Canvas Prints

Ever since we moved into our house I have been looking for art to hang above our bed in the master bedroom. I had a framed quote above the bed, but we took it down when we realized we had a frame hanging in the room with the same quote: "Love forgives all things, endures all things...." A while back I was shopping for fabric for living room pillows and I absolutely fell in love with one print. It is white, black, gray, gold and purple. I wasn't sure about how my husband would react since we have sort of an agreement about floral things, but the boldness of this pattern means it doesn't scream female.

So, I went about making my own frames to stretch the fabric around and create canvas panels. The pictures are pretty self explanatory so I won't editorialize much.

Supplies:
wood (I used 3 pieces of 1x2x6 for two 19x19 frames)
saw
wood screws
screwdriver/drill
measuring tape
fabric
staple gun

Make sure all pieces are the same length or you won't have an even square

This is when I used a drill to make the holes for the wood screws

Cut enough fabric so it will wrap around the wood and can be stapled in the back

I wrapped the edges like a present so it looks clean

Glass Fall Centerpiece

Last week the temperature in Maryland dropped which meant Fall really has arrived. So, while the baby was playing in the living room, I decided to switch up my table decor in the dining room (our main eating area). I went with something very simple, at least for the time being, because I already had all of the elements at home.

These five multi-level votives are meant for candles, but since we don't have many dinners by candlelight in our house, although I wouldn't mind if we did ;), I filled them with....

...orange glass beads. I used these beads last year too, but in a different way.

I also chose to use the same placemats as last year, but bought plum colored napkins at World Market. 

Now once I get out to the farm this year, I'm sure some pumpkins will be added!!

Time Out Tuesday

These were taken within five seconds of each other. The infamous lip!

Bookworm

You see, our little boy likes to read books, especially on the floor.
He really doesn't care where you read, as long as the book is not a bore.
This weekend at the church book sale, kids books were only a dime.
So I bought him $1.60 of books that he can call mine.
He sits on my lap and pulls books to read from the shelf.
Looks like we have ourselves a little reading elf!

New Shower Curtain = New Mood

A few weeks ago, this pattern caught my eye at World Market. The blue and green paisley was serene:

I could just picture this in our guest bathroom, so of course I bought it to make it happen! When we moved into our home, I had a really hard time finding a shower curtain for that bathroom. Funny story: when registering for wedding gifts, I actually registered for the same shower curtain at two different stores without even realizing it for our master bathroom. I guess it was exactly what I wanted. Anyway, this is what the bathroom used to look like:

The color was semi-metallic and I liked the texture, but it was pretty boring. And now the the reveal:

I like our new one MUCH more and it plays off the beachy theme in there. I don't want to make it too much of a "kids" bathroom, at least not for a few years and the bright blues and greens are good for a little boy anyway. The new pattern goes with my accessories too.

The Magic of a FoodSaver

This machine is my new best friend:

Originally used in our house for freezing meat during hunting season, crab meat in the summer and fresh fruit from nearby farms, it now freezes William's baby food.

I have been using this tray which makes 1 oz cubes:

Once I puree a fruit or vegetable, I freeze one tray's worth and keep any remaining puree in the refrigerator and use that first. The next day I pop out the cubes and put them into 3 inch bags I cut from the roll. I use the "manual seal" option to seal off one end before putting in the cubes. I usually do three because that is two feedings worth so it is easy for me to thaw.

Then, I use the "vacuum seal" to suck out all of the air and seal up the other side of the bag. And that's it! NO FREEZER BURN! After my other post about baby food, a few friends on Facebook told me the bad part was freezer burn. Well, this prevents it.

Glass Stenciled Mirror {tutorial}

Two of my good friends, Nick and Sarah, got married at the end of July. They have been dating eight years and had known each other four years before that. We went to middle school and high school together so I have known both of them for a long time (or what seems like a long time).

A few years ago (or maybe less?) they bought what seems to be a beautiful historic home in Connecticut. I say "seems" because I have not actually seen it in person yet which is a shame on me. I know they were looking for antiques to fill their home and when I remembered I had purchased this mirror, yet not hung it in my own home, I thought of them.

I wanted to make a subway art mirror and although it didn't totally end up the way I envisioned, I was still happy with the result. Since I do not have a Silhouette and I didn't want to hand paint all the words, I went to a craft store to look at stencils. Lo and behold, I found blank stencils - hallelujah! I thought it would be easier to make my own stencils rather than lining up each letter for every word with precut stencils (I'm still not so sure about that). Once I got home with the blank stencils, I printed out various words that I wanted to use on the computer.

I grabbed a Sharpie and traced every word onto the stencil. I realized that letters with "inside areas" like P, R, A, and O were going to require an alternative plan since cutting the stencils out eliminated the center areas completely. So, I added an extra cutting line to try and preserve some of these letters since I didn't want it looking "off."

Once the words were cut-out, I started with their names because I knew I wanted it in the center and it was significantly bigger than the rest of the words.

For the etched glass effect I used NAME OF BRAND paint which I am thrilled worked otherwise I would have had to go to plan B which was doing this all on a piece of painted wood in contrasting colors and then inserting it in the mirror's frame. I did a few words at a time since it required me to paint a few coats, peel off the stencil and do touchups all before it started to dry.

Looking back, I think the words should have been larger to give it more of a subway art feel, but since the words are smaller, it is almost more of a mirror than I originally thought it would be. It also would have been much cleaner looking and more efficient if I had a Silhouette, but make do with what you have, right?!

PS: Sorry the photos aren't too great but it is hard to photograph a mirror!! Also, I blurred out some of the personal information on the mirror.