I fixed our broken recliners!

I'm rather proud of myself. I fixed the two broken recliners on our couches. Sidenote: my side is just fine. Doug has broken his side on two couches! 

We were so frustrated with them that we were looking at new furniture. But it wasn't in the budget. So I decided to try to fix it. 

Who knew it would be that easy!

And should he break another one in another 6 months, no biggie. A $10 fix is all it takes!

I was so excited about it that I made a snapguide tutorial. I haven't done that in probably 2 years!

Check out How to Fix a Broken Recliner by Emily McLemore on Snapguide.

Nail Polish Flowers.. Not a simple Pinterest Project!

I don't spend much time on Pinterest. I am too busy. However, while looking for something else, I saw "nail polish flowers" and really liked them. I have quite a few art 2 students that are not gifted drawing or painting students, so I am looking for ways to reach them using non-traditional means. I'm also looking for cheap and simple projects that can have a big wow factor. 

Nail polish flowers seemed like they might be a cool project that wasn't too hard and looked great.

Knowing that the way things look on pinterest and real life are often not even close, I looked up a couple of tutorials and found that tacky glue was a necessary, yet left out instruction on most of the pinterest pins.

I didn't have any tacky glue. So I tried Elmers. Don't. It doesn't work.

So I bought some tacky glue. I already had wire and nail polish.

I made a simple wire flower with petals that were about an inch long. This is not a big flower.

 I STRUGGLED. 

This was not easy. The center worked because it was rather small so the glue didn't have much space to span. But filling the petals was hard!

It wasn't impossible, but it took me almost 2 hours to get five petals filled with glue. Crazy.

After I finally got all of the petals filled, as they dried, the largest petal broke. I refilled it and left it a little thicker this time!

After giving the petals an hour or so to get mostly dry, I decided to go ahead and paint the petals before something happened to my flower!

I was surprised at how simple this step was.

And there you have it. One simple nail polish flower made from a little wire, some tacky glue and nail polish.

And is this a project for my students? 

Well... I haven't decided. Getting the glue to stick to the wire in one think film was hard. I don't know that I am ready to hear my name and help together that many times in one class period! But man I can see in my mind the incredible projects that could be made with this process!! 

Nevertheless, I learned something new today and ultimately, that is my goal. One new thing everyday! I'd say "who would have thought" my new thing would be making a nail polish flower, but really for me, it fits! Now I have to go finish my bouquet!

Some of our DIY Home Renovations

The work at our house is amazing. I'm saving the pictures of the work being done by the pro's for later.  This post is about our personal DIY efforts.

We started with finishing the trim work in the girls room. This was the last step in their redo's. Having the carpet replaced (added in Ky's) made a huge difference! Doug did the prep work and I painted.

 

We then moved on and painted the living room and hallway. The problem here is that now the fireplace looks dingy... guess I know what's next.

 

I desperately want to change out the doors.. but that is not in the budget this time around.

Maddie helped out by working on my bedroom painting while I worked on her bathroom. So thankful for her sweet worker spirit!

I've also worked on the laundry room. It was BAD. I looked to see if there was a before picture. Nope. It was that bad.  Here are my in progress pictures.

 

And then I decided to tackle Maddie's bathroom. The floors were being redone and I knew that while I wanted to renovate it, I couldn't afford to right now.. so I painted (am painting) the tile. It is incredibly stinky.

The before.

During.

The paint that I used previously for a tile project was a little different, so it took a while for me to get my groove. I should have started on the wall behind the toilet! Where the inconsistency didn't matter. ugh. Now I have to go back and sand paper the drip marks. But oh well, it looks soooo much better already!!

This is truly stinky stuff.

And here we are after the first few coats.

 I am in love.

I'm hoping that a new counter will just magically appear on Maddie's counter. If not, we will wait till the next round of renovations!

What a difference.

That's pretty much been my mantra these days I have been spending around 8 hours each Saturday and Sunday working on the house. It will be totally worth it. But in the meantime... I'm tired.

Two more quilts

So I've made two more quilts, cut a truck load of raceshirts into 12x12 squares and sewn them into shirt "sandwiches".

I've also learned a few tricks. One... if you have text or graphics on both sides, cut the shirt in half FIRST. Otherwise the back graphic gets cut weird. Also, if you have text on the back that you don't really need, cut your second piece from the side of the shirt so you have the matching color but you don't have extra print that you have to sew over. It is SO MUCH EASIER to sew when their is only text/graphics on one side!

 

This quilt ended up being larger than the last one and I really like the size of it. It feels much more substantial with the extra row.

Here it is finished.

And here is quilt number 3. I'm getting better at keeping the squares, well square.

I've had tons of people asking about sewing these for them. I've decided on $150 for a 4x6 (24 shirt) quilt and $200 for a 5x6 (30 shirt). What do you think? Does that sound reasonable?! 

Tutorial for a super easy Tshirt Quilt

I've had on my to-do list to make a t-shirt quilt for a while. I finally got around to making one. I LOVE it!! I can't wait to make another!

And if you want to learn how to make one for yourself, see my tutorial below!

Check out How to Make an EASY Tshirt No-Border Ruffle Quilt. by Emily McLemore on Snapguide.

From Jungle to Hardscape. cool.

This is where we started the summer. Remember our jungle?

Then we got to here, but we ran out of energy, inspiration, and money so we took a breather from yard work.

Then Saturday morning, it was cool for an August morning in Texas, so Doug decided to tackle the "triangle." He took before and the early during pictures on his phone and he texted them to me. However, this week as I sat in in-service and listened about the freedom of information act and public records and how my personal texts can be requested because I am a teacher... (WHAT???) I sat there and deleted all old texts. I have nothing to hide and live pretty open, but that bugged me... so now, if I want a picture of something buried in an old text... too bad! So sorry, no pictures of the early phase!

Here Doug and Maddie are smoothing out 27 bags of sand.

 Then they got to work building the fire pit!

After they built the firepit, they put out 30 bags of Arkansas river rock. 

That was a LOT of work!!

Maddie was Doug's helper all day and did amazing!

They did an incredible job!! While it was cool for August, it was still 93+ degrees! They worked all day and created a wonderful hardscape firepit/planter bed for our front yard!

Kid Created Artwork and Curtains

Yesterday the little girls and I worked on making custom curtains for Lexi's room. This in turn opened the door for artwork. The girls had a great time and it was really easy, fun and not too messy!

If you need kid created custom curtains, you can see my guide for that... here. You use the same supplies, just trade out the canvas for curtains!

So, here is what we did...

We started with 3 shades of pink, plus glitter paint that we added to each of the colors. I like using 3 shades of the same color for projects like this... when they end of mixing colors, which they will, you don't end up with sludge, you end up with pretty variations of the same color!

 Plus you need plastic bottles of different sizes.

Pour some paint on a paper plate. This makes clean up soo much easier!

Then take a bottle and press it into the paint and stamp it onto the canvas.

 It's that easy!

Just for clarification, Kylie is using a mounted canvas and Lexi is using a canvas panel. Use the mounted canvas as it has natural give. The panel was harder to make an impression on!

We used a cork to make the centers and polka dots.

And of course, a paintbrush. Cause as Kylie explained, it's not painting unless you have a paintbrush!

Kylie's masterpiece!

After Lexi finished her curtains, she completed her painting as well.

I have to say, I love two projects completed with one set of supplies and very little cleanup!
Here is the guide for the curtains should you need it!

How to customize curtains by emilymclemore