DIY Dining room chair re-do

My chairs have been needing to be revived. Our dining room table is a GORGEOUS dark red wood with 4 chairs with cushions that my husband's grandma made herself. They were pretty, but outdated and did not really go with my 'future kitchen' ideas. :)

One day I was blessed to be able to look through about 12 or 15 TUBS of FABRIC!!!!!! Mostly upholstery! Ahh! I was so excited.... I picked out this GORGEOUS green and ivory pattered fabric that I knew immediately would be the one I would use for my chairs.

It took a couple months to get started...I had to pull out all of the million staples in the old fabric, connecting it to the seat itself. That was fun.

Then measuring the new fabric, cutting, finding a staple gun, and setting aside a time that I could have help doing it! (It is a 2 person job....for sure...)

My good friend Kathy offered to let me use her staple gun (she's also the one I got the fabric from :) ) and staples AND helped me hold the cushions so they could be re-done!!! Thank you so much Kathy!!!

So here are a couple of pictures of my new lovely chairs. (I didn't take any pictures of the old fabric, or the steps in doing it, because my camera died. So- in a few months when I have to re-do them again, (I have an 8 month old...) I will post detailed pictures :)

Enjoy!

I love them :) Not perfect, but I love them.

A close up of the fabric. Isn't it pretty? :)

My friend, Jillian.

So I have this friend. Her name is Jillian.
She is pretty nice. Until you get to know her.
She makes you do what she wants. She pushes you.
She yells at you. She has all of her friends push you too.
She tells you to work harder.
She tells you not to take a break.

I guess... she's not a very good friend...
But she's an amazing workout instructor ;)

Doing the 6 weeks to a 6 pack... yeah... we'll see how it goes.
I about died today. Thank you, Jillian.

DIY Button Photo frame

I have fallen in love. with CRAFTS! I take an interest in every type and style of craft. This is awesome because I am learning a TON of new things!! Also dangerous... I should have bought stock in Joanns or Lowes...

The next few posts will all revolve around things that I have been working on over the last few months. This first one being a photo frame. Hope you enjoy!

Things you will need:
A photo frame (make sure it has somewhat of a actual FRAME, not too thin, so the buttons stay on)
Buttons
Hot glue gun and extra glue

I recently 'inherited' an enormous amount of buttons! I mean a TON of buttons!! My husbands grandmother has been saving buttons off of every piece of clothing, furniture etc.. since way before I existed... Probably 60-70 years or so... So she had about every kind and color imaginable! I was anxious to do something with them, so this is what I decided on.

It's really simple actually, all I did was place the buttons on in an order (or lack thereof) that I liked and then hot glued them in place. An easy project for you all you new crafters! :)

I kind of did a layered bunch of buttons in the bottom right hand corner to kind of 'anchor' it. I like how it gave it some weight.

Not the greatest pictures, but this is what it looked like finished. :)

I put it on the piano to see how it looked.

Follow me on Pinterest by clicking the button! :)

I'm Back!

After a LONG 5 months, I finally have "enough time" to begin posting again.

Come back soon to see what I've been up to!

I'll post baby pics, cooking pics, crafty pics, misc. pics, and other random fun-ness.

Ahh. So excited!

Twine jars!

So I always seem to find these great ideas for decorating/crafts late at night. But, instead of putting them on my to do list, I get out all of my stuff and do it right then.... Crazy, I know... SO- last night, I found these SUPER cute ideas on how to recycle glass jars old and new!

Find the inspiration to this project and a TON more good stuff here . I love her stuff!

So, go get your jars (or start saving those spaghetti sauce, jams, jellys and pickle jars) and join in!

These jars sit in my bathroom on the back of the toilet. Boring? Yes. But now, I love looking at my toilet. Ha.

 

 

BEFORE. See? Boring!

So to jazz them up a bit, all I did was take some binding twine (or jute) put a dab of hot glue on the bottom of the lip of the jar and started winding around. The downside of doing super awesome crafty things late at night is that....sometimes I forget to take pictures... Sorry! Sooo... This is how it looks after the winding.

Put another dab of hot glue to hold the end in place.

After the initial binding is done, I wanted to add a little something to pull it all together. I swirled a piece of twine together and made this 'rosette'.

.

Glue it in place over the seam of where the twine ends were on the lip of the jar.

I didn't really like how you ended up with this ugly hole in the middle and could see the glue. Solution? Knot! Just tie a small knot into a separate piece of twine, cut to size, put a dab of glue in the center of your swirl and place knot!

So that's it! So super easy! I love these jars now! (And so does my husband!) What's greater, is that it didn't cost me a thing. I had all of those things at home already. If you don't have twine, try ribbon, yarn or some sort of recycled clothing item. t shirts?? Let me know what you do!

AFTER. Not boring!! Yay!

Happy Crafting!

Homemade Granola!

So- a couple weeks ago, I realized that I didn't want to have to buy much of anything anymore. 

Especially if I could make it myself! Example: jewelry, food, clothes, accessories, decorations... you get the point... 

My favorite breakfast cereal was no exception, so I started searching and found this GREAT recipe! 

Thank you to my friend Tracy for letting me re-post her amazing creation!! 

So here we go. Homemade Granola. (No High Fructose Corn Syrup- Bleck!)

Ingredients: 

• 4 cups Quick cooking oats
• 1/4 cup Flax seed (ground, OR you can grind the whole seeds yourself with a hammer. Just kidding- use a coffee grinder or mortar and pestle. :) 
• 1/2 cup Sliced Almonds
• 1/2 cup Pecans (chopped) I used store bought pieces.
• 1/2 cup unsweetened coconut flakes (I used shredded)
• 1/2 teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
• pinch of Salt

• 1/4 cup Honey
• 1/3 cup Vegetable or Canola Oil 
• 1/2 cup Brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla extract

*Next time I make this, I am going to add dried fruit.

Put all the dry ingredients (first section) in a large bowl and mix it really well.

Put all the 'wet' ingredients (second section) into a small pot, except for the vanilla. 

Stir while you bring to a boil. 

Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. 

Pour mixture over the dry ingredients and Stir like crazy!

(keep it in the bowl, but I mean stir it really well...) 

Try not to eat yet. :)

Cover a pan (I used a cookie sheet with edges) with parchment paper.

Bake @325 F for 20-25 minutes. I stirred mine about halfway through baking to make sure it didn't burn. After it is cooled on the pan, store in an air tight container in refrigerator. 

I like mine just like cereal- in a bowl with milk, and topped with fresh fruit. 

(Raspberries, bananas or strawberries are good) 

 Mark likes his on top of vanilla yogurt- parfait style. :) 

Either way, ENJOY!

Beading

These are some of the earrings I've done recently. I got hooked on beading last summer and I love it! I love being able to create a look based on something I see potential in!