HANDMADE GIFTS {part 4}

Today's handmade gift is one I made recently  for the bridal shower of our nephews future wife.  I used fabric I already had on hand, some of which was left over from the dress I made for a baby shower. 

The pattern I created myself.

For a little extra I added two layers of ruffles and

a rhinestone buckle for some added bling.

Here's the pretty bride to be modeling the apron.

HANDMADE GIFTS {part 3}

Happy Memorial Day!

I thought today's gift would be a fitting gift to share since it's in patriotic colors. May we all remember the men and women who serve out country and make it a safe place for us to live.

Handmade gifts are fun to make and sometimes involves being creative.  A few years back our Christian school asked me to be on a committee to help grades k - 3 to make a gift for one of the parents.  Myself along with one other woman had to be a bit creative to come up with a project that would involve all the children.  We decided to make a quilt using pictures that each child in the class had colored.  Iron on transfer paper was used to make the picture into quilt blocks.

I did the sewing on the quilt because the other mother didn't know how to sew.

Because children are so precious, we chose Precious Moments pictures.

 

The parents loved the quilt because it's a quilt full of memories of each child who contributed to the quilt.

HANDMADE GIFTS {part 2}

Today's gift is also a gift I made for a baby shower.  This time it was for a little girl that was adopted and because of all the paper work and wait time, the shower was not held until she was 2 years old.  The little girl is a real girly girl, so of course it had to be pink.

The dress was very simple, but I thought cute!

HANDMADE GIFTS

I enjoy sewing and often make gifts for special occasions. I thought over the next few days it would be

 fun to share a few of my projects. 

Today's theme is 

Baby

I made this for a new baby at our church a few years ago.  The baby's father is a Marine Engineer and works on cruise ships.  I thought it would be fun to make something with ships/boats for the gift.  I created the pattern and design my self. I used star fabric for the sky and a print fabric for the water.  I then made a sailboat, using photo transfer paper adding a photo of the baby to the sail.  I even made a boat anchor using a button and string.

Because I'm talking about babies and baby gifts, I couldn't resist adding a photo of our cute granddaughters.

ACCESSORIZING THE KITCHEN ON A LIMITED BUDGET

The fun part of making over a room is adding the accessories.  It's like the frosting on a cake.  In my last post, I shared my kitchen makeover.  Today I'll continue to show you how I accessorized my kitchen on a small budget.  The accent colors I chose were white with touches of yellow.

For me, the process starts several months before the makeover begins.  I create a mood-board with ideas and inspirations.  Pinterest is also a great place to get ideas.  I then begin to watch for items at  garage sales, thrift stores and in the clearance section in stores.

The items above were all purchased while thrift store shopping.  I place the collected items in box, and pull them out as I decorate.

Here's an example of how I use these items.  The canisters I found at Goodwill and the metal coffee wall art was from a garage sale last summer.  The utensil holder is a vase left over from our daughter's wedding.  It was bought 1/2 price at Micheal's.

The napkin holder and napkins were purchased from a garage sale for .25 cents each.  They were both brand new and still in the package!  The napkins I had tucked away in a drawer.  I had forgotten about them, and was excited to find them when I needed a little more yellow as an accent.

The accents above the cabinets were all second hand items with the exception of the little chicks on the left and the plate on the lower right.  I bought the plate at the dollar store a few years ago.  The chicks I bought new at a hardware store (2.99)  to add to my spring decor this year.

 

 Wanting white accents, I took this thrift store chicken and spray painted it white.  Spray paint is a thrifty girl's best friend!

I also shopped the house for things I already had.  My diy  monogram plate worked perfect in the space.  One new purchase for the room was letters spelling out - EAT - purchased, of course, for 1/2 price at Michale's.  A funny little lesson learned - I placed the EAT letters neatly above the cabinets and thought it looked great until my children came home and said "Mom, why do you have a FAT sign in the kitchen?"  I had hadn't noticed that the lip on the cabinet hid the bottom the E and it looked like FAT.  I guess it would be a good reminder for me to stick to my diet, but decided to add a few block to raise it up and spell the word EAT as I had originally planned.

Above the refrigerator, I placed a .49 cent thrift store basket along with my .99 cents lemons.

 A .49 cent thrift store vase and flowers I already had were place on the counter to add just a touch of yellow.

This ceramic pot place in the dinning room is over 30 years old.  I made it before I was married, and it holds the slip of a plant that was given to us when our son died.

Pots line the window seal that were found at a thrift store as well.

The coffee art work I had on the wall by the coffee pot previously.  I hung it above the window, accenting the coffee themed curtains.  This was a  thrift store find some time ago for $4.99.

My daughter gave this metal cup hanger that she found at the dollar store.  I just added the cups from my dish set. Total cost $ free.

New dish towels hang on the oven door.  They were only $1.25 each from Kohl's, using a 30% off coupon on the already 50% off towels.

I made a soap dispenser using a Ball jar my mother gave me.  I used the pump mechanism from an empty soft soap.  I spray painted a metal lid and drilled a whole in the center of the lid.  To keep the pump in place I simply applied a liberal amount of hot glue to hold it in place. 
 Total cost = free!

In the dinning area, I added a couple of plates to my made over shutter.
The plates were bought at TJ Maxx for $2.99 each. 


Here's a break down of the total cost for accessories. 
3 lemons @ .99 = $2.97
wire basket = .49
Faux window plants 2 @ .99 = 1.98

( I saw these plants in the store for $6.99 each!)

small white pot for window plant = .49
Canisters set of 2 for $8.99 
Napkins = .25
Napkin holder = .25
EAT letters $1.25 each = $3.75
Small white vase = .49
Towels 2 @ $1.25 each = $2.50
Plates 2 @ $2.99 = $5.98

Total cost for accessories $28.14

For the total cost of the makeover I needed to add the price of the
Curtains = $4.99 
and
1/2 gallon of paint = $15

Making the total cost of the project 

$48.18

( I did not include in this price things I shopped the house for - using what I had.)

That made for a makeover for under $50 !

KITCHEN MAKEOVER REVEAL

I've kept you all waiting long enough to reveal my kitchen makeover.  My goal for the room was to make it  brighter and have a clean-line look to the room.  The accessories I chose where in white and yellow.  Remember how I decided to use yellow to accent since I'm working with cabinets that have a yellow tone to them.  Well, changing cabinet color isn't a option when you don't own the home, so you work with what you have.  At first I was leaning toward painting the walls gray, but after a few sample boards, I changed my mind and chose the paint color - Beach House from the Valspar Signature collection.  The photos I took don't show the color real well, but it's a blue/gray with a touch of a sea blue/green cast to it.

 The photos above are showing the north side of the room.

This is the view of the room from the dinning area.  The stove and refrigerator are on the south wall.  We're so surprised  how adding a new paint color made the appliance look newer, brighter and whiter!  Here's a photo recap of what the room looked like before.

The paint color and cabinets seemed to blend together.

This view is taken from the dinning area look toward the kitchen.

I debated where to stop with the paint color.  At first I thought about stopping at the end of the cabinets, but that didn't seem to flow well.  After talking it over with my husband, we decided to take it into the dinning area and make it an accent wall.   I like how the end result ties the two areas together.

You may recall my thrift store curtain find for $ 4.99.  There were four panels and one valance.  (The brand on the curtains is Home Trends.)  I cut two of the panels down and created a valance.  I then had enough valance for the dinning area.  I have some left over fabric that I'll be making into a table runner or place-mats.

The wall paint color matches the curtains perfectly!

We love the new clean-line look to the room and how much brighter it looks.  I'll be sharing the fun of adding accessories in my next post.

Have a great day!

I'll be linking this post to -
The Shabby Creek Cottage - Transformation Thursday

KITCHEN MAKEOVER

You've been patient while waiting for my photos of our kitchen makeover.  I'm sorry for the delay and not posting for a while, but we were out of town for church work.  I've also been working on going through over 3000 emails because I've been bombarded with spam!  Things got a little busy thus the delay.  

Today I'd like to share how the kitchen and dinning room looked before I started the room makeover.  (Somehow my before photos got deleted from my camera, so I'll share some from my files and the few that I managed to find on my camera.)

The room was painted a with faux (Tuscany) look that included stenciled grapevines.  The photo below was taken before the Toile curtain was hung.

View of the kitchen from the dinning area.

The photo above was taken when we were tearing out the old floor getting ready to put down the hardwood floor.  You can see the walls in this photo. The glaze was applied using a feather duster.

The grapevines on the wall were a 4 step stencil that I painted.  I snapped a photo of them after I already had the blue painters tape in place while getting ready to paint.

Here is a view of  the dinning area taken while we working on wedding favor boxes.

The photo below is the room right after the hardwood floors were installed.  The baseboard wasn't installed yet. This photo is also before the toile curtains, otherwise the room looked pretty much like this before I started the makeover.

The dinning room curtains that I made.

The curtain in the kitchen was a thrift store find.

In the next post I'll share the new and improved room.  It's amazing how a few small changes can change the look of the room.