DIY Ship steering wheel

Here it is! another nautical room decor for Eli. I found a similar steering wheel from Hobby Lobby for $44. I had most of the stuff to make the wheel so, I only ended up paying $12:) I could have saved some money at Hobby Lobby with a 40% off coupon but I was anxious to see if I could pull this project off, and I did, awesome!

My inspiration photo

Here are the items you will need:
Round pine table top
Sisal rope
A bag of birch shaker pegs
2 Hardwood dowels
Classic grey wood finish

This table top is 1"x 17" big

I used my punch ball to make a round outline in the middle of the table top. Then I made another smaller circle in the middle.

Then I used my spade drill bit to drill 1/2" holes. In total I had 16 holes on the larger piece. The 8 holes on the outer side were about 1/2" deep, just enough for the shaker pegs to go in. The other 8 inner holes were also about 1/2 deep also.

I used my variable speed jigsaw to cut out this, like here. The smaller piece is about 6.5" big and the larger piece is 3" wide. The space between is about 3.5".

The distance between the 2 pieces is about 3.5".

I also drilled 1/2" holes into the round middle piece. I cut out 8 dowels, about 4.5 inches long. With the round piece in the middle, I put some glue on my dowels and stuck them into the pre drilled holes. I wish I took more pictures. Then I put some more wood glue on the peg shakers and stuck them on the outer wheel.

I used a grey wood finish and after it was dry, I tied the rope around the wheel

Diana's room reveal sneak peek

I promised to reveal Diana's room today but still can't because we haven't been able to take pictures to hang in her room. We went outside yesterday and her face turned red as soon as we got out because it was too cold. We will keep trying, hopefully we can do it soon.

Here is a sneak peek of her room.

I used an off white paint color called 'antique' from Home depot.

Here is the before picture. What a difference! This dresser took a while to make over. As much as I love the effects of a fresh coat of paint, I do not fancy the actual process of painting. I live in a condo and my workshop is my tiny balcony as you can see in the picture.

Meet Mr. Frog. I had to throw in some green in her room, I couldn't resist..

Felt pom poms

 Every little girl deserves some pom pom loving in her room. These turned out great. I made them using felt fabric from Joanns. The colors are hot pink, light pink and off white.

The balls are about 7" big

I love how they compliment the room

What you need:

Felt fabric (I used 1/4 yards of fabric per ball)

Styrofoam balls

Glue gun

Glue sticks

Eye bolts

Thin ribbon

Scissors

 

1. I cut strips of fabric first, then cut them into squares (about 2.5" x 2.5"). I got a few squares at once and cut out lots of circles. 

2. Put some glue in the middle of the circle

3. Fold the circle in half and let the glue stick

4. Add more glue and fold again 

Add glue to the tips of the fabric then stick it to the ball.

I used a ribbon to hang them up. I tied one end of the ribbon to the bolts and hot glued the other end to the ball. They haven't fallen off so far, so its safe to say they are stable.

 I am just doing the final touches in Diana's room. I still need to take a picture of her to hang in her room, and spray paint a few picture frames. Then we should be good to go.
Come back for the room reveal this coming Monday Wednesday. I am so excited..

I am pretty, am beautiful and am wonderful

A few days ago, James, the kids and I were driving to my in-laws for Easter. The kids were in the back and we were happily chatting away in the front. Then I heard my 3 year old daughter talking softly to herself. I listened carefully and heard her say, 'I am pretty, I am beautiso (beautiful), and wonderso (wonderful). She repeated that over and over. If you know my daughter, you will know that she knows it and means it. She is so beautiful, funny, kind and very confident. And sometimes, she likes to think she is the boss around here.

Diana, at 2 months. This is one of my favorite pictures of her, she has ALWAYS been beautiful

Anyway, quietly I repeated the words to myself, 'I am pretty, am beautiful and I am wonderful.' At that moment, I can't describe what I felt without being cheesy. It was a wonderful experience, one I hope to feel always.

Living in America has been an eye opener for me. I see everyday what Elder Holland once said, "One would truly need a great and spacious makeup kit to compete with beauty as portrayed in media all around us. Yet at the end of the day there would still be those “in the attitude of mocking and pointing their fingers” as Lehi saw, because however much one tries in the world of glamour and fashion, it will never be glamorous enough."

This morning, I saw a Dove experiment that brought tears and touched me deeply. From Dove, "Women are their own worst beauty critics. Only 4% of women around the world consider themselves beautiful. At Dove, we are committed to creating a world where beauty is a source of confidence, not anxiety. So, we decided to conduct a compelling social experiment that explores how women view their own beauty in contrast to what others see"The video is below, please watch it.

I want my daughter to grow up always knowing that she is pretty, beautiful and wonderful. I want her to remember once again Elder Holland's plea, "..be proud you are a woman. I want you to feel the reality of what that means, to know who you truly are. You are literally a spirit daughter of heavenly parents with a divine nature and an eternal destiny. That surpassing truth should be fixed deep in your soul and be fundamental to every decision you make as you grow into mature womanhood. There could never be a greater authentication of your dignity, your worth, your privileges, and your promise. Your Father in Heaven knows your name and knows your circumstance. He hears your prayers. He knows your hopes and dreams, including your fears and frustrations. And He knows what you can become through faith in Him."  

I hope I can always remember that too, that every woman I know will too. We may not look identical but we are all pretty, beautiso and wonderso. 

I would like to echo the ad's message, 'lets spend more time appreciating what we do like.'

 
Check out the whole story here: Dove Real Beauty Sketches

Chevron Skirt tutorial

I finally made myself a chevron skirt. Can you tell that am a little behind in the fashion world??? Well, the good part is that I am getting more confident in making my own clothes and I am loving the challenge. P.s, the maxi skirt will never be outdated, right?

I have worn this outfit twice already, I am loving the skirt. I have always loved color but I LOVE black too so it ends up in most of my outfits:) I had to throw in some colorful shoes so it didn't seem like I was going to a funeral.

It was so windy when I took these pictures, you can't really see the shape of the skirt. It's the same as here.  It cost me about $12 to make the skirt. I bought the fabric on sale from fabric.com. They don't have this particular color anymore.  It's ponte roma, my favorite knit for maxi skirts. They had tons of stripe fabric, I got too excited and ended up buying a couple more knits to make a dress and a few more maxis. I shall post them here as I get done.

What you need:

2 1/4 yards Knit fabric (am 5'11" tall so I needed some extra fabric to make this design work) So buy your fabric accordingly.
Elastic
Thread
Scissors
Sewing machine:)

1. lay your fabric flat.
2. Fold it in half, hotdog style (the wrong side of the fabric facing each other, so the right side facing up)..
3. Then fold your fabric in half (hamburger style). At this point, you should have 4 pieces of fabric.
4. Take your waist measurement, divide it in 4. Even though my skirt stretches, give allowance for the skirt to be able to pass through the hips. For example, waist is 36", add 4 inches etc (depending on your hip size) Then divide your total 40" by 4 = 10". Therefore, 10" is how wide the waist will be on each piece. Arrange your fabric at an angle, as shown in picture #4. Make an outline with a piece of chalk. Both sides = the length of your skirt from waist to ankles (In the length of the skirt have 1/2" seam allowance at the bottom and about 1.5" for the elastic at the waist.With the width of the skirt at the bottom, I measured it the same as here.
5. You should have 4 pieces of fabric once you are done cutting. Then arrange them as shown and sew the pieces together.

Wasn't too hard as you can see from the smile on my face

 If you would like to make a skirt like this and have any questions, feel free to contact me and I would love to guide you.


 
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Red fly creations 

Which color? Help me decide..

I have been trying to decide whether to keep Eli's crib color or to change it. We got the current crib from Diana's baby shower. I picked it so I liked it then. I am not quite sure how I feel about it today. The color we have now is cinnamon. Thanx to the power of spray painting, I can change the color in minutes..

His room theme is nautical, check it out here - colors are red, navy and white. His room walls are white (we are renting and so I don't want to paint walls).

So please take the time to help me decide. The voting poll is on the top right corner of my blog.
You have until Friday midnight.

The cinnamon is more like a cherry and the java is like walnut/expresso

Thank you, thank you:)

source

Update: Thanx for all those that took the time to look at this. I appreciate your suggestions. I have decided to paint it java. Wish me luck..

Pottery Barn swing shelf knock off

Eli's nursery is coming up very well. Yesterday I finished making this swing shelf; a Pottery Barn knock off. I love PB; the prices not so much, but they always have fun stuff like this.

My inspiration from Pottery Barn Kids

Here is what you need:

Drill driver

Shelf

1/4" Sisal rope

2 Robe hooks

I used my drill driver and this 1/2" flat bit with a double-spur design

Drill a hole in each corner of the shelf. The 1/2 holes worked perfect with my 1/4" rope

I cut out 2 ropes each measuring 20". Closer to the hook, I used a tiny sisal and tied it around several times. Then I put some wood glue on all the knots. It feels pretty sturdy and looks good.

This shelf costs $69. It cost me $11 to make. I had the shelf laying around, just got the rope and hooks

Pillow tutorial - grommet & rope

This pillow is one of my favorite Pinterest finds. Immediately I saw it, I knew it would look good in my son's room.

Here is a tutorial on how to insert grommets:

Cut a hole into your fabric

Insert the grommet into the hole (the piece that pokes out should be on the wrong side of the fabric)

Place the grommet on top the the round hardware you see in the picture

Place the washer (the flat piece) on top of the grommet.

Place the puncher on top of the washer and hit it with a hammer a few times.

Voila!

 And here is the tutorial on how to make the pillow



Linking up to:
The 36th Avenue

Whale wall decor

Remember the  nautical nursery storyboard for Eli's room? Well, this is the one piece I was not so sure I could pull off. I must say it was very thrilling to make, it looks awesome and its quite big. The whale measures 34" x 20" long

This is what you will need:
2 red cedar fence board
Newspaper (or any large piece of paper)
9 mending plates
Minwax wood finish
Picture hangers
A rug or paint brush
A pen or pencil

Here is my inspiration picture from PBK. I have no idea how much it costs. I even wonder if they ever sold it, it was just part of the room and I loved it. I found these kind of whales for $100 on Etsy and it only cost me about $12 to make my very own..hurray!

Cut boards in half and arrange them like above. Draw a picture of a whale on the newspaper (if you look closely, you will see I had to adjust and redraw mine several times). Cut out the drawing from your paper and using a pencil draw alone the edges of the cutout onto the boards.

Here is how it looked like after

Then I whipped out my favorite tool of all times. My saw, this is one item I would take with me to my grave yes our relationship is that deep. I have used it on all my wood cutting projects, love it love it love it!!

source

Cut up all my pieces, one board at a time

Is that cool or what? The jig saw cut through this board like it was butter. It's the first time I have used it for something this precise and it delivered:)

I turned it around and screwed in the mending plates where the boards came together. Then I nailed in the picture hangers, one on the tail and the other on the head (not shown in picture).

I used this stain, love this stuff

Love it!

DIY Sailboat T-shirt

Here is a cute project I have been working on. It only took a few minutes. I got the tee for $3 and the fabric paint was a dollar; another affordable project. You may have noticed by now that I love anything nautical. My son's nursery is nautical and I got some fabric to make me a shirt and a maxi skirt (navy, white and red) hurray!

I have always wanted to print on my own clothes but just didn't take the time to learn how. Last week I stumbled upon this cute blog. I loved her tutorial and decided to try it out and I am excited with how it turned out. Its not that scary after all.
I would like to make a skirt/shorts whichever one will be easier to make to go with this tee. It's going to be a fun spring/summer outfit for my little daughter..