorite quote of the night had to be about Hugh Jackman and his wife.  I couldn’t find a picture from this year’s Oscars…so this was from a couple years ago.

When I told my husband that this was actually his wife.

“Wow, he could have any woman he wanted.  Good for him for staying with it.”

Not quite sure if the it meant their marriage, or his wife.  Let’s hope for decency that he meant the marriage.

Not everything turns out the way you want it to

Have you seen all the new ads for Sharpie Markers and how you can draw on anything?  Not to mention all the pictures on the internet showing projects made with Sharpies.

So I went out and bought a package of pretty colored sharpie markers..ready to try my hand at a new colorful project.

The original piece looked like this.  An old globe inspired container I think I purchased 10 years ago.

I spray painted it white and then began my crazy diagonal pattern using the markers.

It just wasn’t working very well.  The markers weren’t doing a good job covering over the white, and the white paint was coming off onto the markers.

I gave it another couple of days and then attempted again.  Here is the final product.

I think it’s an improvement over the old globe design.  But it’s not quite the look I was hoping for.

I’ll live with it for now and at some point I will probably paint over it again and try something else.

Pinterest Challenge–Week 1

Here is the inspiration photo I found.

I had this cardigan I bought a couple years ago.  I never wore it.  It didn’t have the greatest fit and something about the flower on the front, never really went with anything.

And here it is after.

Let’s get one more close up so you can see the print.

I wanted a “sweatshirt” feel to the cut.  As you can tell, I actually switched the front and the back of the original sweater.  I like having the button details on the back, and that way I was able to reuse the neck and bottom banding of the original sweater without having a seam in the front.

But since the original front of the sweater had a lower neckline, I added a piece of fabric to the back as well.

It’s super comfortable and definitely a step up from the plain boring gray cardigan.

Upholstering A Chair

This is my big project I have been working on for awhile.  I have always wanted to reupholster a chair.  You can always seem to find cheap chairs with horrible fabric, that you know would look great if you could just get some new fabric on them.

It was a huge and daunting task.  There are some great tutorials out there if you want to learn how to do it yourself.  I’m not going to go into great detail here.  I actually didn’t use a tutorial myself…I just winged it.  I would say that some chair styles anyone can recover with fabric.  The one I tackled did have some sewing to it, so it would be more of advanced beginner experience project.  If you want an easier project, just look for a chair that has a seat cushion that isn’t removable.

So here is the old chair I picked up on Craigslist for $10.

It has very simple lines, nothing fancy.  I figured it would be a good chair to start with.

I had already bought fabric that I was going to use to recover some kitchen chairs….but since we have new plans for the kitchen, I decided to use the fabric for this chair instead.

So here is the finished project.

It now sits in our family room and completes the empty space that was being filled with temporary chairs that didn’t match.  The only question I have left is whether I want to paint the chair legs in a cream color.  I’m leaning towards yes.

I’m actually pretty proud of myself and now have the confidence to tackle two other chairs that need reupholstering.

As I mentioned I won’t be doing a tutorial, but I thought I would list some simple tips in case you are thinking about trying this yourself.

1.  Fabric choice is very important.  I picked up a fabric that had a little bit of a stretch to it.  It made it a little harder to get nice crisp lines.  If I did it again I would get a fabric without stretch.  Come to think of it, with two black dogs and kids, I probably wouldn’t get a fabric with so much white on it again. 

2.  Take a lot of time to write down what you are doing when you remove the existing fabric, then when you use the new fabric you just work backwards.  Takes pictures of areas that are difficult to remember so when you are putting it back together you can remember exactly how it goes.

3.  You have to be careful because you will use the fabric you remove as patterns to cut out the new pieces.  This is also good to remember because if you get a chair with fabric that is so gross you don’t want to touch it, you won’t want to use it is as a pattern.  So make sure the old fabric is ugly, but not infested, gross or too dirty.

4.  The one thing I wish I would have done is when tearing apart the pieces that were sewn together (ripping out the stitches), I wish I would have marked the stich line with a permanent marker on the old fabric and cut the old fabric on that line.  Then when I used the piece as a pattern I would have cut around leaving a 1/2” seam allowance.  This would have made it easier to stich back together and get the perfect shape.

5.  It took about 7 yards of fabric to cover this one wing chair.

In the end it took about 7 hours of my time and $70 dollars worth of fabric.  So after you add the initial cost of the old chair you have a total chair cost of $80 plus labor.  Not a cheap item…but buying a custom chair with fabric you like in a store can easily set you back hundreds of dollars.

P.S.  If you follow my personal blog you will soon be able to see the post my husband did that I had to remove until I was able to finish this project.

It might be cozy

I bought this cashmere set years ago.  It was comfortable.

But the sweatshirt piece always had a problem.

So I chopped it off, took the sides in, removed the pockets.

And now I have a cute cozy cashmere mini skirt.  With an added bonus zipper detail in the back.

Heading out to dinner with friends.

From pregnant look alike sweater to hugs your bottom skirt!

6 Week Pinterest Challenge

Nothing like starting this new blog off with a big lofty goal.

I found a blog that I have thoroughly enjoyed.  Merrick's Art  We seem to have very similar tastes and as I read back into her blog posts, we seem to have some similar characteristics too.  But before I sound too much like a stalker...I'm not.  I did decide I would link up to their Pinterest Challenge....because it's something I need to do anyways.  Tackle some of my inspiration pieces.

So here they are:

In no particular order....
1.  A DIY ledge for holding pictures in my office.
2.  Oliver loves monkeys, so why not create a pair of pants for him.  Mine will be made with knit fabric I already have on hand.
3.  Painting on a dress.  This one might be a fail...I guess we will wait and see.
4.  Updating an old sweater by adding a print fabric.
5.  Spray painting a globe to give it a more modern/metallic feel.
6.  Repurposing an old sweatshirt into something more fitting and stylish.

Now let's see if I can actually finish something I start!

A New Blog

It's my new crazy idea for this year.  What if I tried to make it for a whole year without buying anything new in the way of clothing or furniture.  I attempted this a little bit last year.  I did....alright.  This year I want to do better!

I get a lot of inspiration from seeing blogs where they refashion clothes or completely transform a piece of furniture by painting it.  I have dabbled in it a little bit, see the posts below for a refresher...why not turn my hobby into something more.

So this is my new website you can find it my linking to my personal blog or just coming here, it all depends on what you enjoy the most.

Thanks,

Kristen

Brightly colored candlesticks

Craft Chair

A New Lamp

From Frumpy to ?

Geometric Maxi Skirt

A New Buffet