Merry Christmas and Happy 2014!

Hope you had a fabulous Christmas!

Christmas Pictures!

I love decorating for Christmas and I try to change things up every year.  Probably my favorite part of our house is this nook that seems to have been designed specifically for a Christmas tree!  I wish I could send a Thank You to whoever created it!

We put the biggest tree we can find in there and then put a smaller, artificial one in the piano room.

Upstairs, we have a tiny artificial tree for the kids...you can see all 3 from the balcony!

This little tree holds years of handmade ornaments from the kids and all red and white lights.  The kids love to put this together each year!  This is Bo, trying to add a "star" to the top!

I also finished Austin's "Skater" skirt this weekend!  This is my new favorite skirt!  No pattern, just need measurements.

Taylor offered to model a scarf ...

 This is why Taylor doesn't model for me!

12 Days of Sis Boom!

I am so excited to be a part of this blog series celebrating Jennifer Paganelli and Sis Boom!  I absolutely adore Jennifer and am constantly amazed by her talent and her generosity.  She is an incredible woman who has brought so much joy to my world!  I can't begin to thank her enough.  This tribute to her is well deserved and I am truly honored to be a part of it!  

I have so many blessings in my life and so much to be thankful for, but this has been a challenging year for me, personally.  Thank goodness I have a creative outlet to turn to and thank goodness I have Sis Boom!  For me, the beauty of Jennifer's fabrics lift me up and literally make me happy.  When I can transform a yard of fabric into a skirt, or a pillow, or a bag or whatever, it transform me too.  There's no way else to explain it!  So, when we decided to re-do our girls' room this Fall, I knew it had to be done with Sis Boom.  How wonderful would it be to wake up everyday and see the bright, happy colors of Jennifer's fabrics?!   

I've been sending Jennifer sneak peaks of the room as I've been working on it, but now it's ready to be revealed!  It's not totally finished but I love where it's going so far!
So, here is the room before...

It was cute and bright but a little "young".  Here it is now...

The beds are black and have two drawers on each side, which eliminated the need for dressers.  We also re-did the closet to provide more space for their clothes.

I started with the cornice boards.  I LOVE mixing up the Sis Boom in unpredictable ways.  I wanted lots of color that would work with the purple walls and the brighten up the black beds. 

The crazy love in the center is one of my all-time favorite Sis Boom fabrics.  Jen outdid herself with that one!  In fact, if anyone has any they'd like to sell me...I'll take it!

I covered an ottoman from our living room and added casters to the bottom to give them some extra seating for their friends.  I have another one to cover but just haven't gotten it done yet!!  There's also a handle on one side to make it easier to move.

This is Bradlee's end of the room.  She loves the Crazy Love too, so I did these Euro pillows for her (yesterday!) out of what I had left.

They're perfect with the new Lucky Girl!!!  I spruced up this little piece too.  You can see it next to her bed.  I just painted it and decoupaged some fabric to the top.  Easy project that totally transformed it and saved it from the junk pile!  Sorry for not getting a better "after" picture!

We're still working on the wall space and accessorizing.  I have a few ideas so come back after Christmas and see what we've done!  Here is Taylor's end...

Taylor is fun and a little crazy.  She likes to mix things up a little more, so her pillows are more of a mix of colors.

I've said it a hundred times, but that's the beauty of Sis Boom fabric...it all works!  You can't go wrong!

We decided to only keep one of the desks for the girls to share in order to save space.  I'm also searching for just the right full-length mirror to go where the light tree is on the wall. 

Here is one of the lamps in the old room...

 And here it is now...(you can see the tutorial for this  if you go back through the blog).

 This is Bradlee's end of the room before...

 ...and after.  I was worried about the beds being too big for the room, but they really aren't.  In fact, the room seems a little bigger now without the dressers and desks.

 And here is closet before and after (also blogged about previously)...

So much better! Notice the row of Sis Boom skirts!?!?

So that's it!  That's my Sis Boom room!  It makes me happy every time I walk in there!  I still need to finish the duvet covers, but I saw a little sneak peak from Jennifer recently of a new line coming out that has a little black in it...so excited to get my hands on that!!  And I'm thinking about throwing in a bright colored rug as well.  Most likely, these pillows will keep changing with every Sis Boom line that comes out!  Once I get through the Holidays, I'll be able to get back in there and finish everything.  But for now, we love it!  It's a little more sophisticated for two girls coming into their own.  It's fun and pretty but not too young. 

I have to say a special thank you to Jennifer and to all of my Sis Boom "Sista's"!  Jennifer, you have changed my world, and I am proud to not only love and admire your talent, but also to call you my friend.  And to the Sista's, you are amazing women who inspire me every day.  Just knowing I am not the only sewing obsessed, Sis Boom loving, creative nut out there keeps me sane!  Please check out their work by following our 12 Days of Sis Boom...

December 09 Sew Pretty Dresses
December 10 Sweeter Than Cupcakes
December 11 Sweet Baby Jamie
December 12 Hickity Pickity  Handmade Dress Haven
December 13 Tabbo Designs 100 Billion Stars
December 14 Heavenlelgh Blessings Boutique
December 15 Scientific Seamstress
December 16 Sweet Baby Jamie
December 17 Hold It Right There
December 18 Sew Fun By Monique
December 19 Small Town Girls Clothier Marie Madeline Studio
December 20 Granny B's Clothesline Lilac Lane by Melissa Stramel

If you happen to be in the Cinci area, remember you can buy Jennifer's beautiful Sis Boom fabric at Banasch's fabric store on Red Bank Rd..  
And don't forget to like us on Facebook!
Merry Christmas!!
 

I'll be honest, I usually have a stack of projects going all at the same time.  Rarely do I post them on the blog.  Mostly because I forget to take pictures before I get started!  So I went through some pics and found a few that I could share.

We'll start with the ottoman Re-Do...I'll have more on this later but basically I have 2 of these ottomans sitting behind my couch that are rarely used.  The girls room needed some seating, so I added casters to the bottom of this, recovered it, and added a handle to make it easier to move around the room.  I took pictures through the process and hope to post a tutorial soon.

 This is a little chair I picked up at an antique store.  I just recovered the seat and touched-up the paint.  I used Sis Boom Honey Child fabric.

 I bought this metal flower a while ago and knew I could transform it for my oldest daughter's room.  It took some time but I love the way it turned out.  I cut pink organza into a squares.  Each square is about 1 1/2 in x 1 1/2 in..  Then I squeezed the little square in the middle to make it a flower and glued it to the metal flower (hot glue gun).  Now it's a great 3 dimensional piece of art that is almost "furry"!  It's one of my favorites!

 Here is a pic of the girls bathroom re-do.  I wanted to keep the yellow walls but there just wasn't enough storage for two tween girls.  I found the cabinet at Loews and painted the little baskets to bring in some pink.  I made the shower curtain out of Riley Blake chevron with Sis Boom Poodle ties and yellow piping.  I'm looking for a mirror to replace the existing one over the sink.

 And here is the bench in our kitchen.  It was a really ugly, brown upholstered bench and I covered it with this amazing Kravet fabric.  By far, the most beautiful upholstery fabric I've seen.  I love it!

Closet Re-do

I've been working on the girl's bedroom since Summer and I'm ready to post a few pictures, finally!  I'm so close to being finished and I'm loving how it's turning out!  I'll start with the closet re-do first.

Here are the Before pics...

  It's a really good sized closet.  Plenty of space for two "tween" girls.

I didn't get a shot with the hanging racks still in there.

 

It had the cheap, metal shelving on one side and across the top of the back.  It got a little too much weight on there and just ripped right out.  It was definitely in need of some repairs!

And here is how it looks now...

 Taylor picked out the paint color and I put the shelving unit together.  It's from Home Depot and probably would have gone in much faster and neater if I had just waited for the husband to do it, but then again, it might never have gotten done at all if I had done that!  Sometimes you just have to do things yourself!

 I went to IKEA for the wall organizers.  I had no idea what I was looking for when I got there, but as soon as I saw these I knew they were perfect!  The bathroom in this room is really small so I wanted to keep as many hair and nail products out of there as I could.  This system has kept it all neat and tidy.

 Now, each girl has her own hanging section, shelves, and drawers.  The drawers are expensive ($60 each!) so I just bought a couple for now and I'll pick up more later.  The space between the top and bottom drawers on the right side is the perfect size for a laundry basket.  The bins are from Target and are great for holding leggings, sport bras, volleyball shorts, etc..  

 I'm really happy with the way the whole thing turned out and the girls have been pretty good about keeping it organized.  I got rid of their two dressers in the bedroom so I am trying to get them to hang more things than they are used to.  Somehow, "hang it up" seems to translate to, "throw it on the closet floor"  quite a bit.  Typical.

The Lamp Skirt - A Tutorial

I am a lover of on-line tutorials but I've never attempted to create one of my own...until now!  I'm in the process of re-decorating the room that my two middle daughters share and I've come up with a few creative ideas that I am going to share. Maybe I'll get a few followers out of it! 

My first tutorial is the Lamp Skirt. 

I am a huge college football fan, so I worked on this particular skirt during the Oklahoma game.  You may see bits of the game in the background! (We won this one, by the way!)  So let's start with what you will need.  I'm sure you have seen the basic drum lamp shade on a simple metal base at many big-box stores.  This one came from Target and was less than $20.

 

This lamp was already in the existing room.  I had covered it with fabric and trim a few years ago but it was obviously not going to work in the new (purple) room.

  

Here's what you'll need to create your new Lamp Skirt.

 Pick out a piece of fabric about 1 yd. long x 10 in deep, (I recommend Sis Boom...always!).  The amount of fabric you use will depend on how full you want the skirt and how deep your top trim will be.  For this skirt, I used Super Fly from Sis Boom.  The trim piece is 4in.x about 28in.  You don't need to be exactly precise on these measurements.  Just err on the part of a little more rather than a little less because you can always gather it more to make it fit.  You'll also need a glue gun and some trim to embellish with.

  So, let's get started.  Finish both sides of your top trim piece.  I used a rolled edge with a contrasting color.  You could also fold the sides over and press them down to finish.  You just don't want the edges to unravel.

Sew the short ends of your rectangle together so that the fabric becomes a circle.  Then you'll need to finish the top and bottom edges of  this piece as well.  I did this with a serger, but you could zig zag stitch if you are using a traditional machine.   You just want a clean edge.  After you've finished the edge, run a gathering stitch just under the finished edge.  I find the simplest way to gather fabric is to set your stitch length to the highest number (typically about 5) and set your tension at the highest setting.  This will cause the fabric to gather a little on its own as you are sewing.  Don't cut this gathering thread too close to the fabric.  You'll need a piece of thread long enough to grab on to to pull. 

You'll run the gathering stitch at both the top and the bottom of the circle.

 Next you'll place your circle of fabric around the lamp shade.

 Gently pull the strings you left at the ends to tighten the circle.

 As you tighten the circle, make sure your ruffles are even all the way around.

 This picture shows the bottom of the skirt before I finished the edge.  Make sure you do that finishing first!

 For this shade, I wanted the zebra print to start about 4 inches from the top.  Take a pen and draw a line around the shade to give yourself a guide for your glue gun.  This line will be covered later by the top trim.

 Hopefully, by this point, your team is winning and it's time to make some nachos and open a beer!  This should take about enough time to get your glue gun heated up!  (I wouldn't recommend opening too many beers when you have your glue gun out...)

 Looks like I am in need of a new gun.  This one has seen its day!    

 

Starting to look like a skirt!

 Now you'll flip your lampshade upside down and pull your gathering thread to tighten the bottom of the skirt.  Again, keeping your ruffles even all the way around.  Glue the finished edge of the ruffle right along the inside bottom of the shade.  The best way to keep the ruffles even is to start with a drop of glue at the inside seam of the shade.  Then place a drop of glue directly across from there.  The next drop will go halfway between the first two and then directly across again.  So now your fabric is glued in four, evenly spaced places. 

 

 Flip the shade upright again and make sure your ruffles are still even.  Make sure your top ruffles are lined up with your bottom ruffles.  Now you can flip it again and glue the rest of the bottom edge to the inside of the shade.

 

  The finished edge is glued just about the bottom rim of the shade.There will be about 1-2 inches of fabric hanging below the shade.

 

Now you'll glue the trim piece to the top edge of the shade.  Fold the short edge of the trim piece down and press it to get a clean edge, then start to glue! Just run a line along the very top of the shade.  I found it easier to glue the bottom of the trim at the same time, alternating placing glue at the top and at the bottom.  This gave me control over manipulating the fabric to keep it even all the way around.

 

  For the second lamp, I wrapped the top fabric completely over the top edge at the top of the shade.

  

 Once you've added your top fabric, you can embellish the rest of the shade in any way you like!  I think ruffles for example, would be adorable for a younger girls room!  I chose to add pom pom trim and a bow, but there are all kinds of variations you could do to make your lamp skirt unique and original!  I initially had the bow at the top of this lamp but stared at it long enough to realize it needed to be lowered and it needed pom pom trim.

 

 Much better!

Looks great with a stack of Sis Boom pillows!
And here is the second lamp, across the room.

 I did this one with Sis Boom Crazy Love fabric...always one of my favorites!

 

I'd love to hear what you think of my Lamp Skirt tutorial!  Let me know if you have any questions! Thanks for visiting!