Teacher Appreciation door decorating

So one of the responsibilities of room parents is decorating the teacher's door during teacher appreciation week.

The theme was MAGIC.

We wanted to keep it simple.

Here is what we came up with (courtesy of my friend's iphone)




Everything was cut out with my silhouette machine (the words, the stars, the hat, the rabbit) - I love having excuses to use it!
Love how it turned out!  

Grommet Curtains

So this project started in November.  I got all motivated, bought my fabric, sewed one panel in a short amount of time.  And then never finished. until now.  Whew.




Partly, because I made a mistake on the first one and didn't bring myself around to fixing it until now.

And because part of the mistake involved making ANOTHER trip to Joanns which is about 40 minutes away. ugh. which doesn't happen very often.

The only problem is that not only did I have to fix my first mistake, I had to RELEARN how I made it the first time. 

Hopefully, with this post I can remember what I did (if I ever want to do it again).

I got a lot of good help from THIS website and a few good tips from THIS website.


There were two important tips that I also learned - make sure the fabric on both panals is going in the same direction. It seems very basic but if you have a pattern fabric it can be hard not to get confused (thankfully I didn't make this mistake, but almost did)
And secondly, make sure the grommet tape is going in the direction you want it to go. I had it all sewn on and finished when I realized I had cut out the grommet tape wrong (so the panals faced out instead of in. urgh)

In my opinion, it was worth going back a few steps to fix.  Here is the difference:

This is without using the grommet tape:

And this is WITH the grommet tape. It makes a much more uniformed, polished look (at least I think so) by scrunching the sides of the fabric together.

* EZ grommet tape can be found in the home decorator fabric section at joanns.





My steps I followed:

1) So, I first measured out my fabric. I wanted them 90 inches long.  I added 8 inches for the bottom hem and .5 for the top - so 98.5 inches long.



2) I measured out my lining. Total length subract 3 inches. (87 inches)

3) Sewed a zig-zag stitch on the top and bottom of my fabric.

4) Bottom hem: Pressed in the bottom fabric 4 inches. Then pressed in another 4 inches.  Then sewed a blind hem stitch to finish it off.  Good video HERE. 

5) Bottom hem of lining: folded up one inch (right side up facing down) and pressed. then another.  Sewed a blind hem stitch to finish.

5)  Pressed in the top of fabric (.5 inches).

6) sewed fabric with lining.  Right sides face each other.  Leave about 3.5 inches on the top and 1.5 inches of fabric on the bottom. Sewed with a .5 inch seam.  Pull lining to other side and repeat.

7) Turned fabric inside out - and pressed, leaving a even amount of fabric on each side.

8) Pinned the grommet tape on the top so it covered the edges of both the lining and the fabric.

9) Sew the grommett tape on - leaving an even amount of fabric on both sides.

10) Cut the fabric circles out. Scary! but don't worry, it will look good in the end.

Note:
If you use EZ grommets, the grommets will fit this tape. I did NOT use EZ grommets, and therefore had to cut additional part of the grommet tape away so it would fit.  very annoying.



These are the grommets I used - easy to put on, just snap together (you have to put some muscle behind it, but still relatively easy)

So the other problem I had was my curtain rod - the original one I had was not strong enough or long enough (even though it said it went up to 120 inches).  SO I ended up having to get a dowl at home depot and paint it.  (and the dowl wasn't long enough, so I had to buy two. I did end up using the same finials though.

However, when I was putting up the second panal, I dropped the rod and broke the finial. urgh. and bent the pole a little bit. oh well.... such is life.

Here are some without the flash.... a little blurry and the coloring is a bit off but you get the idea.

Notice I found a spot for my Eve painting? From THIS post? finally. It's been collecting dust.

 

There you have it! A not-so-difficult way to update a room.

Valentine's Day

So this year we made these for my daughter's class:

 

Thank you pinterest! See here on more info to make the chocolate pretzel buttons.

And the button handout I made on my silhouette.

The pretzel buttons actually were more difficult to make than it looked like (due to little fingers helping) but they were fun to make.

Candyland party

We've had a busy start to the year.

But we managed to pull off a fun birthday party for my 5 year old, whose birthday shortly after Christmas. He loves to play Candyland, so we thought the theme was appropriate.

Next time, I need to allow myself more notice. Planning a big party in less than a week is a little crazy. (and anything after Christmas traveling is also crazy)

But, it came together and turned out great.

Our candy spread
(I cut out letters for the sign with my silhouette, and much of the candy I bought on Amazon)

 

Close up on how much candy we had...overload

 

Treat boxes (once again, my silhouette came in handy)

 

Cupcakes with rainbow lollys

 

Cake batter rice crispies. LOVED them.

 

the kids loved the floating candies

 

Playing musical squares (to the music "I want candy")

 

Making King Kandy Kastles

 

Our sign on the door

 

Overall, success!!

A little catching up

So three years ago, a girl moved down the street from me. It didn't take long for us to realize how much we had in common. Just about everything. We grew to be great friends and I was SO so sad when she moved away. (thankfully, we still keep in touch, which is a feat for me since I'm really bad at keeping in touch with long distance friends)

I promised her I would make her something as a going away gift, and sadly, it took much longer than anticipated. In the meantime, she had another baby, so I made something for her new little guy as well.

Acrylic on canvas

 

I made the little hat and apron out of canvas.... the other stuff is vinyl lettering and stickers.

 

Bookshelves: before/during/after

(technically this is not created by Rachel. but I was a big part of this so I had to put it in)

We usually have at least one large house project going on... this year we worked on our living room - specifically building built in bookshelves and our fireplace.

Now, when my husband proposed the project, it was only going to take a couple months. cough. 7 months later, we were finishing it up. Granted, he only has Saturdays to work on it (and some nights when he's up to it) so progress is slow. Plus, he's never done anything like this before so it's a learning process.

But I do have to brag about him a little because holy cow! He's never done anything like this before! and it turned out really really beautiful.... he's become quite the handyman. He put in new lights, changed outlets, put in the recessed lighting in the ceiling, installed all the wires for the TV, built the shelves, etc etc...

So the TRUE before (before we bought the house): (NOT my decor or furniture)

BUT note the hideous light fixture

 

So this is the best BEFORE I have of what we had for the past 4 years. It still had a couple Christmas decorations up (notice the nativity) but you get the idea

Ugly white painted brick, etc.

 

AND this is what I lived with for 7 months. Tarps, wood, dust, debris, tools, more tools, large saws, molding, more sawdust, drywall, concrete, etc etc
(don't step on that kids!)
(don't touch that kids!)
(stay out of dad's work station kids!)
(get out of there!)
(That is dangerous!)
You get the idea

 

Coming along

 

And TAH DAH!

 

And I'm DONE with seeing these babies for a while...

 

A closer look at the mantle and molding

 

Here is a more updated picture with stuff on them

 

Yay for being done!

Strings

So creative projects have been slow lately.

In June we heard news that my cousin (and my husband's best friend) had suddenly died, which was unexpected for a healthy 32 year old.

I was asked to sing at the funeral, and knowing that would be a difficult task, I looked for someone who plays a string instrument to accompany me (to help out if I managed to not make it through the song)

It just so happens that I got in touch with a very accomplished violist, who without knowing me or my family, volunteered her time to come and play.

I was so grateful for her help, especially last minute when she was in the midst of planning a huge music festival in Park City.

I didn't feel like a thank you card really expressed my thanks, so I decided to paint her a little picture.

It was a simple project, but I was shocked how it came together so fast (which never happens these days for me).

I only used a few colors (metallic bronze, copper, and gold). And I love how it came out!

 

Because I used metallic paint, it has a really cool sheen to it (which you can't tell in a picture. here is one with the flash to show)