Silhouette giveaway!

If you people have not ever seen a  Silhouette cutting machine you don't know what your missing. This machine can do all kinds of cool stuff! Check it out on Pinintrest if you have a day to kill...it will take that long. And guess what else. You could win one! That's right..I said WIN ONE! Check out these blogs for the easy to enter giveaways!

 

• Today’s Creative Blog

• Infarrantly  Creative

• Crap I’ve Made

• Tatertots & Jello

• The Idea Room

• Skip To My Lou

Not so traditional Christmas tree

I love to decorate for Christmas. It seems every year it gets earlier and earlier. Last weekend I attended several open houses in my area and bought a few things! The Ace hardware around here does a pretty good Christmas shoppe.  One of the coolest things I have been working on is my daughters tree for her room. This past year we spruced up her decor to include a new duvet cover from you guessed it.... Pottery Barn. We thrifted a few things like her $30 velvet green couch from Goodwill. And we crafted some stuff like her large cardboard initial on her wall (modge podge and wrapping paper). But this tree brings all of her colors together so well. Black with white polka dots, hot pink and of course green! Love it. Still trying to work with the black glam rope stuff. Every time I go in there I fiddle with it...

Linking up to

Voles...part one

I have mentioned my yard in only one other post. But working in my yard is absolutely one of the things I love to do. Its great exercise, gets me outside, uses my creativity etc. But I fluctuate on how much time I can/do spend out there. Usually by the heat of summer I'm over the digging, tilling, transplanting and focus on watering. By fall I'm OVER ALL of it. Fall is a great time to transplant plants however so on to my post. I have begun the annual dividing and moving of the hostas. I have probably one hundred hostas and some of them are BIG.

When I divided my hosta i always have plenty to give to friends, family and coworkers and keep some for myself. A couple of years ago I started a bed along the woods edge with these hosta as well as azaleas and hydrangeas. But a couple of   my huge hostas barley came up this year. Something had been chewing on them. After much research and yard inspecting I had voles! I knew we had moles (a totally different creature but both are burrowing animals) My dogs have found moles on occasion but I had no idea voles existed until this. And they are HARD to get rid of. I probably won't ever. So,  3 bottles of posion peanuts, one expensive exterminator, some crying, stopping of the tunnels, traps etc. later....I have decide to make hardwire cloth cages. Time consuming and this will be expensive. But I want to try to keep some of the hostas. 

So here is my tutorial for the vole proof plant cage. I guess we will see if this works...

Supplies:

Hardwire cloth with 1/4 inch hole size

zip ties

HEAVY DUTY wire cutters

I just kind of eyeballed the size I thought I would need. Zip tie the ends together leaving 1/3 of the bottom without a zip so we can enclose the bottom like a present. Zip tie the bottom together if the gap is big and there ya go. I have learned in this process that hostas are wide and not deep if that helps. I also am going to try to cage some of my new hydrangea plants.

 There is a product out there called "volebloc" but I have not found any in my area. I may try to use some of that too depending on what I find out in my yard this fall.

Wish me luck!

The Queen

My daughter won homecoming queen two Fridays ago. The homecoming queen is supposed to be bestowed on the nicest,  most kind, caring individual and this year it is! Congratulations to my beautiful, sweet, loving daughter....

Demi Rae

Pom poms and potatoes

Sounds crazy huh? Well that's what my life is right now. I have told you before...ball games, cheer and band competitions, family in town, baby showers at my house, homecoming with a queen candidate, clothes, cap and gown, senior pics, service projects, presents, cheer shirts, homecoming shirts, homecoming cookies, extra work hours and meetings...just to name a few. 

 In my spare time I have been making tissue poms! Both for the baby shower and for the homecoming parade. These are so easy and cheap! Just check out Martha Stewart to get the tutorial. EASY! I even cut some of my tissues in half for the smaller version on the homecoming parade sign.

The baby shower poms are all sizes and so cute! I would definitely put them in my nursery!

Wondering about the potatoes? Well my garden/yard is my passion. (I seem to have many) I just haven't been out there much lately. But today on my yard tour I discovered the potatoes in one of my pots had enough to harvest! If you have not had fresh dug potatoes you are missin' out! They are crunchy like an apple and so good roasted with olive oil and Cavendars. 

More on my yard later.

Been busy....

The fall is a crazy time around the Chandler household. I am so glad that I finished my couch and chair before this weekend or I would have NEVER gotten it done. Family visits, cheer competitions, band competitions, crazy work schedule, baby showers and getting prepared for homecoming  has me in a frenzy. Not to mention late night ball games against our total rivals down the street from our little town. A ball game that was tied up in the last second to go into overtime...and a victory for my Ringgold Tigers has my body feeling like mush today. But so proud to be A Ringgold Tiger. Now lets do it again at the cheer competition and band competition today! 

See anything different?

I have said it before and will say it again... I am a total newbie when it comes to blogging. I had no idea what a watermark was or why I need one. And still I'm not sure. But I have found a way to do it for free at http://www.watermarktool.com/

Now I have to find out why I need one. My pics aren't even good so surely no one would want them?

A few more pics....

 FYI... The before

What a difference!

Help....

I need a blog makeover. I know this....but I am not sure how to doit. There are plenty of blogs out there that I love the look of. And I don't want to spend a ton of money (considering this is just a hobby and chronicle of my little ole house) Any suggestions?

I did it!!!!

I finished!

Now, let's see what I can do...

linking up to...

Arghhhhhh!!!

This sofa and chair set has been fun and challenging. At this point I just want to be done! I have to be done by this weekend to try to get it on consignment somewhere. I have a lot on my plate right now which I'm sure you working moms know what I mean! My oldest daughter made the homecoming court and that's great but now we have to find a dress, make two signs, find me something to where and have her dad's suit altered (he he) and on and on. In the two weeks before that we have family coming in on two different weekends ,  a baby shower at my house, two cheer competitions for my youngest and two band competitions for my oldest. I'm tired already! Not to mention Friday night football, tumbling class, work and normal everyday life. AND... I'm not done with this couch!!!!!! I bought another drop cloth, this one is the same manufacturer as the other. The only prob is I may have washed and bleached one too many times? What do you think? I think I'm going for it in the am and I'm not gonna stop 'til it's done! This means ONE more drop cloth, ONE more wash and bleach.....wish me luck!

Can you tell the end cushion cuts are lighter?

One down, one to go

This project has taken over my life. I have been work every spare minute on a matching sofa and chair set. I have finally finished the chair. I know the picture isn't that great.... but I'm done! The sofa is another story. I cut the material for two of the cushions to small. Ok, no big deal I'll just redo those and then be done. So I had a few pieces of another drop cloth from another project. I washed, bleached and dried the drop cloths but they look like different colors! So I'm off to Lowe's to buy one more drop cloth. Maybe they were different manufacturers?

(and ignore the unmade bed, extra fabric on the floor, glue gun etc... I have been obsessed!)



Sneak Peek

Can you guess what I've been doing?



Green Velveteen

I found this couch at salvation army too! I just love how it fits in my daughters room and complements the theme with a retro look.



Something has changed

Something has changed with the couch. Can you tell? Finally I have used Annie Sloan Chalk Paint. It was good. I did not prime sand or do any prep just as suggested .All that means to me is one step closer to finished. I used two coats of Paris Grey as the base. Then I sanded to distress. I then used Old White on top as a dry distressing technique. Never done that before but I just winged it. I kept a damp rag with me and wiped off what looked crappy. After it all dries I used a finishing paste wax and applied it very lightly. Then after it dried I buffed it off. It looks awesome! Can't wait to get started on the button tufting. It'll have to wait til next weekend. I am having my buttons professionally done (since I need so many....80!) In the mean time I am washing and bleaching drop cloths and going to start making cording. I need a lot of that too.



Let's see what kind of damage I can do with this stuff!

Am I crazy?

Lately I have been on a furniture buying spree. I found an awesome french provincial set with couch and chair. This great find I saw through the salvation army window on a Sunday. Of course they were closed. But Monday afternoon I trucked it on down there and loaded those suckers up for $40! What a steal. So I am currently in a crazy process to recover them in none other than drop cloths. I have just about contorted my self into a pretzel uncovering this monstrosity of a couch (it is 7 feet long!) But in just about three hours I had it uncovered. And guess what I found? 62 button tufting holes! Here goes a try at that.

The Before....

The Middle....

 (check out the matching chair right behind)  Yummy buttons. I hope I can pull this off! Stay tuned....

I'm Back!

I have a new attitude towards this blog....who cares? I'm going to write and post what ever I want without thinking toooooooo much!
So.... I have been busy. First up a before 

and now after!