Packers burlap wreath

So forever ago I bought a wire wreath with the intention of making a burlap Packers wreath for football season. As it turns out, I had a harder time finding burlap locally than I thought I would. After a year, I finally decided to order online. I have finally started making my wreath after over a year of planning it.

I am not really go into a huge tutorial for this, mainly because I didn't think to actually focus on how I did it, while I was doing it. I will give you the general idea though. I actually started, and redid the wreath about 5 times before I found a system I liked and kept it up. I just weaved the burlap and fabric back and forth, you pull it through and make the loops however big or small you want them. I ended up using this tutorial as the general basis behind my wreath (pretty obviously it was only the general thought behind mine, but it is a good start).I alternated between burlap and Packers fabric. Once I was satisfied with the look/fullness I hot glued the loose ends down on the back side (this probably isn't necessary, but I wanted to make sure it wouldn't fall apart right away). My original plan had been to use only burlap on the wreath and then use the fabric to make bows and hot glue them. When I started making the wreath I changed my mind and just used one large fabric bow at the top.

Things you need:
2-3 rolls of burlap ribbon (I ended up using 2.5 rolls, they were 15 ft each)
Packers fabric (I don't really have an estimate on how much, since I used scraps that my sent that had been left over when she made Bret's bedding)
scissors
hot glue gun
extra fabric or ribbon if you want a bow
Once I finally got the hang of it, and found a rhythm I liked, it only took about 30 minutes. I am very happy with it, and it has already replaced the wreath that has been sitting on the door since last Christmas.

Blanket Ladder

The most important thing you need to build an awesome blanket ladder is an awesome husband (unless you are super awesome with power tools, which I am not). Fortunately, I have an awesome husband who is super handy and good with power tools. In full disclosure, my husband did all the work on this one, I just told him what I wanted, the dimensions, and where I wanted it in the house. Other things you will need (aside from the awesome husband):
pallet (you will need to take it apart)
hammer (to remove nails from pallet)
sand paper (we used 40 grit)
wood stain (unless you want to keep it the original color)
wood glue
screws
clamps

The first thing we did was take the pallet apart and decide which parts we wanted to use. We used 2 of the longer, thicker 2x4's for the sides, and 4 planks for the ladder rungs. Next we cut them, we made it 23 inches wide so we cut the planks 23 inches (when I say "we" I mean he). We didn't cut much off the 2x4's, just cut them at a slant.
After cutting, we sanded them really well (this part I helped with). Pallet wood tends to have a lot of splinters so we sanded it really well with 40 grit sand paper and made sure we got every thing off. There were some holes from where we removed the nails. My husband learned a trick from a friend for filling holes in wood. He mixed a little bit of wood glue with the saw dust and made a thick paste and filled the holes with that. When it dries it dries pretty much the same color as the wood. It worked really well.
After sanding we stained it. Usually we use 2-3 coats of stain, but I really liked how it looked with just 1 coat (the stain we use is walnut). The top 2 rungs he put a small 2x4 behind and screwed that into the frame, then used wood glue to attach the rung (he did this for support on the top rung and bottom rung, and it worked amazingly). The middle 2 rungs have just a smaller block of wood behind them. The block of wood is glued to the frame, and the rung is glued to the blocks. We did the rungs at a slant because we liked the way it looked.

I am totally in love with it, and it cleans up our living room.

Gallery Wall

So my wall is finally done! It took us a bit because we were doing too many things at once, and waiting on some things. While scrolling through Pinterest I found a wall that was perfect and that both I and my husband liked (that usually takes a while), unfortunately the link lead nowhere. I decided to just go for it. I looked at what frames I had, what I would need, and so on. I think the longest part was deciding what pictures I wanted in it and what size. I ended up with 5 8x10 photos, 5 5x7 photos, and 9 4x 6 photos (1 frame that holds 2, 1 collage frame, and 1 frame that holds 3). I also added an S, our clock, a sign, and a key. I used to floor to lay everything and arrange (and rearrange about a million times until I got something I liked).

(All the ugly frames that don't match got painted, along with the S.)

We had 8 of the frames, I bought 6 frames, and the key. 

My husband made the sign for me. He stained the wood for me, and painted the letters. Then he attached them with wood glue and hung it.

15 minute DIY box spring cover.

I don't know about you, but I HATE bed skirts. They are a pain in the butt, when you wash bedding, you need to take the mattress off to get the bed skirt back on, and it moves and gets messed up the second the mattress moves on top it. My daughter has a full sized bed, but is not old enough to fix it herself, so I was sick of her bed skirt. I had seen some tutorials on Pinterest for do it yourself box spring covers. I had intended to hem one end and have it hang down like a regular bed skirt, but my sewing machine and I had a minor disagreement. So I know have a DIY no sew box spring cover that will take you about 15 minutes to do. First, you will need to measure your box spring. Sophie's bed is a queen and I ended up needing about 5 yards of fabric (since we live in Japan I had to buy in meters, but it was about 5 yards total).

Supplies:
staple gun and staples
fabric (the amount of yards you would need to cover the box spring plus a little extra, ours was 5 yards)
fabric scissors
iron

First I cut the fabric into the 4 strips I would need to cover it. I also cut 4 corner pieces, I didn't measure these. They don't need to be perfect, just enough to cover the corners. Next I ironed all the pieces to remove wrinkles. Now it's time to staple. I did the corner pieces first, staple each side to the box spring, top and bottom. For the sides, I folded each end over at the corner because I felt it looked a little better. Just remember to staple both sides if you don't hem the bottom. With cutting and stapling it took me about 15 minutes, it may have been faster if my husband had been able to hold the box spring while I stapled but he had just had surgery, so I was on my own.

Here is the finished look:

And what it looks like with the mattress on top:

I love it so much, I might do the same to our box spring!

DIY Painted Frame Tutorial

I am currently working a gallery wall for our living/dining area. I had some older frames that didn't really match, so instead of buying all new ones I decided to just make the older frames match. It was very easy and they look great. I had scoured Pinterest for a painted frame tutorial but all I found was distressed frame tutorials (and my husband isn't into the distressed/rustic look), so I just decided to jump in and wing it.

What you will need:

Your old frames (or any frame)

Sand paper (I used a fine grit)

Paint of your choice ( I used a gold acrylic for 2 of my frames and a bronze spray paint for the other 2)

First cover your work area. Second step is sanding. Make sure you get the entire frame, make it nice and rough to give the paint something to stick to. This part was very messy. I sanded a black frame and I ended up with black covering my hands, my work space, and my clothes.

^ My frame after sanding. Looks terrible now, but it will look great in a bit.

The next step is to wipe off the frame. I used a damp paper towel to wipe my frames down. After you wipe your frames down it is time to paint. This particular frame I used the acrylic paint, so I needed a brush. For most of my projects I use foam brushes, but I decided to use an actual brush for this one.
It will take a few coats to look like nice, make sure you let each coat dry completely before adding another coat. The corners were tricky to get looking just right. I had to brush the paint at an angle at each corner which was difficult for me. After 3 or 4 coats it looked how I wanted.

In some areas the black comes through a bit, but I felt like that gave it a bit more character.

For the other frames I used spray paint. Obviously with spray paint you want to do it in a well ventilated area like an open garage or shop, or just outside. We live in an apartment so I did on our balcony. Again, cover the area. I also put 2 small wood slats under my frame to keep the paint from sticking onto other things while drying. Here is what my frame looked like before:

I sanded it really well and then did 2 coats of spray paint, letting it dry completely after each coat. Here is what it looks like now:

There were a few drip marks, but I think imperfections are better. It took me probably about 4ish hours to do all four, and most of that was waiting on paint to dry, and only having enough room to do one frame at a time. The total cost wasn't much since I already had the frames and sand paper. I spent about 50 cents on a brush, around $2 on the acrylic paint, and $4 on the spray paint. I still have plenty left over for when I tackle the frames in my hallway too. I will definitely make another post when I finish the gallery wall. Right now we are still working on the sign for the centerpiece and one decorate piece.