Birds on a Wire Painting

This weekend I finished up another painting for Ava's room. You remember the big blank wall space above her bed (here)? Well this "Birds on a Wire" mixed media painting is going there.

I used fabric, doilies, telephone book pages, paint, charcoal, and glue to make this. Here are some close ups of some of the birds.

And here it is in the room (right next to my big Pinkalicious painting -- notice how the colors coordinate? I love that you can do crazy bold colors in kid's rooms).

I thought I was done with her room (and I pretty much am) but have decided to fix some shadow boxes she has on the wall to make the more colorful and to add something to the entryway as it is a little dull too. But it is coming along!

Tank Dress

Once again, I decided to recycle some of my clothes. This time an Old Navy tank top that was WAY too long and kind of boxy and an ill fitting strapless dress from Target. I loved the dress last year but after wearing it a few times the chest part got stretched on one side and was a bit off.

So, I cut off the top of the dress (but kept a few rows of the shirring) and cut off most of the shirt to make this cute little empire waisted tank dress. I love it! These are my favorite pieces of clothing this year (if you can't tell) and I am so glad it is so easy to make them...especially when you are using 2 old pieces of clothing. Very little sewing my friends!

I also think next time I make a dress and have to make the skirt part myself, I will opt to do rows of shirring at the top as it looks better than elastic, is more comfortable and gives it just the right amount of stretch there. The only way this dress could be better is if I had taken the time to take the skirt apart and put pockets in. But I did not want to bother with that since it was already sewn. I'm lazy, what can I say. But I do love me some pockets.

PS. Sorry for the lame photos but no one is around to take my photo so my bedroom mirror & bad lighting will have to do!

Refinishing a Cedar Chest - Done!!

I finally finished the cedar chest I started oh so long ago (see here for a refresher). Here are the final pics.

It's red! With a brown glaze to accentuate the detailed molding. It was funny b/c when I first painted it, the color in the can looks hot pink and I was worried that somehow the oops paint I got was not red. But it dried into this nice dark red. Darren of course thinks it borders on Aggie maroon and was thrilled. Me, being a longhorn albeit a 2%er, was not thrilled with this being called "maroon" or "Aggie" anything. But I still like it!

Side view.

Inside! The front compartment was completely sanded down to nice cedar but the 2 back compartments had a felt of some sort that was glued in and looked old and grungy. So I bought some foam board, cut it to size, covered it in some upscale brown/white zebra print and voile! A modern and stylish cedar chest. Note: the main area below was untouched after the sanding and is just plain cedar. I could cover it with the same print but decided since it was the bulk of the storage that I would leave it alone.

And in case you were too lazy to click on my link above, here is the reminder of what the chest looked like (keep in mind this was already after some sanding...it looked nicer than this but was just not my style). This chest looks light years different from where it began.

The inside...see the felt! Ew! My father-in-law sanded off the glue in the front compartment thought but I still decided to cover it for aesthetic reasons.

One more thing knocked off my list! Strangely enough I really want to start looking into refinishing other stuff. Chairs and other things with cool shapes and molding. We'll see!

Something for Me...Again!!

So I decided to try another project out for me...shocking I know! I have this old v-neck shirt that I bought this past fall for $4 and I really liked the fit of it. I wore it ALL the time.

Problem was, all that wear, made it get these little holes at the bottom...ugly!

I was going to throw it in the trash but then decided to save it to try to make a cute t-shirt dress out of it. I bought about 5 or 6 of this style dress this season (sleeveless instead of short sleeves). So I knew that I would like this style. With a bit of one of my favorite fabrics (from Patty Young's Mezzanine line -- I got the end of bolt at my fabric store for 30% off!), I whipped up this little dress this afternoon. No real pattern, just kind of figured it out. I even added pockets which is my favorite part! In my opinion, dresses with pockets are just all kinds of awesome. What do you think?

And I love how Ava just had to snuggle up to me (in her princess dress of course) for the photo! I think that next time I make this, I can do it more easily and probably even better. Just goes to show you, if you like a tank top or t-shirt and it gets those tiny holes in it, you can save it and make something really cute out of it.

Rodeo Baby Sets

My friend Jennie, who works for Austin Rodeo had me make a few onesie/burp cloth sets for a friend of hers who used to work at the Rodeo...she wanted them kind of rodeo/country themed so here is what we came up with.

One with the Austin Rodeo logo (the upside down A made to look like cattle)

And a cute little cowboy boot.

Ava's Room

I think awhile back I promised to show what Ava's refinished furniture looked like (all of it). Here it is..I tried to clean up her room a bit before I took the photos b/c it never looks this put together.

Vanity & Dresser

Another shot.

Her bed & the Pinkalicious painting. Notice the empty spot on the wall above her bed? I'm busy trying to take care of that now...will post a photo when that is done. I actually was waiting to post these photos once that area was complete but obviously that is taking too long!

And her closet (where most of the clutter ends up). Darren built a nice shelving system in there that holds most of her toys and I was happy he did b/c all of her puzzles and bigger items had no where to go!

Alteration

What is it with all the super short dresses lately? I mean, I like short dresses but recently the ones I try on are so short that you are afraid to move as you might expose yourself. I've bought a few of these to pair with leggings but seeing as it is 90+ degrees here, I don't always feel like wearing them.

So why I am talking all about this (other than to hear myself talk), you might ask? Well I was at Target today and found an adorable black dress for $7. Really cute, very flattering but SUPER short. I wavered back and forth about buying it. Finally I decided to buy it and to attempt to alter it by adding a solid color fabric to the bottom.

I quickly headed to my local fabric store to get a plain green (my favorite color!) cotton to add to it. While Ava napped, I quickly added about 4 inches to the dress thus making it wearable. What do you think? (sorry there is no before -- I forgot! but you can imagine this without the green at the bottom, right?)
I personally, am really happy I spent the $7 (plus the $5 for a yard of fabric of which I used only about 1/5 of). Finally a finished project for me!

P.S. That blue, half finished painting with the birds is the new artwork I am working on for Ava's room since the silhouettes I had planned to do turned into a disaster. Stay tuned for the finished product.