Simple Sixteen Cent Coasters

Yep, you read that right... 16 pennies per coaster (granting you have spray paint and lace already)

Our coasters were pretty dinky. Just your standard Wal-Mart coasters that my parents picked up when we moved in and didn't have any (Don't get me wrong, they served us well for a full year). After making precious little hand print coasters for Father's Day with my class at the preschool (you're welcome dads), I got to thinking. "Hm, that was really easy. Not to mention super cheap. I bet I could come up with something cool to go on the tiles." Thus the wheels started turning. I thought about using my new stamp letters for quotes, painting something, patterns, then it hit me. I love lace. LOVE it. I'd seen where people spray painted through lace with beautiful results, so I googled it, and what do ya know? There it is, the exact same idea in Martha Stewart. 

What can I say? Great minds think alike. 

In her tutorial she recommends using a spray adhesive to keep the lace in place while you spray paint. I can see the advantage, but it really isn't necessary. I just laid the lace on top and sprayed through it. It only takes maybe 5 seconds, so my lace didn't move around. A couple times I tucked it under on the side just to be sure. After it dried, I turned it over and sprayed the bottoms as well. Just because. Then I sprayed a clear coat to make them shiny and extra safe from chipping.

I had this metallic silver spray paint from when I spray painted a bright orange lamp to a sleek silver. I'm loving the metallic these days. The lace is from Hobby Lobby a while back. The tiles are in the flooring section of Lowe's or Home Depot and are literally 16 cents a piece. I got six.

This is an example of tucking it in place (And my go-to spray painting protection barrier... aka - an old towel)

Viola! Sleek and chic sixteen cent tile coasters! I'm sure if I had used that spray adhesive, you'd have been able to see more details of the lace, but I really didn't feel like driving back out to Lowe's for one thing...

Okay, let's talk details folks. I believe that true DIY crafts are all about the little something-extras you add to personalize it or make it unique. Taking inspiration from several sources and meshing them together.

I used the aforementioned letter stamps to add our monogram to the back. Fits perfectly. 

I also added those little self-adhesive cork pads, which also fit perfectly in the squares (They are actually cupboard door stoppers and were about $2.50 for 32. Don't quote me on that)

What I love most is the coral accents on the edges. It adds just the right amount of interest. I had them sitting around for a couple weeks before I added the coral, and let me just say, it made all the difference. Before, they just didn't feel complete. Now they feel neat and colorful. 

Ahhh! I spy a baby booty!

I was inspired by Madigan Made's neon edged trivets. Also a very neat idea.

I didn't have any coral on hand, so I mixed some red and orange with a fleshy peach paint to get a lovely shade of coral. It's more orangey and less pinky in real life. And less neony.

Don't you just love that stack of vintage LIFE magazines? We bought several from 8th Avenue Antiques here in Nashville. They are from the 60's, and the one on top is my favorite! It's all about prizewinning pictures from that year. There is also one about the moon landing! One day I hope to be able to display them more properly, maybe in the office.  Someday.

Follow me on Pinterest @halesnoels

Stay tuned!

Haley

Let's play catch up!

I know I know, it's been a while. Here is a brief update of what's been going on.

While it was still cold, I made an ear warmer headband from this tutorial by PrudentBaby

I found a great deal on more wooden crates to add to the collection.

We've gone to see this cool bluegrass band called Off the Wagon at the Station Inn. That made me want to learn to play mandolin. 

I made a kinda-sorta costume for Read Across America day. It's supposed to be Max from Where the Wild Things Are. Basically I sewed ears onto this fluffy white jacket I found for $8, and I made a crown.

One of my neighbors lost their kitten so I got to hang out with this cute guy one afternoon.

I got this awesome wreath made from wood shavings that I'd been eyeing at Target, and I found it at TJMaxx for cheaper. Also, you may notice I hung the drop cloth garland above the bed. 

My man had a birthday. (And my Max crown got some extra use as a birthday crown!)

We have been doing some spring cleaning/sorting/simplifying.

The mantle got a spring update.

But the most exciting update is our urban garden that is thriving on our back patio!

We went to Lowe's and stocked up with strawberries, bell peppers, cucumber, zucchini, spinach, romaine lettuce, and a tomato plant. We also got this beautiful anemone flower and a plant called sea pink. 

Luckily we already had most of the pots we needed. We repurposed an old kitchen island what we no longer had room for as a plant holder. (You might notice it was on the far side of the bed as an ugly side table)

Now they are getting so big! It's been great since our patio gets full sun, and that's exactly what they need.

And we have evidence of our first fruits!

I tried my hand at tea dying. My first victim: a pair of lace curtains.

One found a home behind the ladder. The other is on the lone window in our bedroom. It is lovely to wake up to each morning. 

My next victim was our new set of sheets. Hopefully I'll do a full post about this process. 

Oh, and I collected a bunch of those little pink helicopters. They will now and forevermore be known as "fairy wings." Because that's what they look like. And I'll tell my kids that the fairies shed their old wings at the beginning of each spring and get a new pair. Or not. 

So yeah. Now you are up to date on my life. Kinda. 

Tomorrow I start working as a young toddler teacher at the preschool. I have been explusively in the infant rooms since November, and you better believe I'm going to miss holding those itty bitties and hanging out with my infant coworkers. The plus side of moving rooms is that I'm getting awesome hours! I'll be off at 4 every day. I hope that helps me be more productive this summer.

We'll see.

Stay tuned,

Haley

DIY Cloud Puffs

aka tissue paper pom-poms
I did these a while ago, and I just love them so much. They are easy to make, but a little time-consuming.

A close up

A view from the bed

Aren't they magical! 

Want to make your or your kids bedroom a little more dreamy? All you need is some tissue paper (the kind you put in gift bags, not for wiping your nose), scissors, and some sort of string/twine/ribbon/fishing wire. There are a ton of tutorials online, such as this one on Martha Stewart's website.

Here's the gist:
-Stack some tissue paper {6-8 sheets} and cut it to the size you want (I did 3 sizes: The whole sheet, cut in half, and somewhere in between-featured below)

-Fold them accordion style {1-1.5"} (I played around with how big or small the folds were.)

-Cut off the ends in the shape you want, such as rounded or pointed. I learned the hard way that you shouldn't try to cut too many layers at once. Literally broke my scissors.

Doesn't have to be perfect

-Tie your string around the middle.

-I added a step. When you spread the "wings" out to start separating each layer of tissue, It helped me to cut down the middle so there are 4 "petals" to work with.

-Carefully separate each layer.

I did have a good bit of ripping. At least one tear on each pom, but it doesn't really show.

 I found that running my fingers through the folds enabled me to get closer to the center.

-Remember to do half then flip it over to do the other half, otherwise it would be flat-ish on one side. But that might be cute as a table centerpiece.

This project is so versatile. You can use any color or patterned tissue, as big or small as you want. Make a vertical wall of pom poms, or a horizontal stratosphere of cloud puffs.

I even added a little sparkle to a couple of them with the Glitter Blast my mom-in-law got me.

Here are some pictures of poms that other people have made:

via Be Different Act Normal

via Smile and Wave

via Random Anderson

via Too Stinkin Cute

As for Valentines Day... I have pneumonia. I haven't been well in a long time, but when I had a consistently high fever the last couple days, I knew it was something more than just a sinus infection. Sure enough, after a chest x-ray, the doc confirmed my suspicions. I then had the privilege of driving myself to 3 different pharmacies because one of my prescriptions is new or rare or something. I was a wreck. At one point my box of Kleenex fell to the floorboard and out of reach, and I just started sobbing. Le sigh. It's hard enough to be sick, but to be sick and alone is even worse. (Josh is still out of town). My mom is supposed to be driving up here tomorrow because she is a gold-star-mom.

I hope you all are well and happy this Valentines Day. 

Take your vitamins.

Haley 

Home Made Christmas 2011

Have a holly jolly home made Christmas! 

This year I actually followed through and made our Christmas cards. I wanted to last year, but work, graduating from college, and getting married got in the way. Not this year. I had time to kill since Josh was gone for a month. Lets start this thing off with the finished product!

I bought blank cards from Hobby Lobby. They were 50 for $10. Can't beat that! I then raided Lowes for paint swatches of the colors I needed for the Christmas Trees. I got the idea from... you guessed it. Pinterest. I needed to make about 20 more and went back to Hobs Lobs, {it's about 30 minutes from our house. sad face.} but they were completely out of this butcher paper brown so I decided to go with white)

This was my inspiration:

source

But since patterned scrapbook paper is pricey (like redonkulous) and paint swatches are f-r-double-e, I got in stealth mode and hit up my Lowes. It was sad, really. I don't know what I expected to happen, but I felt like a I was shoplifting and became all shady and shifty. Even though they are free. It's heard to shoplift free samples. Anyway, I left Lowes with a purse full of swatches to create these jolly little guys. 

Pretty simple, just cut the strips and glued them down with tacky glue (all I have), then covered each batch with wax paper and stacked a book on top so it wouldn't curl. Cutting out the stars took the most time. After it dried, I punched a hole in the star with a large embroidery needle (yarn needle to be exact)

I went to visit my sister the first weekend Josh was gone, and she helped me with the front of the cards. We came up with the idea to stamp something on the background of the front so that when people remove the ornament, there is still something to look at. In the end, the ever-popular chevron pattern won.

We made the stamp from self-adhesive foam and one of those thick acrylic clear-stamp-block. Does that make sense?

Google searched it for you to have a visual. This, but bigger. Source.

My sister Amelia just so happens to be craftier and artsier than me, so she had all sorts of goodies for me to play with. Applying paint to the makeshift stamp with a brush didn't work out so well, and neither did the block printing ink that she had (because it was applied to foam instead of linoleum as is typically used for block printing.) 

Rolling a paint-glue mixture with a brayer worked juuust right (Did you read that like Goldilocks? This paint was too thick, and this paint was too thin, but this mixture was juuust right)

The roller is called a brayer. You want a thin layer of paint/glue (it needs some stick to it) and roll it thin enough that you hear a ripping noise. I don't know how else to explain it. 

Then I quickly stamped it to the front so the paint wouldn't dry on the foam

And turned it over and rubbed it with a wooden spoon

And peeled it off.

I got this little "Merry Christmas" stamp from the lobby of hobbies, and used a silver ink to get the point across.

How jolly.

After a few hours, I had 50 card fronts, ready for further beautification. 

All I did next was use rubber cement to attach the tree ornament to the front, print out the little poem and cut them out with zig zag scissors, and cut slits with an x-acto knife for the corners of the picture to slide into. (Or should I say, "into which the corners of the pictures to slide"? ...Grammar police.)

Assemble, autograph and address.

Our friends Kyle and Courtney were kind enough to snap the pictures for us. The winning shot was taken at Nashville's Centennial Park inside the big and beautifully lit tree. Just for fun, here are some other shots from the night. 

Also, There are finally presents under the tree! I used more left over paint swatches to jazz up the plain brown contractor's paper. (Sensing a theme here?) You can get a ginormo roll that could easily last 50 years for $10. It gives you an opportunity to customize and add some pizzaz for each person. And it beats the pants off of that uber-expensive fancy wrapping paper (not that it isn't beautiful and festive, just pricey)

I used a silver sharpie to draw different snowflakes on the blue paint swatches then cut out the first letter of the name of the recipient. On the others I cut big triangles from tri-color samples and made Christmas tree tags. I got a little carried away. (The one on the left reads: to: p-daddy {my dad pete}, heart: j-thug {josh} & h-bomb {haley} 'Cause we gangsta like dat). I still want to make bows for them.

Christmas cheer has also found its way to the mantle. I replaced the fall leaves with leftover ornaments, a snowman, and a little nativity we got as a wedding present. 

I wanted to make stockings out of some drop cloth and felt, and perhaps I still will, but I didn't want to have to hand stitch everything. 

I still haven't finished making my tree skirt yet, but this is the idea:

I used an old tree skirt to trace the size on the drop cloth (Basically a big circle with a little circle cut out of the middle), used tacky glue to create a seam, then created a ton these rose buds using your basic blog-pinterest-google tutorial, and attached them with, yep, tacky glue. I've got buds on about 3/4ths of the edge. That last fourth will be the end of me. 

We head home tomorrow to spend time with our families. It's not Christmas time until you spend massive amounts of time with loved ones. 

So from our little family of two, Merry Christmas!

Haley (and Josh)