A hat for me :)

Blue hat :) and photo taken with the perfect 365 app. Lol no under eye circles from an app! 

The badly written directions. If you want to try it out. This is a revised pattern I found from a few different patterns on ravelry.  The first one I made was for my youngest Wesley. Which made me name it after him tada! 

I designed and made something COOL!

Hi all! So I have been searching Pinterest high and low and looking for an organizer type holder that would hold my most frequently used items: my iPad, day planner, and moleskin notebook.  I couldn't find anything. Surprised? Yeah me either. I mean on a daily if you carry these things they aren't needed all at once. Well I am a  student, and when I need them it's for class, all at once.  Up until now I haven't used my iPad much for school, but I've had many instances where I thought it would have been handy to have it with me. 

    So now going into my 2nd semester I'm wanting to get a little better prepared. Which means carrying more crap with me, and I want to keep this stuff together. Sooooooo...... 

Ok I was blessed with a bunch of fabric samples from school ( thanks Jan) so I used what I had on hand and drew it out first. Nothing fancy just a few boxes. Then I cut and put it together as I went.  No I didn't take as I went photos. Why? Because I really didn't think it was going to look decent. 

So here are photos of the finished product. Once it was done I realized a few things I should have added. 1) handles, I wish I would have added a handle on each side just to be a pick up and pull out of a bag help. 2) a closure. Im not a big fan of buttons or straps to close. But I may redesign this later with a top zipper added. Oh and I'm horrible at adding the stretchy bits to hold in the iPad so it does look funky. But there it is. 

Thanks for visiting! If I do remake this I will do a full tutorial. Don't hold your breath class starts next week and I'm taking 18 credit hours. No time for sewing until summer 😝

My Nails

Oh sigh, I took my acrylics off, here are a few before and after pics. You really can't tell a huge difference, well maybe in the length but otherwise? The pictures don't tell the whole story. I don't have regular nails like other people, mine are super thin and always have been. If I want to keep natural nails I have to layer 5 or more coats of polish and they still end up bending and breaking and peeling and just generally hurt.  

Which is why I always go the fake nail route. But it's been a while since I went and had them done, as I can usually fill them myself. So when I had one pop off recently I decided screw it I'm taking them off and trying to grow them out on my own. I'm thinking that I have a better diet now so maybe they will grow in healthier? Ok doubtful but I'm gonna try. So anyway here are my most recent polish jobs for your entertainment/ motivation/ yeah something to look at lol. 

I should really try taking pictures in better light now that I look at them :( oh well enjoy anyway! 

Dots as a French. Super easy and was cute. 

Glitter alone, hated it, added a pink jelly layer, needed more, added another layer of glitter yay! Ok I liked this, but it was a pain to take off. 

Something different. Used a few yellow hex glitters and this didn't last but a few days, not sure why but the polish peeled off my nails, I don't think I had them roughed up enough after taking my fake nails off. 

Dots, I like dots they are easy and cute and not enough women try them. ;) 

Coffee Table awesomeness!

Before of my table, actually this is a before/after shot, this table used to have plain square legs, and I had another table with these pretty legs, and had my husband switch them out for me ( he's a good guy, puts up with my crap, helps me with all my projects, etc) lol so yeah this is the after/ before  shot. 

Over all not a bad table.  Perfect height for putting your feet up, but wasnt very comfy, so when i found wonderful pinterest and started seeing all of the beautiful upholstered round tables all over the place, i thought man that would make this table awesome! 

It had one spot on top I don't know how that spot got there, but this used to be our kitchen table and it came with the husband so, who knows...

And the after! OMG Squeel! Lol yep I love how this turned out! 

I had these grand plans for lots of buttons, but after coving and putting on the first round, you can't even see them, so I didn't bother putting any more on. 

This has a 1" foam padding on it under the material, which is just enough padding to keep my feet comfy when I put them up. At some point I plan on DIYing a tray to cozy up the look of it, maybe add some candles or what not. That will be in the new house, for now though, I have one more project I plan on doing this week, and I hope to post by next weekend, it includes more black spray paint and more of the canvas drop cloth I used on the stereo cabinet JOY! Love crafting projects! 

Some details about this project

Table: Free repurposed

Material: $10.64 for 1.5 yards at Walmart

Foam padding: $16 @ Walmart and I did have to cut it and piece it together to make it fit! 

Paint: already had it so again free

Total cost: roughly $27 + tax 

 I bought spray adhesive to attach the foam to the table, it wasn't the best bond, but it worked as a temporary holder. I followed Pinterest tips and sprayed outside, so no overspray stickiness issues ;). 

I then turned the table upside down and used my electric meat knife to cut the foam, it was so easy! I highly recommend doing that!

Then I sprayed the top again and laid out the fabric and smoothed it out, if you are using plain fabric I would probably iron it before using it. 

Once it was smoothed and semi attached with the spray adhesive, we flipped it back over and I used my handy dandy staple gun and stapled it down really good, if you have never done this before start with a staple on each side, then go between 2sides and staple in the middle of that, basically you want to work small areas and pull the fabric a little taught before stapling. It creates less wrinkles and puckers this way. A good thing about fabric with a print like I chose is that it covers almost any mess up! 

I also added some buttons, there are 4 in the photo above. Yep I couldn't see them either and after covering those I quit. It was a decorative element that was for aesthetics only and since I couldn't see them I didn't waste anymore time making more.  

I still want to get a scotch guard type spray and seal this before it gets dirty, but basically that's it. Lots of staples. And I am thrilled to pieces at how it looks! 

Thanks for reading! 

Finished record player revamp!

So remember the before brown plastic molded into a cool funky design... I liked it. 

The after: black and cream..... Do you like the metal in the middle painted cream, or should I have gone all black? These are my last minute projects before we move, and need something to do because I am going crazy all my stuff is packed away! 

And a view of it opened, we did not paint the inside, it seemed a lot easier to just edge it and leave the faux wood veneer alone, it's still in good shape so why mess with it? I used canvas drop cloth in front of the speakers, my main design is going to center around tan, black and white. With lots of color pops thrown in the usual places. I can't wait to see it all come together counting down the days! 

And another shot closed, I like it. Actually I think I am going to love it in the new space, and I already use it a lot.  So :-) JOY! 

Details: 

Console : $40 (ouch) but vintage lovely and I love it already! 

Spray paint : $12  (4 cans black, already had cream paint for front deco pieces) 

Canvas $15 ( only used a tiny little bit so lets say I used $2 worth) 

Total: roughly $54 plus tax

Husband again helped immensely took it all apart, helped me carry it outside, did most of the painting, I guess he wanted to help, so he checked it a lot more than I did.... I didn't tell him that I had planned on long dry times between coats. So anywho, it got done and he even put it all back together today. Even though I again had planned on a few days for the paint to cure. But all is good, it's sitting downstairs open and curing, and beautiful! My oldest even came in and says " oh my gawd mom it's beautiful!" 

JOY! :) 

Record - 8track - Radio Console Revamp to fabulous!

I am so excited to introduce you to my newest project, this is older than me and still works! 

Ok it's in pieces. I forgot to save a good before Picture before the husband tore it apart for me. And before I started trying colors on it.  But here were my "trying it on shots" I used an app for iPad called home styler, you can do basically what I did below, plus use it on walls and add furniture etc. I like it for trying different colors on things before I commit to painting. :) 

Try to ignore the mess in the background, we are in the process of moving and this is our walk out basement and everything non essential to daily living is already packed and in this area ;) 

So I got it down to either blue or black..... The handles came off the front and there is material behind the side mounted speakers which I am going to swap out too. Right now it's red fur type material. So 70's! 

So which do you think I should have done blue or black? Stay tuned for the finished reveal! Yay I love new projects! 

4th of July nails

4th of July nails, super easy to do. Just use a pin head for big dots and a tooth pick for little dots:) 

Why I have fake nails in case you care. 

I don't know about you all, but I used to love doing my own nails. What I didn't love was the time it takes. Let me back up by saying I have acrylic nails, I have been blessed / cursed with thin hair and nails. My whole life my hair has looked greasy 10 minutes after it gets washed, and my nails have been non stop breaking as far back as I  can remember. So after I got older I realized I can change shampoos ( I still look greasy after 12 hours,no matter what shampoo I try) and I can get acrylics to grow out with my real nails and I no longer have to deal with nail pain! Yay a solution! 

What else have I tried? Gel on my real nails, was the same as just using polish. Using a lot of layers of polish, they still broke off and hurt like hell, cause the breaks were low on the nail bed and didn't just break a little they broke a lot.  So acrylic nails work for me.