Tween Teal Room Remodel

My daughter had a big birthday this year - 10!  And that called for a big birthday gift.  We converted her pretty, pretty princess pink room into a room more reflective of her current tween tastes.  Since she loves all things peacock, we went with a palette of aqua and teal with pops of green and purple.

I also wanted to use this opportunity to improve the functionality of her room, so that meant making a few frugal changes in her furniture.  I didn't want to spend a lot of money on this, so I tried to modify what we all ready had or rely on thrifted and discount finds as much as possible. I'm so happy with the outcome.  Take a look...

We took her walls from pale pink to cool aqua.  I agonized over the color choice.  Too dark and it could have been depressing.  Too light and it could feel cold.  I ended up finding just the right color from Behr at Home Depot.  I always seem to end up picking Behr - something about the saturation and clarity of their colors just feels right to me.  We kept the high white shelves in place - they are so useful for displaying pictures and knickknacks while keeping lower surfaces less cluttered.  The area under her bed is useful for extra storage.  I found some great bins at Michaels to corral nail polish and doll clothes (and does that not say it all about being a tween - halfway between little girl and young woman - sniffle sniffle...) as well as stuff she doesn't need to access daily, like her gear and bathing suits for synchronized swimming.

We modified the arrangement of the room slightly by moving the bed away from the wall and giving her a good sized nightstand with lots of storage.  She is a big reader and needed a place to keep her stack of books and collection of bookmarks.  The nightstand was originally in the guest room and I thought it would be a good fit for her.  I painted it white with green in the cubby and did a harlequin pattern on top using painters tape to help form the design.  That lamp was originally hers, but it is now sporting a deep purple shade - a Goodwill find courtesy of my mommy.

Above the nightstand is a piece of custom art that I created from a thrifted frame.  It was originally a pale peach frame with a colonial blue matting surrounding a poem extolling the virtues of grandmothers.  I snapped it up because I liked the oval shape and that it had a mat all ready.  Once I got it home, I cleaned it up, primed it, and spray painted the frame lime.  For the mat, I painted right over that bad boy with acrylic paint and then slapped on a top coat of glitter for good measure.  I then went to wordle.com and fiddled around until I created something that would fit.  My tween is really into synchronized swimming, so I populated the wordle with terms from the sync rho world.  I was so pleased with how it turned out.  All told, it cost $2 and took less than a hour of active work time.

Hanging from the window is a ribbon chandelier that I made from lots of ribbon and a small embroidery hoop.  The curtains were a close-out find at Ollie's - sheer white with aqua polka dots.  Only $5 a panel!

Her desk resides on the other side of the bed.  With a few modifications to the area, it's a little more functional now.  I covered her original French memo board with a pretty piece of calico that I found at Walmart.  Where the sheer lavender ribbon is stapled to the board, I hot glued iridescent rhinestones.  The pegs holding buckets were originally in our nursery (AGAIN with the sniffling).  I repainted them aqua and wasn't happy with the aqua on aqua look, so I tried to put a opalescent top coat on one to see if I liked it.  I'm still not sure how that will end up - I may just scrap aqua and go purple with those.  On the other side of the memo board are fabric-covered cork boards in pretty thrifted frames (only one is up in this picture, but eventually there will be two - the other one is aqua and as previously mentioned - aqua on aqua it too much aqua).  I'm a big fan of using walls for vertical storage to keep horizontal surfaces clear.  I hope that this helps her to keep her desktop clean and open and ready for work.

After I mounted all of the desk stuff, I found out that my hubby had bought a custom lattice-style memo board for the room at a craft festival.  He was so proud of himself because he NEVER buys decor (or anything really-  he is completely averse to shopping).  I'm thinking we might put that on her closet door since the desk area is full.  Funny story - the craft festival was in North Carolina - my inlaws live there - and when my husband inquired about the color choices, he was informed that (cue pretty southern accent), "his daughter might like this seafoam green and they also have a very nice Richard Petty blue."  Huh?  I've heard of a lot of varieties of names for different hues of blues, but never a "Richard Petty" blue.  Apparently that's a race car driver's signature color?  Can you tell we are not race car fans?  Does one call oneself a race car fan?

Moving to the other side of the room, we kept her 9 x 9 storage cube and swapped out the pink bins for blues, greens, and purple.  She originally had a 3-shelf bookshelf, which was woefully inadequate to hold all of her books, so we swapped it out for a tall bookcase.  We modpodged scrapbook paper onto the back of each shelf to give it some personality.  The books case is large enough to hold lots of books and her American Girl dolls.  Yay - they don't have to live on the floor any more!  I swagged the name banner that I made for her birthday party from curtain to curtain - it adds a nice touch.

Above the cube is a peacock painting we stumbled across at Ross - love it!  And for only $7!  Next to the 9 x 9 cube, we put her teal saucer chair and a little aqua storage ottoman - both from Target.  The ottoman is just big enough to hold a fleecy throw.  With a little lamp on the adjacent shelf, she now has a cozy reading nook to curl up in.

At right angles to the reading nook is her closet and then a little alcove just the right size for her dresser.  We mounted a thrift store mirror that was originally an awful pink and gold color - with a coat of glossy white spray paint, it's perfect in this space.  And then - the piece de resistance...  the custom accessory organizer.  It's made from a thrifted calendar holder.  I removed the back and sanded it down and then stapled chicken wire to the frame.  Next came a coat of primer and some lime spray paint, followed by affixing some cotton batting around the back to prevent the chicken wire from scratching the wall.  After that, I attached the lavender ribbon and screwed little cup hooks around the edge.  I am so happy with this piece.  It's fun and functional.  My tween can now see all of her accessories at a glance.  They are in one central location and are not occupying any horizontal space.  Clips are attached to a ribbon knotted through the wire.  Headbands are tucked into the wire openings.  Necklaces and bracelets dangle from the hooks.  Tiny items are corralled into a hanging bucket.  And pony tail elastics are color coded and loaded onto shower curtain rings suspended from hooks.  This project was worth every ounce of sweat.  If I ever make one again, I will remember that it's easier to snip chicken wire with scissors than wire cutters and it's easier to install screw hooks if you drill a little hole 1st (yes, I am that clueless about hardware) and I will try to find a frame with wider edges so there is more space for stapling.

Skylanders Party Planning - Part 7, THE PARTY!

At long last – I present to you... the summary of our Skylanders party. 

Yes, it has been over two months since said party took place, but better late than never, eh?

The activities went over really well.  The kids loved moving from station to station and acquiring crystals and gems to fill their customized pouches (tutorials on how to sew them and stencil them with fabric paint here).

The archery targets looked great and the flame arrows were really fun as well. 

Next time I would trim the flames down a bit to make it easier to nock the arrows.

The treasure hunt to find the treasure rocks went well.  And I was really pleased with how the treasure rocks turned out.  I used this tutorial:  Treasure Rocks.

The kids loved the ice orb smash and the tongue grabber game.

The wall of streamers was meh.  I ran out of time and wasn't able to put up as much as I wanted.  If it had been finished, I think it would have been fab.  Even incomplete, it added a nice pop to the yard.

I was very pleased with the rest of the décor. 

Streamers behind the food table provided a colorful focal point.

I was happy with my goofy centerpieces.  I used my elixir bottles and filled them with colorful beads for ballast.

I have to say that tissue tassels are definitely my new favorite thing.  After the party, I snipped the tassels off of the string, sorted by color, strung them on pipe cleaners, and hung them in the craft room to use for another time.

Sadly, the portal punch was a fail – I forgot that the pumpkin lights really only work in the dark.  Boo.  But the punch was good and the portal cardboard surround I made had a strong presence on the table.

We had too much food, as usual, but I don’t care – I love having the variety available.  Pizza, chips, water melon, and pineapple for lunch. 

The sweets table turned out really well, although we did end up moving it indoors to escape the oppressive humidity and voracious mosquitoes.  We made marshmallow pops dipped in pop rocks.  I displayed them in a diner-style shaker filled with pom-poms.

We also had chocolate dipped pretzels, a mini-cake with a simple buttercream stripe pattern topped with the logo on strwas, cupcakes with character and logo toppers, and my personal favorite - the Chompie Truffles.  I thought the red fangs made from candy cane jimmies (sorry – showing my Delaware roots – jimmies are sprinkles) were fun.

I was also excited to serve pre-scooped ice cream.  I bought mini-mason jars and put a scoop of vanilla bean in each the night before.  It was so easy to pull them out and stack them up on the sweets table.  I have a thing about sticky hands and drippy sticky containers, so I will be doing this from now on.  This little step easily reduced my stress level by several clicks.

For favors, we gave out silver take-out treat boxes.

They were filled with the same red and gold cello used for the flame arrows, which was very frugal of me, I think.

Inside we put:
Trigger Happy Chocolate Coins

Double Trouble Gumball Orbs (still leftover from Easter - will we never be done with these freaking gumballs?!?)

 Pop Fizz Pop Rocks (Dollar Tree)

 Zap's Sea Slime (Target Dollar Section)

 And Hex's Bone Erasers (no pic of those, unfortunately.  They were in the Target Dollar section with the grilling-themed stuff.)

Patriotic Rag Wreath

It's almost Memorial Day!  I love Memorial Day.  I love the cookouts and the kick-off to summer, of course, but I also really love the flags and parades (I ALWAYS cry when I see the veterans march by - thinking about what they've given to us and what they've been though to keep us free and safe) - just the whole patriotic spirit and sentiment of the holiday - honoring those who serve and keep us safe.  To all the service men and women out there - thank you.  My husband and I have not served ourselves, but we have a long history of warriors in our families, from my husband's grandfather who was a D-Day paratrooper in WWII and my grandfather who served in the Air Force in Korea, all the way back to ancestors in the Civil War (we have ancestors who served for both the North and the South, actually) and Revolutionary War (again, we both have ancestors on both sides - I find that so interesting).

So in the spirit of the holiday, I decided to try my hand at a patriotic rag wreath.  I choose this style because I am trying to be very frugal (we are saving for a trip to the Southwest this summer and a renovation to the outside of our house - looking forward to not being the ugliest house in the neighborhood anymore!) and wanted to use only items I had on hand all ready.  I'm feeling very frugalista.  I didn't have any wreath forms, but I did have an embroidery hoop.  I thought that a rag wreath would really fill out the hoop nicely.

For the rags, I pawed through my fabric bin and found some muslin scraps, a red calico with white hearts, and 2 blue calicos - one royal with a subtle leaf print and the other more of a cadet blue with vines.  I went with both, thinking that the slight differences in tone would add some more visual interest.  I ironed all the fabrics and cut many, many strips of each.  Each strip was about 7 inches long and 1/2 - 3/4 of an inch wide.  I wasn't precise with the cuts.

On a whim, I also pulled out my bin of wooden shapes and was rewarded with the perfect find - several star cut-outs in 2 different sizes.  I used 5 and painted them red, gold, and blue.  I wasn't thrilled with the red and blue, so I tried to do an antique-y layer of gold over top.  I was going for a streaky, weathered look and was only marginally successful.  But hey, it works.

After supplies were assembled, I parked myself on our soon-to-be-demolished-and-replaced-with-a-screened-porch-and-concrete-patio-deck with a frosty glass of iced tea and my rags and went to town.  Each strip was knotted once on the hoop.  I tried to be random with the colors (which is hard to do, btw.  I find myself wanting to make a pattern in spite of myself).  Every few rags, I would smoosh the ties closer together to ensure that the wreath ended up nice and full.  Be careful with the smoosh step - you could get a splinter!  I did and it was not fun.  :(

Once all the rags were tied, the painted stars had dried and I simply hot glued them on.  I used a bit of red-edged cream ribbon tied to the top to serve as the hanger.  This ribbon, incidentally, was saved from an Anthropology gift bag.  When I recycle those sorts of bags, I always save the ribbon handles.  Depression-Era-Chic, baby.  Thanks to my handy ribbon storage system, it's easy to see what I have available and I'm MUCH better about not buying the same colors over and over because I can't remember that I have them.  See that post here.

There you have it - a fun, full, free(!), patriotic rag wreath.

Summery Popsicle Wreath

I love wreaths.  I really, really do.  It makes me so happy to come home to a dressed-up front door.  I had a hankering for a new summery wreath, but wanted something different, so I started thinking about special things that say summer to me.  Flip-flops are cute but I wasn't feeling it.  Flowers - boring.  Butterflies - maybe, but I would need a butterfly punch and I wanted to try to make this from things I all ready had on hand.  I also wanted to use an embroidery hoop as a base rather than buying a new wreath form.  Popsicles?  YES!  We always have craft popsicle sticks around.  I could make them out of felt that I had on hand.  And they would be big enough to cover an embroidery hoop but not too heavy to weigh it down.

Step one was making a pattern for the popsicles.  I folded a piece of card stock in half and trimmed it into a rounded rectangle.

Then I cut out the felt, 2 pieces at a time.  I went with bright, fruity colors - orange, grape, watermelon, mango, lime.  Using a strand of embroidery floss in matching colors, I ran a seam around the sides and top, leaving the bottom open to stuff.

I didn't have batting to stuff them with and give them some dimension, so I filled each with a folded scrap of fleece and it worked nicely.

After stuffing, I inserted a popsicle stick and used it to push the fleece filler up to the top.  Then it was time to seal the bottom with the stick included.  Just another quick seam and done.

The embroidery hoop was wrapped with a colorful strip of fabric.  I didn't fuss about the raw edges - left them as is.

Arranging the popsicles on the hoop was the most challenging part.  I was afraid to commit to gluing until I was sure it was OK.  I ended up overlapping the popsicles slightly, which meant that I had some exposed hoop at the top, but I liked it that way.  I think that if I had filled all the way around, it would have needed some more support to keep the top of the wreath from pulling forward.

Finished with a skinny ribbon bow to hang and voila!  An original, fun, free(!), colorful homage to the cool queen of summertime treats. 

Rock Climbing Party - Part 2, Favors and Personal Growth

So my daughter's joint-rock-climbing-birthday-party is fast approaching and we're putting the finishing touches on everything.  This has been a lot of fun to plan and also, an unexpectedly good learning / personal growth opportunity for me.  Working with another mom who does not share my over-the-top tendencies has made me realize some things about myself.  Here's the story...

For favors, I was planning:

• Pop Rocks
• Carabineers
• Water Bottles
• Rock Candy
• Pet Rocks
• Custom Artisan Cotton Candy Clouds
• Chocolate Rocks or Boulders
• Rock-Shaped Bouncy Balls
• Gumball Rocks

When I showed the other mom the list, she was agog and said that it seemed like a lot and that the kids would probably be happy with just Pop Rocks and a Carabineer.  This was the thought that popped into my head:  "Who cares?  It goes with the theme!"

This is probably not a healthy line of thinking.  I realized that I have gotten to the point where I am focused more on the theming than the desires of the guests.  Not to say that my favors wouldn't have been well-received - I'm sure that they would have been.  But I'm now trying to make a real effort to scale back on the volume.  Meaning, just because I have several good ideas doesn't mean that they all have to be used.  To that end, favors for this party will be:

• Pop Rocks
• Carabineers
• Water Bottles (which is included in the venue's package)

I think that the kids will love them, they still fit the theme, and they won't break the bank.  To put my own spin on it and to utilize my new found technique of cutting fabric on my Cricut (yes, you can cut fabric on the Cricut - huzzah!), I made personalized muslin pouches for each guest.  It was cheap and easy and didn't even take that long.

Cut your muslin into strips large enough to double over and have seam allowance on the sides and a wider allowance at the top to hold the drawstring.*

Fold in half.  Zip a quick seam up each side.

Iron your seams flat and fold down the top far enough that you will be able to thread your cording through.

Stitch around the folded top almost all the way around - leave a small opening for the cording.  Thread the cording through and knot the ends.

Iron heat bond** to the back of your fabrics to be cut for initials.

Peel off the white paper backing*** and then apply to the Cricut sticky mat.  I put my needle to 5, pressure to highest, speed to lowest.  I used the Classic Font cartridge and did 2" letters.

Once cut, apply letters to muslin pouches and iron on.

*When you decide on the width, think about whether it will be big enough to fit on your sewing machine.  Mine were too small and I had to do the seam around the top by hand.  Not terrible, but not ideal either.

**Be careful with this - it's easy to get confused and iron the heat bond to your ironing board cover or worse - to your iron.  Don't try this if you are tired or distracted. 

***Don't forget this step - you will have a huge mess on your mat if you don't remove the paper.  Also, your letters won't cut well.

Making a tissue paper tassel garland

My daughter and a friend are having a joint birthday joint in June at a local rock climbing place.  I'm really looking forward to it overall, but in terms of decor was feeling a bit stymied about how to bring some personality and prettiness into that cavernous space.  Obviously, I can't decorate the whole building, so I decided to focus my efforts on a single table, which will be used for the cakes and favors.

The table will be in the party loft area, which is in the center of the space and is rimmed by a half wall with a top rail made of pipes.  My plan is to use zip ties to vertically mount 3ft. wooden dowels to the pipe rail.  I can then swag a garland from the dowels.  I decided to make tissue tassel garland because I have an overabundance of tissue paper and they looked pretty simple to make.  I am here to tell you that they ARE in fact very simple to make.  This may be the easiest and most impactful decor element I've ever made and they couldn't be cheaper.  I am a tissue tassel convert!

First step - assemble your tissue.  We have a party palette of blues and greens, so I pulled everything from kelly green to teal to powder blue and some white mixed in to boot.  (Disregard the red in there - I didn't use that.  I didn't use the prints either - too distracting.)

For this project, I pulled out my latest craft find - a large rotary cutting mat.  We have a second-hand craft store in town (I know - LUCKY!!!) and I got it for about $2.  Now that I've used it, I wish that I had bought one sooner.  It's so much less wear and tear on my hands and wrists, which are all ready in bad shape from all the computing and pipetting that I do at work (yes, I am a craft geek and an actual science geek as well - I'm an all-purpose geek, really...).  Now that you have your supplies, it's time to dive in.

Pull out a sheet of tissue and spread flat.  Cut it in half.  Go all the way up - I paused here to take the picture.

Take one half and fold in half.

Fold that half in half the other way.

Zip through with your rotary cutter, slicing up to about 1inch from the fold line at the top.

Make your cuts as thin or wide as you like.  They don't have to be perfectly even and it's OK if you get overzealous and slice some off.  You won't miss them in the final product.  Once you've fringed it up, open it flat and start rolling or pleating the un-fringed area.  I've done it both ways and neither is easier or prettier than the other, so your choice.

Do try to shake the fringes out every couple turns or it will get twisted up.  It's harder to untwist the fringes at the end, so be scrupulous about this now.

Once you've rolled/pleated the whole thing, start twisting the unfringed area tightly to compress into a thick ropey line.  Now twist the ropey line into a loop and twist the bottom of the loop closed.

You are now almost done.  All that remains is to seal the loop.  I've seen washi tape, glue, hot glue, string, and my personal choice - tiny hair elastics.  I found 2 kinds at the Dollar Tree - black and an assortment of blues and clears - perfect for my garland.  (I saw all clear ones at Walmart, but they were $3 for 75 - no thanks, Walmart.  I will take my business to the Dollar Tree.)  I'll be keeping my eyes open for a set of clear ones at the Dollar Tree - I'm sure it's just a matter of time... 

I like the elastic approach because it's quick and easy and cheap doesn't require that I sit near a power source for the glue gun or have to wait for drying time and also no burning my hands - yay!  This means that I can twist absentmindedly whilst watching Buffy the Vampie Slayer reruns (yes, I'm that kind of geek as well.  And incidentally - BtVS is probably the best show in the history of the world.  FYI.  I resisted at 1st because - really?  It's called Buffy teh Vampire Slayer?  No thanks.  But a good friend made me watch it and OMG - it's amazing.  Smart, funny, scary, sexy, romantic, devastating, heartbreaking, thought-provoking...  I could go on...  and on...  and on... sorry).  Anyhoo, reagarding the elastics, I could also theoretically reuse them when I trash the garland.  Just pull off and save the elastics for another time.

I'm not going to string the garland until the party is closer (will use either twine or this teal rope that I got from the second-hand craft store - $0.50 for the whole roll!), so for now I'm storing the tassels in bunches threaded on pipe cleaners.  The bunches are hanging on a hook in my basement. 

I did also cut a hole in a shopping bag and drape it over top to avoid dust and fading - tissue paper fades like crazy.