Chalkboards

I think every house needs a chalkboard (or two!) I know they're nothing new, but I thought I'd share the chalkboards in my house.

We have a huge one on our dining room wall. It's also magnetic, so it can hold quite a few preschool art projects. It makes me happy just looking at it. We have another one in our kitchen, painted on the door leading down to the basement. The kids love to draw on this one while I'm making dinner. 

-Molly

Advent Banner

Okay, I know it is a tad early to be thinking about Christmas, but I thought I'd share this project now in case you get inspired to make one for yourself and you want to get started on it before the holiday season rolls around.

I love the look of banners and thought that it would be easy enough to turn a banner into an advent calendar. And it was! All I did was cut out  scallops, sew them into little pockets and then stitch them on a ribbon. Then I cut numbers out of wool felt and simply glued them on with fabric glue. The pockets are just big enough to hold a small treat for each of my boys each day during the Christmas season. Perhaps I'll slip a  Bible verse in each pocket to make sure we're focusing on the true meaning of Christmas. 

-Molly

Felted Flowers Tutorial

I adore these felted flowers and they are so easy to make. Here's what you need in addition to a stove and a dryer:

Step 1: Roll yarn (it needs to be 100% wool) into a little ball. Be sure to tie it up tight so it won't come apart.

Step 2: Add a little dish soap (about 1tablespoon) to a pot of water and bring to a boil. Toss your yarn balls into the pot and stir.

Step 3: Once your water starts to boil, turn heat to medium low and leave your project alone for a bit. Every so often give the pot a stir to agitate the wool. Also use your tongs to squeeze the yarn and agitate every so often.

Step 4: After about 45 minutes, put your yarn balls into the dryer and dry on high heat. They will come out looking like this:

Step 5: Attach the felted ball to a stem. I used flower stems from Artco Crafts. When I bought them they had a plastic flower attached to the top, which I cut off. These stems are great because they have wire inside, making  them easy to attach.

                                                                                                                                                            --Molly

Scroll down to bottom of page see Molly's flowers in these linky parties.

Painted Stair Runner

We have a hard time keeping carpet clean at our house. Even though we take our shoes off at the door, our carpet is still dirty looking. So little by little it is disappearing around here. A couple of months ago I ripped the carpet off of our stairs  and have been working on painting them ever since. I'm still working on them, but here are some pictures of the work in progress.

-Molly

Fall Friday Fun!

Molly and the boys came over to play today, it was such a treat for us to have them over . This was a long week and it was nice to have the boys play trains upstairs for a bit so the mommies could unwind and have some girl time, and let the chalkboard paint dry on the stainless steel buckets that we spray painted outside.
You might recall from a few posts ago Molly and I had a "thrifting day" this also included a quick trip to Ikea, and we found buckets for $2.99 each. We got the great idea to paint them with chalkboard paint, have the kids decorate them with chalk, and use them for their trick or treat baskets.

See me drill? I am pretty good with power tools.
We gathered the kids to the table and had some fun with chalk after the kids picked out which ribbon they wanted for their handle.

They turned out so cute~! I think we will use them again next year.

Oh, and do you want to see what the boys were up to while the mommies had their wine?

What a great Friday!

-Alison

Message Board Out of Old Screen Door

I bought an antique screen door at a salvage store in Tacoma one day this summer with Molly and all the kids. I bought the door thinking I would actually use it for the front door of my house, but it was just a bit too long. I had it in my garage for a month or two before I figured out what I wanted to do with it.

I am in the process of decorating my downstairs office and really wanted the old tag board

that I had in my kitchen to move to my office, it was a better fit for the office.

(Photo's of the finished office to follow sometime soon)

This left me with a large blank wall in my kitchen and that would drive me nuts!

Here is what I did.

I found corkboard cut to size for one part of the door, dry erase calendars (backed with fiber glass) for another, both found at Artco Crafts. I then had a board cut to size at Lowes for the largest part. I painted the board with Rustoleum magnetic and chalkboard paint.

Here are some other message boards from Pottery Barn and Ballard Designs that I like.

It was not the easiest project, a couple trips to the craft store, and around $100 for everything (including the antique door itself).

I am sure it will be full of Halloween pics from my kids very soon.

-Alison

Scroll down to see what this was linked to.

Decorating With Shells

Decorating with sea shells is very modern cottage.
I went to Whidbey Island (in Washington State) with my husband this weekend and we had a fantastic cabin right on the water. The beach was private so there were hundreds of wonderful shells waiting to be picked up.

I am not sure what I am going to do with my found treasures, but here are some examples of fun decorating with sea shells.

-Alison