Call My Blog Maybe {Bloggersdance}

I am so thrilled that it's SUMMER!

I am lovin' being with my kids,...most of the time!

I am tickled pink that both of my teenagers wanted to 

"help" me with the July Bloggersdance!  WOO HOO!

We even got some "random neighbor kids" to help out too!!

*wink wink*

 I think it took 3 days...

Take 1-I was driving waaaaay too fast for my BFF, who was videoing

Take 2-my car was too small to get all on film, 

so waited for BFF's hubby to get home to use his car

Take 3-a mysterious finger showed up on film, 

so my hubby became videographer

Take 4-the sun was glaring and flickering in our faces

Take 5-the car was almost out of gas and everyone was hungry

Take 6-I think we have a winner!

Makin' memories...yep!

We had so much fun!!! Thanks kiddos, you all did a superb job!

Last month, my daughter showed me a video that has gone viral.

It's the Harvard Baseball Team's "Call Me Maybe" video.

If you haven't seen it, search for it...

that video was our inspiration.

Thank you to my friend Kerry@HouseTalkN 

for getting us all to DANCE! 

 And, yes...if you missed my first bloggersdance, you

can find it here.

How To Make a Camera Strap

 What do you do the night before you're leaving for a DIY Blogger conference? Well, I must confess....I was making a custom camera strap. Why, you ask?

As I was packing, it dawned on me that my camera looks like most others, and I didn't have my name, or any other identifying marks on it.

Fortunately, I had a fabric stash, and the instructions I found 

online were easy cheesy!

 My neighbor works at a furniture store, and she brought me the samples that were being discontinued....SCORE!!

Do I have plans for these?  Just wait and see...Hehe

I found DIY instructions here at Cluck.Cluck.Sew.  She made hers with 2 different fabrics, but gives the measurements if you want to use one. 

Most camera straps are similar length, so be sure to measure yours and then add 1".  My strap is about 2" wide, so cut your strip of fabric

5.5" wide X 26" long

I also cut a strip of thin batting I had 2" wide X 25" long.

First, fold the short ends of the fabric back 1/2" (wrong sides together), and sew across both ends, about 1/4" from fold.

Then, fold along the long side of fabric, right sides together, matching ends of fabric and pin in place.  Stitch 1/4" from edge.  Zigzag edges.

Turn the tube right side out...if your fabric is thick, like mine was, it may get stuck, so use a wooden dowel to help push it through.

 

(If you notice the decorative trim, you could add it now. I used 

fabric glue and pinned it in place until it was dry.

 I explain later why I had to use it.)  

I decided to add the batting so the strap would be cushy!

I put a safety pin at the end of it, thinking it would help me feel and push it through.  I also used my little wooden dowel to help shove it to the other side. It worked!!

Next, I wiggled my camera strap through there,

 using the dowel as needed.

Hmmmm, like some of my projects, I'm not always exact...and my strap cover was about 1/2" too short.  Great!

Measure twice, cut once...I gotta remember that rule!!!

I took my camera to the Haven Conference with the "too short" strap cover, and sadly, I never took it out of my purse, or hotel room. 

I had planned on taking the photography class...maybe next year!

Now that I'm home, I had to come up with a FIX.

Ahhh...decorative trim.  I went through my stash and found 2 kinds of trim that matched, so I glued some on each end with fabric glue.

Voila! Problem solved!!

Then I decided to top stitch the edges, so the strap would fit snugly and not shift or move on me.  I placed the presser foot on the edge of my fabric, then moved my needle over so it would stitch 1/8" from the edge.

I wuv it! I love the added cushion the batting provides.

Next year, I'm just gonna wear my camera around my neck!

Can't wait for Haven 2013!!!

Giveaway from Royal Design Studio Stencils

*This Giveaway is now closed*
You know how much I LOVE beautiful things!

And you know I'm a huge fan of

 Royal Design Studio  and their
amazing stencils....

 like this allover wall damask stencil...

 or this simply stenciled headboard...

 I love the impressive stenciling on this furniture piece...

or these stenciled drapes...

Check out my Embossing Furniture DIY tutorial here.

Or my How to Stencil a Roller Shade tutorial here.


Have I tempted you yet???
Are you ready to stencil something?  The ideas are endless...and you don't have to stencil a wall!  

Well.....Royal Design Studio has offered to give a stencil up to $50 in value to one of my followers!!!

Yeah YOU!!!

All you have to do is comment here on this post to enter and a Winner will be chosen on Monday, July 9, 2012.

First, follow me somehow, someway...
see those little buttons on the right with the f, t, P...just click 'em
 (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest...also GFC, G+,  and/or email)

     Check out the Royal Design Studio webpage here, and come back and comment to tell me which stencil you'd like (it's ok, you can change your mind before you win).

Want more entries???  Oh yeah, ya do!

    Head on over to RDS's Facebook page and "like" it...then leave another comment letting me know you did!  They post really cool ways to use their stencils there!  You'll love it!

    If you love Pinterest like I do, you can follow RDS's Pinterest boards here....then leave another comment letting me know!  I love gathering ideas on Pinterest boards, so you'll see lots of cool pics being shared there!

     Do you Tweet?, then follow RDS's Twitter here,...then leave another comment letting me know you did! Want to keep up with the latest, other ideas and giveaways?...then Twitter's the place!

     If you click that little "F" button at the bottom of this post, right before comments...and share this post on your Facebook page, you can leave me another comment to let me know! Feel free to tweet it and +1 it too!

Wowzie!  

So that's 5 entries for ya!

 and you must write a comment for each entry, please!

Have fun and Happy Fourth of July...

WINNER announced on MONDAY, JULY 9, 2012

How to Stencil a Roller Shade

 

Paint a roller shade?  The kind that are made of vinyl??
 Yes, you heard right!  

I did some research before I got started, to make sure this was going to work.  I think it turned out great!  Each shade (light filtering) was only about $8,  and you can trim them to size...now that's awesome!!

I've stenciled before...but not always with paint.  You can find that tutorial here.  I'm a huge fan of Royal Design Studio stencils, because they have good quality stencils as well as incredibly beautiful designs.

 I also got to see their lovely stencil creme colors in person,
as they were sponsors at the Haven Conference.  The colors are to die for!
Stenciling ain't what it used to be...
their stencils look like expensive wallpaper!!!

So, when they offered me a stencil of my choice....
I screamed....really I did!!
I had entered their Pinterest contest, and had stencil envy!  You can find my board here for lots of fun stencil ideas.

I'm a huge houndstooth fan, and had been eye-ing that stencil for awhile.  So I went for the all over houndstooth wall design stencil.  It's from their Modern stencil collection, which also has some other super cool designs like zebra, chevron, and chain link etc.

 My 14 year old son's room has been in need of window treatments for...
6 years now, and he liked the houndstooth idea too.
Gollygeewhiz, he deserves an award,
cuz he never complained! and he was so agreeable!!

I had already hung some canvas drape panels, but he had to keep closing them if he didn't want the sun to glare in his eyes every morning.

This is what you need:

REPOSITIONABLE spray mount adhesive (Michael's)
Martha Stewart Satin craft paint in beetle black (Michael's)
Large & medium pouncer sponge brushes
 Royal Design Studio stencil
roller shade (mine is Levolor light filtering @Lowe's)
Matte spray poly sealer

*The MS craft paint is thicker than most, and has great coverage.  The thicker the acrylic paint, the less "bleeding" you will have.  If I was using this stencil on a wall, the creme paint would be ideal.

 I wanted the stencil design centered on the shade, so I marked at the top of the stencil, where the center of the design was with a sharpie dot.

 I rolled out the shade onto a large rectangle table and marked
(on the cardboard roller) the center of the shade.

"Lightly" spritz the back of the stencil with the repositionable spray adhesive, and line up the center dots.  The light filtering vinyl is thin, so I wanted to be careful with the adhesive.

You want your design level, so I made sure my stencil edge was the same distance from the shade edge at the top, middle and bottom.  Press the stencil down, making sure all the crisp edges are secure.

Don't worry if the vinyl puckers a tad (mine did in the center of the "tooth" shape after I adhered the stencil to it, but it painted out fine).

Squirt a little bit of the paint in a small bowl, and dab the sponge pouncer in the paint.  I unloaded that first dab in the center of the design, then pounced my way to the edges.

You want to limit the paint from getting under the stencil edges.

When done with first pattern, carefully hold vinyl while pulling stencil up and away from project.  I layed my stencil (adhesive side down) onto a poster board, while paint was drying.

Once the paint was dry, I went back and dabbed on a little more paint in a few areas where it needed it.  Might not have this issue if you're using a light blocking shade.

 As you can see in the picture, not all my edges were super crisp...I had some seepage...but it isn't that noticeable when the shades are hanging up, so I didn't mess with trying to touch it up.

When the paint is dry, use the guidelines on the stencil to line it up against the painted houndstooth designs.  These laser lines were awesome and made positioning the stencil so easy!  Measure again along the side to keep it level, and you're ready to paint section 2.

After painting sections all the way down, I worked the sections on the sides until all were completed.  I also decided to paint the lower 1" border on the front and back (where the plastic thingy slides in).

When it was completely dry, I sprayed the painted shade with a matte poly sealer.  Mod Podge makes one,
 just whichever one you have on hand.
This will keep the craft paint from sticking.

Shade completed!!  Now if I can just get him to clean up his room, then I could show you the rest.
That would be an awesome Before and After!

Thank you Royal Design Studios for the stencil!!  I love the big and bold houndstooth stencil!!   Do you like it's big and bold awesomeness???

 But wait...check back here in a few days...there might just be a
 *cough giveaway cough*, if you know what I mean!  oh yeah...

Party Linkups:  Home Stories A 2 Z 
Serenity Now 
Tatertots and Jello 
DIY Showoff 
Beneath My Heart  
NY Melrose Family 
The Winthrop Chronicles 
Savvy Southern Style 

Disclaimer:  Royal Design Studios provided me with the stencil of my choice to review, but I was in no way obligated to write a positive review.  This review was totally mine...my words, my opinions, my everything...me, me, me!

Anthro {knockoff} necklace DIY

 Would you guess that this necklace was made of {plastic} chandelier

crystals, silver glass beads, and organza ribbon?

I saw this DIY necklace on Pinterest, and had to try it.

The Morning Letters blog shows how she did it. 

 I made a few changes that worked better for me.  

1 pkg. Silver glass beads (Hobby Lobby-only need 1 package)
1 pkg. Silver glass beads (8mm)...(optional, only need 2 beads)

3 pkgs. Chandelier Crystal {plastic} embellishments (Michael's)

1 pkg. 9 mm jump rings

1/4 inch organza ribbon to match

Ceramocoat acrylic paint...I used Sea Foam

I also used clear top coat fingernail polish, stringing wire (.015" for jewelry) and crimping beads.

You'll also need jewelry pliers, crimpers, and wire cutters.

 Begin by painting the crystal pieces with the craft paint.  I put 2 coats on both sides.  The finish at this point will be matte.  When dry, put 1 or 2 coats of clear top coat fingernail polish (this protects and gives a sheen)

Add jump rings to crystals and begin stringing on the wire, putting 3 silver beads between each crystal.  The first strand will have 9 crystals

and the second will have 7 crystals.

Join the two strands together by threading both wires through one 8mm silver bead, or you can use the smaller 6mm.
 I like the look of the larger one.

1.  Thread both wires through a crimping bead and make a loop, then thread wires back down through bead again.  

Double your organza ribbon and cut to appropriate length
 (I cut at 39") for tying on each side.  

2. Thread one ribbon through loop and pull wires to tighten.
 I only wanted the ribbon doubled to where I'd likely tie it in the back, so before crimping, adjust length of ribbon.   

I doubled and knotted the ribbon to about 13", as seen in above pic.

 Crimp the bead and snip off extra wire.

3.  Make a knot  with the doubled organza ribbon so that it covers the crimp bead.

4.  Tighten knot closely to large bead.    Repeat on the other side.

  Put fray check or a similar product on ends of ribbon to prevent fraying.

Here are a few wardrobe options...love it with white!

 The sea foam green is lovely against the coral.... You just might see me sporting this at the Haven Conference!

I'm off to pack!!!....cuz "I'm leaving on a jet plane" tomorrow morning!

Changes I made to the original instructions from TML blog:

I found that the holes in the silver beads were very tiny and threading with the ribbon was not going to work for me, so I used wire.

I opted not to use the white pearl paint over the acrylic paint.

Linking up here:
Uncommon Designs
Lil Luna
DIY Showoff
Cowgirl Up 

Lamp Makeover with ASCP

You can paint anything with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint, right?

So I have this lamp....from Marshall's....had it for several years.  The mantle in the Living Room has an electric plug (for Christmas lights and lamps)...so I've been wanting to put a lamp up there to try it out. 

I tried this lamp up there.  One of the problems was that the shade blended in with the wall color.  

I've seen peeps use ASCP on fabric and rave about it, and this shade is vinyl, I think...it has that fake leather look.

After 2 coats of Annie Sloan Graphite...the shade looks fabulous!

The paint covered nicely and then I added clear wax and finished with dark wax (not sure I could tell a huge difference...the dark wax might've made the shade a tad darker, but not really that noticeable).

 The rug in the Living Room has some blue grey in it, so I used the Duck Egg and painted the sections that were previously reddish.  I sanded just a tad, then rubbed on clear wax, then dark wax.

 Here's a closeup of the bottom of the lamp.   As you can see, I just globbed the dark wax on and wiped off a little, then buffed to a nice matte sheen.

I love the way the shade pops now against the wall color.

Are you swooning over my metal crowns?....Love those!!

"Something Changed...the Healing Came"

Me and my beautiful girl

I received a Gift today...
my daughter gave me a poem that she wrote
It speaks of pain,
but out of it comes strength, courage and faith 
Oh, how proud this Momma is
of my beautiful girl! 

{M} in 6th grade

{M} age 15

The Revolution

Young and innocent was I

new and scared and shy

I pushed through and stayed

For deep down I knew that beautiful was I made

Insults, laughter, and mockery came flying

Into my soul/mind they went a prying

Keep steadfast O my soul

Only when necessary, stop, drop and roll

That fire oh how it burned

But somehow those scars turned

Into a reminder of where I've been

And who I've become since then

A new start, a new beginning

I know its You I must be clenching

For the world is never changed

But, I-You-We proclaimed

The newness of life

Taking away our strife

Overflowing with love unfailing

It's You oh God that I am hailing.

My thanks to You, I bow-

The bones in me are sturdy now

Calm and Confident am I

Only because of my trusting and faithful reply.

 written by {M} age 15

{M} at the Judge's Choice Awards Recital

As parents, we never want our children to have to go through any kind of pain.  I still remember how hard it was when as babies, they would fall and get hurt.  You felt helpless...and comforted them as best you could.

You send them to school, entrusting that they will be protected.

But no school is immune. 

 All kids come with insecurities, 
and some choose to tear others down.

 I know that suffering is never wasted, 
and this poem is a testament to that fact.  

God uses it for good! 

If it had been my choice, I would not have wanted my daughter to go

through any pain in those years in school.

I remember crying out to God...why her?  

What are you preparing her for, God?

As always, our God can be trusted.  
"His ways are higher than our ways...His thoughts higher than ours."
Isiah 55:8-9

I am thankful for that!

She made the brave choice to switch to a new school 2 years ago.

She left behind some sweet friends and loving teachers

but God had a plan! 

I trust that He has great plans for her in the future!

 

This song "Something Changed" by Sara Groves is very fitting, so if you haven't heard it...take a listen.

When you've come to the point where you can 
look back and thank God 
for saving you, rescuing you, plucking you out of a painful situation...

or walking with you through it....speaking truth into your soul...

and then YOU believe it, trust Him and surrender

then you know...

something changed...


the healing came!

Sharing @ My Freshly Brewed Life