House Update and a Heart Share

So this post isn't about diy and not easy for me to write. Frankly, I have been putting it off for way to long.  If you follow this blog you know we have been updating our house as we prepared to list it for sale.

Crazy Paper Wig

The other day my 5 year old asked what a wig was when he came across the word in his phonics book. As I was explaining it he got excited and asked if we could make one!
My heart swelled...YES child, lets get creative and make a wig!
I love how he is interested in something and thinks, "lets make one!".  Just a proud craft momma moment!

Here is what we created with a few supplies we had on hand.

3 Easy Ways to Decorate Kitchen Towels

I had this idea to add some crafty fun to these plain dish towels I picked up for cheap. You know that point when your very used and tired dish towels finally throw in the towel…  (cheesy or not pun intended!)
So I picked up some inexpensive dish towels and came up with a few ideas.

The terry towels came from Walmart for around $1.50 each. The white towels are flour sack towels, also found at Walmart, and come in packs of 5 for $5.


1. The Easy No Sew Stamped Dish Towel- This one was by far the easiest and fasted project of the three. I was quite impressed with how good the flour sack towels turned out. I use fabric paint to stamp on the pattern. My stamps consisted of a toilet paper roll and a mini cookie cutter. Here is what I started with…

I didn't end up using the bottle cap that is pictured, but other then that this was really all I needed for this fun towel!

Before stamping the towel, I prewashed and ironed the dish clothes. The pictures have some folded marks which were from folding the towels after I ironed them.

I simply spread out some teal and silver fabric paint on a paper plate. Although, I wasn't going for a shinny look the metallic silver fabric paint was all I had. Usually I will try to make what I have on hand work and this time it worked out great! The metallic paint really didn't even look metallic-y when it was dry.
Next, I pressed the toilet paper roll into the paint. I made sure it was lightly coated since I was trying to avoid globs of fabric paint.
Starting at the bottom right corner I started a row of silver circles. Then worked my way across and up the dish cloth alternating silver and teal paint.

This was unbelievably easy and fast! If you only have 15-20 minutes, you can do this!

Improvise, Adapt and Overcome- Crib Assembly

This past weekend we took advantage of Scott's 3 day weekend and drove up to Branson to spend a couple days. This is the second year we have taken the kiddos to Silver Dollar City and it was so much fun! Brooklyn was finally tall enough to be able to ride a lot of the little kid rides. She even rode her first roller coaster! Proud roller coaster loving momma over here!

That's my brave 3 year old and myself in the third car back! You can barely see her head sticking up out of the car. But she did it!

We also took the kids to play mini golf for the first time. It was actually my first time at mini golf too. I was pretty surprised to find I wasn't to shabby either! The kids loved golfing with their own kid sized clubs, but we figured out we were a bit adventurous when we prepaid for 36 holes… At 5 and 3, they would have been good with only doing the first 9 holes. 

Ah well, live and learn!

During our weekend away we had a very small queen bed for myself, my 6 foot 4 inch husband, and our small 7 month old adorable baby. At home we still co-sleep with him, but we have a king so it hasn't been much of an issue. 

I know there are probably a lot of you who share a queen bed with a kid (or maybe even two!), I seriously don't know how you all do it! 

I hardly slept both nights we were out and vowed when we got home we were going to figure out the crib situation.

So yesterday we got out the crib that a friend of ours so graciously gave us! The crib was missing all the screws to attach the panels together. I had called Delta the crib company and inquired about replacement screws. I was told that they no longer carried that crib model and didn't make that particular screw size anymore.

Back to the drawing board I went and called a crib building company I found online that sold crib parts.

This route I actually found the correct screws we needed, but they were going to cost $67 for the screws and an additional $11 for shipping. 

Now I'm not sure if it's just me, but I was pretty sure I could figure something else out for a lot cheaper then $78! 

We still needed a crib mattress too, which was going to be $40 for one at Walmart. So I was pretty determined we could improvise and use different screws for quite a bit less. 

Easy Laundry Detergent Recipe

Sometime after we had our first baby, we realized how fast we were going through detergent. Every time we went to the store we were buying another jug. So I decided to try a homemade laundry detergent and was hooked!

At that time I was making a liquid detergent and it would make 10 gallons at one time!

It worked great for the 1 1/2 years we used it. I have since moved to a powder recipe and have to say I love it even more! The liquid recipe is pretty time consuming with melting down the bars of soap. So I decided to try a powder detergent recipe I haven't looked back since! 

There are no perfumes or dyes in this detergent and is safe for those with sensitive skin. However, this is not a good recipe for washing cloth diapers. The Fels Naptha can build up on the diapers and create repelling.

This recipe is a modified version of one I found online. I can't remember where I first saw the original recipe or I'd post a link. 

Homemade Laundry Detergent

3 bars Fels Naptha

1 box Baking Soda

1 box Washing Soda

1 box Borax

First, pour the baking soda, washing soda and borax into a large bucket. We bought a 5 gallon bucket at Lowes for around $3.

Covered Canvas and Framed Fabric

While preparing our house to sell, we took almost all of our family photos down and packed them safely away. I read that it is better to take down photos so that the potential buyers can see themselves living in the home and not focus on who is currently living there.

Unfortunately, that meant we had a lot of bare walls.

I didn't want to spend money on decor I might not use in the new house, so I had to do some brainstorming….and Pinterest browsing! 

This is what I decided to do for a quick and easy solution for our empty wall space….

I already had a 2 pack of 11"x14" canvases and the fabric was in my stash. Yep, another free-ish project! When I can make a project for free it just makes the finished product that much better!

Wooden Elephant Art

This project was inspired by a cute book our kids love us to read to them, "Kiss Kiss" by Margaret Wild. 

The book is actually about a baby hippo who leaves his mama to go play. As he is walking past his little jungle friends giving their mamas kisses, he realizes he forgot to "kiss kiss" his mama! 

It's a simple, yet adorable children's book about a baby and his need for his kisses.

Do I need to say more!

I chose to use elephants, because I loved the way they give kisses with their trunks. 

That's at least how I think a sweet mama elephant would kiss her baby! 

It didn't take much for me to put this together. I already had these scrap pieces of stained wood from an old jewelry box (it was large!) that fell apart.

The wood was still in great shape, and to my husbands demise I have kept it for projects like this.

All I needed was some small nails (found at the bottom of the tool box), a sawtooth hanger, scrap wood, a hammer, elephant clip art and coordinating scrapbook paper.

I wiped down the wood to clean of all the dust.

Finishing Touches

This past 2-3 weeks have been a blur. We have been working tirelessly on finishing projects. I feel like this house doesn't want us to leave. Scott and I, against our nearly finished 3 bedroom, 2 bath, 1000 square foot house.

We finally finished painting the doors and trim in nearly the whole house! Last week we finished up some ceiling repair and flooring, yard work, cleaning out closets and packing. Along with other small projects...Oh yeah, and while entertaining 3 little people! 

Scott has joked, take how long you think a project should take and then times it by 4. Then you will get a more realistic timeline when doing home renovations with kids. Ha! 

Well this crazy ride is almost over and boy will we be happy to pitch that for sale sign!

Even though repainting our WHOLE house has been a literal pain in the back (and shoulders, neck, arms, etc), it is looking amazing! I know this will pay off in the end. It has to, because it looks absolutely amazing in here!

Lots of doors and trim to paint.

Bye-Bye Gold Knobs!

We have been wrapping up all the house projects around here and are finally just about done! Praise the Lord! It has been a long road and a lot of hard work, but things are looking great around here! I will be posting a tour of the house soon and highlighting everything we have done.

Do you have any of these shiny gold door knobs in your house? All of our door knobs looked like this and to us screamed "dated". So of course we had to do what we do best, update them! Take a look at how easy and cheap this update was…. 

A few of the door knobs had been replaced to brushed nickel when the locks were changed so we really needed to finish the rest of the house. But replacing them would have been more money then we wanted to spend. To cut the costs we chose to simply spray paint them with Rustoleum's metallic silver paint.
Let me tell you the hardest part of the job was removing the knobs and hardware! That really wasn't hard either just a bit time consuming.

Once all the knobs were off, I used some steel wool to lightly rough them up. The goal was to help the paint stick to the knob, but not make deep scratches in them.

Easter Wreath- He Is Risen

This wreath project has been in the works for several weeks now. I finally got it finished up last week! My how much time and energy this house renovations are literally sucking from us. Every time we start to think we are nearly done another project presents itself. Currently, an easy ceiling repair turned into a big drywall, mud, sanding and popcorn texture repair. The projects haven't been hard, but add 3 kids 5 and under and try to get anything accomplished! haha! One day they will be grown and I know I will miss these days!
Okay, back to this beautiful Easter wreath. This didn't take long... I just had to start and stop so many times I thought it would be ready by the 4th of July and miss Easter completely! I have plans to switch out the He Is Risen banner for a Spring banner after Easter. It's always nice when you can get more use out of a seasonal project. (That is usually my goal!)

 I gathered up a foam wreath, grey yarn, fabric, paper, string, yellow brads, small pins, a twist tie and a couple twigs.

Easy and Frugal Dishwasher Update

 Last week we made some great progress on our To Do list. Not everything got crossed off, but we did get everything started! Amid us painting trim and doors in the whole house, drywall repair, yard work, and pressure washing the outside, I managed to squeeze in a few projects. This dishwasher update was one I wedged in the To Do list one morning.

I saw Young House Love's blog about their recent dishwasher update and thought the end result was pretty dramatic. (You can check out their dishwasher's new look here.) Painting a few dishwasher door pieces can make a big difference! So you know, in all my many opportunities of spare time I thought I would give it a shot.

Here is what I started with.....

Our basic black oldish dishwasher....most likely has been here since the house was built in 1996. 

I started by unscrewing the side panels.

DIY Beadboard Backsplash

We are LOVING this kitchen update and only wish we had done this when we moved in four years ago!

After we treated the counters with Rustoleum Countertop Transformation kit here, we had bare torn up drywall for a backsplash.

The laminate countertops extended up the wall, where it had been glued to the drywall. When we scraped it off, it decided to take bits of the wall with it. Up until that point we were thinking to keep the costs down we would just paint the wall. Now looking back I really am glad we had to do a backsplash!

Here are some photos of the kitchen before the awesome beadboard was installed...

Coconut Oil Play Dough

All I have to say is coconut oil!

I was looking at different play dough recipes that looked easy, I had all of the ingredients and had good reviews. 

I stumbled upon a couple recipes that used coconut oil and I immediately decided whatever recipe I used it would have coconut oil in it. We love coconut oil over at our house. My husband enjoys poking fun at me- I'm alway suggesting coconut oil to cure everything! 

This one was fast and easy and my little ones were excited to help! I combined a couple of recipes and came up with this:

Fabulous Fabric Circle Art for under $5

We recently painted our whole house as we are preparing to sale it.

So now I've been a bit hesitant to put a bunch of nail holes in the walls again.

I knew we needed to do something to warm up the rooms, but wanted to keep it lightweight to avoid large holes.

Looking for inspiration I loved simple yet colorful shapes hung in clusters!

This project is easy and cheap.  I just gathered up different patterned fabric from my fabric collection.

Kitchen Counter Makeover

This past weekend we have been making some BIG changes in our kitchen!

We were wanting to spruce up our old out dated counters. After getting an estimate for new laminate countertops with installation for just over $700, we said 'thanks, but no thanks!'.

We decided on trying Rustoleum's Countertop Transformation Kit. The kit we bought was for 30 sq feet, found on ebay for $150 with free shipping. 

Our counters were an off white laminate that was chipped and scratched.

DIY Mod Podge Letter

Here is a fun project to make. Simply start with a basic wooden letter, add your choice of paper personality and you have a beautiful piece of art! I have made each of my kids one and it's my go to baby shower gift.  I just love making these letters! 

Here is how easy these fun letters are....

 Things you will need....

Cilantro and Lime Chicken Gyro Recipe

A couple months ago the hubby and I had a lunch date at a delicious mom and pop restaurant called Mama's Gyro in Sherwood. I love supporting small business America and even more I love buying quality food! This was a little Greek family owned place that sold gyros. 

I am not sure how I went my whole life without having a gyro before now!?!? 

They were SO good!

Since our gyro experience, I have been dreaming and thinking about their deliciousness.

Really they were that good!

We are on a budget and that means eating out is pretty rare. So I started experimenting with making our own gyros.....

We tried a BBQ version and it was okay, but it didn't quite match up to the ones in my dreams.

However, if at first you don't succeed, try try again! Seriously I could probably eat a gyro every day and not tire of them! There are truly that many different ways you could make them. So this week I combined a few family favorites and came up with these awesome, from your dreams, delicious Cilantro Chicken Gyros!!

Baby Jude's Birth Story

Since I haven't posted since Baby Jude made his arrival, and we have been through so much since then, I will have to tell his story in several posts. I'll start with his Birth Story...

Psalms 139:13-14a "For you created my inmost being;

you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made"

Anyone who has welcomed a new baby into the family, whether your first or fifth, knows it takes a lot of energy and adjusting. Well we were no different. With all the planning I thought I could do to get ready and prepare helped, but didn't seem to make up for the lost sleep and energy.

We had an amazing homebirth attended by Carrie our wonderful midwife. The labor was only 4 1/2 hours from water break to delivery! I went from dilated to a 7 to Jude in my arms in a matter of 15 minutes! It didn't happen quite how I thought it would with soft music and candles. I thought I would be laboring and possibly birth in the kiddie pool.  I searched and searched for that pool and finally bought it online. Jude decided to come so quick that there was no time to fill the pool....he was delivered on the living room floor! Not the cozy homebirth I imagined, but definitely unique non the less!

Those last few weeks before Jude was born was extremely tough. He was sitting so low, my body seemed to ache all over. I was miserable...it hurt to lay down, walk, sit, and breath! lol I know it sounds pathetic....but really I was a mess! I was soooo ready to get our boy out!