Cork Board Redo with Map

 I got this cork board from my mom and it has been hanging boringly on our wall by our dining room.  I was waiting for some inspiration to hit me, and finally, yesterday I was struck.  I frequently visit the paint and wall paper section of Menards and I saw these dry erase maps.  The downside was they were 20 dollars, but I think it was worth it.  I had to trim down the sides a bit to fit in the frame and used a credit card to smooth it out.  If I don't like it I can always peel it up and stick it to a wall somewhere.  Pretty fun and we can write messages to each other on it.  

Frequented Blogs

Well this week has been a bust.  Colby has been up a few times each night and is not napping well at all-which leaves me a bit unmotivated to do any projects.  We're finally getting to see the ear specialist  Wednesday after a three week wait.  In the mean time here's some of my favorite blogs, it seems to me that everyone and their dog has a blog these days and there are a lot of neat ones for ideas. 

1. Sewinginnomansland  is great for inspirational home sewn skirts, dresses, and little girls' clothes.  The premise of the blog is that she is the wife of a foreign service officer and moves every two years  to isolated locations so she started with her fabric stash to see how far it could go.  I believe she is in America now, but she does some awesome photography. 

Picture from sewinginnomansland.com.  Link is here. 

2.  Cluck Cluck Sew is a great blog for quilting.  I don't quilt yet, but the more I look at the beautiful quilts she makes the more I want to try. 

Picture is from Cluck Cluck Sew.  Link is here. 

3. Grosgrain is a great crafty/stylish blog that has doable projects with minimal investments.  She does a nice job with the photography as well.

Picture from grosgrainfabulous.com.  Link here. 

4.  Craftgawker is a blog that I ran across, probably off of Pinterest;  it has tons of pictures of projects and then if you click on the picture if takes you to a tutorial for the project.  This blog is even more dangerous than Pinterest! 

Picture from Better Homes and Gardens (bhg.com), but found on craftgawker.com.

5.  Okay, speaking of Better Homes and Gardens (bhg.com), that is an awsome site-not necessarily a blog but they have great ideas for decorating, crafting, and cooking. A few other resources I love on the web are marthstewart.com, lowes.com, and mycolortopia.com which is sponsored by Glidden Paints. 

DIY Rugs

Well, I've been accumulating a ton of old clothes that aren't even up to Goodwill's standards so my stash has been building downstairs of t-shirts, dress shirts, and jeans.  One prime spot for a rug would be for in Colby's room since the dog can't go in there the room stays much cleaner.  My favorite rug is this one from xoelle.com.  She cut all of her t-shirts into strips and then dyed them a dark gray.  I think I'd like to dye the shirts all different shades of blue, green, and gray so it gives the rug a watery appearance. Here's a few of the best ones I've seen.

Picture found here at xoelle.com

Lovely braids.  Found here at craftpassion.com

 

 

Loving the different colors, found here at creativejewishmom.com

I love these braided rugs-the colors are great.  Found here at moddish.blog.com

I'm not so into the pink but this website has good directions. 

Accessories for the Nursery

Well, this should be the last official post about baby room decor, until I actually get my tush in gear and make something.  I'm thinking making a baby lounger would be awesome, although it will probably just end up being a golden retriever bed.  Once I pick a color scheme and just go for it I think the room will come together. 

Good Old Martha, can you ever let us down?  Oh that's right you've been to prison.  Link here.

Cute little lounger with directions here.

What a cute little rug.  Link here. 

So cute, but Colby will pull these off once he can reach.  Link here.

To measure...here

Yes, yes more baby rooms

Okay, I apologize for all of the baby rooms, I'm sure those of you that are reading this, yes I know readership is limited (hello Maggie, Chelsea, and Tyler) I will soon be getting back to actually doing things, but for now here are more inspirations for Colby's room.  By the time I get his room done he'll be a teenager and probably won't let me in to paint a cute little bunny mural. 

This is probably something more doable for Colby's room.  Link here.

Maybe just some stripes?  Link here.

This is a super stylish room, a girl can dream, right?  Link here.

Loving the tent! Here's the link.

Wall Murals

Well, I'm still on this decorating kick for Colby's room and pretty soon I'm just going to have to start into it and let it work itself out, but for now I'm trying to accumulate all of my options before I decide.  So far he's got all different wood tone furniture and light green walls-other than that it is a blank slate.  So here's some murals I'm debating about:

This is one of my favorites-a bit retro it came from here.

Perfect for Minnesota, eh?  Came from here.

I love this book, but monsters may be a bit too scary for Colby...it came from here

Or possibly I should go for something more simple.  From here

Nursery Wall Art Ideas

Yesterday I went into a cleaning frenzy-it was one of those fits where everything in my eyes was cluttered, mismatched, and out of place.  Usually when I get in one of these moods my husband will return from work to find the living room furniture moved into wacky configurations and the wall clock in a new spot, which really bugs him.  I managed not to move any living room furniture; but I did move a bookshelf up to Colby's room since we had previously been storing books in diaper boxes under the crib.  So now I have a refound desire to make Colby's room a more cheerful place so I've been looking for some ideas for wall decor so here's some of my favorites so far. 

The first three pictures are great and come from weandthebean.com, looks like it's time to get my paint brushes out:

Found here

Found here

Free Paper Toys

Free paper toys-basically little play figurines made of paper-great to entertain kids while waiting for the doctor, dinner, or whatever comes up.  I just ran across these yesterday from the freebies section of pocketyourdollars.com which has coupons and deals and it is found at madebyjoel.com.  From briefly looking at his sight he's been featured on Martha Stewart and also has a book out.  I'm sure when Colby is older we'll print some off.  The website is here .

madebyjoel.com

madebyjoel.com

madebyjoel.com

DIY Card Wreath

Well, I realize it's a bit late, but I made another card wreath to hold all of our lovely Christmas cards from our friends.  This time I decided to make it a bit heftier with some burlap and ribbon.  I used two embroiderly hoops of different sizes and simply tied on strips of burlap and ribbon.  The clothespins just wiggle in between the pieces so they aren't glued on or fastened in anyway which makes it more versatile to fit whatever size of cards you receive.  Now that I have them all done I imagine the clothespins could be placed on the back of the wreath so they would be hidden even more-oh the possibilities.  Happy Crafting!

DIY Card Wreath

I finally got around to making a wreath, I've had the components for a few weeks now so I'm relieved to have it finally done and crossed off my list.  Originally I was just going to make the wreath with one embroidery hoop but I thought it looked to skimpy and thin so I decided to add in a smaller hoop to make it actually look like a wreath.  I also had a terrible time with the bow, at first I tried to tie a regular bow with two big loops, but after searching google for tips and untying and tying it numerous times this is what I ended up with.  It was quite simple to make.

1.  Get two hoops of varying sizes.
2.  Using twine tie it to the top of the big hoop then weave it in and out of the little hoop.  The first wrap the twine was really spread out, just so I could get the little hoop positioned in the center.
3.  Continue around the hoops filling in the gaps until it looks pleasing to your eye.

4.  Tye a bow, or at least try to.

5.  Place clothespins in the twine.  I didn't use glue I just kind of got the clothespins tangled up so they can be repositioned depending on how many pictures/cards I have. 

6.  Enjoy.

Painted Rugs

Shannonberrey.com

Along with my desire to paint my curtains, I've been considering painting a rug for Colby's room or the laundry room.  I've seen some pretty awesome ones, but it seems that they aren't very durable with dog claws.  Most I have seen are painted just using latex paint either free form or stenciling and then they sand down the paint so it softens up more.  Hopefully I can find a plain rug on sale at IKEA or Target soon.    Here are some of my inspirations:

The Chevron Stripes

http://www.thehouseofsmiths.com

  Gradients

Burkelodge.blogspot.com

Numbers

designsponge.com

Stamped Rug

http://myhandsmadeit.com

Homemade Message Board Using Old Frame

This past summer I went to a wonderful garage sale and everything was 2 for 25 cents, so officially I got this framed oil pastel artwork for twelve and a half cents.

 

To make the board I simply cut fabric  a bit bigger then the backing and then taped it to masking tape to the board.  

Then I put the glass back on and I think it looks pretty snazzy.  Now it can be written on with overhead markers or white board markers and just wiped off clean.  Just a touch fancier then a white board hanging on the wall.