DIY Wall Art

In my attempt to revamp my living room décor I decided to change the wall art that I have.  I took an old painting that I had that I didn't care for, painted it white, did a second coat in the center, used some spray paint I had on hand and sprayed a sun.  Then I went to hobby lobby and got these neat little wall decals, birds on a wire, for only $10.  I tweaked the wire to make it look like branches.  Here is what I got!! I'm pretty excited about it.  It was so easy and fun to do!! And Cheap.  My husband is telling me all the time that I keep around too much junk...but there are times like today that it comes in handy.

Donut Day and DIY DONE!!

This morning I packed up the girls in the truck and took them to Dunkin Donuts…we got some yummy donuts!  Thanks grandma!! (Gift card…)  I, of course, enjoyed a nice cup of Dunkin's coffee.

After we got home and hastily gobbled down our sweet treats, I got to work and finally finished the curtains I've been working on since after Thanksgiving.

I've been desperately wanting to make some new curtains, but we have been trying to watch our spending. So the idea came to me to just recycle, re-use, and re-purpose an old furniture cover I didn't use and curtains that I already owned.

I did the horizontal stripes because it was the best way to incorporate the extension piece of fabric.  The curtains I currently owned were not long enough. I just added more fabric (the old cover) at the end of the curtains and added the tan stripes. I bought some ribbon to finish it.

While doing this project, I didn't realize how hard horizontal stripes would be.  The hardest part was getting the two panels to be level with each other. I spent most of my time measuring and re-measuring the spacing. It's hardly perfect and a professional would surely pick them apart. And if you look close enough you can see…

I've learned a lot doing this project, like: cut all fabric first, and pin base everything, both panels at once.

The problem I encountered was that I did each panel almost 2 months apart. (Small children running about makes it difficult to commit to getting a whole project done in one sitting.)

I started this after we got back from my in-laws at Thanksgiving.  Which probably wasn't the best plan.  I think we had like 5 weeks between that holiday and Christmas.

I was cramming to get things done because Mike's whole family was coming to spend Christmas with us.  So this project was probably the reason we didn't send out Christmas Cards this year.

Well anyway, I got the first panel done and then the next day it seemed like my in-laws were here.  I at least wanted to have one curtain hanging on the bare window.

When I came back to the project I couldn't adjust the lengths of the wide stripes on the first curtain; lesson learned- pin base everything then sew last…. and I didn't think to measure the tan fabric wider in the areas I needed while doing the second which came to the other lesson learned-cut all the fabric at once!!…

But inspire of all the difficulties I finished it and I'm rather proud of them. Not bad for being my first attempt at sewing curtains.

The finished product:

You can't tell in this photo, the lighting is horrible, but the fabric touching the ground is the same color as the stripes, the lining I used behind it wasn't as thick as the lining on the main curtain...

The Church Bulletin

Do you just throw your church bulletins away after reading them once?  I use to too, but for a while now I've been collecting mine, and doing a couple of neat little things to reuse them, while thinking that one day a "really good idea" would dawn on me...well, today is that one day. Thought I'd share...

You can make wise use of that old church bulletin.  On my Church's bulletin they usually put a verse of scripture on the front cover page...why not cut it out and hang it on the fridge, or put it in your car or even hang it on your mirror in the bathroom.  You can have some Bible to look at while you clean, cook, drive or while getting ready for the day. (And sometimes, the cover art is pretty to look at too.)

Ps 119:15, "I will meditate in thy precepts..."

Sometimes they have sayings from famous Missionaries, Preachers, or Founding Fathers.  I cut those out and make bookmarks from them. 

 

 

Finally, every week (now this is my really good idea..LOL) on the back cover of the bulletin, a Missionary letter is printed for everyone to read...well instead of just reading the letter and pitching the bulletin, I cut out the name of the Missionary family and have the girls help me stick their name to the globe we have in the kitchen. I thought why not use this as a teaching tool for the girls to 1) learn to pray for our Missionaries, and 2) learn their geography. And for mom to 1) have a reminder there in the Kitchen to pray for them daily...You could even do this for loved ones who live out of state.  Lizzie knows that Grandma and Grandpa live in Texas just below Oklahoma and that Pappy Dan and Grandma Nay live all the way across the nation in Pennsylvania...