Stool of Ribbon

(Like a spool of ribbon!!  Why do I always feel I have to explain my titles?)

I wanted to create a small seat for my daughter to use in front of the mirror above her nightstand.  I picture her sitting there, brushing her hair, applying lip gloss, & sorting through her jewelry for just the right accessory to accompany the red plaid dress & pink fur vest she happens to be wearing!  (You'll see what I mean!)

Anyway, a while back I had my husband make this little "table" for Elie's dollhouse:

Unfortunately, the table was too small for the front-heavy doll house to sit on & it would fall over if you even thought about breathing in it's direction!  It all worked out though, because this became Elie's new bench seat!

Basically, to create the above, we just cut some plywood to the size we wanted, screwed in the "leg holders" (for lack of a better name) & then screwed in the legs.  Pretty easy!  You can see what I'm talking about in the picture below.

Then, I added a foam pad to the top & stapled fabric around it.  As usual, my original plan of adding a tulle "tutu" like skirt to the bench didn't work out when I:

a.) Didn't buy enough fabric.

b.) Couldn't figure out how to "gather" with my sewing machine.

c.) Didn't have the time or patience to deal with a & b.

Enter idea number two...I decided to go back to Hobby Lobby, where ribbon was 50% off & stock up on white, pink, & lavender ribbons of different sizes.  Most of the ribbon I bought came from the floral section.  I took my ribbon home & spent about two hours cutting, melting the ends of the ribbons above a candle (so they don't fray), & hot gluing them to the wood.  Finally, I glued another piece of ribbon around the seat to finish it off.

Here's the finished product:

And here it is in use, along with the red plaid dress & pink fur vest!

I really wanted a picture of Elie using it with her pink polka dot/leopard print pajamas that I love, but Zeke wanted in on the picture taking & I had to include it because they are just so stinking cute & sweet!

Come back Friday to see the whole room revealed (I'll be sure to camouflage that cord & finally cut that annoying tag off the bedding too!).  

Linking here:

      

Flower Power Feature!

It made my morning to see that Judy from DIY by Design featured my lamp redo at her Swing into Spring party!  Thanks Judy!

By the way, if you haven't been to her blog, you should definitely visit, take a look around her beautiful home, & check out all the inspiration at her link parties!

Frrrr...ustrations!

So, the plan for today was to blog about a cute boa wreath I made for my daughter's room.  I thought it looked good until I put it up on the wall.  Now it just looks dingy & BAD. 

Since that didn't work, I decided to wipe polyurethane on the tops of her painted dresser & nightstand to prevent scratch ups when she rearranges her accessories.  Somehow, the cloth I used rubbed cat hair all over the dresser top.  I tried rubbing it off & touching it up, but I am pretty sure the end result is going to look awful.  To make my morning even worse, I spilled a drop of polyurethane on her bedding.  Ugh!

Somehow, I am on week three of my daughter's room reveal for this blog.  The bad thing is, her room was pretty much finished a year ago!  I was just trying to do some last minute touch ups on the accessories before revealing it to blog land. 

Right now, my daughter is crying, "It's ruined!  It's ruined!" about a paper she is coloring.  Maybe I'll go join her!  That's kind of how I'm feeling right now!

I promise I'll be more positive on Monday!  Hey, there may even be a room reveal...but I'm not making promises on that one!

Flower Power

In my attempt to stall the reveal of my daughter's room, I am going to show you another cheap lamp makeover by yours truly!

When we first moved in to this house, the plan was to put a ceiling fan in my daughter's room.  We had so many expenses at the time & were going into fall, so we decided to put off buying a fan until the weather got warm.  We had to get her a light, so I decided to go with a pink & white flowered plug-in chandelier from Target. 

Recently, however, I decided I couldn't find a white ceiling fan I liked & decided to get her a chandelier ceiling light instead.  (The sun only hits her room for a couple of hours & they're only used for a couple of months anyways, right?  We can always use a stand up fan if it gets too hot in there!)  Once I did this, I decided having two chandeliers was weird in the space and the cord that went from ceiling to floor was really bugging me!

Once I took it down, I just added the "milk glass" (FYI:  Sometimes I use quotation marks when I'm guessing the name of something!) lamp that had been on her dresser.  I quickly realized that just didn't look right on the nightstand. 

I went to my trusty lighting store, Dollar General, and picked up this $7 lamp and $5 shade.  (I love shopping for lamps at DG!)

Honestly, I really liked the lamp as it was, but didn't think the dark color would work in Elie's room.  I decided to brush on a quick coat of primer & some cream colored paint I had on hand. 

This created a problem.  With a cream shade, the lamp was looking quite plain!  That's where this $3 bouquet of artificial flowers from Wal-Mart comes in:

Just ignore the paper & paper clips in the picture.  That idea didn't work out!  Anyway, I decided to hot glue some of these flowers to the lamp to give it a pop of color.  I first added three flowers.  After looking at it, I realized I didn't like the triangular way I had positioned the flowers.  Uh-oh!  I was able to pry the top flower off.  This whole fiasco scared me enough that I just ended up taping two flowers in the middle, making sure to place them high enough that they covered my "oopsy" but low enough that it didn't look weird with the two outer flowers.  (It's getting late, am I making sense??)

Anyway, after several failed attempts, here is how the lamp turned out:

Light Off

I am really happy with the way it turned out.  It looks so cheerful & I like the way the deep color in the center of the flowers brings in the maroon from her ballet costume!



Light On

Have you changed up any lamps lately?

 

Delightful Dollhouse

My mom purchased this dollhouse at a yard sale a few years ago, and gave it to my daughter.

The above picture was taken after I painted all the aqua colored trim, shutters, window boxes, & door.  I also had replaced the roof shingles.  At one point the porch was covered & had posts to hold it up, but that got knocked off several times, & was too far beyond repair to replace (plus I'd most likely have to keep fixing it!).

Originally, I was just going to repaint this dollhouse pink & change the doors & window boxes to cream, to match the rest of the trim.  Then, one day I saw this picture of the Westport Dollhouse in the Pottery Barn Kids catalog (Yours for only $199!  Ha!):

Seeing this dollhouse inspired me to change up the color on Elie's dollhouse.  The best part was that I already had a quart of a similar color of green paint just waiting to be used on something!  I painted the door cream, and the window boxes pink to tie in with her room a little more.  Here is my version of the above dollhouse:

The change made a huge difference and inspired me to be even more creative!  I cut apart some small flowers from an artificial flower & hot glued them to the window boxes.  Then, my son & I painted some small clay pots, filled them with play-doh (which will hopefully dry up soon!), & added more of the cut flowers.  Elie informed me she wanted a rug for the dolls, so I cut a small rectangle out of sandpaper, added a border & the word "welcome", and gave this family a place to wipe their muddy shoes!  Finally, I added a small wreath by cutting a "wreath shape" out of cardboard & covering it in jute.

Oops, just ignore the tiny piece of lint behind the right flower pot!



Much better, don't you think?  (Personally, I think it's cuter than the one from Pottery Barn!)  The most important part is that Eliana loves it!  (Which says a lot, since she is pretty much a pink & purple ONLY girl!)



Before





After

 See you Wednesday!

          

Paper Doll Art

I wanted to give my daughter some artwork to go on a small wall in her bedroom above her dollhouse.  I came up with the idea to frame some vintage looking paper dolls.

I looked everywhere for paper doll books (dollar stores, Wal-Mart, bookstores, Cracker Barrel, etc.) without having much luck.  One day while searching online, it hit me that I could probably just print some from the computer.  Duh!  Lucky for me, I found the perfect FREE, printable paper dolls through Patty Reed Designs.

My mom had actually made my daughter an outfit with the fabric featuring these paper dolls!

Sorry, but that's the closest picture I have of the fabric!  (I just realized I do have another picture of the shirt here!)

Okay, so back to the art...I found three rectangular plaques at Hobby Lobby for about a dollar.  Then, I painted the edges of the plaques a cream color and decoupaged scrap book paper onto the top.  Next, I printed & cut out a paper doll and two outfits and decoupaged them on top of the scrap paper.  After the top coat of Mod Podge, I lightly sanded the whole thing (including the paint).

Here they are together hanging on her wall.

Here is a close up of the doll:

To hang these, I just added a couple of thumb tacks to the back & wound some wire around them so they would catch onto the nail.  (Does that make sense??) 

I think they turned out darling!  This whole project cost less than $5 and the same ideas could be applied to make artwork with cars, trains, dinosaurs, etc. for boys! 

Feel free to visit Patty Reed Designs & print off some paper dolls for your daughters or their friends!  (Ooh, it just hit me that those would make great party favors!)

What have you made with decoupage?

I'm linking to these parties:

    

Thanks!

I was so excited this morning when I started checking my blogs to see that Lindsey from Better After featured our entertainment center!  Thanks so much Lindsey!

She features all kinds of before & after pictures.  If you haven't checked out her blog, you should visit.  I'm sure you'll become a quick follower!






Thanks also to those of you who are following this sight!  I really appreciate it as well as your kind comments!