wild thing...

While the foyer paint dries I thought I would share with you all a project I did over the summer.

I had been thinking about getting new dining room chairs for awhile {not quite what you were thinking I would be talking about from the post title huh!}. The set I had was from my grandma and I loved them I just wanted something with upholstered seats since if we have more then 4 guests we have to use them as extra seating for the living room. I also wanted something that I would not mind painting unlike my grandparent's set. So I started searching craigslist and after a few months of looking I finally found some chairs were to good to pass up. The woman was selling them {6 total} for $20.00! I mean really it was like she was paying me to take them home... well not really but you get the idea... cheap! There was not a really great picture of the chairs online but I sort of could tell that I would probably love them :) so Dave being the great husband that he is went and picked them up for me and this is what he walked in the door with.

Yeah, did I forget to mention that they would need some love. Don't worry... don't they already look so much better without that fabric :)

They each got a good sanding {the woman who owned them ran a daycare and lets just say I think at one point theses chairs got a good coat of strawberry jelly added to them} and I removed the old fabric and went with an animal print {are you starting to understand where the title of this post is coming from :)} fabric that is also an outdoor print which makes it easier to clean up after all those food related spills. Here is one last picture of the dining room before.

And here it is again with the "new" chairs.

 

My one regret is that I painted the cane webbing. The frame of the chairs really did need to be painted since they were in such bad condition {remember a day care was their prior home} and so I just went for it but after I had painted the webbing I started to see beautiful french chairs online that were painted white but the owners had kept the original cane webbing wood and I loved them! Oh well. The other two chairs that are not shown do need new webbing and thanks to this tutorial on Miss Mustard Seed's blog I am not afraid :) So maybe one day when I replace those two I can do the whole set if I still like the natural look.

And of course I am still keeping my grandma's chairs and cannot wait to use them again one day in a kitchen with a big farmhouse table. Right now they are safe and sound in storage until that day comes :)

pleats

I have really been into pleats recently {except on pants... I do know that much about fashion}. I think it might have something to do with the fact that baby gap had tons of cute little girl clothes with pleats/ruffles on them and since the Lord blessed me with a baby boy who can't really rock the pleated look {although this mom might try} I decided to add this fashion element to my home instead.

I was so inspired by the burlap runners I have seen everywhere so I made one for myself. I had the burlap and the white fabric so this was a free project.

I also wanted to add some green to my kitchen and thought a mini-pleated wreath would be the perfect touch. Again, had the fabric and wreath form so another free project. {Dave aren't you proud :)}

And I know I have showed this wreath before {and yes I might have a wreath addiction... add it to the list} but I think the way I was instructed to fold the pages makes this wreath look like it has pleats.

Okay, off to see where else I can add some pleats... curtains maybe... or even pillow trim. So many choices! On second thought, maybe we should all just stop and pray that the Lord blesses me with a baby girl one day. That sounds like a better plan :)

Oh and is anyone else as crazy as me and when your plate is already so so full you decide that now would be a good time to drop everything and repaint your foyer/stairway. Let me just say... not a good idea {hence a blog post at 10pm}! Maybe we should pray for my marriage as well :)

green beans aren't for everyone

Will has been eating a lot of the same vegetables recently so I thought I would change it up and add some green beans to his diet. I will let the pictures speak for themselves on what he thought of this new veggie.

I don't blame you buddy but since you ended up eating them all I have a feeling this will be a reoccurring vegetable in your diet :)

crazy hair

Just in case you felt like you had not seen enough pictures of Will this week I thought I would leave you with a few more for the weekend :) If you are not a fan of my baby you might just want to skip this one.

Will was born with a lot of hair.

A lot of dark hair thanks to his daddy and this has been of my favorite things about him. It seemed like for awhile it never grew just sorta stayed the same length from when he was born but recently it has been growing like crazy. So much so that he might need a hair cut soon {in the front at least}. With this hair growth spurt Will now has a new look when he wakes up. I creatively named it crazy hair :)

The poor guy wakes up all the time with hair in his eyes. Sorry bud. I cannot cut it yet!

Wanna know what is on our to do list this weekend...

lower the crib.

Have a great weekend!

a new wreath and some football

The other day I thought I would attempt to make another book wreath. You see about a year ago I tried to make one using the rolling technique and gave up because well I was pregnant and tired and really did not have any creativity left in me {I know poor me}. So the other day while Dave was busy watching the Redskins play football {and win!} I was busy attempting to make what I thought would be a another small wreath for our entryway. I was happily hot gluing away thinking how perfect this would look hanging above my entryway bench greeting friends and family as they walk into my beautiful clean home {haha} but when I finished I could barely get my arms around the wreath. Turns out this baby needs his own wall above the fireplace. This wreath is a beast but I love it! {Please ignore the candlesticks with no candles... guess I need to make a trip to Homegoods.}

Speaking of football this is the only picture I have gotten so far this season of Dave and Will in their Redskins gear. We were at an engagement party for a friend, and got to meet another good friend's little girl they recently adopted {did you follow all of that}. We love her already! 

{by the ways doesn't it look like Will is giving a thumbs up. Yeah, it is really Dave's thumb that Will is holding but for a second there I thought my baby was a genius.}

Well I am off to clean my ridiculously dirty house. I dream of one day being able to hire a company to clean my house. Well really just the bathrooms because cleaning those just make me gag... but I guess this is all just part of the stay at home gig I have. Dave do you wanna trade for the day :)

weekend recap on a wednesday

My sweet grandparents came up from New Orleans on a train this past weekend to visit us. We were so excited to see them again! We spent a lot of time hanging out and letting them play with Will and it felt so good to take a break from home projects and spend time with family.

Right before my grandparents came I made sure to make some pumpkin bread so the house smelled like fall {and not dirty diapers}. It was the first cool weekend we have had on the east coast and with the combination of the cooler weather and the pumpkin bread I was in heaven!

I also got to break out Will's fall sweater. Not quite sure if he was not a fan of the sweater or me swinging him but either way he looks like he is bored! I was trying my best :)

My parents also joined us for the weekend and my mom, grandma and I snuck out on Saturday to do a little antiquing while the guys stayed home and babysat. I came across this picture from the book Skip Along and had to get it.  Will and Miley one day? :)

I plan on framing it for Will's big boy room one day - you know like in 2 years :) Never to early to start collecting {at least that is what I tell myself}! It is huge and I think it might have been in a mock up book to show editors or something since it is so large. Has anyone seen anything like this and know what it is. Here is the close up of the description.

My other antique find from the weekend was this old farmhouse desk that I plan on using in the kitchen as an island. Now I just need to find some great antique casters to raise it a little so it is more counter height versus desk height.

It was a great weekend that went by way to quickly. I love spending time with my family and love that Will is getting to know his great grandparents. He is one blessed little boy!

learning to let go

This is going to be a hard week for me. Will is almost 9 months and I am still waking him up at 10pm for a late night feeding. It has been my favorite time with my little guy and I am having a hard time letting it go.

I have almost always done this feeding with Will. When he was younger I would stay up until midnight to give him a bottle and then Dave would do the 6am shift before work. Then as he got older and slept more we did away with the early morning feedings and I moved the late night bottle to whenever I wanted to go to bed {which was usually around 10pm}. I loved getting to sneak into Will's room after he had fallen asleep and watch my baby sleep. He would cuddle with me until he woke up enough to eat and then after he was done with his bottle he would fall back asleep in my arms as I rocked him. Last night I did this feeding with Will for the last time. As I got into bed I cried myself to sleep knowing that my little guy is growing up. I am glad that he is doing so well and is old enough to just have a bottle before bed but I will miss our late night "dates".

We would snuggle and bond in those late hours and feeling his little body breathe against me were the sweetest moments between us. I know it is time though. Will is getting older and needs uninterrupted sleep now and I need to learn to let go...

i interrupt your saturday...

with something I forgot to say yesterday :)

The lighted garland from yesterday's post is a little long for a mantel {as you might be able to see from my pictures} unless you can find a strand that has less then 50 lights on it. But I know that there are some teachers reading this blog {hi Rachel!} and I meant to say yesterday that I thought this would be a perfect craft for you hard working teachers. You know just another thing to do on your weekend. How cute would this be in a classroom strung along the windows or around the blackboard {do they still have those in classrooms?}. That's all I wanted to say :) It was just really bugging me that I forgot yesterday :)

Since I dragged you all here just for that I will leave you with a pretty fall picture so you don't feel jipped. Wouldn't this be a perfect place for a fall party. I will meet you right there on the haystack :)

day 4 of fall inspired crafts: halloween hanging lights

This is the last day of fall inspired crafts. I hope you all have gotten a few cheap and easy ideas for decorating your house or gifts to give friends.

This last craft is courtesy of Good Housekeeping {I think} a few years ago. Again, this is a craft that I put aside for a rainy day and thanks to my mom's help was able to finish pretty quickly. It is a little time consuming, so this might be a good one to do once the little ones are asleep.

For this project you will need:

-plastic mouthwash size cups

-hanging lights {orange or white}

-Halloween inspired scrapbook paper

-knife

-glue or tape

To start, cover each mouthwash cup {I used 30 total} with the scrapbook paper of your choice. I think I did about 5 cups in each paper and I selected 6 different papers. I glued my paper to the cups at the seams as well as in one other place to the cup itself but you could use tape if you prefer.

Once the paper has dried cut an x in the bottom of each cup. This is where you will insert your light. Once each light has a cup simply turn on your lights and stand back and look amazed at your Halloween inspired lighted garland.

I think it looks fun and festive even without the lights on.

A few things I have learned from this project:

-Use LED lights so the cups do not get hot

-While I liked the look of the candy corn lights, I think plain Christmas lights with a white cord would have looked better and if I went that route I would have covered every light.

-Less paper choices also might make more of an impact. I think next time I will just use 3 instead of 6. I got a little carried away :) This was my favorite paper and I wish I had used it more. I love polka dots :)

I know it is a little to soon to be putting out Halloween decor but I found this sparkly sign that I had gotten last year after Halloween at target for a steal and cannot wait to put it out. I love anything with glitter.

Also, my wreath found a new home in my kitchen and the other day when I was doing dishes I realized how festive my sink looked with all the fall colors :)

Here is a close up of the button on the flower so you can see how I stuck the pins through just in case there was any confusion in Wednesday's post.

Happy Friday!

day 3 of fall inspired crafts: iron on onesies

Okay so I know what you are thinking... stop with the onesie crafts... but seriously you all this craft could be done on anything! Think fall pillows for your entryway, t-shirts for your older kids, a design on fabric that you can then frame as artwork... the possibilities are endless! I have posted about this project here and here but this time I added a fall twist.

To start this project you first want to pick out whatever fabric you want to use for this project. I went with two fallish prints for this. You saw them yesterday in this post. You will also need:

wonder under iron on paper

an iron

scissors

a template of a design you want to use

onesies {or whatever else you want your design on}

First, print out your design on the computer in a size that is workable for what you are putting the artwork on. For example, since I am putting this on a small onesies I had to re-size my artwork. Here is what I went with...

 Next cut out all of your designs that you want to use....

Then cut out your fabric in squares that are a little larger then your design as well as a piece of wonder under that is a little smaller then your fabric square.

 Next iron your wonder under {rough side} to the wrong side of your fabric.

Now here is where I stray from the directions on the wonder under packet... I then peel off the paper backing so I am left with just my fabric...

Then I lay my cut out template over my fabric and cut out the design. I found it really hard to pull the paper off after I had cut out the design so that is why I changed it up a bit. After your design is cut out on the fabric simply arrange on your onesie and iron on!

That's it! You are done! You can of course finish it off with a stitch like I did in this post but with seasonal onesies I don't because I find that to be to much work for something they will only wear a few times :)

If you all end up doing any of these crafts send me pictures! I would love to see your interpretation on these fall ideas! Sorry all these pics have been so dark this week. We have been having a lot of rain here on the east coast!