Brand New To Me

Just wanted to give a shout out to my hubby for all the extra work he has been put into building things, not only for our home, but for his Etsy shop.

Jared started his Etsy shop back in May because he had been tinkering around in the garage with different woods, old windows, and rusty farm stuff. And these little projects were starting to pile up. He decided to look into selling a few things on Etsy. Since then it has been pretty unpredictable. Sometimes he will go a month or so without an order or even an inquiry, and then there are times like yesterday when he got three orders in about half an hour.

Right now he has started making a new item, one that our friend messaged him a request for.
Apparently everybody is prepping to hang their stockings with care, because he now has multiple orders for a wooden Merry Christmas stocking holder.
{Okay, one of them is an order from me, but wives count too, right?}

stocking holder in progress...

Check out his Etsy shop to see the finished product.

 



He has been relegated to the basement to do some projects since the garage isn't heated. He has a make shift area down there where his paints won't freeze and the glue might actually dry. Don't feel sorry for him, he still gets to escape quickly and "go work on that project..." when the kids get a little whiny.

 

If you are interested in seeing any of the stuff he creates and sells,

click on the Brand New To Me button on the right side of my blog page.  





my creative hubby

It's no secret that Jared loves a good project. He also loves to stay busy.
{Blame the ADHD...}

His first project was a kids' picnic table.

It turned out really awesome and the girls love it. It's even more special because Daddy made it for them.

He liked building the table so much, he got the idea to start making more things, but on a cheaper scale.
So recently he has started creating new items using old stuff, like windows and wood.
It helps that my dad is an avid "collector."
{My mom, sisters, and I might agree that the term "hoarder" is more appropriate.}
Around the farm Jared has found old items to reuse, like wood from old pallets and windows without glass.

This last one might be my favorite.
It's relatively simple for Jared to make and can be used a bunch of different ways.

Plus it's cute.

He recently started his own Etsy shop with the items he has made thus far. He likes making all these things, and selling a few would fund his hobby plus help him make a little money for his time. He actually just got his first order for one of these personalized welcome signs today.  :)

If you would like to check out his shop, follow this link:
BrandNewToMe on Etsy
Or if you are in our area (NW Iowa), let us know and he would be very excited to make you something!

Graham's Room

Awhile back I posted about all our Hobby Lobby purchases and projects we were working on.

 

One of them was to make letters to spell Graham's name for his room. Seeing as the nursery was all full of girl stuff for Bailey and then Avery, we needed some blue to make this room a bit more boy-oriented.

It wasn't until after hours of doing projects that we hung the letters up on his wall. It was then that we realized the A's were backward.  

Oops!

We haven't been back to Hobby Lobby yet to purchase more blue paper to fix it, so it will have to work for now.

(And I am realizing just now as I write this blog post that the teddy bear is wearing Avery's headband. So much for a boy-oriented space, right?)

We have been slowly adding things to his room.

Right now we basically can't have a single thing on the lower shelves of the bookcase because his sisters come into the room and take everything that they can reach, especially books. The girls love to read "new" books: aka ones they haven't read in two days. The main problem is that Avery is still in the stage where it is fun to also rip apart those new books.

Jared refinished the dresser a few weeks before Graham was born. It was an oak color and we had it in our guest bedroom. Jared sanded and stained it to match the rest of the nursery furniture, as well as most of the wood furniture in our house. New knobs found for cheap online (seriously, who knew knobs were so freaking expensive?!) finished the update.

Making the letters was super easy.

We got the idea after seeing all kinds of cute nursery designs involving hanging letters. After a little research, we found most of the letters were upwards of $20 a piece. Yeah, they are wood and of higher quality, but really, how long will you be using them for?

We bought these flat letters from Hobby Lobby for $1.99 a piece.
The paper was less than 50 cents.
The dark blue paint was less than a dollar.
We already had Mod Podge and a brush at home from other crafts.

First we painted all the edges a dark blue that matched that color of the paper.

Next you simply paint a small layer of Mod Podge on the front side of the letter and press it onto the paper you are wanting to use. (You have to be careful that the paper is taut and smooth or you will come out with wrinkles in the paper.)

After letting them dry completely, use an exacto knife to cut the paper along the edge of the letters. Once done with that, apply another layer of Mod Podge to the front of the letters, protecting the paper.

You're done. That's it.

We used your basic sticky tack to hang the letters on the wall.

So in total we spent under three dollars per letter, which can really save you a lot of money depending on the length of your child's name.
 

Holy Hobby Lobby!

We escaped our house the other night and left the girls behind with Aunt Justy to do their usual: hot dogs, (nasty) boxed mac n' cheese, and Disney movie watching.
 
Graham came along with us while we ran errands in Fort Dodge.
He still isn't taking a bottle well.
We have been trying for weeks. I think we have tried 4 different bottles and nipples - including ones made for breastfed babies that are refusing the bottle. The only way he actually drinks even an ounce from the bottle is if I end up doing it - defeating the whole purpose.

I liked when Jared and I used to be able to load up and spend a whole afternoon and actually go to every store we wanted.

Ahh...those were the days...

Now it is more pick-and-choose what is most important. And where we go to eat depends on whether or not the restaurant has a booth where I can {somewhat} comfortably nurse the baby.

One of our stops was Hobby Lobby.
It happens every time I enter the store.
I go in for one or two items and come out $100 poorer. But we always end up finding things for house projects and little decorations for the kids' rooms, which are still a work in progress.

We are working on decorating Graham's room. Avery still occupies the room, but we are going to start to move her into her big-girl bed in Bailey's room soon. So far, we haven't hung a single thing. We didn't decorate before because we wanted to do it gender-specific and we didn't plan to find out the sex (Whoopsies...) ahead of time. So it is a blank canvas.

We bought some large wood letters to spell out his name just like we did in the girls' room.

{A blog coming in the near-future to show the finished product.}

We also found some cute pictures to hang on the wall and items for the bookcase.

 

We bought a bunch of other things to work on, but we only completed two yesterday.

 

 

Large Hanging Initial

 

We bought a large wooden letter S {which was 50% off - just like half of Hobby Lobby always is}, two paint colors, one crackle paint, and some ribbon.

 

 

We painted down the dark brown color. It took a couple coats because the wood really soaked it up. Then painted on the crackle paint. After that we had to wait about half an hour for it be "tacky" enough to paint on the blue. After the blue was painted on, it had the crackle look.

We finished up by painting the side of the S the same blue color.

All that was left to do was attach the ribbon and hang it up.

 

It's currently hanging near the front door in our breezeway, which is a good spot for it because this space needs all the help it can get!

 



Kitchen Chalkboard

 

We have this really weird area of clear blocks in our kitchen. They overlook the stairway going to the basement and serve no purpose. I am not sure why the original owners put them in when they did the addition. They are just awkward.

I thought that hanging a chalkboard over it might be a nice solution.

 

Weird, right?

 

 

So we bought a large chalkboard for $12.99 at Hobby Lobby.

{Or it might have been half that. I can't remember.}

 

Jared taped around it and painted the edges white.

 

 

 

We mounted it on the wall and put some decorative ribbon on it, and we were good to go.

 

Much better, right?

 

We thought about buying some spray that makes the surface magnetic; then the girls would be able to use their magnetic letters and numbers on it, but we left it as is for now.

We still need to do some further decorating, but this is a pretty good start in my book.

 

 

Also while out and about, we stopped at Target and spent more money than we anticipated there, too. I found cute lamps for both kids' rooms AND a lamp for the sofa table in our living room. So three lamps... Random.

We also picked up other things (aka the things we were actually supposed to be shopping for) like gifts for our soon-to-be born niece, due to arrive in less than a week now. (Just to clarify: Jared's sister, not mine.)

 

So that is all the crafting/decorating I have for now. I will post more of our projects as we get them completed.

 



Getting Crafty

In general I am not much of a crafty person. My brain usually doesn't come up with ideas on its own, so I am much better off just following simple instructions.

I saw this idea in a magazine my mom gave me and decided to take the time to make it. It's simple (aka I was able to do it) and very cheap.

Fabric-Wrapped Wreath

 ~ patriotic style  ~

You need a few basic items:



*12 inch round foam floral/craft ring

* scissors

* ruler

* 6 inch length of floral wire (not pictured)

Then you choose fabric (use scraps if possible) in 7-10 different patterns.

I used 7 because that is what I had. {And by what "I" had I really mean what my mom and grandma had. I don't exactly sew. See above description of uncrafty-ness.} The more patterns you use, the tighter you should keep the color palette.

Cut the fabric into ten 14"x 1.5" strips per pattern.

Then taking the fabric strip, loop it around the ring, right side out, and tie in a double knot at the front. Continue doing this in order of the fabrics, staggering the placement of the knots, until all are used. Every so often bunch the fabric together so the ring doesn't show. For the final step, loop the floral wire through the fabric on the back of the wreath to create a hanger. Trim any loose threads and you're all done!

The final product:

It would look much better hanging on a wall, but I forgot to buy the previously mentioned floral wire...

You could use the same idea to make a different themed wreath - Christmas, Easter, Halloween, or even just pretty colors that look good together.

Not bad for only costing $4.79 to make!