Sunday, January 27, 2013

Dining room turned playroom

We used to have a dining room.  When we built our house, the room was going to be a den so we put bookshelves in.  Hubby realized that he wouldn't be able to keep it clean so it became a dining room.  In the space that was the designated dining room, we put a pool table.  The dining room table was in the dining room for a few years.  We ate at it a few times when company came over but it was mostly used for crafts and sewing.  My inlaws moved and needed a temporary home for their baby grand piano so the table came down and the piano moved in.  My crafting moved to the pool table with a dining top on it.  They moved again a few years later and the piano left and the table came back.  It was there for a few years and got used a few times but not regularly.  The table was my sewing and crafting table more than it was an eating table.  Where do we eat you ask?  Well, in front of the TV as all good American families do.  We also have an eat in bar at the kitchen so we can eat there as well.  So, since the den dining room wasn't used and I was tired of tripping over Ally's growing mountain of toys we decided to make it into a play room.  The table again came down.  My books got doubled up on the top 3 book shelves.  We added fabric bins from Target to the bottom shelves for all her random crap.  We added in a foam floor from foamtiles.com.  Artwork went up.  My old table and chairs from my parents went under the low window.  A play kitchen was bought.  I have a few more things I need to add to the room but I think it's a pretty cool play room.  It's open to the rest of the house, we can see in from the kitchen and living room.  I can watch her from the pool craft table.  It works for us.  :)

 This is the view from the entry to the den playroom.  You can see the foam tiles we got.  
I LOVE them.  They're soft underfoot and comfy to sit on.  I think we should get a few more.
 My table and chairs that my dad built for ME fits perfectly under the window!
 Bins to store all the toys and stuff that has accumulated.  I'd like to get a few more.  I really like
 the sand buckets and will probably pick up more at Michaels when they have them again.
 Ally's kitchen and a canvas we picked up at Ross.
 The "playroom rules" board I made.  To the right of the window will hang 
Ally's growth chart that my dad made for me and her hand tracings framed.
More artwork from Ross.  And yes, that IS a chandelier.  LOL

Friday, January 25, 2013

Ally's Canvases

I made some wall canvases a while back for Ally's room.  I traced the butterflies and lady bugs and swirls from the rug in her room and made them into a PDF file.  I then used Sure Cuts A Lot and my Cricut to cut it all out.  I used sparkle Mod Podge to give the canvases some detail.  THEN the fun began.  I got to put all the butterflies and lady bugs on the canvases.  I think they turned out pretty darn cute.  They look great on her wall.  :)





I might have a slight Pinterest addiction

I've been making crafty projects like crazy.  Pinterest is a BAD thing!  Seriously, there are so many fun crafty ideas and projects on there that I could do a project a day and still have tons left to do after a year.  I have over 200 pins on my crafty stuff board ALONE!  My sewing board has at least as many!

Here are some of my things I've been making.   I've tried to include the sites they're from if I can find them.

The lunch box from here inspired me to make these.  I filled each one with 3 sets of magnetic letters and a set of numbers.  One was for Ally and the other for my niece.  MANY layers of Mod Podge.  I added Martha Stewart ultra fine silver glitter to glossy Mod Podge to get the glitter effect.  LOVE how they turned out!


This is my Playroom Rules board that I first saw here.  I was originally planning on using a fun bright animal print fabric that my sister gave me when she was cleaning out her fabric stash.  HOWEVER, fabric Mod Podge and I are NOT friends.  It didn't stick to the canvas all the way and was all bubbly and just didn't look good.  THEN when I put the letters on it to see how they looked, it was REALLY hard to see the letters.  Apparently busy fabric doesn't work for putting letters over.  Oops.  I pulled the fabric off the canvas because I wasn't about to go spend money for ANOTHER canvas.  It tore off some of the gesso and I had to add some to try and make it a bit smoother.  It ended up looking like a textured wall.  Oh well.  Back to the drawing board.  I decided to paint stripes with acrylic paint and then since it was so "boring" I made MORE of the glittery Mod Podge with more of my Martha ultra fine silver glitter LOADED into it.  I stamped the swirls with a foam stamp and the dots (after going thru everything round I could find trying to find the "perfect dot") are my finger tip dipped in the Mod Podge mix.  The letters were put on and then 3 layers of Mod Podge were added.  It was finally done after a damn WEEK!

These are some of the MANY MANY hats I've been making from Fleece Fun.  They're so much fun to make.  I made Ally, hubby and I monkey hats.  I made Brobee hats of my own design using the basic hat pattern for Ally and my nephew.  I made bunny hats for Ally and 2 of her cousins.  I made polar bear hats for Ally, my nephew, and his soon to be born sibling.  The puppy hats were for my nephew and his soon to be born sibling.  I made a dragon hat for myself from lots of scraps for the horns.  The raiders hats were my own design too from the basic hat and the horns.



I'm sure there's more stuff but for some reason I can't find pictures of it all.  I'll add another post after I go back and take pictures of the rest of the stuff.

Remember, Pinterest is BAD!  :)