November 17th, 2011
Anyone on your gift list can use a new kitchen towel, I promise! Let’s face it, kitchen towels are extremely functional, but have constant turn over… so, why not make them fabulous too? Hi, Janell here for another idea for a quick and thoughtful gift–make one for your own home while you are at it.
I am sewing with Jen Allyson’s fabulous Christmas fabric line: Holly Jolly from Riley Blake.
Materials:
- Fabric for decorating towels
- Towels to be embellished
(helpful hint: when possible pre-wash and dry your fabric, especially when using dark colors to prevent them from bleeding color onto your towels)
- Additional trim such as ribbon, lace or rick rac
- Scissors, sewing machine, measuring tape, thread and straight pins
Steps:
- Measure the width of the towel. Cut the fabric strips the width of the towel, plus one inch. I like to layout my towel with the fabric and trim so I can see what the over-all effect will be.
- Measure trim the width of the towel plus 1/2 inch and cut.
- Turn under 1/2” on each long edge and press with your iron. Turn under 1/2” on each short edge and press.
- Load your bobbin with thread that is the same color as your towel and the top thread the closest color to your trim and fabrics. You may need to switch colors for the same towel, but keep the bobbin thread consistent.
- Pin your fabric and additional trims with straight pins onto your towel. Now you are ready to sew!
- Start with the fabric and edge-stitch along front pressed edges of strip, through all thicknesses.
- Decorate with more fabric strips and embellish with coordinating ribbons, lace, or ric-rac.
Pair your finished towel with your favorite bottle of hand soap and you have a wonderful gift that you’ll be proud of giving and the receiver will be pleased to get!
November 15th, 2011
Nearly 9 months ago we walked through our house for the first time. It looked and smelled pretty aweful, but I loved the spaces and I knew that with a lot of work and a little vision we could make it look beautiful and smell good too. I have tons of before pictures and will do a post with those soon, but for now, I’ll just share this gem:
This is looking from the family room into the kitchen. We new right away that the wall would have to go and the kitchen expanded into the eating nook, and now 9 months later we are *almost* done with the kitchen. I showed you pictures of it not yet painted yesterday, and today, after much sweat and a really really late night…
Tada! You can see in the right hand side of the image the wall near the end of the nook area. That stayed the same, so it gives you a point of reference of the expansion.
And here you can see how it interacts with the other half of the kitchen
Still waiting on the countertops and backsplash tile.
The cabinets will have glass doors, and the wood planks will be painted a smoky aqua. And once all that happens, the kitchen will be officially done! I can’t believe how long of a journey its been, but it was all worth it!
If you want to see the journey, you can view older posts:
Picking a Marble Slab
Kitchen update – install 2
Kitchen Reveal
Cherry Countertops
Kitchen Cabinets Painted 1
Kitchen update – install 1
Move-in Kitchen
Kitchen Plans2
Kitchen Plans 1
November 5th, 2011
We found a slab today thay we just love… and its within the budget! The type of marble is called Statuario, and its white with grey veining, but its not as cold/grey as your standard carrera marble. I think it’s going to be just gorgeous in the kitchen.
Now we just have to pick out tile and have it all fabricated and installed. Yippee!
A few tips that I have for hunting for a stone slab:
• I recommend shopping for a fabricator before you visit suppliers. They will recommend you to one or two suppliers that they have a relationship with, and generally steer you in the right direction. In the end you will need them to do the templating, purchasing, and fabricating of the slab anyway, so might as well get their help from the beginning.
• Have an open mind of what you want, and really look around at all the offerings to see if something speaks to you.
• Visit more than one supplier. There could be varied prices or specials on the type of stone you are wanting, also batches of one type of stone can have different tones and marbling etc, from one batch to the next.
• Expect quality fabrication to cost roughly 2-3 times the cost of the slab. Ouch!
• Don’t skimp on your fabricator. Fabricators generally have pre-negotiated rates on slabs, so you can get a better price than the supplier will quote you if you were purchasing it on your own . Also some low-end fabricators use cheap glue and supplies, and if they are not insured they will not cover the price of a new slab if it breaks while they are doing the fabrication. You can ask your supplier about the reputation of the fabricator that you are working with. Whatever you do, don’t have “cousin jimmy” who “does this all the time” fabricate your slab for you. It’s not worth the money you may save if the slab breaks or if they don’t template it out correctly and you have to purchase a replacement slab to get the correct cuts you need.
• You’re going to have this countertop for a very long time, so take the time to choose something that you really love.
• If you have your heart set on a higher maintenance stone, do the research. A lot of people tried to dissuade us from marble, but I just love the look so much. We found that if you seal the marble regularly, clean up messes that might stain immediately, don’t put hot pans directly on it, and use a cutting board, then you shouldnt’ have any issues with marble (YMMV). Its totally worth it for us to do some upkeep on it to have the look that we want.
• If you are on a tight budget ask a fabricator or supplier about pre-fabricated countertops. If you have standard depth cabinets, this is a great option and can save you a ton of money.
October 28th, 2011
Living in the great Midwest, I get to experience all the seasons at their best! 
My favorite season of all….FALL!
However, I like to call it HARVEST!
This is why….
Usually every fall I get to spend a few hours in the drivers seat of the combine.
However, this year, I just sat in the passengers seat for about an hour.
It has been a busy season of working my real job and my fun job {plus, it’s a ‘new’ combine…and I didn’t want to wreck it!}.
I did get to haul some corn back to the home site, which just added a few more minutes to my already dozens of hours of tractor time.
{My fun job….I often drive a tractor for the hayrides on the weekends at Center Grove Orchard.}
So, due to being busy and some traveling with my real job, in addition to the extra hours I’ve put in at my fun job, on top of being sick for the past week, my post has changed a little.
In honor of my favorite season, I have done some Pinterest searching for fall/autumn subway art.
Subway art is the rage these days. It is an easy, cheap, and fun addition to any home decor.
I thought about making my own subway art at one point, but with all the freebies out there, I took the easy way out.
Over on Pinterest, I made a board of Fall Subway Art.
Some of the links have other free fall printables there as well.
Here are a few of my favorites.
{Each picture is linked directly to the website it was found on via Pinterest.}
Once you find some art that will work best for your home, either print it off if you have a nice printer, or send it off to some place that can print it for you. I have printed things like this at Walmart, Target, local print shop, etc.
To finish off the look, get yourself a nice frame from Hobby Lobby {or the store of your choice}. I always go to HobLob, because 1) it’s local; and 2) if I don’t get things 50% off, I wait for the 40% off coupon.
As the seasons {or your mood} change, so can your subway art…and on the cheap!
October 10th, 2011
Hi, I’m Candi and my main two passions (other than my family) are decorating and photography. This mean two things:
1. A LOT of my posts will be about decorating, redecorating, remodeling, etc.
2. My posts will always have LOTS of photos.
We love Halloween around these parts. Not the cutesy smiley pumpkins and friendly ghosts, it’s the FULL out scary, horror movie Halloween. It’s my husband’s favorite holiday (he dresses as Leather Face every year) and I try to play along because he is so sweet and accommodating when it comes to Christmas, my favorite, and my over the top decor. So, here is my before, everyday, normal living room (pre-kid-destruction):
And here is the after:
So, it looks like a lot. It has been collected over the course of our 10 year marriage. But, this year, Tyler brought the four large Halloween rubber maid boxes to the back porch and I was so disgusted by 3/4 of it that I dropped it off at Goodwill and headed to Michael’s. With a couple of grape vine wreaths, a role of burlap, some strands of skeletons, and a bag of spider webs, I was able to finish off my final look. Our outside is pretty spooky too, but I waited too late today to take the photos, I’ll have to add them tomorrow.
I have to let you in on a secret though, I love decorating, but I don’t like paying a lot for it (in other words: I’m cheap!!). The majority of my items were purchased at after Halloween sales and saved to display the next year. One, of my haunted houses, on the entry table, was found at Goodwill for $3!! I was so excited. My run to Michael’s was broken up into two separate purchases so I could take advantage of two 40% off coupons.
So, this is our spooky Halloween. If you have any questions about anything that I did, please just ASK!!
I’m so excited to be a contributor to Jen’s blog and look forward to my future opportunities to be crafty and creative.
