Not So $10 Ledges

About 2 years ago when we were redoing our kitchen, I made these ledge shelves inspired by Ana White's $10 Ledges.  I originally wanted to use them as storage for spices and our olive oil, but once our vent hood was installed, there just wasn't room for them, at least not as I had originally intended.  Since mine are made of yellow pine (harder wood) and I used a 1 x 6 for my platform instead of a 1 x 4, my ledges cost more than $10.

Needless to say, they have been hanging around and taking up space for about 2 years.  I thought about cutting them to make them smaller.  (They are 4 feet long.)  But since I had painted them with Annie Sloan's chalk paint, that made it tricky.

Do I repaint?

Stick it in a corner so you don't see the cut?

What to do?

Freezer Paper Stencil Tutorial

I have written about using freezer paper stencils before when I posted about my Star Wars Birthday T-shirts or any of my fabric paint projects so far, but now I am back with a written and picture filled tutorial.

First, you need to find an image or create your own image that you want to turn into a stencil.  My youngest son just loves trains - Thomas the Train, diesel trains, electric trains, steam trains, any type of train, really, so I tried my hand at drawing a train.

Holey Jeans to Shorts

I am guessing that if you have children, this is a familiar look - holes in the knees.  These were almost new jeans (really, I know because I bought them new), in which my son managed to put holes within a 3 week period.

How do I know?

Because we were on our yearly 3 week vacation.

I purposely brought these pants because they did not have holes in them, and we were visiting my in-laws.  I know it is not the most important thing, but if you see your mother-in-law once a year, you don't bring holey pants with you.  :)

Stitched Jeans Bracelet

Yup, there it is - another upcycled jeans bracelet.  (remember my multi-wrap beaded jeans bracelet?)  Low key and simple, and not particularly fashion-like photography since I had to take the picture myself. 

This bracelet is mine.

I made it for me and my rather simple ascetic.  Don't be fooled.  I can dress myself up pretty well, but I like jeans and a t-shirt the best, or better yet, yoga pants and a t-shirt.

Easy Fabric Paint T-shirt

Have you ever wanted to use fabric paint?

But you are intimidated by having to use an exacto knife and don't trust yourself to be able to use it to make a satisfactory freezer paper template.

All is not lost!

You don't need mad exacto knife skills to make way cool freezer paper stencils.  All you need is a cool paper punch.  Fiskars and Martha Stewart sell loads of different lever and press punches of all different shapes and sizes.  I grabbed a few coupons for Joann's and picked out 2 press punches, a large star and a small star.

Thomas the Train Double Riser

If your children are fans of the wooden Thomas the Train sets, I am sure you have plenty of experience with their wooden risers - both the good and the bad.  They allow your children to build bigger and better, AND they are also not particularly stable, especially, if you double stack them.

I revealed how I solved a few issues in this post, Thomas the Train Bridge Tutorial, involving permanently attaching a track section to 2 single wooden risers.  Simple and yet so very helpful.  I am not sure how much my boys appreciated this change, but I sure appreciated it as it stopped a lot of whining and crying because the track broke, yet again.  Screws and glue are good for that.

So, when my oldest recently started combining the single risers to make double risers (which they are meant to do, unfortunately), I experienced a similar problem as before - the track broke.  Grrrr.

Boo.  Real stable, right?

Tutorial: Baby/Toddler Duvet Cover Part 2

I mentioned in my DIY Your Own Pottery Barn Pillow post that I had a matching duvet cover coming, and here it is.  This tutorial makes the Baby/Toddler Duvet Cover Tutorial even easier.

 Do your kids have any special interests or characters that they like?

There are so many great fabrics to choose from.  You don't have to settle for whatever the kid's stores want to sell you for too much money.  I bought my Star Wars fabric from Joann's at 40% off 4.5 yards.  If you play your coupons right, you might even get 50% off your desired fabric, which is likely way less then what you would pay a the store. 

Who's with me?!