Blog Revamp & Restart!

I'll admit that once I went back to the job search . . . and subsequently got a new teaching job . . . I stopped posting . . . for a very long time. BUT with a new year and new home, I'm back at it again!  Now my blog has a new home, so come visit me at the brand new Palmetto & Paisley blog.  :)

See ya there!

Painted Clipboards

One of my favorite projects for the past several years has been sprucing up boring brown "wood" (particle board) clipboards.  They make the best gifts for teachers or anyone that works with paperwork on the move. They also cost next to nothing to make (you can get a three pack of these things at the office supply store for less than $5). I just finished one, and I'm quite pleased with how it looks. Check it out. :)

Here's another one I painted for my mom for Mother's Day a couple of years ago. 

I absolutely LOVE painting these! Can you tell where I pull a lot of my inspiration from? :)

Wrapped headphones

I hated using my iPod earbuds mostly because every single time I went to pull them out of wherever they were last stuffed, I would spend way too much time untangling them.  It didn't matter how neatly I put them away or how I wound them up, they would always be a knotted mess. Then I saw this on Pinterest, and I knew what I had to do!
All I did was tie a simple friendship bracelet knot with one skein of embroidery floss, and viola! Pretty pink headphones to match my pretty pink iPod.  Now, I didn't wrap all the way up the split wires to the actual earbuds, so it only took me a couple of hours.  (I prefer actually being able to use the sliding piece.)  But, I'm guessing that if you doubled up on embroidery floss and with a little more time, you could finish covering all of the cord.
And no more knots! The cord is now too thick and doesn't have the tacky/rubbery cord exposed to tangle itself! Hooray!

Tutu Cute {revisited}!

My super awesome baby sister turned 17... not so much a baby anymore... BUT also not too old for her very own tutu. :)  Additional tulle and a longer length of elastic makes for an adult-size tutu, and a super happy birthday!

 

Happy Birthday sweet girl!

Paper Rosette Wreath

The inspiration for this wreath is super simple: I have a friend who loves to read.  I was waiting for her to need a house-warming gift so I could make this. :)  And then, on top of it all, she got a job as a reading intervention teacher! How perfect is that?  Pretty flowers made of old book pages were invented for this moment, for real.

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Bust out the hot glue gun, and you can attach anything to a classic vine wreath.  The paper rosettes are super easy to make.  You can find tutorials all over the web, like here or here.

Scarf from an Old T-Shirt

I loved this red t-shirt.  It was well worn and super soft, and even though the neck line was pretty stretched out, I wore it all the time.  And then I got navy blue paint all across the front.  It was completely ruined.
So I used this as an opportunity to make a brand new scarf.  :)

I simply cut the shirt into strips, starting from the bottom (I removed the bottom hem first.)  Then I cut one side seam out of each of these strips turning the t-shirt loops into long strips and stretched the strips out slowly.  As you do this, the fabric rolls up on itself.  I split what I had equally and braided the fabric loosely, tying off with a shorter extra strip.
Now my nice soft shirt is an equally soft and comfy scarf.

Chalkboard Initials

My sister needed some initials to personalize her dorm room, and I wanted to try something new. Chalkboard initials it is!  If you'll forgive my less than outstanding chalk doodles, I think they turned out really well.  (That is the beauty of chalkboard finish, though.  Just wipe down, and redecorate.)
A word of advice to those who are experimenting with chalkboard finish:  Try the spray paint variety for a smoother finish.  I painted with a sponge brush and still had stroke marks.