Boob gap

Time to blow the dust off this ol' blog.

I've been thinking about turning it into a project/cooking type of thing, but who knows.  I am not doing awesome projects on a daily basis, but when I do do something great I am going to post it and tell everyone about it. ha!

The other day I pulled a huge stack of my button down blouses out of the closet and went to town ironing shut the boob gaps.  You know what I am talking about - that annoying thing your shirt does once you are past the 6th grade.

It is super easy.  All you need is an iron, a package of Heat'n Bond and some scissors.

Cut strips to fit the the spots between the buttons and then remove one side of the paper.  Iron this onto the fabric and then let it cool.  Once cooled, remove the other part of the paper and rebutton the shirt.  You then iron the area again, bonding the fabric together.

You can wash and iron like normal.  I normally don't tumble dry shirts like this, but I would assume drying on low heat would be ok. 

Once completed, you will have a stack full of blouses that won't expose your boobs/bra.

Shabby Chic Dresser

Looks like I took an accidental little hiatus .....  oops.  Life with 2 gets super busy, and before you know it, 2 months have gone by and your little ol' blog has cobwebs on it. 

Last summer we transitioned Miss A to a big girl room - she got a new room and we kept the nursery the same for Baby N. I had an idea of how I wanted her room to look and I am pretty pleased with the finished product.... It is a shabby chic, feminine and full of refinished antique furniture.  I am waiting on a couple more pillows to be made, but in the meantime, I thought I would do a post on refinishing her dresser.  Yes, big and pregnant and in the heat of the summer I was sanding, painting and working on transforming a beat up antique dresser to a perfectly polished piece.  I also refinished her bed and a little chair. 

Here is the dresser before:

I bought the piece from Gypsy Soul Interiors.  (If you are in Texas or Alabama and want vintage furniture - she is your gal. Check her out here.)

My first step was to lightly remove all of the hardware and drawers and lightly sand the entire piece.  Once I was able to get some of the old paint off, I was better able to see the areas that needed some extra TLC.   I am sure you can fill holes and scratches and then prime, but whenever I refinish pieces, I prime and then fill areas with wood filler.  I am pretty detailed in this step - why put all of this time and effort into a piece if you are still going to have little dings and scratches?

I worked on the top of the dresser....

Corners....

Filled in the old hardware holes in the drawers....

And used lots of wood glue and putty on the door...

I also removed the old feet and added these new wood ones.  I love how these look with the rounded lines on the bottom of the legs. 

After all of the wood filler and wood glue was dry, I sanded the entire piece again to have a super smooth painting surface.  Tip - After sanding, wipe down the entire piece with a tacky, glue like cheese cloth to remove all of the dust.

I did 3 coats of paint - semi gloss Benjamin Moore Decorators White. After each coat of paint, I would lightly sand with a super fine grit sand paper and then wipe down with the tacky cheese cloth.  All of these steps take quite a while to do, but it really results in a professional looking piece of furniture. 

Once everything was painted and sanded for the last time, I did a coat of satin polycrylic on everything.  Had this been going in an adult room, I might have just done the top of the dresser.... but, since it was going in a little kid room, I decided to do it all. 

Since I had filled in all of the hardware holes, I had to drill new holes for new hardware.  This part stressed me out - I had done so much work, I was afraid of messing it up.  Thank goodness my dad helped me with this part.  I was too chicken to drill the holes - I just didn't want to screw it up! I used clear, green glass handles for the drawers and clear, green glass knobs for the door. 

 And, here is the finished product! I love how it turned out.

Nap Time, Craft Time

If you don't have kiddos in carseats, then you might as well quit reading now. But, if you live in a hot climate and have a car seat in your car then you have this problem - HOT metal and plastic carseat parts that can burn bare legs. Unless you have the gadget that can remotely start your car, then it is impossible to cool down the car prior to putting the kid in the carseat. So, I whipped up this neat little sun shade to solve this problem.

Exhibit 1:

Normal carseat exposed to the blazing heat

Exhibit 2:

Carseat covered up with a sun shade

Now, doesn't that look like a nifty little gizmo?

All of the metal and plastic parts are safely covered.

I lined the back of my sun shade in brown fabric, so it would match the pink and brown carseat.

I love that I can just roll this up, keep it in the backseat and always have it on hand.

Want one? $10 + shipping. Shoot me an email - mrspreppy@gmail.com

Birthday Recap - #3

I took a break from Miss A's birthday recaps to share some BIG news.



And now we are back to regularly scheduled programming. Here is the last recap from all of Miss A's birthday festivities.

I designed the invitations and the mailing labels. The invitation ended up being 2 pages, so I attached both pieces with some red and white ribbon.

The favor bags each had a fun sticker on the outside and inside were farm animal stickers, bubbles, chalk and candy.

Here is the birthday girl sporting her birthday outfit. My mom made the pants... if you look carefully, you will notice that the 2 fabrics in her pants are also in the table runners that I made. Crafty. Her white T had rosettes along the neckline. It was perfect for running around the farm.

I found these frames in the Target Dollar Spot. The colors were perfect for her party, but they had some corny and cheesy sayings along the top. So, I covered them up with some fun ribbon. Problem solved.

Here are all of the fabrics that I used in the table runners. I made 2, 11 foot runners. It took forever.

And every good party should end with a thank you note. I found these wobbly eye farm animal note cards at Michael's.... It was the perfect touch to wrap up all of her birthday festivities.

Birthday Recap - Part 2

Here are some of the detail shots from Miss A's birthday party. I was so busy in the weeks leading up to her party. I designed her invitations, made the name banner, sewed the 2 table runners, designed and printed the labels for the sandwiches and water bottles, plus a zillion other things.

We had 2 main tables set up with food and beverages. Pigs in a blanket, PB&J, chips, pretzels, haystacks, cupcakes, water and juice.

I ordered the cupcakes from Target and added the plastic animals as toppers.

The day before her party, my dad and I took her to a local field that was full of bluebonnets. She wore a "Happy Birthday To Me" shirt and held up a bright pink #2. I framed those pictures and used them as decor on the main tables at the party.

The first time Miss A saw these water bottles she said "momma, thirsty tractor." Funny girl.

We had PB&J sandwiches and I printed floral labels to use on the bags.

I love how her name banner turned out.

Inside this crate were all of the party favors.

All of the tables had jars filled with flowers, toy farm animals, a cow puzzle and antibacterial hand gel.