Burlap flag o' Comfort

Hello there friends. Are you annoyed with me for leaving you hanging on the kitchen reveal? Do you not really follow me anymore because I never have new posts? Well, if you are out there, I promise the kitchen reveal with happen sooooon. There are just a couple finishing details that need to happen before I show her off :) Stay tuned, k!?

Moving on.
Burlap. Comforting? Wha!?

O.k. You know those moments as a mom when your head is spinning, your temper is boiling up, and you just need to take a big deep breath and calm down before you explode. I know this feeling all too well (remember, I'm the mom that yells). The Summer "non-routine" was starting to get to me just as the crafty urge struck. I remembered one of my "stuff to make" pins from long ago and I knew it was a must.

"It's O.k."

I got my tools set up (including: sewing machine, iron, glue gun, spray paint etc) and got to work.

First I took my dowel and ball caps outside and spray painted them, what else, gold. While those were drying, I ironed my burlap (wrinkly from not being stored properly, ugh) and cut it to size.

I used my sewing machine to sew around the edges as well as sew a rod pocket (sorry for the lack of pictures, I never claimed to be a good tutor).

Next, I sewed from fancy trim along the bottom.

 After all the sewing was done, I printed the letters out on card stock and cut them out. I used them as stencils and traced them right onto my burlap.

After that I just filled in the outlines with acrylic paint and called it a day :)

I'll apologize again for my poor tutorial skills and skip to the end:

 

Now, when I reach my boiling point, I can look up at this comforting burlap sign, take my deep breath, and calm the heck down. lol.

Happy Summer everyone!!!

Crafty Quickies

Happy Monday everyone. Just wanted to pop in to share a couple quick projects that I've been working on (if you follow me on Instagram "arichardson79," you've already seen these). Nothin' fancy, just a few easy "smalls". Take a look:

First, I bought Rustoleum's glitter spray paint when I was at Home Depot and it didn't disappoint.

I just taped off the bottom of a mason jar and made is sparkly :)
Oh, and look at how BIG this peony is!!

It was the size of my head...maybe bigger. Lol. So pretty!

Next, i decided I wanted to spruce up my utensil holder so it will fit in with my new snazzy kitchen (reveal coming sooooon). It was just a basic metal canister thingy (sorry - I don't have a true before pic). First I spray painted it white. The next day I used some washi tape to tape off a design (herringbone). then I sprayed the whole thing gold.

Not a perfect tape job, but I think it turned out cute :)

I didn't get a before pic of this one either (fail) but my sister gave me an old vanity mirror that she wasn't using anymore. I turned it into a counter-top chalkboard :)

Aqua, of course :)

So, that's it. A few little randoms. lol.
Here's a {dreamy} kitchen teaser pic for ya :)

Yay yay yay!!!

Have a great week everyone :)

Crafting with the Kiddos ROUND TWO

Hello there!!! It is hot and earthquakey here in SoCal but we're surviving ok. The kids....well, they're still driving each other (& me) crazy. Ha! Anyway, I had some crafting to do for my etsy shop so I decided that it may be easier if the kids have a project to work on too. Honestly, I didn't get too much of my own stuff done but it was fun to get crafty with them. Take a look at our supplies....

$1 unfinished wooden birdhouse from Michael's
$.77 craft paint from Michael's
f-r-e-e paint chips from Lowes.

First the kids painted their birdhouses.....

(Needless to say, I'm glad I put the sheet down on the table)

After that, I cut the paint chips into strips...

Then I gave each strip a nice fringe...

Time to attach the "shingles."

Final (messy) step - GLITTER!

I just dabbed on some tacky glue and let them shake on the sparkles...

We dumped off the excess and our houses were done :)

Hayden's:

Noah's:

And here they are hanging from the tree in the backyard waiting for their new tenants :)

I didn't actually put any birdseed in there (or weed seed as my husband calls it) so they are just a cute backyard decoration swaying in the breeze.

Hooray for Summer & getting crafty/MESSY!

Crafting with the kiddos

Happy Moan-day everyone! This is our first Summer week without any scheduled activities. We had 6 straight weeks of Swim Lessons, and Noah did a 3 week Ocean Camp called Sea Cubs. Now, it's time to veg. Haha. I have to admit, "vegging" with my kids these days isn't exactly relaxing. The boy is 6 and the girl is 3 and they are non stop fighting, bickering, and bugging each other (& me). I decided to do an art project with them to keep them busy and keep myself sane. I pinned this pin the other day so I knew what our art day would be...painting. The pin involved finger painting and we were NOT going to do that. Remember, trying to stay sane. haha! Here's what we did...

1.put painters tape on canvas.

2. draw a shape with a sharpie on the tape (Noah chose a star).

3. Use an exacto knife to cut out the shape (Hayden chose a heart). I had flat board-style canvas for this which worked great. I think the exacto could have cut through a gallery wrapped canvas.

4. Start painting.

We painted outside so our mess would be...outside. lol. We did one color at a time letting it dry for 10 minutes between coats. Noah had fun setting the timer for 10 minutes. I worked on my own crafts and they rode bikes in the yard until it beeped.

(note: The next time we do this, I will only be putting out the colors that I want them to use. They have pretty interesting color combo taste). The peach was not in my original plan.

After all the paint was on, we set the timer for 20 minutes so it could get really dry. Being outside helped with quick dry time and craft paint typically dries fast.

We could have stopped there if we wanted to and just pulled off the tape, but we took it a step further. After it was completely dry, I taped off some stripes and let them fill it in with white (perhaps toning down the funky color scheme a bit).

After that was done, we peeled off the tape and let it dry. Then I let them each pick out a color to fill in their shape. I did this part because...well...precision isn't in the cards for them quite yet ;)

Here are their finished products:

Hayden:

Noah:

My kids absolutely love how they turned out and I think they're pretty cute too! Noah said we should send them to a museum (lol).

My second to last step was to add a D-hook using my glue gun.

Wanna see where they ended up??

Check!!!

Crafting with the kiddos was a great Summer activity and gave us a few much needed fight-free minutes {sigh}.

Happy Summer everyone :)

Vintage Sheet Wreath - from MD to CA

Happy Memorial Day people! My flag is flying high outside today. I am proud to live in this wonderful country and call it my home.

I am back from MD and settling in nicely. A few of my breakables didn't survive the flight home (Southwest is not so gentle with checked baggage apparently) but most of my treasures made it through the adventure. RIP Reamer and Angel :(

Moving on.
When I arrived at Cassie's beautiful house, I immediately got settled in to her beautiful guest room. I unpacked my clothes into the gorgeous chalk painted vintage dresser and made myself right at home. Shortly after, Cassie came in and uttered words that made me happier than a bird with a french fry.

"Anything you want to use out of my craft closet, feel free. What's mine is yours."

H*ly Cr*p!

I stood there a bit stunned in front of the 2 big closets filled to the brim with goodies.

"I may need a few minutes to think about it............uhh.........uhhh....WOW."

Seriously people, angels sang when the closet doors opened. I will never be the same again.

First on my Cassie's craft supply agenda was to make a vintage sheet wreath. She had recently made one of her own so the tutorial was fresh in her mind. Take a look here to see hers.

And....here is mine (hanging on her beautiful turquoise door)!!!

All of the supplies previously lived in her wonderful closet of happiness. Well, OUR wonderful closet of happiness (hee hee). The perfectly perfect summery patterned vintage sheet, the pretty layered canvas flower, and a ball jar filled with buttons and baubles.

After a bumpy ride in the baggage compartment, this beauty made it all the way to CA in one piece. Here is where she lives now :)

You can also see below on the mantle some of my new milk glass pieces. Milk glass is super sturdy and not one piece broke in transit. Yay!

I tried to move the clock and fill in with more milk glass. I couldn't make it work though because I kept looking there for the time and getting annoyed that the clock wasn't there. Do they make milk glass clocks?? Hmmm. haha!

I'm still sprinkling some of my new finds around and have a couple projects to work on. I hope you all had a fabulous weekend and have a fabulous week ahead of you!

Happy happy Memorial Day!