Window Valence and Room Make-over!

When we moved into our new house we had blinds on the front up-stair windows and roman shades on all the others in the house, except our kitchen window.  The window above the kitchen sink was just a big plain window, but you could tell the people before us had some kind of window covering/hanging because they left a curtain rod there, in fact, all of the bedrooms had curtain rods as well.  I decided I wanted to try my hand at making a window valance.  And I have to say... I LOVE the way it turned out.  In fact, I loved it so much that I ended up making one for my room and two for my daughter's room.  Our spare bedroom has one too... It is just one that came with our guest bedding.   I didn't realize how easy they are to make until I gave it a try.  I am glad I did... It makes a room feel more complete!  You can check out this tutorial on how to make a quick and easy window valance.

Best picture I could get because of the lighting.

Room make-over

        When we moved here my daughter (M) was still in her toddle bed, but was out growing it.  My parents were coming in August and were bringing us half (hopefully we'll have need/room for the other half some day) of a bunk bed that my dad had made 25+ years ago.  It was brown and pretty beat up from 7 kids, so we decided to paint it white, which also makes it feel a little more girly. We had to prime it, sand it and then repaint it.  It was a lot of work, but with the help of my amazing dad we got it done!
       I also took the letters from M's room and repainted all of them to go with the new bedding for her bed.  I painted them white and then did paint splatters of the different colors in her bed spread.
        We got her bedding from Ikea, which is just a duvet cover, which I LOVE because we had a nice down comforter, which was kinda ugly, but still worked so I was just able to cover it up for $20!  Then when my parents came we went out to Ikea again, and they had the same comforter in the As Is section so we grabbed that and I was able to make matching window valances for her room and I hope to one day make a bed skirt to go with it.

     I love the way her room turned out, now if only she could keep it clean :)

Before

After

Melted Crayon Art

This melted crayon art has been a big hit on pinterest.  When my little sister came to visit, we decided to give it a try.  It was a lot of fun to do, but kinda messy.  I recommend doing this outside and with something you can throw away under and behind it.  I used wax paper to keep my bricks clean of flying melted crayon!

 

 

After we finished it, I hung it up in my little girls room.  (I ended up putting it in a different location then this picture actually shows.)

Menu Board

My brother got married a few weeks ago, and for their wedding gift I made them a menu board calendar.  I have also made one for myself, but I have yet to actually finish it.  I got the tutorial from here.  I like the way it turned out, but will be making a few changes to mine.

I'm not sure why I can't get my second picture to rotate... Sorry.  I had to put magnetic strips on each block because I couldn't get the magnets to stick through the different layers.  I also should have made each menu item in a square that was the same size instead of trying and letting each thing be as big as the word... Overall though, I like the way it turned out.  Mine is done in red, because that's pretty much what I have in my kitchen.  I'll post pictures of mine once I get it finished.

Picture Frame Key Holder

I have been wanting to make something to hang our keys on for awhile now.  I hate placing them down somewhere and not being able to remember where I put them or have them get buried under a pile of mail.  So I decided to do something about it.  I got this picture frame from Micheal's for $1 and then headed over to Home Depot to buy some hooks.  I spent less than $3 on this project.  And I love how it turned out.  It is still missing something, and in time I will put some sort of embellishment on it, but I am not sure what yet... any ideas?

 First I painted the frame black, because that is what all of our other picture frames in our house are.

 Next I added some hooks on the bottom, (I ended up using a nail to make the holes and then screwed the hooks in)

Then I traced the little square that was inside the frame and cut out a cute picture of my little girl

 Then I used the hole that was already on the  back of the frame and hung it on the wall with a nail.  I did end up using some velco dots on the back bottom corners to keep it from moving side to side when the weight of the keys is uneven.