Shelves

Hey there, I made some shelves. 

These were inspired by this bookshelf from Target. 

I had really wanted to have my books in my room. Rather than hidden in my office. But, alas, no bookshelves. So, on to Pinterest I go and I find an easy DIY Method.

I found this tutorial on Adventures of a DIY Mom.

It's a great step by step process. 

I didn't use her measurements, I wanted a larger size. But the rest of the instructions are very clear. I bought (8) 1"x12"x6' top choice pine board. At Lowes.

My final dimensions for this project was 4' tall, x 12" deep x 20" wide. I only had enough room for 20" so I wouldn't crowd the space, or knock my shoulders on them. 

I had gotten a better quality top board pine for this project. It has less knots and holes, and is less warped. I mean, it's still warped some. So you have to check out each board carefully to see how straight they are. I was sanding a lot to get a smoother surface. I had cut all the pieces and was starting to assemble them, but while a circular saw is great for rip cuts. It wasn't that great for precision. So everything would come out a/ 1/8" off. Even with a straight edge clamp!!! I had already screwed them all together and then pulled them apart after I realized so wobbly they were.  So, I begged my brother for the use of his mitre saw.

Ah yes. It's glorious. Reminds me of making canvas frames in College. Ah, that weird day where our Professor Wally Connelly taught us how to buy wood, (check for straightness) how to use a miter saw, and how to staple your canvas and then use Gesso. 

I also used a kreg jig to get pocket holes. That way the screws aren't visible.

I used some old bead-board for the backing. The picture above shows

how off balance my shelves were. 

So, I re-sawed all the wood to measure as exact as I could. I had to re-drill

a few pocket holes. But in the end, it worked out.

Yay!!!!

I had wanted a pop of color. So I chose an washed aqua stain.

Now, it came out much more intense than I expected. You can 

barely see the wood grain. So, I should have done only one coat. Or mixed it with paint thinner. But when I had done a test coat, the one coat wasn't enough. 

So, after doing two coats on the shelves, I noticed, wow, that is not at all like my test strips. Even after wiping the stain between coats. Go figure.  I followed up

with a coat of clear poly in satin finish.

Before my shelves. 

Yay, Book Shelves.

With actual books!!!!

It came out to $120 for materials. (not included the borrowed miter saw, and my kreg jig) The original was $118 a shelf. I made mine for $60 a shelf. Granted, I'm not including my labor. But that's the fun of DIY right? 

Till next time, Ruth

butterfly swim bandana for Goose

DIY UPF swim bandana, to cover those scalps from sunburn.

We spent most of our summer swimming.  My little Goose has blonde hair, and due to a few funny cowlicks, she has a little spot on her head that you see her scalp. During the summer I was over-worried that my kids would get sunburned. My son seems to tan, and not burn much. Granted, I make him wear a UPF sun-shirt, and sunscreen. Well as much as I can slather on him while he whines and flails. The same with Goose. She will sit still longer to let me put on sunscreen. While I will spray the sunscreen in Jed.I's hair, his hair is thick enough to shield his scalp.  Goose on the other hand I was worried about after I saw her scalp get pink. You may wonder why I'm so uptight about sunburns well this is why:

1. I have burned badly in the past. As a child, as a teen and as an adult. I don't tan. I have once tried to, and got a darker shade of pale. That's it. It was boring, the burns hurt, and I didn't see much difference. I burn, I peel, then I go back to being very pale. I gave up trying to look tan. And just went with protecting myself from burns (painful) and protecting myself from the sun. I have had family members with skin cancer. I have had certain growths removed. We'll see if they grow back. (here's hoping they are just basal cell carninoma and not anything worse) While I did start taking care of my skin earlier than many, (around 18 or so) I still go in the sun everyday, here in Texas, even with sunscreen I'll get damage. If my kids inherited my skin, I need to be careful

2. Sunburns hurt. Do you know what it's like to stay up all night with your sick child? Well, when kids get sunburned they get feverish, and are in pain. You'll stay up all night trying to console and heal your child, and there's nothing you can do but give them tylenol for the pain and rub aloe on them.  I'm trying to avoid a situation where they are in pain, I'm in pain, and everyone suffers. Same reason why I make them brush their teeth. I don't want them to endure the pain of toothaches, tooth abscesses, or root canal's at 5 years old. Yes, those things do happen to children, sometimes even with good dental care. They happened to me as a child. 

So, in order to avoid all those horrible things, while still enjoying the wonderful sun we have here in Texas. I made Goose a swim bandana. Now, any old bandana might have worked. But they usually fall off her head, and I wanted something that would stay on and keep her from getting burned. 

My sister-in-law had some swim headbands for her daughter with white blonde hair that was getting her scalp burned often. But since I couldn't find one available that I liked online, and the swim hats my daughter wore just came off instantly, I decided to make one.

Here were some I found online. (Nice, but not quite what I wanted to my Goose)

UPF Scalp Cover

Nammu Swim Hat

My daughter had borrowed a very cute swim headband from my sister-in-law that was pink with purple butterflies. Just so you know, Goose tells everyone that "Pink and purple are my favorite colors!!"  I had to make a sparkly purple one with butterflies she demanded. I went to Joanns, and they had bunches of swim fabric and she picked out the sparkliest.

Mystique Perfomance Knit in Eggplant at Joann

She even picked out some butterfly appliqués. 

Butterfly Appliqué's

Next came the arduous process of figuring out how to sew on super stretch knits.

Tips for super stretch knits.

1. Use a ballpoint needle

2. Use either tissue paper, or a tear away stabilizer to sandwich stretch knit between otherwise the sewing machine will somehow manage to eat the fabric getting it horribly stuck in the strike plate

3. If you can, use a serger! I finally (really after all these years????) looked in my serger manual and learned how to do a beautiful rolled edge (that stretched beautifully) with a three threads on my serger. It looks like a baby-lok edge and it's gorgeous! 

4. Try it out on sample fabric a lot!!!

In this case, I didn't iron on the butterfly appliqué's since it would have melted off the metallic foil finish ruining the fabric and my iron. So I sewed them on. I tried by hand and those are some stiff suckers, so I used my machine to do a tack stitch. Not the serger of course, but I sandwiched the butterfly and the fabric between some tissue paper and it worked pretty well. There was some knotting of the bobbin thread, but it was to be expected occasionally.

Here is my Goose modeling it for me:

This was my first draft. I didn't think I wanted a basic swim bandana in a triangle shape. But after seeing the little cowlick of scalp that wasn't covered by the one above. I made another in a basic triangle shape. It covered more of her scalp and still stays on pretty well.

Rolled hem from my serger.

On some knits an edge seam isn't as necessary. However, since this was a very stretchy knit, and was going to be stretched a lot on the head. A finished seam is very necessary, or it will start getting runs in them just like a pair of hose. Plus, the edges wont roll which you don't want in this project. Otherwise, it would just roll off the head. :(

Till next time,

Rudy

DIY Pokemon Ball favors and Pokémon decorations

Make your own DIY Pokèball's from bobbers, tape, and paint!

TLDR: Make Pokemon themed birthday stuff DIY for cheap from stuff you already have around the house. 

My son, Jed.i loves Pokemon. 

Before Pokemon go came out, Jed.i had been a true Pokemon fan. He loved that show, the cards, the games, we even have Pokemon monopoly.  The last week of school he informed me that he HAD to give out invitations to his birthday party at school. His birthday wasn't until the next school year, two days in to in exactly. So, I wasn't sure it would work, because that was three months away. But, I did as he asked, and after agreeing he needed a Pokemon (not Minecraft) themed birthday, well, I started planning. 

I had no pin the tail on the donkey, no cute pikachu napkins or plates. No pokemon themed anything. So, here were some ideas I had.

Pokemon go had just come out a few weeks before his birthday. It was huge. It took over everything. And although, everything was about Pokemon, there weren't any party supplies out yet. So, seeing as I can't sit still I had to come up with some party decorations and favors. 

The Pokeball favors. I started them with bobbers, I didn't have any fishing bobbers, but I bought some at a sporting goods store for like.....$10. I had like, 35 in various sizes. 

1.Cut off the bobber hook. (use wire cutters, not your fabric scissors.)

Push the red (sticky outy thing) like you were going to wrap the fishing line around the hook. 

What comes out when you cut the wire.

 

Cut some black electrical tape, you can cut the strip narrower for the size ball you have.

Wrap electrical tape around the middle. 

 

Color a circle with a sharpie. on the center of the ball, overlapping the black tape.

Dap a little white paint on the black circle with a q-tip.

All directions together:

1.Cut off the bobber hook. (use wire cutters, not your fabric scissors.)

Push the red (sticky outy thing) like you were going to wrap the fishing line around the hook. 

2. Wrap black electrical tape around the center.

3. Use a sharpie to color in a circle of black. 

4. Dab a bit of white paint in the middle. 

Voila, you have a poke-ball favor. 

Repeat as much as you like.

Gotta catch them all. I found, that although the electrical tape gives a nice line, it falls off. So, if you were inclined, you could use the sharpie to follow the seam on the bobber, and eliminate the black electrical tape completely. Or use black duck-tape (they have narrower rolls) to keep the tape from coming off. Or let me know if you find a better black tape. 

NOTE: I used these as favors, as in a game called, "Gotta catch them all!" Its a modified pin the tail on the donkey. Instead of spinning and pinning the tail blindfolded. I gave each kid 5 Pokéballs (that I made) I spun them around, and then had them throw the ball at five different Pokèmon posters. If they hit a Pokemon they got a piece of candy. It was fun, but we did it outside (because some seven year old's have some serious pitching arms) and the Pokéballs started to shatter after they hit the concrete. 

You could try painting some wiffle balls, or some ping pong balls, or hey, even rubber bounce balls. 

Here I'm starting to paint some posters of Pokémon to use for the party.

Pikáchu, I printed out some pics, and just drew a grid on the print out. I drew a corresponding grid on my posters and started to paint. 

Note, painting with poster paint is horrible. Just get the craft acrylic paint. And don't try to mix your paint. Especially if you have no palette knife, no palette, and there's a $1 bottle of premixed paint the perfect color at an art store. This isn't painting class guys. 

Pikáchu and Squirtle

This was a much more time consuming project than I expected. And more frustrating since my kids BEGGED to help. And then I had to FINISH their work. Or really, re-paint it.

DIY pokèmon cupcakes. 

Just white icing dipped in red sprinkles, chocolate icing covered with chocolate chips, and white iced cupcakes arranged to look like a Pokéball.

Before I set them up outside, they were the decorations!! 

It was a smashing success. Everybody had a great time. And I was exhausted!!!

,Ruth

DIY play oven

My Mother has an adorable playhouse in her backyard. The kids love to play there, in particular my daughter Goose. We had bought a play-kitchen to put in there. And it was great, however during a rainy may, we brought it from the playhouse for the kids to play on inside. It's stayed there forever since. I still loved the playhouse and wanted it to be perfect! Which is to say, I'm reliving my childhood through my kids. :)

I had found a really cool pin on Pinterest and thought, "Hey, I can do that!"

Which I always do, and I'm always wrong.

Here's the blog that posted an easy DIY play-kitchen.

Pineapples and pinecones.

I have some plastic drawers that were barely used. And thought, "I bet I can do that for cheap too!"   Spoiler alert, I was wrong.

I was going to buy the cricut vinyl she had used, even with no cricut but thought  maybe I could find something around the house. See, the thing is, paint wont work well on this plastic. And it was going in the playhouse, which in Texas, is almost always very hot. So, It needed to be sturdy, and not fall off, or flake in the heat.

I found some old plastic folders in my office. I started to cut out shapes and I thought superglue would work to stick them on.

My original idea for the drawers.

In process. I had some leftover wood knobs from a piece of furniture. Some leftover pieces of wood. And an old springform pan I never used. 

Cutting out some pieces.

Layout of idea.

Gluing.

Well, after waiting for both craft glue, super glue and others to see if they would work. I noticed that none of them did. I needed a glue specifically for plastic. The very slick kind of PVC plastic. Which no matter where I went; Home depot, walmart, Joann, was never there. I found some epoxy for plastic, that had a horrible beige color. And said, Nope. So I thought, hell, I guess I do have to spend some cash. I went to Joann's to get some of the cricut vinyl. It was only $6.99 a roll. So $14.00 ain't bad. But then I saw duck tape. They had 8"x11" sheets of it. And a slew of rolls of colors. The sheets were $1.99-$2.99 a piece, I bought six. A roll of duck tape was $5.97. A small thing of acrylic silver paint for the knobs and the wood faucet for $2.99. I bought a plastic bowl with was about$5. Which because I'm horrible at math, came out to $27.92.  I had the drawers and the knobs and the wood. But the drawers if you bought them new would be $17.99. 

So, if you bought these things new, this set would cost $45.94 to make. Ugh. So, later, I remembered that the kitchen set  I had gotten for Goose was less than $50. So much for a cheap DIY.  For me, I made the kitchen for $27. But I found a few online pre-made for about $30. They were on sale, but still. Well, I had already sunk some cash into this project I was determined to finish it!!

With duck tape sheets and a roll of duck tape. Faucet unpainted, and bowl not glued in.

Faucet painted, more duck tape added, and changed out the bowl for one I already had. I had to screw in the faucet, because the glue wouldn't work. Neither would command strips. And the bowl even after gluing a thousand times, wouldn't stick either. I just left it. I mean, whatever. (sigh)

I had bought a kids play set of dishes for $10.99. So, the kids loved it. Absolutely. And in the end, well, that's the point.

In the playhouse. 

The absolutely adorable playhouse in the yard. Those cute plastic kids size adirondack chairs were $12.00 a piece at Lowes. 

The frozen table and chairs I had gotten a year ago for about $25.

So that's part of my plan to make-over the playhouse. The other part is re-painting the walls, since they got filthy and covered in mildew over the hot and occasionally wet summer. We left the windows open since It was so hot and forgot to close them. (yeesh) My hubbie power-washed the inside and out but still couldn't get off all the grime and mildew.

Oh yeah, I also have to fix that broken window. Plans plans plans. I sure do have a bunch.

Till next time, Rudy