Halloween Ghost from Solar Lights!

Normally I'd apologize for being away for so long but the reality is raising two little people under the age of three while working is a handful to say the least, so I won't and I'll just get on with the post.

Halloween has started to sneak up on us and since Dax-man is starting to not only understand the holidays but also enjoy them we have been doing some fun crafts. Wednesday we made some awesome candy corn magnets for the fridge and yesterday (while little Fi was napping) Dax-man and I make some ghoulish ghosts for the front yard from some broken down solar lights.

We started by rounding up all the solar lights we could find. Sadly these little guys have seen
better days. 

Then I cut up an old white sheet in to 18" x 18" squares. I'm sure you could use white hankerchief's as well but I already had the sheet in hand.

Next we draped the square over the top of the solar light evenly.

This way they can still hang on the shepherd's
hook.

I cut a small hole to let the ring for the light
slip through the square. 

The we gathered the square around the bottom of the light. and tied it with some string. 

Next Dax helped me draw on the ghost faces!

He was super excited when we finished.

Finally we put them back on the shepherds hooks!

Turned out pretty ghoulish if you ask me!!

It was so fun making these with Dax-man! He got more and more excited everytime we finished one and calls the little ghosts his buddy-friends. This craft was a little out of his league but he was able to "help" by placing his little hands on top of mine while I made the cuts and drew on the eyes. It was also a great lesson for learing to tie things... like shoes. I love making crafts with my little man!

These can also be done on regular solar lights that just push in the ground. Just skip the step where I cut a hole for the ring. Happy Halloween and stop pinning and start doing!

xoxo
Sarah

15 Minute Pinterest Projects

The reality is like a lot of you I just don't have enough hours in the day to get everything done. This includes many of the big pinterest projects I have yet to complete on my board. But on occasion I do have 15 minutes here and there where I try to do something that will make my life easier or just down right beautiful. So without further ado here are a few of my 15 minute pinterest projects I have been able to create.

Shadow Box Fi's keepsakes. Ok maybe the pregnancy tests
went to far... but it was the only pop quiz I ever aced...

Create a "key"board. 

Make my clothes pins pretty!

Make a Wi-fi sign for the guest room.

...with 2 hangers and some shower hooks.

Replace this many hangers...

Create a command center!

Pretty good for a lazy crafter! Some of these like the command center are invaluable. Others like the clothes pins just took something that drove me nuts visually and made them pretty. So stop pinning and start doing!

Tieing it all up!

So every year for the Oestman Christmas we try and bring (or drink lol) a bottle of wine for the family. This morning I just happened to stumble across this pin for a cute wine bag! Lucky for me I made Justin clean out his closet just a couple of nights ago and I knew I had this little beauty in the donation bag! This was to good to be true! 

My only downfall was it wasn't a shirt that required cuff links and I didn't have any cuff links either.... I decided I was going to do it anyway. I would look cute enough right!

I started by just putting the wine bottle we had from Sage Hill Vineyard and Winery in the sleeve to give myself an idea of how it was going to look. I was kind of sad because it looked better with the folded cuff shirt so I folded the cuff in half and that's when inspiration hit...

(A quick note about Sage Hill Vineyard and Winery... It is located in Parks Nebraska near the lake where Justin and I got married. Run by two of the best people you will ever meet, Hal and Carol, it is a gem in the middle of no where! If you EVER get the chance, swing by to do a tasting or stay the night in the loft above the winery. TRUST ME you will NOT regret it. For now like them on Facebook. Ok back to the topic at hand.)

I started by sliding the wine bottle in the sleeve so the bottom of the cuff was right at the bottom of the wine bottle neck. Then I folded the fabric down over the bottom of the bottle to find where the seam should go. I gave myself about 3/4 of an inch and cut the sleeve straight across. Then it was off to my handy dandy sewing machine.

First I turned the sleeve inside-out. Then being careful to follow the existing pintucks that come from the cuff I folded the excess fabric into the sleeve and pinned them so the wouldn't move while I sewed. A good seamstress would get out the iron at this point and iron the tucks as well. The reality is (and we've talked about this before) I'm also a lazy seamstress. 

What you are looking to accomplish is to make the sleeve look like a tube. Like the sleeve is one size all the way down. Pin the fabric so it holds the folds. 

Sew a 1" seam all the way across the cut end of the sleeve. Make sure this 1" seam catches all the fabric that you folded in on itself. If not go with a longer seam. Trim the excess fabric along the seam to about 1/4".

When you finish and turn the sleeve right side out you should get something to this effect.It basically creates corners that are much quicker and easier than the tutorial I found on this pin. I learned this on the second wine bottle cover I made... 

Next (because I'm a lazy crafter as well and because my husband stole my iron and took it to the office at BlackWolf Emergency Prep (shameless plug I know)) I turned on my hair straightener and ironed the cuff in half just below where the buttons sit.

I'm hoping at this point you can maybe see what my sudden inspration was. Doesn't this dapper wine bottle seem like he could use a TIE??? I pinned the top of the "collar" to hold it in place while I tracked down some ribbon I had left from my "First Christmas Ornament" post. 

I tied this handsome little guy a classic tie out of ribbon and cut it to length. I cannot believe how cute this little guy turned out and it only took me like 15 mins. I even decided to do it again with the other sleeve! You know its a quick project if I'll do it twice! 

The final product turned out better than I could have ever imagined. I made one for Oestman Christmas and one for the Love Christmas yet to come. (Don't worry Mamma Chelle I'll make you something cute for next year! Just didn't find it till it was to late!) 

A Record Christmas

Oh Lord...Christmas is 5 days away and I am still wrapping gifts and trying to get my #%&* together for this year... I've been putting off one particular gift for my sister-in-law's boyfriend for waaaaay to long. You see for the Oestman family Christmas we do a name draw and I got Skeeter. No Problem... Usually... Somewhere in my late pregnancy nesting phase I agreed that we should make our gifts for each other this year. The reality is I would be at the mercy of a new born when I would actually have to find the time to do this... yep... hormones are a &%*($.

In a haze of sleep deprivation I turned to Pinterest for idea's because I couldn't think of any on my own. What I didn't realize is that it would be way more difficult to find a gift to make for a early twenties guy than I thought. Luckily I ran across this blog post that showed how to make some pretty cool bowls out of vinyl records. I knew we has some old albums we didn't want and it didn't look to incredibly hard or time consuming so I went to work. 

I started by gathering my materials. One oven safe bowl, some old albums (approved by Justin to melt), some PAM (butter flavor cause I don't have anything else) and my Ov-Gloves (I love these stupid things! Seriously if you don't have them...buy them).

I followed the blog instructions and set my oven to 275 degrees. I did however add one step. I sprayed the bowl with the pam so if I pushed down on the album it wouldn't get stuck to the sides.  I placed the record on the bowl and popped it into my amazingly beautiful oven... seen at left. I left them in for 3 mins.

When it came out it looked pretty good. I pushed it into the bottom of the bowl to make sure it would have a nice flat surface to sit on. I let them sit until I could move it around the bowl without the vinyl bending.

My finished product turned out pretty cool if I do say so myself. I can't wait to give it to him tomorrow! 

Lampshade Makeover

So the day finally came where we have moved Dax upstairs into his big boy room and I have finally been able to work on little Fi's room. Our budget for this little one is much smaller than it was for Dax as we started a new business last year so I am once again digging through our basement of wonders to find things I can use. 

One of the things I wanted to do this time was to have my husband install a dimmer switch in the nursery. Because the reality is nothing says your baby and yourself will not go back to sleep at 3am like popping on a full blown light to change a diaper at that time of night! My husband was gracious enough to accommodate this request, even though I know he doesn't like working with electricity, and especially the electricity in our house which was built in 1902. 

After the switch was installed I realized that the fixture in that room doesn't have a shade... of any kind... Just two light bulbs hanging from the cheapest fixture you can possibly buy in a hardware store. I would have loved to install a pretty little chandelier for her but just couldn't justify spending the money. 

But I did remember I had this vintage drum shade in the basement that I just couldn't seem to part with over the last few years. I kept thinking I would find some way to make it relevant again. I was pretty sure as long as it would attach to the fixture I could make this work! Sure enough after a "dry fit" I was off to make it a special little piece in little Fi's room. 

Lets be clear, I would love to be "crafty" but the reality is I'm what you would call a lazy crafter. If the project involves more than 30 mins of my time I'm probably gonna screw it up or leave it half finished in a corner of my house. The nice thing about this one is I was pretty sure I just needed glue, fabric, and ribbon. 

I started by finding my 3M  Super 77 adhesive spray. Its super sticky and made for things like car upholstery. Its a step up from your run of the mill crafting spray glue. 

A note... Do not under any circumstances use this inside your home. It smells and will get all over everything. It is not forgiving.

The i got my fabric, and cut to approximate length and width of each of the drums. I sprayed the glue on the back of the fabric and on the drum itself and slowly stuck them together being careful not to leave any bubbles. Do this in small increments and it will be much easier than spraying each one entirely. 

Then I trimmed down the excess fabric to as close to the edge of the shade as possible. See this is the lazy crafting coming into play. I could have cut these to perfect size but that would have meant more time, patience, and materials so NOPE! Not gonna do it and you can't make me. 

I ended up with both bases covered semi neatly and probably could have left it at that and hung the shade. But I love you little girl so mommy is going to spend the extra 15 mins to add some trim. Just for you. Seriously once you are here you'll understand why this extra 15 mins on a craft project is special. 

Enter my favorite and not so favorite crating tool...the glue gun. I love how easy a glue gun is but I know every single time I pick this thing up I'm going to burn the ba-je-bus (sound it out...you can do it ;) out of myself! (See Fi mommy does really love you!) I started with my ribbon that matched the room and simply glued it around the unfinished bottom edge of the drum! Repeat on the inside and if you're feeling foggier add a layer of contrast ribbon too! (I really went the extra mile on this one!)

I ended up with this sweet little addition and it gave the light in the room a softer glow which was a relief. I had no idea how STARK that light was with out some sort of shade on it. Part of me wished I had gone ahead and covered the inside of the shade as well but the lazy crafter in me was already waaaaay past her patience level as it was. Pretty cute if I do say so myself...

Kids Storage for $7!

So of course reality set in and I realized I have NO TIME for blogging or for organizing most day's but since we have been blessed with a second little one on the way I've been having to make time to "organize". The reality is we have to get Dax moved from the nursery to his big boy room upstairs.

Friends and family have been so gracious in giving us most of the larger items like the toddler bed but what we were lacking was storage for toys. As any mother will tell you toys multiply faster than rabbits so we needed something. Dax's toys have already out-grown his cute "Garden Baskets of Fun!" in my other post three fold!

What I really needed something REALLY inexpensive and that could grow if needed. So I hit Pinterest and found this post that used buckets and simple zip-ties!

 I couldn't find any buckets but I did find these little beauties for a whopping $1.00 per basket at our local dollar store. I just couldn't beat that. I decided to start with 6 of them based on laying them out in the middle of the aisle to check for size.

I started by laying the base three baskets next to each other on their sides and lining up the interior slats so I could attach the zip-ties. I zip-tied at the top and at the bottom.

I then added the second layer of baskets. I over hung the lips on the baskets to hold them in place and lined up the interior slats both left to right and top to bottom. Then I zip-tied top layer to bottom layer and left basket to right basket. The top basket was a bit more challenging as I had to hold and zip-tie it into place.

This took an entirety of I'd say 10 mins at the most and I had a pretty cute way of storing my kiddo's things for much much much less than I had imagined. I may end up adding some "drawer liner" to the interiors of some of the so they will hold small items but for now they are just holding Dax's ever expanding stuffed animal collection. So copy, share, and enjoy!

First Christmas Ornament

I've been to a ton of craft fairs this year looking for the perfect 1st Christmas ornament for Dax, unfortunately it seems the art of crafting is something we only "Pin" not actually do. There were several places where they would write on a mass produced ornament but I was looking for something truly special. After alot of hours on the internet looking for the perfect ornament I realized I wanted a combination of several ideas I had seen and no one was really making them. (The reality is I'm a little picky.) So I decided to take matters into my own hands.

The ornament had to meet the following critera...

1. Must be plastic

I have a small child about to crawl that thinks a christmas tree is the coolest thing since sliced bread.

2. Must be easy to customize.

I didn't want to have to buy special pens or other things to make this work.

3. Must be plastic....seriously

I have three dogs who think we put up our tree just so they can take ornaments off at night to play with.

4. Must be something I could have customized similarly year after year.

I wanted something that I could make duplicates of year after year with new things in them. Like a collection. (Told you I was picky...)

I really liked this ornament on Etsy but really couldn't justify the cost if my dogs or child decided to ruin it. I was glass too so it was sure to get broken at some point over the years... Also what if I couldn't get this again the next year from the same person or in the same size...

Not willing to compromise I started looking on the internet and found something I thought would fit my bill.
I found this site with plastic fill-able ornaments. They came in alot of different shapes and sizes but I decided on the 3 1/4" star. I ordered a dozen so I could make them for years to come.

The come in half and simply pop together making it easy to add items to the interior. You could put anything in here as long as it fits!


I then went to my computer and created the scrolls for the interior. I picked my font and color and printed them on my home printer. I used Dax's birth stats, the first Christmas date, his personality traits, our wishes for him and what we love about him.  I cut them into thin strips and rolled them around a pencil. I pulled the center of the scroll out from the bottom, this makes the little spirals inside.

I added a little bit of fine white glitter on the inside and then added just a tiny bit of hot glue around the seal where you put the ornament together to keep it from breaking apart unexpectedly. I used some of the left over ribbon from our wedding for the bow and hot glued it on.Finally I used a little more ribbon for the loop and simply tied it in a knot.

This is how it came out. Pretty cute I think and I can keep doing it for years! I really wish I could fill my tree with them right now but its nice to know I have something of a tradition started for our family Christmas  Every year when we put up our tree Dax and I will create one of these together.  Filling them with joy, wishes, and things that represent him.