A pinterest-inspired jewelry rack

In the process of moving my two girls into one bedroom there were some organizational issues to be addressed. One of them was our crazy collection of sparkles and spangles, bows and bracelets, necklaces, rings, and other such things. All the jewelry and hairbands were not in the least bit consolidated and things were out of control. I turned to our dear friend Pinterest for inspiration and found exactly what we needed!

First off, we created a great jewelry holder from one of these old frames already filled in with plywood for a previous display. I was inspired by a cork board and tack combo but thought I would just go ahead and use the plywood and put nails in it. Sounds simple enough – right? Well, yes and no. Stapling the fabric to the board didn't work since the staples showed through. And attaching some kind of hanging hardware to the frame turned out to be more challenging than expected. I ended ups scavanging a piece off of another thrifted frame. Dear husband built this thing like 3 times before it was actually functional. All I can take credit for is painting the frame and cutting a piece of fabric.  And having the vision, of course!

Here's the back for those who want more details:

Things to note:
• Fabric is glued to the back
• A piece of shower door stripping snugs up the fabric covered plywood and grame
• Felt pieces were added to the frame so it didn't mar the wall

Hanging next to the jewelry rack we've got a long piece of ribbon with barrettes clipped to it. Once again, thank you to Pinterest. And I totally used this idea of putting hairbands on a carabiner. It's nice because you can shift them around the loop so the one you want is near the opening. I've got two of those going stored in a bin in the girls' bathroom. Other bins store combs and brushes and small barrettes and bobby pins in clear plastic bins. Amidst my organizational frenzy my husband commented that maybe we just needed to own less barrettes. I suppose that would be an option! :-)

Chalkboard labels for toy bins

When my girls combined bedrooms they also combined toys. This motivated me to label the bins on their IKEA toy storage containers. I also went to the further unnecessary step of labeling the toy bins in the baby's room. Chalk it up to nesting, I guess!

My main challenge was that I did not want to make the labels out of sticker paper or anything too permanent. I settled on cutting apart an old corrugated plastic sign, coating it with 3 coats of chalkboard paint, and then adhering it to the bins with hot glue. It's been a few weeks and the hot glue seems to be holding up as an adhesive. I imagine they could be picked off of the plastic bins pretty easily.

Dual dresser updates

Part of the pre-baby plan is to move little sister in with big sister. Since big sister's current bed is also her dresser we needed a new dresser for her and then also for little sister. I got obsessed last fall with cruising Craig's List and visiting the Allegan Antique Market. I found two vintage dressers in need of a little love. Then the weather got colder and I got to feeling sicker and all progress stopped. So there the poor dressers sat in the garage all winter long.

Fast forward to spring and here we go!

This is as close as you're going to get to an official "before" photo. The one on the left was from Craig's List and had been painted at least twelve times previous. It did end up being the better functioning piece of furniture in terms of the drawers sliding. 

The one on the right was from the Antique Market and upon closer examination by my husband we've decided it is likely homemade. I did fall in love with its sweet details: the picket fence sides and the sweet little curves along the top and bottom. However, the drawers definitely don't glide as nicely. Ah, well.

My first design idea was white dressers with drawers done ombre style. So the top drawer would be pink at 100%, the next at 80% of the original shade, 60% and 40%. Of course, I was going to do this on the cheap so that meant I would be adding white to the original shade and trying to invent my own lighter shades. This looks very cool but in the end the idea kind of tired me out.

So the modification was to do all the drawers the same shade. The room is already done in pink, yellow, and green and I had in my head I wanted to add some blue to the mix. So one dresser has pink drawers (a wall color choice of the previous owners; yay for leftovers). The other dresser has my beloved blue from painting my kitchen.

The lovely "after" photos:

thoughts on a daughter quilt

Child number two will be moving up to a big girl bed this spring to make way for child number three arriving this summer. With a big girl bed comes a quilt! At least, in theory. I have no strong feelings about actually completing it before the bed switch or the baby but maybe before next winter?

I have been pondering this quilt for quite some time. I turn things over in my head a lot. And I generally don't start – or I stall on something I have begun – until I am confident in the direction I want to go. I think I have just about arrived at that turning point for this quilt project.

I am not going to follow a pattern. Instead, I am going to create bands of color like this:

Daughter number two used to say "blue orange" in response to what her favorite colors were. Now she's onto "pink and purple" like her big sister. The color choices are a compromise. I wanted to introduce teal to the room she'll be sharing with sister so that's the teal band across the top. I have the most dark blue fabric of any color but I will be adding purple into that area I think. And then there is the nice pink band to accommodate her new love of pink and to match the pink in sister's quilt.

The bands will be made up of various different fabrics and I think I have settled on them being made up of squares. I will probably stick to multiples of 2 so they will fit together nicely. So 2-inch squares, 4-inch squares, 8-inch squares and so on. Squares will be made up of smaller squares too. I think I need this "rule" to follow to satisfy my need for structure. I have been admiring scrappy quilts lately so I am really looking forward to putting together lots of different fabrics.

Also, I did a combination of ties and hand-quilting with child one's quilt (which was not only my first quilt project but practically my first sewing project!). For this one, I think I am going to do straight line quilting using my machine. Lines that match the direction of the bands. Here's one I've pinned that looks cool with imperfect lines for the quilting. I may also mix up the thread colors. Like using pink threads on the dark blue/purple area so it shows up. I've got some time before I have to make a final decision on that anyway!

quick cushion update

This fabric was originally purchased for curtains in my older daughter's room. I purposely bought extra so we could cover the cushions of her desk chair. All this was happening, oh, in the spring sometime. My mother-in-law made the curtains for me since I was about to have a baby and really wasn't going to get them done. And then I had said baby. And then the fabric sat in a closet.

Fast forward seven months and that baby needs a Christmas stocking. I want to use the fabric because it is a nice heavy home decorating weight. But it certainly doesn't seem fair to chop into the fabric intended for child one's room for child two. So, at least in my mind, the chair has to be done before the stocking gets started.

Here's a sampling of photos from this Saturday afternoon project. I am not making it a tutorial because I am not an expert and even consulted a YouTube video for some advice on the corners. It's not perfect but it is done. The original chair fabric is underneath. This new stuff is stapled on top. So it would be easy to undo or redo as the room gets changed.

The "before" shot. You will notice it is not made pretty for the blog. Just real kid clutter and kid tools and an excess of kleenex removed from the original box.

Staple gun and hammer to attach fabric to bottom cushion. You can see that my dear husband got involved in the craft action.

A pinned sleeve for the back cushion. I ran downstairs to my machine and sewed it and it fit perfectly. I was impressed with myself.

 

And the finished product.

As for the stocking? Well, you know, about that Christmas train wreck...