Happy Valentine's Day!

Dorothy is Happy...

And that makes me happy! She skipped all over the house this morning when she found her ruby slippers, which I left where she could discover them. The excited "Oh, those are ruby slippers! Thank you!" made my whole day. 

 Her thrifted square dancing dress and purple tutu complete the look :) Although I think I still have some blue and white check fabric in my stash....

And here's a preview of me trying to get her to take them off for bed tonight......

There's No Place Like Home

My little girl is pretty obsessed with The Wizard of Oz as of late. She doesn't find any of it scary, and she loves the characters and songs, of course.

After she went to bed tonight, I sewed her up her own little reminder that there's no place like home.

I made them using fabric salvaged from a ruby colored sequined child's vest I found at Goodwill today for $2, and lined them with scraps from my Matron of Honor Dress. I also used some Jiffy No Slip Sole fabric on the soles so she won't slip around in them. The pattern is the Kasey Mary Jane shoe from I Think Sew, and they went together easily. The only trouble I had was my own silly mistake because I was getting tired.

Does this make me a good witch??

They'll be waiting for our girl in the morning, and I know she'll love them! 

Make it Better Yourself- Bagels

Tonight, I made bagels for the first time. I started around 8 P.M., and we now have 40 (- a few) fresh bagels in the kitch. It was easy, it was cheap, and they are delicious!

I made them small for portion control, and I topped some with garlic, onion, and salt and others with sugar and cinnamon. If you'd like to give it a go, you can find the recipe and instructions I used here. I doubled the recipe and plan on freezing half of them....if I don't sit on the floor of the kitchen with a stick of butter and devour them all myself before the hubby and kid wake up. Ha ha! I kid! I think?!?!

Sewing Custom Valances a.k.a. In Which I Become Geriatric

I registered for the Craftsy class Sewing Custom Valances as part of the bedroom makeover hubby and I are working on. I gave it a 5 star review here.

And I hung a custom valance that I am pleased with here:

.......and I am officially old now.


I never thought I would be sewing window treatments.Think fast- which sounds more exciting, sewing window treatments or watching paint dry? Well, I liked it alright. The truth is, I'm kind of a show boat, and I like having my goods out there where they can be seen. Is that wrong?

It is rather subdued in shape and trim, but hubby said he preferred a "clean" look, and I think we achieved it here. I covered the buttons, made the piping and the band, and placed them all carefully while constantly measuring. Not too bad for a first go, if I do say so myself. I also think it matches up with the headboard well.  Of course, we still need actual draperies and a second valance for the other window, but this is a work in progress with no stressful timeline (i.e. I'll get to it when I get to it.)

If anyone is interested in reading details on this project, they are posted on the Craftsy site here. And if you have not yet tried a Craftsy class, I'd recommend checking the platform out with one of their free mini courses. I have enrolled in Perfect Pizza at Home and Modern Buttercream as well as a few others. I've gotta stay sharp, ya know?

DIY Upholstered Mantel Headboard

I haven't posted much for a while. I am having a hard time getting away from all of the doing to do any posting about doing. Make sense? Well, it seems we always have project after project going on around here, and, really, that's just how I like it.

So today hubby and I finished a project that I am excited to share. I've had the desire for a nice upholstered headboard for a while, so a couple weeks ago when we picked up some new bedroom furniture at auction, I turned my focus to bedroom decor. I created a Pinterest pin board with our wall color, fabrics I liked, and headboard examples. I shared the concept with the hubby, and then we dove in.

This is what our bed looked like just a week ago,when we began our upholstered mantel headboard project. We estimate that we invested about 10 hours of labor between the two of us. We constructed the entire thing, beginning with wood and primed molding to create the mantel, and also did all of the tufting and upholstery including making the fabric covered buttons and the corded piping trim.

Bedroom before- a wee bit embarrassing to post. 

Boring, right?

Mantel constructed. Ignore the awful basement mess. 

Plywood stuffed and covered with fabric, tufting begun, cording draped. 

I was so excited when we finished the tufting! I was amazed at how easy it was. 

My paint sample board. I used the technique I pinned from the blog All Mimsy.

Here it is applied to the mantel. Excuse the terrible quality basement pics. 

And here it is finished in our room!

It looks so nice and relaxing to me, and yes, I Scotch Guarded the upholstery.

Molding, piping, covered buttons. These are a few  of my favorite things.

Yeah, so now I need to do something about the undersized bedding and put the skirt back on.  

I am honestly so happy about this. It is the most grown-up looking bed I have ever had. Also, how cool is it to envision your perfect headboard and then have your perfect spouse help you make it?

Well, this is just the beginning of the bedroom remodel. I still plan to paint the nightstands and dresser, and I have enrolled in the Craftsy course Sewing Custom Valances (great class!!!) with the intent of making window treatments that coordinate with our headboard. I will post these projects as we complete them!
Thanks for stopping by!

Merry Christmas to You and Yours!