Refinished Garage Sale Mirror

 It has been so long since I bought this mirror…just look at my flat tummy!
This was right before I got pregnant...I will be 28 weeks tomorrow
and am really missing my waistline right now.**Sigh**

Okay, back to the mirror.

I bought it at a garage sale for $5 and knew exactly what I would do with it.

I loved that it was a DIY mirror and that the glass was cut in 1980.
It has the date on the back.

I sanded it a little and primed it.
Do you like my canned food stands? Use whatcha got, right?

Then I painted it this scrumptious mustard yellow:)
The color is Solar Fusion by Behr.

…then I painted my face a little.

The yellow was a little bright,
so I busted out the RL Tobacco Glaze and dirtied up the shiny paint job.

  I found some hooks with an oil-rubbed bronze finish at Target and had the husband put them on. I could have done this myself, but I am such a freak with the measuring that I just delegated. I’m learning! ;)

This weekend we finally remembered to pick up some hardware to hang the mirror and my husband hung it up for me…not once, but twice! Yep. I have some holes to fill. The poor guy got it all hung up where I asked him too, only to look over at me making an “I hate it” face. Ha!

So then he lowered it about 9 inches and I was a happy wife!

 

See the hutch in the mirror?

Um, yeah…that’s another LONG overdue project that I am still working on.

It’s not that it is such a difficult project, it’s just that I can only work on it once my 2 year old goes to bed and by then I am so exhausted that I can’t do much. I am determined to get it done soon though! I am only getting bigger and more uncomfortable with the pregnancy, so it’s kinda like “now or never lady!” I’m going to have to COFFEE UP and push through the pain, but I am sure it will be worth it.

It is primed and now I just have to paint and glaze.

Dressed up a little for Christmas…I LOVE the colors together!

Added bonus: I have somewhere to hang my favorite ornaments from Restoration Hardware

that are too heavy to hang on our tree! Boom!

~Amy~

Linking up with some of these blogs:

Fingerprints on the Fridge, Making The World Cuter, Dittle Dattle, Mad Skills Monday, Skip to my Lou, Craft O Maniac, Delicate Construction, Ask Anna, New Nostalgia, House of Grace, Sassy Sites, Not Just a Housewife, Today's Creative Blog, My Craftie Life, Sew Much Ado, Seven Thirty-Three, Someday Crafts, A Diamond in the Stuff, My Girlish Whims, Somewhat Simple, Momnivores Dilemma, Paisley Passions, Fun to Craft, Make it, Wear it, Gluesticks, House of Hepworths, What Allie's Making Now, Finding Fabulous, A Little Knick Knack, Mommas Kinda Crafty, Its a Hodgepodge Life, Inspiring Creations, Be Different Act Normal, Wildflowers and Whimsy, Tatertots and Jello, The Idea Room, My Repurposed Life, Sew Many Ways, I Heart Naptime, Thirty Handmade Days, Under the Table and Dreaming, Creative Itch, Oops I Craft My Pants, Addicted 2 Decorating

Homemade Laundry Cream

I have been wanting to try some homemade laundry detergents for quite awhile now.

I found this recipe at A Quiver Full of Blessings and was out of laundry detergent,

 so it was time!

Ingredients:

• 6 Cups of water
• 2 Cups of Borax
• 2 Cups of Washing Soda
• 2 bars of Fels-Naptha soap

Grate both bars of soap and pour into boiling water. Once the soap is dissolved, add in the Borax and the Washing Soda. Cook for about 3 minutes and then pour into clean mason jars.
I would recommend using a funnel for this part. *wink*
My counters got a little soapy until I got smart and funneled up.

Let the soap mixture sit for 8 or so hours. You can’t see in this photo, but there is a liquid on the bottom and the top part is all crusty.

Here you can see the crustiness.

After it has sat for the 8 hours or so, put the soap (one jar at a time) into a blender to make it into the “cream” consistency that we are going for. I could just tell you that this part was so simple, but since lying is against my religion I will tell you the truth.

It was messy.

I first put it in my blender and nothing got blended. It just sat there mocking me.

My husband thinks I don’t know how to use a blender…I just think every blender we have owned is defective and out to get me.

Then I took it out and tried using a hand mixer.

That got it more broken up, but not so much the “creamy” I was going for.

After that I pulled out the Magic Bullet and finally got the results that I wanted!

I just had to do it in small increments.

NOTE:While blending you will need to add more water to get it to cream.

Just eyeball it.

Here is my finished detergent. Notice that there is more than in the photos above?

That’s what happens when you add a little more water and blend it up.

Notice the lovely butter-like creamy consistency? Uh-huh!

Okay, so now let’s talk about the soap:

I love it! I have a front loading HE washer and it works GREAT! I have been using this for 2 weeks now and use 1 Tablespoon per load. I have a family of four,so we do tons of laundry, and I just finished the SMALL jar of soap. I set my soap dispenser to the “liquid soap” mode.

My husband had a pomegranate explode on his favorite t-shirt and this stuff got it right out, no pre treating needed. I was shocked! If you have ever tried to get that juice out of your clothes, you know what I am talking about.

When this is gone I am planning to try a liquid version and then a powder one to see which one I like best. I will keep y’all posted!

~Amy~

Linking up with some of these blogs:

Fingerprints on the Fridge, Making The World Cuter, Dittle Dattle, Mad Skills Monday, Skip to my Lou, Craft O Maniac, Delicate Construction, Ask Anna, New Nostalgia, House of Grace, Sassy Sites, Not Just a Housewife, Today's Creative Blog, My Craftie Life, Sew Much Ado, Seven Thirty-Three, Someday Crafts, A Diamond in the Stuff, My Girlish Whims, Somewhat Simple, Momnivores Dilemma, Paisley Passions, Fun to Craft, Make it, Wear it, Gluesticks, House of Hepworths, What Allie's Making Now, Finding Fabulous, A Little Knick Knack, Mommas Kinda Crafty, Its a Hodgepodge Life, Inspiring Creations, Be Different Act Normal, Wildflowers and Whimsy, Tatertots and Jello, The Idea Room, My Repurposed Life, Sew Many Ways, I Heart Naptime, Thirty Handmade Days, Under the Table and Dreaming, Creative Itch, Oops I Craft My Pants, Addicted 2 Decorating

Crayon Rolls

Seriously one of my favorite gifts to make for kids.

I made these matching ones for my son Travis and his best bud Chris for their birthdays.

The fabrics are Riley Blake All Stars and some brown duck cloth.

Instead of doing ribbon on these ones I did an elastic loop…so much easier for a toddler!

Is it just me,

or does the sight of fresh crayons just make you feel like anything is possible?

BLISS!

Travis' Birthday Shirt

So I realize that Travis' birthday was nearly a month ago, but I forgot to share this because I have pregnesia. It's a real thing...look it up.

I made Travis a "2nd Birthday Shirt".

I took a shirt from his closet that had a few little stains on the front, appliqued a HUGE "2" onto a block of fabric and sewed it to the shirt with a zigzag stitch. It came out so cute and was made with what I had on hand already, so it was FREE!

Oh YEAH! I am definitely a fan of FREE.

His birthday was on a Sunday, so I thought it would be so cute for him to wear his new shirt to church. Unfortunately he took the "2" to mean "Go #2 all over this shirt"

and didn't even make it to his classroom wearing it.

**Sigh**

So his birthday shirt spent the day covered in poo in a ziplock bag in the car.

Kids are so gross.

Also, fire is crazy scary to some 2 year olds...

and that is amusing to Dad and Sissy.

Fingerprints on the Fridge, Making The World Cuter, Dittle Dattle, Mad Skills Monday, Skip to my Lou, Craft O Maniac, Delicate Construction, Ask Anna, New Nostalgia, House of Grace, Sassy Sites, Not Just a Housewife, Today's Creative Blog, My Craftie Life, Sew Much Ado, Seven Thirty-Three, Someday Crafts, A Diamond in the Stuff, My Girlish Whims, Somewhat Simple, Momnivores Dilemma, Paisley Passions, Fun to Craft, Make it, Wear it, Gluesticks, House of Hepworths, What Allie's Making Now, Finding Fabulous, A Little Knick Knack, Mommas Kinda Crafty, Its a Hodgepodge Life, Inspiring Creations, Be Different Act Normal, Wildflowers and Whimsy, Tatertots and Jello, The Idea Room, My Repurposed Life, Sew Many Ways, I Heart Naptime, Thirty Handmade Days, Under the Table and Dreaming, Creative Itch, Oops I Craft My Pants, Addicted 2 Decorating

Playdough Party Favors

Happy Halloween!

My friend Krista and I are in charge of planning and running our church's moms group.

We get together once a week to hang out and let the kids play.

We were planning a little Halloween playdate for the moms and kids and didn't really want to overload the kids with sugar. I thought about what I could bring, and with the majority of the kids being ages 2-3, I decided that Homemade Playdough would be perfect!

I picked up several packages of these reusable containers at the Dollar Tree.

They are each 12oz.

I made 3 double batches of Homemade Playdough in Purple, Orange and Green for Halloween.

*1/4 of a single batch is the perfect size for playing and fit nicely in the containers I purchased!*

While taking photos of the playdough my son decided to sit on my foot and lick my leg.

He thinks he's hilarious...I just think he's gross and a little bit cute;)

The containers looked so sad and naked,

so I got out my scrapbook paper and a circle cutter and went to town. I printed:

Happy Halloween!

{PLAYDOUGH}

on orange cardstock and cut it out with scissors,

then I used an adhesive roller to stick the paper to the lids and to attach the labels.

So cute, right?

The kids(and moms) loved them!

We had a few leftover after everyone left, so then I got to be the crazy mom at the park handing homemade playdough out to families as I came across them. I got some strange looks followed by amused grins, but the kids all begged to go home to play with the playdough so it was worth it! Ha ha ha!

Do you have any non-sugar Halloween ideas?

I would love to hear them!

Linking up with some of these Blogs:

Fingerprints on the Fridge, Making The World Cuter, Dittle Dattle, Mad Skills Monday, Skip to my Lou, Craft O Maniac, Delicate Construction, Ask Anna, New Nostalgia, House of Grace, Sassy Sites, Not Just a Housewife, Today's Creative Blog, My Craftie Life, Sew Much Ado, Seven Thirty-Three, Someday Crafts, A Diamond in the Stuff, My Girlish Whims, Somewhat Simple, Momnivores Dilemma, Paisley Passions, Fun to Craft, Make it, Wear it, Gluesticks, House of Hepworths, What Allie's Making Now, Finding Fabulous, A Little Knick Knack, Mommas Kinda Crafty, Its a Hodgepodge Life, Inspiring Creations, Be Different Act Normal, Wildflowers and Whimsy, Tatertots and Jello, The Idea Room, My Repurposed Life, Sew Many Ways, I Heart Naptime, Thirty Handmade Days, Under the Table and Dreaming, Creative Itch, Oops I Craft My Pants, Addicted 2 Decorating